Get all 9 Justin Lavash releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Justin Lavash Trio - E Train, Hold On 2022, Animal, The Hardest Thing, Guitar, Live in Prague 2, PROGRAMMED, Live in Prague 2015, and 1 more.
1. |
Fistfulla Snakes
00:55
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I got a fistfullasnakes. I got the mojo eye. I could fingerpick the backteeth of a crocodile. I saw hell - high water. I flew close to the sun. Drank down a file of Plectrum Electrum Magicum Justinium. Incantation, invocation, innovation says it. Spectaculorum procedere debet...
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2. |
The Story So Far
02:30
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3. |
Programmed
05:22
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Programmed (Music: Kelosky/Lavash, Lyrics: Lavash)
You are being programmed just like a machine. You are being ridden like a dick, my friend. Take a look around you isn't it obscene? They might as well fit you with a switch instead. Spend your whole life jut trying to be "free" - a ceaseless search for a rainbow's end. And when I say you, I also mean me. Do you think somehow I'd leave myself exempt? NO, not I:) We are being programmed just like a machine. We are being suckered like saps, my friend. Take out the hard drive, wipe it all clean. Take a deep breath and let's start again. They wind us up and off we go - running around like some clockwork toy. That synched-in feeling, binding, binary. Isn't it time to spit out the dummy? Made to live in fear through manipulation or inadequate through someone else's expectation. Here is a lifestyle you can't afford. Here is a dream to sell your grandmother for. Hit the mall and it's "Enter Sleep Mode". Somnambulist Capitalist - shop till you drop off. Everything here just reeks of sweatshop with a logo on top. How much do we really want "off". Better watch that dress code. Don't fold that bar code. Botox stops you looking old - a Thetan mutant, but without the folds - scrying into the black mirror of a dumbed=down smart phone. Shackled to the yoke from sun to none, work hard play hard, runrunrun, emotional circle jerk, knee jerk, tear jerk reaction. Every good boy deserves some fun. How many end of the stick can be wrong? HIT TOWN, RUN AROUND, CHOW DOWN, BOW DOWN, KAO-TAO, WAIT FOR THE TRICKLEDOWN, DRINK IT DOWN, DRINK IT DOWN, SPIT IT OUT, SPIT IT OUT - IT'S POISON! You're turned into a bigot, you're turned into a racist. We forgive ourselves for our misogyny. Everyone's trying to legitimize their hatred. Would it all stop if we count to three? We are being handled just like a machine. We are being postively passively fed, man. The Radio, the Internet the Press, the TV. Look at all the shit they pump into our heads! Media manipulates every twist and turn. Policy is formed on what's printed in The Mail. From outpour to outrage they lead us by the nose on issues that require some knowledge of detail.
Do you ever wonder why you get treated like a child? Do you ever wonder why you get treated like a child, my friend? Coz you're easy to control when they treat you like a child. And you're easy to mould when they treat you like a child. But I ain't no child, so don't treat me like a child, and you ain't no child, so don't act like a child. Coz I reach for the woman but you give me the child, and I beg for the woman but you give me the child, I cry for the woman but you give me the child. All you ever wanna do is give me the child. You beat me as a man but you treat like a child. I search for the man but all I see is the child. I'm man, I'm a man, I won't be treated like a child. We are being programmed to become the machine. You are being treated like a child, my boy. Here is loads more stuff you DO NOT need. Save up your pennies for a grown man's toy and be a rich man's play thing.
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4. |
EZ in CZ
05:22
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EZ in CZ (Lavash)
Ain't easy in CZ, well the forgotten heart of Europe has a very weird history - Hapsburgs and Prussians and Russians. Everybody wants a piece including yours truly. Ain't easy in CZ - 40 years of Stalinism, couldn't get a visa to leave, repression of expression, show trials, subjugation, collaboration and FEAR of the secret police. Ain't EZ in CZ, no. It ain't easy in A,B,CZ. It ain't easy in CZ - you just try saying "Tři sta třicet tři stříbrných stříkaček" Ain't easy in CZ, vím, víš, ví, víme, víte, rozumíte? Ano my rozumíme and yes is no, but you know. Don't you know - I love this country. Ain't easy, you know it ain't easy. It ain't easy but I'm holding on for you. It ain't easy, since when was it easy? It ain't easy but I'm holding on for you. Ain't easy in CZ, none of this did much as such for dignity or self esteem. Connivance and collusion and compliance with authority, The Nazis murdered millions. Bolsheviks just picked it clean. Forgetting was necessity, a hole in the memory. Ain't easy in CZ, well the cold war saw a thaw, a sort of momentary grip-release and Havel and the hopefuls had the country going west not east. He said"Pravda a láska zvítězí nad lží a nenávistí". Ain't easy in CZ - good people working hard trying to make ends meet, lucky with 3000 a week. trying to dodge the pokuty. Nechcí nechcí exekucí! Gets sleazy in CZ, palms get greasy in CZ, we've got cartels, bordels, píko and monopolies, Zeman's brand of bigotry, ex-Commie bosses and police, but don't you know - I LOVE this country. I was trying to keep my head in CZ, got, wed, was trying to stay ahead, got misled, got bled, underfed, now I can't get out of bed. They put kmín in their bread, but I liked my chleba tekutí - in CZ. Feeling like a modern day John Dee in CZ, and Kafka crowed that this might happen. He said, "Prag lässt nicht los. Dieses Mütterchen hat Krallen". Ain't easy in CZ. Just go and ask the Sinti. Try and find a refugee. Look at Hlavní Nádraží. What is it here with memory? Have we lost our sense of history? Čechio! Čechio! I repeat, I repeat: Pravda a láska zvítězí nad lží a nenávistí. There's a magic in CZ that runs deeper than a well, deeper than the water that courses underneath your feet. And there's a beauty in CZ - the pride of a culture that survived the worst of recent history, and this country's been good to me, but it ain't easy in CZ.
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5. |
Just Before
01:46
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Just Before (Lavash)
Just before the paranoia kicked in I was dreaming of the revolution, but then I went and got stoned again - it ended up in confusion. And just before the revolution kicked in, I was dreaming I was getting high, but then I went and got the vitriol - oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why? And just before the end kicked in I was thinking about the beginning. How I'd found myself in a mess again, so I dared to start singing...
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6. |
Groove Total
03:42
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Groove Total (Lavash)
Regarde autour de toi, c'est pas normal. Ils disent le fric et chic mais nous, on a à peu près que dalle. De la cote d'Azur jusque à la Côte d'Opale, au pays de Galles, ils en ont marre. Ils manifestent. C'est radical. Looks like we're heading for the Groove Total. Si tu me cherches tu me trouves dans le Groove Total. Come on, come on, come on, c'est le Groove Total - c'est phénoménal. Come on, come on, come on, c'est le Groove Total - c'est abyssal. Ah oui mon cher, il faut une vie plus frugal. Car le système bancaire devient un peu bancal. Il y a des soupçons de fraude fiscale dans la sphère gouvernementale, et à Sangatte il n'y a plus d'entente cordiale - ah non. C'est infernal, ces bandes tribales, hymne nationale. Que reste-t-il dans l'arsenal ? La grève générale ou le Groove Total?
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7. |
Meditation Gong
05:22
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Meditation Gong (Lavash)
Low-down and lifeless. Feel that hunger coming on. Top E-string tightness, sugar crisis - man, that panic's coming on. I'm holding out for that meditation gong. I'm holding off that medication. I was sat in bars till closing time. I was putting twists on paradigms. I was painted in by peer group pressure. Man, I found the pain in pleasure. Music: guilded craft and cage. I was hissing, spitting, seething rage. Feel the draw of the city, it's the law of the city. We're all whores of the city in the roar of the city, coz'it's war in the city at the core of the city - the mendacity, the complicity, the velocity, the eccentricity, the electro-city. Need neuroplasticity. Man, that anger's coming on. I'm holding off that medication. Any woman that comes near me again gonna find herself in need of a very special friend for a very long conversation about how men let them down again, just won't pay the rent and work till back is bent. Throw them away when they are spent. Let me tell you how it is done. Gotta look after number one. You ride 'em hard till they are done. Chew the flavour out of the chewing gum. Puts you in her pocket like a half-cocked gun. [Signum Diabolicum!] That Jezebel carries the Signum Diabolicum. [That Jezebel must burn!] He rides that diamond shorn. THAT JELLY ROLL DONE PUT ITS DENTURES ON! I'm holding out for that meditation gong. I'm holding off that medication. Concave, convex, complex. Concave man. Cave conman. Vexed caveman. King Kong! King Kong, man. Hungry, snarling, snapping dog. Oh yeah, that weed is strong. Tell me how is that Mogadon? How is that medication? COz I'm holding out for that meditation gong.
