10.16.2011

The Nomadic Firs :: "I'm A 99"

Without getting overly political or doing a critical analysis of what it might mean to be "the 99 percent" or a comprehensive inventory of what is an increasingly consumer debt driven economy, we're prepared to say we're interested in the people hanging out on Wall St. at this writing. It isn't SDS and this isn't Vietnam, but something about post-adolescents sleeping outside to protest income inequality and corporate person-hood feels like our generation grappling with - or is it needing? - a dare-to-be-great moment. We don't have a Dylan, nor did Dylan end the war; Nixon did. But, this generation has a broader musical culture, thousands of digital releases and Bandcamps and Soundclouds and Garageband bards, prepared to offer their voice to something that might matter. Protest music isn't less relevant now, it's just a brilliant sun fractured into a million bare light bulbs. Nomadic Firs, a band with a handle on downcast pop, take a stab at codifying the movement with their sing-song raison d'etre cut, "I'm A 99". The chorus rings instantly singable, a repeating statement of self, one of those collective, existential cries, in this case: "I'm a 99." This only matters if you tell people; it only counts if you are a partial part of it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

good luck to all those grovelling at the italian leather shoes of power. the people in charge will find it easy to ignore and the suited footsoldiers on the streets are just doing their jobs. how did we ever start to think that power could be benevolent, that it could accede to argument, that it can feel our songs? we're better off just working with eachother and forgetting about the 1 giving us anything good. maybe the business of abusing and exploiting just isn't what it used to be. the giving tree is now a stump. all those easy jobs are gone. and if you were savvy enough to take their stuff as a 'debt' then just walk. you don't need it and if it was education you got, they can't take that back HA! Freedom is yours to barter for your greed.
Still, i wish i could take the pulse of a nation and say it like that...FIGHT ON!