Brett CallwoodCrass
The Feeding of the 5000 (Crass Records)
Crass has had a significant impact both on how I approach the expression of lyrics and art – attempting, at least, to circumvent bland convention. It’s weird because I know people might see them as an obvious choice when I could’ve picked a more obscure “underground” band, but I don’t often get a chance to talk about their anarchic presentation verging on pure poetry.
(Crass Records)
Add to this depth that they were probably not the most musically developed band on earth, and they really throw a wild mess of contradictions at you. I also love the misconceptions about them – that they were rabidly left wing, when in fact they largely scoffed at political labels in general due to the divisions those labels perpetuated. In the end though, they were truly a collective, where male and female were given equal voice and they slapped a lot of ideas on the table that were arguably even slightly uncomfortable with many who considered themselves quite free in their thinking. I love Crass. And they would probably have bristled at that notion. But as they seemingly encouraged contradictions and suchlike, I’m wholly unrepentant.
Napalm Death’s new album Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism is out September 18 via Century Media.
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