It´s very difficult to select the top tracks for a band I love so much as The Blood Brothers, but I’ll try to select the top two of each record.
“Jennifer” (2000)
“Such uncompromising positions
I said, “You don’t need a doctor honey, you need a mortician baby.
Because I don’t want your money,
I don’t want your favors.
This ain’t no blackmail
this is for amusement.
Don’t shady pasts make interesting broadcasts?
And human error is never an acceptable answer,
Jennifer.”
“Doctor! Doctor!” (2000)
“Now cover girl, your cover up drips like dairy.
When I see you walking by yourself,
Yeah, when I see you walking all alone
I wanna cut the corners off your lips,
I wanna shave the angles off your cheeks,
I wanna wash the geometry off your face.
Those cosmetics run, run, run like ivory blood burns.
You keep coming back to get fucked on the operating table.
You keep coming back a different shade of nauseating.
It’s time to take that face back to the bank
and count the cash you really make.
Pennies, doctor, pennies!”
Both these tracks belong to the band´s debut album called The Adultery is Ripe.
Despite the deeply-rooted protest and female-oriented lyrics, Johnny Whitney says the political issues going on in the country are not the central theme he and his fellow bandmate Jordan Billie have in mind when they write lyrics.
“Meet Me At The Waterfront After The Social”
“Do you recall when we were young?
we licked the summer’s salty tongue.
do you remember in our youth?
we sought the sky’s amphetamine truth.
(at the waterfront after the social) a carnie sold me two roses:
one that lisped one that hissed sugar foam
and love song needles I slipped them through your fingers,
but they just crawled up both your arms and whispered…
and that phosphorescent laugh drip dropped from your lips…
they said “oh teen ruby fiend, open those thighs,
show us the urchin inside!”
“Birth Skin / Death Leather”
“Mr. electric disappears and re-appears like a smiling/snarling phantom.
dawn: wooing the blue from the crawling eyes of babies
midday: vanished. grinning through the sweat pores of harlots and whores.
sundown: opening a cloak of tentacles…
preaching the gospel of cracked crystal beaks.
dusk: peeling back the birth skin like wrapping paper around a virgin.
vanish again.
twilight: march on electric children!
and you, with your self righteous army of crotches spewing paper children,
his death hole is deeper.
and stronger than love.”
The difference is very notorious, the second album March on Electric Children shows a difference in terms of composition but also lyrics.
Metaphors and rhymes are more present and the themes appear to be watered down from the political issues in the first record.
“Cecilia And The Silhouette Saloon”
“skull = noise nest.
TV = fuck test.
mirror = siamese gun kiss.
sugar = birth bait.
murder = loves fate.
death distills the camouflage from our dance.
death inverts the red from romance.
Death x-rays the angels of chance.
death; the anti mirror of infants.
Like a picture hiding beneath the digital Avalanche.”
Fucking Greatest Hits!
“Happy birthday gelatins smearing bruises on your chin
There’s cake but no mouth, conch but no sound
Glossy skeletons boyfriends but no friends
And that birthday greeting on you face
Reads one more year of smiles faked.
Ring! Ring! Ring out the gong!
So now you’ve made it to the top of their list
Congratulations you’re fucking’s greatest hit!
Behind husks of leather, photo albums shield their laughter
You thought they’d make you breakfast the morning after?
Your fantasy season gangrened off the calendar”
The band´s third record – Burn Piano Island, Burn is a clear moving forward from their all-in approach they had been preaching their entire career adding some different themes to the lyrics and some new instruments like synths and a little piano to the mix.
Towards the band´s last two records, lyrics became even more politically oriented and the pop hooks were more present than ever. Songs like “Feed me to the Forest!” and “Trash Flavored Trash” from Crimes are a clear criticism to both, the over industrialization of the world and the news/media giving out empty messages about everything happening in the planet. On their latest album:
Young Machetes the lyrics have strong social criticism but also have mystical twists with strength and challenging cultural complaints.
Like this “Set Fire to the Face on Fire” video introduced by legendary Black Flag singer Henry Rollins.
If you want to know what did Jordan Billie thought of his own records, you can check this cool interview made by the pals at Noisey.com