 Chad Stokes may not forgive me (actually, read on, he probably would) but I'd never come across his previous band Dispatch. Their story though is pretty mind-boggling; formed in Massachusetts in the mid-90's, their brand of stylistic open-mindedness mixed folk, rock, and reggae whilst eschewing a state of political consciousness only usually found in radical hip-hop or hardcore punk. And it gets better. Selling 600,000 thousand records outside of the promotional machine and refusing to compromise, when the band - Stokes, Brad Corrigan and Pete Francis Heimbold - announced that they were splitting up in 2002, they held a benefit concert to which 110,000 people - to repeat, that's a 110,000 people - showed up. When they reformed again a couple of years later for another charity concert, they then sold out Madison fucking Square Garden. So sorry Chad. But it's a great story.
Stokes now fronts State Radio along with bassist Chuck Fay and drummer "Mad" Mike Najarian. Based on my research and the cover photo, which depicts a bunch of nightstick toting riot police, I was expecting a racket falling between Conflict and Black Uhuru, but instead I found something far more loose limbed. Opener 'Mansin Humanity,' is downbeat, sprawling and rockist, whilst by contrast the following 'Calling All Crows' is built around a satisfyingly lilting ska chug, itself a call to arms for Stoke's community outreach program of the same name.
The problem is that although it's not either preachy or polemical, perhaps it should be. And musically it's just not epic, angry or dystopian enough. The trio are very capable of fire, as the rousing punk overtones of 'Arsenic and Clover' and the title track demonstrate. But the brimstone, words such as "Another Butto assassination, could've stopped Sarajevo we must confess, but we were planning our next invasion" off 'Bohemian Grove,' is frequently undermined by less than exceptional backdrops. Perhaps Stokes sees any requirement to deliver more theatre as pandering to the weaknesses of our mass (Un)consciousness, window dressing for the Wal-Mart nation. But I disagree, and when on 'Still & Silent' he actually goes all Pearl Jam on our ass and rocks out, it's State Radio at by far their most effective.
Speaking during the run up to the 2008 US Presidential election, Stokes obliquely endorsed the Obama candidacy, describing the ticket as "Interesting." We all know how that story turned out, but the derailment of the mind-bogglingly corrupt Bush administration - a target so easy to strike at that even Billie Joe Armstrong managed to bullseye it - has for me led to something of a malaise amongst those engaged in music activistism. True, Afghanistan is the new Iraq, but the overriding fear amongst many is that if Obama isn't proven to be the real deal, it spells the end for society, economics and politics as we know it. It's not like State Radio have nothing left to protest about, but their altruism always had more edge when the oppression surrounding them was home-made and now lacking an establishment to be their enemy, their status as latter day saints may be rightly assured.
Whilst the American Idiot generation seems more willing than ever to embrace their uber-liberal philosophy, their message sadly is infinitely more inspiring than their music.
Last edited by altsounds : November 29, 2009 at 10:33 PM.
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