by Eric DonderoVideo Game producer Doug TenNapel has an article up on Big Hollywood this morning explaining how, with the Hard Left's ascendance to ruling over America, the new Radicals are the Conservative Republicans.
From Big Hollywood, "Republican is the New Punk," Feb. 1:
Lefty politics are no longer the fringe and no matter if the voters knew it or not they carved lefty politics into stone. Bill Ayers became the system he once fought against. Sure, they still wear the earring and say “fuck” a lot to maintain street-cred among the academics, but now rock has taken sides — it is for the establishment. Same with journalism, the university and pop-culture. The left has become a cliché. They’re not “Arrested Development” they’re “Golden Girls” with a soul patch. Snore.
Now that the art nerds and punks just became the football jocks and prom queens, a new rebel is emerging from the wilderness. They are the new anti-establishment. One minority force bands together against every other branch of government swallowed by the Democrat octopus. The last evidence of a check or balance against the popular people are now the Conservative Republicans.
We’re the new rebellion against the majority juggernaut that doesn’t take kindly to dissent. Make a fist and show them what happens when they tell you what to think, feel and believe... Give the people back the money they earned, fight terror, keep your hands off free speech on the radio and enable job creators to make more jobs. Until then, screw your hope and screw your change.
Some well-known Punk Rockers who are self-proclaimed Republicans include: John Buckley (nephew of William F. Buckley), Southern California Republican conslutant Jimmy Camp (photo above), President Bush fan and Military Troops supporter Johnny Ramone (deceased -2nd from left on album cover), Phil Blumel, current Chairman of US Term Limits and former lead singer of Florida Punk band 'F', and Nick Rizzuto a friend of the NYC Punk band Bouncing Souls (photo - bottom left) and founder of the website ConservativePunk.com. Micale Graves, lead singer of Gotham Road (now defunct) is one of the Nation's most outspoken Rightwing Punks. From the BBC 2004 prior to USA Tour:
"The leftist radical agenda seems to be resonating loudly from within pop culture and we are at war on many different levels," he wrote in one of his columns at conservativepunk.com - one of several new web sites for Republican punk rockers.Graves was an enthusiastic supporter of President Bush and the War on Islamo-Fascism.
In the same article, Anthony DeCurtis Rock Music critic for Rolling Stone Magazine had this to say:"In a lot of ways in the United States, the Republicans have gotten much more punk rock than the Democrats," DeCurtis says.Andy Greenwald, author of "Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock," in an interview with the UK Guardian during the 2004 Presidential election, had this to say:
"The right has become more punk than the left : they're much more pugnacious, much more aggressive and much more forceful about putting out their ideas and drawing a line in the sand."
From a certain angle, punk's individualistic creed and me-against-the-world rhetoric overlap with conservative values. "On some level punk is inherently libertarian," says Greenwald. "You don't tell me what to do, I won't tell you what to do, I'm just going to worry about myself." Follow that logic and Bush's bullish approach to foreign policy - basically, screw what anyone else says, I'll do what I like - seems quintessentially punk.Note - Your humble Editor, is an original punk rocker from the mid-1970s NYC CBGBs Punk Scene, dating back as early as Lou Reed & the Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop, Talking Heads and Patti Smith. Note Sirius Channel 21, though overwhelmingly First Wave, plays occasional old Punk, including the Clash, Ramones, and even the Sex Pistols. That is the station blaring in the background most times while editing and publishing this Blog.
33 comments:
Punk is dead. The days of Black Flag and the Ramones are gone, replaced with Vans-sponsored tours which have more to do with skateboarding than being your own person.
Punk isn't liberal or conservative. It can't be. It's dead.
I've been saying this for quite some time; the left calls it "playing victim" and "whining."
There was an asshole on my street who had a car with a sticker on it that said "Subvert the Dominant Paradigm." Every time I went by it it pissed me off. I finally stuck a note on it that said, "And if the dominant paradigm IS subersion? What then?"
We are trying to subvert the subversion and restore sanity; not an easy task. Not when the educational institutions are teaching a perverted version of "truth" or even the POSSIBILITY of truth from the cradle onward.
Or, maybe Punk isn't dead. Maybe it just lives on as the Libertarian Republican movement?
After all, some of the top Libertarian Republicans are Punk Rockers, or Metal Heads.
