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SERJ TANKIAN THINKS BORDERS ARE…

 Thursday, June 24th, 2010 at 12:30pm by

… well, if you know anything about Serj Tankian I’ll bet you can closely guess what Serj Tankian thinks of the random lines that separate our countries. But he tells you anyway in his brand new song “Borders Are,” for which the lyric video can be streamed below:

Is it coincidence that the last border to rise is the U.S. / Mexican border? I’m guessing this video was produced by someone at Serj’s label, but I wouldn’t put it past him to make a statement like that.

“Borders Are” comes from Serj’s new album Imperfect Harmonies, available September 7th via Warner Bros. Records. More info is available at Serj’s website. I guess it’s still gonna be a while until SOAD inevitably come back together to make new music, but I dug Serj’s last solo record and will certainly be giving this one a listen.

-VN

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  • Bayonetwork

    It’s obvious this song is about U.S./Mexico border tensions, considering the release of this song and the fact that the U.S./Mexico border was the last to go in a dramatic fashion in this video.

  • Sacajawea

    If we removed the borders we could have more inter-racial relationships. I’m sorry, I just had to do it.

    • Reprogrammed To Hate

      I support this.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Lee/1565314465 Mark Lee

      Had to do what and what’s wrong with inter-racial relationships?

      • Sacajawea

        Apparently you’ve been missing the spam showing up in recent comments.

    • Brett

      hahahah pure gold.

  • Burgermeat

    Is it just me, or was sitting through that entire song an exhausting endurance exercise?

    • cougar party

      I kinda of feel that way about all his songs. I used to like his voice, but now it just grates on me.

      • Burgermeat

        Yeah and now I have “I’ll never let you go-oh-oh” stuck in my head, but not in a nice way. It feels like it’s sandblasting my braincells.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-John-Crispen/100000169530540 Jason John Crispen

        his voice is like cats in heat in the alley. “imperfect harmonies” indeed.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Terry-J-Zielke/603524536 Terry J Zielke

      Agreed, I actually remember when Fantomas ‘supported’ this Serj rubbish. I fuckng loved the Fantomas and was anticipating a good show from Serj but Im sorry ‘this ain’t metal’ comes to mind and secondly, it’s ‘preachy bullshit.’ Nobody needs to listen to this man whine about whats wrong with the world today.

  • Sacajawea

    His vocals are so fucking lame IMO. It’s as if he just writes lyrics and then doesn’t even try to make them fit the song. So very half-assed (or even quarter-assed if there is such a thing).

    • rupert

      false

  • The 2,334,275,002nd most interesting man on the planet

    I’m not the best at geography, but it looked like 3 of the hottest topic (scene? or does that even make sense?) borders, Israel? Sudan? Mexico, were the last 3 to go? If that is the case, it’s obvious that he’s stating how these imaginary lines can destroy millions of lives. Obviously what’s happening on the US-Mexican border doesn’t compare in the slightest with the other 2, but it’s a big topic here and this is where most of his music is sold, so might as well cater to us huh?
    Don’t have speakers on my work comp, so I can’t comment on the song, but I’ve loved Serj since the first SOAD cd, so I’m looking forward to listening to this.

    Did that clusterfuck of a comment make any sense to anybody? Yeah, I’m not a writer, nor do I claim to be.

    • Sacajawea

      Made sense to me. I haven’t anything else to say though so I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing here. One of those incredibly boring days.

    • DemonicLemming

      The Israel border goes beyond a line on a map…they could put the border anywhere, and there would still be a never-ending religious war over there.

      As far as Mexico, hey, I don’t think anyone would care if the bastards would actually pay taxes for all the shit they feel entitled to, rather than making all the legal citizens foot the bill for them. That, and learning English – I wouldn’t go to France to work and demand everyone speak English to suit me, so why illegal Mexicans think everyone should cater to them and learn Spanish is beyond me.

      • Sacajawea

        Que?

