Manic Strett Prechers

Manic Street Preachers

Journal for Plague Lovers

By Geordie Pleathur
(SugarBuzz Nation)

SugarBuzz Magazine

"The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion!" (-John Murtha)

"That was the hardest time I have ever had, in my life. It was better to just kill me. But they would not kill me." (–Afghan TEENAGER, Abdul Rashid, detained during Obama administration)

"To be conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage..." (-James Baldwin)

"Our silence will never protect us..." (-Audre Lorde)

"People should go where they are not supposed to go, say what they are not supposed to say, and stay when they are told to leave." (-Howard Zinn)

"Our movement had begun with the hope that we could shake the moral conscience of America, but painful experience had taught us, that there was an entrenched power structure, which profited from and systematically enforced oppression. We could not make a dent in the overwhelming social violence of the status quo, without coming up against that power structure." (-David Gilbert)

CULTURE, ALIENATION, BOREDOM, AND DESPAIR...

All the cool people keep dying. Alex Chilton, Brian Keats from Princess Pang, Captain Lou Albano from the "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" video, Rowland S. Howard, Willy Deville, Lux Interior, Sky Saxon, Nikki Sudden, Ron Asheton, Brendan Mullen, Mary Travers, Howard Zinn, Jim Carroll....Man. I was still mourning the loss of Strummer, Hunter S. Thompson, and the Crocodile Hunter. It's all fading around us.

In New York, and L.A., all my favorite places have come under occupation in recent years-the roped off playgrounds of the rich. Detroit Rock City? Basically, in ruins. "Culminated Ruins domino..." You gotta have an amazing day job, just to get by. All my old neighborhoods are over-run with Guido bars for showbiz-kids. Amateur hour, emo bands, and tipsy, snatch flashing, low-rent Lohans, who've just watched way too many commercial-rap videos. Somebody needs to tell those painfully over-cologned, Justin Timberlake and Fallout Boy types, and fat, mean, loudmouthed, J.Lo wanna-be's that "Night At The Roxbury" was satire-not an instruction guide. Worse still, the little labels and independent, print, music-press are drying up, and none of the slick pros ever seem to want to re-invest in the networks that nurtured their greedhead lifestyles, once they join the big-media paycheck zone...they don't look back. People who can't afford to drink in over-priced bars don't go out anymore, only college grads with office jobs can usually afford rehearsal spaces, and once you're invested in your middle class lifestyle, you're less inclined to want to disturb the status quo, so most of the music being made today, is being made by 20 year-olds whose parents are rich. The old guard, who among them, still makes good music? Carbon/Silicon. The NY Dolls, Patti...but who else?

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. Just look at all those has-been, American, hair metal stars, just don't get it, at all. Few of them used the access granted to them, by their fame and fortune, to read books, heal psychic baggage, get healthy, travel, learn, or grow. Most of those eighties guys don't understand that we, THE FANS, all identified with them as underdogs, so when they got their money, and immediately, started behaving EXACTLY like the bullying abusers, bad police, sinister ministers, wrestling coaches, jock-brutes, bouncer-assholes, vice-principals, juvenile probation officers, military recruiters, step-fathers, and other petty, power-mongers...they immediately, lost all their appeal, at least to the real rock'n'roll community. Some of them can still coast on their money, cos they still have a dubious audience of wrestling fans, and Wal-Mart shoppers, who don't really like music, that their super-fame, and tiresome tabloid feuds can still provide, but aside from the TV/TMZ Zombies, no one cares, about their phony corporate rawk, or dumb, stunted temper-tantrums, that were perhaps, forgivable at 27, but far less tollerable on a spoilt, selfish 47 year old, especially, if they can't even write real songs, from the heart, anymore. The reality show metal-heads are the worst. You listen to 'em talk, it's like, they don't even read "rock" books. I think those dudes just watch sports, and go to strip clubs. They're Googling themselves, as we speak, like aging life-guards, and seventies prog-rockers, with their Meatloaf choirs, and tubular bells. They're why punk rock happened, in the first place.

