Do you remember when you said you cared
And that you would never be ensnared
By the lure of the music biz
‘Cos you were doing it all “for the kids”
Now that just seems like so many hollow lies
You’ve become what you said you despised
We can see from the dance floor
Those you opposed, you now work for
Which, in the case of Against Me!, is Time-Warner Corporation (via Sire Records): the largest of the handful of media monopolies that dominate the global market in music (and most other mediums). The Center for Public Integrity notes that “In 2005, Time Warner reported revenue of $43.7 billion, with a net income of $2.9 billion, down 14 percent from the year before”. To what extent Against Me!’s labour has contributed to Time-Warner’s coffers is at this point unknown, but their corporate debut, New Wave, peaked at #57 on the US Billboard charts on July 28 this year. (Critic Robert Christgau, incidentally, awarded it **** in a Rolling Stone review.) Akiva Gottlieb, meanwhile, has some reflections on the band’s status as a ‘sellout’ in ‘Political Punk: Rage Against the Band’ (The Nation, September 28, 2007).
We mean it, maaan!
Like x number of punk bands before them, Against Me!’s decision to go corporate has triggered a minor backlash among its (former) fans, and also — naturally — compelled the band to deliver a number of tortured justifications for doing so. Thus “the band, who made their name (exclamation point and all) not so long ago by playing raucous shows in church basements and laundromats, has burned its share of bridges on its way to the top, especially among the idealistic young fans whose idea of integrity can’t be found on a BlackBerry”, while Tom Gabel quotes Paul Stanley to the effect that “Credibility is someone else’s idea of what I should be doing, not mine”. And while, just as I’ve no desire to contradict a taxman on the subject of poetry, I’m naturally loathe to quibble over the meaning of words with a multi-millionaire businessman, I should note that ‘credibility’ may also be defined as meaning “the quality of being believable or trustworthy”. And it’s the presumed ‘credibility gap’ between recording for a corporation like Time-Warner and the band’s status as one of the latest in the massively long line of ‘musical rebels who enforce their own brand of cultural justice’™ that’s really at issue in this and similar debates. (On which subject, see ‘The End of Music’, a critique of punk and reggae, by Dave and Stuart Wise, available in Stewart Home’s otherwise worthless volume What is Situationism? — but not, unfortunately, online.)
Caveat emptor
Economically speaking, the tiny handful of fans of the band’s previous work who feel aggrieved by Against Me!’s decision to ‘sell out’ to The Man will have zero impact, easily being replaced one thousand times over by new fans unconcerned by such mystifying issues, and happy enough to join the boys in totally, like, “rocking out, dude!”; or at least until the next product emerges on the rock ‘n’ roll factory line. Or to put it another way: “Only a fool would be a rock star without protecting the hard work they have done and reaping the rewards. The person that says they’re only in it for the music is in for a sad awakening when they are working at a hamburger stand asking if they want fries. For us it becomes common sense if money is being generated, it should rightfully go into our pockets. We try to maximize everything we do. We’re proud to be rich and make no apologies.” Or in the words of another, aspiring rock *:
In the end, Gabel feels most comfortable justifying his band’s big move as a utilitarian quid pro quo. “We don’t owe anyone anything other than music. If you buy a CD, you get the music that’s on there. If you come to a show, we owe you music.” And with that, 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.
And speaking of capitalism, the latest issue of Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed is dedicated to dissecting it, especially in terms of the relationship between being an ‘anarchist’ and living under capitalism (or in the words of a ‘friend’, the way in which anarchists wrapped up in their lifestylism struggle against an exploitative system):
Poke an anarchist whose project involves an exchange of money for goods, and chances are you will have to duck to avoid the stream of sticky, apologetic defensiveness.
“If we don’t charge, how do you expect us to provide you with this stuff and still sustain ourselves?”
“What should we do?”
“It’s classist to think that people can do this for free…” etc.
While the apologies and excuses do acknowledge that something contradictory and complicated is happening, the rationales tend to fall back into the same old purity reasoning, not much more engaged than the disingenuous complaints about Zerzan’s use of a typewriter.
These simplistic responses distract us from the questions that we could get creative with. Once we acknowledge that capitalism is in the air we breathe then we can have more interesting conversations…
On which subject, more later, when I review the copy kindly sent to me.
When we have nothing left to give
There’ll be no reason for us to live
But when we have nothing left to lose
You will have nothing left to use
We owe you nothing
You have no control
Merchandise, it keeps us in line
Common sense says it’s by design
What could a businessman ever want more
Than to have us sucking in his store?
We owe you nothing
You have no control
We are not what you own
yeah i went and saw them in melbourne. the show was fucked. they had no interaction or interest in the crowd. i used to love against me! despite all this some of their older songs (“walking is still honest” for instance) will always have a special place for me. it’s sickening to see them completely sell out, not just economically but their spirit too. they are a fucking sad imitation of the band they once were… a mate of mine who is by no means a leftist (but by no means a bonehead fuck like some of you reading this either) remarked quite aptly that they looked like a cover band up on stage. they played all the songs but had nothing inside them. and don’t get me started on how fucked the pit was. it was full of pointlessly violent cunts just trying to start fights to which the band seemed apathetic.
the draft who supported them rocked though. and of course a death in the family rocked as always!