      • The 2,334,275,002nd most interesting man on the planet

        As long as religion is so prominent there will always be wars. Wars used to be all about borders, until christianity came to the forefront. Then there have been wars in the “Holy Land” for thousands of years, and those will never end until atheism is what a majority of the people believe. Then we can start fighting over borders again, and keep fighting about oil.

      • Dirtman73

        So you’re saying illegals don’t pay ANY taxes? Way to generalize there. I live in an area chock full of illegals, and every one I’ve worked with so far pays their day-to-day taxes like everyone else. A fake or stolen SSN can make the difference between sucking off the system and being a tax-paying citizen, albeit illegal.

        Oh yeah, the majority of them have taken the time to learn at least some conversational English too. I suppose depending on where you live, your experience could be much different.

        • treghet

          At where I work we have Mexicans that don’t speak English at all. And about half of them are known to be illegal. The company doesn’t want to question that though, since they obviously do not want to lose half of their workforce.

        • DemonicLemming

          Most of the Mexicans here speak absolutely no English (and like Trux, go off on funny little rants when no one understands them and don’t really give a good fuck what they’re saying) and are paid cash under the table by employers who know they’re illegal (another major problem in the whole illegals debate).

          Are all illegal Mexicans bad people? Nope. Some just get fucked by the system that makes it hard to become a legal citizen. Are the large majority of them assholes who wouldn’t be here if they couldn’t rape the system? Yep. Mexico’s two largest sources of income are drugs and money sent back by illegal expats in the US.

      • Trux

        Vaya y chingue a toda su reputa, cojida y pendeja madre Sr Demonic Lemming .

        Ojala nunca tenga la desgracia de conocerlo personalmente porque creame que ese dia usted se va a llevar la putiza de su vida.

        • Trux

          De hecho y ahora que lo pienso y gracias al internet JAMAS tendre la oportunidad de verlo Sr Demonic Lemming y tener el gusto de partirle la madre y voltearle el puto calcetin al reves. Y por eso deberia de darle gracias a Dios , o a Satan a quien putas sea su santo de devocion.
          He visto tu pendeja foto en el avatar de el Numero del Blog y no me extraña que seas un imbecil incomprendido de putos 14 años o algo al que a duras penas le esta creciendo el pelo de la verga y que apenas puede sortener una ereccion por mas de tres segundos seguidos.
          Y ya que estamos, permitame rebajarme a su nivel y decirle que aunque no tenga la desgracia de conocerlo a usted, a su mama si que la conozco y la conozco muy bien. El congal donde trabaja en la frontera, aunque pinche tiene buenas putas. Sin embargo, estaba pedidisimo y sin un centavo por lo que tuve que conformarme con su pendeja madre para que me descremara. Y quedo muy agradecida por la propina de 50 centavos que le deje. Me dijo que los utilizaria para la educacion de su hijo pero jamas me imagine que se trataria de usted. Caray, ahora me siento mal porque los cincuenta centavos no sirvieron de nada. Debi de haberle dado de jodido un dolar. En fin, el congal estaba tan culero que no creo regresar nunca mas; ni siquiera para cojerme por las orejas a su puta madre.

          En fin…………. que tengas una culera vida Sr. Demonic Lemming, y que los dioses del Olimpo nos libren de pendejos como tu con un cerebro del tamaño de un frijol y que por desgracia tiene concectado el aparato digestivo a la boca ya que todo lo que sale cuando hablas es pura mierda.

          Me despido estimadisimo y querido Hijo de toda tu puta madre !!

          • The_Hate_Tank

            no one’s reading that horse-shit. if you’re attempting to insult someone in Spanish… let me introduce you to a friend of mine…

            ▄██████████████▄▐█▄▄▄▄█▌
            ██████▌▄▌▄▐▐▌███▌▀▀██▀▀
            ████▄█▌▄▌▄▐▐▌▀███▄▄█▌
            ▄▄▄▄▄██████████████

            Fail Whale says – FUCK SPANISH.

            America = English

            Fuck any other language. Does Mexico force their population to learn English? NO, so fuck you.

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Andrew-Sterner/1335958279 Andrew Sterner

            dos tacos, andale.

