00:00:00:14 [Music]
00:00:03:00 I think that most people are like a linage
00:00:04:18 as far as when they listen to a music, like something
00:00:07:20 spark their interest in music at a young age,
00:00:09:26 and then eventually, there is a point where someone like
00:00:12:22 gets into a type of music that bring to where they are today.
00:00:16:28 Notes from the front line of a strange in culture.
00:00:19:22 This is Strange Notes.
00:00:21:11 [Music]
00:00:33:02 ♪ [Music]
00:01:10:28 I am George, this is Tim, Joe, and Zach...
00:01:13:28 -Zaggy Zach... -And we are the funky bunch.
00:01:15:13 And we are funky bunch, also known as Rise Against.
00:01:19:02 We are in Toronto, Ontario for the two night stand.
00:01:21:03 Rise Against is mainly have been based out of Chicago, right?
00:01:23:28 So like tell us a little bit like grown up
00:01:25:28 and like in Chicago, and scene and things like,
00:01:28:08 things of that nature.
00:01:29:18 Those were good time to grow up,
00:01:30:27 because you are going to have like a little bit everything.
00:01:33:28 You have the Pop punk and geniuses like Screeching Weasel,
00:01:36:28 and then you had the core Chicago punk rockers
00:01:40:04 Pegboy, Naked Raygun,
00:01:41:29 and then you had the Mazzine hardcore band Los Crudos,
00:01:46:10 and I mean those really are pretty eclectic scene.
00:01:50:21 Yeah, all kinds of options.
00:01:52:00 All kinds of bands that you will see
00:01:53:22 and fans that were in, like say important things.
00:01:56:16 You are going to a Crudos show, on Friday
00:01:59:12 they are going to a scholastic show on a Saturday,
00:02:02:01 here in it's like, totally just different atmosphere,
00:02:03:18 it was superb,
00:02:04:28 you know, you can see like important thing happen.
00:02:09:15 ♪ [Music]
00:02:35:28 Was the punk scene like ushering you into that sort of[inaudible]
00:02:38:28 like thought process, almost?
00:02:41:12 Crudos were one like, one of the first band,
00:02:43:28 that was just that heavily involved into the songs
00:02:49:22 and explanations of songs.
00:02:52:06 Cruods songs were 90 seconds long,
00:02:54:14 well, Martin's explanation it was five minutes.
00:02:56:15 -You know what I mean? -Yeah.
00:02:57:27 And he would do like a an English translation,
00:02:59:12 and he would do in Spanish, I mean, he would talk all night.
00:03:01:24 And the song was like, you look at guys and soon it was like,
00:03:07:24 Okay, let's go, come on.
00:03:09:28 But Martin would really, he would explain each song.
00:03:12:18 I mean there were these explanations where in
00:03:14:03 you know like I said, longer than the songs,
00:03:16:03 but it really, you walked away from it learning a lot about
00:03:18:01 the neighborhood in Chicago.
00:03:20:11 You are going to learn about,
00:03:21:16 I grew up in a middle class suburb of Chicago,
00:03:24:08 and like there are neighborhoods of Chicago in a hose, '79,
00:03:27:00 no ideal was going on that.
00:03:28:09 I mean absolutely had no idea of Crudos,
00:03:30:26 and so Martin was like a,
00:03:33:10 it was my first introduction
00:03:35:28 to how an entire different
00:03:38:25 affluent about the cities that...
00:03:40:23 ♪ [Music]
00:04:06:28 There are parts of Chicago
00:04:08:08 that you just don't drive through, right?
00:04:09:18 But they are just like...
00:04:10:28 I mean when I first started going to shows, the Wicker Park,
00:04:13:19 which is totally Hipster neighborhood
00:04:15:10 was kind of a scary neighborhood.
00:04:16:28 It was thought yeah...
00:04:18:10 It's like the heart of where Underdog Records loft was,
00:04:20:22 and you know, we can go there for, to see what they are about
00:04:23:18 Underdog Records is on the label from Chicago.
00:04:25:28 And Chicago still divided in North and South,
00:04:28:16 very much lighted and as expensive [inaudible]
00:04:30:28 maybe like a racial one, where a social concert is social border,
00:04:34:09 were still one of the most segregated cities in America.
