Henry Rollins on the Teabaggers...CLASSIC

Q: You’re coming to the Southgate House in Newport. Do you remember The Jockey Club?

A: Yeah, I get asked that all the time. It was a great time. I had great shows there. Sometimes you put your mouth up to the mic and the lights overhead would flicker. It hurt. It would make your lips numb from getting shocked off the mic. And there was that odd man who sat at the front as you walked into the door with the endlessly smoking cigarette in his hand.

Q: There are some Web sites with great photos of Black Flag performing there, and they kind of bring home the fact that politically-tinged punk rock really hasn’t been duplicated.

Yeah, I don’t know if it ever was duplicated.

Q: Why not?

A: Maybe it just passed me by, but where was all the punk rock outrage during the George W. Bush years? Yeah, too bad it wasn’t around. I think the youth—and this might make me sound old—I think the youth is used to a lot of convenience and thumb-driven devices and maybe can’t be made to engage in the affairs of their country. It’s too bad because it’s their country too. They’re going to be adopting this country whether they want to or not. Their peers will be paying mortgages, their peers will be breeding and putting kids into this very unstable economic environment, which no amount of tax cuts is going to help anytime soon. And let’s see, what’s one of the most hard hit states of all this? Well, probably Ohio for years and years. And Cincinnati. You ever driven across Cincinnati and seen all the men standing on the corner in all the neighborhoods with all the doors boarded up, that’s what I saw last time I was there. What’s up with that? How come John Boehner isn’t coming to the rescue? Why do Republicans vote against the stimulus bill but they’re so happy to take the money that gave them? You’re from Ohio, can you shed any light on that? Can you put that in the article so maybe a tea-partier can get back to me if he gets his gills to close long enough to get off his daughter and write me a letter?

Q I’ve been getting right-wing hate mail for my restaurant reviews, so…

A: I don’t understand, you know? I saw such pitiful sights the last time I was in Cincinnati. Just broke-ass men standing on the corner. What is this? Are we remaking Grapes of Wrath? a congressmen, he’s got his neighborhood. When people who are Republican or conservative or tea-party or Palin or whatever, when they watch the blocks of their neighborhood plummet, when they watch their jobs go, when they watch bankers and people send their money to the Cayman Islands, when companies move to Dubai to avoid taxation, does it ever occur to them that they’re defending their captors and shooting the liberators, or is looking at things a different way just too “gay” for them to entertain? Is it a blow to their masculinity? I mean, it seems like there’s a lot of male ego wrapped up in all of this, there’s a lot of testicular intensity at stake here. And you know male ego, it’s easily crushed, but it comes on very strong.

I just don’t understand, it’s like HIV became a real problem when straight people got it. I don’t know how many people who somehow defend big insurance will have to get disenfranchised until they call big insurance “death panels.” I don’t understand. I hope that tipping point happens sooner or later, I just don’t know how people who vote out of their best self-interests will figure it out. Well, maybe they won’t. ’Cause there’s a certain point where I turn into a conservative, believe it or not. When I get into that selfish “me, me, me” thing, because if some people, if that’s the way you want it, you want to get screwed by these people, at a certain point I’m going to leave you to it because I’m one of those people like Sean Hannity, like Bill O’Reilly. I’m covered, I’m good, I’m fine. I don’t worry about money. I’ve got piles of it. Every once in a while I’m like, “You know what, you hate. Fine, fine, I tried. You want to go throw yourself off a cliff, far be it from me…" And at a certain point, I’ll probably give up. I’m not Mother Teresa.

http://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article.aspx?id=91408

And Lennon before him.


Great interview.

Man he hits the points hard. The response about "the government can't do anything right," and him turning that to ripping on the marines, air force, FDIC, etc.

Classic stuff.

and I am living in Cincinnati right now. Hopefully people will read this.

Rollins is a hack

Folks, we've got ourselves a 15-year-old girl who fancies herself a music critic here.

Just because Obese Mike is zomg such a hottie doesn't mean he's a better musician and that NOFX is a more culturally significant band than Black Flag/Henry Rollins.

you came to that conclusion because they are against the so called Drug War?
That's funny, you know them so well from a political song on our drug policy.
Well since I know the group very well having given birth to two of them and married to the "15 year old girl", Paultards would not be how I would describe them.
I will give you a little slack on my middle boy who is an ex-marine and it took a lot of talking on my part to get his vote for Obama.
Damn you don't know lame very well. He has his own taste in music and you can't insult him.
I on the other hand do not take kindly to having my sons called Paultards.

