On their MySpace, These Arms are Snakes write, "People call us a lot of things. most of them are inaccurate." At the risk of being wrong, we won't call them one of the most exciting post-hardcore bands since Fugazi, or say their combination of terse, scratchy guitars, unsettling rhythmic undulations and emphatic vocals are as exciting as they are harrowing. And we won't praise their mathematical tempos, electronic embellishments or dynamic sense of disdain. We'll just ask you to pick up their new album Tail Swallower and Dove, which came out October 7. And we'll suggest you read the following guest blog from frontman Brian Cook, who calls it like he sees it every time:
"I hate the kids."
Thanks, Rick Froburg. I'm glad somebody had the balls to say it. While the Descendents didn't want to grow up and Minor Threat were minors at heart. Hot Snakes had the balls to own up to adulthood.
I turned 31 in July. In punk years, that's old. As someone that grew up in the hardcore scene and has spent considerable amounts of time working with youth, I feel both indebted to youth culture and
intrinsically a part of it. Yet I don't want to be a poster boy for suspended adolescence. I'm perfectly content with growing up.
The issue of age gets tangled when I start to evaluate its roll in the music community. Being cognizant of one's demographic is, to some degree, an acknowledgement of the audience's age. Music is ultimately another language, another way to convey a thought or emotion. Every song, on some level, is a statement. And, ultimately, I want my music to communicate to my peers. And my peers happen to be other older dudes that grew up listening to punk and hardcore but have learned to
expand their musical horizons beyond "loud and fast rules." I don't want to be Blink 182. I don't want to be well into my adulthood writing songs about hating parents and how high school sucks. That's not my life. (click "more" to read the rest of Cook's guest blog and stream six songs by These Arms Are Snakes).
Those aren't the issues that I deal with on a daily basis. I would hope that our audience would be primarily composed of other adults that can relate to the music and ideas we create. While I'm aware that the younger audiences tend to be the more heavily engaged members of the music community, I don't want to write songs aimed at teenagers. While I certainly don't want to alienate anyone based on age, I certainly don't want to pander to anyone either.
But before I sound like a jaded ass--le, I'd like to acknowledge that I recognize the importance of remembering what it meant to be an angry, disenfranchised kid. I remember being thoroughly disappointed when bands I wanted to see came through town and played 21+ shows. I remember the frustration in hearing a Fugazi fan complain about how they never played bars and how much better their shows would be if you could drink during the performance. But how do I reconcile staying true to that time in my life while acknowledging that I've grown a little older? How do I reconcile that sometimes 21+ shows are more fun than all-ages shows? Sometimes I'd rather play in a seedy dive bar than a sanctioned youth center. I want to play f--ked up music, and at the same time I don't want to feel like I'm some sort of negative influence on minors. The recent proliferation of church-based music venues means that we sometimes wind up playing Christian venues. Those places give me the creeps, and I spend the duration of the show feeling like I'm on trial.
Punk music was meant to be dangerous, so it's strange to see so many youth advocacy groups embrace that underground culture. I'm glad to see the torch passed to a new generation of young fans, but I wonder if the music could possibly mean as much when it's offered in a parent-friendly environment. And this is where s--t just gets weird. I'd really rather it was a non-issue. I don't want to sit around and contemplate whether I'm a positive roll model. I don't want to feel like some sort of pervert whenever a teenager buys a copy of our Oxeneers album at a show (there's lot's of naked people in the artwork). On the flipside, I don't want to be some crusty old man that only plays to old, drunk dudes.
The dilemma goes even further. The older I get, the more I dig around and try to scope out different kinds of music. I'm not concerned with the latest hip band. Our band isn't a part of a specific scene, and as a result, I don't feel particularly inclined to try and keep tabs on the latest noisy "art punk" or "post-hardcore" bands, or whatever genre-moniker people ascribe to us. When I was deeply entrenched in the straight edge and DIY hardcore community I felt an obligation to stay informed about the bands in that scene. Now I try to avoid any bands that purportedly share common sonic threads.
What does this have to do with age? I think age, identity, and musical tastes are all connected. I've seen it time and time again: Young kids start getting into music and are curious and intrigued by everything. They're open-minded and fascinated. When I first discovered punk, I immediately shot off into other underground subcultures. I listened to industrial bands like Nitzer Ebb and a;GrumhŠ, metal bands like Napalm Death and Sepultura, and pop bands like Camper Van Beethoven and The Last. But with the advent of high school and clique culture, I became a hardcore kid. I weeded out a lot of my records that didn't fall in line with my new identity. And I've watched it happen to kids that attend the youth centers where I've worked. While it's great for people to belong to a music community, it's sad that the confines tend to be so encroaching. It's only as I've gotten older that my horizons have started to expand back to my formative years.
Again, I don't want to sound like a grump or assume my own experiences somehow reflect other people's development, but I think the high school and college crowds tend to be very set in their ways and very cautious of anything that threatens to upset their self-imposed identities. As a result, my favorite fans tend to be the young new audience and the older and more mature crowd. I'm not gonna take it as far as good ol' Rick Froburg. I certainly don't hate the kids. But I'm not singing in their language. If they're gonna come along for the ride, more power to 'em.
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