rock and roll musings by Tim Byrnes

 Back In Black With The Red State Blues:
RPM’s Mindbomb Got A Bulletproof Sheen

    On her new EP  ‘A Young Person’s Guide to Being An American’ (7490 Records) RPM returns with six guns a blazing, once again hell bent on waking up a dozing populace that, as usual, has no idea the trouble it’s seein’.  This young force of nature from Kentucky who debuted last year with the phenomenal ‘Irrational Anthem’ (if you don’t have it yet, but it NOW. I’ll wait), is the real deal: a thinking, feeling HUMAN being who’s both pissed off and articulate. A winning combination in any book. And, yes, she rocks.
    What RPM has done on ‘A Young Person’s Guide to Being An American’ is a rare thing, a fair and balanced (now THERE’S a catch phrase) take on, among other things, the mess our leader has made in Iraq. Rather than blather in the ‘anyone but Bush’ mode that arguably cost John Kerry the election, this record speaks with the soul of a warrior who knows what’s worth fighting for. The dedication says a lot :

“This EP is dedicate to my father. A soldier. My hero. Duty. Honor. Country. May no future president abuse the power and service of our troops”.

    As a child of a Marine myself, I recognize the difference between being  a patriot and a pundit. So many trapdoors have been built into Bush’s rationale for this ongoing slaughter that anyone questioning it, or him AT ALL, lends themselves to being painted with the brush of traitor. Just ask Ward Churchill. No, I’m not comparing RPM’s art to the overwrought screed of Churchill (really - ‘little Eichmann’s??!!’  Couldn’t you see that that was all anyone was gonna see? ), just that there’s an element of ‘kill the messenger’ brought to bear whenever anyone presents the powers that be with any uncomfortable truths.  To stand idly by and engage in the massive self-hypnosis and denial that defines much of American life and culture these days is in it’s own way a war crime. Not that we’re all ‘little Eichmanns’, but many of us are certainly more than a little lazy.
    Not RPM, no sir. This record takes up the artistic challenge of facing the harsh realities of being an American in the 21st Century. Moreover this record takes upon itself the responsibility, so often shirked by mere pop stars, to inform and maybe instruct as it rocks yr little pink house to it’s very foundation. And, once again, RPM has avoided the self-ghetto-ization of the poorly recorded punk rock rant-a-rama by dressing her poisoned ideas (always the best kind, mind you) in tight, fully formed arrangements with interesting twists, turns and instrumentation. Much credit goes to the band (Jerod Vance guitar, Matt McJunkins bass and Glen Sobel drums) for bringing the noise with both grace and fury to these words of fire and warning. Again co-produced by RPM and Frank Gryner (A Perfect Circle) ‘A Young Person’s Guide…” benefits from the bulletproof sheen of the Major Rock Release while suffering none of the mind numbing torpor of same. The cliché about iron fists and velvet gloves gets used a lot when discussing this woman’s work but it has never been used more aptly.
    This is no small thing, a record that eloquently asks hard questions and confidently posits hard answers with the unflinching intensity of one who knows deep in her heart that she’s right about what’s wrong. Here’s a quote from “Imperfect”:

Year gone by
Trashed our constitution
Hope you find
It was worth your retribution
While you try
For one more execution
I hope you are next

    Any questions? Such direct honesty is enough to make an old Clash fan cry. In days such as these, when the power mad play dice with our children’s lives and religions search frantically for alleged resignation letters in the face of death and child abuse, where pop stars extol the virtues of  vice for it’s own sake and urge us all to dancedancedance while the world is burning, a brave, smart woman with the heart and soul of Victory itself is laying down a mind bomb and a gauntlet to us all. In the words of Paul Westerberg it’s “..time for decisions to  be made” and, to paraphrase a famous, dangerous idiot “Yr either for her or against her.” I pray we all make the right decision. Buying the records is only the first, smallest step, but buy them. Buy them today because, unlike most rockers out there, RPM gives you something to think about for yr money, and such actions deserve to be rewarded. At last an artist worth supporting, so get out there and support her, Goddamnit!

Posted by: timbyrnes at 22:21 | link | comments

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