There is a band I’ve been listening to recently called Departures.
Initially, I was put off by the vocals. They are sloppy, mildly irritating and become gratingly monotonous after time. Looking past this raw and unpolished vocal approach, you’re left with an average punk/indie/hardcore band. So what makes them work for me?
The title of this post is the name of their 2016 release, the follow up to Teenage Haze, which was reissued via Holy Roar Records in 2017. Now, perhaps I’m just a millennial in search of something I feel is meaningful. Perhaps I like the emotional tumult that this music conjures in me. Perhaps the contrast of what is expected of bands like these and what this band delivers in terms of lyrical themes attracts me like a photography student gazing at a burning paper recycling bank in search of a metaphor. Maybe its all of the above. The songs here are often about relationships, loneliness, desperation and depression.
I’m not saying that the lyrics presented in Teenage Haze and Death Touches Us are poetic on the level of an instant “modern classic”, for lack of a better term. I have no doubt that a lot of people who listen to this band will not hear anything of merit, but I find the combination of anger, apathy and depression in the music very interesting. I love the lyrics to some of these songs, most strikingly, from 1994, the song that contains the line that makes the title of this post, and the album. From the song Small Steps from Teenage Haze, the following section of lyrics really strikes me;
And I pretend that your hand is in mine, and I pretend that our steps are together, and I pretend that everything’s fine, and I pretend that we’re lost in each other. For a moment I kept your stare, and the moment lasted forever. I pretend everything is fine, I pretend that we’re lost in each other.
This lyric is not representative of my own life, as far as relationships go I do consider myself very lucky, but that does not mean that the words don’t resonate with me on some level.
In a world like this where everything is temporary and transient, in the midst of such political and social upheaval and unfairness I think that this music acts as a catharsis for certain emotions that aren’t accepted as being seen to be spilled out in public. It’s a release from the relentless barrage of life that requires you to remain stoic and impartial. Sometimes, everything isn’t OK. Careers are a 20th Century invention, and I don’t want one. Social responsibilities and pressures to conform are as high as they ever were, but now they lack the incentive of work hard and good things will follow. Never has a good education been so worthless, or have previously valuable employees been so disposable and replaceable.
We can get more work done in less time than we ever have been able to before. Productivity has increased to the point where some industries fear automation will completely negate the need for human workers. So where are our benefits? The 1970’s vision of the future was that everyone will work part time jobs while still being able to afford to live luxurious lives brought on by the advent of new and amazing technologies. This vision has failed to deliver for normal people, where working 40+ hours per week, in jobs you hate is seen as a necessary evil. The words of Tyler Durden have never felt so true.
“An entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact.”
The truth is, the best times seem to have past. Long gone are the days where “the man of the house” goes to work 9-5 and earns enough for his two kids, his dog, and his stay-at-home-wife, with their car and mortgage. These days, the employee with 25 years of experience on the job is just as disposable as the new kid who started last week. It’s all about the bottom line, and when the shit hits the fan, the higher-ups will not hesitate to snip away at your ill-placed trust and send you to the dole office.
I have been contemplating my job options. Aside from hating my job, and the entire career path I’ve fallen into, I know deep down that it isn’t that bad. There’s no constant surveillance, there are no heavy handed outside of work regulations I must adhere to like teachers do, and I am relatively free to do the work in my own order and pace, so long as it gets done on time. What has the world come to where being able to use the toilet both unsupervised and without having to ask permission is a luxury?
Calculating my current pay vs how I would fare going part time is daunting. The most obscene feeling is the one that accompanies the thought of physically asking to work part time, stepping away from full time. I know what they’ll say behind my back. “Why would a 26-year-old, healthy, qualified person want to go part time? Its obviously laziness and idle waster attitudes. I bet he smokes them funny fags too”. Now why is this so? Why is desiring some time to live the best years of my life outside of the confines of work a bad thing? People are so indoctrinated in the cycle of work, eat, sleep, retire, die that they can’t see an alternative. I don’t want to wait until I retire (which by the time I reach that age will likely be pushing 75) in order to start living my adult life.
A career is exchanging your youth and health for money. It’s a shit business.
So, anyway, yeah. That’s why I’ve been getting into Departures.
Why do we attach ourselves to the one thing that makes us sick?
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