New Blog: stevenwhite.wordpress.com

Baby, I'm Not an Anarchist Anymore

So I guess Against Me! is kinda popular now? I saw them in Poughkeepsie, NY, one random night while driving back to TN in 2005. I tried to see them do an acoustic show in Asheville, NC, before that while I was still in high school, but -- if I remember correctly -- their van broke down at Wal-Mart somewhere along the way. I still like their music, although I don't listen to it nearly as often as I once did. Seeing the Poughkeepsie show taught me I'm not exactly much of a punk rocker anymore, allergic as I am to the body odor of angry high schoolers.

But Against Me!'s music was always a little more complicated and interesting than standard punk fare. In the beginning they were basically Billy Bragg on 'roid rage, followed by expansion into a full band pretty seamlessly blending punk and folk with just a little bit of country. The last album I bought was ...As the Eternal Cowboy. "Cliche Guevara" and "T.S.R." are both pretty mind-blowing songs. The other stuff was good, but some of the songs sounded a little tired.

Akiva Gottlieb has a web article about the band up at The Nation. Gottlieb's discussion with lead singer Tom Gabel is pretty interesting:

"We're four white kids from semi-privileged backgrounds," says Gabel, "and we have the convenience to turn the war on and off at will, and here we are traveling around the world in a rock n' roll band, singing protest songs." He says that he sees punk rock as just another monolithic system that needs to be challenged. "We do things just because other people in the subculture say to do things. The natural progression, to me, is to rebel against that."

People become punks because they hate the status quo, but then many seem unaware of the irony of maintaining the relative status quo within a subculture. Subcultural capital isn't so different than regular old cultural capital, as Sarah Thornton helpfully illustrates in her Club Cultures book. Gottlieb closes the article by calling Against Me! "the comfortably established antiestablishment punk band takes the stage to give the consumers the protest songs they paid for. Because that's how capitalism works." Which it is, but that's no critique of the band. It's just the way things go.

People Are Surprised Ted Nugent is a Crazy Bigot?

It's no surprise to me that Ted Nugent is a belligerent bigot whose fans applaud with decibel levels directly correlated to the level of nonsensical crap coming out the guy's mouth. (As a side note: When I saw Nugent open for Lynyrd Skynyrd about five years ago, a guy standing beside me in the bathroom said we need more men like Ted in politics and the guy behind me threatened to pee in the sink -- which he promptly started doing). But what I somehow didn't know is that the venerable Wall Street Journal opinion page has given Ted Nugent an occasional soapbox in their paper with which to irrationally bash people (or types of people) he doesn't like (see here and here). Via Hilzoy, here's what he said at a recent concert that's been getting a lot of views on YouTube:

I was in Chicago last week, I said, "Hey Obama, you might want to suck on one of these, you punk!" Obama, he’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on my machine gun! Let’s hear it for them. I was in New York and I said, "Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch. And since I'm in California, how about Barbara Boxer? She might want to suck on my machine gun! Hey, Dianne Feinstein, ride one of these, you worthless whore

And the video:

The blogosphere: apparently totally offended. Me: not particularly surprised.

Laying Down My Gun (For Now)

Christopher Orr thinks country music is trending towards being war-weary. He cites Tim McGraw's new song "If You're Reading This," quoting these lyrics:

If you're reading this

Half way around the world

I won't be there to see the birth of our little girl

I hope she looks like you

I hope she fights like me

Stands up for the innocent and the weak

I'm laying down my gun

I'm hanging up my boots

Tell dad I don't regret that I followed in his shoes

"Neither song is anti-war in the direct sense, but both capture just how far we've come since the let's-go-kick-ass days of 'Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,'" he writes. That part's true: country music isn't at the belligerent level of 9/11 Toby Keithism any more. But while it might be war-weary like most people -- country music fans included -- probably are by now, I think it's easy to overstate the point here. McGraw is a southern Democrat who has expressed interest in running for public office in Tennessee, but even he isn't really singing an anti-war song: "Stands up for the innocent and the weak...Tell dad I don't regret that I followed in his shoes." If anything, that's a conservative rendering of the situation, a tad paternalistic and steeped in the notion that military service is among the highest of all callings. Country music may not be as war-minded as it was a few years ago, but don't mistake this for any sort of even semi-foray into anti-war liberalism. The next time a president decides to lead the country into a misguided foreign policy adventure, don't doubt for a minute Toby Keith will be back with "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue Part 2." And don't doubt it will sell to the very same people that are currently buying McGraw's semi-ambivalence.

An Open Letter Admitting I'm Not a Hipster

Dear Ryan Schreiber and Pitchfork Media,
Contrary to this misguided review from your archives, The Colour and the Shape is a very good record. "Up in Arms" is one of the most enjoyable, solidly-written pop songs of the 90s that no one has ever heard, and "Everlong" is indeed, as you yourself even admit, "rich, serene pop brilliance." It's the Foo Fighters' finest moment. And "Hey, Johnny Park!" does not at all sound "like the Goo Goo Dolls" -- that's actually a darned fine opening guitar riff! And "February Stars," "Doll," and others are actually quite good as well. Sure, there are a few mediocre clunkers -- "Wind Up" and "Enough Space" come to mind -- but much of it is solid 90s alt rock. Ain't nothing wrong with that.
Sincerely,
Steven White