Serj Tankian, frontman to System Of A Down will be releasing a solo album titled Elect The Dead on October 22nd. The album was entirely self produced and recorded in Tankian’s home studio in 2006. Guest appearances on the album were made by former Primus and Guns N’ Roses drummer Bryan Mantia and System Of A Down’s John Dolmayan.

Tankian had the following to say about his solo album, “I was writing more traditional type songs on my piano and acoustic guitar, but low and behold, it ended up being a rock record. There is more instrumental depth – more pianos, acoustics and string arrangements. Stylistically it touches upon classical music and Spanish gypsy vibes while still remaining schizophrenic and dramatic within a single song. There are political songs, funny songs, love songs, songs about painful experiences, vanity, and the environment, it has a deep melancholy that runs from the personal to the global, with a glimmer of hope in the solidarity of spirit.”

Elect The Dead will start with a digital download single, Unthinking Majority, on August 7th and followed by a physical single, Empty Walls, on October 15th. The album will be released through Serjical Strike/Warner Bros. records.

I couldn’t help but notice over the past year a few songs that have made a impression on me. A few songs that really share the artists feel towards us as Americans and the “war” that’s been going on over the past few years. It’s amazing how so many of us are almost oblivious to what is going on with America and our future. From the debacle of Nine Inch Nails vs. the RIAA to the HD-DVD issue that nearly drowned Digg.com. Sometimes I wonder what people are fighting for. Then I look overseas and what our country is doing. I sometimes don’t even know how to feel. I wanted to share these songs and lyrics with you because they’re very REAL.

Strata – The New National Anthem [lyrics source]

O’ Say, can you see? By the dawn’s early light
we get ’em young, give ’em guns and ship ’em off to fight.

While the rocket’s red glare is keeping everyone scared they say, “just relax
put your trust in me and you can sit back and watch the war on your screen.”

The country’s run by lunatics, they’re picking up their pens, writing themselves into Revelation, “this is how it’s gonna end!”
Well, I tried hard to bite my tongue, like a good American but they recruited my little brother and they’re shipping off my friends.

Broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
you know those who stand to gain are not the ones who sacrifice
watching bombs burst in air from a comfortable chair, they just say,
“in God we trust, and God trusts in greed, yeah as long as they never show real blood on TV.”

I’m not sorry if this makes you mad, in fact I hope this wakes you up
‘Cause you’ll never see what’s going on with your eyes so tightly shut!

There are too many unanswered questions,
from the towers in New York to the lies leading up to another corporate sponsored war

Well I’ll support the troops by asking what they’re really fighting for
and I think that’s more patriotic than flying a flag from my front porch.

Come on, let’s go out and start a fight! ‘Cause you know two wrongs always make a right.
Come on, let’s go out and start a fight! ‘Cause you know two wrongs never make a right.

Linkin Park – Hands Held High [lyrics source]

Turn my mike up louder I got to say something
Light weights step to the side when we come in

Feel it in your chest the syllables get pumping
People on the street they panic and start running

Words on loose leaf sheet complete coming
I jump on my mind, I summon the rhyme, I’m dumping

Feeling the blind I promised to let the sun in
Sick of the dark ways we marched to the drumming

Jump when they tell us that they wanna see jumping
Fuck that I wanna see some fists pumping

Miss something, take back what’s yours
Say something that you know they might attack you for

Cause I’m sick of being treated like I had before
Like the stupid standing for what I’m standing for

Like this war’s really just a different brand of war
Like it doesn’t cater the rich and the fan and poor

Like they understand you in the back of the jet
When you can’t put gas in your tank

These fuckers are laughing the way to the bank and cashing the check
Asking you to have the passion and have some respect

For a leader so nervous in an obvious way
Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay

And the rest of the world watching at the end of the day
In their living room laughing like “what did he say?”

Amen
Amen
Amen
Amen
Amen

In my living room watching but I am not laughing
Cause when it gets tense I know what might happen

World is cold the bold men take action
Have to react to get blown into fractions

Ten years old is something to see
Another kid my age drug under the jeep

Taken and bound and found later under the tree
I wonder if he thought the next one could be me

Do you see the soldiers they’re out today
They brush the guts with bullet proof vests away

It’s ironic at times like this you pray
But a bomb blew up the mosque yesterday

There’s bombs in the buses, bikes, roads
Inside your market, your shops, your clothes

My dad he’s got a lot of fear I know
But enough pride inside not to let that show

My brother had a book he would hold with pride
A little red cover with a broken spine

On the back, he handwrote a quote inside
When the rich wage war it’s the poor who die

Meanwhile, the leader just talks away
Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay

And the rest of the world watching at the end of the day
In their living room laughing like “what did he say?”