To quote Fat Mike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ2MC3QfpQY

edited to add: I'm ok with your disagreement regarding taste in music, not so much with personal insults.

"Punks for Paul" or something. Maybe you should have a talk with them.

That said, the music isn't bad. It's certainly better than NOFX. ;)

hubby hasn't been on that page for years, people actually still go there? Like I said before, I will cut you some slack on my ex-military middle son (he is a work in progress for us). :shrug:
If you wanted insight as to his political leanings, you could have checked out his postings on DU or looked at his various vids he posted on this thread.
Or maybe just checked out his channel on Youtube, instead of searching for friends on a myspace page that five band members have access to.

That said we all have different taste in music. Hubby and I both enjoy Nofx as well as many other artist from Aerosmith - Zeppelin. With a liberal sprinkling of The Beatles, Pavement, In Pursuit of Happiness, Lou Reed and a plethora of Artists from all styles of music in between.
I just enjoy what I like without any deep analysis hubby on the other hand is obsessed with music, it is his first love.

I have never been a country fan, but really like this Artist. (Hubby introduced me to his music). It is off topic (not punk) but there were many music groups and artist who protested the bush years. Neil Young's Garage was a place where many groups posted their vids.
This vid that lame made pretty much sums up his political views.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTW0y6kazWM

:hi:

but unfortunately I have.

Rollins is right about the death of politically tinged punk, and protest music in general. It hasn't been produced of any quality since the 60s.

It all aint been shit since the 60's man. We were real man. We protested. Not like today.


Puhlease. Not to give props to the 60's - Lennon, the who, stones, etc. But there have been other since then. Just because the corps run by your classmates haven't released their shit along with the Brittneys' et. al. doesn't mean they didn't exist.

How 'bout the Dead Kennedy's? http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jello_biafra.html

I don't think you are getting my meaning. We are missing ANTHEMS. Those catchy, powerful, easy to reproduce songs not only with a message but a contagious desire to sing them in large crowd situations. Those songs fueled movements. This isn't about just poignancy and reminiscing, it is about a sincere lack in protest movements. Music has always been a powerful agent of change during tumultuous times, I just happen to feel that it is has largely been conspicuously absent lately.

I don't blame corporate rock, I dont blame Brittney, I don't blame iPods - I blame a bizarre lack of will and ideas. Sorry.

Exactly. Billy Bragg is still around though.

You know, with words n' reason n' stuff, not simple pissiness because of the outcome of a different thread.

You made a claim that no good protest music has been created since the '60s. That kind of ignorance stands on its own.

Have a great day.

if there was any anti-W punk, it was NOFX (extraordinarily underrated, by the way).

Im from the old school Puck days and sorry but the 60's werent better. All they did was hang out and get wasted away in their music and drugs.. lol


We were aggressive and in your face and were anti Reagan when the majority of the country loved him. I still remember wearing my " Reagan Hates Me" T-shirts. We didnt have a major war to protest like in the 60's so it was harder to get a movement going. But the 80's and the Punk movement was the only outlet for people against the popular Reagan and his crimes. I still dont understand how the country was so fooled by him.

They were great times but I do agree that its hard finding music like that anymore. You have to really look.

Im a way back punk rocker too, but to say that one band and Fat Mikes projects are enough to disprove the point he was trying to make, I say youre dead wrong. The punk and time he was talking about, you would be hard pressed to find one band NOT political.. now punk is fucking fluffy ass garbage.. i totally see his point.

but hey, so long and thanks for the shoes ;p

Sometimes I wonder if the best way to fight these idiots isn't just not to fight them. Let them suffer the consequences of their own brainwashed ignorance and see if they can figure it out. Then again most of the big government haters are probably collecting a government check of some kind so they'll be the last to feel the pain.

nt

Lord knows that made for fertile ground at the time.

and doing a lot of the things Henry didn't see I guess. But like a lot of people not too many people were paying attention.

Oh and Green Day, Woo Hoo.

LOL.

it wasn't allowed on the radio

YouTube (technology) changed that situation a little bit but not much.