00:04:37:17 It's like a racial, I don't know what the numbers are,
00:04:39:18 but we are still you can say, really segregated
00:04:41:25 and it's still one of the most segregated cities in the North.
00:04:44:24 What would you attribute to that?
00:04:46:16 Their first Mayor Daley, just kind of a racist,
00:04:48:08 kind of a bigger...
00:04:49:29 and kind of had a lot of different policies that kept
00:04:53:08 minorities in minority neighborhoods,
00:04:55:00 built these infamous projects like
00:04:58:03 Robert Taylor Homes, and Cabrini Green
00:05:00:07 just really bad...
00:05:03:18 and then start time building up the North of Chicago.
00:05:08:16 Mayor Daley is probably one of the albums
00:05:10:04 that really contributed to how...
00:05:13:28 But it really traced back Chicago history.
00:05:16:03 The South was always sea, so that's where our brothels were,
00:05:19:06 that's where the prohibition was happening,
00:05:21:28 that's where all these [inaudible] were gambling.
00:05:25:13 But that was all on the South side, so since [inaudible]
00:05:28:20 it can be, you can traced even further than that.
00:05:30:18 The seeds of Punk definitely grow in like corruption
00:05:33:03 and like things of that nature.
00:05:34:21 So if anything Chicago is always seeing like this perfect
00:05:37:09 kind of environment for
00:05:39:03 a lot of these great bands to come out of...
00:05:41:05 ♪ [Music]
00:06:15:18 Sidekick Kato...
00:06:17:01 Yeah, yeah of course.
00:06:18:23 Our boy was... certainly, anything is really,
00:06:20:22 Joe now is an important part of Chicago, Chicago punk.
00:06:25:28 They started the Chicago Fire and...
00:06:28:29 The Market riots, Joe's cow kicked over.
00:06:34:08 In Chicago history,
00:06:35:18 there is a band called Gauge and Trig water,
00:06:38:20 they are very Fugazi influenced.
00:06:41:21 [inaudible], his first band, Jerkwater.
00:06:44:20 It was the first band, there were like the Broadways,
00:06:47:28 [inaudible], certainly now-a-days...
00:06:49:28 Sure, sure.
00:06:51:24 But it is still like the same kind of what
00:06:52:28 venue it's kind of come and go.
00:06:54:28 [inaudible] were part of most qualified,
00:06:57:07 people just speak about the Chicago.
00:06:58:29 They spent nine months or a year here...
00:07:02:11 I mean it sounds like there are...
00:07:03:28 where we get to a handful of shows a year here in Chicago
00:07:07:21 and the scenes that are really taking over that are
00:07:10:01 things that, really...
00:07:12:15 Oh sure, yeah.
00:07:14:12 And that will be, next thing that happens.
00:07:17:13 But that said like, there are still good venues in Chicago.
00:07:22:29 Chicago has been sort of more known now-a-days
00:07:25:23 for a number of big bands that are coming out of it,
00:07:28:28 and knowing less events like us are going through.
00:07:32:00 [Music]



00:00:00:14 [Music]
00:00:02:06 I am George Pettit and this is Strange Notes.
00:00:04:26 ♪ [Music]
00:00:30:18 Being so like deeply ingrained and like,
00:00:32:18 the whole like the punk scene,
00:00:34:03 and then like coming into success,
00:00:35:20 obviously that would be like a lot of
00:00:37:15 tumultuous times and like,
00:00:39:10 and the kind of letting go of certain fans.
00:00:42:10 In my first introduction that whole dilemma was,
00:00:46:16 I was playing hardcore bands in Chicago.
00:00:49:28 And then Joe had started Rise Against,
00:00:53:14 and shortly after we caught Fat Wreck attention,
00:00:57:06 and Fat Wreck has signed us.
00:00:59:24 Secondly we were on Fat Wreck [inaudible].
00:01:02:29 There was no record,
00:01:05:01 We were opening up for Buried Alive, in the [inaudible]
00:01:09:01 and we were exalted to rock stars, you know what I mean,
00:01:13:02 like you know, Joe was working on like an online video thing,
00:01:17:21 we were working on ticketbroker and we were fucking rock stars.
00:01:20:15 Yeah exactly, you know.
