Red Collar

What is ambition anyways? When Bruce was some scrap kid in a ski cap, touring the East, jumping the gate at Graceland, was that ambition? They called him a punk then. That was before punk- in terms of music-was set in stone. His music seemed plain, a return to revving it up when the main scene was adding more and more filigree. The longhair rock gods would have said he wasn't ambitious enough. How about Fugazi? In refusing to play along with music business conventions, was that ambitious or just pragmatic? Did they cheat by drawing their boundaries too close...

When Bruce was some scrap kid in a ski cap, touring the East, jumping the gate at Graceland, was that ambition? They called him a punk then. That was before punk- in terms of music-was set in stone. His music seemed plain, a return to revving it up when the main scene was adding more and more filigree. The longhair rock gods would have said he wasn't ambitious enough.

How about Fugazi? In refusing to play along with music business conventions, was that ambitious or just pragmatic? Did they cheat by drawing their boundaries too close, by refusing to get out of the small pond?

What about when your trip to college gets you out of your working-class town but not much further? And you're sitting in a cube, with a spreadsheet up on the screen, unchanged for hours, distracting yourself with the web, dreading the upcoming sit in traffic. Your friends back home are still waiting for someone to die so they can move up. They think it's funny how you moved down South, to one of those college towns, and you don't have a winter coat anymore. You're not blue collar, but the white collar world ain't looking bright. You're daydreaming about the music you're writing at night. You get off the ladder and start a band.

Ambitious? Can't tell.

Stupid? For sure.

The music Red Collar plays ain't bar rock (they don't even have bars down here, not like home). It's learned too much. It comes from Chapel Hill, but it's got broad shoulders and thick skin. You can't explain it to your old friends or your new bosses.

But you can't stop playing.

~Ben Donnelly