They said that we were trash, but the name is Crass, not Clash

           My alarm hissed at me for it's last time "7:30, 7:30". With two hours of sleep and perhaps still drunk I surprisingly made it out of bed, washed my face and sleepwalked to my jacket to leave. After a desperate attempt to clean my room yesterday, i unfortunately forgot to clean the litter box, I had even thought to myself to clean it but I decided to do that today...which is too late cause my cat pissed on my jacket, so I had to pull out my old beat up denim jacket. I love that jacket, and i may sound cray cray when i say, I just feel like it's part of my "past me".
                                                             
 So let's get on with the story-

 I get on the bus, where i figure out by the girl moving seats away from me that my cat had also pissed on my backpack, by this point I'm up and leaving at 8 am, i've been getting no sleep, i smell like i have 10 cats and poor hygene and probably look like it too. Music, that's what i needed. The morning bus always seems so much more serene and quiet like a cathedral during prayer. Sunlight glints itself through the plastic windows as dawn continues, heads are knelt down towards sleep , iphones and books. I thought i should join by listening to some light music, i finally added the moonrise kingdom soundtrack to my ipod so i was quick to put that on.

Soon enough i almost fell asleep to the "coo coo, coo coo" sung by a troop of ten year old british kids, so I turned to shuffle.

Crash symbols bring me into a rythmical beat i can't resist. It's my love- Crass.

Probably the best band in the world, not because of their reigning "punk" status and obviously not based on technical music skills and most of all I could care less about any of the member's personal lives. They are literally just the best band ever- think the beatles of punk rock.

Everything you know or assume about punk rock just put it aside for right now cause I'm going to tell you a beautiful story, or I'll try really hard cause my room mate is playing some shitty music really loud in the other room and it's totally fucking with my head while trying to write this-but I can't hold it back any longer!!

The drums, the dead giveaway to any Crass song. Tom, snare, tom , snare, tom , snare , crash crash, repeat. I don't think there actually is any tom, but i wanted to lay out the vibe. This marching band vibe- as if two 15 year old kids were stuck at school for too long, snuck into the marching band equipment and set it up to get a steady rock and roll paced beat.

Then in comes the guitar-no shredder, just a delightful tinny dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. Always with the background noise, the glue to crass songs bringing together the drums and, my personal favorite, the bass.

Oh, I could have a love affair with crass bass lines, budum-bom bom buhda-bomp bomp. Dancing with the snare, the guitar doesn't like to join, just watch and then in comes the vocals. The lyrics are great yet mummbled and cockney thus hard to understand,but the message is always heard. Angry jabs are shouted as the music grows louder, and faster, ad louder, and faster, then just when you thought it was already perfect they fucking blow your mind again with a louder, faster, harder, better version of what you were just tangling yourself in. Yes,I used a daft punk reference.

Banned from the Roxy-Crass

needless to say, this is basically a reiteration of my first time listening to Crass, my first album was feeding of 5000, then i quickly aquired stations, soon after that I held on to the glorious penis envy. It was a gift for a friend, but within the year, the same album was gifted to me by the same person as a token of appreciation since perhaps Crass changed his view on punk rock as well.

Penis envy, ladies, might be your number one go to if you're a first time crasser. The album starts with Beta Motel, an amazing song that you can finally understand the lyrics to. A feminist song before the riot girls, and ten THOUSAND times better than kathleen hannah. I'm sorry if i'm using harsh words right now, but for reals ya'll Bikini Kill has nothing on the ladies of Crass.

Beta Motel-Crass

For one it's not the usual out of key whining usually heard in bikini kill, but the lyrics are poetry. I mean we all love "rebel girl, rebel girl, rebel girl , you are the queen of my world" but how can you beat "i've got 5,4,3,2,1, i've got a red pair of high heels on, Strap my ankles, break my heels, make me kneel, make me feel"

The I'm trying to point out is that bikini kill ,as feminists, tend to talk about experiences from another woman's point of view or idolizing, whereas Crass really expresses their own opinions and speaks for themselves, and even comments on idolization. Maybe I am touching on something untouchable so I'll go back to how amazing crass is.

Dirt-Eyes to see

On top of this one amazing band we have the birth of others, flux of pink indians, the ex, one of favorites, Dirt . Chumbawamba used to be a part of the Crass clique, that's right, are you making your home alone , screamer face? I get knocked down was a song they had written to make fun of how lame music was at the time, ironically it became a huge hit single that I heard on the radio everyday before school. The rest of their albums are what one might call "anarcho-punk".

 Bjork used to be a part of the gang as well!!! I was extremely surprised when I heard this for the first time and denied it, but 'tis true.
Crass has also influenced me in the way I write lyrics and sung in my first and recently over band, Statutory Apes. In fact I think we only existed because of crass, the three of us who started the band were all recently obsessed with them and wanted every jolt of their music in our veins.

All in all I wanted to write this post because throughout my time on the blog scene I've been seeing a lot of love for riot grrl, and some great punk-ish bands from the 90's, but no one seems to be talking about Crass. So here I am, giving them the deserved time to say (once again) Crass is the best band. And I would highly recommend this album to a friend :) Which one? Any of them! Oh and I love Bikini Kill, don't get me wrong. I'm just sayin......CRASS