00:01:22:05 When I go on tour, I play over ten kids, it was like you know,
00:01:24:17 a lot of people in the hardcore scene
00:01:27:29 had turned their back on us,
00:01:30:20 in lot of ways those sort of those friendships that we have,
00:01:33:22 have conditions... Sure yeah.
00:01:35:28 And the hardcore seems get a lot of things right,
00:01:38:18 There are somethings like as well.
00:01:40:08 You know, certainly it will lead us on that,
00:01:42:08 that went on with that, a lot of people that just came around,
00:01:45:08 that grew out of that, they cannot torture us now,
00:01:48:05 but the time then it was, you know...
00:01:49:18 It was intense, you know.
00:01:51:08 It was really dis-hearting for me,
00:01:52:25 because Ben Weasels just did a solo show in Chicago,
00:01:55:04 but he only did the My Brain Hurts tracker.
00:01:57:03 Yeah, I heard it.
00:01:58:26 And it was, it was like him and Dan Vapid
00:02:01:02 and I got more times than that, not, Hey! How are you doing.
00:02:04:18 I got, Hey! What the fuck are you doing here?
00:02:08:07 Like from... all my old friends, you know, I was always like,
00:02:10:28 Wow! Really?
00:02:12:18 You know, I mean, I am just gone,
00:02:13:28 it was not that like we'd abandoned this scene,
00:02:17:01 we are just like to himself, we are gone a lot.
00:02:19:21 I was like, I was really bombed about it, you know.
00:02:22:28 You personally haven't changed, but like peoples' opinions
00:02:25:11 definitely do change over times.
00:02:27:08 A lot of that like, let me to believe in,
00:02:29:09 like the absolute futility a punk at times.
00:02:32:07 You being unbelievably self defeating,
00:02:33:20 you built something up until it gets to a point,
00:02:36:14 and then, on to the next thing.
00:02:38:08 ♪ [Music]
00:03:22:18 You talked about musical influences,
00:03:24:00 what about like literary influences and things like that?
00:03:27:08 Is there anything like that, any sort of books
00:03:28:28 and stuff you may have been reading at the time,
00:03:31:14 things that you maybe have been exposed to as a result of punk?
00:03:33:28 Perhaps like my first real introduction to
00:03:36:28 subversive article, you know what I mean.
00:03:38:28 Let's talk about important things.
00:03:40:12 I didn't get into...
00:03:42:09 I think when I was as kid I was into like, I was a sci-fi kid
00:03:45:09 into like all kinds of Ray Bradbury kinds of books.
00:03:48:19 Sometimes he let me to read like Fahrenheit 451, which was like,
00:03:52:09 I was reading somethings like the whole sci-fi [inaudible]
00:03:55:03 there are bigger underline message happening here
00:03:58:19 on books like 1984 by George Orwell
00:04:02:03 or Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
00:04:05:14 All these things are sort of got into me,
00:04:07:18 because I was interested in reading this type of literature,
00:04:09:14 and then as I grew up, and sort of
00:04:12:18 started to see parallels in
00:04:15:03 Brave New World's idea of the world,
00:04:16:23 and the world that we are living today, and then realized
00:04:18:10 that [inaudible] all sort of commentaries,
00:04:20:26 these are all like predictions.
00:04:23:24 These are all prophecies,
00:04:25:13 and I think that coupled with being turned up like as a -
00:04:32:10 sort of as created you know the person that I became.
00:04:36:03 Those books are out there, I think people should have,
00:04:38:22 can take advantage of those books.
00:04:40:08 I had a band early on that had, it was our first little step,
00:04:43:07 a political song written by Animal Farm,
00:04:45:20 and we had a song called Four legs good, two legs bad.
00:04:50:12 And that was a bit of cause for...
00:04:54:20 This cause was forbidden.
00:04:56:20 I was 14,
00:04:58:25 that was my first political book that I read I think,
00:05:01:18 and I didn't quite understand at the time,
00:05:03:08 but then I started kind of understanding it,
00:05:05:10 and then got kind of like I was pissed off as a 14-year old kid,
00:05:08:10 you get it, you are fucked up, man!
00:05:10:12 I read that book and completely missed the message.
00:05:12:09 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:05:14:28 It went way off my head, and that it wasn't a years later
00:05:17:14 that to get the piece book.
