Review: Anti-Flag - Terror State
The revolution will be all-ages. How else could Anti-Flag fans participate?
Before this morning I'd never heard Anti-Flag. I had neither interest nor opportunity. How many cycles of middle class anarchy numbnuttery can one person take in a lifetime? But!, in service to the blog I listened to the latest musical manifesto from the band that compelled someone to create an anti- Anti-Flag site. I didn't buy the cd because property is theft and money has the word God on it.
In 2005 Anti-Flag signed a distribution deal with RCA, a major label, making them as immensely hypocritical as fellow whizz-diddlers Bad Religion. That's almost all you need to know.
I expected the music to be sloppy and the words unintelligible, which wasn't the case. I knew that if the music was good I'd have to give credit to a band whose pro-Stalinist genocidal politics I despise. After a few seconds of listening to Terror State I started laughing because what I was hearing was absolutely inconsequential. It's just another children's pop-punk album from Fat Wreck Chords, America's #1 source for children's punk rock from political pedophiles.
On Terror State Anti-Flag is a combination of NOFX and The Clash. There's bits to mosh to, sing and shout alongs, slappy rodeo pit and military style drumming and lyrics that speak truth to power:
there's repression and intolerance/on any deviation from the norm/in all factions of your life/at this time of entry/into war say HEY-HEY/if you know what they sing say HEY-HEY/if you know what they sing say HEY-HEY/if you know what they sing say HEY-HEY-HEY/POWER TO THE PEACEFUL-WHOA-OH
The music just isn't new or exciting. I guess you have to be into them for their message and what they stand for. Maybe they're cute. Four Letter Word is a much better political band and since they're from South Wales their political posturing doesn't reek of rich kid belligerence.
The last track, "One People, One Struggle", is littered with the following line, "The people, united, will never be defeated!". It doesn't even rhyme! Sham 69 fans are spinning in their collective graves. It would work better as "If the kids, eat their donuts, they will never, ever go nuts." It's as funny as the Family Guy where Peter and Lois are at a KISS concert. They're front row and after Gene Simmons sings "I want to rock and roll all night..." he shoves the mike in Lois' face and, since she doesn't know the words, she mumbles ""Um, and have a wonderful time." In Lois' case, sweet, in Anti-Flag's case,........
Ah, what do I know? Maybe the Amazon.com reviewer was right when he wrote "YOur stpid if you hate this band!!!"
posted by emerson at 1:50 PM
12 Comments:
I caught one of their videos the other day--can't remember which one. Video, that is, not day. I recall that it was back-to-back with "Get The Liberty" by Nicotine, and I'm still not sure which one made me laugh more.
You're stalling. Just sit yerself down at the PC, and start writing that review of Warp.
7:51 PM
Robert:
I did review Warp, back when you were just a young middle aged man.
http://www.oldpunks.com/oldpunks2-2.html
1:14 AM
Many apologies. I shall peruse your back catalogue properly when I get the chance. I'm just bogged down with reader comments at the moment.
5:48 AM
I saw them live at the Warped Tour last year. A typical song was called "F+ck Police Brutality".
Essentially that was the lyric of the song, it was just repeated over and over again. Like ANYONE would be for police brutality. This isn't political commentary, it's mindless drivel.
I have "Hersham Boys" by Sham69 on vinyl that I bought when it was released. I'm not spinning, but I did boo Anti-Flag at their show.
6:48 AM
Sham 69. What kind of a name is that? Stay tuned 'cause later today I'll review Cock Sparrer.
9:30 AM
wondered if youve listened to a canuck band called"propaghandi". from what i've read on your blog and site, i'm sure you would have nothing but contempt for their politics. that aside, i find they write great melodies (earlier stuff-they've gotten less melodic over time!) and actually have a sense of humour. which is pretty rare for so-called political bands. sound kinda like an angrier nofx.
12:11 PM
I have heard Propaghandi. The NOFX style is for a generation much younger than mine. Each has their own that appeals to them, and mine certainly has many bands that have no appeal to today's punks.
The politics of bands like Propaghandi and Anti-Flag offend me because they're revolutionary Marxist, promoting genocidal revenge fantasies to angry rich children. All their supposedly fair and liberal beliefs are lies and Utopian as imagined by Charles Manson.
I also really really loathe the idea of adults targeting children with hateful political indoctrination.
3:06 AM
we think the casualties will be next in major-label signing to promote street punk to american youth.
http://www.thecasualties.net/
11:01 AM
Your opinion is based on the very flimsy premise that popular music can affect social change. C'mon gramps, let these angry rich children blow off some steam. Then they can grow up and go to work at daddy's business. As far as 'hateful political indoctrination' goes, i'm curious to know what you think of gangsta/ hiphop culture. When a white kid greets his white friends with "yo, niggers!" or a pimply faced neverlaid wigga refer to a woman (or a man) as a bitch thats far more effective indoctrination than any anarcho-lefty sloganeering could accomplish.
3:23 PM
I'm 44. Technically I could be a grandfather.
Punk is not popular music no matter how far it's come. It's still mom and pop in a way, and it's a genre that takes great pride in shaping young minds. Whatever "Think For Yourself" there was has been replaced to links to Stalinist web sites and info tables from the same. In the process of blowing of steam there should also be some non-sociopaths telling the kids what they're hearing is more of a lie than what they're told are the REAL lies.
Gangsta culture sucks. The Klan couldn't come up with a better plan to keep minorities dumb, poor and violent. I also can't think of anything more hateful towards women. Even Al Sharpton hates rap.
I agree it's just as bad. They both suck, a lot.
3:09 AM
anti flag aren't rich kids. my friends saw #2 drive around pittsburgh in the-shittiest-car-known-to-man
5:55 AM
Rich is a relative term. All In The Family depicted a true middle class family when many assumed they were poor.
Punk is a middle class creation with the truly poor and truly rich at the edges.
I grew up in an upper-middle class family but have lived like a college student for 25 years. Does that make me poor or rich?
8:10 AM
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