punker demockracy!!!

April 7, 2004 10:02 PM

Punkvoter is about organizing the many diverse and regional movements into one voice of political change. Punkvoter is our way to educate today’s youth about what is really going on in Washington, DC and how we can collectively force change. This is our chance to be a strong voice against the serious flaws in the current political system. This is our way to talk about new laws and scenarios that could change our quality of life for years to come. Punkvoter is your organization. It will be run with the same energy and spirit of all punk efforts. With your help we will be a credible force to truly shape the future of our nation.
(Flash intro features tunes, main site is here, an impressive membership list is here.

There's a soundtrack to your demockracy.
posted by ashbury (16 comments total)

How unselfmockingly retro. Still, not all punks are nihilists.

*insert Big Lebowski reference here*

Punk (as a politicized youth insurgency rather than a fashion statement, although of course it was both, and other things too), way back when, had a tendency to veer off into a worrying love affair with Brutality! Violence! and Really! Bad! Things! when deprived of a good dose of humour and self-mocking fun.

Talk - Action = Zero, as one of my old faves from the late 70s and early '80s (who not coincidentally took their politics very seriously indeed but were never above poking fun at themselves and 'punk' in general) DOA used to say. Whatever gets the kiiiiids out on the street, though, smashing the state from within, so that it crumbles and crushes us all in the wreckage!

Like, it's our world too. [/Young Ones reference]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:17 PM on April 7, 2004

Good, we need another rock the vote. Too bad the only real punk bands represented are Nofx, Social D and the Descendants.
posted by Keyser Soze at 10:36 PM on April 7, 2004

By the way, Nofx's The War on Errorism is the best album to come out of the post September 11th american punk revival scene.

And you still believe this aristocracy gives a fuck about you
They put the mock, in demockracy and you swallowed every hook
The sad truth is you would rather follow the school into the net
Cuz swimming alone at sea is not the kind of freedom that you actually want
So go back to your crib and suck on a tit go bask in the warmth of your diaper
You're sitting in shit and piss while sucking a huge pacifier a country of adult infants
A legion of mental midgets a country of adult infants a country of adult infants
All re-gaining their unconsciousness
posted by Keyser Soze at 10:41 PM on April 7, 2004

the lyrics sound a lot like MC5, keyser.
posted by quonsar at 10:49 PM on April 7, 2004

Kick out the jams [clumsy edit] brothers and sisters [/clumsy edit]!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:06 PM on April 7, 2004

(Also, partially on-punk-topic : we should all be a little bummed that snarkout no longer posts here at Metafilter, instead saving his energies for superb encyclopedic posts like this on his own site.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:23 PM on April 7, 2004

And on the flip side of this political punk genre (it makes my head spin): Conservative Punk Magazine. Because a big defense budget is totally punk rock!
posted by mathowie at 11:26 PM on April 7, 2004

See also: GOPunk

"In a perfect world, anarchy would be a fine system of government; everyone could do as they pleased, and that would be that. Unfortunately, we live in an imperfect world, chock-full of Saddam Husseins, Muammer el-Qaddafis, and Hillary Rodham Clintons. The only way to protect ourselves is to utilize a somewhat more sophisticated system than anarchy; ideally a system strong enough to protect us from internal and external threats, yet limited enough to prevent infringement on our personal freedoms."

Get PISSED DESTROY! /johnny rotten
posted by eddydamascene at 11:39 PM on April 7, 2004

Ah, what the hell.
posted by eddydamascene at 11:47 PM on April 7, 2004

conservative punk=a stupid punk
posted by Keyser Soze at 11:54 PM on April 7, 2004

Keyser Soze: Don't forget Bad Religion. I think they qualify as "real" punk. And Strike Anywhere and Propagandhi are no slouches either.

The conservative punk scene has Johnny Ramone and Mike Graves (the Danzig replacement in the Misfits) as well as Dave Smalley of Dag Nasty. There was a recent New York Times article on them as well.

I've talked to a lot of the people involved and I have to say that I have the utmost respect for Fat Mike. While he is singularly determined to get Bush out of office, he's pretty much mobilized much of a scene that is usually thrives on a lack of focus.

That said, there have been some interesting problems. For one thing, one band dropped off the benefit compilation due to disagreements about the involvement of billionaire George Soros, and while the "conservative" punk sites quickly hopped on it to condemn, I'm happy that there is still debate among the left.
posted by aubin at 5:07 AM on April 8, 2004

Bah. I know all the tracks on this album, and I can't qualify much of any of it as "listenable".

Also -- since when is Ministry "Punk"? I've never heard Industrial music qualified as a division of Punk.

Now, if you want to assemble a real playlist that doesn't restrict itself to some corporate-swamped genre of has-beens-before-they're-famous, I would suggest some of the following:

War Pigs - Black Sabbath

Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits

(anything from Rage Against the Machine, I guess)

NWO - Ministry

Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2 (preferrably the live version from Rattle N Hum)

Paddy's Lament - Sinead O'Conner

What are We Fighting For? - Live

In my list (which would be much longer than what I just came up with, now), I would probably try to avoid the 60s antiwar anthems, due to my general anger. I'm looking for angry tracks or tragic tracks, rather than "Make Love, Not War".

posted by thanotopsis at 5:57 AM on April 8, 2004

Now, if you want to assemble a real playlist that doesn't restrict itself to some corporate-swamped genre of has-beens-before-they're-famous, I would suggest some of the following:...

Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2 (preferrably the live version from Rattle N Hum)

Does not compute.
posted by jennyb at 6:45 AM on April 8, 2004

I wrote something about Punk Voter on my web site a while ago, if you're interested. I don't have fancy link-to-entry tags, but if you scroll to the 03.03.2004 entry (it's the second one there), you'll see it there.
posted by acornface at 8:10 AM on April 8, 2004

Less Than Jake f/ Billy Bragg

*boggles*
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:13 AM on April 8, 2004

I went to the Punk Voter show in Berkeley last weekend. NOFX didn't disappoint--due to an injury, Fat Mike had to play the entire show laying on a couch with his leg propped up, which added even more hilarity to their already pretty entertaining music.

The only downside was Jello Biafra. Someone decided it would be a good idea to have him rant like a paranoid idiot for about a half hour, draining all the energy from the crowd and probably scaring off at least a few dozen potential voters. Though I guess if they would have listened to him, they would have voted for Nader anyway...
posted by hal incandenza at 12:14 AM on April 9, 2004