SHINOBU
10 THERMIDOR

Shinobu is a fantastic band that has been making a mess of indie rock (the pavement one, not the boring dance music one) for a decade and a half. Their latest release, 10 Thermidor, is an instant classic cloaked in freakouts, anxiety and darkness, simultaneously invigorating and terrifying. Entirely unique, smart and catchy, this is a record that you will want to listen to again and again and again.

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1. Untitled Michael Haneke Project
2. 2Tone Tuesday
3. The Void
4. Culture, Inc.
5. Violence House
6. Jokes
7. Melbourne Cup
8. 9 Thermidor
9. Back To The Void
10. Hell Screens
11. 10 Thermidor

Shinobu is
Bob Vielma - bass, vox
Jon Fu - drums
Matt Keegan - guitar, vox trombone, keys
Mike Huguenor - vox, guitar, keys

Featured Vocalists:
Rosalie Rivera - Culture, Inc.
Jeff Rosenstock - Jokes
Angelina Banda - 9 Thermidor

Recorded by Bob Vielma at Born Invincible Studio and Mike Park's garage

Mastered by Jack Shirley at The Atomic Garden.

Backing vocals: Angelina Banda, Anjelica Crescini, Lanah Maruff, Linh Bui, Max Feshbach, Morgan Herrell, Sim Castro, Witt Wisebram, Yumico Vielma, Bobb Lange, Randy Wittig

Thanks to The Wild, The Albert Square, Winter Break, Diners, The Minibosses, The exquisites, Great Apes, Andrew Jackson Jihad, Bradbury, Bomb the Music Industry, Hawk Jones, Wild Moth, Slime Girls, and Joyce Manor.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

GIVE SHINOBU SOME MONEY:

"One must constantly remember that the impossible is, alas, always possible."
-Jacques Derrida

Untitled Michael Haneke Project

Retched
from a wretched dream
and it was morning,
without warning.
All my friends have tasted success
they stole a piece
from out of the vulture's nest,
but I'm still so hungry.

What do you do when you feel you have to be
true to the way you see,
but  no one seems to agree?
Does it make you crazy?
fucked dumb?
blind?
or on the wrong side of history?
just another boring mystery
the asks:
"Why do they even bother to try?
there's money to be made in
phones
and dancebeats
and advertisements."

So we live our lives
under commercial skies,
where everything looks free
but there's always a price
that you pay
and you pay
and you pay
and you pay
and you pay.

But does it ever pay to be true?
To be true?

Well I don't want to be true.
Please don't let this be true.

2Tone Tuesday

Same dream again.
The one where I can taste
the blood in my throat,
and as it lurches toward
the end, you drop the saw
and you walk away from

the mess we made,
as I gasp for breath
in the colonnades.

They say that it's a blank slate.
But only because
everything's grey.
You can try to awake,
but when you open your eyes
it won't go away.
When you open your eyes
it won't go away, it's

the mess we made,
as you lie in wait
in the colonnades.
We were making it black and white
out of the grey.

The Void

I almost didn't hear the phone,
even though it was in my hand,
it sounded just like
someone else's dream.
I was sitting there just trying
to think about death,
but I couldn't think of anything.
And Jon said,
"Come meet me at the Void,
because they're closing down for good,
and they're giving out drinks for free."
So I tried to stand
and then I really did stand,
I got my coat, got my wallet
and my things,
and I set out for the Void.

Well, the parking was a mess
but my car wouldn't start
so it was all the same to me.
and I had just about finally
cornered death
when the guy was checking out
my ID.
And inside people talked round and round
about politics
and art
and coupons that you can get for free.
But they only give them out
so that you'll spend more.
And then this guy started talking to me.
He said:

"If I could make you believe
that I believed in something
would you believe in me?
Because I don't like money
and I lost my faith
and I couldn't get into the Dead C
and it's so easy
to ignore someone who doesn't
have a cause,
because the cause is all we're dying to see,
the cause distracts you from
the Void that's there
in every moment
and in everything."

Culture, Inc.

