This is one of my all time favorite album covers. It's a pretty simple one, it doesn't need to be finely examined for hidden nuances. It's bold and eye grabbing and has impeccable hand done type font. While i like #theexploited a lot (their EPs tend to be a more digestible helping) i really love their aesthetic. Giant colorful mohawks, studded leather with protest slogans scrawled on them and skulls all over the place. The band are like motorhead's uglier younger brother. Fast and gruff and a great deal more blunt force trauma than Lemmy and Co. I painted this cover on my biker leather jacket when i was 17. The jacket i bought after weeks of working at a pizzeria a couple years prior. I actually miss the jacket alot. The look would not work for me anymore. It was fine when it was draped over my skeletal younger self but now i fear i would look like some well fed "sons of anarchy" extra. The jacket was a badge before it was painted, afterwards it became a confrontational cape. "Why do you want to start a war?" Was the snarky comment i heard. I would try to explain the flippant irony of the title and when disregarded i would get confrontational in return. I was quick with that. As a friend recently pointed out to me: back then teenage angst wasn't marketed through stores at the mall. You worked hard at being an outsider and thrived on the conflict your wardrobe evoked. It was a narrower world back then. And while I miss the romanticism of fist fighting jocks and preppies every week i am also thankful that the wide world is more apparent and while being a punk rocker today means your clothing is more expensive and you arent much more popular with the atheletic community at least the motive is generally more understood by all. Well it feels that way to me. I keep wondering if today's political climate will provide punk with a generation of new disciples. The cold war and teenage hormonal imbalances were a perfect storm for my friends and i to embrace Watty shouting these protest songs at us.
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