the 2nd
EARTH CRISIS 7" was called
FIRESTORM. the title track, which is a brilliant song music-wise, is one of the songs that seemed like they were made to fuck up any revolutionary potential that might be present! I saw
EARTH CRISIS live a couple of times and this song was one of the songs were the whole audience went crazy and was singing along
"STREET BY STREET, BLOCK BY BLOCK, TAKING IT ALL BACK, THE YOUTH IMMERSED IN POISON, TURN THE TIDE COUNTERATTACK! VIOLENCE AGAINST VIOLENCE, LET THE ROUND UPS BEGIN, A FIRESTORM TO PURIFY THE BANE THAT SOCIETY DROWNS IN! NO MERCY, NO EXCEPTIONS, A DECLARATION OF TOTAL WAR! THE INNOCENTS DEFENSE, THE REASON IS WAGED FOR!" and I´m sure most of the people felt pretty dangerous and revolutionary at that moment and some maybe saw themselves as part of an underground army even days after the show! yup, nice... the problem is that this would be
the most revolutionary act the majority of those people would ever commit!
EARTH CRISIS delivered the soundtrack to a revolution that was already postponed before it began!
"THE HELPLESS ARE CRYING OUT - WE HAVE RISEN TO THEIR CALL!" if "the helpless" are
EARTH CRISIS then that might be true as they had in fact risen to their call to attend at the show, buy a shirt, drive home and by doing so feel like they are part of a revolutionary movement that will take the world by storm! but if I haven´t missed anything important the peak of this revolution (and many others) was reached by going to those shows and a vegan diet! and to avoid misunderstandings: I´m not trying to slag off
EARTH CRISIS or being vegan! I don´t know anyone from
EARTH CRISIS personally so I can´t comment on that and being vegan is more than fine with me! I´m also not saying that
EARTH CRISIS meant what they said or did it for fame and fortune! in my opinion it´s a kind of
R.A.T.M. thing! I wouldn´t doubt for a second that Zach De La Rocha has good intentions and tries to educate people but just take look how many of their fans actually believe that the guy on the
R.A.T.M. shirts is Zach himself... sorry, but still no revolution neither vegan nor anarchist in the near future! and as long as there are bands/songs that make people feel like/think they are revolutionaries/revolting it will remain that way! b.t.w. the label of the 7" says that the track on the b-side should be
EDEN`S DEMISE but the lyric sheet and the backcover say something different (they say:
UNSEEN HOLOCAUST) and I should tell you that
EARTH CRISIS singer Karl speaks of himself as "
a knight unyielding" in the 2nd song of the a-side which is called
FORGED IN THE FLAMES!
the 2nd EARTH CRISIS 7" was called FIRESTORM. the title track, which is a brilliant song music-wise, is one of the songs that seemed like they were made to fuck up any revolutionary potential that might be present! I saw EARTH CRISIS live a couple of times and this song was one of the songs were the whole audience went crazy and was singing along "STREET BY STREET, BLOCK BY BLOCK, TAKING IT ALL BACK, THE YOUTH IMMERSED IN POISON, TURN THE TIDE COUNTERATTACK! VIOLENCE AGAINST VIOLENCE, LET THE ROUND UPS BEGIN, A FIRESTORM TO PURIFY THE BANE THAT SOCIETY DROWNS IN! NO MERCY, NO EXCEPTIONS, A DECLARATION OF TOTAL WAR! THE INNOCENTS DEFENSE, THE REASON IS WAGED FOR!" and I´m sure most of the people felt pretty dangerous and revolutionary at that moment and some maybe saw themselves as part of an underground army even days after the show! yup, nice... the problem is that this would be
the most revolutionary act the majority of those people would ever commit! EARTH CRISIS delivered the soundtrack to a revolution that was already postponed before it began! "THE HELPLESS ARE CRYING OUT - WE HAVE RISEN TO THEIR CALL!" if "the helpless" are EARTH CRISIS then that might be true as they had in fact risen to their call to attend at the show, buy a shirt, drive home and by doing so feel like they are part of a revolutionary movement that will take the world by storm! but if I haven´t missed anything important the peak of this revolution (and many others) was reached by going to those shows and a vegan diet! and to avoid misunderstandings: I´m not trying to slag off EARTH CRISIS or being vegan! I don´t know anyone from EARTH CRISIS personally so I can´t comment on that and being vegan is more than fine with me! I´m also not saying that EARTH CRISIS meant what they said or did it for fame and fortune! in my opinion it´s a kind of R.A.T.M. thing! I wouldn´t doubt for a second that Zach De La Rocha has good intentions and tries to educate people but just take look how many of their fans actually believe that the guy on the R.A.T.M. shirts is Zach himself... sorry, but still no revolution neither vegan nor anarchist in the near future! and as long as there are bands/songs that make people feel like/think they are revolutionaries/revolting it will remain that way! b.t.w. the label of the 7" says that the track on the b-side should be EDEN`S DEMISE but the lyric sheet and the backcover say something different (they say: UNSEEN HOLOCAUST) and I should tell you that EARTH CRISIS singer Karl speaks of himself as "a knight unyielding" in the 2nd song of the a-side which is called FORGED IN THE FLAMES!
