New Title

I changed the title of my blog. It was "Nothing to fear, nothing to doubt," which in many ways is my personal mantra, but I changed it to something more striking in my opinion. "Do You Want Hannah Montana, or Do You Want the Truth?"

The title was inspired from a Minutemen song from 1984 entitled "Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Truth?" The Minutemen are one of my all-time favorite bands, and that song is one of the best songs ever. That band, for me, signifies being true to yourself and rejecting the status quo, and using the best of what you have to achieve greatness. As a part of the burgeoning 1980s American alternative rock movement, the Minutemen were perhaps the most unique band out of the Southern California punk/hardcore scene. Bands like Husker Du and Black Flag were often identified with heavily distorted guitars, fast songs, and anguished screaming, at least in the early days of the movement. The Minutemen played perhaps faster than anyone (most of their songs averaged less or a little more than a minute long), but their late guitarist/vocalist D. Boon never used distortion, and their vocals were more like campaigning politicians than pissed off kids who hated their parents. Therefore, the Minutemen were more a microcosm of their own. Most hardcore fans rejected them early on in their too brief career, and most of their contemporaries (particularly those on Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn's SST label) outsold them. But they were one of the most respected and revered bands of the 1980s. Shit, the press loved them.

As for that song, it says so much without saying much of anything (much like most Minutemen songs). As a brief encapsulation of their freethinking philosophy, "Do You Want New Wave..." is almost a mantra of using words to express thoughts and ideas that challenge people to think, and trying to get escape from their comfort zones (Duran Duran, perhaps?) to confront the truth. It also denounces the glitter and glam of mainstream Reagan-era society as a fraud, and saw their world of music and art expressed as a solace for many disaffected young people instead of a way to make a ton of money. For me, the message of the Minutemen (and a lot of other bands in that movement) resonates more than ever two decades later, as this decade has been marred by a turbulent economy, a disastrous presidency, and a society more superficial than it ever has been. My writing has always been very honest, and I don't hold back. I tell the truth. As for using Hannah Montana in the title for my blog, I think that she is the ultimate representation of superficiality in this generation. She is a product; an overexposed, commercialized, no substance, no talent product that the masses suck up like a vacuum. Forget the fact that her father was Billy Ray Cyrus, one of the 1990s worst musical figures (tied with Fred Durst and Vanilla Ice for my money). Remember "Achy Breaky Heart?" Remember his repulsive mullet? Well, he shot a load of semen into whoever was dumb enough to fuck him in 1992, and out came Hannah Montana (or Miley Cyrus, whatever her fucking name is; I think the role model for 9 year old girls today represents multiple-personality disorder, but that's another argument).

People don't think. Individuals do. I concur with whoever came up with that philosophy. People use trends to try to dull harsh realities, always have. In the 1980s, it was, in fact, the New Wave movement. I'm not talking about Elvis Costello, Blondie, Talking Heads New Wave. More like the Duran Duran, Culture Club, Human League New Wave, which occured a few years after the prementioned bands and the scene had become diluted. Nowadays, I can't go anywhere without seeing Hannah Montana's saccharine smile. This will never change. There will always be huge businessmen that want to get rich, and will always find something or someone to capitalize. They will put out products that will fly off department store shelves, sell out stadiums, make millions of dollars, and then be a cultural footnote in five years time. What will it be next? I'm almost scared to find out.

For now, here are the lyrics to the song that this rant was inspired from, and a video of the band performing the song 11 days before I was born (6/17/85), six months before D. Boon was killed in a van accident. To this day, their bassist Mike Watt still jams econo, and has never let money or whatever success he has had (which isn't very much, although he landed a gig playing with the reuinted Stooges, which is a pretty sweet deal!).

"Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Truth?"

a word war will set off the keg
"my words are war!" should a word have two meanings?
what the fuck for? should words serve the truth?
i stand for language
i speak the truth
i shout for history
i am the cesspool
for all the shit
to run down in