Full disclosure: I was late to the Refused Party Program. Refused died at a house show in a basement in Harrisonburg, Virginia in front of a few dozen people. It was October 1998. It was their first North American tour, and it was a total disaster. Their European shows at the time weren’t much bigger, save for some home town shows in Sweden.
In the fall of 1998, I had just turned 15. Everyone I hung around and skateboarded with at the time was really into Good Riddance. Good Riddance backed hardcore pretty…hard? So we were also into hard core pretty…hard? I already knew about Minor Threat from 411 videos, and I knew Black Flag was a thing because my first skateboard had the ‘Everything Went Black’ album cover as a graphic. I delved into New York hard core cause I heard H2O on some Thrasher Skate Rock compilation, and thought they were great. I knew about Slapshot, SSD, Ten Yard Fight and other Boston hardcore bands because, uhhhh…someone probably told me about them? What I’m trying to say is, at 15, Myself, and everyone else around me, knew our shit when it came to punk and hardcore. We never heard about Refused. I once met someone who lived in Belgium around that time and was also into hardcore. Even he had never heard of Refused until every other punk kid did.
People in my current music/peer group, which consists mostly of people who are mostly 3 years my junior or senior often say: “I was into Refused when they were first around – Fuck these posers, ‘New Noise’ is the only song they know” So, apparently there was a whole scene of 12-ish year old kids that were into obscure, avant-garde Swedish hard core bands that I was unaware of? I mean, like I said a few sentences up, I was into some pretty obscure bands at the time and I had no idea. Hell, Turbonegro was one of my favourite bands in ’98. Turbo is also from Scandinavia, and they were on Burning Heart, the same record label as Refused. I still never heard of Refused in 1998. I worshipped the entire Epitaph catalogue (who eventually signed Refused) Still, never heard of ’em. So, I’m going make a generalization here. Anyone who is 30-ish and under and says they were into Refused when they were around, is probably lying.
Moving right along, there was something about their 2012 reunion at Coachella, and the world tour that followed that always rubbed me the wrong way. But I digress…
Being in a band for a living sucks. Being in a hardcore band for a living sucks even more. Playing dive bars, DIY venues and house shows to rooms half-full of kids that likely don’t drink and probably won’t buy your t-shirt does not a profitable venture make. Refused made an album that was so far ahead of it’s time, punk rock took 14 years to catch up1. So, I’m all for them playing the shows they should have been playing in ’98. I’m all for them doing a few victory laps around the world. I’m also all for them making some dough to live on. Hell, I probably would have gone to those shows back in 2012, if I didn’t sleep on getting tickets. I’m definitely all for them making new music. But, and there’s a huge ‘but‘ here. You can’t spend your short career as a band being, anti-corporate, anti-capitalist, then quickly change face when the opportunity for a cash-grab comes knocking. At the very least, lie about your motivation for the sake of saving your legacy. I’ve heard that, at one of the Toronto shows during that 2012 reunion tour, one of the members said, and I’m paraphrasing… “We’re doing this ’til each band member has a million dollars – then we’re gonna fuck off”
It’s great to hear them on 102.1 The Edge amongst all the Mumford & Sons singles though…
Capitalism – aint it grand?
I also roll joints on my Earth Crisis CD’s (I don’t roll joints on my Earth Crisis CD’s because I don’t smoke pot)
tl;dr: If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to be a toothless cog spinning freely and ineffectually in the wheel of society, might I suggest you spend your Thursday morning writing a ranting, scathing and long-winded blog post about the reunion of an obscure Swedish hardcore band with extreme anti-capitalist tendencies leaving a bitter taste in your mouth for 3 years.
1 Although, in hindsight, If ‘The Shape of Punk to Come’ had truly been accurate, it would have featured a lot more folk songs about women and whiskey sung by bearded dudes.
Bury Me In Vans 
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