Just lots of new wave shite.

http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=13477

All of their material was anti-Bush, anti-NWO, Dead Kennedy's style, but VERY heavy (Wino) mixed w/various spirituality/mythology/conspiracies etc instead of punk. Being a fan of Wino since the mid 80s Saint Vitus, I'm biased, of course, but there were/are other solid bands in this metal genre that also carried the flag...it's just this stuff is sooo underground it's virtually off the radar unless you live n breathe it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R83dfvNe-N0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC7MdxkpVPU&feature=related

:hi:

the punk songs were/are there, the difference was the music industry just wasn't/isn't pushing it.

right wing mentality also permeates the music industry.

Back in the day, there were independent labels that could get music played on the radio.

well, music on the radio or at least kids listening to the radio is gone. kids are plugged into their iPods as am I.

satellite radio is out of reach for most.

Music as a movement is dead.

Punk is, as a social movement, been pushed to the sidelines.

Rap is now mainstream.

Any sort of musical movement will have to come from someplace else.

There are small bands here and there. There are people who seek this music out, but don't bet on it ever becoming mainstream again.

It's a great anti-Bush rap song. The video is out there, but I can't access it at the moment.

You don't get a more pissed off at the status quo band than Ministry was. Rio Grande Blood was pure piss and vinegar. (must listen... this one and the The Great Satan - can be found on the left side's related videos links) will make my point very solidly) http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=wp6B6ABVYDQ

Also Nine Inch Nails was pretty vocal in their dissent towards Bush... first with The Hand that Feeds and then the entire Year Zero album which was an apocalyptic vision of Bush's America in the future if God was supposedly playing on their side like they believed.

Neither are punk but both were very vocally anti-Bush.

Rp

...and oh yeah Green Day.

I'd say Rollins is high, but I know that ain't true. The guy's gotten a bit out of touch.

Southgate House rules, for those who have never been there, BTW.

Rollins is coming to my town next month and I've been debating whether I should go as the entertainment budget is very limited right now. I'm thinking maybe I will now. He sounds ok to me.

I saw him last year, at the start of my unemployment. I was hesitant about the money, too...but the ticket was only $20 or $25. He was GREAT!! He mostly talked about his adventures around the world, but managed to throw in some political observations here and there. He went non-stop for 2 1/2 hours and was the most entertaining night out ever! If it wasn't raining, I would've waited around to chat by the bus. He's very fan friendly.

I'm hoping he'll be at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair again this year. I could listen to him talk for hours...very interesting guy!

He did a great talk. Prior to the show he was out on the floor meeting fans and talking with them for about an hour. He had the kick ass English punk band Gallows open for him. It was an all around great show.

I have the utmost respect and admiration for Henry and the next time he's in Austin I'm going to see him again. And maybe I'll work up the nerve to go talk to him next time.

If you go, you'll be amazed at how diverse the crowd is!! Everything from punk to business suits to older people. Just looking around at the crowd before the start of the show was entertaining.

to be in the area! I live in Iowa City, and would be happy to make the drive to Davenport to see him. It looks like a "spoken word" tour, so I assume it's just him up on stage, doing his comedy & commentary.

in Cincinnati would they think like teabaggers, conservatives or liberals? Or some other political POV?

Do they realize how exploited there are? Will they?

I'm getting that sick Bush era feeling in my stomach that all this will be blamed on Obama and liberals.

Please, talk me down.

id imagine the majority of people on the corners want to sell you drugs and care little about politics.

I actually say Black flag at The jockey Club in Newport. Also saw The Minutemen, Corrosion of Conformity and Big Black there. Was a great club!

but unforgettable.

i remember running out the back of the 1st replacements show when the cops raided the jockey. i MIGHT have been underage...

the troth sized urinal and all. I guess it was great to me due to the fact that it was really the best thing going at the time to see the touring national acts...that and I am remembering it through teenage memories.

- It's a good question. And here's their answer:



K&R

It's in this must see documentary;

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/view/

Like the good old days of Frontline!

...about recanting his bullshit Ayn-Randian theories. But even I knew they were bullshit when I first read them. So it doesn't speak well that it took him 60 years or so to figure it out. And besides, by then the damage had already been done.

And worse, he provided a veneer of "economic-intellectual" cover for bastards like Boehner, et al, who barely have the capacity to understand basic arithmetic. And I haven't heard any Repuke politicians who're still in office and casting obstacles down in the way of progress who've likewise relented their positions on these craptastic theories.

