Anti-Flag is an American band from Pittsburgh who play highly politicized and intense punk rock. With their middle fingers pointed straight up at anything remotely establishmentarian and their tongues firmly planted in cheek, they turn their amps up to 11 and crank out cathartic anthems of angst and outrage designed to subvert the status quo.
In a recent phone interview, current bassist, Chris Barker, frequently referred to as Chris #2, sat in the band’s tour van for shelter from a downpour of rain and reminisced about Anti-Flag’s early days.
In 1988, guitarist and vocalist Justin Sane and drummer Pat Thetic were young, loud and snotty kids in small town Pennsylvania with “16-year-old punk rock nicknames.” They initially enlisted the help of Justin’s sister, Lucy Fester, for the role of bass player and played some local gigs. However, they were just “being little kids and wanting to be in a band. They jammed in their mom’s attic,” Barker said.
Barker said that it wasn’t until 1996 that the Anti-Flag of today truly began to form.
“In ‘96 Anti-Flag was a three-piece. Andy [Flag] left the band before the release of the first record. After that Chris [Head] came in as bass player. At the end of ‘98, Chris moved to guitar and I came in as bass player,” he said. “Before the record A New Army (1999) the four of us got together and it’s been the same lineup since September of ’98.” In addition to the various line-up changes that have occurred over the years, he said that the band has evolved musically over time.
“I like to think we’re better at the instruments. But our favourite bands and favourite songs for the most part have stayed the same—love The Clash, love the Dead Kennedys, love political punk rock,” he said.
For almost two decades, Anti-Flag has railed against nationalism, fascism, corporate culture, religion and anything else that pisses them off. They epitomize the sort of anti-American radicalism that reached a zenith in popularity during those heady Bush years when everyone seemed to be up in arms about everything.
Even mainstream society was hopping on the revolutionary bandwagon during the height of the Bush-Cheney era with Green Day’s American Idiot (2004) hitting the top of the U.S. album charts and selling over 14 million copies worldwide. Of course, with Green Day their pose of protest was a fashion commodity, more style than substance. Anti-Flag, on the other hand, exudes the kind of disarmingly grizzly integrity that comes with sticking to hard-line beliefs and living a fuck-the-system lifestyle for so long.
That doesn’t necessarily mean being the stereotypical rocker, getting wasted and throwing television sets out of hotel windows, nor does it mean being an anarchist and disregarding any form of structure.
“We lead a fairly non-exciting life,” Barker said. But, “if you believe punk rock is not having a good time that’s sort of backwards. The reason we created a counter culture that’s different from your school or nine-to-five workday is to be something that’s different from normal lives.” Expounding on the philosophy behind the band and punk in general, Barker asserted the importance of remaining aware of your role at an Anti-Flag show.
“If people want to have a good time then so be it, as long as they realize when they come to a show that this is supposed to be the antithesis to the norm. Sexism, homophobia and racism are invisible barriers that people put up over time … punk rock cannot be a microcosm of society, it’s got to be a place where you can be yourself,” he said.
Anti-Flag garnered some criticism and accusations of selling-out when, despite their overt anti-capitalist and anti-consumerist lyrics, they signed a two-album contract with major label RCA in 2005. The band is now back to their D.I.Y. roots and have released their newest album, The People or the Gun (2009), on the independent label, SideOneDummy.
Barker defends his band’s choice and reconciles their hardcore left-wing stance with the corporate evil of a major label deal. He is honest and upfront when he states that the majors have deep “pockets to spend money on their ideas and you don’t feel as bad spending it because you don’t personally know the owner.” At the end of the day, he said there’s no point being caught in a battle between major and indie.
“The band can dictate their actions. Sometimes a band signs a bad deal and they get fucked,” he said. “We signed a good deal and we put out two records as ourselves then went to put out with friends again.”
The truth is, the entire music industry is inherently capitalistic and Anti-Flag is just making the best of the situation. Barker explains that they are “trying to create something that doesn’t have blood on its hands … we’re not just turning a blind eye and printing on the cheapest shirts possible. We’re making sure there are no sweatshops and that the people are in Pittsburgh with us.”
Punk is a complex and often contradictory concept. While the old-school style of Anti-Flag saw its heyday in the first wave of punk during the late 1970s and early 1980s with socially conscious bands like the Circle Jerks and The Exploited (both of whom have played shows with Anti-Flag), punk is certainly not dead.
“Punk rock is indefinable. How can you kill something that’s indefinable? If punk rock is plugging into an amp and yelling what you believe, then how can that die?”
Anti-Flag played last night at Time to Laugh Comedy Club with The Menzingers and Vulgaires Machins. See Friday’s issue for photos from the show.
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