This one was origianlly part of a song called The CEO. When Marcos Fernandes and I recorded it for my debut album Eat Plastic, a series of unfortunate events related to us not having enough rehearsal time led to it becoming a seperate 23 second instrumental introduction piece rather than part of a longer song.

Introduction (Rubberneck Redux)

THE WINGNUT GALLERY
(words and music by Abel Ashes)

If we fear the vaccine more than we fear the virus
It seems that bullshit propaganda has got up inside us.
So try to learn the facts ya'll and try to tell the truth
When science isn't popular and wisdom isn't youth.
Science isn't popular and wisdom isn't youth.

I wake up every morning with my coffee and the news
Comments full of troll bots, deceptive points of view
Pretending to be stupid, gaslighting all along.
The post-truth doesn't change when you prove it wrong.
Post truth doesn't change when you prove it wrong.

They're hating on the press, dismissing their reports
That don't back the agendas the facts do not support.
Living in a bubble of sci-fi pseudo-facts
Denying the consensus, distorting all the stats.
Denying the consensus, distorting all the stats.

The GOP, Iran and the CCP
Putin's played the game since he was KGB.
Whether QAnon or the FSB
A hollow laughter rings from the wingnut gallery.
Hollow laughter rings from the wingnut gallery.
Hollow laughter rings from the wingnut gallery.
Hollow laughter rings from the wingnut gallery.

The Wingnut Gallery (demo)

Grand Old Party Line

Variations on a Theme from Commercials (live)

This is a preview/rough mix single of the title track from my upcoming instrumental album.

The Futures As Bright As A Dying Star (demo)

This song was written over long shifts driving a concrete mixer, while listening to NPR in Otero County, New Mexico and recorded live, in one take, in my living room in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
lyrics
Magical Markets and Magical Mules
by Abel Ashes

Wall Street banks where the coke-heads play
Gambling the future from June through May
They're fucking everybody in the USA
Crashing the economy for short-term gains
Crashing the economy for short-term gains

Tired of the bullshit, bullshit, bullshit
Talking about some bullshit
Tired of the bullshit, bullshit, bullshit
Talking about some bullshit

Journalists report the true complexity
Dumb fucking views on the blogs you read
Jumping to conclusions of conspiracy
Avoiding other facts like a bad VD
Avoiding other facts like a bad VD

Tired of the bullshit, bullshit, bullshit
Talking about some bullshit
Tired of the bullshit, bullshit, bullshit
Talking about some bullshit

"Allahu Akbar", "Don't tread on me"
"Jesus is Lord" and "Me, me, me"
Magical Markets won't set you free
Neither will theocratic tyranny
Neither will theocratic tyranny

Tired of the bullshit, bullshit, bullshit
Talking about some bullshit
Tired of the bullshit, bullshit, bullshit
Talking about some bullshit

Dominionists' and Islamists' religious rules
Designed to keep you stupid in religious schools
The Fear of God will keep the people playing the fools
While billionaires are loading up the world like mules
Billionaires are loading up the world like mules
Billionaires are loading up the world like mules
Billionaires are loading up the world like mules
credits
from Between the Droughts and the Floods, track released February 3, 2017
Words and music by Abel Ashes
Recorded in Alamogordo, New Mexico, USA

Single cover photo of Abel Ashes near the US Embassy in Tunis
Photo by Nesrine Latiri Ashes

Magical Markets And Magical Mules (demo)

R2P (Human Refugees)
Words and music by Abel Ashes

They say poverty is violence.
Well I've lived it, I should know.
I've been beaten. I've been hungry.
You should see the bills I owe.
Beaten in the name of Jesus Christ
When I went left and they went right.

Kicked out on the street when I was just a kid
Returned one punch and that was it.
Kicked out on the street when I was just a kid
I never gave up. I never gave in.

Tried hard to go to school.
Had to drop out in disgrace.
Sacrificed a better future
Just to feed my hungry face.

Worked so hard for little pay
Just to barely pay the rent.
Nothing left for food or bills
Feeling like a piece of shit.

So if you're hating on these human refugees you're hating on my human family.
If you're hating on these human refugees, you're hating on my human family.

Immigration laws kept me from my wife.
Stole four years from our life.
She went home, a short trip.
Said "Be safe.". Kissed her lips.

She was in a car waiting at a light.
She was nearly killed her birthday night.
She was in a car, sister in the back
Sister in a coma, world painted black.

Left everything. I'm by her side.
She's my joy. She's my pride.
Stuck in a bed. Left paralyzed.
Green Card expired. Year's gone by.

So if you're hating on these human refugees you're hating on my human family.
If you're hating on these human refugees, you're hating on my human family.

Sitting here on her hospital bed, TV news counting the dead.
Another boat sank out on the sea, migrants and refugees
Caravan lost out in the night trying to reach the borderline.
They're running from poverty, torture, war, theocracy.
Some of them do not believe, some believe differently.
Running from savagery, running toward democracy.

Some of them LGBT lovers yearning to be free.
Running from a prison state or some demented Caliphate.
Running from MS-13, tyrants and mujaheddin.
Running from tragedy, organ trade and slavery.
Families with kids in tow. They left everything they own.
Holding babies while they cry, hands held up, held up high.
Holding babies while they cry, hands held up, held up high.

So if you're hating on these human refugees you're hating on my human family.
If you're hating on these human refugees, you're hating on my human family.

05 R2P (Human Refugees) (demo)

I don't have money or anyway to pay online from Tunisia, so don't come here offering your services. I also have no interest in fake "likes" or fake "plays". I haven't been able to work in more than 3 years since I had to leave the USA to care for my wife who was made paraplegic in a car accident while visiting her family in Tunisia. I don't even own a decent guitar anymore. My music has no commercial potential and almost all people in the world are mindless idiots so I don't expect anymore than 5 or 6 people to ever give a shit about anything I have ever done or will ever do in my life, musically or politically. I tell the truth and employ caveats and talk about the gray areas and look at reality right in its boring but terrifying face. I'll die and be forgotten like everyone else and it will never matter that I did any of this.