I'm a metalhead from the days. When there was no such term as "hair band" and the hair bands were called "poseurs" hehe. Motley Crue and Ratt were the dictionary definition of same. Yngwie's my man.
Of course this is not to disparage Sabbath or Zeppelin, our dear heritage. :)
I sometimes wonder if punk ever really existed as a stand alone genre when you look at all the bands who tried to wear that mantle.
I decided not to go punk back when punk first became popular. However, I can play Cliff Gallup and Scotty Moore licks with a punk edge. After all, rockabilly is a precursor to punk, and is the original "rebel music." Punk-a-billy, ala Reverend Horton Heat? HELL YEAH! Rebel against the "progressive status quo? I'm tuning up after I post this comment! ;) hahahaha
William, I got a friend in Florida - Tom Walls - who'll argue to the death that the original precursor to Punk was 1960s Beach Rock like the Safaris, and obscure California Garage Bands.
My opinion, the original Punks were The Who, Mott the Hoople, and T Rex. Of course, early Bowie was the precursor to New Wave.
I loved New Wave.
Couldn't get with punk, though (although SLC Punk is one of my favorite movies) - I don't care for pain, so safety pins through the nose and such weren't my idea of fun - not to mention Quincy, M.E. told me that Mosh Pits would totally kill you.
Truth be told, what makes punk "true punk" is being a suck ass musician. As soon as a band develops any talent, they quit being recognized as punk. A lot of the so called "new wave" bands of the 80s started out as punk bands but didn't have that sound that was "just so" after they had a little cash and a little practice.
Eric,
The bands you mentioned, The Who, Mott the Hoople and David Bowie may be part of the punk lineage, but your friend has it almost nailed by thinking surf bands are the original punkers. But if rebellion defines punk, then rockabilly folks from the fifties were in my opinion the original punkers. Gene Vincent, Johnny Cash, Elvis, Eddie Cochran, and many others were all about rebellion. The Beatles in their "wild men in leather clothes," Hamburg period, epitomized rebellion.
I find it interesting that many kids who grew up and loved rockabilly and surf music, to became right wingers as adults. My older sisters are fine examples. Also, I am of the opinion that the Grateful Dead were more libertarian than other bands from their timeline. Left wing radicals from Berkeley did not understand the Grateful Dead's disdain to support left politics (or any politics). Jerry Garcia once said "we are only musicians; we do not want to tell people what to think or who to vote for." If that doesn't embody the libertarian "live and let live" attitude, then I don't know what does. Jerry however, would turn over in his grave if he knew Lesh, Weir and Hart were on the Obama bandwagon. I would dare say if Garcia were alive today, nary a word would have been said about the "chosen one," from the rest of the band.
Speaking of surf (punk,) I saw a DVD last night called Thunder Road, starring Robert Mitchum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunder_Road The moonshiners in this movie have to be libertarian! And some of the music soundtrack sounds exactly like some of the punk-surf-a-billy music bands are playing today.
This is off topic and probably more of a question for "Big Hollywood," but do you remember a movie called "PC University?" I would love to see more movies that demonstrate who the dunces are on college campuses today. Do you know of any other movies similar to this?
No, never say PC University. I agree, Rockabilly and Johnny Cash lay claim to being the very original Punkers.
But I suppose I'm more of a British Invasion Punk Wave sort of guy. And I put the timeline to those who directly proceeded the Sex Pistols, Clash, and Ramones. And that would be Mott the Hoople, T Rex and The Who.
The movie I mentioned is called PCU. Very funny film about the PC idiots that control American Universities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCU_(film)
"Play Metallica, and they will come." Hahahahahahaha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuHYMrJ0z10&feature=PlayList&p=EB3A336C984B56B3&playnext=1&index=27
Only deep coma can explain why America did not elect Ron Paul.
"I know the big hits of 1976 were made by people like Barry Manilow and Walter Murphy and England Dan and John Ford Coley. But the most significant record of 1976 was the Ramones debut, a wake-up call to the world that many benighted Americans – their musical arteries irreversibly clogged with corporate chart sludge, apparently – somehow slept through. And only deep coma could have explained the lack of mass response to the band's timber-shivering 1977 follow-up, Ramones Leave Home.
