On the topic of conflict, and a lot of other anarcho punk bands from the 80s, i've found that it's almost always a terrible idea to look up what the band has been up to currently. I'm not sure if this is just a me issue, and possibly i'm just placing way too much faith in bands who are just made up of normal people, but it really sucks seeing a band (in my eyes) kinda sell out. Like on mortarhate, Conflict's record label, I go on there today out of curiosity, (and because I'm looking to get myself a Conflict shirt), and when i open their merch section, i see 29 shirts/sweatshirts, 3 different mugs, 3 tote bags, 8 different enamel pins, 4 seperate hats (yes these are exact numbers). Like it feels as if i'm opening the website of the Beatles, it's terrible. I truly don't understand how a band can go from being all DIY to outsourcing (I assume, as usually bands will specify something like sweatshop free pritning if it's otherwise) all of their printing, in order to make entirely too many different shirts. It feels wrong, because I can not really think of any real motivation to sell this many different designs, other than profit. As much as i would like a nice brand new conflict shirt, it really does not feel good to support what I see as nothing more than a ploy to profit more off of the bands popularity. Now to give credit where credit is due, the site isn't too outrageously priced, but it still just feels so wrong that a band with such strong morals and values, would get to the point of selling coffee mugs and tote bags with every single design they can think people might want to pay money for. Anyways, rant about people I don't know and probably won't ever know, over. PS: Once I figure out more how this website works I want to implement a way for people to respond to these rant things so that we can argue or discuss my stupid opinions.
Update to previous post: I d i d happen to buy the Conflict discography on CD off of this website, so i admit my complaints are hypocritical. I still stand by them though.
I talked to someone on the bus today about bike-packing, and i think it has fully convinced me to take a bike-packing trip to DC. I feel like its kinda like a punk rite of passage honestly (dumb joke) but really though i think it would be pretty fun. I've always wanted to do something similar, but just never really had that kind of oppurtunity available to me, but im now finally able to do this. It's probably not gonna happen for a while, but i think itd be cool to take pictures and document my experience on this website. Not like i think anything crazy exciting is gonna happen or anything, but i think it'll be cool. Plus, i think i wanna try to line it up so i can go to a punk show in DC while im downthere for a day or two, so maybe i could do a concert review too. Who knows.