Survival Sickness
What do you do after issuing the definitive punk rock manifesto? Self-implode. It's what all self-respecting revolutionary punk bands do (just ask theSex Pistols). Soon after releasingThe Shape of Punk to Come(which included the warning shot "The Refused Are Fuckin' Dead"),Refusedfrontman and mastermind Dennis Lyxzén disbanded the group in mid-tour. But he didn't give up his mission. With the (International) Noise Conspiracy, Lyxzén continues to seek an incendiary mesh of art, revolution, and music. While the Refused deconstructed pop conventions with jazzy ferocity and hardcore pathos, the Conspiracy's radical politics are hidden in the guise of soulful '60s punk rock mayhem, recalling the high-octane garage thrash of theMakersand fellow Swedes theNomads. Perhaps they figured the best way to change the system is to crash the party. If the Refused were a combination of Derrida andFugazi, the Conspiracy are Debord and theWho. "Smash It Up" is less a rowdy's rebel yell than a subversive call to arms, inciting "the creative urge to destroy bourguise [sic] culture" over an organ- and bass-heavy rock steady beat. When Lautreamont sings "My heart still hurts from last night" during "Survival Sickness," he's not a spurned lover--he's sick of the state of the world, from "smart bombs" to "easy listening." How does one continue to exist in a society in which the twin evils of capitalism and totalitarianism strip the world of its resources and the people of their dignity? "Won't you forget about me when I'm gone?" he implores in "The Reproduction of Death," but again it has nothing to do with love--he's speaking about the body enslaved as commodity. The liner notes breezily name-check Lautr&ecute;amont, Fourier, Durutti, Warhol, and Marx. Heavy stuff, but lightened by the shake-ass groove Lyxzén's co-Conspirators kick up. This is revolution with a backbeat, and the (International) Noise Conspiracy are theMC5of the 21st century.--Tod Nelson