LINE ITEM 0001 · FY1992
BRRRRRRT
One word. The word is the sound. The sound is the point.
- 01BRRRRRRT (The Sound)3:26
Recorded at the band's home studio in Tucson, Arizona, in the summer of 1992, two miles from the perimeter fence at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Marcus Webb, lead vocals. The band stops dead before every chorus line so the whole room can shout the answer back. Lead guitar on this track is Dennis "Cost-Plus" Kowalski, whose nickname is a reference to the cost-plus-fixed-fee defense contracting structure and whose stated objective during the 1992 sessions was to make his Marshall amplifier approximate the sonic profile of the GAU-8 itself. Multiple eyewitnesses confirm he came close. The archive does not dispute this. Drums by Elaine "Seven Barrels" Kowalczyk. The nickname refers to the actual number of rotating barrels on the GAU-8/A Avenger, which is seven. The band name has six R's. The discrepancy has been noted. On the physics: a 30mm GAU-8 round travels at approximately 3,500 feet per second. The speed of sound at sea level is approximately 1,100 feet per second. This means the round arrives at the target before the sound of the round being fired. The band has built an entire philosophy around this fact. The archive does not dispute it. Funded. Fielded. Loud.
Lyrics (as filed)
Low along the ridgeline one dark shape wings held straight slow enough to see Seven barrels turning one long second dust walks across the ground then the noise arrives You see it (BRRRRRRT) before you hear it (BRRRRRRT) the rounds are there already (BRRRRRRT) the sound is for the living (BRRRRRRT) The round outruns the sound the sound outruns the fear the ones it was meant for never hear it here You see it (BRRRRRRT) before you hear it (BRRRRRRT) the rounds are there already (BRRRRRRT) the sound is for the living (BRRRRRRT) You never hear the one that finds you you never hear the one that finds you You see it (BRRRRRRT) before you hear it (BRRRRRRT) the rounds are there already (BRRRRRRT) the sound is for the living (BRRRRRRT) Funded. Fielded. Loud.
- 02Built Around the Gun3:28
Lyrics (as filed)
I was not born I was assembled around a heart of seven barrels cold and heavy first the heart then the body My heart sits on the left so it can strike straight ahead everything I am was built to keep it fed (Built around the heart!) The nose wheel stepped aside to give my heart its room the pilot sits above it in a bathtub of grey metal the wings spread wide to carry the weight of what I hold My heart sits on the left so it can strike straight ahead everything I am was built to keep it fed (Built around the heart!) They did not ask for beauty they asked me to come home with holes in me with one engine with half a tail I come home When my heart beats my whole body shakes when my heart beats I slow down in the sky My heart sits on the left so it can strike straight ahead everything I am was built to keep it fed (Built around the heart!) Built around the heart built around the heart
- 03Danger Close5:10
- 043,900 Rounds Per Minute3:15
- 05Titanium Bathtub5:40
Lyrics (as filed)
Twelve hundred pounds. Titanium. Around one seat. They built a bathtub out of the hardest thing they had and they set a pilot down inside it. Not a cockpit. A tub. Half an inch to an inch and a half of metal between a person and the ground. THE TUB HOLDS. THE TUB HOLDS. EVERYTHING ELSE CAN GO. THE TUB HOLDS. They shot at it to see. Twenty-three millimeter. Armor-piercing. High-explosive. They wanted to know exactly where it stopped being enough. They wrote the number down, and then they built to it. THE TUB HOLDS. THE TUB HOLDS. EVERYTHING ELSE CAN GO. THE TUB HOLDS. Inside the metal, a lining of nylon, so whatever comes through the wall does not come off the wall in pieces. Behind the stick, two hydraulic systems. Behind the two systems, cables. Behind the cables, the man. There is a kind of care that does not look like care. It looks like a test range and a clipboard. It looks like a man being paid to fire on an empty seat until he is certain the next man to sit in it walks home. THE TUB HOLDS. THE TUB HOLDS. EVERYTHING ELSE CAN GO. THE TUB HOLDS. THE TUB HOLDS. Twelve hundred pounds. Around one seat. Walks home.