Byron Clark

Riot 111 was a Wellington based anarhco-punk band formed by two political activists during the era of the anti-Springbok tour protests. The band played once played on the back of a truck outside the Avalon Studies building in the Hutt Valley when 'Radio with Pictures' refused to play this song due in part to its "inference and recreation of police violence"

	Riot 111 - Writing On The Wall
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

For more about this local punk band from the early 80's see NZHistory.net and Wikipedia.

We had no way of staying afloat
We had to leave on the ferry boat
Economic refugeess

According to the Sunday Star Times, "An American futurologist is predicting a major depression followed by revolution" but also "a rise in cheerful music." I have my doubts about a revolution in 2009, but I respect a futurist who can make a bold prediction that will be shown to be incorrect so quickly.

Anyway, heres some non-emo depression music.

The drones all slave away, they're working overtime,
They serve a faceless queen, they never question why.
Disciples of a God, that neither lives nor breathes,
But we have bills to pay, yeah we have mouths to feed!

A few weeks back a member of the Communist Workers Group made passionate arguments on Indymedia that a vote for the Workers Party is a vote for National, no one paid much attention to the ramblings of a party whose entire membership could fit in a phone booth, but now it seems New Zealand's second most read blog has taken a leaf from CWG's book. I made a few comments but really I'm not in the mood for polemics, I'll leave all I want to say to Pulp.

Are you a socialist, yeah
Socialist, yeah / Socialist, yeah / Oh yeah"
"Yeah, you can be just what you want to be
Just as long as you don't try to compete with me
And we've waited such a long time
For the chance to help our own kind, so now
Please come on and tow the party line / Oh you owe it to yourself
Don't think of anybody else

I discovered Laurie Anderson when she was interviewed on an episode of Democracy Now. Loving the social commentary.

See my last post for the reference. Heres Gather with "I hate Ayn Rand"





'I hate Ayn Rand'
'Individualism' is the mentality that you don't owe anyone anything. / "Don't tell me how to live my life and i won't tell you how to live yours" - Fuck that / Manifestation of living in a capitalist system

Some light entertainment, or something more meaningful...

I quite enjoyed this.

I'd like to draw peoples attention to Dons Franks new song "Safer Communities Together Blues" about the police raids on the 15th.

In keeping with the music theme, theres a benefit gig to raise money for the Civil Rights Defence fund happening at the Wunderbar next Thusday (the 1st). Heres a link to the poster.

If you're outside Christchurch there are other fundrasing events happening round the country, see Anarchia for more details.

Before I write about this new album, I should say for anyone who hasn't yet heard that 800 hospital workers have been locked out get along to a picket line if you can, and you can make an automatic donation to the lock out fund by calling 0900 LOCKOUT.

On to the post the title promised though, American punk band Against Me! have just released their first album on a major label; New Wave is a little less political and less punky (more refined?) than their earlier stuff, but its still the same Against Me! under it all. White People for Peace is deffinatly one of the best songs, a great anti-war anthem even if its maybe a little tame for a group of people who call themselves anarchists. 'Americans Abroad' is a light hearted song about what has been termed cultural imperialism with lytics like;

Golden arches risin' above the next overpass
These horizons are endless
Americans abroad! Americans abroad!
Profit driven expansion into foreign markets
And while I hope I'm not like them, I'm not so sure

The tracks "Thrash Unreal" and "Stop" are also particularly good, in short this is an album i'd reccomend.

"White Peoplefor Peace" the new single from Against Me, its quite different from their earlier stuff (in part because this is a remix) but I like it, their new album 'New Wave' is coming out in a few days.

Theres very little political about this post, but I wanted to do a short review of this album, and I guess it will show readers that I have a life beyond activism.

Type O Negative's new album "Dead Again came out a few days ago and I've scored a copy, this is their first album since 2003, back then I was still in high school, and music always sounds better when you're that young, however, Dead Again didn't disapoint, its a lot like their 90s albums, and I expect this one was made specifficaly for the fans; I doubt any of the songs will be released as a single, and to be honest, the band aren't getting any younger.

Vocalist Peter Steele has got over a drug addiction and converted to Christianity between this album and 2003's Life is Killing me But he can still do metal, but the lyrical content has changed, most notably with the song "These Three Things" which has a strong anti-abortion message, I expect this will be the one I hit the skip button on the most, its quite ironic when compared to the song "Life is Killing Me" with its strong right-to-die message. A song I really like is "The Profit Of Doom" classic Type O style with an eschaton theme.

To sum up, its a good album, maybe not great, but worth getting if you're a big fan, if not a big fan however, stick with Bloody Kisses and October Rust.