right on.
So, tiny lady wrote the other day about her growing admiration for Anti-Flag, in the grand scheme of things. In Pittsburgh, you have to have an opinion about Anti-Flag, and most people have the same one, but mine is maybe a little different, so here goes:
Yes, their music is pretty boring, stock, and completely filled with recycling and rehashing. Yes, "Die for the Government" was a Varukers song first. Yes, "Their system doesn't work for you" was predated by Aus-Rotten's "The system works for them." Etc. etc., we could go on ad nauseum. I don't find them to be appealing artistically in the least.
HOWEVER, those dudes are pretty damn stand-up. They've given money to lots of organizations doing really good things in Pittsburgh and outside of the area. They're not making off with all the profits and moving to upscale neighborhoods and forgetting about their ideals. And honestly, I'm pretty much certain that they have the absolute best of intentions. We all have different ways of attacking the same problems, and I often think that the tactics you use to approach the problems of the world are as important to you yourself as they are to the rest of the world. A lot of different approaches to "social justice" or whatever have a certain amount of effectiveness; finding the one that does the best job of affecting the world around you AND you yourself in a positive way is the real task, I think. So, respect to them, even though I can't sit through one of their songs anymore.
Which reminds me -- like Jessica said, this is the kind of political think that appeals to kids who are 14, 15 years old. It did when I was that age, and by the time I was 18 I was diving into activism pretty hard. While that's the exception to the rule with most fans of bands like Anti-Flag -- fans who, I can say from experience, having tabled at their shows, have a tendency to be comeplete dickhead high schoolers -- it's a really awesome exception to have, and I figure, if it worked to an extent for me, who am I to criticize?
(You can argue, based on other aspects of my life history, that I was ripe for becoming a lefty yawhoo activist type anyway, Anti-Flag or none, and that may or may not be the case, but I'll give credit where it's due, just like I do for Punk Planet and the like, and say that listening to stuff like Anti-Flag was definitely an important part of my development, ideologically. Take from that what you will.)
Yes, their music is pretty boring, stock, and completely filled with recycling and rehashing. Yes, "Die for the Government" was a Varukers song first. Yes, "Their system doesn't work for you" was predated by Aus-Rotten's "The system works for them." Etc. etc., we could go on ad nauseum. I don't find them to be appealing artistically in the least.
HOWEVER, those dudes are pretty damn stand-up. They've given money to lots of organizations doing really good things in Pittsburgh and outside of the area. They're not making off with all the profits and moving to upscale neighborhoods and forgetting about their ideals. And honestly, I'm pretty much certain that they have the absolute best of intentions. We all have different ways of attacking the same problems, and I often think that the tactics you use to approach the problems of the world are as important to you yourself as they are to the rest of the world. A lot of different approaches to "social justice" or whatever have a certain amount of effectiveness; finding the one that does the best job of affecting the world around you AND you yourself in a positive way is the real task, I think. So, respect to them, even though I can't sit through one of their songs anymore.
Which reminds me -- like Jessica said, this is the kind of political think that appeals to kids who are 14, 15 years old. It did when I was that age, and by the time I was 18 I was diving into activism pretty hard. While that's the exception to the rule with most fans of bands like Anti-Flag -- fans who, I can say from experience, having tabled at their shows, have a tendency to be comeplete dickhead high schoolers -- it's a really awesome exception to have, and I figure, if it worked to an extent for me, who am I to criticize?
(You can argue, based on other aspects of my life history, that I was ripe for becoming a lefty yawhoo activist type anyway, Anti-Flag or none, and that may or may not be the case, but I'll give credit where it's due, just like I do for Punk Planet and the like, and say that listening to stuff like Anti-Flag was definitely an important part of my development, ideologically. Take from that what you will.)
posted by andybot at 9:40 PM
2 Comments:
remember that one time when justin sane said he wanted all libraries to burn down???? that was weird!!!!
-alicia
Hah!
That's a pretty apocryphal story . . . I've heard that what he said was that you shouldn't patronize the public libraries here because they're named after shitty dead white dudes like Andrew Carnegie. Not a good move.
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