Kubla Kats - Desiccant (NPR Tiny Desk Contest 2020 submission)
Channel: Julian Berke
Date: 2020-04-20

Kubla Kats is:
Julian Berke: vocals, keyboards, compositions.
Katie Chow: drums.
Todd Swope: bass.

Recorded March 7, 2020. Video by John Topacio.

Kubla Kats is a weird rock/funk/post-punk/alt-blues/prog-jazz groovy power trio from Chicago, IL.
We've been together since April 2016, playing mostly small shows while we develop our style.
We haven't put a lot of content online…until now.
Presenting our entry for the 2020 NPR Tiny Desk Contest!

Check us out on bandcamp: 
https://kublakats.bandcamp.com/

This song was written and recorded before stay-at-home measures related to COVID-19 went into effect.
Special thanks to Aaron Gang for use of the shooting location.

Desiccant:
(music, lyrics, and arrangement by Julian Berke)

Stay out of the sun 
Up to a certain level, people 
All of you blue-eyed devil people 
Will fry in a pink disease 

Stay out of the hospital 
Resistant infections all around 
But the bills are guaranteed to astound 
Insurers are not your friends.

Stay out of jail! 
We've all seen what happens on TV 
And no voting rights or jobs if you get free 
What kind of prisoner would you be? 

So what are we gonna do with you? 
What are gonna do with you? 
What are we gonna do with you now? 
Yeah, what are we gonna do with you? 
What are we gonna do with you? 
What are we gonna do now??! 

You're a desiccant
You're a paste
You're a feculent baste
I could swallow you down if it weren't for the taste 

So we'll round up all the red hats and throw them in the gutter 
If they are too fat then we will churn them into butter 

Stay out of retail stores 
Poison bought from corporate overlords 
Anything to keep you getting bored 
And actually fighting back 

Stay out of foreign countries, 
unstable governments and civil unrest 
American lives are worth more than the rest 
Unless, of course, you're in America 

Stay out of the public eye 
All opinions and nobody budges, 
On your private life we're all the judges 
And executioners 

So what are we gonna do with you? 
What are gonna do with you? 
What are we gonna do with you now? 
Yeah, what are we gonna do with you? 
What are we gonna do with you? 
What are we gonna do now??! 

You're a desiccant 
You're a shill 
You have weak fucking will! 
A preservative agent in a growing landfill

So we'll round up all the red hats and throw them in the gutter 
If they are too fat then we will churn them into butter 

Put my fingers deep inside you and I found you dry as dust 
I didn't want to break my promise but I do what I must 
I could feed you my fluids but you'd probably drown 
All choking and bloated and then stinking up the town 
Then they'd harvest your organs and they'd mine your hard drive 
And they'd smile and absorb you back into the hive 

You're a desiccant
You're a pain
You're a diuretic drain
You're a urinary tract infection
You're an andromeda strain 

So we'll round up all the red hats and throw them in the gutter 
If they are too fat then we will churn them into butter.