Redemption Won't Be Mine

I'm currently reading Michael Azerrad's book Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991. Reading a book like this, which tells the biographies of 13 bands who were (in some cases are) varying levels of punk , can feel like a copout because it's mostly an author telling me that things I already think are important are, in fact, important, but I'll be damned if I still don't get caught up in it.

I don't know what I was expecting when I started the book, but there was a part of me that hoped that the author would devote time to knocking the bands down a peg for a little bit. Even though I love the Replacements and Minor Threat, there's a weird part of me that wants to read a differing opinion and see a take other than "Minor Threat were an amazing influential band and all of their copycats struggle to replicate them". That's not exactly what I got, but my thoughts on the thing changed in the process too.

I think that that desire to see a dissenting point of view comes from my, I don't want to say disillusionment with punk, but I can't think of a better word. I'm not, and never will be, done or over punk music, but as I grow older I find that it's not as consistently inspiring to me as it was when a 13-year-old and first discovering it. The first time I heard "The Decline" by NoFX, I immediately felt like I had tell everyone I knew about and earnestly believed that if everyone heard it, they would feel like I would and we would change the world.

Now, after listening to punk for so long, and going to shows, being a part of different scenes in different cities, playing in a band, helping to put on shows, that feeling has changed. You grow up and realize that not everyone has the same experience in punk as you and most people don't care as much. A lot of bands care about drinking and playing fast, but not so many care about the politics. And I don't even mean the left-wing stuff that most good bands espouse, I mean the personal politics baked into the genre from the very beginning: doing things yourself as a collective, respecting your peers and welcoming others and weirdos, giving everyone a shot and breaking down the barrier between the stage and the audience. It's disheartening to see a rejection of those things in contemporary punk and seeing more and more bands caring more about the plastic lanyard on their waste than the message in their music. It makes it almost impossible to not become jaded about punk and wonder why you even care when everyone else seems to think that the concept of caring is lame.

I say all this though, because what I think is important is that, like many other things, punk can still be perfect in small moments, which is echoed in Our Band Could Be Your Life's introduction and throughout the stories of the bands represented. I think that, in theory, punk is perfect, but people fuck that theory up all the time because they don't understand it. It's hard to watch it happen, but then when you're watching Wayfarer open for the Sidekicks and this band you've been watching grow for ten years, but never break out of Southern Ontario, debut new material that is somehow better than their past stuff and you are instantly floating on the floor because you're reminded that punk matters.

I hate to sound like I'm unrealistically idealistic, but I notice that I gravitate towards things like this, which don't ever work out in the long run consistently, but give you a glimpse into a utopia where people work together and respect each other and good things happen as a result. Is that why most punks tend towards the left politically? Because we're all hanging onto that dream?

There are three bands in particular who drum up this feeling in me, who stayed punk for their whole existence, no matter how long it was or is, and proved that it is possible to stick to your moral and not have your art ruined by business or jaded assholes who don't care anymore. They always remind that punk does still matter and that we should always keep pushing and dreaming on making it work. Unsurprisingly, they all lean a little lefty loosey too. It's so comforting to me to know that no matter how overwhelmed with stupid scene politics, or bad bands getting big, or shitty stories about shitty band dudes, there is still that small perfect nugget of punk buried in there somewhere.

So let's all take a moment for ourselves and be inspired.






 The funny thing is that I'm not even what you would call a huge Minutemen fan. I don't know all the lyrics off by heart and, relative to other bands I like, I don't spend tonnes of time with their music, but damn if jamming econo doesn't fill me with so much joy. They're approach to punk and being in a band is so inspiring and I really do think that everyone should strive towards what they laid out during their perfect career. In my mind, that is what the general understanding of punk should be.

Give Everybody Eat!

Last night was the Ontario general election. Much more so than in recent years, the provincial election was given a significant amount of attention in the press due to Doug Ford representing the closest that Canadian politics has come to Trumpism since the latter's election in the United States (this ignores Doug's moran brother's mayoral term). People my age were very scared of a possible Progressive Conservative government, especially with the Liberal party wilting in the dying days of Kathleen Wynne's time as Premier. Young people turned their support in mass to the traditionally tertiary New Democratic Party hoping that a dramatic shift towards a more left wing platform would be enough to strike down the Ford family's latest power grad.

It wasn't. Shit sucks. Here are a few disjointed thoughts:

Do not blame voter turn out for the result of this election. A small amount of radicals does not change the fact that the Conservatives won the popular vote and marched through every riding outside of Toronto and Northern Ontario. A platform such as Ford's should not have nearly this much appeal. That people are either ignorant enough to not recognize the problems in their agenda or bad enough to agree with them is the real problem. Instead of turning around and blaming the people agreeing with you, unite in the face of this move towards your values. More people voting in Toronto does not change the fact that so many ridings in the rest of the province flopped.

