| |
|
1. Flux, I’d second [YNH]‘s question of what you think is wrong with ‘They Want Us To Make A Symphony Out Of The Sound Of Women Swallowing Their Own Tongues’… that track always reminds me of Public Enemy’s sample based stuff – particularly their tendency to sample their detractors and thus show up the ridiculousness of their detractors’ views. What ‘They Want Us…’ articulates, for me, is the kind of inarticulacy, the sheer speechless anger and sense of absurdity I, you, we, whoever feels when someone suggests that certain battles have been won, that the PC pinko lefty feminists have taken over… or, as ‘F.Y.R.’ on the new album sarcastically puts it: “You’ve really come a really long way baby / It’s you, not the world, that’s totally crazy.”
(Of course, it’s about lots of other things as well – like who gets a voice in today’s media, for starters, and also our assumptions about ‘articulacy’… )
“And it’s just so obviously, um…”
2. If we get any further into discussing the actual political arguments involved in asking whether singing “destroy the right wing!” is an agreeable or laudable thing or not, we risk derailing this thread. Funnily enough, it’s a subject that keeps cropping up for me recently, and I see it in all kinds of threads and ought, I suppose, to start a discussion in the Head Shop or somewhere about this – namely, is there an enemy, is there struggle, is there a them and an us after all? Because I know that everyone keeps saying that the Invisibles concludes that there isn’t, but y’know – that could be wrong. And I think it’s very easy to say that wanting to destroy the right wing is a way of thinking that’s outdated and naïve and reactionary, so long as the right wing – however we define that term – doesn’t directly impinge upon your life. If you consider the type of politics that Le Tigre tend to deal with, then it should be clear that “the right wing” here isn’t some group of reasonable people who just happen to disagree with ‘us’ about the free market. It’s a mindset characterised by the desire to keep power in the hands of a certain set of people defined by certain parameters of race, sex, class and sexuality, to enforce and expand that power by any means necessary. And we know that this mindset exists, and that these people exist – right?
I don’t think it’s a case of wilful ignorance… I think people on the progressive/left/liberal side often spend so much fucking time bending over backwards and making concessions and qualifying shit, and sometimes you just wanna say fuck dat, some things are JUST PLAIN WRONG.
3. I’m a bit worried by the way in which you’re using certain terms here as, um, what’s that thing where a word is made to carry certain pejorative implications? Or when it’s put together with a word that is pejorative and the suggestion is that the two go naturally together? I dunno, maybe you think I’m reading stuff into what you’re saying that isn’t there, but “’art school project’”, “really crap ‘feminist’ art” – my Spider-sense is tingling. Can you explain what you mean here?
4. (This ties in to both 2 and 3) One of the things I really like about this band is their shamelessness, their refusal to be embarrassed or coy about their convictions. Calling their new album Feminist Sweepstakes is a great example of this – it’s so blunt I almost find it cringe-inducing, but this in turn makes me wonder why. Why are we so reluctant to let ourselves be called feminist, socialist, left-wing, liberal? Is it just because the other side seem so good at (mis-)defining these terms? And in the none-more-cynical world of indie rock, where having any kind of convictions let alone political ones is sneered at, I find it incredibly refreshing that there’s a band who are willing to wear their heart on their sleeve (or scrawled in marker pen on their arm, whatever).
Yeah, so the other side of that is they risk sounding clumsy, making generalisations, simplifying issues. At least they take that risk. There’s actually a bit on the new album, on ‘Tres Bien, with Tammy Rae Carland talking about the refusal to be afraid to make mistakes, that you can then learn from. Good on ‘em.
5. ‘Bang Bang’- it’s certainly the song that often warrants them an online kicking. I’ve seen various charges levelled at that song ranging from ineffectiveness to exploitation. It strikes me as being something of an angry screed – it doesn’t quite ‘work’ as a coherent response to the events and issues in question, but it’s just something they needed to get out – not sure you can accuse that one at least of being a pose.
Not heard the Wyclef song, but I do think that ‘Bang Bang’ isn’t that much better (or worse) a response than Bruce Springsteen’s ‘American Skin’…
Hmmm… it’s the very sensitive and difficult question of writing about “someone else’s problem”, isn’t it? Or is it? . I dunno, how would people feel about an all-male band recording a track about how terrible violence against women is (I’m sure there are a few)? Is that comparable, or am I being naïve? Crunchy, help me out here and tell me why you think it’s bad…
Even more tomorrow, probably.
[ 08-11-2001: Message edited by: Flyboy ] |
|
|