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My problem with Earth Crisis is that they seemed revolutionary for the political right. In interviews they stated in so many words that "Firestorm" was about a war against urban poor people. Rich white kids singing about taking back the ghetto? No thanks. They were jocks and fratboys playing revolution. What can the establishment possibly revolt against?
ReplyDeletethat means they´re 2faced as they never said something like that in Europe...but I´m not sure if I´ve read any EARTH CRISIS interviews at all!
ReplyDeletenow, that O.L.C. quote "we´ll make E.C. look like leftist alternatives makes sense, too!
if they´d really try to do that there would be finally a spectator sport that I´d be into! maybe someone should tell the "knight unyielding" that an armor does not withstand a bullet fired from a Glock!
Yeah, in the USA they are widely regarded as neo-conservative assholes.
ReplyDeleteI never made that connection, but now that you say it...
ReplyDeleteit´s true some of the things Karl said on stage could have straight from a "Straussian"!
b.t.w. if anybody could send me a scan of the Karl B. interview that was printed in BACK TA BASICS!
ReplyDeleteThere was something about murdering drug dealers, on Firestorm or on Allout War? Forgot which...
ReplyDeleteI saw them play in my hometown in Sweden around '93, not a bad show either, place was packed and it was very warm...but I remember thinking at the middle of the show that there was something kind of artificial and scary about the atmosphere...like all these Lord of the Flies kids in Earth Crisis t-shirts ready to jump if only a leader would point the finger for them...
Anyway, I'll download this and listen to it for it's been like 15 years since, sold or traded my copy of this and the one before to a drinking buddy who went sxe...
it´s in the FIRESTORM track where they talk about druglords that must fall.
ReplyDeleteone of their statements I allways found more entertaining than embarassing as I allways imagined how the clean-cut kids would shit their pants as soon as they realized that steping on the toes of a real druglord might not have been the smartest thing to do!
i think same's like aesop, Earth Crisis are really Good Band, nice composition but hatred of his songs against poor people is worthy of the typical Rednecks guy's, and its position of extreme cleaning closely resembles the National Socialist genocide plans...well The Extreme Straigh Edge or Fascism? are the question.
ReplyDeleteNo, papst benedikt xvi, they didn't say anything like that in America either, they are not two-faced.
ReplyDeleteEarth Crisis never said that Firestorm was about "a war against urban poor people," that is Aesop's interpretation, not their words.
It boggles my mind that anyone could interpret "Firestorm" as "a war against urban poor people". A band comprised of spreading a message of respect to all living things, yet they abhor "urban poor people"? That's completely absurd and that's just digging for a reason to talk shit on Earth Crisis. So typical.
ReplyDeleteYour stance that they are "Rich white kids" is also completely untruthful. Had you any inside knowledge or personal experience with the band, you would know that they is untrue... but I suppose absorbing and regurgitating lies of over 10 years is much more honorable and holds more credibility than growing up them and knowing some of them for close to 20 years.
PS: Read up on this guy, maybe you'll understand "Firestorm" and see where the lyrics come from a little better.
PPS: I am neither vegan/vegetarian or Straight Edge, but I still think Earth Crisis is THE most important band to ever exist as voices to those 2 movements.
htye's sings...
ReplyDelete"A chemically tainted welfare generation.
Abslolute complete moral degeneration.
Born addicted, beaten and neglected. Families torn apart,
detroyed and abandoned...."
this are a few moral straigh?
or a Biblical message?
well, as I said they didn´t say anything like that in Europe but lyrics like that quoted by Krustie sound like the neo-cons talking or something straight from the mouth of L. Strauss.
ReplyDeleteif they are rich kids or not is beyond my knowledge and I don´t think it´s important.
I´m not straight or vegan and never was but I think one could support this lifestyle without sounding like a "Straussian".