          • DemonicLemming

            Trux, when I give a good flying fuck about what you think, I’ll let you know. Every other single group of immigrants to the US has learned English, and didn’t expect everyone else to learn their language to suit them.

          • Moltanic

            @The_Hate_Tank
            Woah Adolf, put that cross out and start taking some deep breaths. I honestly don’t know what country your thinking of, I was born and raised in So. Cal my whole life & at least 85% of the people in my school are Hispanic. I’m guessing you’re from the Midwest or somewhere where Hispanics are still a minority. Anyways, I don’t speak Spanish & I’ve never felt pressured or been forced to learn it, so I have no idea what you’re going on about. our nation has always prided itself on being multicultural, that America for Americans thing you’re going on about is just bigotry bullshit. Emigration is what America is famous for, all of our ancestors yours and mine are emigrants to this country and chances are they didn’t have passports either. My advice to you dude is to get out a little more and start meeting different people, it’d do you some good.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Lee/1565314465 Mark Lee

        Religious wars were always without borders.

    • Heavy Metal

      You forgot the most heavily fortified border in the world. The DMZ between North and South Korea. Especially given the recent events, you think it would have been important, but I guess it isn’t.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rohit-Gupta/666005820 Rohit Gupta

    Well the dude is Armenian, he could be talking about Eastern Europe/Turkey/Russia too.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rohit-Gupta/666005820 Rohit Gupta

      Or just the world in general.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Pawe-Kurach/100000646268464 Paweł Kurach

      US = money

      • Axem

        and money is the root of all evil!

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ben-Robson/1375985482 Ben Robson

          no, the LOVE of money is the root of all evil

  • Owen

    The rhyme scheme was at best pish and the vocals bordering on being seriously flat in a lot of places, throw in a really grating overtone and you have a terrible vocal performance on a sub-par song.

  • Tacoloft

    HIlary Clinton or Serj…. I don’t know who I can stand to listen too. Both have voices that make me want to rip my ears off.

  • systemsdown

    I guess I’ll have to fap to this till there’s new SOAD material

  • metalguy

    His rhymes were atrocious, pretty much killed the song for me

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sean-Page/731665222 Sean Page

    it sounded more like serj singing over a beat like crappy pop artists…but it cant be…

  • A Grown Up

    You have to love preachy musicians. How about if you want to change things, you actually try to, instead of draping yourself in the protective cape of “artistic expression” where the odds of you getting anything accomplished on a global scale are next to none.

    And if you believe in these causes so much, Serj (and any other musician who thinks their worldview means anything at all) how much have you donated to causes like Doctors Without Borders? I would bet the amount is very low.

    But I have to commend him. He has made a career out of tricking self righteous kids into spending their money so he can live the life most people can only dream of by playing on their emotions. And really isn’t the American Dream figuring out a way to separate stupid people from their money?

    • The_Hate_Tank

      you are 1000% correct my friend. I too, am sickened by musicians who think that whining about an issue will change that issue. I wonder how much of the profit he will make from this album will be spent on effecting ‘change’. the self-righteous lemmings that hang on his every word will be lining his pockets once again.

      Serj = Mike Patton RIP OFF, albeit a very poor rendition. WHAT A WHINER.

    • Axem

      SYSTEM OF A DOWN frontman Serj Tankian has donated a new song to support a great cause for Amnesty International, the Global Write-A-Thon campaign. Why is this important? Because December 10 — International Human Rights Day — marks the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. You can honor this important day by participating in Amnesty International’s Global Write-A-Thon — the world’s largest letter writing event. Write letters on behalf of prisoners of conscience and human rights defenders at risk of severe human rights violations. Join thousands of people across the United States and around the world for this monumental event.

      ( http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=109412 )

      • Brett

        “Amnesty International’s Global Write-A-Thon — the world’s largest letter writing event. Write letters on behalf of prisoners of conscience and human rights defenders at risk of severe human rights violations”…….hahahaha do people really spend their time doing this?

