perfidy

I recently kicked off a review of a Don Byron album by complaining about how hard it can be to review albums in genres whose followers are particularly devoted to their cause. Well, before proceeding I would like it to be known that I am wearing sackcloth, rolling myself in ashes, and beating my head repeatedly into the brick wall out behind CBGB, ‘cuz it’s Punk Rock Reviewin’ Time! Outraged jazz fans might lob flaming emails in my direction if I dare to compare Greg Osby to Coleman Hawkins. But be stupid about punk in the wrong room, and you might find yourself (so I fancy) running for your life.

The object of today’s scrutiny is the pretty good sophomore effort from Roger Miret & The Disasters, titled 1984 (2005; Epitaph). According to Miret, “’1984,’ was originally written about 1982. But the chorus ‘1982’ doesn’t sound as good as ‘1984.’” Ok, then. Orwellian it ain’t, for a change.

Roger Miret was born to Cuban immigrants fleeing Castro's Cuba, and grew up on New York's Lower East Side. Since 1982 he has been the frontman of the great New York hardcore band Agnostic Front (except for those couple years in jail). It seems that despite his spotless hardcore credentials, Roger has a relatively softer side to him, because on 1984 he trades the brutal thrash of NYC hardcore for a more melodic but no less raucous street-punk sound. Plenty of punk bands these days do the football-chant chorus thing, but Miret, having decades of experience on the young pikers (and having been around when the thing began), generally does it better.

Part of the difference is that Miret knows how to write a song. 1984 is full of loud guitars, fast tempos, shouted “oi!”s, and aggressive melodies, and with its thirteen songs clocking in just under 30 minutes, nothing hangs around long enough to get old. But the rest of the difference is that Roger Miret is older and smarter. Street punk isn’t all that interesting a genre without good stories to tell, and Miret has 25 years of experience behind his songs.

Lyrically, 1984 is about the glory years of oi, the bad old days when Times Square was about porno and New York seemed to be imploding. Songs like “Hooligans,” “New York City” and “Lower East Side” are shouts out to the kids of 1982, and others like “Kill for Cash,” “Shot Stabbed and Fooled” and “Turncoat” revisit the ground-level political themes of betrayal and responsibility that have been Miret’s mainstays for years. But Miret sings with the earned wisdom and nostalgia of someone who’s seen it all. The lyrics to “New York City” go:

New York City, a city so great
Her pride, her beauty so pure
Her birth of my soul, so honest, so strong
Her mecca – how I adore

As I child I remember her dark alleyways
Where we learned how to fight
And we learned to be brave

We played handball all day and kissed girls all night
Fought off rival gangs
How we were so alive

I grew older and watched the neighborhood change
I saw my friends perish
To ruthless violent ends

I remember just yesterday’s city streetlights
Where the boys hung all night
And the gang fought with pride – in New York City.

Outside the world of activist punk, out where people have desk jobs and Toyotas, the world doesn’t seem as dark and desperate as this. Not, at least, in the same hope-againt-hope, true-grit, darkess-at-the-edge-of-town sense. Not every corporation is actively plotting to take your home (well, not yet), not every person has to scrabble for every nickel, and not every boss has secret plans to impoverish your neighborhood. People don’t get stabbed all that often.

But to the same degree that Straight Outta Compton was actually about how some dumbass teenagers with uncommon talent for marketing sold drugs and shot other gangs up, 1984 is about the dedicated individuals who remember where they came from and find in punk rock the inspiration they need to keep fighting the good fight. In this, it’s not that different from the last five Rancid albums or whatever the kids are playing down at the V.F.W. hall tonight. But Rancid get boring, the kids have no talent, and Roger Miret has 13 good songs, 30 minutes, and 25 years of sticking to his guns.

And it is the “sticking to his guns” part that makes Roger Miret & The Disasters a little more interesting than the thousand other worthy street-punkers out there from the Dropkick Murphys to the Unseen. With Agnostic Front, Miret has been actively involved in political music since 1982, and considering his background he has come by his activism honestly

As AF’s website puts it,

In today's civilization, people continue to suffer undergoing the grief, corruption, oppression and exploitation without a way to elude their troubles. Many have lived through these problems for ages, and the moment one tries to fight for what they believe is right, the elite brings them down and their voices are disregarded. Since 1982, AGNOSTIC FRONT has helped get these messages across to the populace to help solve these problems through socially driven music known as “Hardcore.”

It is easy to scoff at a band who claim to help solve problems through their music. After all, last Saturday Bob Geldof got Paul McCartney to play with U2, and here it is Wednesday already and Africa is still a mess.

But it takes a certain kind of bullheaded integrity and tenacity to fight the good fight for twenty-five years in the face of Reagan, Bush I, Bush II, gentrification, yuppification, and the coming of the abomination known as Emo-core. Despite the fact that AF’s manifesto isn’t incredibly articulate, Miret’s songs are. Generally speaking, his politics and causes are those of the street, of the Irish immigrants of the last century and of the Latino immigrants of this one; justice, loyalty, fair policing, giving people a break, and taking care of one’s own.

Populism as a political mode is custom made for punk rock, and Miret's music is compelling in a Studs Lonigan way. That his cause seems a little quixotic is unavoidable as true old-Left style social activists have been supplanted by a bunch of talkers spouting paranoid rants and conspiracy theories. Whatever else you might say about them, unions have fed more people than Moveon.org ever will. It also helps that Miret’s songs are born of personal experience rather than youthful idealism, which is the difference between the old neighborhood organizer trading punches inside City Hall and the idiot kid burning the flag outside.

If through 1984 Miret wins more fans for his music and good fight he fights (even if it’s not my fight), great. Thanks to him and the scene he helped found, generations of hardcore fans have grown up understanding the power of grassroots organizing, how to put on a show in your garage and make a few bucks doing it, and how to deal with the cops when they come around. For that alone it is a sure bet that Roger Miret has done more good in the world than Bob Geldof, Bono, and “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” put together.

www.epitaph.com

(This post also appears at blogcritics.org. All good sentient beings get their entertainment news and reporting from blogcritics.org. You are sentient, aren't you? You’ve got a little boy. He shows you his butterfly collection plus the killing jar. What do you do?... You are watching television. You see a wasp crawling on your arm. What do you do?)