album name

Loudmouth Soup

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by Jonathan Burks

Loudmouth Soup Cover Art
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  • Digital Album

    What Lynyrd Skynyrd once did for Confederate flag-waving rednecks, and what Dropkick Murphys now do for beefy Boston guys with shamrock tattoos, Jonathan Burks does for defiantly irresponsible and grumpy Milwaukee barflies on his third album, Loudmouth Soup (which is available at his CD release show Saturday at Y-Not III). “I don’t want no part of no fashionable scene,” Burks sings on “Take This Genre,” summing up textbook Milwaukee contrarianism like ol' Ronnie Van Zant used to stick it to uppity Yankees. Simultaneously offering himself up as a walking caricature, symbol of civic pride, and man-size middle-finger to judgmental out-of-town elitists, Burks embodies everything that makes you gush and/or cringe about our city—he’s aggressively blue collar, he’s painfully wary of pretension, and he drinks way, way too much. His lyrical pose is that of the self-styled loser with the shit-eating grin, and he sings in a gloriously deadpan drawl that's reminiscent of a slurring, honky-tonk Jonathan Richman. For Burks, “I’m Drunk” isn’t just a song title—it’s a mission statement.

    Sadness and desperation are at the core of Loudmouth Soup—see the remorseful piano ballad “Twelve Steps,” which, perhaps not coincidentally, clocks in at 4:20—but Burks and his able backing band comprised of Milwaukee music scene mainstays (including members of The Championship, Wooden Robot, and China Pig) can’t bear to take it on too directly. Rather, they try to chase it away with a big, sloppy racket, drawing on the meat-and-potatoes classic rock and country sounds that dominate neighborhood tavern jukeboxes. (Burks also raps on the incredible “It’s On,” though his flow is closer to Craig Finn than Lil Wayne.) You wonder how everyone is going to feel when Sunday morning inevitably comes down, but, for now, Burks can make lines like, “Hell, I’ve got nothing to live for, brother, pass that bottle ’round,” sound almost hopeful.

    -Steven Hyden, Onion A.V. club editor     ... more

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  • cd with screen-printed packaging

    Comes in a high quality Arigato pack from Stumptown Printers, screen-printed with original artwork by Dr Nick.

    Also includes immediate download of 12-track album in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

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about
tracked live with full band at Howl Street
credits
released 01 January 2010
Jonathan Burks, Joe Peschio, Nick Westfahl, Marc Luther Paul, Jacob Sutrick, Dan Boyles and Allen Cote

recorded by Shane Hochstetler at Howl Street

mastered by Justin Perkins at Mystery Room

c p Brew City Music 2010
tags
tags: americana folk roots-rock alt-country bay view beer bratwurst drinking songs indie rock milwaukee mixed bag riverwest singer-songwriter Milwaukee
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Track Name: Fancy Hobo
gonna give myself a haircut and go and get a bite to eat
they got sometasty bratwurst at the bar down the street
make some conversation or sit there dumb and quiet
any which way all i got to say is i'm goin out tonight


and the day is mine to waste some time
and some money for sure
do what i want every day of the month 'cept the times
when i'm at work


such a fancy hobo - oh what a wasted clown
i got nothin to live for brother - pass that bottle round
i aint suicidal - nope nowhere near
only end i'm coming to is the bottom of this beer


VERZAMALAM!
Track Name: Born, Got Breath
I'm lonely like I aint never been before
no one to hold me 'cept the unforgiving floor
the only thing that I know I want for sure
is to kiss a woman one more time before I hit that door

I'm born
I got breath
I'm down down down down but I aint dead

biting my lip and binding my time
so hard i can taste blood and feel those gears grind
every second, every tic and toc
feels like a fuse so short and loose
ready to take off
Track Name: Big Bad Bodhisattva
lying in your bed
i dumped out my head
and you filled it up with pieces of me
i never knew existed
when i spilled my guts you scooped 'em right up
and put 'em back all crooked

your a big bady bodhisattva
a true blue guru hoochie mama
angle and a devil thru and thru
jesus can't bear enough cross to know ya
shiva aint got enough arms to hold ya
i know that you aint mine but baby i like you

you got yourself a whole lot of sin
little miss mother mary magdalin
i just don't know what to make of you
you're sweet and gentle, kind and patient
then you bitch slap me with your cruel salvation
i know that you aint mine but baby i like you
Track Name: Rock and Roll
your heart is always restless
your feet they never touch the ground
the truth is what you're avoiding
your lost and you don't want to be found

it's one, one for the money
and two, two for the show
your heart is good and golden
but your soul is all rock n' roll

you've been resting in the arms of a woman
who wept for forty days and forty nights
but aint no flood or mad amounts of love
gonna get you clean tonight

all your bridges are burning
you sail upon a funeral pyre
sure as your still moving
your bound to be spreading fire
Track Name: It's On
roll with the punches
follow my hunches
drink a 6pack for lunch and
smoke that shit all day long

