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| Punk Spirit, Folk Heart |
| band: Laurier Tiernan |
| Album: The End Of The World |
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Take no thought for tomorrow: for tomorrow shall take no thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto today is evil thereof.
~ Matthew 6:34
When I think of all the worries people seem to find
And how they're in a hurry to complicate their mind
By chasing after money and dreams that can't come true
I'm glad that we are different, we've better things to do
May others plan their future, I'm busy lovin' you (1-2-3-4)
Sha-la-la-la-la-la, live for today
Sha-la-la-la-la-la, live for today
And don't worry 'bout tomorrow, hey, hey, hey
~ from "Let's Live For Today" by The Grass Roots
It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.
~ from Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)"
So what's a boy to do but to join in a rock 'n' band, move to Tokyo and sing rock hard folk songs to the end of the world. Laurier Tiernan looks like the model of Teutonic youth, with that dazzling blond coif standing tall guitar in hand. His music saves him from a bleak life selling an image for the big five multinational war criminals. His songs kick ass and take names filling the mosh pit in the polite Land of the Rising Sun. At the suggestion he is a folk songwriter with a rock band like Green Day, he corrects me: "Just to add another log to your fire, I'll let you know that Green Day and I were influenced by the same band, Bay Area punk legends Jawbreaker." That formula fits more rock bands than most musicians like to admit: Folk music fast and loud with a crack jazz schooled drummer beating all the cloying, precious, earnest sweetness out of the hac-e-sac jawbreaker of modern message music. What gives him the distance to see the world so clearly? "I'm Canadian. ☺ Like Buffy [St. Marie], Leonard [Cohen] and Neil [Young]."
Those minor seventh chords are too important to be left to tie-die hippies at open mics. Laurier Tiernan attacks the world with the fierce hope of forgotten Phil Ochs in double time with reckless abandon. The Tiernan formula could be the catalyst to get the his piece of the planet to slam dance to "The End Of The World." He's got a tongue the size of a Rolling Stones logo stuck against his chipmunk cheek advocating the utopian vision of Arnold Schwarzenegger ushering in the age of certainty with it's gun toting religious right wing pigeons imitating angels like a flock of flying rats migrating toward the mushroom cloud. Sweet!
Bite down hard on this confection and you'll crack a tooth. The import of this effort is closer to Leonard Cohen's "Future" album than Hank II's "McCain Family Values." There is a nod to the Ram Dass rammed down the throat of a popular culture choking on false pride in Tiernan's "Epiphany." When all the advice the ad men and A&R gods can give leads to the self hatred of consumerism, Laurier lauds the seven words: "Be happy to be who you are." The doctrinaire nonsense of GuantanaMo, Larry and Curley is brought low in these songs like political advice from The Stooges. The world is marching waste deep into the big muddy and the shamed former Head of State has been that fool on Capital Hill issuing the edict to push on. Neck deep in nonsense and just about to drown, Laurier Tiernan's frenetic folk songs might just be the "About face!" we've been waiting for. Turn around. Be happy with who you are. Live for today. Ditch the doctrine and dance.
THE SONGS:
1. (I PRAY THAT) YOU ARE OKAY breaks loose with a rhythm guitar played as fast as a bluegrass mandolin on meth. "I have such little faith that I will ever see you again, so I hope and I pray that you're okay." That schematic on the cover of this EP may be one of the lost briefcase A-bombs from the former Soviet covert, scorched-earth business school, but the opener on this EP is all about hope.
2. EPIPHANY is a ballad to the wisdom of be here now. "I hope that these seven words will help you on your way: 'Be happy to be who you are / Even when your life gets too hard. / You are a light seen from afar / That guides somebody through the dark." The ad campaigns have taken a toll: "They say that you are stupid, old or ugly . . ." Don't listen to that crap. You can eat all their toothpaste and it won't make you sexy. Be who you are! Right now! Give it a try. That's the "Epiphany."
3. (YOU WILL) DIE AS YOU HAVE LIVED "You’re building your empire / Up into a tower. / When you kneel, I don’t know to whom you pray, / Because if it’s the one that I am thinking of, / When you die you will go the other way." That particular ivory tower of Babel has it's roots in Bible but it's reaching arrogantly into the metaphorical heaven. Everybody wants to get to heaven, but nobody wants to die. What's the rush? Certainty is the enemy of truth. Take a chill pill. Damn the doctrine, full life ahead. Live longer.
