Skatepunk

• Title: Ian MacKaye
• Artist: MaximumFun.org
• Album: PRI: The Sound of Young America
• Genre: Other
• Year: 2009
• Length: 31:13 minutes (21.45 MB)
• Format: Mono 44kHz 96Kbps (CBR)

This interview from The Sound of Young America with Ian is an in-depth look at one of the men who helped shape the music and attitudes of this young skatepunk. Enjoy.

• Title: Seven Miles of Copper
• Artist: Black Them Boots
• Album: Fancy
• Length: 4:21 minutes (4.98 MB)
• Format: Stereo 44kHz 160Kbps (CBR)

From the forthcoming CD/LP "Fancy" from Black Them Boots.

• Title: 225
• Artist: New Model Army
• Album: Thunder and Consolation
• Year: 1989
• Length: 4:47 minutes (5.49 MB)
• Format: Stereo 44kHz 160Kbps (CBR)

Another New Model Army song. I don't know where the title comes form, but the lyrics were among the first that spoke to me about global politics, rather than personal politics, like Minor Threat or Fugazi, or social issues, like the Clash. Great stuff.

225:
She stares at the screen, at the little words of green
Tries to do remember what to do next
There's a trace of frustration that crosses her face
Searching for the key she should press
And I would help her if I only know how
But these things are a mystery to me too
And it seems that the Corporate eyes they are watching
She fears for her job and the moments are passing
I stare at her nametag and I think to myself
Both you and I, we never asked for any of this
So let's take a walk up past the chemical works
Where the sky turns green at night
And we'll talk about getting away from here
Some different kind of life
But even in the freshest mountain air
The jet fighters practise overhead
And they're drilling these hills for uranium deposits
And they'll bury the waste for our children to inherit
And though this is all done for our own benefit,
I swear we never asked for any of this
This golden age of communication
Means everyone talks at the same time
And liberty just means the freedom to exploit
Any weakness that you can find
Turn off the TV just for a while
Let us whisper to each other instead
And we'll hope that the Corporate ears do not listen
Lest we find ourselves committing some kind of treason
And filed in the tapes without rhyme, without reason
While they tell us that it's all for our own protection,
I swear we never asked for any of this

• Title: 125 Mph
• Artist: New Model Army
• Album: Thunder and Consolation
• Year: 1989
• Length: 3:58 minutes (4.54 MB)
• Format: Stereo 44kHz 160Kbps (CBR)

Song from "Thunder and Consolation" by NMA, one of my favorites.

• Title: Here We Are Nowhere
• Artist: Sten Guns
• Album: S/T
• Length: 1:03 minutes (1.21 MB)
• Format: Stereo 44kHz 160Kbps (CBR)

"Here We Are Nowhere" from the Sessions Noisses comp from 2003. It's a Stiff Little Fingers song, fun, easy, short. Perfect.

• Title: Joy - Demo
• Artist: Against Me!
• Album: The Lime Album
• Genre: Other
• Length: 1:43 minutes (2.37 MB)
• Format: Stereo 44kHz 192Kbps (CBR)

Demo version of another one of my favorite Against Me! songs. Great stuff. This version is pretty raw and Tom's voice isn't as dynamic but it still sounds amazing. I love listening to what songs start out as and what they become.

• Title: Reinventing Axl Rose
• Artist: Against Me!
• Album: Acoustic E.P.
• Year: 2001
• Length: 2:12 minutes (2.54 MB)
• Format: Stereo 44kHz 160Kbps (CBR)

This song was on Against Me!'s first full length, but this version is from their acoustic Ep, and is my favorite. What freaking awesome lyrics. If you don't get it, that's fine, unless you think you get underground music.

