Now you’re getting it. It only took a periodic glance at your depleting
bank balance for you to begin to understand the viable threat. It is terror
of a different kind, folks. Once there isn’t enough money left to take
the kids to the latest Tom Cruise hype-filled and bloated inflatable parade
float of a production, once there’s little left for that vacation to Disney
World, or even enough to support your obesity or your meth habit anymore, only
then do you come around to the clear understanding of what seems to be the bleakness
of your future.
You don’t have to care about the fact that THEY know you’re reading
this and have thoroughly detailed logs of all your phone calls to the unemployment
office. If it’s only now that you’ve come to grasp the frightening
truth about the future state of this land you love and everything we’ve
been telling you for the past three years is hitting you like twelve steel barrels
of ethanol, my friends we can only say… welcome aboard. Everyone learns
at their own pace and some need to make the same mistakes repeatedly until it
clicks for them. We only ask our leaders to make the right decisions and to
truthfully admit when they are wrong and fix the problems they have created with the intention of protecting our
freedom. For you, though, there is no judgment from us over here just open arms.
So what, you ask, can you do now?
We feel it’s time for all of you to start singing. That’s right.
After the nuclear weapons have been used and the new Mexican-American majority
has us singing our national anthem and all other popular music in Spanish, we
will need to know OUR songs well. This is why we at Common Rotation proudly
present to you, in a desperate attempt at preserving this American cultural
moment, The Common Rotation Folk Songbook Vol.1 “Hymns, Ballads, &
Other Protests”. This compilation includes ten accurate transcriptions
of songs that span the last four years of Common Rotation history. You’ll
be able to revisit the catchy hooks of The Big Fear or have a campfire sing-along with those Clear
Channel Ep/ Living Room Tour classics. You’ll even get a peek at some
of the tunes on our upcoming record, tentatively titled “Getting Chummy
with the Taxman”, and put them in your own voice. All of the song transcriptions
were officially approved by the band and that saves you the search online through
the German porn/communist sites for the right chords. (Plus you don’t
want the government finding those kinds of searches) We know what you’re
thinking.
You’re initial reaction is “I don’t sing very well or play
a musical instrument.” Hey that hasn’t stopped a lot of the worlds’
biggest pop stars or celebrity actors with bands so please don’t be afraid.
The book comes complete with chord names and easy-to-play melodies for piano,
and with guitar chord diagrams that display the exact fingerings for every song.
You can teach yourself or grab your creepy long-haired neighbor who you hear
wailing away into the late hours of the night making a mockery of the intro
to Van Halens “Hot for Teacher”, and have him show you, or just
get him to play while you sing…
Fuck it, start a band…
We don’t care just keep these songs alive.
Come get the songbook at our shows and start learning by watching our hands
and deciphering our harmony. Cop our changes, steal our lyrics, but just make
sure they’re the right ones.
Common Rotation is coming to a burgh somewhere in your vicinity soon. Arriving
with banjo accompaniment for everyone and a scruffy bearded attitude to boot,
CR is bringing the new school of folk to the heart of this blessed country.
Hitting strongholds from NY to LA, the boys are leaving no hoot unturned or
barn unburned. We’ll be playing one final show to close Joey’s Ark
in Delaware as well as christening new towns such as Columbus, Ohio and Spring
Arbor, Michigan. After years of avoiding the sunshine, CR will be returning
to Florida for Memorial Day weekend to play and just to see how many seniors
filed for their prescription drug benefit on time. The Common Rotation “Exxon/Mobil Running
on Empty Tour” promises to be a celebration of new songs in new venues
for new fans with a new hope for a country that, in our minds, needs to start
singing.
Sing out before the door closes and you lose your chance. Let’s hear those
pipes like 100 protest singers in a choir. Get up there and do it like its late-night
karaoke. It doesn’t matter if you fit the part just know your song well
and sing for a real freedom from infringement on your civil liberties, corporate greed, criminal politicians,
unnecessary wars … or maybe just for the value of your hard earned buck
and how many drinks it buys at the bar. Either way, you best be learnin’
your Common Rotation songs because unless we learn how to convert the sweat
of hard working illegal Mexican immigrants into a more viable fuel than corn
oil, we won’t be able to tour when gas hits $6 a gallon. At that point
it’s up to you to put on your own show and have your own protest. We’ll
be there in the front row… if only in spirit.