Les Strains – Left Handed Riddle
People are creatures of habit, and easily get accustomed to comfort; just as easily, they become used to hearing bad songs on the radio. Before you know it, there’s nothing you can do to change their minds. Before you know, they ask for more of it, in larger doses.
We’re hard-wired to be brats, to be unsatisfied and to always demand that the world give us more. The people whose parents had rock n’ roll, when much of the rest of the world was denied it, expect their modern bands to play the hits. Just as well, the kids whose parents have internet and a laptop won’t be satisfied for long with whatever modern gadgets they have.
That’s why the revolution belongs to people like the musicians in Les Strains. That’s why rallying calls come from people who still understand the importance of feeling discomfort and the reason why this ought to make you smile.
It doesn’t matter if that particular discomfort is a small one, or if the community represented is in the minority…
“Left Handed Riddle” by Turkish ska-punk group Les Strains is, yes, a song about having to go through life as a lefty. It’s no small reason for aggravation. Would Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix’s lives have turned out differently if they hadn’t had to find strategies for playing the guitar as a left-handed player?
It may sound like a small aggravation, but the stats say that you probably haven’t had to think about it. And that’s why, with sounds that call to mind the late 1970s American punk explosion, Les Strains conjure up sounds of change, regardless of how small the community that they’re rallying toward might be. Righties with their debauched lifestyles may never understand!
Cruor Hilla – Der Gang vor die Hunde
Punk-rock, if you trust the dusty history books, was revived in the U.S. in the 1980s by conservative politics that it needed to fight against. Look across the free(ish) world where punks were allowed to make their music, and you’ll notice a similar trend.
That’s the reason why it’s been so depressing to witness the output of big-time punk bands in recent times. The vast majority of them went on playing the hits while the world started burning. Most of them were busy integrating synths and getting Swedish songwriters on board when telling the truth ought to have been a priority.
But not in the underground, and not with musicians who care like the members of Cruor Hilla. And when the writing seems on the wall, when the general mood’s turned sour, and what you got for free before is no longer available, what should punk rock songs do?
Cruor Hilla’s musicians are of the belief that punk-rock should continue to question authority and dare to dream up a better future. Judging by the song “Der Gang vor die Hunde,” the time to do this all is right now. There may be no second shots, no time for regret, and no world left to save. That is the mission of punk-rock and all of the major-label punk bands who are still selling songs about hanging out and having fun ought to use Cruor Hilla as an example.