Meanwhile, the bohemian underground's vanquished, most everywhere, in the fluorescent glare of constant surveillance, eroded principles, and classist, fascist, increasingly authoritarian, corporate despot-rule. Both major political parties are sadly corrupt, rightwing, war parties, in the privatized service of the lawless, global-elite, multinational corporations. Monsanto, Halliburton, Blackwater, Lockheed-Martin, Exxon, G.E., etc., etc., etc. Fascists are filling prisons for profit, all over the world. Even peaceful dissent has pretty much been outlawed. The corporate shock-troops are just going to cuff, and taser you, or hit you in the groin with a night-stick, and press charges for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and assaulting a police officer, if you attempt to peacefully speak out against the war, or the banking heists, or post-NAFTA economy. Real music on MTV is dead, the record industry's dead. The corporate-state relentlessly force-feeds us crap like Adam Lambert, who's about as rock'n'roll-authentic as Travolta in "Grease". He reminds you of the campy, high school choir geek, who dresses up like "Gary Glitter" for Halloween. That's a far cry from Freddie Mercury, who the commercial-media juggernaut willingly compares him to. That don't make Adam a bad guy, but we should hear from more voices than his, y'know? Nowadays, all the corporations will let us hear are out-takes from the movie, "Fame". That Elvis impersonator on the Inxs tv show wrote one pretty good song, I liked him, in spite of his reality show villain Attitude , uh, J.D. Fortune was his name, but one great song don't make you Michael Hutchence-I know folks who've written songs that good, who presently, bag your groceries. A songwriting great like Tom Petty, or Kris Kristofferson, probably would not get discovered, if he was a newcomer, today.

None of my favorite singers would make it through an American Idol audition. Can you imagine Ian Astbury, Richard Butler, Nick Marsh, or Stiv Bator auditioning for those idiots? Rotten? Eric Burdon? Van Morrison? Noddy Holder, David Jo, Alice Cooper, Rob Tyner, Lou Reed, Dylan, Jagger...none of my heroes would get signed, now. Sinead's probably the only one that could hit the Broadway notes, right, but she's too heartfelt, self-educated, literate, and opinionated to be allowed access, in the Jessica Simpson world. Sad. Only KISS could make it now, cos those guys would just join GWAR, be Gaga's male pole-dancers, go techno, become Fox fraudcasters...anything for da bling, like Diddy, and Jay-Z. In the corporate-death era, all that matters is a willingness to obey, a desire for fame, no opinions of your own, and sometimes, it's a convenience for producers, if one has proper pitch, but even that hardly matters, really-witness Britney, the Simpson sisters, etc., etc. Brandi Carlile is an astonishing talent, but she was immediately exploited by a big corporate advertising push, as a jingle, quickly disposed of and forgotten, and I only ever heard her music in that ad campaign, never on regular radio, and what a loss for everyone. She is an exceptional vocalist/storyteller. She should be on the covers of magazines, not the 22 year old millionaire kids with nose jobs.

