Proletariat "Voodoo Economics and other American Tragedies" 2XCD

Bootstraps!

I was first exposed to The Proletariat on that CD, which was also released by Taang, compiling "This is Boston Not LA" and "Unsafe at Any Speed." Don’t get me wrong! I don’t need to waste MY time and YOUR time clearing up any misconceptions because after all, this is a REVIEW, not a plane crash investigation... Gangreen, The F.U.s, The Freeze and others kicked a lot of ass on that CD, but it was the tracks by the Proletariat which really got me interested. I don’t know how long this CD has been out but the moment I saw it I bought it.

If you can hear "Options" and NOT consider it one of the best songs ever... If you can listen to "Options" and not feel like bombing a World Trade Center or joining the closest leftist rebellion of choice (mine is the R.U.N. or REFUSERS UNITED NATION who number close to 35 at the time of this writing and are dug in on 350 acres in the Appalachian foothills of southeastern Kentucky and are said to have the capability to live INDEPENDENT for years... The FBI and other key government orifices currently have them under siege; you won’t hear about this in CNN or read about it in the USA Today... You just have had to stumble onto the story like I did on a recent excursion to Lookout Mountain)... Anyway, like I said, "Options" and other Proletariat songs set standards to judge your peers by. VOODOO!!!! Simple as that...

This double CD has a grand total of 45 songs gathering the aforementioned tracks found on "Unsafe at any Speed" and "This is Boston Not LA", but also includes other Prole releases including a limited edition cassette (yeah, remember those things?) called Distrotion in its entirety, Homestead Records releases like the "Marketplace" b/w "Death of A Headon" single as well as the complete Independence full-length (also on Homestead), the infamous Soma Holiday that apparently everyone in the world had except me (until now) and last, but not least, four unreleased tracks! Fucking impressive! Yes!!! Impressive! I will admit that the sheer totalness and length of this CD is somewhat overbearing but I’m not complaining too much. You see, like GO AND DO IT, that one CD featuring the massive amounts of Australian Punk bands who did work for Abberant Records, and hell, even the Boston Not LA/Unsafe CD for that matter, there’s just a lot of material on this Double disc. A lot to listen to, a lot to go through… I have had this disc for a week now and JUST NOW is it really sinking in.

The CD booklet, which is thick as a brick, consists of lyrics and pictures of the band. I caught myself looking for some of those good old fashioned liner notes like something I could read while I took a shit or something but to no avail, just song lyrics. I’m betting that there will be more of what I am looking for on their website address, which I have included at the end of this review...

So, for those of you who know nothing about The Proletariat, let me try to give you something to work with by further giving you bands in comparison that you are too fucking lame to have given time of day to. The thing about The Proletariat is that they seemed to start off with a sound like if Conflict had went into a direction heading into art-punk like The Gang of Four. Hard, driving guitars which short and sharp abrasive lyrics that resemble Wire somewhat. Lyrically, the songs deal with mostly politics on a personal level coming across like forgotten or missing pages from a history book on the 20th Century, especially the early to mid 80's because that was their time period... The Proletariat shock with truth. Pull no punches. Some songs, like the lyrics to "Voodoo Economics," are basic and to the point like children’s books are:

Doug picked up the ball. Doug through the ball at his friend Roger. Roger has interesting opinions on the situation in El Salvador!

Its taking tense and at the time, current news and telling it in a language that’s easily understood and consumed by those whose opinions would come to shape society. You see, all those kids slammin' in the pit back in Boston to the Proletariat... Well, not all of them are probably the bastions of independent thoughts and actions like some would wish, but just maybe instead of being the downtown emotionless robot high-rise worker or whatever, someone who listened and bought Proletariat releases might be more sensitive to the HUMANITY around them and actually show compassion in SOME. If even in a small way... Me, FUCK! I use to almost play exclusively with war toys as a child. I had massive amounts of Army Men and would fight massive wars after wars in all parts of my childhood home, mostly after being inspired by a good war movie. I didn’t know what my troops were fighting for, but there were two distinct sides: The Good Guys and The Bad guys. Even though I did field a population of Army mean numbering into the hundreds per side I learned how to recirculate the dead troops into new troops for the cause. I can never remember a real substantial victory (for the good guys of course) leaving more than four or five key soldiers alive. My wars were total and to the end. Just to show you how things change, in 1987, during the beginnings of The Gulf War (WARS WITH SURFBOARDS!) I TIED to see the worth, but didn’t, and ranked amongst the seven people in my school of 3,500 who did not endorse the gulf war. As far as wars go, The Gulf War was probably the coolest war. Smart bombs… The allies united… Clear lines of good versus bad… Gas weapons… Cruise Missiles.... I just wanted into it. It wasn’t for me.

It seems that as the band’s ability grew, The Proletariat began to work other sounds more into their own sound. They don’t outright abandon, but rather explore a bit and add to the abrasive Conflict type guitar and venture into territories and places where you would find bands like Mission of Burma (which just to happen to be from Boston too), The Mob and Zounds. The latter material might not be as loud and as forth as the latter, but really the Proletariat show with songs like "Recollections", "Columns", "Piecework", "Uneasy Peace", and "Instinct" that there was such a thing as hardcore art-punk, and they were that.

This is a great CD and one I feel that many who read Blank Generation could find a soft spot in their hardcore for it. It’s not garage punk. It’s not rock and/or roll. It’s The Proletariat. Get it fool. (SAB)

Blank Generation, September 2001

(www.taang.com) (Taang Records)