Most of my political and social ideas come from punk rock. It would be mega proletariat of me to site the things i read in high school and college about the world's social injustices and assaults on the working class, but that's a romantic intellectual fairy tale. The ideas that spoke to me were from artists like: Jello Biafra, Dave Dictor and Justin Sullivan. The lyrics these guys put forth in their respective bands struck me like lighting and gave form to abstract thoughts lurking in mind. I was introduced to these artists in the 1980s and in the early '90s found myself pursuing more emotional music as opposed to the political stuff that previously got me wound up. This CD dropped in my lap and wound me up again upon it's release in 1993. A friend had put the extra-catchy track "showdown (g.e.p.)" on a mix tape for me and i was initially won over by the juxtaposition of the romantic and blunt political lyrics of the song. Like the id and ego of someone with turrets syndrome had learned to play guitar. When i finally tracked the disc down for myself I was stoked to see that most of the record was thoughtful and politically enlightening (sophomoric jokes litter the album and sometimes accentuate the heady high ground and sometimes mire the sentiments;"ska sucks" is a throwaway gag track). This cd got me back on course as far as being a thoughtful member of society and it's a damn fine punk album as well. It reminded me that there was suffering even when things were going ok for me. That there is still injustices on the other side of news special interest stories. And that a pun in a band name will still make me take interest. It's the kind of record i hope turns my kids onto the bigger picture stuff when they start discovering music.