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8. |
This is Now
04:13
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This Is Now! (Lavash)
Broadcasting and receiving. Precision Musician Magician Collision Physician Condition a Schism Division Petition Derision Revision Rendition - a Mission: From the rift to the riff. This is now - a vision. This is now - in remission. Everything is moving, morphing, melding, moulding, grafting, grasping, grooving, seething, sighing, splitting, soothing. The past is just a memory, the future just a thought. But this is now. Scudding 'cross the stratosphere, sat on Einstein's crossbar. Nothing is hidden in the fist of the teacher. Peel off peer-to-peer group pressure. Anitur, anitur, anitur, anitur - a state of becoming and then passing away. This is now. Now then, this is now. C'est maintenant. Jawohl, es ist jetzt. Právě, je to ted´. Everything is changing. Nothing stays in stasis - awareness, perception, reaction, sensation, addition, addition, sedition, contrition, but volition - it's volition that should guide the decision. People aren't the means; they're the goal. Don't worry:) Nothing is under anyone's control. Coz this is now. There is a road and it is long. How are your feet? Still going strong? Thought can't be turned off and on, but other things are going on. Awareness, perception, reaction, sensation, taste, touch, smell, sight, sound. Coz this is now. Here's a hearty folk song old, whose words they hold true still: If young men fail to when they may, they shall not when they will. Coz this is now!
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9. |
Gonna Raise a Racket
01:26
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Gonna Raise a Racket (Lavash)
I'm a gonna raise a racket, I'm a gonna raise a din. I won't give up and I won't give in. Can't keep me down, can't box me in. I won't give up and I won't give in. I'm a gonna raise a racket, I'm a gonna raise a din. I won't give up and I won't give in. Can't turn me round, can't fence me in. I won't give up and I won't give in. I'm a gonna raise a racket, I'm a gonna raise a din. I won't give up and I won't give in. Can't keep me down, can't box me in. I won't give up and I won't give in. I won't give up and I won't give in. I won't give up and I won't give in.
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10. |
A Little Too Soon
05:21
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A Little Too Soon (Lavash)
Watching you in freefall - you could use a friend. I'd like to help you, but I was drowning in your shallow waters, wonderin' where it all might end. Coz' I knew that you were falling some time ago - I tried to stay with it, but I had no idea, till you made it clear, my dear, that you could stoop so low. I guess it goes to show that hour by hour, day by day, you were pushing at it, pulling at it, poking at it, wearing it away. Girl, I gotta say that you buried me a little too soon. Was I reaching for the stars when I was reaching out to you? You know you buried me a heartbeat too soon. I was calling out to you but I may as well be shouting at the moon. One two three four five six seven year itch. You had to scratch it, but I don't remember saying I do to the priest for an ice bitch - finish it. When he rolls off you, baby, does it fill a hole that you've been scratching since the day you decided you don't love me no more. You know it hurts, but this hurt more: Did I jinx you, girl? Did I cramp your style? Is this the new you pulling out the care worn thorn in its side? Yeah I could cry coz'you buried me a little too soon. Was I reaching for the stars when I was reaching out to you? You know you buried me a heartbeat too soon. I was calling out to you but I may as well be shouting at the moon. You buried me a little too soon. Was I reaching for the stars when I was reaching out to you? You know you buried me a heartbeat too soon. I was working for you, willing for you, waiting for you. Where were you?
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11. |
Affluenza
03:59
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Affluenza (Music: Kelosky/Lavash, Lyrics: Lavash)
Now come on, hepcats, gather round. Let's dig that brand new, old-school sound, straight from the Depression days, and back in style and all the rage. Those rich cats, they work mighty hard. It makes us cry. It breaks our hearts. Yet we expect them to pay tax. Why can't we see it's an attack of Affluenza - watch out it's gonna get you. Those nice rich guys gonna drop like flies if they don't stick together. Affluenza - could put you in a stretcher. Those nice rich folks gonna give up hope. Let's try to make them better. No sir, those rich guys ain't mean. Look at their kids - they get the cream. Though Dad indulges every whim - nothing's too good for Sonny Jim, but though Daddy's making lots of dough, little Jim's all sad and low. He needed something not for sale. He needed love, but now he ails from...OOh - Affluenza Ooh - don't you know not everybody wants to be a millionaire? Hello big boy, hey big spender. Have you got that Affluenza? So little Jimmy looks for fun. He pops some downers, ties one on. Takes Daddy's car and hits the town, ploughs a mom and daughter down, and when he's hauled up to the court, he shows no symptoms of remorse. The Judge says, "Son, how do you plead?". He says, "Your Honor, I plead prosperity, coz' I got Affluenza - watch out it's gonna get you. Those nice rich guys gonna drop like flies - feeling most under the weather. THose rich folks croakin'. I ain't jokin'! My God! It's Affluenza.
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Justin Lavash Hlavní město Praha, Czech Republic
Justin Lavash (born London 1968) has been based in Prague for 18 years and during that time has established himself as a must-see act on the Czech music scene and abroad. His music crosses borders - somewhere between blues, folk and jazz. His phenomenal guitar playing has left many audiences wondering how so much polyphony can be made by one man on one instrument. ... more
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