We want a band that plays loud and hard every night
That doesn't care how many people are counted at the door
That would travel one million miles and ask for nothing more than a plate of food and a place to rest
They'd strike chords that cut like a knife
It would mean so much more than t-shirts or a ticket stub and they'd stop at nothing short of a massacre
Everyone would leave with the memory that there was no place else in the world
And this was where they always belonged
We would dance like no one was watching with one fist in the air
Our arenas are just basements and bookstores across an underground America
With this fire we could light...
Just gimme a scene where the music is free and the beer is not the life of the party
and there's no need to shit talk or impress 'cause honesty and emotion are not looked down upon
And every promise that's made and bragged is meant if not kept
We'd do it all because we have to, not because we know why
Beyond a gender, race, and class, we could find what really holds us back
Let's make everybody sing -- that they are the beginning and ending of everything
That we all are stronger than everything they taught us that we should fear

• Title: Baby, I'm An Archanist
• Artist: Against Me!
• Album: The Lime Album
• Length: 2:40 minutes (2.46 MB)
• Format: Stereo 44kHz 128Kbps (CBR)

Hilarious lyrics to a great song. This was from the era where they were emerging as a great band and Tom was really developing as a song writer. The album this was off, "Reinventing Axl Rose" was underground album of the year in 2002 for tons of reviewers. This song was often played last at Against Me! shows -- it culminated the show as the ultimate sing along and was a perfect ender, but it also deteriorated so badly with kids storming the stage that Tom would take off his guitar and simply sing, if he could even do that. After that it was sorta difficult to put things back together.

Lyrics:
Through the best of times, through the worst of times,
Through Nixon and through Bush, do you remember '36?
We went our separate ways...
You fought for Stalin - I fought for freedom
You believe in authority - I believe in myself
I'm a molotov cocktail, you're Dom Perignon
Baby, what's that confused look in your eyes?
What I'm trying to say is that...
I burn down buildings while you sit on a shelf inside of them.
You call the cops on the looters and piethrowers
They call it class war, I call them co-conspirators
Chorus:
'Cause baby, I'm an anarchist and you're a spineless liberal
We marched together for the eight-hour day and held hands in the streets of Seattle
But when it came time to throw bricks through that Starbucks window
You left me all alone (all alone)

You watched in awe at the red white and blue on the fourth of July
While those fireworks were exploding I was burning that fucker
And stringing my black flag high...
Eating the peanuts that the parties have tossed you
In the back seat of your father's new Ford--
You believe in the ballot you believe in reform
You have faith in the elephant and the jackass
And to you solidarity's a four-letter word
We're all hypocrites, but you're a patriot
You thought I was only joking when I screamed "Kill Whitey!" at the top of my lungs
At the cops in their cars and the men in their suits
No, I won't take your hand and marry the state
Chorus

• Title: Skate & Destroy
• Artist: Faction
• Album: Collection 1982-1985
• Length: 1:52 minutes (2.16 MB)
• Format: Stereo 44kHz 160Kbps (CBR)

A complete classic Skate Rock song, and definitely the song the Faction is best known for, "Skate and Destroy" is perfect 80s thrash, in the first sense of the term. Here are the lyrics:
Chorus:
Forget the light, skate and destroy
Pass the jogger, skate and destroy
Snap it back, skate and destroy
Kick that bike, skate and destroy

It's not a cause or political belief, it's something in my thinking
If you agree that's cool by me, at least I'm not a robot
I'm not afraid of things I read, I won't divide my friends up
Dictatorship of people's minds is not what I will strive for
Chorus
The cops are coming after me, their sons are BMXers
They always try to stop me but urethane is faster than boots
You may be in a parking lot throwing up your contents
So what? Who cares? I know I don't! Be a hood, don't be good!

So idyllic and yet not wrong at all in its message, the song and the words were totally symbolic of the little battle -- that seemed like the most important thing in the world at the time -- between the Transworld Skateboarding ideal of "skate and create" and the Thrasher motto - "skate and destroy."

One of the most amazing things about the Faction, and especially most of their later stuff, is that their music has transcended time like good music does. Sure some of it sounds a little dated, but the heart and energy will never burn out or fade away. Turn it up to 11.

• Title: Don't Look Back
• Artist: Black Them Boots
• Album: Rough Mixes #1 Album
• Length: 4:47 minutes (5.49 MB)
• Format: Stereo 44kHz 160Kbps (CBR)

An unmixed version of "Don't Look Back" from the first album sessions. Still needs to be mixed and mastered but it sounds cool to me.