Zache Davis – Divert Disorder
You can make people feel awfully uncomfortable by simply talking to them. That’s nothing short of a superpower if used properly. And, if more singers possessed this ability or used it, instead of trying to sing like Ozzy or Chris Cornell, we might just get more interesting music. The fact is that once you pair one of these voices with a rock guitar groove, the potential is endless.
“Give in! Give up! Get out! You’re doing it wrong!” That’s the hook of Zache Davis’s “Divert Disorder” and, many of us suspect, the hidden message behind every single self-improvement campaign that you’ve ever heard.
The world isn’t waiting for you to succeed. There’d be simply far fewer things to sell you. But the world is, at the same time, hoping that you’re going to keep going, keep trying to improve, keep buying secret recipes.
“Divert Disorder” is a post-punk song and a mantra that artists, unavoidably, whisper to themselves in the mirror some mornings. “You’re doing it wrong!” But hang on, endure and take a breather, and you’re all set to go again. Where to? Back to work, back to using your incredible creativity, back to inspiring others to do things themselves.
With so much experience of life in the punk-rock trenches, Zache Davis knows that doing it wrong ain’t a problem. Not doing anything at all is where the problems start.
Sly Fang – Rat City
It could’ve only happened in some gloriously dirty, run-down megacity. Nobody who ever played music out in the countryside ever played a power chord on the guitar before, let alone consider creating anything that resembles punk-rock, or any of its spin-offs.
Music documentaries will always claim that punk music was the voice of protest against the authorities, a soundtrack to the upheaval of society. But, in reality, punk music has always been the soundtrack to riding public transport in a big city.
Sly Fang make music about the allure of and disgust with city life. It’s a teenager’s fascination with all of the opportunities that the city will offer, all of the bars that stay open until late, all of the artists that hang around those streets.
And, as Sly Fang captures on Iggy Pop-sounding “Rat City,” punk’s also a death cult, an obsession with being swallowed by the squalor of the city, a fear that there will never be any escape out of these busy streets. It’s Ray City, ba-a-by!
