Get all 14 ANTHONY XAVIER JACKSON releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of MY LIFE AMONGST THE SAVANT GARDE, PLANET BEHIND THE MOON, MAKE LIKE A SCHIZOPHRENIC, AND SPLIT..., BIG IN UKRAINE, THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND, FICTION, NAKED VOLUME TWO, NAKED VOLUME ONE, and 6 more.
1. |
Jerusalem
03:33
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Jerusalem
There is a disappointment
Which wails from a wall
Riddled with Russian bullets
Benign cause and the affliction of
Misplaced goodwill.
Friends who fail
Parents who kill
Visions which fade
Away to pocket change
In the hands of a gambler
Deranged.
I tried, mama
I really did
To hire madmen and unwashed
Heathens to do the work of
Supermen. Frayed
Fogged
Disappointed
Again.
The trail of broken coffee pots
And piles of uncut ambition which leans
Heavy with portent to one side
As we stack hay bales outside the window
in moot sunshine
For the now dour kiddie ride
It's a fucking war
It's a fucking war
it screams every time you put a quarter
Inside
Where the water boils at
The mere glare
Where under enunciated whispers
Snare rage and tear the sea
From unheard pleas
Where they're calling my name
In Vietnamese as they take a birch
Switch to my sorry sorry knees
They told me
Boy write us a song
I coughed up
Poetry
There are glimpses through the wall
Where wails the serial numbers
Of invasion plans which failed
Where I speak in trance to the way
Your previous Grandmother used to dance
Prayer cloth in hand
Despite the warble of war
The way it stares
Indifferent to five year
Plans
So hold my soul
Take my hand
It won't be any easier
I tried, Mama
I really tried
Deviant from the defiance
Which unfolds with
The way the echo of sonic boom
Stands slyly outside a Golgotha tomb.
#axj23
9/10/18
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2. |
White Jesus Remix
03:14
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White Jesus
He cares nothing for the Truth
White Jesus
He never revels in pure proof
White Jesus
Tosses a grenade through the immigrants roof
White Jesus
Nails the ear of an Afghan soldier to the White house Door
As he kisses the Devil's hooves.
White Jesus
Don't you know he likes his lines
Nice and Straight
As he sweats in the glimmer of the disco light's shimmer
Dancing the Gobi desert nights away
In a copulate frenzied disarray
he adds a little more coke to his plate
" You only live once!!" He says.
White Jesus steps right up behind the riot shield
Assuring that shaking rookie he should
Savor the fear that he feels
As his finger trembles and itches on the trigger
To fire into the crowd of bleeding hearts
Demanding meaning to the lives of unknown figures
Murdered at the hands of some cops
In broad daylight and witness
The wrath of the math
After the fact
That once he starts he cannot stop
White Jesus
He's the rubber bullet in your chest
White Jesus
Twists his matted hair while smoking clove cigarettes
White Jesus
He's got his knee upon my neck
White Jesus
Lobs a Molotov Cocktail at the bank
Then runs along home
To watch the city burn
With absolutely no regrets
Because White Jesus
Knows you'll just as soon forget
That Jesus
Was really a Black Man
Killed by The Romans
In Broad daylight
With plenty there to witness
Oh, White Jesus.
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3. |
Thots and Preyers
02:26
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4. |
Dystopia
03:19
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Duality.
Inside of you there are two wolves
Why do you have wolves inside you
What’s wrong with you
Are you crazy?
Inside of you there are two wolves
One has rabies
One is convinced he’s a squirrel
Inside of you there are two wolves
One is not taking its medication
One is selling drugs to rabbits
Inside of you there are two wolves
One is lobotomized
One has been avoiding
Child support
Inside of you there are two wolves
One owns an assault rifle
The other loves to knit
Inside of you there are two wolves
One is vegan
One is gluten intolerant
Inside you there are two wolves
One believes in voter fraud
One doesn’t even vote
Inside of you there are two wolves
One just stole my car
The other is offering me
A foot massage
Inside of you there are two wolves
One is bipolar
One has persistent depression
Inside of you there are two wolves
One loves chocolate
The other crashes weddings
Inside of you there are two wolves
One has complex PTSD
The other practices Reiki
Inside of you there are two wolves
One has bulimia
One wastes away secretly
Which one do you feed?
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5. |
Dysthymia
04:24
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You told me everything was alright
How you were never actually broken
You held your head up real high
On a swivel of disappointment and pride
I asked How are you my friend
I'm fine you insisted
But more untrue words
Were ever spoken
So sing to me sweetly
while upon your own bile you're choking.
