Way to rip off "And Out Come the Wolves", asshole.
This is the kind of music that makes having powerful speakers a worthy and noble goal. Before Ian MacKaye was busy being the over-achieving father of post-punk, back when he was a teenager and age hadn’t dulled his fury, he was the frontman for Minor Threat, a hardcore punk band formed out of the ashes of a band he had been involved in earlier (Teen Idles). Starting in 1980, right at the beginning of the hardcore punk explosion in the United States, they would achieve moderate success in their region but later be recognised as one of the best examples of hardcore in its primal state.
And it is primal. Pure rage, distilled anger. Thrillingly furious with the way things are in his world, and shouting about how it. There’s just something about angry music that makes it beautiful. So now I shall review their self-titled and debut EP.
Opens slowly, with a drum fill to Ian screaming What happened to you, you’re not the same. There’s something in your head, made a violent change. Apparently he wrote this about a close friend who turned into fundamentalist. He also blasts people looking to fall in love and live happily ever after: Was she really worth it / She cost you your life / She’ll never leave your side / She’ll be your wife … You call it romance, you’re full of shit. Right away, one of my favourite songs on the album, as it tackles that kind of absolute devotion (to a person or a religion) that warps a person – the kind of devotion I tend to find disturbing, so I can entirely agree with him on this. One thing you notice immediately is that these guys rock: not content with just playing fast and shouting loud, they also play effective riffs and have a good interplay between instruments.
Ah, my favourite song from Minor Threat. Bass opens, guitar smashes everything, Ian tells us he doesn’t want to hear it. The verse describes those lying, self-aggrandising, ego-stroking people who just don’t ever shut up. The chorus sees the song get a little sparser, with the refrain: I don’t wanna hear it, know you’re full of shit / I don’t wanna hear it, no it’s bullshit. I think the first is the correct lyrics but the second certainly have something going for them. Unbelievably, in the third verse they amp up the rock again, with even more direct lyrics: Shut your fucking mouth, I don’t care what you say. The telling-off of a lifetime in When the fuck are you gonna realise and the song closes with an amusing Aww, shut up! Can squeeze one more mention of how much these guys rock? Also, the bassline for the chorus kicks ass. Listen to it, hear it, love it.
Ain’t nobody making hardcore music like these guys. Continuing the theme of bass starting the song, we get a few bars of the bassline before the heavily overdriven guitar comes in over the top. The guitar develops into its riff and Ian starts screaming, almost incoherently and a little out of step with the band. Hehe, out of step. Sorry, Minor Threat joke. After fumbling through the verse the whole song just snaps together with the chorus: Red! I’m seeing, Red! I’m seeing, Red! More incoherent rock into the chorus again, then the coda turns the chorus on its head by extending the Red! into Reeeeed! I am a big fan of that all-out finish, where they take the chorus and pump it full of extra energy, add lines, or add complexity.
Has a band ever regretted a song as much as Minor Threat regrets this song? In just 45 seconds of music they single-handedly created an entire subculture – straightedge. And what a subculture. Don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t do drugs, don’t fuck. At least, don’t fuck promiscously. Okay, fuck heaps, but don’t do any of that other stuff. You would think that telling people not to have sex would turn them away from the movement; it didn’t. Edgers soon began to refuse legal drugs such as painkillers, stimulants like the caffeine in coffee (these guys pretty much drank water at shows and got their high from beating people up) and probably refused medical treatment with drugs, knowing those crazy guys. Ian never wanted to start a movement; Minor Threat’s message was to think for yourself instead of following the crowd and doing drugs. Instead, in a very short time, angry and physically imposing punks were running with Xs on their hands, swatting bottles and cups out of peoples’ hands. It must have been like giving birth to a baby and watching it turn into an Alien that eats your husband. The song itself is pretty simple – I’ve got straight edge so if we come up against each other in the pit, I’m sober and clear-headed and you’re wasted off your face, I am going to beat you.
Clearly Ian’s met a small man who tends to boast a lot, and it pissed him off enough to write a song. Seems like it doesn’t take much to rile him up. Why does he feel like he has to yell at everything he doesn’t like? Surely it’s enough to simply dislike it. Empty barrels make the most noise, Ian. You better be happy with what you got. Ian stands five feet nine inches tall according to Wikipedia. Maybe he was wearing 5 inch heels? Some people think this song is unintentionally self-directed. I couldn’t tell you what they are talking about.
You won’t hear my words, no matter how loud I shout. The guitar fumbles around the riff, with rough transitions. The bass doesn’t seem to be able to quite keep up, and the drums are just mental. Musically there is a small improvement over the beginning of the album: we get a breakdown in the middle! For some weird reason it reminds me of We’re Only Gonna Die’s breakdown. Even though Bad Religion came after. The breakdown in this song, though, is pure music: Ian starts his mangled shouting up at the end and they kick it back into top gear for the finish.
More anti-alcohol attitudes – get the drunk punks out of the pit! Lose control of your body / Beat the shit out of somebody / Half shut eyes don’t see who you hit / But you don’t take any shit. A tirade against alcohol-fuelled aggression. Amusingly enough, this song starts with the sound of a bottle being smashed – the only sound effect on the entire album.
The entire ideology of the band can be summed up in the first lines of their namesake song: We’re not the first, and I hope we’re not the last. This song is a youth anthem in the purest sense, warning the young ones not to rush into adult life. The time is so little, the time belongs to us. They coin their own name in the pre-chorus Try not to forget / We never will / We’re just a Minor Threat! The song’s riff is decent enough, and they derive their chorus from it by speeding it up sloppily. Even though it’s only 1 minute 30 seconds long, it’s longer than most songs on the album and with the transitions, feels too long for band. It is nevertheless powerful and energising throughout. The play on words is between a minor threat – nothing to worry about – and minor threat – the threat of young people (minors) having some sort of youth-oriented revolution. The song ends chillingly with the spoken words: But it’s a promise and a half-hearted, almost menacing laugh.
An extremely powerful album – not moving or compelling as much as it makes you want to scream and shout too. The rage directed at everything bad is refreshing – he’s not trying to change it, not trying to justify it or show that it’s wrong, he’s just venting his hatred of it. More than anything else, this music is cathartic, and a listen-through of the record leaves you feeling exhausted but with a slow-burning hate, like a well-stoked fire.
