Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there will it lie

Daniel Gilland wrote a post recently titled:Fear This! (and the art of self fulfilling prophecy) which reminded me of a band called Five Iron Frenzy that are one of my favorite bands of all times. They had two particular songs came to mind while reading Daniel’s post. I’ve got the lyrics below. Read them through and tell me what you think.

Five Iron Frenzy - The End is Near Album Cover

I think Five Iron were prophets. They disbanded in 2003 and I managed to catch them on their Farewell Tour in Green Bay, Wisconsin of all places (Thanks Keren and Nat!).

Here are the lyrics from Anchors Away

An idea dies, in the same slight way,
that we lose track of the facts.
Slowly, unseen, slipping silently,
through some fabricated cracks.
And now the freedom of the press,
has turned to freedom to impress.
Perfect hair, sells product well,
like suffocating, sickly smells, the make-up smears,
like false pastels, like glossy, sugarcoated, shells.

Tune in, tune out, goodbye, goodnight.
They're buying you with fear and lies.
Turn it off until it's right,
that's the news, that's all, goodnight.

The advertising dollars buy,
the right to stifle antonyms,
to sterilize the truth with fiction,
so we can sing their corporate hymns.
And all of us were cowed and bought it,
hardly anybody got it.
While mergers made their spires grow taller
what they let you know grew smaller.
And we were scared, or too bemused,
and so we still turned on the news.

Are you afraid yet?
They want you to be.
It will keep you coming back.
You are a loyal customer.
Are you afraid yet?
You should be.

These are the lyrics from American Kryptonite

He is the icon of our times, solution to our modern crimes.
His trigger finger clicks remotes,
as carbohydrates slowly bloat.
Not fragile, or brittle.
He's seeking an acquittal.
No scruples, no meekness,
he has but one great weakness.

All the world must have a price,
save yourself from sacrifice,
everything will end all right.
American Kryptonite.

His mighty hands will hardly fail,
his intellect is barely frail,
he moves his lips in perfect sync,
demanding an espresso drink.
With passion, he searches, he'll make another purchase.
Familiar, you know him, he's saying that you owe him.

It was like the Manifest Destiny all over again, except,
instead of taking and consuming everything in their paths for God,
they did so with the same fervor
and sense of entitlement for their new god... themselves.

Buy, take, break, throw it away.

Both of these songs are from Five Iron Frenzy’s final Album titled The End is Near. The album was also release as The End is Here in stores with a green album cover. The End is Near was album title for the album sold during their concerts on their final tour. It was the only way to purchase the album until the following year when they sold it with a Live CD version of their final concert in Denver, CO, their hometown.

Five Iron Frenzy, I miss you.

Awesomely, their albums are available on itunes. I recommend you go to and check them out if you haven’t heard of them, or listened to them in a while. Their music fell under the Ska-core category, fun horn parts and what-not.

For those unfamiliar, I’ve added one of those nifty youtube videos so that you can get an ‘idea’ of what their sound is like. Besides being available, I chose this particular song because lyrically, it fit the other content shared. This song sounds a little different from the majority of their other offerings though, so keep that in mind. It’s from the album All the Hype That Your Money Can Buy.