Dead Silence - Freedom

Dead Silence
Freedom

Single US 1993 on Vinyl Communications label
Alternative (Punk)

Fold-out cover with lyrics and information printed inside. "Recorded at Audio Park Recording in Denver, October 1993. Spruced up by Park Peters and DS. Not copyrighted or registered per se, but please include us as a source if you use anything from this record." Processing company uncredited, identified by the matrix etchings. ------------------------ Fold-out cover information: “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are [those] who want crops without plowing…Power concedes nothing without a demand: it never did and it never will.” Frederick Douglass, 1857 One of the first things "they" teach you in high school or college about writing is to picture an audience. and then write with them in mind. Five years ago. that would have made this intro pretty simple - write to fellow "punks" in the scene. But there isn't "a" scene anymore (was there ever?). Major labels have mass marketed a huge span of bands that may have been alternative years ago, but who are now on the safe side of "alternative" - called grunge, or college rock, or whatever, depending on where you are (and it must be true. 'cos henry rollins said so on mtv). Today, the "scene" could be anyone and everyone, and sometimes it is. And in a way this is a good thing, if some unsuspecting music fan accidently stumbles upon a band with a - gasp! - message! Bands like Chumbawamba, MDC, Citizen Tish, etc. (No, green day doesn't count as a message band...that shit is all over am radio, message-wise at least). But back to the point. Audience. There isn't one clearcut scene. Alternative isn't identifiable anymore by spiked mohawks, black nail polish, spiked jackets and chuck taylor's. So just as the nirvana audience watered down the "alternative" scene, it also brought more people within the grasps of real alternative ideas. messages. and bands. This record is titled Freedom. and the cover shows a figure throwing a brick through a bank window. The word freedom alone makes me think of the old bumper sticker adage that reads "No one is free while others are oppressed". But I’ve seen that so many times it hardly means anything anymore. What the fuck does that mean? No one is free...while others are oppressed. Oppressed how? Oppressed like when you’re living at home and your parents won't let you go out on friday night for some reason...that kind of oppressed? lt could seem like it if that person is you, but that's not really it. Oppressed like there isn't enough food to eat ‘cos mom or dad can’t make enough at work to bring home groceries. Oppressed like you can't find a job because you look like hell because you don't have a bed or a shower because you can't pay rent because you can't find a job. Oppressed like you can't go to school because some of the other kids carry guns and you're afraid of being shot. Oppressed like your kids are taken away from you because you're in jail because you robbed a 7-11 to feed those kids. Oppressed like you're terrified to go out after dark because you happen to be a woman. and you don't have car and you're scared of being raped. Oppressed because you can't be what you want to be, or love who you want to love. openly. for fear of getting beaten to death. And on and on. No one is free while others are oppressed. The forces or powers that allow any of these things to happen allow all of theses things to happen. We live in a fucked up world, in a fucked up country, in a fucked u society, in a fucked up state in a fucked up city. Yesterday we ate, but somebody else in our city didn't. Today we got home safely, but somebody in our neighborhood didn't. And the same "forces" that let this go on use this to their advantage. Those who aren't eating or sleeping or getting home alright are already muzzled, directly pressured by those forces of control. Those who did eat or sleep or get home safely are muzzled as well, but indirectly. We're scared to death that tomorrow that might be us. We're so fucking scared that we buy things we don't need, clothes we don't wear, food we throw away. We lock our doors, gate up our windows, go straight home after work. We buy guns to protect what we think we have, while scrapping to get more. We think that as long as we try hard and protect our own, we'll be ok, because, after all, this is amerika, and we're free... What we could be doing is looking inward and outward, instead of downward. Look at all of the anger around us. Look at all of the anger inside of us. "Punk" alone has recorded nearly two decades of anger, and what have we done with it? And we are far from being the first generation to "rebel". Flick on the tube, check out the news. Look at young amerika killing itself for nothing, for the power it will never have. Look at the elderly in amerika dying in their rooms, ignored and unwanted. Look at the once-active hippie/yuppie buying better car alarms to protect what they think that they have, too. Everyone is angry and scared. but no one is really focusing their energy towards things which must be changed, the root causes of all of this shit. Think of the energy and power that we could have if we focused, communicated with each other about what is wrong, and tried to focus on it, and force it to change. l'm not suggesting replacing leaders with our own. l'm suggesting replacing the system of power with a system of cooperation. l'm suggesting working without the system. not within it. People have been working within the system for hundreds of years. You don't need to be a historian to know that this isn't working. Or, perhaps, I'm way off base, and people aren't really angry anymore. Punks are just punks for reaction from their folks, and mudhoney really is the alternative style of music. Kids join gangs and shoot each other out of boredom. Homeless people are homeless by choice, and statistics on rape are simply being blown out of proportion. And my scared feelings are just paranoia. Fair enough. But as idealistic as it sounds, I believe that we have enough energy in the "scene", and in our neighborhoods, and in our towns, to change things. Will we wait until we are directly oppressed before we decide to act on behalf of others? Let's finally quit fighting each other in the pit, in the street, in our actions against each other. Let's put our energy to some use. Let's smash the windows of the power that is really oppressing, and let's do it together. Who knows, maybe the "green day's" will even join us. It's your choice.