00:05:19:16 ♪ [Music]
00:05:56:28 On the new record, we got a song called Kotov Syndrome,
00:06:00:20 you want to explain the metaphor around that?
00:06:02:08 Bobby Fischer died this year, and I was reading an article,
00:06:05:13 I kind of missed the whole Bobby Fischer thing
00:06:07:07 I didn't [inaudible] story, and so I read his article about him,
00:06:10:27 and I was like pretty engrossed in,
00:06:12:29 and somehow I got into some of his history,
00:06:15:06 and as he was talking about chess playing,
00:06:17:18 and he mentioned the Kotov Syndrome and I was like,
00:06:19:28 what's that?
00:06:21:11 And When I look at it,
00:06:22:19 the Kotov Syndrome is like it's a chess phenomena that
00:06:26:02 a chess player named Kotov, a Russian chess player,
00:06:28:03 described in a book that he wrote something,
00:06:31:08 that often happened to him,
00:06:32:24 he would, be undecided about what he was going to do,
00:06:37:03 what his next move was,
00:06:38:22 waiting till the clock almost ran out,
00:06:41:03 and then make a drastic move
00:06:42:18 that was almost always at game losing.
00:06:45:20 He would just sit there and wait,
00:06:46:28 and then when it came that last second,
00:06:48:21 he just moved something, he used to do it,
00:06:50:07 and he almost always lost in the game.
00:06:51:28 Therefore he described that in his book,
00:06:54:18 like chess players on a world said, I always do that,
00:06:56:18 they were like I've told you something and you know,
00:06:59:00 and it became dubbed the Kotov Syndrome.
00:07:00:25 And I thought this song kind of relates that,
00:07:03:10 it's like everyday life, you know what I mean,
00:07:04:26 how we put things off or we are so overwhelmed by everything,
00:07:09:00 and so under the spotlight to deliver on something
00:07:12:19 that we put off until we can't put it off
00:07:14:29 and to make a decision when it's too late,
00:07:18:03 and then the decision to be only [inaudible].
00:07:20:15 [Music]



00:00:00:14 [Music]
00:00:05:11 ♪ [Music]
00:00:26:28 Is it the third record with Bill?
00:00:28:26 More records with Bill, but not with Bill, I guess,
00:00:30:18 I've got about five. Yeah.
00:00:31:28 And it's my eighth.
00:00:33:19 Yeah, here you go.
00:00:35:03 Single, little ones.
00:00:37:23 What are some of the bands you've been in and...?
00:00:39:03 Well, there is no punk and...
00:00:40:24 I don't punk that sort of...
00:00:43:18 Hagfish, Only Crime which was the band with Bill Stevenson.
00:00:46:28 Of course, Bill Stevenson on the Descendants.
00:00:50:00 ♪ [Music]
00:01:38:13 US Presidential election,
00:01:41:08 the absolute gong show that has been...
00:01:44:18 Comedy of [inaudible] for Obama or O'Biden.
00:01:48:29 O'Biden. O'Biden.
00:01:50:13 It seems, fingers crossed, but I mean pretty much can,
00:01:54:28 you know how much faith in the voting system now-a-days.
00:01:57:27 If Bush completely lost the election the first time
00:02:00:13 and he is the President.
00:02:03:24 Just keep fingers crossed.
00:02:05:07 The way it seems that that the whole election process is gone,
00:02:07:28 is that it's more of a beauty competition now.
00:02:10:28 It's a comedy.
00:02:12:15 You know what I mean. Like Seraphine.
00:02:14:11 Yeah, but it's a very frightening comedy.
00:02:17:08 It is a frightening comedy.
00:02:18:18 Yeah.
00:02:19:27 It's funny but it's serious game.
00:02:22:26 More partly, it represents like administration
00:02:25:06 and that has failed over the last eight years,
00:02:27:02 you know what I mean, we don't want another four years of that.
00:02:29:16 We've got different.
00:02:31:18 A different outlook and perspectives.
00:02:34:08 We've got plenty of room up here
00:02:37:22 I have a moving truck coming on Saturday.
00:02:39:29 Okay, alright.
00:02:41:07 We guys have veggie dog stands.
00:02:42:17 We do have veggie dog stands.
