The manly men at A Voice for Men do love their manly music! You may recall the asskickingly asskicking asskickery of “Go My Own Way,” the A Voice for Men anthem, as performed by Jade Michael and the Fuck Their Shit Up Singers Crew. And the “red pill honesty” of Slumberwall’s emo-folk (but totally not wussy) meditation“The Hatred of Women.”
Now, in a post with the dopily macho title “The weekend’s here. Swagger, brothers. Swagger,” AVFM contributor Skeptic presents a new video from his band Dark Star Disco.
No, it doesn’t quite match the terrible grandeur of either of the earlier MRA anthems. The music is utterly unexceptional testosterone-heavy rock-tronica that sounds like it just escaped from the nineties. And it’s 15 minutes long. But Skeptic is quite proud of it, nonetheless. As he describes it, in phrases as clichéd as the song itself:
We are sonically in your face – wall of sound — chainsaw wailing guitar, piercing electro synth and pounding rock rhythms.
Skeptic contributes the guitar – sorry, the “chainsaw wailing guitar” – to the sound. He apparently prefers guitars to women, as they don’t talk back:
I strut on guitar and love it. Nowhere do I feel more alive. Swagger.
I’ve been playing guitar for many years – self-taught. Swagger.
My guitars have helped me cathart during times of feminist insanity more times than I can recall. I truly don’t know how I would have made it this far without playing guitar. For my guitar doesn’t make maddening “man up” BS demands and treat me with misandry as a disposable utility.
The video, even less original, consists of pilfered stock footage of an assortment of putatively manly things, starting with, yes, a missile. (Oh, hello, Dr. Freud1) Let’s let Skeptic describe his creation:
It’s chock full of images men can relate to – a guided missile, eagle and cheetah hunting, jet aircraft and a high powered motorcycle at full throttle, runway dance swagger, military teamwork and bravery, high tech playfulness, raw wilderness, cutting edge scientific research, urban spaces constructed and running at full tilt and moving at a blistering pace into a future city of lights. It’s what men do. It’s cram packed with stuff feminists shit their pants over – unapologetic swaggering masculinity.
I dig it. It’s ballsy.
Just so you know, the “runway dance swagger” in question refers not to a fashion model shaking his or her stuff in a runway show, but to some dude doing a little victory dance on an runway for, like , airplanes.
Of course, Skeptic is making some assumptions here. We don’t actually know the gender of all those flying the planes (or driving the cars, or riding the motorcycle like an asshole) in the video. For the sake of argument, let’s just assume they are all male.
But the cheetah? Either Skeptic thinks all cheetahs are boy cheetahs, or he thinks that girl cheetahs sit on their fat asses eating cheetah bon bons and living off of Cheetalimony. In fact, of course, both male and female cheetahs hunt for their food. That ballsy swaggering masculine cheetah in his video may well be a gal.
If there are any stray misogynists reading this post who are unwilling to accept that female cheetahs can hunt, skip ahead to 1:30 in the video below to see one cheetah mom chase down a gazelle just like the cheetah in Skeptic’s video.
Here, a female cheetah faces down three hyenas to protect her cubs.
In other words, female cheetahs are badasses. So are male cheetahs.
Skeptic is just a plain old jackass.
If any of you actually listened to Dark Star Disco’s little masterpiece, or any of the other songs I linked to above, and need to clear your ears of all that manly man stuff, might I suggest “Crochet,” by Kathleen Hanna’s side project Julie Ruin?
I’m just amused that these guys think electronic rock is manly-man music. Curve would eat their lunch.
I’m kind of thinking of starting an industrial progressive death metal act, regardless of how it turns out, it should be better than these guys.
Do it! You can post it on a site called A Voice For Men Who Are Not Paul Elam.
A Voice For Men Who Are Not Paul Elam
LMAO! Also on Cloudiah’s blog.
Well, gothic metal has a solid female fanbase, at least.
BTW, I still pride myself in listening to Real Music; it’s just that I’ve broadened my tastes. But I can’t say I ever had the mentality that metal was the only worthwhile music.
Isn’t Real Music a bit of a dicey construct, though? We’re all just apes making noises in the end.
Also thanks on the gothic metal bit: I don’t really listen to any of it beyond Katatonia, so I tend to forget the stuff exists. It’s still very much an exception as a genre in terms of having a fanbase that isn’t nearly entirely dudes though.
That’s the reason why, even though some of the bands are crap, I have no problem covering Visual Kei shows – the audience is usually 90% female, no matter how heavy the band is. They don’t throw tantrums about their treehouse being invaded if more men do show up, either.
I don’t know much about Metal music of any kind, but I think this is hilarious and I bet the resident Metal fans will as well:
… form the tofu into the Sign of the Ancients on the plate… cover with two paper towels.