Stardom means so little, anymore. The sluts they push on brainwash-tv, and in all those awful magazines, aren't even attractive, are they? Just related to rich people. If you're looking for something valid, authentic, deep, meaningful...gifted, or remarkable, uh...you'll have to settle for karaoke, Jack. Heidi Montag getting more surgeries. SHOPPING with Bruce Jenner's step-daughters. "ART". Or more horrible crap like Susan Boyle (God Bless Her) and Michael Buble (Bring Back Chris Isaak!), and Taylor Swift for Wal-Mart. Do you care who Tiger Woods sleeps with? 'Who wins the super bowl??? No, me, neither! Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and some part-time, former, Journey touring bassist, might feel clever, getting rich, by bitching about people's "pitch", but as Syl Sylvain used to ask, "What's That Got To Do With Rock'n'Roll?" There aren't any Joe Strummers, or Sinead O'Connors, Patti Smiths, Paul Westerbergs, Tupac Shakurs, or even, Axl Roses, anymore. Just pro-war hawk, Kid Rock, Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, and Pink, y'know? Disney kids with product lines, and horrible, soulless, white-washed, commercial-rap bullshit. WHO buys all those Mariah Carey C.D.'s???? Maybe they haven't KILLED rock'n'roll, but they sure have banned it from the airwaves. Remember when you were a kid in school, how they taught us that Russia controlled the media, and brutally controlled/imprisoned/misinformed the common folk? Obama is steadily continuing the Bush agenda, only with a prettier series of lyrical speeches, and no one from the liberal middle-class seems to object, because he's a suave and eloquent, star-like, charismatic, good looking, populist, black dude...! He's totally silenced big segments of the community who ought to be demanding REAL CHANGE, just by being the presiding figurehead, with no REAL CHANGE FORTHCOMING. In spite of his being terminally obsequious to the bankers and generals, people on both sides of the carefully manufactured Red/Blue State Divide, keep choosing to believe that he's doing something different than his predecessor. It can get a little depressing. The media-pros just obediently write about all this same old Britney, Beck, Beyonce', Strokes, rich kids and boybands-gutless, phoney, lamestream crap, and pretend it's good--for money. Simple payola. How embarrassing. They got no shame, though, cos they're drinking for free in those above-mentioned Guido bars, and buying more flash crap with their big salaries, while cats like us just barely get by, at all.

"I saw the Stooges! Covered in bruises! Who Will Save Rock'n'Roll???" (-Dictators)

I mean, we all know plenty of beautiful, super talented artists, and authentic voices, screaming in the wind, exiled, banished by the big-media agenda...There's loads of wizards and true starz, still clamoring to be heard among all the goofy chatter, and greasy kid stuff, and endless war, fear-mongering, on-line, but truth-tellers and rebel-poets, the people who make real music, that matters, will probably never again be given access to American mass-media. They've kind of sewn that all up, y'know? There are some anti media monopoly movements like: https://secure.freepress.net/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=375
and www.stopbigmedia.com, but Republicrat Corporatist, Bill Clinton, really screwed the real people over, with his NAFTA, and his 1996 Telecommunications act, giving the public airwaves over to the corporate-elites. Many of us who used to believe that the Democrats were a seperate party from the Republicans, have been busy arguing among ourselves, this past year, about whether Obama is a hostage or a fake. www.losing-hope.org In the midwest, and rural "fly-over states", the poorly-schooled, rightwing dupes and hickoid rubes are all still being fed the usual, Karl Rove, neo-con, George Orwell 1984, smears and Lies and bullshit justifications for more military-spending, by Fox News and on nearly every number on your radio-dial.