    • Axem

      Serj Tankian

      Overview: One of the most unconventional frontmen in rock, System Of A Down singer and solo artist Serj Tankian is very involved with promoting activism for various social and political causes that strike a chord with his beliefs. Besides his support and involvement with Amnesty International, Tankian co-created Axis Of Justice, an activist organization, with fellow musician and activist Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine.

      http://www.amnestyusa.org/individuals-at-risk/global-write-a-thon/serj-tankian/page.do?id=1381019

    • Axem

      Axis of Justice is a non-profit organization formed by Tom Morello and Serj Tankian. Its purpose is to bring together musicians, fans of music, and grassroots political organizations to fight for social justice.

      We aim to build a bridge between fans of music around the world and local political organizations to effectively organize around issues of peace, human rights, and economic justice.

      http://axisofjustice.net/about/

      Ok, how about you get fucking informed before fucknig posting shit.

      • DemonicLemming

        Lul, Amnesty International….when they ever get around to doing anything other than making PR statements about how “things are bad”, let us know. They’re about as useful as the UN.

        • Coop

          They campaign and lobby politicians, governments and corporations to change their policies and actively work with local activist organizations. They also raise public awareness of human rights violations. You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.

          • DemonicLemming

            Exactly what I said – they make PR statements, and that’s about it. “Lobbying politicians”? You’re talking about the group “lobbying” for the rights of Somali pirates whose life revolves around terrorizing and killing innocents and stealing everything they own, that supports Hamas through pretending all Palestinians are “victimized innocents and calling for the end of the Israeli blockade of Palestine, and “lobbying” against the death penalty for convicted murders and rapists. Get the fuck out with your holier-than-thou horseshit.

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Annalisa---Triola/604992980 Annalisa マリエ- Triola

          Because changing things is hard, most NGOs don’t get this, you cant hand out a few things of rice and protest governments to change things, you have to work with the beauracracy to do what really makes an impact, changing policy (and then enforcing these policy with economic sanctions). Running around with a megaphone and wearing shirts made with non sweatshop labor is cool and all but if you want to get shit done, get a degree in International politics and conflict resolution studies. Don’t get me wrong, raising awareness for the massive amount of human rights violations going on right now is great, but it dosn’t get a lot acomplished.
          Amnesty International isn’t a “take action” organization that actually free political prisoners or enforces new policies, even on their website they state their purpose is to educate the world about human rights and make people outraged at the extreme violation of these human rights throughout the world.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/David-J-Harrison/1095943638 David J Harrison

    I’ll take Napalm death politics any day over this. The song was horrendous too. Bet Serj has a ton of lawyers to protect his money too. Middle class will keep fitting the bill while the rich get richer. Utterly disgusted with hollywood, tv, sports, pretty much anything to divert our attention to whats really going on. Been doing this for centuries through even the olympic games and such. BP? Bad? Ha! Obama was funded lots of their money through campaigns. I smell conspiracy through new carbon taxes and green technology. Mean while we americans are excited about America beating Algeria in the world cup! Our priorities are backwards right now. Do some research boneheads. Oh I know your gonna say im racist because I oppose obama……Please stop using that excuse for the machine. Let them destroy our country (dems and Republicans) to bring in a new world order. We will be ushered in by illegals to fema camps. Enough ranting. Go to sleep it’s all in your heads don’t worry about anything I said. I have no proof. ha ha

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ben-Robson/1375985482 Ben Robson

      i don’t believe in the new world order because human beings would have to be behind it it to make it work, and collectively, human beigns are too stupid to be able to maintain such a vast conspiracy

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Andrew-Sterner/1335958279 Andrew Sterner

        Yeah, seconded with this.

        The real reason behind the spill was already given. BP was “in bed” with the regulators who are supposed to make sure BP is taking the precautions to prevent things like this. They have been since at least Bush, probably Clinton. It’s not a conspiracy, it’s the power of corporate greed. Money is powerful, and BP’s little slip up proves that.

        In reality, the president never really knew this was happening. As far as he knew, the regulators were regulating, and everything was just peachy. And by “president,” I mean the leader at any given time.

