If you don’t already know this band, as a leftist, you absolutely need to.
When listening to the Demon Mama stream the night President Biden announced the US was pulling out of Afghanistan earlier this week, I saw some people in the chat saying how the war was older than they are. I remember when it started and how naive I was. Since music is how I cope with life, I immediately felt the need to hear some Anti-Flag and reflect on the past 20 years...
When 9/11 happened I was 18, but I didn’t start engaging into political spaces until 2003. A person in the chat community I was a part of at the time was a big fan of a band called Anti-Flag. They were really excited about the bands’ new record “The Terror State”. I’d never heard of them before, but if my friend was stoked, I had to go check it out. So I did.
The opening track “Turncoat” is a direct attack on George W. Bush, whose picture appears on the inside artwork of the CD sleeve with the words “One Term President” underneath. It sets the tone for the whole record. This band gave not one fuck.
The songs were really catchy and bouncy with punk fury but I felt deeply moved. There was a feeling of hope regardless of the heavy themes of war and protest. “Mind the GATT” is a stand out track in this regard. The lyrics “Our voices sing in union...the people’s voice will sing as one voice” still hits me in the feels to this day.
Growing up in a house with Republican voting parents, George W. Bush was seen as a great guy who was just defending our country against the bad terrorists that “hate our freedom”. For the first time through songs like “Sold As Freedom” and “Power to the Peaceful” I slowly began to understand that the war we were fighting was really fucking terrible and not something to cheer for. George Bush wasn’t to be celebrated, but was someone actively doing harm.
This album was more than just some kickass political punk tracks produced by Tom Morello, it was a pushback against those narratives I’d passively accepted for so long.