Personally, I dunno how cable-watchers get sucked-in to paying to suffer through all that awful PROGRAMMING-all that dumb, crassly commercialized, not funny, not sexy, dishonest, war propaganda, and bullshit TV, when most Americans, honestly, have way more in common with the everyday people this government is currently, bombing with drones, in foreign lands--poor people, just trying to get by, take care of their families, live...than they do with any of the fat, cigar chomping, Scrooge McDuck Hate Radio bullies, or any of the billionaire cocaine heiresses with the breast implants, they're forced to watch shopping on television. The closest we come to real, breathing, empathetic, human beings on TV are the adorable kitty petting Ellen, or Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, and Tim Gunn, and those three...okay, and Craig Ferguson, perhaps, can hardly compensate for the toxic effects of all that 'round the clock "war on terror" lies and disinformation, and capitalist rap moguls, and cop shows, who glorify brute-violence, craven materialism, the prison state, and this terror-industrial-complex. Glenn Beck gets paid to confuse uneducated blue collar people into believing that the globalist, imperialist, Wall Street, police state, agenda somehow benefits them. He's a shlep of a morning-zoo, drive-time disc jockey, elevated to lunatic cable-propagandist, whose prime directive/job numero uno, is to demonize poor people and progressives, and demoralize and hijack the libertarian movement by using populist lingo, into assimilating back into the Sarah Palin, Neo-Con, War Hawk, IMPERIALIST Agenda. Guys like Beck, and O'Reilly are only there to mislead Ron Paul conservatives, people who genuinely care about the Constitution, and yes, some lingering rural racists, and misguided tea partiers, into trusting big pharma/insurance companies, the cops and military, corporations, and off-shore bankers of Wall Street, forever hoping for some of that mythological, trickle down economics, Joe The Plumber, Reagan rah rah rich people, "We're #1!", flag-waving, sports bullshit, and I'm sorry to say, that it looks more and more, like our once so promising, closet-conservative, President Obama, is fufilling the exact same purpose among all us bleeding heart liberals, and former-hippies, and yuppie Democrats. Distracting us from stopping these wars, or organizing our own citizen pressure-groups, calling for the IMMEDIATE AND FULL RESTORATION OF THE CONSTITUTION'S BILL OF RIGHTS AND GENEVA CONVENTIONS. Under the guise of this bogus war on terror, the corporate oligarchs have simply stripped Americans of their rights to protest, to free speech, to privacy, to safety from harmful foods and other commercial poisons, and to a living wage. The out-of-touch, out-to-lunch, rich rockstars are as clueless as the politicians, about real people. They've all forgotten where they came from. http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/michael-hudson-obamas-republican-class-war-presidency/ http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts279.html

THE OWNERS, AND THE REST OF US....

The cable news millionaires bark and bark for more war, more bail-outs, more warrantless wire-taps, more executive bonuses, more torturing, more drones, no modern/universal health-care, while the Republicrat politicians continue to do exactly what they were elected to stop: torture, war, domestic spying, deregulation, secrecy, "state secrets", Frankenfoods, union busting, foreclosures, insurance mandates, a bullshit drug war nobody really believes in, etc. They still haven't banned Diebold voting machines, or tasers, so obviously, this is no longer a democracy, esp. after the rulings of the Bush Inc. Supreme Court, who've now ruled, that there should be no limits whatsoever, on corporate spending in American elections-that's the actual CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM they were promising their C.E.O. paymasters, behind closed doors....in spite of all the best efforts of our friends over at www.freespeechforpeople.org andwww.savedemocracy.net

...Enjoy all that misinformation, sports, "reality" TV, dated-sounding, fake industrial bullshit, and Black Eyed Peas music, ya'all....

Maybe some of these crap-stars will grow on me, as the years go by...one thing the past twenty years has taught me is how, if I think your band sucks, resent your insincerity, and mediocrity, you will most likely, succeed, forever, be proclaimed geniuses and innovators, by the corporate death-machine, who will nurture you in luxury, while the artists I care about, who've got a message, who've got something to say, are punished and ignored...If I hear truth in your work, that really moves me, you're probably doomed to a lifetime of rejection, low-income, painful compromise, suffering, drifting, and divorces, poor health and nagging poverty. It's crazy. The war pigs and shameless fakes are winning ugly. We're under occupation. There's only one party-the Republicrat War Party. With Democrats like Lieberman and Baucus, and Orahma, who needs Republicans? http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7680

The academic/intellectual/advertising/media pros are mostly just paid now to rationalize, or clumsily attempt to justify, the greed and treachery, and endless war, of the top five percent elites, who seem so hell bent on destroying the rest of the planet's population, denying us all a fair wage, health-care, education, or peaceful, and prosperous quality of life. For our own good, of course, to protect us. From terrorists. And union organizers. And friends.

REICH IS NOT CENTER....