Yeah, but you knew what the lyrics said 15 years ago—what I am saying is that Aesop said the song "was about a war against urban poor people" and you said you never heard them say anything like that in Europe. What I'm pointing out is that they never said anything like that in the US either, that's Aesop deciding that that's what the lyrics meant, not the band's words. Karl, of course, was asked to explain the lyrics for years—an example:
ReplyDelete"It's like in the late 80s early 90s, there were a lot of areas in Syracuse that were totally destabilized by the drug plague in America. People were getting shot down on the sidewalk by accident because gangs were feuding over drug selling territory. Addicts breaking into cars and stealing things. Just taking a bad situation and making it far far worse. And I read a book called Seas of Time about the Black Panthers and some other books about what they were trying to accomplish as far as they were resisting the drug dealers, and the police were a part of the problem. So I thought their tactics made sense. And that's what Firestorm is about. It's about people who are resisting that with force. Fighting fire with fire so to speak."
That part of the song is about the people—the urban, poor people—in those neighborhoods banding together and taking back their neighborhoods from the drug dealers that plagued those areas. Unless Aesop thinks the miniscule percentage of the inhabitants who actually deal drugs and commit the crimes in poor urban neighborhoods are the ones that we should all be concerned about, I don't see the issue here.
Yeah, most open-air drug markets in this country exist in poor, urban neighborhoods, so obviously drug dealers are part of the "urban poor," but they are the *criminal* urban poor who make life a hell for the majority of the *law-abiding* urban poor in those neighborhoods who just want to raise their families without worrying about their kids getting mowed down in the streets during gang-related drug wars. The victims of violent drug gangs are not rich white suburban people, it's urban poor people who take the bullets. It's the urban poor in those areas who make up the "families torn apart,
detroyed and abandoned" that Karl was singing about.
It's about people taking their neighborhoods back, not about "rich white kids" going into those neighborhoods.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/30/BAG7DGVH8K1.DTL
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/july-dec99/neighborhood_9-22.html
That section of the song isn't anti-poor, it's anti-drug dealer. The band is not "anti-poor"—I'm the one who put out their first 7", and I grew up on welfare and fully support social services and assistance for the poorest members of our society. But I too have no tolerance for the criminal gangs that ruin life for everyone around them.
Aesop and Krustie are rehashing the same tired complaints from over a decade ago that were addressed at the time.
@ guav:
ReplyDeletethanks for the info!
I´ll read and get back to you later.
it´s early in the morning here and I´d like to give you a response but I´m fucking tired and thinking might be a to difficult task right now!
i once met a guy who wrote a zine back in the 90s. he accused earth crisis of being racist, saying "they talk about beating up drug dealers, and by drug dealers they mean black people."
ReplyDeletei just stared at the ground. i didn't want to bring up the idea that he was in fact the one who is racist.
In the traditional sense of politics, because Earth Crisis sets their target on people such as drugdealers (arguably the bully-victims created by their socio-economic circumstance), as opposed to the State and the institutions that have been elected to surpervise society, they definitely have more in common with the far-right (both mainstream and radicals).
ReplyDeleteHad E.C. been about making the change from top to bottom, by striving towards a participatory or true democracy for example, they would have a place in the larger leftwing movement.
Also I think their attitude is pretty much just postures because, frankly, I don't think music is the correct media for societal change.
Demons descended upon the lands.
ReplyDeleteThe fire of greed burned within their minds.
They destroyed the paradise
that filled their eyes. From the east the swarmed
to pillage to populate the righteous under siege.
The stream of invaders rose into a raging flood.
Now the arrow shaft lays broken where the grasses dripped with blood.
Unavenged apparitions of the
dead walk down this trail of tears that never ends.
Conquered by the sword, by treaties that were lies.
Millions perished in the wars for their genocide.
Decimated by manifest destiny.
Tortured and enslaved in the name of christianity.
The stream rose into a raging flood.
Now the arrow shaft lays broken where the grasses dripped with blood.
Unavenged apparitions of the dead.
Walk down this trail of tears that never ends.
Manifest destiny prevails. Felled their rainforests, flood their lands.
Ancient cultures destroyed by so-called civilized man.
The tribal peoples of today survival is at stake. History means
nothing if nothing's learned from past mistakes.
Stop the unseen holocaust.
Racist? This whole thread is ridiculous, history is being rewritten by hearsay and internet punks...
When logic and reason are injected into the discussion, suddenly you are too busy drinking to reply...
racist? who said they are racist? what have those lyrics to do with anything that was said here?
ReplyDeleteand in case you were talking to me when you said "to busy with drinkig (I don't drink b.t.w.) to reply" I haven't forgotten that I said I'll answer to what Buske & Guav have written but if you take a look at the links they gave me you'll see that there's a lot to read and believe it or not I've got other things to do in my life, too!