RX BANDITS

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

by Emily Cassel 

The disappearance of the protest song

If you caught Jimmy Fallon’s October 24th performance in Matthews Arena, chances are you heard his opening number Car Wash for Peace, a charming little ditty in which Fallon lightheartedly asks us to put down our guns, pick up a sponge, and head to a Wal-Mart parking lot. Sure, this song is witty and clever, but it makes you wonder: where are all the real war protest songs?

This year marked the 40th anniversary of the three-day long stonerfest known as Woodstock, and while that inspired an influx of tie dyed tee shirts and a mediocre Demetri Martin movie, it seemed to stimulate little in the music industry. The past decade, while filled with political turmoil, terrorist attacks, and war in the Middle East, has been frightfully void of protest music.

It’s weird in a way that we don’t hear more from artists who are upset by the current state of our world, especially since music is so accessible now. In the ‘60s protest music was limited almost exclusively to folk musicians, with artists like Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and Pete Seeger at the forefront. Now we have access to protest music in array of genres: Propaghandi and NOFX represent the punk scene, Rage Against the Machine and System of a Down for the metal-heads, and Spearhead and KRS-One hold it down for hip-hop. But for some reason, the songs filling up the airwaves are more often about “bitches and hoes” than change and peace. 

California’s Rx Bandits are known for their anti-war stance and socially conscious lyrics. Lead vocalist/guitarist Matt Embree, writes all of the lyrics for the band and believes that the absence of popular protest music can be attributed to the mindset of people tuning into the radio.
 “Nowadays, I honestly feel like a lot of the time people don’t want to hear it,” he said. “Like people are sick of it, or people just feel like there’s nothing they can do, or they feel like, ‘I know this shit is fucked up, but what can I do? I’m only one person, I can’t change the world’”

He further acknowledges the lack of airtime granted to protest songs by joking, “Britney Spears ain’t singing about peace.”

It’s very possible that the lack of protest music today is a reflection of what we as listeners want to hear. After all, in the ‘60s many bands (Embree describes them as “fringe people”) wrote songs about peace and love because that was what was popular and although they didn’t really care about the issues, they knew that was the type of music people wanted to hear. While Embree doesn’t necessarily think attitude right, he said he’d prefer it to hearing songs “about being in the club.”

That’s certainly not to say there aren’t any musicians putting out good protest music. Recent releases like Pearl Jam’s “Bushleaguer” and Bright Eyes’ “When the President Talks to God” are great protest jams. It’s just that whereas the ‘60s were dominated by the folksy tunes of Dylan and Seeger, very few musicians (with the exception of maybe Green Day and RATM, with a few others) have been able to achieve mainstream success with their songs.

“There needs to be a change in our perception and a change in our priorities as human beings,” said Embree. “We’ve got to realize that there are things worth fighting for, but these wars that our governments concoct and create so that they can have more power and money and influence in the world, these things are not worth fighting for.”

According to Embree, there are a lot of people in the music community doing a great deal of good for the world. Specifically, Chad Stokes of State Radio, who Embree describes as a “super legit, friendly and positive person.” Stokes has given away hundreds of thousands of dollars to help people of Africa and other impoverished areas all over the world. He and his band are setting a great example for other musicians according to Embree.

Stokes agreed that there are artists out there doing great work in terms of being politically active.

“Some [bands] are amazing and some would rather leave politics far away,” he said. “I wish there were more bands out there that spoke out against the man, but I’m honored to be on the same path as the ones that are.”

Embree strongly believes that telling people to write music in a certain way is wrong, but if there’s a possibility to inspire at least one person to get involved in social issues through his songs, then he believes that’s what he should do.

“I’m up in front of people, so I feel like I have a choice,” he explained. “I can sing a song that doesn’t challenge them and doesn’t really make them think; I can sing songs about nothing so that people can think about nothing, or I can get up there and talk about some real shit.”

Listening to Rx Bandits songs like Overcome (The Recapitulation), fans may be struck by the positive outlook that the band is able to maintain. Lyrics like “Right now we got our feet stuck in cement/we’re too caught up in a material status quo punishment” juxtaposed against the lines “Love with all your hearts/and never forget how good it feels to be alive,” demonstrate the band’s belief that while there is a lot of bad in the world right now, there’s no reason why we can’t be optimistic.

“The more I travel, the more it’s just solidified to me that the majority of people are good people,” Embree said. “I guess you just choose how you want to feel. You can be really negative and pessimistic about it and sit in your house and be all scared and shit, but that’s not how I want to live. Yeah, there’s plenty of reasons to be bummed out. But there’s also plenty of reasons to be stoked.”

Embree also insists that while the world’s problems may seem overwhelming, there’s no reason we can’t do something to bring about change.

“You can change your local community, and you can lead by example, and you can get your friends involved. It’s not the type of thing where it has to be something that seems really mundane. You don’t have to feel like you’re forcing an idea down someone’s throat, because you’re not. You just go and do what you think is right.”