One of the Last Bands to make it inside the corporate-rawk green zone, right before they pulled up the drawbridge, and unleashed gators into the poisoned moat, stratergically dismantling, the entire rock'n'roll underground, under the guise of the "alternative" marketing-hoax, in the 90's, ushering in all that awful, uninspiring, nasal-moaning about how sexy it is to be entirely sold-out, and in pursuit of mindless luxery, or resigned to your dreamless, unglamorous, slacker despair, navel-gazing, and apathy-dressed like you work at a car-wash, with lyrics about futility and sleeping, and death, and giving up, and letting the bad guys win forever, y'know, whatever, nevermind...MANIC STREET PREACHERS were, indeed, a band who were worthy of comparisons to Freddie Mercury and Brian May, as well as to Prince, Generation X-the band, not the media-hook, Peter Laughner, the CLASH, Public Enemy, Hanoi Rocks, the Adverts, Oasis, and even, that vital, first fifteen minutes of ferocious, Guns N Roses. Bradfield and company can create sonic masterpieces, as grand, and dreamily melodic, Beatlesque, and oftentimes, every bit as epic and glorious, as McCartney, Pink Floyd, or even Brian Wilson's Beach Boys. They have all kinds of beatiful symphonic pop orchestrations, new wavey soundscapes like Wire, the Cure, or Smashing Pumpkins minus Corgan's chalkboard-annoying vocals, as challenging as Public Image Ltd., as romantic as the Pogues, as angry as the British-Hardcore spike brigades. They can be as experimental as those revolutionary 45 B-Sides Prince used to put out, as provocative as Immortal Technique, Paris, Chuck D., or the Last Poets....but mostly, they specialize in gutsy, indomitable, big rock'n'roll anthems.

Truly, these furious, glam rock PREACHERS were divinely gifted, muck-racking, literate, passionate, beautiful, badass rock'n'roll motherfuckers. The reason they never made it in America, is that they had brains, their music was invested with history, politics, guts, and truth, and big business frowns on such things, esp., when it's in the steady process of deindustrailizing/downsizing a nation to create more soldiers, prisoners, and slaves. I don't know where Richie is, but I don't feel like he jumped off of that bridge, where they found his car. Many of you don't even know the story, he was the much beloved cult figure of the band, who went missing in the early 90's, and was eventually declared dead, even though no body was ever found. (I'll add links, at the end.) The important thing now, is that you United Slaves, and rebel rockers, all understand that MANIC STREET PREACHERS were the LAST GREAT important, soulful, Clash-like band. I like MANIC STREET PREACHERS so much, because, they were never closet-bullies, rednecks, cops at heart. They really ARE rebels, not just jocks who only ever really wanted to be bossly C.E.O. oppressors, RICH rednecks, corrections officers, or surround themselves with thuggish goon-squads.

The MANIC STREET PREACHERS stand for freedom, art, truth, soul, sensitivity, freedom, integrity, human rights, peace, critical thinking, individuality, real rock'n'roll. They oppose tyranny and totalitarianism. They believe in truth and justice...and uh, did I mention freedom? They're the opposite of sell-outs, because they've become more outspoken, more honest, and incendiery, as they've become more successful. Whereas, our American artistes are callous millionaires, who write redundant songs about their mansions, lawyers, groupies, and seem as out-of-touch with real people, as our self-caressing, double-talking, politicians, the Manics don't seem like they spend much time in media bubble V.I.P. rooms, at all. They may have been working class drunks from a smalltown, but these were working class, smalltown boys, who read books, and who could empathize with the suffering of others. They celebrated, and explored their own vanities, temptations, self-loathing, and emotional issues: from self lacerating decadence, to pure narcissism and ribald, all night long Saturnalia, all along, but they also evolved their consciousness, and awarenesses, and contemplative, considerate messages, to include the plight of other human beings, 'not even on their pay-roll. Amazing. These big-media creeps we're subjected to in the U.S. never think about anything but their botox, hairdressers, boob jobs, and personal assistants. That's what we get for entertainment, here. We get to watch them shop, and congratulate themselves for giving the help a Christmas bonus.

