Resist and Exist

Kwangju (2000)

feeeding5000

Well, it's been a while since my last review, and I figured that I might as well review something a little more obscure than what's usually on here ("Hey, I thought this was called Punknews.org!"). Anyway, this is the first album by SoCal crusties Resist and Exist, released on Spiral Records, but easily available from Profane Existence. Just so you don't have to get it yourself, I'll keep track of all the crust clichés as we go along, okay?

The title, Kwangju, comes from the Korean city of the same name. During the 1980s, near the end of South Korea's military dictatorship, students in the town protested against a new U.S.-backed government. What followed was a fight against the army and police that caused hundreds of deaths, but kinda sorta led to anarchy. This was all neatly explained in the CD insert, which was very well put together. And guess what? It includes a fold-out poster (cliché #1)!

The album starts with an unlisted audio-collage track (cliché #2), using audio of what sounds like black power activists who were attacked by the police (cliché #3). Right after about five minutes of this, it goes into speedy crust, which sounded very Misery-ish to me. The second track, however, has female vocals, and you can tell that the singer is trying really hard to sound like Amy Miret (cliché #4). She doesn't do a bad job, but it can get kind of annoying.

Next comes a short, Flux of Pink Indians-style poem (cliché #5), which is basically pointless. Then we get back to the actual music, which does a good job of punking up what I assume to be a traditional Korean protest song (cliché #6). There's a song about animal rights (cliché #7), and then a full spoken word piece, like a less poetic Crass (cliché #8).

Overall though, this is pretty good. Just because it's riddled with clichés doesn't mean it doesn't tackle real issues, deal with real problems, or, hell, rock your balls off. My biggest issue with R&E isn't that they don't bring much new, but that they advocate armed revolution. HOLY SHIT! That's not very peaceful. Still, average album; worth picking up if you've got extra cash. Oh, did I mention they have a circular logo with an anarchy symbol in it (cliché #9)?