Corporate or colonial
The movement is unstoppable
Like the body of a centerfold it spreads
To the counter-culture copyright
Get your revolution at a lower price
Or make believe and throw the fight, play dead
It's exploding bags, aerosol cans
Southbound buses, Peter Pan
They left it up to us again
I thought you knew the drill
It's kill or be killed

Future markets, holy wars
Been tried ten thousand times before
If you think that God is keeping score, hooray!
For the freedom-fighting simulcast (Victory! A defeat! Victory!)
The imminent and the aftermath
Draw another bloody bath to drain
Like the polar icecaps centrifuge (Oh Allah! Oh Jesus please!)
First snowman built at the end of June
He slicks his hair for the interview, his fifteen-minute fame
Would you agree times have changed?



Lyrics submitted by benjam326

Track duration: 06:05


Clairaudients (Kill or Be Killed) song meanings
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53 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:Just listened to this song for the first time in a long time and it still gives me goosebumps.
    Flag antinalaskaon January 14, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I feel like this song may have a connection to the Aquarian Shift or some other supernatural change/evolution.
    Flag plainjordanon June 16, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Sick virgins of the sun being fresh in the grave of the pharaoh
    Flagged squirrelliekaton August 21, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:the lady speaking in the beginning is a medium. That's for sure.
    "I know you don't believe in what I do"
    "And I can feel them around me.
    I can feel, I can definitely hear them.
    I can see them, through the window."
    "there are a lot of people who do not believe."
    As for the song, right now I think it's about trying to make changes but not abruptly. Instead of going from red to blue, go from red to purple to blue. I'm not sure thought. I haven't really thought about it but some key sentences give me that impression.
    Flag ronmascaraon April 19, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:"The whites have had us under them for more than three centuries, murdering, and treating us like brutes; and, as Mr. Jefferson wisely said, they have never found us out — they do not know, indeed, that there is an unconquerable disposition in the breasts of the blacks, which, when it is fully awakened and put in motion, will be subdued, only with the destruction of the animal existence. Get the blacks started, and if you do not have a gang of tigers and lions to deal with, I am a deceiver of the blacks and of the whites. ... [I]f you commence, make sure work — do not trifle, for they will not trifle with you — they want us for their slaves, and think nothing of murdering us in order to subject us to that wretched condition — therefore, if there is an attempt made by us, kill or be killed."
    -david walker, american black abolitionist- walker's appeal
    Flag saltandpepperon November 21, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i thought the woman speaking at the beginning and ending was lorraine warren...
    Flag 01100011on October 29, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Almost 8 months since I commented this song, and I have more to add!

    Before I said:
    "And "they left it up to us again" might mean that once again, the older generation is continuing to fuck the earth and it's inhabitants, and leaving the problem to us."

    I'd like to add that I also think that Conor is saying that everytime they start poisoning the earth to another degree, they blame us for it. They say, "It's not our industrial factories polluting the earth and killing off 200 species a day, it's YOU the consumers who choose to buy our products!"

    While this comes off as true at first, you realize that it's just another way to divert the focus off of THEM and onto US as the responsible ones. They're saying instead of punishing them, we should just buy different products, but most people know that they aren't really affecting anything with their lifestyle decisions - and corporations know it too, that's why they suggest it. Similarly to the gov't, corporations only support tactics that don't pose a threat to them.

    Now in the second verse,

    "Future markets, holy wars
    Been tried ten thousand times before
    If you think that God is keeping score, hooray!"

    The economy ("future markets") and religion ("holy wars") are the excuses that those in power give whenever people question their genocides and complete disregard for human, animal, and earth rights.

    The line about God is saying, "You keep on making up these bullshit excuses - if there's a God, I doubt he's still listening. It's like the boy who cried wolf"


    "For the freedom-fighting simulcast (Victory! A defeat! Victory!)"

    This is a shot at the media and news sources who always support the Gov't and military. They label the terrorists "freedom fighters" and activists "terrorists". It's one big patriotic orgy, basically.

    "The imminent and the aftermath
    Draw another bloody bath to drain"

    The same stuff happens over and over. War, bloodshed, imperialism.

    "Like the polar icecaps centrifuge (Oh Allah! Oh Jesus please!)"

    polar ice caps are melting. People reaching out to religious figures, faith, hoping to be saved, even though it's their desperation that leads them to ask for help from them. They feel hopeless, even though it would be a better tactic to attack those who are inflicting the damage (Gov't and corporations).


    "First snowman built at the end of June
    He slicks his hair for the interview, his fifteen-minute fame
    Would you agree times have changed?"

    First line is about how screwed up and backwards our climate is becoming.

    I imagine the second line to be about a corporate CEO, or a news reporter. Greasy business type of man who cares more about his image and fame than his negative affect on the world.

    Last line is self-explanatory. Makes me think of "times they are a-changing" by Bob Dylan.

    Again, this is just my take on the song. It's what it means to me.
    Flag BashTheFashon October 08, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:well said, whimsicalwish
    i really don't think this song has ANYTHING to do with "to love and to be loved", anyway.

    does anyone know if what tru_dat4 said is true? it sounds interesting...

    for the talking part, the very last part, i believe it's "how they have tried.... to ERASE that" i could be wrong though

    does anyone know if the woman on the phone is "hassan lemtouni"? if not, does anyone know who she is??? because otherwise she's not in the album credits.

    and i too, am very very fond of this song.
    Flag loveloveron September 30, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:um, guys

    it's "to love AND to be loved"

    not 'to love OR to be loved'
    Flag thewhimsicalwishon August 21, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...........................
    Flag wee yinon June 20, 2008   Link

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