Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Fur Real

So, me, Corey, the voice of this literary journey thru crimes against grammer, has been refelcting latley on a specific band that has been incredibly important, in a wierd way, in the development of my disposition and lack/over compensating disregard for almost everything. I am sure the same for Sarah, the Chief Operating Officer of this venture capital group we call the Rials Blog (I haven't asked her, but I am certain she agrees, if I know her, which I do) Anyways, propagandhi, for those not in the know, are a band from canada (not that that matters) you play punk rock. They rule. And we shall now chronicle the importance of this band to us at the Rial Mail Order Roomate Distribution Center.

As a wide eyed and formative teenager, the album "How To Clean Everything" was the shining/guiding/middle finger responding compass rose to my voyage thru all things rad. As an angry teen (aren't we all) anti conformity and anti status qua (or I thought, mostly just anti my parents and anti the knuckleheads at school) appealed to me. Skateboarding, punk rock, hip hop, heavy metal, deviant art, you know, anti social yet social in the "elite" group kinda stuff. Anyways, there are the standards, the NoFX's, the Rancids, the fast yet safe punk bands. They were dangerous at first, but as time goes by and you dig deeper and navigate your way thru the annals of at the time "underground" culture, you find out they were kinda watered down.

Then along came "How To Clean Everything". I am not saying this was a ground breaking album and not that different from NofX's Punk In Drublic or Rancids Self Titled. It was fast, it was snotty, it was on par with its contemporaries. But there was something different. For one thing, this band had an underlying air of bitter, impassioned, and provoked dissent that the before mentioned bands had. They were really pissed, and it felt real. These songs taught me to funnel my anger, to stand apart from the crowd, even from the same crowd that I was standing apart with. It gave me a sense of a greater purpose, not sure why and not sure what that purpose was, but I felt motivated, I felt like everything else was childish. Songs about beer bongs and boobs, were dumb and a waste of my energy as a youth in revolt. I know its silly that a single record by a random band can do this, but it did, this shit really rang thru with me.

So fast forward a couple years, bands like fifteen and J-Church have replaced NoFX and Rancid, the musical pallet has become a lil more refined, relative to the genre. I was still angry and confused, just not as much as I was earlier, a lil direction had crept in, just a little. Here comes "Less Talk, More Rock" and holy crap. this album focused me. These were dudes who I thought were cool, they make music I like, so that means they probably like the same bands I like, they are angry, hey I am angry, they could probably hang out with me if they lived in my town. They are probably just like my friends. Know that sounds kinda creepy and stalker ish, but really, that is what makes something so endearing. i can't relate to Metallica and there millions, I can't really understand what it is like to be a young black man growing up in a poor neighborhood, but white dudes who are pissed and like fast music, shit that is my kinda crowd.

The anger from the first album was more refined, they had targets in the cross hairs. They had a message they wanted to shove down throats and it happened to be a message I agreed with. I had never much cared for meat, i have had one steak my whole life, turky cold cuts were about it for me, and the vegetarian ideas expressed in this album (coupled with a vegetarian girl I was either dating or had a crush on, I am not sure on the dates here) changed my diet. Changed my out look, changed my disposition, changed the damn world. My sexuality, it was confirmed that I was comfortable with it and there was nothing wrong with that and there was nothing wrong with people having different sexuality then me, it actually angered me that someone would be judged for having an attraction to a same sex person. Why is that important? Propagandhi agreed, they said fuck and flipped the script on the homophobes, took the fight to them, once again, world changed. Now I don't carry there word as gospel, but I can't think of any way to better describe my feelings on these subjects then this album. It reinforced that I can be angry, i can be dissent-ful, but still be compassionate, still be loving still be educated and still say screw the man. World Changed.

Fast Forward a couple more years. I am pretty much how I am today, dashing, handsome, incredibly strong, articulate, smart, and out comes "Todays Empires, Tomorrows Ashes" and holy goddamn crap! This album was a departure from the melodic albums of the past, and thank god! Enter a new bass player from the band I-Spy, who taught me its perfectly ok to scream your head off if you are impassioned about anything, and enter a more aggressive, angry and "smart" album. I now know its ok and encouraged to be heavy and fast while you age. No need to get pretty and nice (like the former bass players band, the Weakerthans, who I like, but not as much) Actual, now more then ever time to turn up and melt faces. A sonic kick to the nuts. I learned music can be semi complex yet still angry and punk, that is actually more punk then being shitty at your craft. World Changed.

As I progressed from a kid in Catholic school to a dude on a blog with gray hair, propagandhi has been by my side the whole time, reminding me, its ok, everything sucks, its how we take it back is all that matters (actual, I have never been reminded that, i am just running out of time and trying to write impact-full words, but instead mildly sappy dumb words.) Also, everything i wrote could also apply to FUGAZI and 15 (to a lesser extent)

Later doods

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Things We Know to be True

So first and foremost, Penelope should not be allowed around markers.
Second of all she is cute as all Hades and what ever greeks called heaven
Third of all she can now time travel.
Fourth of all she is a consummate host.
Fifth of all she doesn't much care for the beach

and sixth of all she will steal your purse