The resurrection of punk: angry guitars against Brexit and the pandemic

• JOSÉ FAJARDO

Saturday, 12 September 2020 - 01:44

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• Esthetic.

  Punk never left

• Patti Smith.

  "Sometimes loved ones who died visit me in dreams and it's wonderful"

"There is no future in the dream of England," said the Sex Pistols in 1977. Today the echoes of that punk explosion resonate in cities like London and Dublin. It is the angry response to the new crisis of a generation of musicians who, oblivious to fashions, she has again angrily grabbed guitars to convince young people that the present is worth fighting for.

and their anger (they say) does not seek destruction but a more egalitarian world.

«We live in confused times, people are scared by the pandemic.

It is very easy to create the feeling that the people are in conflict to divide us.

We have to direct forces in another direction,

and the idea of ​​building something collective that is bigger than oneself », reflects in a telephone conversation the British

, singer of Idles.

"If you want to defeat the machine, keep your teeth clean and kill them with kindness," the group says on Kill them with kindness, one of the tracks on their new album

(Partisan Records / PIAS), out September 25. and will present in Spain (if the virus allows it) on June 8, 2021, in the La Riviera room in Madrid.

Unlike Sid Vicious, Johnny Rotten, and other early punks,

but through love and solidarity.

"That doesn't mean we're not pissed off," says Talbot.

«Our songs are a response to the situation around us.

, as well as in the rest of the world.

The case of Spain is a good reflection of the rise of the extreme right as a result of citizens' fear of an uncertain future.

Beyond carpe diem

On songs like

("working from nine to five every weekday is carcinogenic") and

("our government hates the poor") Idles goes beyond that spirit of

punk and connects with the class struggle through opposing images that

"The goal is to create an impact, our motto is that love conquers all and hopefully it can also defeat fascism."

Our music speaks of unity and building something common

Joe Talbot (Idles)

Says

, one of the most prestigious music journalists of the world, that punk at the time meant "something radically new and disturbing threat."

This British theorist - author of the most important book on the genre:

, reissued by Reservoir Books in 2017 - acknowledged that same year at the First Person Festival in Barcelona that

.

Fountaines DC will come to Spain in spring.

However, the social crisis accentuated by the Covid-19 pandemic is shaking the underground circuit through which these bands move with rebellious messages and angry sounds.

"In the face of the desolation that surrounds us

and that seeks subversion," concedes vocalist Joe Talbot.

Although the charts in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland continue to be led by sounds closer to hip hop and electronic music, another of the most anticipated releases this year has been

by the Irish Fontaines DC, which came out with the same label of Idles at the end of the summer and they will present in Spain next year, on March 10 at La Riviera in Madrid and on March 11 at Razzmatazz in Barcelona.

After a debut -

, from 2019 - that drank from raw and direct punk, in this continuation the group

but the essence - the rage against the established order - is still there.

The album went straight to the top 10 sales in countries such as England, France, Holland and Germany and became among the 40 most listened to in Spain.

"Taking into account the music we make and the sounds that young people like right now, it

," says guitarist Carlos O'Connell, who lived in Madrid until he was 18 and later moved to Dublin. , following the origins of his mother.

BEFORE THE PANDEMIC

Both the Idles and Fontaines DC albums are written before the pandemic, and yet both are revealing in this context of global quarantines.

shout the Irish in No, one of the songs on an album that reflects on isolation and the need to feel free.

Last year the group became the new phenomenon of Anglo-Saxon rock, with all that that entails: tours that do not end, strenuous promotional days with hardly any time at home to relax.

«What the whole planet is suffering now when confined, we experienced

In the lyrics there is that current feeling that everything we have is very fragile and could disappear », he reflects.

Beyond the pandemic and the deep economic and social crisis that is already bleeding Europe, there is an exceptional phenomenon that has served as a glue for all these gangs:

Many of them began to play (or released records) in 2016, the year of the referendum for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.

«It is true that in recent years a scene has been formed where there are bands with a very diverse sound but with a shared spirit of reaction to reality.

What is happening is a danger:

That exclusionary nationalism that, unfortunately, also exists in Spain should be more scary, ”says Carlos O'Connell.

The pandemic is the new obsession.

Nobody talks about Brexit anymore

Carlos O'Connell (Fontaines DC)

He cites

, among other formations that range from post punk to garage, punk or arty rock, all united by an uncompromising rebellious attitude.

“The system we live in is a sad joke and Brexit is just one of the consequences, just like Trump in the United States.

see how the left has been left without powerful voices, trapped in

In a conversation in Madrid a few months ago to present his latest album Serfs Up!

(2019), this musician, considered the

of this punk resurgence for his controversial statements and his wild concerts, claimed that the fight

and "freedom" to its last consequences are the gasoline that make them work .

Many of these

artists

(born between the mid-80s and the 90s) draw parallels between the current era of Boris Johnson and that of Margaret Tatcher in the late 70s and during the 80s: social cuts, youth unemployment , the difficulty of access to decent housing, added all this now to the

, fueled by the previous recession of 2008 that ended up ending the pandemic.

His recipe for change is choreable hymns with a message and aggressiveness as a creative engine.

They are not a mere imitation of icons

but a reformulation from that punk perspective: messages that play with intimacy and new problems (anxiety, the environment, the dictatorship of technology) and with a more sound Elaborated.

The perfect example is Savages, a female quartet led by Jehnny Beth, the muse of the movement, a powerful character who on stage

.

Possessing an irrational beauty, her songs are situationist manifestos saturated with rage where she criticizes "the servitude" of the human being and addresses "those who cannot see."

«Savages was born as a response to the repression on young people.

Our aggressiveness screams: 'Things can be different, here you have me and you won't be able to shut me up.'

Artists have a responsibility.

Now, the group is not a political party, our message goes to the subconscious, "he said in a conversation in Madrid when he came to present his debut

(2013).

Savages was born as a response to the repression on young people

Jehnny beth

The history of art shows that trends come back again and again in a cyclical way.

Just as some argue that this scene arose from current circumstances, there are those who think that, in reality,

And others, like Sleaford Mods, proclaim their imminent extinction in

: “Is punk not dead?

Well, he just did.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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