The real problem in Canada is liberals. Mid-to-upper class white people outside of the urban core are separated enough from what is affected most by the PCs (social program funding, transit funding, arts funding) that it is of no consequence to them. They infatuated with the idea of Trudeau/Chrétien Liberalism and when the option of going red is taken away from them, the majority would rather vote PC than NDP. This is who is fucking Canada on the whole and who is impeding any progress. Socialism is the logical next step from a capitalist democracy to ensure that not all of society is being dominated by a small upper class which controls all wealth. They are opportunists who jump at any chance to seem progressive when it is presented by an affable white guy with a majority government, but shrink away from responsibility when it actually falls to them. It is disgusting.

Sounding off on social media doesn't do anything. Posting on any of the platforms does not equate to activism. It's an echo chamber where you often releasing your opinions to people that already agree with you. I understand that it is fulfilling to hear others agree with you and the immediate release of typing and posting is tempting (the irony, I know) is hard to resist. Don't allow your posts on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram to occupy all of your political discussion. Do not regurgitate information you read on someone else's status. Read and think critically.

Getting news like last night is defeating. Incorporate resistance into your life is easier ways. Read critical books, even if they aren't political theory. Listen to critical records. Linger on those thoughts, discuss them with those you care about and work them into your life in a regular way. Here a couple of works I've enjoyed recently and find comforting today. Don't get scared by ideas, good or bad. Process them and be logical and critical about them. Then you can come back stronger.

 

 

In a very "Timmy" move, Becks and I were at the Jays game last night. Oddly enough, getting the election news coincided with John Axford turning into a pitching machine. Unlike the Ontario electoral body, The Toronto Blue Jays surged back, scoring 3 in the 9th and 1 in the 10th to win. A come-from-behind, walk-off win does wonders to raise your spirits. Staying at home and brooding over a live ticker doesn't do shit to the results. Go out and do something.

Leave The Air Stuck with This Waiting to Be Born

This past weekend, my work co-produced a huge conference about the intersection of art and social justice. I worked on the project for more than a year, so it felt really good to see it finally come to life. It was also affirming (and a little harrowing) to see people from around the world come a give impassioned, left-wing talks about important issues that the world is facing.

Something I tried and ultimately failed to do was work some punk into the programming of the conference, which is something I almost always do when starting my planning. The day was divided into four sections; Land, Love, Labour, and Liberty; so when each section started I couldn't help but think about which four songs I would use to frame those four sections if I had my way. I'm sure you get where I'm going by now, so here you go:

Land

Love

Labour

Liberty

Asked For Nothing and I Got It In Spades

Forever and always my personal anthem:

I'll Keep Singing the Same Songs, I'm Sorry if You're Bored Now

Punk ideology is supposed to mean resistance. A punk is supposed to not fit in. They are supposed to not agree with the majority. Punk aligns with the political left. Part of a punk is identifying the things you believe are right and then sticking to those beliefs not matter outside pressure to abandon them you receive. You are supposed to feel like a tree branch stuck upright in the riverbed battling the current, even though battling that current is tiring as all hell. You should take pride in that tiredness and feel camaraderie with your relatively small community of like-minded individuals. Stick with your allies and find comfort in the fact that aren't alone in realizing how fucked up the way that the world works is and trying to resist that.

I say all this because in the world's current climate, it's increasingly hard to stay punk, as dumb as that sentence sounds. Though punk 100% started as mainly as a fashion choice in the 70's, any of the socio-political ideas that went along with it, like worker's rights, distrust of ruling entities, anti-racism, anti-homophobia, anti-sexism, and were what really made the subculture important, are completely divorced from the idea now. This really sucks because those socio-political ideas are what resonated with me and drew me to punk in the first place. I didn't start listening to punk because I wanted a reason to wear tight pants and shave the sides of my head, I started listening to it because it was the sonic analogue to ideas I had about the world and how I felt.

It's hard to still believe in punk and stay punk because I've watched the ideology fall apart me as I age. I've watched people form the scene abandon it to become bros. I've seen people from the scene become (or maybe reveal how they are) pieces of shit and do things to my friends that are reprehensible. The band's I care about mostly broke up or started making shitty records.

Through mass culture and media, punk music has come to mean mid-tempo rock music played with distortion by men who wear leather jackets. The songs are mostly about drinking and self-loathing now, instead of giving a shit about anything at all. This isn't nihilism either, it's just ignorance. It makes me want to tear my hair out that most punk bands just don't give a shit about what punk really does mean and how important and powerful it can be. It's so disheartening to me to see so many bands who just don't seem to "get it". I know that this makes me sound incredibly self-righteous, but it's something that jumping out at me through my headphones and record reviews and at shows for a long time. How am I supposed to believe in this important thing, if it's constantly failing me?