        And to Sr. Harrison, you show ignorance on a soap box. Please take this type of behavior back to your “tea party rallies” with all of your ignorant friends.

        • DemonicLemming

          Business has always “been in bed” with the people who are supposed to be regulating them – I don’t know why everyone thinks “big oil” is the only industry to do it, or that it’s only a recent occurrence.

          Of course, you toss the “omg Tea Party people are stupid!” plug in there, it’s the fun new thing to do. I guess when keeping your head buried to ignore how fucked up shit is getting makes you feel better, and calling people “ignorant” who aren’t trying to pretend things are fine makes think you’re a better person, go for it. Granted, the original comment really had absolutely nothing to do with what the Tea Party is advocating – he just made the observation that Americans in general are paying attention to all the wrong things, which is pretty much on point – but I guess the day just isn’t complete for some people unless they can toss personal insults against people with different opinions.

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Andrew-Sterner/1335958279 Andrew Sterner

            I never said it was only big oil. I said big oil WAS. Please don’t make rash assumptions and try to paint me to be ignorant. It’s common knowledge Pharmaceuticals are with the FDA, Large scale farming companies with them. In any event, your first paragraph is completely nulled as a baseless attack on a false assumption about what I said.

            NOW, onto the second paragraph. I didn’t “plug” anything. He talks about how Obama was “funded by big oil.” It’s true, but at the national level, everyone gets donations from oil companies regardless of their position(see Al Gore and Ralph Nader).

            He then immediately goes on to say that he isn’t racist because he doesn’t like Obama. At no point did he need to say this. I didn’t vote for Obama, but I don’t feel the need to tell everyone that I’m not racist for doing so. He feels the need to defend that position baselessly.

            He then goes on to talk about “the machine,” and states both parties are involved with it. This shows he feels independents(or third parties) are not ignorant. I’m an Independent myself, but at no time to I think those belonging to a party are ignorant.

            What does any of this, possibly have to do with the Tea Party movement? If you’ve ever been to a rally(or watched one on TV), you will have seen ALL of the above. Everything I stated in the three previous paragraphs is popular opinion amongst people in this movement. Quite frankly, I find it hypocritical to say followers of a political party are ignorant, while FOLLOWING a movement largely animated by Fox News.

            As far as me being ignorant, I may be ignorant to some degree, but we all are. There is no way to be a complete master of local, state, national, and international affairs. Having that said, I am very active in local politics, I vote every election, and I keep an eye on where candidates stand in the state and nation. I also delve into international politics, but it’s mainly based in over-harvesting of the sea, crisis, and war.

          • DemonicLemming

            It’s far beyond pharmaceuticals and industrial-scale farms – it dates back to the formation of government-sponsored regulating bodies. My point was that people (in general) seem to like to think that large-scale commercial corruption is only a recent development, and only an American one at that, which is categorically false and shows an utter lack of knowledge about history.

            The biggest problem with the Tea Party platform is that the members don’t understand that they’re nothing more than a third party, and by being so, are locking themselves into the group-think mentality that plagues the two parties they’re against. Free thinking inside the tea party movement is as stagnant and discouraged against, for the most part, as it is in the other two parties. They don’t want candidates in office who think for themselves, they just want a third party with inflexible and static ideas to vote against the other two parties. Until we completely dispense with the party system in America, the government is never going to be anything other than a see-saw ride, as the party in power swings way too far in trying to change what the opposite party did when they were in power. Republicans refuse to admit Democrats have some good ideas, Democrats refuse to admit that Republicans have some good ideas, and the Tea Party refuses to admit that anyone else has any good ideas. It’s all lock-step thinking.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Lance-Zeran/100000142665110 Lance Zeran

    HOLY SHIT A SONG WRITTEN BY SERJ THAT RHYMES HYPOCRISY. STOP THE FUCKING PRESSES AND BITCH ABOUT IT.

    Mediocre song, even more mediocre bitching on behalf of the Metalsuckians.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Lance-Zeran/100000142665110 Lance Zeran

      Oh, and what the fuck is up with lyric videos? I’ve only seen this and the Disturbed one so far (albeit only about 24 seconds through the latter), and they’re inane.