New Wave is fucking awful. I’m happy I didn’t pay for it…
i saw ’em play on their first tour in feb ’06. they played the corner with a death in the family, disables and mutiny. i only heard one or maybe two songs of theirs before, so yeah, they were ok i guess, but most others seemed pretty mad for it. i noticed the crowd was v young, but then that’s always the case for an old fart like me…
yeah i went to that show it was energetic in the good kind of way and the band seemed to be more interested and the crowd looked out for each other, whereas this year had one of the worst crowds i’ve seen anywhere, someone threw a plastic beer pot at the bassist from the draft, he finished the set then went into the crowd and nailed the prick for it… then against me! came out and didn’t seem to care what went on and left the stage the second they could
ha! back to the coke and groupies, contractual obligations fulfilled…
Bottom line is you can never trust anyone with a degree of financial success or economic freedom (and these guys would have been living very comfortably on the indy label). It is no longer in their interests to end capitalism as the desire to work less hours for more money (or commodities) is not part of their life anymore. They are in a position to spend their life doing what they love and for far more money than anyone who buys their records, or books, or whatever. Unless you genuinely believe in the natural selflessness of rockstars. Furthermore, art can be a catalyst for revolution (as in Russia) but is never revolutionary in itself, in a way it’s always bourgeois. If you were looking at these guys as some kind of revolutionary vanguard for 21st century anarchism in the first place you have problems.
I never really understood the difference between indy label and major label. The indy label is just waiting for the chance to go major or the major label to buy it out. How is one less capitalist or more ‘anarchist’ (lol) than the other?
So does that mean Vents will be putting me on the door at Revolver this Friday? (Seriously, I’m going.)
http://www.entartetekunst.info/
It’s one thing to make a living from art or cultural production that can (like any of us who work) involve compromises that we do not feel truly comfortable with. It’s another completely to actively promote that which you formerly said you were against and rail against those who gave you the ability to live a life of relative comfort and adopt the position of cultural godlet.
Yeah… I’m actually hoping to expand on the subject a little more when I write a review of Anarchy zine. That said…
Obviously, unless someone is ‘independently wealthy’, and — at least in Australia, if not the US — is not able or willing to obtain some form of state-funded ‘welfare’ or income (support), then selling their labour is really the only option they have in order to generate sufficient income to survive… well, that or crime, but criminal activities are quite dangerous to the individual unless well-organised and/or sponsored by government or corporation. Oh, and it is possible to live on the margins of the economy without engaging in wage labour or obtaining ‘welfare’, but such an existence is obviously highly precarious, and difficult to sustain unless young and able-bodied etcetera.
With regards Against Me!, the point, I think, is that they set themselves up for a fall. That is, they (and not just them) made a point of repeatedly declaring their opposition to corporate practices, especially in relation to the music industry. Then, within the space of a few years, decided to actually sign to a major. The obvious question that emerges in this and similar situations is: just how serious were they? By extension, how ‘serious’ is anyone who makes bold declarations of opposition, especially artists and musicians? What, in the end, does it actually mean, and are all the other, ostensibly apolitical or non-political artists and musicians truly deserving of criticism regarding their supposed ‘co-option’ and/or political ‘neutrality’ when those making such criticisms (such as Against Me!) are just as likely to be drawn into the same networks as they are?
Blah blah blah. As I said: I intend to write more fully on the subject later. I suppose the other question that needs asking is: what does it matter and what does it mean that hopes or dreams of (radical) social change should be invested in the actions of a tiny handful of string-pluckers and tub-thumpers rather than social movement(s)? Or: fuck ’em, even if they are a joke.
I agree with Vents that music/art is not actually revolutionary. I am a huge Against Me! fan, I have seen them 4 times on 3 tours (@ndy, the gig you went to was the second tour, not the first). On all the tours I never heard any real crowd interaction from them so I would disagree that the latest tour was any different. New Wave is an amazing pop album, it really can’t be called a punk CD but it is full of great songs.
I have to say that some of their songs are no longer believable. Eg, the first time I saw them they played ‘Baby I’m an Anarchist’ and I shouted every word at the top of my lungs. They played it again this time and I didn’t even open my mouth. They have obviously gone in a direction that has disappointed many people and contradicted a great deal of their own lyrics and statements, but when it all comes down to it they are only a band. When I heard about all these protest actions directed at them I was disgusted. I mean for fuck’s sake slashing a band’s tires on their tour van is fucking low. Their are plenty of cop cars, 4WDs, Mercedes, BMWs etc that could use that treatment. I think this is symptomatic of the anarcho-punk scene and the warped sense of priorities that many within it hold onto. IT’S JUST FUCKING MUSIC!!! I have a DVD that has some crusty punks call Anti-Flag their arch enemies, how retarded a statement is that, sure they can be seen to be a reformist band in some ways but fucking hell, they are progressive, preach great ideals and raise shit loads of money for good causes. Nazis are our enemies, politicians are our enemies, bosses are our enemies, police are our enemies. Anyone that thinks that a band is their enemy because they don’t stick to the strict ‘non-conformist’ guidelines of what it is to be a punk band should go hang out at The Birmy because you are an ignorant fucking idiot.
There are far more important issues in the world right now than a few musicians are doing to earn a pay cheque.
Sorry for the rant.
No probs. Lumpen, @ndy has my number in case I forget (probable).
Perhaps people need to stop, take some time to think, and figure out what’s important to them.
Stop, take some time to think, figure out what’s important to them.
Stop, take some time to think, figure out what’s important to them.