I love Henry and he is not a "LIAR"!

I am at that point.

You make me roll sometimes... Wise man, haven't seen his spoken word for awhile, I think I need to be going again next time he comes around.

Unfortunately there aren't any large scale music scenes these days that aren't manufactured by an algorithm at some corporate recording HQ.

a band at Madison Square Gardens without a sound system.

Just because there wasn't any popular protest music during * doesn't mean that no one protested, worked to end the administration, or spoke out intelligently.

I don't think there is any reason to judge the degree of intelligent and motivated dissidents a generation has by the number of Jello Biafras it has on its top 40s charts. Also - in case Rollins and everyone else missed it, there was and is still plenty of political music around that doesn't make it onto (insert name of corporate radio flatulence here).

Honestly, I wish there were more good music around, and more people listening to what good music there is, but that has nothing to do with the degree to which my generation "is used to a lot of convenience and thumb-driven devices and maybe can’t be made to engage in the affairs of their country". I'm old enough to remember a time when a band called "Rage against the machine" made a lot of money selling Che Guevara T-shirts and rants about social injustice; but to the best of my knowledge they didn't improve the "affairs of our country" with their crappy rap rock. To the best of my knowledge the much better punk of "the Dead Kennedys" didn't either though, so maybe we can bury the false equivalence between music and political action?

And it has never been more sorely missed, and more sorely needed. When I say good protest music, I'm talking about catchy anthems...the stuff that large crowds could get ahold of and sing spontaneously.

And no, I can't see a large crowd suddenly breaking out in "Idiot Son of an Asshole".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXl1Ogzuij4

A Few Good Men

It's time we stood up for ourselves so get up off your knees.
We'll shake off our detractors and attain our hopes and dreams
and if we fall prey to in-fighting, we're never gonna win,
so put aside your differences, sing loud, sing proud

We won't listen to their stories or be waylaid by their lies
it's a dram that's still attainable for kids like you and I
So if we all stand together singing one defiant song
our voice will reach the heavens, so sing with all your heart


Join us in a song
we shall rise and sing stand up and be counted
sing a song for liberty join us in this song
together we shall sing rise up and be counted
sing it loud, sing it proud

We've been brutalized and crucified, the brunt of their attacks,
is corruption not their trademark and compassion what they lack?
If we can realize our common goals,
the end of which is plain united and now stronger,
their loss is now our gain!

You'd never in a million years get a crowd to chant that discernably. I mean something like this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqbdSOl4O90

Simple. Powerful. Meaningful. Easy to sing. It drives souls.

So we're fucked. ;)

You sing the song, you're moved by the message, you're emboldened by your support, you act.

Sheeesh does this have to be spelled out, still?

But it's a shame that a good message has to come with a musical hook to get people to listen. The Dead Kennedys, Minutemen, Paris and numerous others are ignored because they don't tailor their music for the masses, though 99% of what they say is spot on. Meanwhile, "Top 40" thrives....

But that being said, you should reconsider lamenting that protest music has to appeal to the masses. Of COURSE it has to. That's who you are reaching out to, in order to give power to your movement, right?

If you are making protest music to have a niche or cult audience, you are missing the point.

...But you're wrong about a crowd being able to learn and chant the DKM song instantly. I've seen it happen. I'm talking about the chorus of course, not the verses. Things have sped up a bit since your day.

Here's another one I really like, though a bit older:

http://www.amazon.com/Inflammable-Material-Stiff-Little-Fingers/dp/B0007Y09A0

Play song #5.

It's a simple matter of motivation and target audience.

And also, it doesn't have to do with "my day"....it has to do with a core principle of what works in music when you are trying to motivate masses. Thrash, NU metal, rap, growl, none of that stuff works with crowds. Sorry, it just doesnt.