I don't think that
it's just with me.
No, I don't think that
it's just with me.
It's an ugly word
and I'm an ugly person
--not above reproach,
we're all unformed
and uncertain,
and it's an ugly world
but it's not just with me.

They're gonna tell you
if you buy in everything
will be fine.

It's a lie.
It's a lie.
It's a lie.
It's a lie.
It's a lie.

Violence House

I came up out
of the Violence House with
blood and piss streaming
down my legs with
fists clenched white
on the inside,
jeans rust stained,
taut, and clinging tight.
And in the dazzling sun
of the afternoon, I emerged
to a verdant field, green
and strewn with
the broken parts of a dream
I had, of a car
that could take me away,
away,
away.

Well, the years go by
and I feel all right.
I can work my job
sometimes I sleep at night.
I can drink
and I can dream.
But in my dreams
I don't want to be dreaming,
because I dream dream dream
of the Violence House.
I dream dream dream
of the Violence House.

Jokes

You friends all think
you're incredible when you're
making jokes,
but the people sure think
you're detestable when you're
making jokes.
There's no way in or out,
that's what the world's about.
It's about

Jokes
Jokes
Jokes
Jokes
Jokes

Nobody wants to fuck you
if you're just
making jokes.
And if they say they do
you know that they're just
making jokes.
It's all been a long
bad dream, and every since
we got on the scene,
we've been making

Jokes
Jokes
Jokes
Jokes
Jokes
Jokes

So don't talk about anything else
cause we don't want to know.
We just want

Jokes
Jokes
Jokes
Jokes
Jokes
Jokes
Jokes

Melbourne Cup

You made a movie
but you fucked it up.
No one can trust you
when you act like us

Act like we do

You stick your nose up
like an asshole now
We all ignore you
when you think out loud

Just like we do

You try to kick us out
of the bar we own
Having no idea
you're the one disowned

Just like we were

Front and center in the picture

9 Thermidor

This is it
it's been coming.
These words have etched
into my mind so long
I don't know who I was, before.
And if you have any feeling
you'll let that feeling take you
up and out.
We're going up and out now.

So set the stage
and set the lights
set the timer now,
we've gotta break free somehow.
And if you stand
right where I'm standing
you can hear the future coming down.
It makes this terrifying sound.

Today, today, today
I feel the warmth
I feel the moves
I fee alive.
These are haunted times.
When I see you next
it will be on the other side
and we'll have passed through
the licking flames
oh, twisted and rearranged.

So set the stage
and set the lights
set the timer now,
we've gotta break free somehow.
And if you stand
right where I'm standing
you can hear the future coming down.
It makes this terrifying sound.

I heard the crack
to my jaw,
forehead kissed the slab
never felt my body
hit the ground.
And if you stand
right where I'm standing
you can hear the future coming down.
It makes this terrifying sound.

Back to the Void

You can throw on
the night mirror
if the lights from the past
won't let you be.

They get closer now.
They get closer
all the time.

I just wish there was
some other choice
between giving in
and heading back to the Void.

I can't stop it now.
I can't stop it this time.

I think they got us this time.
I think they got us this time.

Hell Screens

A life of waiting
a life of being passed by
Everyone's a critic with a patch
covering their critical eye.
We took the parachute jump
from dreams, and never arrived.

From my bed the world
the world looks sweet enough to breath.
But when you stand
you can't stand a single
fucking thing that you see.
We took that parachute jump
and never made it out
of the dream.

All we see are different
layers of the dream,
and all throughout the night
we're tossing in our sleep.
One eye sees the world
while the other one's stuck in dreams,
and it's all the superimposition
of hell screens.

Open up your eyes
Open up your eyes
It's ocular.

10 Thermidor

The day broke
right down the center.
Think I got enough strength
left in me
to see the dream die.

Try not to rake your teeth
when you wrap your mouth
around this Phoenician lie:
that all the good people,
they're really good inside.

These are the haunted times.
I feel the warmth.
I feel alive.

And I can hear a new age
coming down the line
but it sounds the same.

Set up the scaffold
because there's no love
on 10 Thermidor