Live Statement

If you used to listen to Consolidated for the lyrical content, and if you think that Rage Against the Machine is as important for their unreconstructed Marxism as they are for their grooves, then two things are probably true about you: you're probably too young to remember Crass and Flux of Pink Indians, and if you had been a teenager in the early '80s, you would have probably loved them. Back then funkiness was suspect; musical politics came mainly in the form of punk rock, the more abrasive and tuneless the better. And no one was less tuneful and more abrasive than the charmingly named Flux of Pink Indians, whose musical approach was relentlessly assaultive and whose messages revolved around the twin themes of anarchy and animal rights. Yes, that's a rather strange combination (since the protection of any group's rights pretty much requires government oversight), but hey, strict internal consistency has never exactly been the hallmark of political punk rock. Live Statement was recorded in concert at the Sherwood Community Centre in Nottingham, England, in 1982; it features Flux's typical mix of militantly precise jackhammer guitar-bass-drums and incomprehensible, barking vocals. The lack of a lyric sheet means that the messages — to the extent that they aren't communicated by song titles like "Blinded by Science" and "They Lie, We Die" — are pretty much lost. But this album will still be an enjoyable nostalgia trip for 30-something ex-punks and a valuable history lesson for any young whippersnapper who thinks of Blink 182 as a punk band.