How does it feel
To feel nothing at all
Where's your breath
When you jump
But never actually fall?
So tell me your story
So i can write it on all the waals
Until the Day Glo vermin
Open up their very own super mall
Where dysthymia can be found
Reserved on sale
Two for one
I hear tell
With a special promotional offer
Of a ride that takes you straight to Hell.
When I look in your eyes
You beg me please stop
When I hug you real tight
You shiver
Though you insist it doesn't hurt a lot
When i say hey you seem down
you convince me you're on top
while the commercial of contentment plays
I just shake my tiny fist at the box
The box that doesn't care
The box that has no thoughts
The box that cannot feel me
as i skulk about in the dark
The box your heart's in
Rumbling until you cannot talk
But pack it all in stoically my friend
Until the throbbing stops
How does it feel to feel nothing at all...
Given the option
I'd thread you into my special loom
Where the dark creatures in the night moss
Can no longer sneak into your room
Where the voices of sour anhedonia
Can no longer cast their spell on you
Convincing
like radioactive rodent salesmen
That the joy you feel couldn't possibly be true.
How does it feel when nothing belongs to you
How does it feel to jump
But never actually pull your chute?
So tell me your story...
How does it feel
To feel nothing at all?
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6. |
Upper Hate
03:23
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7. |
Rabies
04:04
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Rabies.
I want to subliminally cast a spell
That tells you to hug
The Man With no hands
Piloting the helicopter
In the folds of your brain
Demanding your thalamus
Turret fire dopamine
Into the dense burning forests
Of shame
Where the laughter of children
Mothered by good intentions
Go dancing in invisible flames
I want to rebuke the devil
But I forgot his Instagram name
I want to join your posse
But I’m stuck on a legless horse
Who’s terrified of rain
There’s a storm coming in.
There’s are party happening
In my mind but no one’s talking
There’s a place I’ve never been
Seems so familiar
There are lions stalking
On their bellies
There’s a telekinesis laden rat
Who sells discount heart attacks
There’s a wolf that peddles the
Cure for rabies
There is no cure for rabies
There is no cure for maybe
There is no revolution on Hulu baby
There is no one in the pilot’s seat
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8. |
Penguins
03:21
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Penguins.
We scrub the pots with
Resolve you left on the floor
Behind that broken door
Where your daddy hides his marijuana
Drinks and tries to tint his bedroom windows
You know
Commies and such
Racing to the
Moon...
There's a nuclear family always at
War, weeping on cell phones, clamoring
To cause the next high profile drive by
Where the antics of the president don't
Make a lick of difference in how the salt
Pork inundated the whole neighborhood
Pozole, Tamales, oxtails and cheap wine
None the less flavored by an idiot in a red tie.
There's insurance and taxes
There's peanuts and hairdos
There are demons and meter maids
There's a man in the mirror who talks back
We think he's autistic, we think he eats aspic
Eats paint chips, gets gacked on the post
War dream while beating the imaginary cats
Back with a Ku Klux Klan magazine
Just when we thought we'd seen it all
Rolls into a little ball when baffling music
Enthralls, holds his head in his hand
The sky is wailing he says
Because it's going to fall
We got heretics and hand washing
We got politics and blood boiling
We got black power
White power
Brown power
Yellow powder
We got the rainbow filtered down to a crushed
Velvet Bruce Lee portrait which haunts
The living room
We got pots and pits of sure fire doom
Place your bets
Before the avenging angel's
Kiss blooms
#axj23
9/12/18
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9. |
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Special Promotional Offer.
It’s Ukraine
It’s Spain
It’s Korea
It’s Somalia
Toy soldier
What are you fighting for
Little boy
Don your costume
Grab your gun
It’s time to play
War
It’s Mogadishu
It’s some issue
It’s Vietnam
It’s something
Somewhere
Bothering
Some white man
What are we to do?
Toy soldiers
In a headline
Sponsored by Chevy
Fodder for the cannons
Shooting confetti
At the world super bowl
Whose winner has been picked already
Toy soldiers
Is it all even necessary
To die for a face
That sees you only as mercenaries
It’s Kenosha
It’s Ohio
It’s Tulsa
It’s The Alamo
What, pray tell
Has got them slaughtering
Others
Others like animals
Could be there’s nothing left
Gloat for
So everyone get your
Special promotional offer
Everyone get a slice of bread
A nice warm hairy bowl of
War.
#axj23
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10. |
WOKE
03:27
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11. |
Legendary Pink Dots
05:08
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12. |
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Octavia Knew.