  • iolanach

    What a piece of shit.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ben-Robson/1375985482 Ben Robson

    he’s a good songwriter and composer but his lyrics are just too brain-kickingly blunt for me to find them enjoyable, perfectly

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ben-Robson/1375985482 Ben Robson

      erm, *personally

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Andrew-Sterner/1335958279 Andrew Sterner

    Ugh, I liked Serj because he has a powerful voice, strong singing and screaming. All singing is just icky, he sounds horrible.

    Please get back to SoaD.

  • agfasdjogfasdpfj

    Hey Serj, just wanted to let you know that I am now in your band. Since there are no borders, no rule of law, no territories, etc. and we’re all just going to go wherever, take whatever and destroy whatever we’d like – I want to know when I should come to the studio and when we leave for the tour… oh and I will now be taking my piece of any money this group earns and your things are now half mine. I will come to your house, shit in the living room and spray paint your walls because that’s how I live. It’s my culture – get used to it. Let’s remove our front doors because we can all get along and live together in a filthy, hippy wonderland…
    This guy is a fucking moron. Your “No Borders” BS is a 12 year old’s fantasy-land and would never work – Every middle east/third world country is an appalling slap in the face to any free thinking individual that believes in science and doesn’t shit on themselves and live in their own filth in mud huts to appease imaginary men in the sky. The day these places are leveled by their own leaders will be a great day indeed…

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Andrew-Sterner/1335958279 Andrew Sterner

      I’d rather shit on the wall and spray paint on the floor, but to each his own.

  • Fish

    Wow that song sucks. Serj, you are not Bono.

  • ThisIsNecessary

    Everything about this song is pretentious as hell. Even as a System fan, I must say this is pretty terrible.

  • mo biscuits

    random lines drawn on a map? god fuck off you globalist, one world government piece of shit.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Annalisa---Triola/604992980 Annalisa マリエ- Triola

      If you knew your history, most of the borders of Africa, the Middle East and South Central Asia pretty much came to be from a few European generals doodling all over a map trying to get more land than the guy next to him.

  • http://toeleven.wordpress.com/ Jayson

    I’m not saying this is right or wrong, but the natural tendency for human beings is to split into smaller, more homogeneous groups. As 19th and 20th century empires have and continue to disintegrate, you see a continual movement for people to want to separate from their ‘parent’ nation and form their own.

    Pakistan separating from India
    The Congo Crisis in 65
    The war for Biafran independence
    The wars in the Balkans in the 90s
    The Chechnya rebellions
    Ireland
    Basque separatists
    French-Canadian separatists
    Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka
    S. Ossetia and Ahkahzia seperating from Georgia
    The current campaign of ethnic cleansing in Kyrgyzstan
    The Kurdish population of Iraq wanting a separate Kurdish state
    The current push for a Muslim state in Dagestan
    Azerbaijan and Armenia’s conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave
    the Transnistria separatist state in Moldova

    These are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head.

    And this is why I hate political music. We have a song, A song that implies borders are bad. It’s addressing a problem on such a simple level that it could justifiably be called sophomoric.

    What I read as Serj’s answer. A denial of the ego and a redefinition of personal identity is certainly possible, but again, it’s a simplistic answer that isn’t easily applied. Ego and a sense of personal identity are a component of the human survival instinct. It’s not a viable method of addressing steps to forget historical grievance. Part of self definition is identifying the other and defining them in negative terms. Just like we do here when we talk about dethcore fans.

  • Mordecai 9000

    Musically, awesome.
    Lyrically, not so much.

    Once he starts rhyming a bunch, the song loses a lot of its meaning I think.

    Definitely looking forward to this record though.

  • PhilipRocker

    if you listen carefully to the song, you can notice a voice in the background singing (or speaking). I do not think that he’s repeating the words of the lyrics. I’m Italian and I can not understand what he says, maybe I’m just saying shit, but if you feel like maybe controlled. Bye everyone.