You’re planning the end
According to an ancient script.
Why are you in such a hurry to die?
Your slaughters go unchecked by any foreign power
No matter how many mothers cry.
4. END OF THE WORLD praises the dystopia we might be headed toward if Arnold Schwartzenegger became the Presinator. The religious right would bring in a world of lock step certainty careening into the Apocalypse cock sure of a bailout from the Eternal Fatherland. A hint of the antidote for this eschatological nightmare is buried in the song: "Jesus said, 'Live for today.'" Tomorrow is for TV evangelists. "The future is uncertain," as St. Joe Strummer put it. Today is all we have.
THE LYRICS
(I Pray That) You Are Okay
I did a little search for your name, using Google.
It rendered absolutely no results at all.
No email address I could hope to write to.
No phone number that I could hope to call.
Yeah, I searched for your trail
But could not even find a trace,
So I hope and I pray that you are okay.
I remember when we were both children.
You were too young to know that you were strange and
I was much too young to know that I was so different,
But there were hints in the games we would play.
Now I can’t see your face
Or hang out at your place,
So I hope and I pray that you are okay.
What roads have you chosen to take, my brother?
What choices have led you so far astray?
Why can I not find your digital fingerprints?
Should I be testing for your DNA?
I have so little faith
That I will ever see you again,
So I hope and I pray that you are okay.
Yeah, I hope and I pray that you are okay.
© 2008 Laurier Tiernan
Epiphany
You say that you have suffered a lot.
I have not seen half the battles you have fought
And I am left with very little left to say.
I hope that these seven words will help you on your way.
Be happy to be who you are
Even when your life gets too hard.
You are a light seen from afar
That guides somebody through the dark.
You may think you are stupid old or ugly,
But if you can just make someone smile,
You may be quite surprised to finally realize
How easily you can make your life feel worthwhile.
Never think your life is without meaning.
Each one of us holds the key to someone else’s epiphany.
Even if your station is humble please tend it with care.
Someone is coming your way.
They will need to meet you there.
If my opinion seems extreme,
It is because of what I’ve seen.
No one should ever feel the need,
“To die, to sleep, perchance to dream”.
© 2008 Laurier Tiernan
(You Will) Die as You Have Lived
You’re planning the end
According to an ancient script.
Why are you in such a hurry to die?
Your slaughters go unchecked by any foreign power
No matter how many mothers cry.
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
Than for a rich man to pass through heaven’s gates.
How long will you wait to share your life preserver?
Or, will you hang on until it is too late?
You’re building your empire
Up into a tower.
When you kneel, I don’t know to whom you pray,
Because if it’s the one that I am thinking of,
When you die you will go the other way.
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
Than for a rich man to pass through heaven’s gates.
How long will you wait to share your life preserver?
Or, will you hang on until it is too late?
You say that you need
To fight fire with fire
But how much did it cost Gandhi
To hold a hunger strike?
How much money did a desert profit have saved up
When he sealed his manifesto with his life?
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
Than for a rich man to pass through heaven’s gates.
How long will you wait to share your life preserver?
Or, will you hang on until it is too late?
Pop stars
The Pope
The President
And me
© 2008 Laurier Tiernan
The End of the World
Arnold Schwarzenegger will be president of the United States
And he will usher in the end times for the human race
The Bush family had business ties to Nazi Germany
And Arnold’s father was in the SA
The CIA has covertly struggled for global hegemony
And Hitler would have taken nothing less
Open up your eyes
It should come as no surprise
If you just open up your eyes and see (that)
Arnold Schwarzenegger will be president of the United States
And he will usher in the end times for the human race
They seem to think they’ve got their man
They seem to think it’s in G-d’s plan
They’re changing laws right now to pave the way
We will see the religious right proudly promote the Antichrist
Arnold Schwarzenegger will be president of the United States
And he will usher in the end times for the human race.
I don’t know where they get their faith
J-sus said you should live for today
For tomorrow may not come
He would not have condoned their hatred
Or their love affair with guns
Arnold Schwarzenegger will be president of the United States
And he will usher in the end times for the human race
© 2005/2008 Laurier Tiernan
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