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+--- Thread: Anti-Flag - The General Strike (/showthread.php?tid=6814)
Anti-Flag - The General Strike - Music Head - 23-03-2012
online listen
the leftists among us will no doubt love this
anti everything
for the remaining punk in all of us
mine burned out long ago
1.4 from me and a converted 2.1 from the pros at allmusic
from the album - This Is The New Sound
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFyMk0HsQik
released Mar 20th, 2012
![[Image: r86029jvgit.jpg]](http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drr800/r860/r86029jvgit.jpg)
Bio - from allmusic
Making their debut at a local Pittsburgh radio station in 1993, Anti-Flag got together for the sake of responding
to their disgust at religion, nationalism, and fascism. Justin Sane (vocals/guitar), Andy Flag (bass/vocals), and
Pat Thetic (drums) bopped around their hometown much to the dismay of skinheads while recruiting a following who
proudly wore torn-up upside-down flags as patches. In 1997, after releasing a handful of singles, opening for their
idols the U.K. Subs, the Exploited, and the Circle Jerks, and briefly touring the East Coast -- which led to the
departure of Andy Flag -- Die for the Government was released, and 20,000 copies, four bassists, and four North
American tours later, Anti-Flag gained their reputation for recapturing the old-school ethics of punk: fast, loud,
obnoxious, and anti-everything that ends with an "ism."
Chris Head was added to the lineup in 1997 and two years later bassist Chris #2 joined on as well to complete the
four-piece. Their System Doesn't Work for You, a reissue of their out of print EP North America Sucks along with
additional previously unreleased songs, followed in 1998 on the band's newly founded A-F Records. They released A
New Kind of Army in 1999 on Go Kart Records, hoping not only to push their beliefs to a wider audience but, more
importantly, just to play out around the world while flipping two fingers in the air to everyone they're against. A
summer stint on the Warped Tour brought an expanded audience and new friends, including NOFX's Fat Mike over at Fat
Wreck Chords. The label put out 2001's Underground Network, recorded with the help of Mass Girorgini (Screeching
Weasel, Common Rider). Half of the tracks for their next effort, Mobilize, were recorded live in their hometown in
December 2001; the disc came out in February 2002, and it fittingly also contained many songs, most explicitly "911
for Peace," that reflected the recent World Trade Center terrorist attacks.
In early 2002, Sane released a solo record entitled Life, Love and the Pursuit of Justice via A-F, and it mostly
contained a sonically stripped-down version of his main band's political agenda. Anti-Flag's contribution to the
BYO Split Series came out in fall 2002 with their split with the Bouncing Souls, and a year later they issued their
next full-length, The Terror State, on Fat Wreck. The four-song EP Live at Fireside Bowl also appeared on
Liberation. Released in 2004, the live Death of a Nation DVD chronicled the band's U.S. tour in support of The
Terror State, and that same year, A-F reissued A New Kind of Army. Not surprisingly, the band also became involved
with Punk Voter, a coalition of punk bands and artists who worked to raise voter awareness and participation --
namely against George W. Bush -- for the 2004 election, and headlined the Rock Against Bush tour. In a somewhat
unexpected move, Anti-Flag next signed to RCA in April 2005; they issued For Blood and Empire the following March.
In October 2007 the band released A Benefit for Victims of Violent Crime on their own A-F label, an EP (with a
combination of both new songs and live tracks) whose proceeds went to the Center for Victims of Violence and Crime,
a decision made after Chris #2 lost his sister to homocide earlier that year. In 2008, the band released The Bright
Lights of America, and the Tony Visconti produced album would be their last for RCA as Anti-Flag made the jump to
SideOneDummy. Back on an independant label and now recording in their own studio, the band wasted no time in
putting out their eighth studio album, The People or the Gun, in 2009. As Always, Anti-Flag continued to stay
politically active, donating profits from the album to Amnesty International, as well as attending a G-20 protest
in their home town. Inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, the band followed up in 2012 with the politically
charged, The General Strike.
Album Review - from allmusic
Perennial rabble-rousers Anti-Flag come back to throw sand in the face of the establishment on their ninth studio
album, The General Strike. Combining blunt, no-nonsense political ideals with driving punk rock into an anti-
establishment steamroller, the album finds Anti-Flag once again sticking with the direct approach as they comment
on the Occupy Wall Street movement and the ever widening gap in America's class system. While lyrics like "They're
sleeping between satin sheets while huddled masses sleep in the streets/Tucked in at night they lay and dream of
Corporate State Theocracy," from "Nothing Recedes Like Progress," don't allow much in the way of misinterpretation,
they do root a lot of the songs in a very specific time and place. This kind of timeliness gives The General Strike
the feeling that, though inspiring in its day, it doesn't have that special something that makes a song like the
Clash's "Know Your Rights" an enduring anthem for the oppressed and disenfranchised. Despite this, it's still worth
pointing out that at least Anti-Flag are standing up to say something at all, and every movement needs its fight
songs to keep people going in the face of adversity. For all the people camping out in the cold, The General Strike
definitely has enough fire to keep you warm.
Track Listing
1. Controlled Opposition
2. The Neoliberal Anthem
3. 1915
4. This Is the New Sound
5. Bullshit Opportunist
6. The Ranks of the Masses Rising
7. Turn a Blind Eye
8. Broken Bones
9. I Don't Wanna
10. Nothing Recedes Like Progress
11. Resist
12. The Ghosts of Alexandria
Anti-Flag - The General Strike - CRAZY-HORSE - 23-03-2012
the title of the link you posted should be called "this is the new shit".....
Billy Bragg and Midnight Oil know how to write "leftist" songs,these guys should give it up, or learn to write songs about beards LOL
Anti-Flag - The General Strike - gater - 08-04-2012
Guess I won't be inviting you to come to the states for The Warped Tour this year! BTW, Bragg and MO are NOT PUNK! Apples and watermelons! Flag are angry for a reason. This country is a few short steps from becoming a fundamentalist religious state just like the ones in the ME that make everyone scared, only we can make Jeebus come with the push of a button. Remember, "When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag an carrying a cross!" Upton Sinclair. We didn't just take our Native People's lands, we committed genocide. USA... Go big and go home!
Anti-Flag - The General Strike - Music Head - 08-04-2012
gater Wrote:Guess I won't be inviting you to come to the states for The Warped Tour this year! BTW, Bragg and MO are NOT PUNK! Apples and watermelons! Flag are angry for a reason. This country is a few short steps from becoming a fundamentalist religious state just like the ones in the ME that make everyone scared, only we can make Jeebus come with the push of a button. Remember, "When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag an carrying a cross!" Upton Sinclair. We didn't just take our Native People's lands, we committed genocide. USA... Go big and go home!
I love you leftys
Anti-Flag - The General Strike - gater - 10-04-2012
Every forum needs someone to play left field! That'd be me... some where around the subway stop at the old Shea Stadium!