#281 (of 365) "Survival of the Fittest" Desaparecidos

In 2002, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes--then one of my favorite bands--put out a punk record called Read Music, Speak Spanish with a band called Desaparecidos, which translates to a person who has disappeared, typically by the army or police in South America. And the album was a seething attack on a bunch of contemporary American issues-- Greed, the Iraq war, Political disfunction, the divide between the rich and poor. In the years that followed the release, and in the years I went from a moderate Republican to a diehard progressive Democrat who hates all that the Republican Party (and much of what mainstream Democrats) stands for, I kept coming back to that album, the youthful punk screech and driving guitars and the lyrics ripping apart present day (2002) capitalism.

Well things have gotten a lot worse since then. They did get better--briefly--with the hope-filled election of President Obama, but like 3 months after his inauguration, the hateful minority of this country remembered he was black, that they hated black people and suddenly discovered the virtues of balanced budgets after 8 years of silence under the massive deficits of the Bush tax cuts and it's honestly been mostly downhill in our politics ever since. I stopped listening so much to Bright Eyes, then kind of not at all, but when Desaparecidos returned in 2012 with a double single "Anonymous" and "The Left is Right," I couldn't get enough. They had literally release a single album, waited 10 years, then released these amazing songs. They went on tour in 2013 and played three shows within an hour of my house at the time--Philly, Asbury Park, and NYC. Because of a toe injury and subsequent terrible surgery, I had spent the previous 18 years in some level of pain--often extreme--and hadn't been to a concert. In late 2012, the pain finally started to subside and I bought tickets for all 3 shows. I believe Asbury Park was the first of the three, at the Stone Pony, and the opening act happened to be this California punk band I had never heard of before (Joyce Manor, who would eventually end up in my top 10 favorite bands of all time). I guarded my foot (still wearing a shoe I couldn't tie) and feared a relapse or pain but ended up having an incredible time. 3 months later, my house in the suburbs were sold, I moved up to Hoboken, across the river from Manhattan, and with the toe almost fully recovered, I started going to shows all the time, some 50+ the first year I lived there. 

Desaparecidos only ever released one more full length, in 2015 (Payola) which was very good but their legacy for me remains the passion of these anti-capitalistic screeds, barely twenty Conor's punk screaming, and the 3 shows I saw them play at the start of 2013, a year that changed my life.

Take the cash from my hand hear the register sing
And the roar of the lion logo on the screen
​He is hungry. I should buy some popcorn

"Survival of the Fittest" - Desaparecidos  // Read Music-Speak Spanish (2002)

I was at this show!