Music and politics have been woven together in an uneasy
\ntapestry for many years. The clich\u00e9 examples are Vietnam
\nprotest songs, the PMRC in the 80s and Ozzy Osbourne attending a
\ndinner where President Bush spoke into a mic and acknowledged his
\npresence. (I think we’ve all seen the clip by now. Otherwise, catch
\na re-run of “The Osbournes.”) Meanwhile, punk rock has always been
\nabout protesting the way people are treated and raising awareness
\nof issues. Punk is about rejecting the normal way of doing things,
\nbranching out and making a difference. The lyrics from
\nCorpses Of The Ultimate Dominators<\/i> are yet another thread in
\nthe tapestry. My co-worker has this band’s first release on vinyl.
\nApparently, this is the band’s 7th release.<\/p>\n
On my first listen with no previous exposure to the band, MDC
\ncome across as a punk rock band from New York that pissed me off. I
\nsuspect they’d be happy to know that a listener of their CD found
\nhimself in a fit of rage. It pissed me off to hear one-sided
\npolitical statements that are so far liberal, perhaps better
\ndescribed as so anti-conservative, that there seemed to be no
\npurpose to a CD like this. People slam Emo bands like my beloved
\nBeyond Surface for being whiny. On first listen, MDC’s CD is even
\nworse. I mean, c’mon: George W. Bush stole the election. George W.
\nBush’s family “took care” of him so that he could avoid Vietnam, so
\nhe could snort cocaine (allegedly), so he could live life as a
\nspoiled man. The question is asked, “How many arrests on your rap
\nsheet were erased? \/ as the courts always seem to lose your case.”
\nThere are cheap shots made throughout this CD that repeat the same
\ncrap we heard during the election season about President Bush’s
\nservice in the National Guard, the tax cuts for the wealthy, etc.
\nIf you didn’t hear enough of the same themes hammered over and over
\nagain and yet, repeated again and again earlier this month, this CD
\nis for you!<\/p>\n
So, after my first listen, I decided to give them another
\nchance. I hated this CD more on the second listen.<\/p>\n
There’s the offensive “Founding Fathers – Terrorists or Freedom
\nFighters?” which tries to draw a parallel between the beginning of
\nour country and Iraq. Vocalist David Dictor sings: “So back then
\nthey rebelled against the king \/ The U.S. in Iraq is really the
\nsame thing \/ all the radio hate disc jockeys rage \/ screaming we
\nshould blast them back to the Stone Age.” The band rags on the
\nelements in their genre, punk rock, that disgust them. They slam
\npunk bands that have achieved commercial success in “Poseur Punk”
\nand “Timmy Yo.” They slam law enforcement in “Let’s Kill All The
\nCops.” With a relative in law enforcement, I will never, ever,
\nappreciate this song a bit. In “Nazis Shouldn’t Drive,” they state
\nthat “they should’ve paid attention in driver’s ed \/ instead of
\nhating foreigners, queers and reds \/ keep your eyes on the highway
\nyou loser thug \/ now you’re squished on the highway like a bug.”
\nNazis in driver’s ed? Did they have driver’s ed during WW II?!? I
\ndon’t know.<\/p>\n
Finally, I get to the end of the CD a second time and I take a
\nbreak. With the parody of “The Beverly Hillbillies” theme still in
\nmy head (and the quotable lyrics “His IQ was zero and his head was
\nup his tush”), this was just too damn much.<\/p>\n
An hour passes before I press Play again. I listened even more
\nclosely to the lyrics, to the way the ideas behind the lyrics
\nsometimes were more important than the actual delivery. The anger
\nagainst the Republicans, against those that don’t look out for
\nothers, is not bad. In fact, I came to understand that the world
\nactually needs more bands like MDC. Seriously. What percentage of
\nthose over 18 voted? Less than 100%. To a band like MDC it is
\nunacceptable. This CD is a call to action. Maybe it was on the
\nfourth listen when this band finally and completely changed in my
\nears. I paid attention to the other elements of the band. The
\nmusicianship started being an equally intriguing proposition to my
\nears. It became obvious to me that MDC is punk rock. Not because
\nthey don’t like President Bush. Not because vocalist Dictor peppers
\nthe lyrics with the F-bomb. Not even because they don’t like
\nauthority. They are punk because they are who they are and they
\nmake no apologies for being who they are.<\/p>\n
I like this CD and I’m giving it a B+. Dictor doesn’t read the
\nlyrics word for word. He changes words whenever it suits him. It
\ngives the vocals a “live” feel – as if they were recorded in a
\nfrantic single performance. Drummer Mike Pride shines on the
\ndisjointed “Time Out” with a lot of fast fills and tasteful
\nsyncopation with the rest of the band. The whimsical “Girls Like
\nYou Make Me Queer” spins the story of “the king and queen of Texas
\nhardcore” while “Sleep A Little Less, Dream A Little More” is a
\ncall to action. “Prick Faced Bastard” tells the story of a boss who
\nis “a user and a liar \/ an abuser for hire \/ nothing but a bully \/
\npeople will get tired \/ he’ll fade and be dated \/ too long
\noverrated \/ we all know \/ he’s just a prick faced bastard.”<\/p>\n
If this CD pisses you off, like it did me, MDC was successful.
\nHow can you not listen to the lyrics of this band and not be angry?
\nEven if you disagree with the band’s view of President Bush, there
\nare other topics that should make you upset and want to do
\nsomething to change the world. Make no mistake, this is a political
\nband. After Metallica’s “One” came out, some labeled Metallica a
\n“political band,” a label Metallica rejected. Call MDC a “political
\nband” and they’ll probably buy you beers all night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":26878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7085],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38177","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-magnus-dominus-corpus","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38177"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}