Issue 10: Modern Life Is War: Tribulation Worksongs Vol. 1-3

On the current situation.

Part I: This wretched world

Show me an artist who has successfully encapsulated the mad tragedy of the current world and I will show you a genius. What a horrible, reprehensible mess we have made for ourselves. Don’t misconstrue: the human thirst for the suffering of our peers has always been unslakable, but for some reason it seems the maliciousness and callousness of some of those that inflict it has been at a record high.

It seems insulting to those whose entire existence is under constant assault to even contemplate the supposed start of our current malaise, but certainly, as it has gotten worse in the general sense, the entire situation has not gotten easier for them either. The self-centered and self-serving (or in the most generous reading: incompetent beyond comprehension) powers that be seem to have consolidated and just Made Things Worse for everyone.

Between a global pandemic, the worldwide rise of neofascism and with it the systematic dehumanisation and exclusion of vast groups of people, multiple ongoing forever wars, the irreversible destruction of our planet’s fragile ecology… If I were to believe in biblical end times, I would have assumed to have seen the rapture by now. If there ever was a time in our years to adopt survival as a modus operandi, this surely is it.

(Before we continue, please rest assured this is not a thinkpiece on The Effects Of The Pandemic on The Arts. While certainly it has had an outsized impact on our coping devices for mortality salience – what with it actually being a life-threatening disease and all – the conversation around it had grown dull in a month’s time, let alone how it could be perceived in year three of our lord SARS-CoV-2.)

Art has certainly responded to The Situation, but I’ve found most of it predictable, drab or too on the nose. Sometimes, all of the above.

It’s been interesting to watch us dealing with This through the lens of art, though I always find myself looking specifically to punk music for a direct response.

Punk music, perhaps owing to its nihilistic roots, never seemed to put that much effort into staying too relevant beyond the lifespan of a band. Of course, we have our classics that still get covered to this day, but I would be surprised if many – or any – of them were written with standing the test of time as a central consideration. And the ones that have stayed relevant, are perhaps only reluctantly so, kept alive by an unfortunate truth our past selves would have hoped to have been rid of by now (Nazi Punks Fuck Off, anyone?).

(There is a separate discussion to be had about if long term relevancy is even important for the quality of art. I find answering ‘yes’ to this to be a bizarre notion, with puny human lifespans so short that we could not even attempt to answer this in full knowledge of the situation.)

I would argue art is at its best when it speaks directly to the current status quo. Trying to straddle the line of relevancy in the moment and eternity hardly ever yields the results wished for. Instead, it’s best to forego illusions of spiritual immortality and aim for what is in front of us.

And here’s where a project like the Tribulation Worksongs 7”es, created by Modern Life Is War, truly shines.

Part II: The only game in town

Let us synopsise the recent history of this band: After the breakup in 2008, a reunion occurred – as they do – in 2013, followed quickly by a new LP, Fever Hunting. And then… Something new.

The first release in the Tribulation Worksongs series, featuring the excellent Feels Like End Times on side A and Lonesome Valley Ammunitions as a B-side, was released upon the world. Far be it from me to regurgitate press releases, but the premise is worthwhile: every cover and label of every copy is hand stamped by the good people at Deathwish Records, which released the 7”. Creating a tangible trail of its creation through known labour is certainly a worthwhile endeavour and worth emphasising, but it’s only one facet of this diamond, and for me by far the least interesting.

More than a full year into the Trump administration, Feels Like End Times captures the spirit of the time perfectly:

See me. I am drenched in the echoes of war

With no future to sacrifice I declare my time is mine

I am standing at the root of my truth

In the crossfire of love with no time to compromise

What strikes me is the gumption of planting a stake in the middle of a tornado of insanity. Yes, the world is burning and on the horizon no reprieve is immediately found, so what do we have left to lose? Better yet – there is no choice at all. Submit or live on your own terms, the choice is simple, the balance will be made up by it.

Another sunrise. Another morning to thrive

Another victim. Another crime

Another narrow escape from death on the vine

I have been blissed. I have been kissed by fate

And for all its desperate hopefulness, the forceful grabbing of the future by the back of its neck also echoes a sadness: if but not for this diseased situation, we would be better. It’s an outlook that harkens back to the nihilism of punk past, perhaps ending on a more positive (and thus, defiant) note.

The message is driven forward by a midtempo beat that, combined with the melodic riffs almost feels relaxed, confident that what’s being spoken into the world is self-justified. Only towards the end, after a brief reprieve, a crescendo builds to the climax of the song.

The A-side on Vol. 2 (also originally released in 2018), Revival Fires, continues the desperate-yet-hopeful sentiment, but takes it a step further, starting on a bassline that resembles the comfortable rhythm one feels on the inside of one’s head when it’s laid against the window of a train cart:

This land has been scorched

Unrecognizable black

Return to nothing after golden harvests of past

Down the musical ladder, and then: kickoff, now we’re in it:

This land was choked with resentment and lingering remnants

This land was begging for breath and pleading to be peeled back

And with this piece of earth and with our lives inescapably intertwined

To start from scratch is all we ask now that the ruin has been wreaked

The die has been cast: the world we knew is now no more but a memory. But, given a long enough timeline, nothing ever truly dies: the nourishment of old world ashes will bring us new life, if we take the opportunity. A powerful call – again, that hope springing from bleak circumstance – to keep going, for there simply is no other choice:

Today is burning

Tomorrow is ripe

Revival Fires is beautiful, hopeful, but also a warning. And musically, just a step more aggressive than Feels Like End Times. Not completely shed of the confident coolness of that song, but there’s a hint of… Something uncertain there.

And then, three years and some change later, Volume 3 bursts onto the scene. Once more, the A-side bringing us a call to survive (with the lyrics written by Brent Dowe & Renford Cogl for a song originally performed by reggae legend Marcia Griffiths, though the music is a MLIW original), literally called Survival.

In times like these where survival is the game

Let’s play on…

(…)

Wheat and tears and sorrow…

All have to grow…

Until the day of the harvest…

The track starts off discordant, near unhinged and it only goes harder from there. With each new Tribulation Worksongs release, the musical intensity seems to increase. The buildup in this A-side trilogy, listened to back-to-back, is a thing to behold: from midtempo assuredness to a near-unhinged call to survive. And why not? I certainly wouldn’t trust anyone who hasn’t become deranged these last four years.

Part III: We thought so much

The creeping oppressive darkness ebbs and flows since time immemorial, or so I would assume. These last few years, however, the tide has risen and has refused to yield. And yet we persist. Endure. Hold on. Maybe even thrive.

The beauty of Tribulation Worksongs Volume 1-Volume 3 is the core message between the triplicate of A-sides on these breathtaking little round discs we covet: survive and thrive against the odds, because what else is there?

And while that has remained the same, the sentiment modulates from a cool and collected ‘This sucks but we can do it’ to ‘we need to survive because it’s the only game in town’.

It’s a pitch perfect reflection of the process most of us have gone through since Volume 1 came out in 2018 up to the current day. We thought, we thought, but what did we know?

And yet, here we still are.