00:02:43:27 That's the key stone in any great democracy,
00:02:45:28 here's veggie dogs stand.
00:02:47:07 [Music]
00:02:49:28 It's the Strange Notes, you're welcome!



00:00:00:14 ♪ [Music]
00:00:24:23 New music video which I got to see online.
00:00:27:05 You did? I did, yeah, and it's exciting.
00:00:29:20 Are you suggesting that people should get bombs
00:00:31:28 and start like...
00:00:33:18 are you suggesting that protest is dead?
00:00:35:12 I mean, like where your heads out in the creation of that?
00:00:39:28 Couple of different things is going on.
00:00:41:16 The video starts with support about this video two that starts
00:00:43:19 with a quote from JFK, and says,
00:00:46:01 those who make non-violent revolution impossible,
00:00:49:15 make violent revolution inevitable.
00:00:51:09 Yeah.
00:00:52:23 And it's talking about leaving both options on choice.
00:00:55:05 Because it will feel like their back up against the wall,
00:00:57:14 those type of thing
00:00:59:13 and administer the show that they have other thing.
00:01:01:16 And it's talking about
00:01:03:19 repercussions of certainly the American government right now,
00:01:08:22 the Bush administration like limiting all our rights,
00:01:12:29 stripping off some civil liberties,
00:01:17:00 taking people out of the equation with things like
00:01:19:00 election fraud and leave less and less options
00:01:22:27 to the point where I like,
00:01:24:13 no one backed up against the wall,
00:01:26:19 people were going for.
00:01:28:06 And so, it was kind of like just sort of no holds barred,
00:01:31:28 but we are sick of whispering about this,
00:01:36:25 like talking... not talking about this [inaudible] face.
00:01:39:03 This is a reality.
00:01:40:14 Sure, yeah.
00:01:41:07 And it certainly...
00:01:43:06 it's also in a world where we are inundated by so much media.
00:01:46:24 Every day it's hard to get extension,
00:01:49:26 you need something like that to really get someone stop and say,
00:01:52:10 well, what was up with that?
00:01:54:17 Do you know what I mean? What's going on with that?
00:01:56:02 What's going on that video?
00:01:57:11 I wonder what's going on?
00:01:59:02 And that was kind of something that this band has been good at.
00:02:01:18 As I just think of just trying to get on people's faces,
00:02:04:18 and drastic times on percussive measures and
00:02:08:02 I think you're certainly the one.
00:02:10:00 It's also like little symbolism, what you are talking about,
00:02:14:03 starting fresh.
00:02:16:06 Talking about the symbolism of just joined
00:02:20:20 the social constricts that we have out there right now,
00:02:22:21 and starting over.
00:02:24:07 And obviously there is a lot of this
00:02:25:19 that would try to some in our music video,
00:02:27:21 that's going to be a loss in translation.
00:02:29:08 You know what I mean?
00:02:30:17 Now it won't going to get that from it,
00:02:32:06 but it's going to get to one thinking,
00:02:34:04 that create conversation, and a dialog,
00:02:35:18 which is awesome.
00:02:36:25 I think that we did a couple of videos, on last record I really
00:02:41:07 -talking about being [inaudible] in the mid of talking
00:02:43:20 about them, it's like interviews all the time which is awesome
00:02:47:06 to create this conversation.
00:02:48:24 We also did one video that was what like more,
00:02:50:25 like I guess like an [inaudible].
00:02:52:22 Sure.
00:02:54:05 And that video wasn't talked about.
00:02:56:13 You know what I mean?
00:02:57:26 Like, it was like, those videos are cool.
00:02:59:24 It was like, yeah, whatever.
00:03:01:12 It was like a blip on the radar.
00:03:02:20 It was like giving opportunity to do his videos and who knows
00:03:05:24 so much longer, someone going to give opportunity line-up,
00:03:08:01 create something that's called, for the lasting impression
00:03:10:13 in someone's head and may be even talk about something
00:03:13:21 that's bigger than this.
00:03:15:24 [Music]
00:04:00:28 Well guys, excited about the new record,
00:04:03:18 and thank you very much!
00:04:05:02 Oh, same to you.
00:04:06:16 See you next time. Yeah.
00:04:08:21 It was great! Thanks a lot!
00:04:10:20 [Music]