We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

TONG PO

by Tong Po

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

1.
Fallout 02:55
What was here today They blew it all away Yet they're here to stay To call it democracy Neglecting their own poor To start another war Lining their own pockets Send their troops abroad Making their own laws Bowing always down To Wall Street Criminals at the helm From their subdivided realm Raining down their hell For what? What was here today They blew it all away Yet they're here to stay To call it democracy Neglecting their own poor For never ending war
2.
You spend your whole life with misplaced morality Can't see the forest for the trees One sided biased, system of belief You love to impose on me Your fear of falling keeps you in line You're good at keeping People at arms length The sword of judgement cuts both ways Afraid of loving unconditionally The consequences aren't what you think If your god is so loving Then why are you so afraid Every moment you're awake Give up your freedom Say you live a good life Chains on your feet each step you take You can't rise When you're chained to where you stand Your archaic sense Of right and wrong Keeps you under gods thumb /blind devotion To faceless deities You're just following orders Well I've heard that shit before Your fear of falling keeps you in line FALLING FROM GRACE
3.
Power Games 01:24
The bordered disorder we build up to tear down The humanity of all those born on the wrong land Our faith and our flag our symbolic hardons Charades and masquerades to perpetuate their BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT WESTERN POWER GAMES Global citizens can't see there is no 'I' in 'team' Just who’s fucking side are you on anyway? Socialist bleeding hearts join the fucking army Their skin is brown, their broken town, raze it to the fucking ground You'll feel no pain, they have no name, just play our game, they'll be to blame so BURN IT BURN IT BURN IT BURN IT TO THE FUCKING GROUND BURN IT BURN IT BURN IT BURN IT TO THE FUCKING GROUND AND PLAY OUR GAMES
4.
Basic human rights, a fucking laugh riot to the right Torch their cigars with a working class bill From rags to rags, the third world printed on the tags A collection of debt’s what he leaves in his will Slaving every day, 14 more hours filed away Defiled to the core for the sake of the dream We admire what he does but despise what he is A time-clock paper punched in a machine He’s sick He’s tired He’s beaten He’s filed away He’d better Not stray For that He’ll surely pay Wake up from this living nightmare
5.
Teach your judgment Seething hatred To your children They will learn it They won’t make it Color blind at birth It still exists For those who doubt it White pride holds its turf Your true colors Hate your brothers Inculcating Indoctrinating Hate in training Forked tongues swallow youth
6.
A walk in West Memphis the heat suffocates The oppressive congestion of the injustice in the air some can no longer breathe A bible belt bludgeoning town in the south Beware what you wear or what comes out your mouth You might become the next straw man they bleed The three dead now wait The three walking wait The victorious pigs just roll their eyes A murdering fucker lives out his life A walk in West Memphis the hate suffocates The intolerance beaten into the kids that dared to live free in their heads A walk in West Memphis corruption prevailed A poverty nightmare where America failed Each night the sun sets red on Robin Hood’s dead
7.
Bombs dropping everywhere, landmines guns and drones. Assassinations targeted on coordinates from a phone. Endless war, endless slaughter, warring factions on a battlefield with no borders. Night raids from black ops, black sites detain innocents of dirty wars, no press attention paid. Terrorists the enemy, just like the Reds before. We ever wash our bloody hands from fucking endless war. Endless war, endless slaughter, warring factions on a battlefield with no borders. Endless war, endless bloodshed. Warring factions on a battlefield with no boundaries.
8.
Fallacy 02:17
Sometimes the abuse we deal ourselves is so much fucking worse Than from the powers that be, those from which we learn We hold ourselves to standards we’d never place on others Give power to fallacies when logic has been smothered Standing on a chair, shaking, pouring sweat Your self-empathy wrapped around your neck Cut the rope, sever the cord The war within, just let it end The truth will come, just let it in
9.
Eulogy 01:37
10.
The propaganda machine The recycled news Corporatized, distorted Await what the Fox spews Standing at the trough Choking on sound bites The throngs of aliterate It’s poor against poor Trained to be amoral From the ground to the floor Standing at the trough Choking on the lies Pointing at your brothers Indifferent as they die
11.
Tell us they have all the answers Four years later and the country's still not any different Bloated prisons, starving children And the homeless still sleep on the ground While the profit margins soar While the rich prepare the wars Together we swarm A murder of crows Benign but not immune to cancer Casting ballots to the paid off, bought off, sold off, run off Don't expect to find the answers From the top down, the lies of reform While injustice plagues the poor While the tyrants fight for more Together we swarm A murder of crows
12.
When you fall on hard times The hard times fall on you You may not give a fuck About me so I give two Pull yourself up by the bootstraps You say that's what I oughta do It's kinda hard to pull anything When you got holes in your shoes half break Nobody offers you a handout But would you take it if they did There's a fine line, between your pride And living in the red So you go to the factory And sign on the dotted line Just give up your hopes and dreams And you'll fit in just fine You look down your nose at me From your ivory tower It must be nice to feel secure Wielding all that power I'd like to see you push a broom I'd pay to see your hands bleed Never worked a day in your life Never experiencing basic human needs HARD TIMES FALL
13.
Why do we care When they don't care And regard us with no empathy? Why should we hide What lies inside For fear that they will see? Stand by your friends Until the end Not what the status quo reads Chorus: Rise up! Stand up! Live for your dreams! (Rise up! Stand up! Rise up!) The last straw breaks and you are free! (Rise up! Stand up! Rise up!) The judgmental eyes Telling us lies Standing for nothing at all They break us down Nail our feet to the ground Just want to watch us fall Don't let them say "I told you so" Let the nay-sayers nay And fuck what they say Stand up and be free Chorus: Rise up! Stand up! Live for your dreams! (Rise up! Stand up! Rise up!) The last straw breaks and you are free! (Rise up! Stand up! Rise up!) ripping Solo