It's me Johny B the honky tonk m.c.
piece of straw in my teeth when i flow fancy free
stoned on the weed and the beer for sure
loose like Willy and haggard like Merle

it's Sunday morning and I'm coming down
damn straight fools can drink up in the brew town
so raise them glasses and put em back
the spatula is raised for a playful slap on the rump

we bring it like that so get up and get down
brew city keep it simple kinda more like a town
fresh and crisp as autumn in the Midwest
Godbless Wisconsin Chicks

working class cause I'm a Milwaukean
8 days a week that's how we be rocking it
life is a bitch a switch a flicker in the darkness
it's cold and heartless but it's on

it's on

we keep it loose we keep it country
them city gooses taste a little bit funky
go ahead and savour the gamey flavor
aint no shame in this piss poor behavior

everyone's talkin bout a stimulus package
i'm down at Lake Park hunting fowl with a hatchet
life is a bitch a switch a flicker in the darkness
it's cold and heartless but it's on

it's on
Track Name: I'm Drunk
tore up from the floor up
scullied like a scrambled egg
ten sheet to the wind
all the way in the bag

faded, bent, twisted
canned, cranked and pissed
all kinds of messed up
goddamned whirlygigged

beer bong, beer pong
up like a one sided see-saw
moon-shining like hee-haw
skipped the hair bit the whole damn dog

schnickered, tanked, tipsy
off my pickle, out my tree
having a close look at the path
buzzing like a bee

rat faced and razzled
completely out my woo
drunk as a skunk, liquored up
full of loud mouth soup
Track Name: Drunkard's Remorse
oh no, oh man I've done it again
got too drunk last night - into the darkside I slid
fragments, impressions, bruises and scrapes
tell me the things my recollection can't say

hooting and hollering acting a fool
I couldn't seem to stay on that crooked bar stool
fell down so many times I should've stayed on the floor
my head is reeling and I'm feeling drunkards remorse

yeah i had fun now the good time are done
I'm feeling embarrassed and totally dumb
knocked off my high horse with cruel and brutal force
now I'm kneeling in the mud of drunkards remorse

crudely throwing wild pitches of woo
I pinched her but, said honey buns i think I love you
she slapped my face, and for a little thing, with a suprising amount of force
now I got and eye to match my mind, drunkards remorse

I cringe as the memories move towards the light
i wish there was a cave in which I could hide
I'm feeling down and out and out of sorts
I've got the fear and a bad case of drunkards remorse
Track Name: Take This Genre
you can take this genre and shove it
I don't want no part of no fashionable scene
why dwell on the differences
it's all just music to me

it's cool to be a punk rocker
and to make fun of the hippies
but they seem the same to me
fashion devours every honest movement
and churns out mediocrity

the close mindedness of the folk scene
it pains me, it really burns
cause 'folk' means of the people
and the people are diverse

from Woody Guthrie to Eazy E
from 'this land is your land' to 'fuck the police'
people of every race, color and creed can agree
greedy bitches run the land from sea to shinning sea
no rest till we get it back from them
if it's poor against poor only the rich will win
compassion needs action like i need music
like the folk scene needs Johny B in it
Track Name: Twelve Steps
my battle with the bottle has brought me
to a place where there's nothing to loose
a landscape void and vacant
a sky too dark to be blue
I'm on the straight and narrow
walking that line so true
but wont no twelve steps take me
any closer to you

it's true I was cruel and selfish
it's true I was jealous and mean
but it wasn't my true heart speaking
was the demons I blithely set free
down in the wake of my folly
onward my feet they move
but won't no twelve steps take me
any closer to you

as I sift thru the wreckage
of the mess I made of my life
I cannot help but wonder
if I could have made you my wife
I know that you still love me
but not like you used to do
won't no twelve steps take me
any closer to you
Track Name: Satisfied
i wrestle with my demons
let my super soul flex fly
1 - 2 - 3 i hear that bell ring
but i just can't be satisfied

there's an empty something churning
where the twinkle used to perch in my eye
like a coal in the fire burning
i just can't be satisfied

i've known the pleasures of women
in body, soul and mind
i've sent back all the good gifts i was given
lord i just can't be satisfied

i'm hitting that good ol' lonesome highway
gonna get up in them blurry lines
reside in perpetual motion
i just can't be satisfied

to complain i really have no reason
yeah, i 'spose i'm doing alright
i got some time to indulge in boredom
and paint it in an artistic light

still it's real this nothing that i'm feeling
this banal torture won't subside
like some kinda horrible humming
i just can't be satisfied

i wrestle with my demons
let my super soul flex fly
1 - 2 - 3 i hear that bell ring
but i just can't be satisfied
Track Name: Service Industry School
tipping is not for cows and it aint a city in China
it's also not an option when you dine out
hey there Mr. Pink it's you not the service that stinks
I think we need mandatory service industry school

I work for 2 bucks an hour
you don't like your clam chowder
I'll get you something else sir
or take if off your bill if you'd prefer
'no thanks I'll just eat this'
and be a passive aggressive dick
god damn we need mandatory service industry school

why you wanna give me a dirty look
aint you glad you don't have to cook
anyway aint we all just trying to get by
every time that you shit on me
you dig another foot deep
into the special hell where your soul will forever burn

I'd really like to pelt ya
with the change that ya left me fella
hell I'm just trying to make some rent
thanks a bunch for the 53 cents
I get taxed on all of my sales
so I just payed for part of your meal
for real we need mandatory service industry school

you wouldn't be swelling up with so much pride
if I could speak my mind
I am sorry I spilled your wine
but gravity happens sometimes
aint you ever had a bad day
well mine aint going so great
for heaven's sake we need mandatory service industry school

wouldn't that be cool
if we had mandatory service industry school