@aworldanonymous, If you start “an industrial progressive death metal act” I will publish the hell out of it here: http://artistryforfeminismandkittens.wordpress.com/
Hope you’re having fun at college. Even if you aren’t initially, funtimes will present an opportunity if you’re open to them. As a socially awkward person myself, my experience is that my first experiences are often kind of negative, but as I get to know people and learn my footing, I start enjoying things more.
I love the vegan black metal chef.
This is my favorite metal shows up in unexpected places moment – a metal band in full costume goes to the Eurovision Song Contest, bafflement and hilarity ensues.
Totally OT, but I went to the Spearhead again, and found this from Daryl X.
See, MRAs don’t HATE women. We just want them to be FREE!! Aaaarrrglebargle. Retch.
VEGAN BLACK METAL CHEF NINJA has happened.
Best ninjas are vegan black metal chef ninjas.
Especially if they’re thoughtful enough to leave you dinner.
Someone should slap me every time I go to the Spearhead.
Why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why did I go there?
The conversation earlier prompted me to actually read some of the comment on YouTube, and wow, you think metal fans are ridiculous in actual forums? On this one, we have some kid who thinks that Lordi are actual, for real monsters.
And on this one we have people arguing about how those who listen to other bands are posers, not really metal, etc…in the comments of a video from a band whose album title is a slightly tweaked version of the word “abracadabra”, one of whose members is dressed up like Clive Barker character meets Monsters Inc. It’s totes serious and hardcore, you guys, show some respect!
Ohh, interesting derail. I’m not hugely knowledgable about metal/metal culture so most of this is a mystery to me. 😛
I guess you could say i’m a metal fan though, at least power metal anyway (Sonata Arctica ftw). I’m not really into the “heavier” metal genres.
I’m not really a metal fan, and I think that’s partly because of what I have heard referred to as “cookie monster voice”, it is silly at best and seriously annoying at worst. I kind of like it when I hear metal that doesn’t have that.
Myoo: Yeah, that’s half the reason I stick to power metal, the other half being that power metal has a tune to it rather than a “rumbley noise”. The latter is more of a dealbreaker for me, because if it has the awesome epic tuneage with growly voice (like, say, Wintersun – though they’re sort of half and half rather than pure growlyness), i’ll still enjoy it.
There’s no way I can make this comment not sound really judgey when I don’t mean it to be, so apologies to people who like the stuff I don’t. 😛
“Cathart”? Is that English?
Also, evidently Sceptic doesn’t understand what the word “catharsis” means.
@lowquacks
Yeah, that’s legit
Um, lowquack, you are confusing metal with progrock(progressive rock). Progrock is NOT A FORM OF METAL! The Darkness for example is progrock. Progrock is definitely more optimistic, more humorous, and is seldom violent or nihilistic the way metal is.
Subtle humor can be amusing, but it has to have a satirical, ironic element to it. Otherwise it comes across as pretentious and totally lame(like monty python). I’ve always admired humor that both ironic and pushes the limits of social acceptability.As far as metal goes though, I find cannibal corpse to be totally hilarious even though they are rather juvenile and their lyrics are pertty damn sick.
I’ve always liked the old British heavy metal bands like Iron Maiden and Venom. Not to mention speed metal from the early to mid 80s like Queensryche, Dio,& Judas Priest.And I went through a phase of loving Satanic Death metal in the early 90s.
In conclusion, I totally think that MRAs need to stop whining on the internet about feminism, pick up guitars, and learn to rawk out! Music is one of the most effective and powerful tools for attracting women. In the words of my friend Rachael:
@lowquacks: You are confusing metal with progressive rock. The Darkness is progrock and not metal. You are correct that progrock is much less dark, violent, and nihilistic than metal and quite often has a sense of humor.
Also, if MRAs would stop whining on the internets about feminism and spend their time rocking out, they’d finally be able to get chicks and learn to appreciate women. In the words of my friend Rachael:
And who says modern death metal can’t be funny?! I find Cannibal Corpse to be hilarious, despite being rather juvenile and pertty damn sick lyrically.
Okay, so he’s complaining about being told to ‘man up’. Then posting images of stereotypically manly things. Even though most of the time it’s those ‘stereotypically manly’ guys telling *each other* to man up.
Most feminists object to the ‘man up’ ‘boys don’t cry’ stuff! Patriarchy hurts men too, and all that. Most women I know who want men to be tough and emotionless are not, in any way, feminists.
Maybe that’s the problem. MRAs see women who like traditional gender roles, and want to be paid for on dates and see things as woman=protected man=protector. Then they also hear about feminists who want women to have as many opportunities as men, for everyone to choose based on temperament and not gender. And somehow conflate the two, so women want the trappings of traditional femininity (chivalry etc) along with the benefits of equal rights…? I don’t even know.
Or maybe these guys are just assholes.