The The the War (to the tune of Good Morning Beautiful)

March 21, 2003 6:59 PM

British band The The is alive, well, and pissed off. The March 21st "issue" of their website This is The The Day is a brash, one-stop-shopping WarLinkapalooza to (among other things) Micah Wright and his war poster satires, Tom Tomorrow, Get Your War On, Robert Fisk's Baghdad dispatches and . . . Alan Watts? (Oh, yeah--Pt 6 of the Johnny Marr/Matt Johnson interview is there too.) Are other bands taking a stand against (or for) the war? Googling this results in only a certain spyplane, while Bono has no comment (for a change). Please do not turn this into a pro/anti-war flamefest. We're flamefested out by now : ) Peace.
posted by Shane (12 comments total)

But God didn't build himself that throne
God doesn't live in Israel or Rome
God belong to the yankee dollar
God doesn't plant the bombs for Hezbollah
God doesn't even go to church
And God won't send us down to Allah to burn
No, God will remind us what we already know
That the human race is about to reap what it's sown...
- Armageddon Days Are Here (Again)

i wonder if matt johnson gets ticked off everytime the public leaves the the for dead. or does it just amuse him? when nakedself was released in 2000, amazon caught a little flack when their search engine failed to find the band.
posted by grabbingsand at 7:27 PM on March 21, 2003

I've grown contemptous of the idea that people should look to bands for political direction. It's been going on for years and it sucks. I remeber seeing REM years ago, at half-time Micheal Stipe lectured us like he was Student Council President. Register to Vote. Become a Vegeterian. Support the Nuclear Freeze. Seperate your glass into green and brown. The idea is that bands give voice to some kind of coherent youth culture and raise consciousness, I guess. In my view, the idea of 'youth culture' has been coopted into marketing so comprehensively that the whole project of 'our band is political' is corrupt.
posted by crunchburger at 7:31 PM on March 21, 2003

crunchburger: I think that to successfully introduce politics into music, it's gotta be kept small, almost one person at a time (and more thoughtfully than Stipe has ever done). If an artist has a small (presumably devoted) audience, the two parties can engage in a meaningful dialogue that allows for interpretation and observation of subtle phenomenon. And it won't, we all hope, result in the reduction of political discourse to Che shirts and, "FuckyouIwon'tdowhatyoutellme!!"
posted by psychoticreaction at 7:58 PM on March 21, 2003

Peter Garrett is in character on Iraq.

crunch, to turn your statement around: if you were an influential public figure with strong views (like Stipe or Garrett or Bono or Matt Johnson), would you feel compelled to use that influence? Does responsiblilty come with that power?
posted by Shane at 8:31 PM on March 21, 2003

MC Frontalot has a protest song up. Special Delivery.
posted by damehex at 9:27 PM on March 21, 2003

Al Brits together now...

"This is the fifty-first state, of the U-UU, S, A..."
posted by niceness at 5:27 AM on March 22, 2003

It is definitely not my favorite, but the Beastie Boys' free single is getting much airplay on Kexp [a treasure trove, esp. Street Sounds], which has an audiostream [1.4 Mbps!] of anti war songs from Jello to John.[set list] [select Thursday, March 20, 2003 - 6 am to 10 am]
posted by roboto at 6:54 AM on March 22, 2003

correction: please begin music program at 3:09 am. Fight the Power. The whistles go Whooooo...
posted by roboto at 7:02 AM on March 22, 2003

British band The The is alive

Are you absolutely certain of that? I saw Johnson and Jim Thirlwell perform as The The last year, and the band appeared to be not only dead but also smelling funny.
posted by Grangousier at 7:17 AM on March 22, 2003

Kill Rock Stars has something up, as do Mogwai, who end their screed with a suggestion to buy something from their shop ;)

Merch, I think the cool people call it. Buy some merch!
posted by iconomy at 7:26 AM on March 22, 2003

Drudge has been slamming Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders who has had the temerity to say "Bring it on - give us what we deserve" and adding that she hopes we lose. Some other recent stories on musicians and their stance:
From Rap to Country, Musicians Record Opposing Views on War
Musicians Get Criticism for Anitiwar Stances
posted by madamjujujive at 10:09 AM on March 22, 2003

Just an afterthought, but I really like the "tabloid" design of This is The The Day. It's comfy like a familiar newsrag, and the format is especially effective when you pick up a backissue off the rack of their Archives. I'd like the Weekly Worlds News better if they served up Batboy the same way.
posted by Shane at 5:02 PM on March 22, 2003