about

Tong Po is:
Jason//guitar/vox
Shawn//drums
Metro//bass/vox

(additional guitar on this recording by S. Nichols)

This album, though never intended as a concept album, has a running theme of the state of permanent warfare perpetrated by the United States, and the proxy wars endorsed and funded by the United States. As the veteran war correspondent Chris Hedges put it, “Militarists and war profiteers are our greatest enemy. They use fear, bolstered by racism, as a tool in their efforts to abolish civil liberties, crush dissent and ultimately extinguish democracy. To produce weapons and finance military expansion, they ruin the domestic economy by diverting resources, scientific and technical expertise and a disproportionate share of government funds.” We live in a decaying society, under a system (capitalism) that has long since discredited itself, and is allowing the rich and decadent to plunder our resources at the expense of our civil rights, our safety, our homes… our planet. We’re told to place our faith in demagogues, discredited ideologies, pseudo-science, religious fundamentalism and TV actors playing the role of journalists who merely act as stenographers for the state, ultimately deluding ourselves to the real problems that face us. We’re made to be petrified of THE TERRORISTS that pose less of a threat to American lives than bee stings, lightning, and children that get ahold of their parent’s guns, and ignore the real threats of climate change, staggering wages, house foreclosures, and any other numbers of corporate crimes. Corporate crime from corporate criminals that will never see a day in prison for their infractions, while in America we hold 5% of the world’s population yet hold 25% of the world’s prison population, disportionately black, and disproportionately non-violent drug offenses.

Touched on are also themes of abuse, self-abuse, coming to terms with personal demons, and ultimately coming to terms with things in our lives that negatively impact our thoughts, actions and destinies. In a society that is factioned, pitted against one another, told to distrust one another, to spy on one another, to see each other in such binary ways that we couldn’t possibly find any common ground despite our differences, it’s not hard to see why abuse is so rampant, why suicide is so rampant, why antidepressants are dispensed like candy. In a decaying, soulless society that enriches the smallest fraction of 1% while disempowering and financially decimating the rest, it’s not hard to understand why these things have run amok so. Turn your TV off more often, go to your library more often, don’t rely on a single politician to be your savior. Like Severed Head Of State said, you want to believe in something? Believe in yourself. Be a part of something. Take to the streets. Stand up to your corporate masters. Climate change is already at a point of no return. There is no time left, and we cannot rely on anyone but ourselves to improve, to SAVE our world. These are some books we recommend on the aforementioned subjects.

And Liberty And Justice For Some //by Glenn Greenwald
No Place To Hide //by Glenn Greenwald
Failed States //by Noam Chomsky
Pay Any Price //by James Risen
Empire Of Illusion //by Chris Hedges
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress //by Howard Zinn
Anarchism //by Emma Goldman
Chasing The Scream //by Johann Hari

credits

released June 23, 2016

Recorded in Dec 2015 by Luke Tweedy @ Flat Black Studios, Iowa City, IA

Mastered by Brad Boatright @ AUDIOSIEGE audiosiege.com

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Tong Po Bettendorf, Iowa

Crustio Politico from the heartland. We write as an act of resistance to break free of the prisons imposed upon us, & that we impose upon ourselves.

contact / help

Contact Tong Po

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

Tong Po recommends:

If you like Tong Po, you may also like: