21st Century Breakdown (2009)



"Song Of The Century"

Sing us a song of the century
That's louder than bombs and eternity
The era of static and contraband
That's leading us into the promised land
Tell us a story that's by candlelight
Waging a war and losing the fight

They're playing the song of the century
of panic and promise and prosperity
Tell me a story into that goodnight

Sing us a song for me ...

"21st Century Breakdown"

Born into Nixon I was raised in hell
A welfare child
Where the teamsters dwelled
The last one born
The first one to run
My town was blind from refinery sun

[Chorus:]
My generation is zero
I never made it
As a working class hero
21st Century Breakdown
I once was lost but never was found
I think I am losing
What's left of my mind
To the 20th century deadline

I was made of poison and blood
Condemnation is what I understood

Videogames of the towers fall
Homeland security
Could kill us all

[Chorus]

We are the cries of the class of '13
Born in the era of humility
We are the desperate in the decline
Raised by the bastards of 1969

My name is no one
The long lost son
Born on the 4th of July
Raised in the era of heroes and cons
That left me for dead or alive

I am a nation
A worker of pride
My debt to the status quo

The scars on my hands
And the means to an ends
Is all the that I have to show

I swallowed my pride
And I choked on my faith
I've given my heart and my soul
I've broken my fingers
And lied through my teeth
The pillar of damage control

I've been to the edge
And I've thrown the bouquet
Of flowers left over the grave
I sat in the waiting room
Wasting my time
And waiting for judgement day

I praise liberty
The "freedom to obey"
Is the song that strangles me
Don't cross the line

Dream, America dream
I can't even sleep
From the light's early dawn

Scream, America scream
Believe what you see
From heroes and cons

"Know Your Enemy"

Do you know the enemy
Do you know your enemy
Well gotta' know the enemy, ohaooh!

Do you know the enemy
Do you know your enemy
Well gotta' know the enemy, ohaooh!

Do you know the enemy
Do you know your enemy
Well gotta' know the enemy, ohaooh!

Violence is an energy
Against the enemy
Well violence is an energy, right.

Bringing on the fury
The choir infantry
Revolt against the honor to obey (Ohaooh)

Overthrow the effigy
The vast majority
We're burning down the foreman of control (Ohaooh)

Silence is the enemy
Against your urgency
so rally up the demons of your soul (Ohaooh)

Do you know the enemy
Do you know your enemy
well gotta know the enemy, ohaooh.

Do you know the enemy
Do you know your enemy
well gotta know the enemy, ohaooh.

Insurgency will rise,
When the blood's been sacrificed
Don't be blinded by the lies in your eyes.

Say!

Ohaooh
Ohaooh

Well, violence is an energy, ohaooh
From here to Eternity
Well, violence is an energy, ohaooh
Silence is the enemy

So give me, give me revolution!

Do you know the enemy
Do you know your enemy
Well gotta' know the enemy, ohaooh!

Do you know the enemy
Do you know your enemy
Well gotta' know the enemy, ohaooh!

Do you know the enemy
Do you know your enemy
Well gotta' know the enemy, ohaooh!

Overthrow the effigy
The vast majority
We're burning down the foreman of control

Silence is the enemy
Against your urgency
so rally up the demons of your soul (Ohaooh)

"¡Viva La Gloria!"

Hey Gloria?
Are you standing close to the edge?
Lookout to the setting sun
The brink of your vision
Eternal youth is a landscape of the lie

The cracks of my skin can prove
As the years will testify
Say your prayers and light a fire we're going to start a war
Your slogan's a gun for hire
It's what we waited for

Hey Gloria

This is why we were on the edge
The fight of our lives been drawn to this undying love

Gloria!Viva La Gloria!
You blast your name in graffiti on the walls (oh)
Falling through broken glass that's slashing through your spirit
I can hear it like a jilted crowd

Gloria!Where are you Gloria?
You found a home in all your scars and ammunition
You made your bed in salad days amongst the ruins
Ashes to ashes of our youth

She smashed her knuckles into winter (Gloria)
As autumns wind fades into black
She is the saint of all the sinners (Gloria)
The one that's fallen through the cracks
So don't put away your burning light

Gloria!Where are you Gloria?
Don't lose you faith to your lost naivete
Weather the storm and don't look back on last November
When your banners were burning down

Gloria!Viva La Gloria!
Send me your amnesty down to the broken hearted
Bring us the season that we always will remember
Don't let the bonfires go out

So Gloria

Send out your message of the light that shadows in the night
Gloria where's your undying love?
Tell me the story of your life ...
(Your life!)

"Before The Lobotomy"

Dreaming, I was only dreaming
Of another place and time
Where my family's from

Singing, I can hear them singing
When the rain had washed away
All these scattered dreams

Dying, everyone's reminded
Hearts are washed in misery
Drenched in gasoline

Laughter, there's no more laughter
Songs of yesterday now live in the underground

Life before the lobotomy
Christian sang the eulogy
Sign of my love a lost memory
From the end of the Century

Well it's enough to make you sick
To cast a stone and throw a brick
When the sky is falling down
It burned your dreams into the ground

Christian's lesson
Is what he's been sold
We are normal and self-controlled
Remember to learn to forget
Whiskey shots and cheap cigarettes

Well I'm not stoned, I'm just fucked up
I got so high, I can't stand up
I'm not cursed cause I've been blessed
I'm not in love cause I'm a mess

Like refugees
We're lost like refugees
Like refugees
We're lost like refugees
The brutality of reality
Is the freedom that keeps me from

Dreaming, I was only dreaming
Of another place and time
Where my family's from

Singing, I can hear them singing
When the rain had washed away all these scattered dreams

Dying, everyone's reminded
Hearts are washed in misery
Drenched in gasoline

Laughter, there's no more laughter
Songs of yesterday
Now live in the underground

"Christian's Inferno"

I got under the grip
Between this modern hell
I got the rejection letter in the mail
And it was already ripped to shreds

Seasons in a ruin and this bitter pill is chased with blood
There's fire in my veins and it's pouring out like a flood

(Wooaahhooohh!) Christian's Inferno!
(Wooaahhooohh!) Christian's Inferno!

This diabolic state is gracing my existence
Like a catastrophic baby
Maybe,maybe you're the chemical reaction
I'm the atom bomb
I'm the chosen one
Toxin your reservoir
And then return man to ape

(Wooaahhooohh!) Christian's Inferno!
(Wooaahhooohh!) Christian's Inferno!

(Wooaahhooohh!) Christian's Inferno!
(Wooaahhooohh!) Christian's Inferno!

"Last Night On Earth"

I text a postcard sent to you
Did it go through?
Sending all my love to you
You are the moonlight of my life every night
Giving all my love to you
My beating heart belongs to you
I walked for miles 'til I found you
I'm here to honor you
If I lose everything in the fire
I'm sending all my love to you

With every breath that I'm worth here on Earth
I'm sending all my love to you
So if you dare to second guess you can rest assured
That all my love's for you

My beating heart belongs to you
I walked for miles 'til I found you
I'm here to honor you
If I lose everything in the fire
I'm sending all my love to you

My beating heart belongs to you
I walked for miles 'til I found you
I'm here to honor you
If I lose everything in the fire
Did I ever make it through?

"East Jesus Nowhere"

Raise your hands now to testify
Your confession will be crucified
You're a sacrificial suicide
Like a dog that's been sodomized
Stand Up! All the white boys
Sit Down! And the black girls
Stand Up! You're the soldiers
Sit Down! Of the new world

Put your faith in a miracle
And it's non-denominational
Join the choir we will be singing
In the church of wishful thinking

A fire burns today
Of blasphemy and genocide
The sirens of decay
Will infiltrate the faith fanatics

Oh, bless me Lord for I have sinned
It's been a lifetime since I last confessed
I threw my crutches in "The river of a shadow of doubt"
And I'll be dressed up in my Sunday best

Say a prayer for the family
Drop a coin for humanity
Ain't this uniform so flattering?
I never asked you a god damn thing

A fire burns today
Of blasphemy and genocide
The sirens of decay
Will infiltrate the faith fanatics

Don't test me
Second guess me
Protest me
You will disappear

I want to know who's allowed to breed
All the dogs who never learned to read
Missionary politicians
And the cops of a new religion

A fire burns today
Of blasphemy and genocide
The sirens of decay
Will infiltrate the inside

"Peacemaker"

Well I've got a fever
A non-believer
I'm in a state of grace
For I am the caesar
I'm gonna seize the day
Well call of the banshee (Hey, hey)
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
As God as my witness the infidels are gonna pay

Well call the assassin
The orgasm
A spasm of love and hate
For what will divide us?
The righteous and the meek
Well call of the wild (Hey, hey)
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
Death to the gira
At the end of the serenade

Vendetta sweet vendetta
This beretta of the night
This fire and the desire
Shots ringing out on a holy parasite

I am a killjoy from Detroit
I drink from a well of rage
I feed of the weakness
With all my love
Call up the captian (Hey, hey)
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
Death of the lover that you were dreaming of

This is a stand off a molotov
cocktail on the house
You thought I was write off you better think again
Call the peacemaker (Hey, hey)
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
I'm gonna sent you back to the place where it all began

Vendetta sweet vendetta
This beretta of the night
This fire and the desire
Shots ringing out on a holy parasite

Well now the caretakers
The undertaker
Now I'm gonna go out
And get the peacemaker
This is the neo
St. Valentine's massacre
Well call up the Gaza (Hey, hey)
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
Death to the ones at the end of the serenade
Well, death to the ones at the end of the ...
Serenade!

"Last Of The American Girls"

She puts her makeup on
Like graffiti on the walls of the heartland
She's got her little book of conspiracies right in her hand
She is a paranoid endangered species headed into extinction
She is one of a kind
She's the last of the American Girls

She wears her overcoat for the coming of the nuclear winter
She is riding her bike like a fugitive of critical mass
She's on a hunger strike for the ones who won't make it for dinner
She makes enough to survive for a holiday of working class
She's a runaway of the establishment incorporated
She won't cooperate
She's the last of the American Girls

She plays her vinyl records singing songs on the eve of destruction
She's a sucker for all the criminals breaking the laws
She will come in first for the end of western civilization
She's an endless war, she's a hero for the lost cause
Like a hurricane in the heart of the devastation
She's a natural disaster
She's the last of the American Girls

She puts her makeup on
Like graffiti on the walls of the heartland
She's got her little book of conspiracies right in her hand
She will come in first for the end of western civilization
She's a natural disaster
She's the last of the American Girls