It’s like Toni
Said
I will learn to speak
In my own voice
On my own terms
To the ears of my own
If choppy even
Disastrous
I will learn my
Native tongue.
The longer I tried
To shape my mouth
To the poetic stylings
Of bread addicted
Dairy cow teat suckling
Justifying slave smuggling
European men
The less my voice became apparent.
The longer I tried to
Straighten my words
Like they forced us
To straighten our hair
The longer I tried to fix my face
To Smile when I see
Brothers robbed of air
Nodding out in their underwear
On Figueroa and 6th with clouds
Of poison in the air
This week it’s fetty
Last week was Tranque
Next week it’ll be candy
Flavored rainbow brite
Brutally strong Meth
The longer they ask me
To be gentle in my journalism
I am reminded that it’s
Suggested I forget
So I will learn
Sugar is sweet
Salt is salt
I’ll speak to my people
Even when I don’t get off
Even when the words cough
Even when the rain tells me
Stay at home
No one wants to hear you
Carry on.
I will ignore the critical
High pitched admonishments
Of my foster mothers
Whose mouths shaped the map
Of Southern survival
Into tent revivals to convince me
Art was the devil
I will ignore the shame that bellows
Into pillows rather than bounce
On stages to a beat the Sun
Moon and Stars put in our flow
I will let it all go
The classic line breaks
The structured romance
Trade it all in for Nommo
Until my tongue is Gumbo
Trade it in for Angels breakdancing
In the rotunda of the Capital
I will be like Toni
Let me speak to you
Right there
In the back
Until you hear it all.
The Razor of Your Smile
Shaving you
Father
The furthest thing
From my mind
Is you dying
For your skin
Is so soft
So warm
So supple
Suffused with life
Your vessel
Touts soft fine hairs
On your head
As I turn you side to side
To reach the nooks
In the folds of your neck
Where wily whiskers bask
Defying my extra gentle strokes
My slightly trembling hands
I’ve never shaved anyone
But myself before
Is this what it means to let go
To be your eyes and ears
To give you my hands
Steady now
Warm the water just right
Choose a new razor
Make sure to wipe away the excess
Shaving commercials
Of the 70s convinced us
A huge dollop of chemical
Laden goo was the answer
But I gently laud your face
With just the right amount
As I feel you smile underneath
Knowing I will not cut you
I touch you
Strange I’ve never touched
Your face before as an adult
It’s just not a thing
I ask if you want me to shave
With or against the grain
You look baffled and say
Up
Always up
Guess I’ve been shaving wrong
All my life
Rinse the white goop
Freshen up with brisk
Warm water
Pour the suds away
And wish I could
Count the hairs in the stubble
Wish I didn’t have to
Wash them away
Put them in a locket
Wear them like a shield
But by the time I conceive
This fancy
They are gone
Carried away on gravity tethers
To their own special spot
Anonymous
Down in the river
Have you ever had to shave
Your father
Shave him
Before you let him go?
Let’s go one last time
To the casino
Let my smile be your razor
Let the soothing waters flow.
#axj23
23 Psalms 9- Schrödinger
He explains time
Not like the way my drumsticks bounce
But in a way that breaks
Like an Ill conceived
Hollandsise sauce
That just sort of floats
Around like a disembodied
Feral cat which refuses
The morsels of reality
We set out in a fancy
Dish labeled
Normalcy
I hold his hand
I listen to him breathe
Staccato
The way a storm hints
Arrival
Pensive
Like a burglar walking
Past lasers
I hold his hand
The way I hold on to my drumsticks
Keeping time
In a universe far away
Where there is no Facebook
There are no fancy metaphors
There is only the strange peace
A River must feel when
It breaks its shores
I stare like a hundred miles
Of railways going farther than
My eyes can see
I stare like a cloudburst
Waiting to meet the ground
I hold on like a Max Roach
Brush stroke to paint
The wall that separates us
With the great mystery words
Won’t whisper
Where time evades
Where every breath is a gift
A windfall
A legacy
Of this might be
His last night
His last breath
I’m just going to sit here
And watch that strange
Loping cat.
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ANTHONY XAVIER JACKSON California
I am a spoken word artist whose passion is music. I use a variety of media to render my works,
including traditional instrumentation such as guitar, bass and drums. I also employ synths and all the tools of my DAW to make improv pieces to back my poetry.
LPD, Burroughs, Tear Garden, Watts Prophets, Last Poets, Radiohead… so many influences.
Enjoy.
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Contact ANTHONY XAVIER JACKSON
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