I have no interest in convincing anyone of anything, so that’s all that’s important to say about it. My viewpoint has changed dramatically in the last 6-9 months, and this kind of politics and music is just not where my heart is anymore. Nothing I write feels very skilled at communicating whatever it is I am trying to say, but it just seems important to tell you that I am not really an anarchist or a punk anymore. They treat me with kindness and generosity anyway, because as well as being true rebels they are also true friends, who care about people beyond abstractions like ideology or subculture.I have grown into a basically ordinary person, albeit a somewhat strange one. Some days, that’s why I sweep now.While the Bandits are still true rebels banging on the system, I am not really one anymore. But a clean floor is nice to walk on anyway, and someday we may even be able to sweep the floor because we respect the dignity of our feet and not because we are afraid of the dirt. We can’t treat this as a problem there is not a solution to it. In our bare feet we notice that the floor is dirty, and then we can sweep the floor or not, but either way it will be a new situation tomorrow. I don’t know if there is an end result to a process like this.Redemption stories are nice, but I think the reality is more like sweeping the floor. You’d have to ask them if they trust me yet, six years into my sobriety. They said I needed to pay them back.I got sober, and they were still mad, and we worked on it bit by bit, and over time I paid them back the money, and I still try to give them something extra whenever I can. They said they didn’t trust me anymore and they weren’t sure if they could again. They said they were angry, but they were willing to work on it. They didn’t say it was okay, so I could get away with it and do it again. (In retrospect, I side with my detractors.) The DIY Bandits had my back anyway, even though they might have been more successful if they hadn’t.Years later, when I stole money from them to shoot heroin, they stood by me again, in a real way. They were the first group of people to distribute my music, and that was sometimes a liability for them because I was an obnoxious drug addict/alcoholic teenager who made obnoxious music that a lot of people in the punk and radical political scenes really did not think was a good thing for the world. It also explains some of the incongruity between the perspective represented by the songs I wrote for this album and the content of the album notes I am writing now.The DIY Bandits were true rebels banging on the system when I met them 11 years ago, and they still are today. (Releasing vinyl takes forever these days.) The lag time between recording and release is why some of these songs have already been put out on other albums, although these are different recordings of those songs with different instrumentation.
I recorded this album almost a year and a half ago with my old friends the DIY Bandits. The place that many punks end up in their old age. But based on his trajectory and latest interviews, it is reasonable to speculate that he is making his way further to the right, and closer to the top on the political compass.
He only just recently retired so knowing where he stands politically is impossible until new statements come out. He even started to portray belief in a higher power ⁽¹²⁾ as a positive thing ⁽¹³⁾, when at first he scoffed at it ⁽¹⁴⁾ and (ironically) hailed satan ⁽¹⁵⁾.
Similar to the way a recovering alcoholic shares their most embarrassing stories ⁽¹⁰⁾ for the sake of cathartic introspection ⁽¹¹⁾, and so that others in recovery can benefit from the lessons learned. Furthermore, his earliest songs ennobled suicide and self destructive behaviors ⁽⁸⁾, whereas his more recent stuff portrayed those lifestyle choices remorsefully and with sprinkles of motivation ⁽⁹⁾ thrown in. Nevertheless, all of his songs are anti-government and advocate revolution, albeit his later works do so in a more realistic/peaceful ⁽⁷⁾ manner. But as years progressed and he went to rehab, he sang about bettering oneself through sobriety and coming to terms with the fruitless actions ⁽⁴⁾ of a “teenage anarchist ⁽⁵⁾” throwing a “temper tantrum ⁽⁶⁾.” For example, his earlier acts such as “Johnny Hobo and the Freight Trains” are drenched in nihilistic ⁽¹⁾, hedonistic ⁽²⁾, and violent ⁽³⁾ motifs. He has performed in various acts, and similar to Dead Prez, toned down his rhetoric as he matured in life.
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