Refused Are Fucking Dead (sorry)

As much as I was excited when the official announcement that Refused were in fact reuniting for Coachella was released, after a few days of thinking about it, I'm actually kinda bummed...

Reuniting for Coachella is everything that Refused are were? against. If anyone remembers, when they called it quits, there was an essay-like press release written as to why they broke up. The very last paragraph is amazing and super powerful - it encompasses everything Refused stood for:

"So what now??? We will continue to, at every attempt, overthrow the class system, burn museums and to strangle the great lie that we call culture. We will continue with new projects and forces to do everything that is in our power to overthrow the capitalist structure that alienates us from every aspect of life and living, smash the reification that forces us to dress in outdated identities and rules: we will continue to demand revolution here and now, and not in some vague future that all reactionary leftist fundamentalists and reformists are talking about. We want every day and every action to be a manifestation of love, joy, confusion and revolt.This is the last that we have to say about it, WE WILL NOT GIVE INTERVIEWS TO STUPID REPORTERS who still haven¥t got anything of what we are all about, we will never play together again and we will never try to glorify or celebrate what was. All that we have to say has been said here or in our music/manifestos/lyrics and if that is not enough you are not likely to get it anyway. WE THEREFORE DEMAND THAT EVERY NEWSPAPER BURN ALL THEIR PHOTOS OF REFUSED so that we will no longer be tortured with memories of a time gone by and the mythmaking that single-minded and incompetent journalism offers us. Instead we need to look forward. We got everything to win and nothing but our boredom to lose."

(Read the entire press release HERE)

No doubt it would be amazing to see them - "The Shape Of Punk To Come" is one of my top 10 favorite albums of all time. I remember having tickets to see them in 1998, at the Kathedral (!!!), but they disbanded and cancelled the tour before the show even happened. I think I paid like $13 for my ticket.



Their very last show was in a basement of a house somewhere in America, but was shut down by police...It's sort of ridiculous, and goes against everything they preached forever, that their very first show in 14 years is going to be at a 3 day music festival, with 500,000 people, at $300 per ticket (closer to $400, after service fees. Uugh...)

100% their playing this show for piles and piles of money.

I'll be honest - If they do add more tour dates, and end up playing proper shows, I will most likely go see them. Until then, I feel a little disappointed that they're rehashing their career at Coachella - which is essentially like New Years Eve. All the time. For three days. And no party hats, just drunk girls screaming, overzealous squares taking too many hits and more sloppy hornballs than should be legally permitted to lustfully congregate in the same space. [miaminewstimes]

Sorry.