This story starts with a shared tweet from my friend from this band he heard on Twitter. It was the video of a song called Fox News which appeared at first to be some kind of spoof. I clicked on it because my friend is often uncanny with his musical tastes. The video depicts this 3 piece outfit called Negative Tendencies and suffice it to say, they ripped the dreaded cable news corps a new one. The lyrics were devastatingly clever, beautifully profane, and the tune and guitar riff motif just catchy as hell! I mean the whole thing just popped out of my speakers. The singer’s (Scott Stambaugh) big head came on the screen and he looked like no wild man I’ve ever seen before, some sort of articulate minstrel from the future. I mean, WTF?! These were all older guys, they ain’t kids at all, but they were edgy as glass blades, giving the finger to the Foxland of propaganda many of us despise along with them. Some of the lines in the song are just outrageous but the song left me grinning from ear to ear.
They cater to the masses of dumb white men
Then there is Tucker, such a racist motherfucker
Poor Judge Jeanine likes to suck on POTUS ween
The guitar player who it turns out also plays bass reels off this effortless melodic solo, and the song ends way too fast. What a concoction. I watched the video again. Made a note to check out the band further though I was guessing this was their only song. Boy was I wrong.
Turns out these boys have a newly released record with 12 songs called PARTISAN: The Resister Rock Chronicles. It’s a series of songs apparently written over the annals of the Trump era. And folks, I’m not sure there has ever been a balls to the wall political rock album that goes as far as this one. What a colorful spectrum of anthemic whoopings. It’s like MSNBC on election night on steroids set to music times a zillion.
Where should I start? Okay how about a song called Lights Out For The GOP. This has a big box store sized hook and rocks like the Stones in their prime. The singer cuts directly to the point.
Lights out for the GOP
yeah now we know that they don’t stand for anything
It’s time for these assholes to just butt out
With their unAmerican ways
And the verses are downright journalistic!
They blocked Obama for the deficit
But now they don’t care at all
The constitution was important to them
Now they’ll toss it out to get a wall
The band mostly plays rock songs but there are a couple of killer ballads, one about Covid is mostly soft-spoken, and ends poignantly. The record closer is the National Anthem 2019 or Trump Spangled Banner. The orchestral aspects of this song are beautiful and the tone of the song so tragic, the record goes out on a very low note, leaving you appropriately drained if you listen to the complete album.
There are 2 spoof songs, covers with new lyrics provided by Scott who is obviously a wordsmith of some distinction. They raid the Who’s Tommy and David Bowie (Scott says Bowie gave him the go ahead in a dream). UnAmericans, taken from Bowie’s Young Americans features possibly the most striking lyrics on the record.
He came down on the escalator
He was promising many things
Holy fuck these are crazy times
and I thought I'd seen it all
It all changed then and there
Muslim ban, separated babies
he let Putin roll our country
He wouldn't let us see his taxes
Ain't there such thing as true no more?
Ain't there a good way to get rid of this man?
Ain't there someone to appoint real judges?
Ain't there a president who believes in science?
Ain't you embarrassed that this fool's your leader?
Ain't there one damn way that can help us
turn things around?
The absolute meat of this record is the 3 songs before the finale, all harder rock. The Swamp Is You lays out very lyrically the Trump Cast of Characters and the drummer Dave Latchaw pounds them into submission. IYF Obstruction is about AG Barr and is just contagiously melodic, a dynamic tune and bridge, with anthemic guitar work by Jonny Vee. also has a very risque line about the country needing a new Lee Harvey Oswald. and Statue borders on punk rock, it is perhaps the most powerful political rock song ever created, it depicts an America where Give Me Your Tired Your Poor is still part of the foundation. These boys don’t hide from what ails us, they are right in the face of the current administration every step of the way.
Neg Ten as their fans call them cover all the bases of Trumpland on this record. They have a humorous song (The Paranoids) that fits in the classic secret agent spy genre, about all the right wing conspiracies. They have a poetic folk song about Brett Kavanaugh that musically reminded me of the classic Oh Shenandoah. And the real knockout is a song called Perry Mason, a hard rock masterpiece which is intertwined with flavors of the TV theme song, this band is just killer. Scott’s singing made me feel all the anguish of the Trump years, and at the same time left me patriotic for the great American experiment, no easy feat!
As a concept album, PARTISAN: The Resister Rock Chronicles should by all rights be legendary, no band has ever traipsed such an outspoken path so very melodically . The title itself is a riddle because ‘partisan’ is generally a negative term, but once you listen, all the answers are provided via the fury of these unlikely provocateurs. This record I assure you like none other will instantly transport you to the time of Trump. You might not want to stay there, for obvious reasons, but it sure does give a taste of what it’s been like to be in those trenches.
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