The Generalist

This is going to be one hell of a show! GO THERE. I’ll be at Chad’s store opening instead - dammit Chad!

Click here to download “M.L.K.” by The Entrance Band for free.

Blakeslee, who is 28, grew up in Baltimore and was a bleeding heart (I mean this in a good way) from the start. “I was always very defiant of the official view of history I was being taught,” he says. “I remember getting thrown out of history class when I was nine or ten for saying some nasty things about Christopher Columbus.”

His dad, a music fan with uncommonly hip tastes, lived in nearby D.C., where Blakeslee encountered the socially conscious hardcore/punk scene led by Ian MacKaye and Fugazi. “My natural inclination toward caring about others and social justice issues and my interest in music and specifically underground or punk kind of music really came together,” he says. “A lot of the shows those bands would do were almost community gatherings. They would be in church halls, and all ages, and there would be speakers from various groups as well as bands. It all contributed to me thinking a lot about how music can still be a relevant way of expressing care and concern and proposing ideas on social issues and stuff.”

Mom wasn’t innocent in this process either. “Even when I first started playing guitar, my mom kind of positively brainwashed me by giving me certain kinds of CDs, like Woody Guthrie and early Bob Dylan. She’d even say things like, ‘You should write songs that are about stuff. You should write songs that have a purpose.’”

Blakeslee is the kind of guy who worries that the progressive movement has lost its fighting spirit. “It’s not that I want to revive a movement that someone else had in the past, but I see a vaccuum right now where there’s not so much of a cohesive or clear movement that comes from the people that is really working in a strategic way to bring about change. The only people that are really right now getting together in public in large groups to do demonstrations are the minutemen and tea party people—what I consider to be far-right people. Some of their points within their confused rhetoric are pretty good. It’s not like they’re completely wrong about everything. But I think they’re coming at it from a very different perspective from where a lot of other people would be.”

The opening lyric, “Tired of being an angry child,” is rooted in Blakeslee’s experience as a pissed-off protester during the George W. Bush years. “I was at the second inauguration of Bush and there was a huge party, essentially, in D.C. for all the people who helped get him elected. All these balls and people in fur coats and cowboy hats and Texas-shaped belt buckles were in the streets. And then there were people like me and my friends, who went there definitely knowing that we weren’t going to change anything. We just wanted to give those people some hell, you know, and make them uncomfortable. I don’t think Martin Luther King would have really endorsed people going to D.C. just to harass and scream at people, but that’s what we were doing.”

So in a sense, the song is about the education of a kid is looking for a healthier way to save the world. “I think I’ve learned a lot in the years since I’ve been so obsessed with these things, and it’s changed my perspective on what works, what doesn’t work, and what’s worth your energy. I definitely think that, as hard as it may be, what Martin Luther King was trying to say is that you don’t effect a change in anyone by hating them back. If someone’s yelling at you, and you disagree with them and you yell back, obviously they’re not going to listen to you. Both of you are poisoning yourselves and each other with that sort of energy, and neither of you are going to change. That doesn’t accomplish anything.

The line about Obama—“I voted for change; will it change anything?”—reflects Blakeslee’s (accurate) assessment that one man, least of all a politician, can’t be expected to solve all our problems. “The reason I wanted to make a song about Martin Luther King is because I felt that, even in a time when we have an African-American president and that’s a revolutionary thing for this country, it’s still a president that’s sending so many people to war and is, I believe, kind of just a much more charming, much more intelligent face of the same system that still has yet to change. And it would be very hard to change that system. What Martin Luther King was trying to say is something we still need to do. He said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand.” The people are really the only ones that can actually change anything. It’s totally up to us.”

Got all that? Good. Now go buy the album and buy tickets to one of these upcoming shows, because these guys are amazing live. Bassist Paz Lenchantin used to be in Zwan, but don’t hold that against her, and drummer Derek W. James is hilarious fun to watch. The tour starts on Tuesday, in Arizona of all places. Here are the dates:

JAN
19 - Tucson, AZ - Club Congress
21 - Dallas, TX - The Cavern
22 - Austin, TX - Mohawk
23 - Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon
25 - Athens, GA - Caledonia Lounge
26 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl
27 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506 
28 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s
30 - Brooklyn, NY - Knitting Factory
31 - Cambridge, MA - TT The Bears

FEB
1 - Buffalo, NY - Soundlab
2 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Tavern
3 - Columbus, OH - The Summit
4 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
5 - Minneapolis, MN - 400 Bar
6 - Lawrence, KS - Jackpot
8 - Denver, CO - Hi Dive
9 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
11 - Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
12 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
13 - Eugene, OR - Sam Bond’s Garage
14 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent
16 - Santa Cruz, CA Brookdale Lodge
17 - Santa Barbara, CA - Muddy Waters
18 - Lompoc, CA - The Wicked Shamrock
19 - Palm Springs, CA - JDee’s Landing
20 - Los Angeles, CA - Bootleg Theatre

If you haven’t heard The Entrance Band yet - I hope this will encourage some downloading!