Part 2 - New Red Archives
Bottle, my dear. You must admit that as enjoyable as the Punk-o-Rama albums may be, they very much skew to the pop side of 90s punk. Epitaph may have kept the flames of ironically recontextualized 60s pop blazing well beyond acceptable suburban levels of comfort, but in doing so they gloss over the anger and political antagonism of actual punk rock from the 80s and 90s. Admit it, these are the party boys, but girls are every bit a part of punk.
Geez, she sounds more cognizant and erudite than i do.
And, she's right. Punk is pretty much synonymous with the radical lefty anarchistic mohawks and dog collars crowd, but at the center of that defiant display of civil disobedience are the notions of complete equality, personal autonomy, and the radical concept that ideas are not worth killing each other. New Red Archives (founded by Nicky Garratt of the U.K. Subs) was their champion, and At War With Society was their not so secret 1998 phone book.
Things you'll notice immediately include lower production value, much more anger, a whole lot of "leave me alone," and the vocal breakdown/build up of Anti Flag's "Die for Your Government." It's pretty great.
Things that might confuse you include the conjoining of peace and anarchy (because you don't understand the term "anarchy" in this context), being high all the time isn't cool, or productive, or enjoyable, and ideologies are nasty little mind warping creatures that should be exterminated (by simply refusing to participate).
The left-right spectrum only measures 1 thing, and that is the belief in enforcing social heirarchy. The motto of the extreme right is "conform or die," and the motto of the extreme left is "leave me and everybody else alone" (guess which pole i gravitate toward). The problem, of course, is that it isn't a line. It's a circle, and the Communists end up throwing fire bombs at the Nazis who are shooting at them, and everyday Americans can't tell the supposed difference anymore so they just flip a coin to decide which Halloween costume to wear. PETA is a militant organization, the wealthiest Americans shouldn't have to wait in line behind a bunch of sick people or workman's comp cases to get their erectile dysfunction pills, and so on.
But i digress. This is more ragged, but there're still melodies and structure and background doo-wop vocals like your grandma's Saturday afternoon rock and roll. Sure it's antagonistic, but for a purpose rather than just to be lazy jerks. Best part? The ladies aren't here to act dumb and look pretty and be your girlfriend; they'll kick you in the balls if you come on like a creep.
One final thing worth metioning is that this is a sort of ten year retrospective (and we'll listen to a much bigger one in the near future, albeit from a slightly different genre). New Red Archives started out in Brooklyn, New York then relocated to Hollywood, California and finally subsidized into a slightly bigger label about the same time we moved to Iowa. This is a best of the best from their own catalogue, and their early not-exactly-in-it-for-the-money attitude shines through.
Anti Flag is still going as strong as ever, and rightfully so. They are about as famous as you can get while remaining steadfastly underground and independent (wow did people get mad at the few major label releases they negotiated).
I'm intentionally not giving you a rundown of tracks, because part of the fun i've had over the last 20+ years is knowing how my own opinions have changed over time. I like some songs i didn't like before, hate songs i loved back then, learned to like bands i wasn't that into, forgot how awesome some of them are, etc. I don't want to spoil that opportunity for anyone insane enough to listen to as much music as i do (i only do it for stuff you might already know, or definitely won't care about how i feel). Tomorrow's album is a real rabbit-hole doozie, but after that we'll go all over the place.
Oh yeah. That's not a sticker. This was a 33-track 99-cent album from the get go.
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