probably the first actual album track I wrote from the ground up, that one.

still one of my favorites, I think more than any other it puts across our general sound at the moment...ZiZi sings, I bellow and boast, there's a sticky surf-rock riff, a bassline that sounds like I lived through the late-90s-future, and more than enough bootsncats to get bodies moving.

it's a good recipe and I like it.

for this particular entry, we take a walk around the supermarket in the shoes of pretty much anyone at all collecting a paycheck, watching it buy less and less every week.

the companies that bring the goods to market make record profits every year while the everyday people that produce them make increasingly tough decisions about what they can afford: cheese, medical care, vacations, the will to live.

we make and we lift and we sort and we teach and we polish and design and handle, organize, optimize, clean and care...and what do we get for it?

we get told to make do with less. to dim our dreams. to put our noses in the grinder.

hell, we get told that an entire society can be enslaved to pick fruit as a cost certainty measure then decades later some shitty little chain store full of terrible clothes can call itself Banana Republic like it's fuckin funny. 

...but let's keep it in the age of recorded music: THE GOOD ENDING these days for most people is that they finally get to stop performing their assigned task around 70 years of age and get the last statistical 6 years to enjoy in whatever manner they choose on their fixed income.

and that's IF you play the game to perfection and nothing knocks over the board 3 or 4 times in the last couple decades.

idk about you, but I don't really love my outlook over the next 40 years...at the very least I don't expect to be in any condition to enjoy what's left of the world around me. take a few moments and imagine the world of 2066.

so I retire every weekend. it's my only chance.

every time I get some free time, it's my time...I try my damndest to use it exactly the way I want to.

catchier than "most people born in my time can expect to die at work" as a hook, n'est-ce pas?

it's an obvious pastiche of early 2K club music...the type of tune that you could expect to hear when you went to drown the sorrows of a long week at someplace that wasn't your workplace or your bed....any resemblance to existing recession pop is entirely intentional.

of course, the lyrics do the heavy lifting here, otherwise it would just be some other song playing a little too loud out at your neighbor's cookout or from a passing car window...but by the time people hear the words they're already dancing so it's too late!

worked for misogyny back then, maybe it can work for my purposes today:

[verse 1]

8 hours on the job it's like 100 years
it's time to raise a glass
it's time to dry your tears
spend your time with no money
when you can't buy your freedom
2 months behind on rent
we some self-checkout vegans
been waiting for the weekend
body knows it's Friday night
5 days the wrong way
ad we gonna make it right
this feeling is appealing
this world is bananas
so roll your ass back out of bed and
hit the club in pajamas
let's go!

[chorus]

retire every weekend its my only chance
don't wanna think about it just shut up and dance
retire every weekend its my only chance
don't wanna think about it just shut up and dance

[verse 2]
and now we finally here

think this gives my life some meaning
check that gold watch in the mirror
time tick down, I know you see it
got some free time
in this cover charge space
ladies free before 10
work and home, this is the third place
extras hit the splits
they heard somebody told 'em
pick up them extra shifts
then work on a hangover
they said said work hard or lie
and maybe get to kick it one day
but while I'm young and wild
I go back to work on Monday

[chorus]

[verse 3]
at work I left my mama
at work I left my wife (bananas!)
your bosses work from home
it's onsite for your whole damn life (bananas!)
but it's all good baby!
bring us another round
because for once we ain't at work and now it's goin' down
I step up on stage to rock it

burning holes in my pocket
torch that report and bounce
Uprising in the house!
 
tear the club up!
from the window to the wall!
tear the club up!
lose your phone drop your calls!
tear the club up!
this that new shxt that I'm on!
tear the club up!
fuck you pay me or I'm gone!
tear the club up!
every week we party hard!
tear the club up
max out every credit card!
we won't be the ones who pay
tear the club up!
we won't retire anyway!

[chorus]

na na na na na na na

na na na na na na 

na na na na na na na na na na na na na na

na na na na na na na

na na na na na na 

na na na na na na na na na na na na na na"

yes "na na na" isn't it great when songs do that? from "Hey Jude" to "Here Comes the Hotstepper," it's a proud lineage and I am proud to join it.

...but yeah, that's our lead single from the album.

guess it's one of those songs that's a lot of fun until you actually listen to it...you ever actually catch the lyrics to "MMMBop"?

I think it's even more fun afterward, but I realize I'm a little...eccentric.

it's definitely the one that plays in my head the most...when I'm putting in long hours on some machination or other, perhaps carrying some heavy object to the checkpoint, it'll pop into my head like a cassette tape and begin to jam.

sometimes I even find myself jiggin' a bit...see, that was the only real issue with "16 Tons," you never hear it on the dance floor.

so maybejustmaybe we can get some class consciousness up in this club.

all power to The People.

--Flor!