Alt-rock altercations: what are the best indie diss tracks?
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Version 0 of 1. Mark Kozelek is a man of his word: on 6 October, the Sun Kil Moon frontman promised he would release a song entitled War on Drugs: Suck My Cock, and, just like magic, the seven-minute masterpiece in tempered take-downs and stoic storytelling has arrived. In the song, Kozelek sullenly dissects the prior events which led to such a track; an alt-rock altercation which began after both Sun Kil Moon and the War on Drugs performed simultaneously on different stages at Ottawa folk festival in Canada, on 14 September. When Kozelek’s set was drowned out by the bleed from the Philadelphian rock group’s sound, he responded: “I hate that beer-commercial lead-guitar shit. This next song is called the War on Drugs Can Suck My Fucking Dick.” A few weeks later, and a multitude of blog posts, news items and think pieces on the off-the-cuff cuss later, fans can now hear the official musical memento to this series of events, which is available to listen to via Kozelek’s website and features some of the following lines: It sounded like a basic John Fogerty rock/ I said this next song’s called “The War on Drugs Can Suck My Cock Their hair is long and greasy/ hope they don’t have lice I heard them do their soundcheck next to the birds/ They’re definitely the whitest band I’ve ever fucking heard War on Drugs loves Fleetwood Mac/ War on Drugs loves Mellencamp. War on Drugs, let’s give ’em a cheer/ War on Drugs made three albums, took ’em nine fucking years Of course there are plenty of other lyrical swipes in indie rock history: take Half Man Half Biscuit’s Shit Arm Bad Tattoo, a terrific “tribute” to the Libertines (“If you’re going to quote from the Book of Revelation, don’t keep calling it the Book of Revelations, there’s no “s”, it’s the Book of Revelation. As revealed to St John the Divine”). Or Pavement’s Range Life (“Out on tour with the Smashing Pumpkins, nature kids, they don’t have no function, I don’t understand what they mean, And I could really give a fuck”), which Stephen Malkmus claims wasn’t intended to offend, but of course inevitably riled the cantankerous Billy Corgan. And as it’s not every day you get to shoehorn the New Radicals in a blogpost, so let’s give You Get What You Give credit where credit’s due, with the right-on band-bashing which featured on their 1998 hit: “Fashion shoots with Beck and Hanson, Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson. You’re all fakes, run to your mansions. Come around, we’ll kick your ass in!” Got any more to add to our list? Let us know your favourites in the comments below. |