As should go without saying, you must own both of these albums or surrender forever your coolness credential.
By 1977, the Ramones explosive re-statement of rock's fundamental message- be young, be loud, create your own scene- was echoing all across England, and reverberating off into the provinces and the Euro-disco wilderness.
This shining punk moment was inevitably brief. Its unbridled energy would soon be harnessed to help reanimate the hapless musical mainstream.
But the new kind of heart-stopping, head spinning excitement it created can still be sampled, at full roar,…" Kurt Loder
Jazz is the forefather of all distinctly American music. The Jazz musicians were the real original lyrical rebels. Before that, everything was a reflection of the European musical styles carried overseas.
Punk is nice and some Metal is pretty good, but Jazz is the only one with staying power. A hundred years from now, people will still be listening John Coltrane and Miles Davis.
I don't know about that, what about Blues? Bluegrass?
"Only deep coma can explain why America did not elect Ron Paul."
That would be the economics debate in the primaries, for me. He unfortunately struck only one note, and one I didn't agree with at that.
In a lot of ways, The Ramones were a rejection of other very good music, such as Led Zeppelin with their extensive jams and album-mentality; their purpose was to get back to the short, to-the-point song. But both are excellent of course; I don't know anyone who doesn't love the Ramones.
Edit: "repudiation" was the word I was looking for; subpar today, sorry.
Only problem is when I really want to hear "Pick Up the Pieces" I have to play it like 20 times in a row because the songs are all so short :)
The economics debate in the primaries, along with everything else important, like civil liberties, human rights, and the brutal bloody killing of innocent children by US Government authorities, was a wake-up call to the world that many benighted Americans – their political arteries irreversibly clogged with Main Stream Media vomit, apparently – somehow slept through.
Jazz, Rock and Roll, and all Negro music is sin according to the Bible, I think. It also says to kill all the homos.
Annie,
Bluegrass is an offshoot of European musical stylings. Arguably, the Blues can be considered a part of the Jazz movement. It developed shortly after or at the same time as it. Nevertheless, the Jazz movement began the first distinctly American form of rebel music.
Adrian,
Jazz, Rock and Roll, and all Negro music is sin according to the Bible, I think. It also says to kill all the homos.
If we could ask him, I'm sure Jesus would tell us that he loves Jazz and Rock 'n' Roll and some of his favorite homeboys are black gay guys. ;)
Well, I won't argue that; it's different to me, but I'm no expert. Though I thought blues came from spirituals which came from black people/slaves in the US. Which doesn't sound very European to me but again it's not worth an argument. Blue Moon of Kentucky Keep on Shinin'.
Adrian, I really have no idea what you're talking about. I realize that there were plenty of people who said such things 50-some-odd years ago, but I would think that we've moved past that, not only as a nation but also religious christians. Ok, to be fair, there are some sects who condemn modern music still, but few that openly relate it to racism.
Punk is not dead, neither is America or our planet Earth. However, 2012 is right around the corner. Are you ready?
Annie,
I was referring to the Blues and Bluegrass as separate forms of music. They have different origins. Of course, all of this stuff blends around the edges, so there's no official line around what genre a particular song or musician belongs to.
I'm waitin' for 2112, Adrian. Gonna be a priest in the Temple of Syrinx.
Sirius 21 Alt Nation blaring right now in the background during this particular blogging session. The Clash "Ruby, Ruby SoHo." And very, very loud.
Yes, bint, I've been to bluegrass festivals, and while they were wonderful things, there's little chance of mistaking them for Gloomy Sunday, now, right?
Geez, Annie, I am jealous. I wish I was gonna be a high priest or something. I expect to be at the "local" (British for the closet bar to your home) with my friends and neighbors when the Mayan calendar ends.
Well don't forget to duck and cover, Adrian. ("Will that do any good?" "No" - ref. points) :D
Annie & Adrian,
I plan on building an underground bunker to hide inside. Do you think the fact that I'm in Louisiana will make that problematic? LOL
Oh my, bring a snorkel!
Thought you might want to see this cuntrag's take on this article: http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/republican_is_the_same_old_self_serving_nonsense/
How do you like that happy horseshit? eh?
There is a very good band that just put out an amazing album centered around individual rights and Objectivism. Check em www.myspace.com/16hourdrive
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