just one life, anarchy!

Brian Fallon (The Gaslight Anthem) on Forever The Sickest Kids (and bands of that ilk)

Why would I hate them? What does anything they do have to do with me and my life? Nothing. If I don’t want to listen to them, I just don’t. But if I do, I do. Why would I not want them to succeed? Like, it doesn’t affect my band at all. I hope that they succeed, good for them. Y’know, there’s kids that don’t like my band and they need something to listen to too - so listen to these bands, y’know? And I, I- because your hair’s different than me? C’mon, I don’t care. If that’s what you wanna do, wear what you dig, man - that’s what Benny always says. “Wear what you dig.”

Frank Turner fanboy

A few months ago I got a new tattoo, on my left wrist, of four black bars. It’s a pretty visible tattoo, both in design and in placing, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Leaving aside the inevitable morons asking me if it’s a (poorly drawn) barcode, I’m actually quite surprised by the number of people I know who are music fans, and heavy music fans at that, who don’t know what it is. In the case of readers of this article, the title’s given it away really, so you can all pretend to be scene and have known all along that it was the logo of long-deceased Californian punk band, Black Flag.

Getting any band tattoo (of a band that you’re not in) is not, generally speaking, something I consider eminently wise, especially not on your wrist. But not only am I pleased as punch, the number of people that I know or see (and then usually come to know) who have the bars tattooed somewhere is pretty high. It’s like belonging to a secret club. It also gives me an excuse to rant at length to people about the band, and to explain to them why they’re the greatest and most important punk band of them all. Which is exactly what I’m going to do here as well.

Frank Turner, here, which is an excellent article that should be read

~ Rebs x