The Annals of Authenticity, Vol. 2: Gang of Four

I probably have a longer essay in me for some future time about my admiration for Gang of Four, but suffice it to say that I can't think of another band that better navigated the Scylla and Charibdis of popular success and political credibility. Even their recent reunion album, Return the Gift, which consisted of the band doing new versions of their greatest hits, should have been a cynical money grab from any other band turned out to be well worth owning even if one had the originals (the bonus remix CD that came with the deluxe edition of that album, however, is another story. The only gem there was Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs joining the band for "I Love a Man in Uniform." The rest ranged from forgettable to outright disappointing.).

Though the band did implode in the mid-80s, they managed to put out three fantastic albums, including the essential Entertainment! (1979). And while it's safe to describe the band as infusing punk with dance beats, I often find it difficult to compare them to any of their contemporaries. They were experimental in ways similar to the Velvet Underground, and their extreme leftist politics made their lyrics intellectually thrilling for me in ways that no other band has ever achieved.

It may come as no surprise, then, that the reunited Gang of Four is planning to forego traditional distribution methods for their new work. Bassist Dave Allen has a blog, where he muses on the current state of the industry and the progress on the band's latest music. This recent list is particularly instructive, and seems to form a manifesto for the band's future:

01. We need to make a cheap quick recording of no more than 6 songs. The days of spending forever in a studio are over.
02. It can’t be called an album, that format is over - case in point - after downloading the Radiohead In Rainbows album I found various remixes of songs from that album and so I deleted the originals as the new mixes were preferable to me. I then built my own running order. Goodbye to having an album formatted in advance.
03. As we write and record in rehearsal we should post the demos, as rough as they are, to our website and also to Amiestreet so that fans can download them. Comments would be offered and that way we could gauge response. Also word of mouth will get the message far and wide that these demos are available and that we are working on the new recordings - no PR required.
04. Understanding the data which will then help us understand our fans’ behaviour.
05. It’s imperative that we give away MP3s.
06. Enroll our most rabid fans to help us market and promote the band.
07. We must partner only with an indie label for any physical good that we release.
08. We must take meetings with people like Kevin Arnold at IODA and Shane Tobin at iMeem whose companies offer very distinct ways to reach music fans.

You can read more of the entry here (and consider the blog entry you are currently reading to be an attempt to contribute to 06). In general, Allen is joining in the chorus that's touting the death of the album, and I especially like his comments about Radiohead's In Rainbows and the audience's power to create their own "album" out of remixes.

I'm also particularly excited about 03--the idea of posting MP3s of their current demos. You can get access to all three (so far) here. Even as demos, the three songs sound great, and they've really got me excited for new product from this group.

Dr. K's Annals of Authenticity, Vol. 1: The 'Mats on SNL

I remember very clearly the evening of January 18, 1986, when the Replacements performed on Saturday Night Live. It was the day after my 17th birthday, for one thing. I was going to high school in North Dakota, but lived close enough to the Minnesota border that I felt I could authentically claim the Replacements as a "local band," and I eagerly anticipated their appearance on SNL.

It's difficult to overstate the significance of the Replacements at that time and place in my life. I was just starting to date, and a song like "Kiss Me on the Bus" gave me an idealized notion of being romantic. And as I was developing certain anti-establishment tendencies at the time, the Replacements' video for "Bastards of Young," featuring a single-take shot of a stereo playing the song and somebody smoking, gave the finger to MTV and its recent dominance, which I was convinced would destroy the music industry. (I still think it's the greatest music video ever made.) For their next album, Pleased to Meet Me, the band put out a video for their song "The Ledge," which was banned from MTV. Though the song is about a young man contemplating suicide, the video featured the band eating lunch and smoking. This was further evidence that MTV sucked.

But, at the most, the Replacements represented authenticity to me--specifically, an uncompromising purity in their rock 'n' roll ethos--and that video is just one example. I was obsessed with authenticity at the time probably because of Catcher in the Rye: as a kind of flip side to Holden Caulfield's objections to "phonies." Further evidence of their authenticity was demonstrated in their SNL appearance. The band was pretty wasted, as is immediately evident in the first song, "Bastards of Young," and Paul Westerberg forgets to sing huge chunks of the lyrics, including the best line, "We've got no war to name us." He also says "fuck" when he drops that line, which, for me at 17, was the epitome of cool. The second song, "Kiss Me on the Bus," goes a little better, until Bob Stinson (who was kicked out of the band during this tour because of his drug problems and later died of an overdose in 1995) drops his guitar on the stage at the end. While "being wasted" was not a necessary criterion in my conception of rock 'n' roll authenticity, being wasted and still outperforming any other band in music history can help to make a strong case.

So, at 17, this performance fascinated me. Though I was never a really rebellious kid, I respected the impulse to rebellion a lot, and I admired anyone who could follow through on it. Of course, one could argue that the Replacements would have had much more longevity as a band if they'd played the game better, but then we wouldn't have had moments like this.




And I still think that "Bastards of Young" should be the anthem of anyone who grew up in the 80s.