"The only book of the last few years in American publishing, that I would describe as a mandatory must-read. Literally the only one." (-Rachel Maddow, on "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein)

"One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are NOT fighting." (-George Orwell, 1938)

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." (-C. S. Lewis)

"A nation that continues, year after year, to spend more money on military defense, than on programs of social uplift, is approaching spiritual death." (–Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

"Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect, and must be opposed." (-Barry Goldwater)

BAD BOYS AND PAIN KILLERS....

The MANIC STREET PREACHERS were the LAST GREAT ROCK'N'ROLL BAND. Not any of that defeatist grunge shit, or the fourth generation cock rock bands who became so ubituitous, after "Sweet Child Of Mine" crossed-over. I mean, Quireboys, Dogs D'Amour, Circus Of Power, all those bands are great, but MANIC STREET PREACHERS are like, GREAT. Pure GREATNESS, like Queen, The Beatles, Stones, or Sex Pistols, because of their immense musical gifts, brilliant lyrics, and endlessly versatile, and innovative pop-songwriting. They covered George Michael, like Limp Bizkit, but their version of "Last Christmas" reminds you of what a fantastic knack for melodies, even the Wham guy had, compared to these clowns, and puppet-whores, that dominate our airwaves, now. If you know about Manic Street Preachers already, chances are, you already own their newest masterpiece, and I don't have to remind you how stellar it is. If you're not yet a fan of the Manics, go get their greatest hits disc, "Forever Delayed", and marvel at how many amazing songs never, never got American airplay, in spite of their being big mainstream hit-makers, most everywhere else, along with their first full-length, "Generation Terrorists". An album as important to some of us, as "Appetite For Destruction". What Nirvana represented to the shopping mall/cell-phone/mainstream sports herd, after they helped to "break" punk, the Manics were to many of us misfits, weirdos and drop-outs, around the world. Which isn't to dismiss, or belittle Cobain, I'm just sayin' that the mystique, and profundity, assigned to him by his fans, and by big-business, is the same kind of devotion that the Manic's followers have for them, many of whom, particularly identified with the mysteriously vanished, Richie, the tormented political conscience of the band. The living embodiment of smart and sensitive, socially aware rock'n'roll, and all of it's nuanced contradictions. 'So glad there isn't yet, a Richie Edwards "Guitar Hero" video-game avatar. Vocalist/Guitar Genius, JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD, is CLEARLY, one of the most talented people, still making rock'n'roll music, in this darkening age of evil empire and corporate dominion. As Cobain used to say, corporate rock still sucks. Sean Moore is an awesome drummer and trumpet player. Nicky Wire is an enormous pop idol everywhere, but in the brainwashed shadows of the terror-industrial complex of modern America. Both J.D. Bradfield, and rockstar bassist, Nicky Wire (roughly the Welsh equivalent of Duff:Consummate, Total Rockstar with brains) released cool solo records in recent years, "The Great Westerner", and "I Killed The Zeitgeist"-both reccomended--but the ninth MANIC STREET PREACHERS l.p., "JOURNAL FOR PLAGUE LOVERS", brings unearthed Richie lyrics to life, with the usual epic assortment of protest songs and pained self-examination. These guys got IT. If you're a miseducated, outcast, ugly, American like me, who is absolutely starved for some TRUTH AND SOUL, that's so tragically lacking in all the works of these wanking Malibu millionaires and the "Girls Gone Wild" hip-pop that monopolizes the radio, this is a good place to turn, along with "Everything Must Go", "Holy Bible", "Know Your Enemy", "If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next", "Masses Against The Classes", "Holy Bible", truly-if you ever loved seventies Lennon, The Clash, The Jam, Morrissey, or real rock'n'roll, in general, you NEED this band. I know I do. If you've never been hipped to them, prior to this intensely-caffeinated jag o' mine, here, please do type MANIC STREET PREACHERS into Youtube, and enjoy hours and hours of their powerful, classic, amazingly poignant, and entertaining videos. I always intended to forge a gutsy pop band like this,of my own, but I was always too poor to ever get it off the ground. God Save the Manic Street Preachers. This is my truth-tell me yours.