Punk as all fuck

Punk is, of course, dead. Has been for a long time. Most likely somewhere between Green Day topping the charts and Hot Topic introducing a full line of authentic Misfits T-shirts. But that doesn't stop new generations from getting angry, or understanding the purity of three chords and a cloud of dust.

I've been thinking about this a bit as of late, after making a series of trips to Extreme Noise, my friendly neighborhood collectivist record store. Mpls. has long had a solid punk rock scene, dating back the 70s really. The anarcho/hardcore/crust/whatever you want to call it has been strong for about 20 years (with ebbs and flows I would imagine) and Extreme Noise is a nice face on it all.

Anyway, I've come home with a collection of different stuff as of late, trying to move away from the underground metal I've been devouring in recent months and back to more a straight-forward punk sound. The best of the lot so far is Behind Enemy Lines, who have a lot of righteous anger (I'd be angry too if I was based in Pittsburgh) that blazes on their latest, One Nation Under the Iron Fist of God. It's basically been in my car stereo and on the iPod continously for the last week. Powerful stuff, especially a double-shot of post-Katrina tunes that put it all into focus (the 1984 references up top are pretty cool as well).

Some of the other stuff is taking a while, mainly because groups like Totalitar, Protestera and Krigshot don't sing in English. Still, no matter the language, the anger is there.

Right, dinner beckons. And then more political noise I think.