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The Anti-Nowhere League

Pavement Music, 1998

REVIEW BY: Paul Hanson

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 10/18/2005

In "Long Live Punk," the Anti-Nowhere League proclaim "Well wehit the streets with hell for leather / You know Punk Rock's gonnalive forever / Punk Rock's gonna live forever / Punk Rock's gonnalive forever."

Hopefully it will be performed by bands that have their acttogether more than this one.

In concept, I admit it's a great idea. Take the band thatoriginally played the vulgar "So What" that Metallica covered andreleased on the CD single for "Sad But True." Then, fueled by thepopularity of the Metallica cover, go into the studio and recordmore songs in the hope that the fact that Metallica fans seem tolike "So What" may translate into gigantic album sales.

Of all the flaws with this logic, I will focus upon the threelargest: First of all, the Anti-Nowhere League is too raw to get alot of mainstream attention. Their songs are full of vulgarity,which you can read at your leisure here. Their idea of good lyrics are drivel like"We all fall down like chocolate soldiers!" Elsewhere in the song,vocalist Animal declares "Do you like the feeling when you'regetting high / Do you run with a gang when you want to bang / Heywhy don't you try / You're shooting up and maybe...you're gonnawake the dead." I want my punk rock to be more intelligent thanthis and, in fact, I demand that the musicians don't treat me likea moron by insulting my intelligence.