This episode features an interview with Kevin Mattson, author of "We're Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America." Topics include how anarchism, DIY ethics, and straightedge politics informed a music-driven movement against Ronald Reagan and the culture of vacuous consumption that the president presided over.
Playlist:
5:10 "Paranoid Chant," Minutemen
14:18 "Born to Die," M.D.C.
20:59 "I Hope You Get Drafted," The Dicks
25:59 "California Uber Alles," The Dead Kennedys
37:07 "What Are We Gonna Do?" Code of Honor
42:43 "A Cry for Help in a World Gone Mad," Agent Orange
48:39 "Straightedge," Minor Threat
52:46 "Jesus Was a Pacifist," Reagan Youth
Cola looks at the dress and politics of 1970s punk, focusing on the use of swastikas as fashion accessories. We consider the merits of using the Nazi symbol to attack English bourgeois mythology and comment on the commercialization of Nazism during the Hitler Wave of the 1970s. Focusing on the book "England's Dreaming" by Jon Savage, we talk about Vivienne Westwood and Malcom McLaren (and their clothing shop SEX), as well as the Sex Pistols, Siouxsie Sioux, the New York Dolls, and many others.
Cola and Derek review the book "Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk." We look at how politics and dress influenced the work of protopunk pioneers like the Velvet Underground, the MC5, The Stooges, the New York Dolls, and others--and how their music influenced the Sex Pistols and other groups that took punk mainstream.
In this episode, Cola and Derek talk about sprezzatura, the distinctly Italian air of practiced nonchalance, and how it cockblocked Mussolini's plan to establish a monolithic Italian style.
In this episode, Cola talks with Mike Rothschild, author of "The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything."
In this episode, Cola talks to Shane Burley about Shane's 2017 book, "Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It," and how United States fascism has changed in the last four years.