You may like some of this:


Mass extinctions, Global warning
We need DNA profiling
Anti-Government militia
Ecoli from baby kissing

Seatbelts, Seatbelts
Strangle me when I don't listen

Satellites are listening
An asteroid is gonna hit
The corporations steal your money
We all know that Bush is phony

Secrets, Secrets
I'll stay inside if it's code yellow

Another, Another
And I can't back down
I can't back down again

Another, Another
With my back to the wall
Yeah this is the call

Reaching to crawl out
Reaching to crawl out

S.O.S.
They wanna hear this
So fuck this

Spinning alley, big big brother
Families broken, struggling mothers
Terror plotting, Greenhouse gassing
Always looking for another

Defect, Defect
In my genes will make me get sick

Icecaps melting, children killing
Mass destruction, atom bombing
Homelessness rising, mad cow slaying
Think they stole my eyes for cloning

Star wars, star wars
They hunt us down with pinpoint lasers

Who are you afraid of?
Are you afraid of?
Who are you afraid of?
You! I'm afraid of!

Satellites are listening
an asteroid is gonna hit
Our president is full of shit
Or president is full of shit

Star wars, star wars
Making us call out, Making us call out

S.O.S.

Love that song! "Boys On The Docks" is another great one as well as "Which Side Are You On". Also, this dissent in modern music you all seem to be missing is alive and well in the heavy metal scene. It's just much angrier long haired freaks doing it now. Otep, Lamb of God, Brutal Truth, etc. The list is quite long.

he was downtown, prob. in OTR, and saw BLACK men hanging out. or possibly Appalachian, but small matter. it's class AND race in Cincy.

Boehner and Mean Jean Schmidt are creatures of exurban districts, and could give 2 shits about the hollowed-out shell of the inner city and its struggles.

Black/White divide. That's why Boehner ain't dealin with it. Same for Akron, Dayton and Columbus. All inner city--all Black. Same elsewhere. What I'd like to ask DU is why wasn't Henry Rollins railing about Black unenmployment and disenfranchisement five years ago? When Black unemployment and suffering was still at alarmingly high levels. Now that unemployment has climbed into the White stratosphere we can't hear enough about the ills of Boehner, Schmidt and others. But this thing about hanging out on corners and misery--it has been a 200 year nonstop situation for Black men in America. Why?

I gotta learn to trust spell. check.

he is remembering Cincy - and N. Kentucky where the Jockey Club was in the 80s. in fact, now that i think about it, this could have been his description of Newport, KY - the poverty there is more Appalachian than African American.

exactly what i said in a post above...

depending on the part of the city, more than likely the people on the corner could care less about politics and would rather want to know if you want to buy any drugs... i know because i live right across the river

Who, BTW, also had tons of money.

You Badass you.

K and Fucking R

...for example, Benedict Arnold & The Traitors. Formed in late 1979, released first 45 in 1980: "Kill the Hostages" b/w "Red Alert"; Released 6 song vinyl ep, "No More Heroes or Gods," 1982, disbanded and became the Antinomians before mutating into The Hundredth Monkey.





Traitors re-formed in 1999, played outside the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles in 2000; played at the July 4, 2001 California "Energy Crisis" (Enron scam) protest in Long Beach CA (on the back of a flatbed truck through a solar powered p.a.), featuring the song "No Power? No Peace!" We were also privileged to meet Medea Benjamin (a Code Pink founder), who spoke at this event.

With "inspiration" provided by the Cheney/Bush admin, the band recorded "Star Spangled Bummer" between 2001-2008, a 22 song CD released in '08.



Free mp3s at the link, http://www.benedictarnoldandthetraitors.com/audio/ny:

"Hello Baghdad" and "Political Suicide" (both from the Star Spangled Bummer CD), and "James O'Keefe III" (released as free mp3 download, March 23, 2010).

Also, there is the animated music video, "Death Penalty For Pot" -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTPTWbm6uK0.

So, political punk/rock is not dead, but it IS, unfortunately, difficult to get any attention paid to it these days.

And yes, being active in the early L.A. punk scene (which was pretty much over by 1983 or '84), we (the Traitors or one of our other spinoff bands) got to play with the Rollins version of Black Flag, The Minutemen, The Gears, The Stains, Mentors, Würm, Peace Corpse, etc. I miss the Cathay De Grande...

:thumbsup:

We need more people not afraid to tell it like it is. Rollins is a favorite of us roadies as the man knows the score and treats people the way they deserve.

:kick:

not just the little bit here - longgg interview but man, I never cease to be impressed with the raw honest liberal brutality with which he takes on the world and pulls no punches. If only everyone were so informed/evolved.

Love this guy, thanks for the link!

I've always considered Rollins to be a douche!

I was lucky enough to open for Black Flag for a couple of shows.