Anarchist Folk Punk

Music is one of the greatest gifts that humanity has ever given back to planet Earth. With music you are able to to preach your ideals and make people feel very deep emotions in just a couple of minutes. I find it fascinating that musicians are able to make people rise up in protest, cry, get angry, be happy with just some lyrics and a few strums of a guitar. Music is a very powerful thing.
This brings me to some music that I find very moving and thought provoking, anarchist folk punk. Anarchist Folk Punk, or Anti-Folk, is rooted with the same ideals as folk from the 1960's. Bob Dylan preached against the government, to end the Vietnam war, and for everyone to get along. That is exactly what Anti-Folk artists of today are doing except a little bit more angry. Johnny Hobo and the Freight trains was an Anti-Folk band that formed in 2000 by lead singer Pat "the Bunny" Schneeweis. Pat "the Bunny" was a homeless, train hopping youth who traveled across America with nothing more than a guitar and a back pack full of possessions. He hopped train to train meeting other transient musicians and they began to make music with one another. Johnny Hobo and the Freight Trains songs are rough sounding that echo the lives these men lived. They preached of an anti-Bush government, government in general, anti-religion, anti-police and authority of any kind. With all of this hate they preached there was also the message to respect your fellow man, and be kind to others. A lot of people who are against this type of music only see the hate and rebellion against what is "right" with our country. They never focus on the good.
Greil Marcus talked about this in his essay "The Old, Weird, America" where he stated, "

When I first ran across those words they almost made me dizzy."The old free America''- the idea, the words themselves, seemed all hut natural, coded in the inevitable betrayals that stem from the infinite idealism of American democracy. I don't hear any irony in those words. But while I respond helplessly to them, I also recoil-because those words cast Americans out of their own history." This is what Pat "the Bunny" was preaching in his lyrics. America has betrayed the people and you should stand up and fight against the oppressors that are keeping you down. They make you question everything you know and challenge your beliefs and I love that. This is what music should make you feel. Not some shitty Justin Beiber/One Direction bullshit love song, but songs that make you think about what the government is doing is right. Protest songs of the 1960's aren't gone, people just choose not to listen and that is a sad thing. I'll leave you with a Johnny Hobo song and I hope it gets you thinking about what you believe in. Also if you like Johnny Hobo check out Pat's other bands The Wingnut Dishwashers Union and Ramshackle Glory. 

 

 

Magic All Around

Hello blog, we meet again.

Today was a special day for we as college students had the opportunity to go on a field trip! I had the greatest time today walking around in the woods and listening to the vast plant knowledge that Professor Titus offered enhanced the hike by ten fold. I don't know what it is about nature, but I feel so much more connected to it than to the hustle and bustle of a big city. If I could I would build a log cabin in the middle of nowhere, catch and grow my own food, and write sad, sad music/poetry like Bon Iver and Henry David Thoreau did. But sadly I have responsibilities and cannot be the next Grizzly Man. I'm getting a little off topic, but like I was saying nature, just gives me this feeling in my stomach like there's so much out there to explore and find and it's a great feeling to not know what's out there.

I kind of feel that is like some of these early Americans felt exploring the wilderness before there were roads and highways and even railroads. You just packed up your family to head west in a wagon and just went, the unknown always at the back of your mind. They would have to live off of the land to survive, picking plants they may have never seen before and using them in weird ways for the first time. Like we were saying about the Pulpit plant, how did the Native Americans know that if they boiled and treated that plant they could ingest it? People found all of these new and interesting plants like we did on our hike and said hey that looks like it could cure my stomach ache and it worked and I find that so fascinating.

 And, I feel like that fascination of the unknown also helped people to sell product at medicine shows. You advertise this plant that most people who may have never even heard of it before and people are bewildered. What is this plant? Can it really do what they're saying it's doing? I'll take five! The unknown gives us a child like wonder and I can really see how people fell for some of these sometimes scams and or medicines that actually cured.