But if the only option is to give in and abandon what I believe in, then fuck that. I'll dig my feet in and plant myself even more firmly in the riverbed. Let the current give me all it's got. It doesn't matter if mass culture can change what punk means to most people, because they can never change what it means to me.

With my rant out of the way, I will say that Dillinger Four are one of the few bands who still make me believe. Their songs make point my finger at nothing and scream the lyrics along because they tap into that feeling of not being alone in your fight against indomitable cultural and political powers that drew me to punk in the first. Even as I become exasperated at the dilution of the genre, D4 reminds me that it's just a trimming of the fat. Who cares if these people aren't with it? They probably never were to begin with.

The fact that Dillinger Four can make me continually make me believe and make me feel positive about my beliefs and choices is very important.

Fuck 'em all.

Smoke 'Em if You Got 'Em, 'Cause We're Never Gonna Learn

Following the federal election on Monday, I got into a pretty heavy Dillinger Four kick, specifically their 2002 album Situationist Comedy, which is my personal favourite.

The reason being, Dillinger Four is one of the more leftist bands I could think of off the top of my head at the time. They also are a particular type of band for me. I don't listen to them often enough and each time I put them on, especially this album, I'm immediately pissed off at myself for not remembering how much I love the band. They write really great pop-punk, but have so much going on beneath the surface that it really elevates the band from good to great if you're paying close enough attention.

Granted, I came up with the idea for this post about 4 days ago and only got around to writing it now, so I'm sure some of the ideas will be diminished.

Dillinger Four have long been the darlings of your average punknews.org and Fest frequenter and a lot of that is due to the band's image as four burly guys who like to play fast, sing loud and drink lots. Especially the last part. This image mainly comes from the band's live show, which is a whole lot of the last three things. However, I think that this is way too sweeping of a generalization and really undermines the sharpness of the thought that is put into the band's lyrics. 

The song "Gainesville", which is about the Fest, is what the band is most well-known for among your average punk fan and while that is a really good song, I think it's unfair. Fest has gotten to be very, very popular and most goers adopt the song as a sort of anthem for the festival, for obvious reasons, but Dillnger Four released the album in 2008, meaning they must have wrote the song even earlier than that. To me, that means that the song represents the band during the very earlier stages of the festival, like the 4th or 5th edition, rather than the larger punk circus it's become now. I'm not trying to deny that the festival is still fun, but I'm definitely sure that it's not the same as it used to be at all. The song is about feeling good and drinking in the sun in Florida when you're used to cold weather where you come from. Again, while a good song, to me that doesn't even come close to summing up Dillinger Four and it seems lame that that is what most punk fans have distilled their existence into.

For me, Situationist Comedy, is what defines the band. The opening song, "NOBLE STABBINGS!!", was my introduction to the band as it was including on a Fat Wreck Chords compilation I had bought, which is what caused me to pick up this album over their earlier releases. At first the band seems like a pretty rough ride because of how fast they play (very fast!) and their guitar tones and vocal style. 

Bruh, the bass tone. Holy fuck.

And this is correct, I think this is a very conscious throwback to early 80's hardcore by the band. Given that the members are older (I would assume they're close to or over 40), this comes off as the member experiencing that music first hand and playing their punk music that way because that's how they learned it. This is rather than an appropriation of an earlier generation's style of playing, which is more and more the case with punk and especially hardcore these days.

But underneath this fast roughness is a band who is absolutely phenomenal at writing melodies and especially vocal harmonies. They are so good at that you don't even really notice it until you realize that you are humming along to a song that's like over 200 bpm. Every single chorus is huge. There's these great, unconventional but catchy guitar riffs everywhere you turn. The pop sensibility is astounding.

Case in point, one of my favourite cuts from the album, "folk song.":




I guess that I also really like this release because it in particular really fits with my personal politics. The album was released at a time when being a "political" punk band meant yelling about about George W. Bush and the military and not much else. Dillinger Four instead took a more subtle approach, describing their experiences living in a post-9/11 United States and how it affected them. This works out really well, because rather than being introduced to their ideas, you are introduced to their experiences and you can then relate to them. The result is basically you thinking "I can understand why you think that." instead of just "You think that."

There are a ton of great lines about being working class, which is why the album was on my mind during and following the election. It's a great soundtrack to being critical, but also thinking about why you should be critical.

I'm not really one for giving political statements to people, but I would like to leave with the following, that I think is helpful for people to keep in mind in today's world:

Try to be aware of the greater system that you are a part of and think of why you are a part of it. Be aware of your relationship with money and commodities and do not let them govern what and how you do things. Always think "Why?" and do not let people force you to do things you do not want to do.

And crank this fucking album while you do that, I guess.