Wow, I dare you to find anybody who comes close to this today. Forgive me for being a little nostalgic on a Retro Tuesday, but I’ve been waiting for all-out high energy aggressive angry rock and roll to make a comeback, and I’m getting impatient. Not dissing the current generation of bands out there. I hear new music I love everyday.
Modern Rock IMHO essentially flips between periods of being all about raw youthful energy – love, hope, frustration, hate, and lust (Mid to late 50s, mid to late 60s, late 70s to early 80s, all of the 90s) – to periods of studied, restrained cool, and good musicianship (every other period in between).
I really feel like we’re due for a period of just playing the s*** out of our instruments again, and not giving a f***.
Socially, the conditions are pretty ripe. The current crop of young people are working their asses off for very little reward, after a whole life of being told how each and every one of them is special, and that all they had to do was believe in a dream and work hard, only to be full out exploited by those same people. Surveys say that having no hope and realizing you’ve been lied to your whole life are the top two reasons for thrashing to angry violent punk. And watching your parents ride away on matching custom Harleys thanks to their fat, unsustainable pensions while you occupy your childhood bedroom and water the plants is right up there too.
I don’t think this crop of young people will be the ones to fight back though. They’re exhausted and hopelessly in debt. They don’t have the luxury of being angry and disillusioned. It’s the batch of kids after them that are going to clue into what’s happening and call everybody on their collective bulls***. And hopefully we’ll enter a new world of prosperity that’ll make disconnecting from college and a career less of a scary scenario.
In the meantime, holy f*** check out f***ing Bad Brains!! Here is the studio version: