War and peace in three songs
A millennial's timeline of punk anthems that keep hope alive

As a millennial, am I doomed to spend my life witnessing this bully of a country bomb the Middle East for oil? Since life during wartime is a recurring nightmare, here is a timeline of three songs that have kept my anti-imperialist heart beating over the years.

• 2003: God has found me. I mean, “God Deciding” by Hot Water Music has found me. As soon as I press play, the whole band comes storming in through the speakers. For a few measures, drum cymbals crash and guitar notes ring out, like this is the only song anyone needs to hear. Then a suspenseful guitar riff lingers in the mix while co-vocalist Chuck Ragan belts out the lyrics, “Transgressions are made/ while cowards convey with a demon’s ear, fixed and set to slay.” It’s hard to pinpoint when exactly Hot Water Music recorded this track, but it was released on an EP in early 2002. I imagine the band tracked it not long after news footage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in NYC, followed by news footage of U.S. bomber jets retaliating by striking Afghanistan. There’s an urgency in the song’s anguished plea for peace. There’s a tragic timelessness to its anti-war rage. At this point in my life, between high school homework and reruns of “The Simpsons,” I’m trying to make sense of a reality now marked by terrorism, heavily enforced patriotism and government surveillance. I get the impression that the war in the air won’t go away. Maybe it’s been there all this time. 

During the song’s outro, the band sounds like they’re burning down the recording studio. Octave chords are cutting through. The drums keep pummeling away. With his gruff voice, Ragan keeps posing questions to the chickenhawks and war profiteers: “Who will die next in line for the lie/ Justified for the rise of sitting high playing ‘God Deciding?’/ And who will walk away from the rage and revenge?/ Inhuman consequence comes in time.”  

The EP was released in January 2002, not long before George W. Bush would deliver his State of the Union speech calling Iraq, Iran and North Korea an “axis of evil.” Over a year later, the Bush administration would begin its invasion of Iraq. Around that time, this song came into my life. I find comfort in the band’s righteous rage while composing something intricate and thrashing. Every time I play the song, I hope it’s purifying all the war in the air. 

• 2004: For me, “One Beat” by Sleater-Kinney ranks high on the list of best album openers. The track is from their 2002 album of the same name, which was a response to the Bush administration’s “war on terror.” The album’s title calls attention to the post-9/11 silencing of dissent as war fever took hold of the country. On the title track, the intricate drumming always pulls me in. Then the guitar riffs come in. They’re simple and repetitive, yet when layered with the propulsive drums and the pre-chorus vocal harmonies, “One Beat” conjures up something mesmerizing. Co-vocalist Corine Tucker sings in a measured wail, like she knows how to weaponize her voice against all the injustice in the world. The song is from the POV of fusion energy; they’re watching empires murder for oil. In the second verse, Tucker sings: “If you think like Thomas Edison/ could you invent a world for me?/ Now all that’s on the surface/ Are bloody arms and oil fields.” After the re-election of George Bush in 2004, it felt like there would be no end to war and hatred. But I found solace in Sleater-Kinney’s music – their massive drums and guitars blare like sirens shaking heaven.  

• 2008-Present: “Little Brother” by Dead to Me. The song opens with a burst of distortion; the chords and riffs let you know this is punk rock before easing into reggae/ska, and it all sounds like something The Clash would’ve written decades ago. “Little Brother” is written from the perspective of an older sibling trying to reassure a younger sibling who’s disillusioned with everything. One recurring line goes: “My little brother is getting into trouble/ He’s so overwhelmed with the world sometimes.” 

Nowadays, we’re just in a perpetual state of war. The bombing campaigns and drone strikes just hum in the background of our lives. The song “Little Brother” confronts the prevailing order’s addiction to violence to the point where it becomes so normalized in the atmosphere. Yet the older brother in the song refuses resignation to this reality. In a build-up to the outro, the band does a call-and-response. The bassist sings, “What’s with the air in this war we breathe?” The lead guitarist responds by shouting, “SO BREATHE!” followed by a wave of vocal harmonies to close out the song. It’s subtle and my description doesn’t do it justice but I keep living in that small moment and I take a breath and keep moving forward.