His hands held high into a sky so blue
As the ocean opens up to swallow you

System Of A Down – B.Y.O.B [lyrics source]

WHY DO THEY ALWAYS SEND THE POOR!
Barbarisms by Barbaras
With pointed heels.
Victorious, victories kneel.
For brand new spankin’ deals.
Marching forward hypocritic
And hypnotic computers.
You depend on our protection,

Yet you feed us lies from the table cloth.
La la la la la la la la la,
Everybody?s going to the party have a real good time.
Dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine.

Kneeling roses disappearing,
Into Moses? dry mouth,
Breaking into Fort Knox,
Stealing our intentions,
Hangars sitting dripped in oil,
Crying FREEDOM!

Handed to obsoletion,
Still you feed us lies from the table cloth.
La la la la la la la la la,
Everybody?s going to the party have a real good time.
Dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine.
Everybody?s going to the party have a real good time.
Dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine.

Blast off, it’s party time,
And we don’t live in a fascist nation,
Blast off, it’s party time,
And where the fuck are you?
Where the fuck are you?
Where the fuck are you?

Why don?t presidents fight the war?
Why do they always send the poor?
Why don?t presidents fight the war?
Why do they always send the poor?

Kneeling roses disappearing,
Into Moses? dry mouth,
Breaking into Fort Knox,
Stealing our intentions,
Hangars sitting dripped in oil,
Crying FREEDOM!

Handed to obsoletion,
Still you feed us lies from the tablecloth.
La la la la la la la la la,
Everybody?s going to the party have a real good time.
Dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine.
Everybody?s going to the party have a real good time.
Dancing in the desert blowing up the…

Where the fuck are you!
Where the fuck are you!

Why don?t presidents fight the war?
Why do they always send the poor?
Why don?t presidents fight the war?
Why do they always send the poor?
Why, do, they always send the poor
They only send the poor

Smile Empty Soul – Proud To Be [lyrics source]

Here I am man with my big cock
So bend over boy and take my best shot
All I wanna be is the boss of you
This cowboy hat makes me king I thought that you knew

That’s why, I’m proud to be
I’m so very, proud to be
I’m so god dam, proud to be
I’m so fucking, proud to be
An American right now

I’m so glad man that we rule the world
That would suck if they told us what to do
Our country here is a shining pearl
In a world that’s so unjust and cruel

That’s why I’m, proud to be
I’m so very, proud to be
I’m so god dam, proud to be
I’m so fucking, proud to be
An American right now

All my life I’ve dreamed of
Giving the finger to the
Rest of the world, ya the rest of the world (world)
When I sleep I dream of
Our bombs leveling the
Rest of the world, ya the rest of the world (rest of the world)

That’s why I’m, proud to be
I’m so very, proud to be
I’m so god dam, proud to be
I’m so fucking, proud to be
An American right now

Last November – Infantry [lyrics source]

In this city of cynical liars,
Walking the tight rope, holding the balancing beam.
We?ll burn the rope at both ends,
hoping to catch a glimpse of truth in their eyes,
As they fall, as they fall? (As they crash and they burn)

Pay the toll, there?s a tax on your senses,
If you smell, taste, see, feel, or hear the children laughing
because they don?t know,
but being ignorant is better than malignant.

Ch: Label me, make me infantry,
I?m an infant with artillery,
Harness me, use a muzzle to muffle my everything,
Please forbid me of all creativity.
Please make me infantry.

Obesity, can it be a nationality?
A reality, enforced by a strict security?
The buildings made of trees, made of money, made of disease.
A society based on freedom, run by hate and want and greed.
A generation of overmedicated kids given pills to level their thoughts,
They?re unusual so they?ll be abused,
They?ll be purchased and sold, and bought and sold
and buy and sell them again.

CH: Repeat

The daily routine,
A well-oiled machine,
Interrupted by the fire,
That came from the sky? save the queen bee!

All that?s left are the torched remains of a world worth knowing,
They smile as they?re frozen in space forever,
A shadow on the wall, a silhouette, is all that survived the blast,
The children in the yard on the swing are all gone, but the swings still swinging. The swings still swinging.

Please, please, please push me faster,
I want to fly,
Please, please, please push me higher,
I’ve got to fly.
I think I can see your house from up here,
Yeah, it?s the one,
With the fire, and the smoke, and the flames,
And it burns like gasoline.

These are just a few songs that I’ve came across. I’m sure there are many more from other artists that have shared the thoughts as well. If you know of any other songs, please let me know because I would love to hear them.

God Bless America.