Stars and Stripes

Shaved for Battle (Taang!)
by Jon Sarre

Slapshot’s Jack “Choke” Kelly attempts to clarify some of his unpopular political views in this side project that’s not really a side project cuz Stars And Stripes is basically Slapshot but gone full-on bootboy Oi, wherein Kelly’s more-familiar personal pain, cold’n’dark room route is temporarily dropped in favor of subcultural concerns peculiar to skinheads (which I guess could be described as “Core American Values,” only with more of an emphasis on beating up anyone who doesn’t necessarily share ’em with ya).

Simple easy-chant choruses make it easy to sing along with Choke’s rottweiler voice, which makes this catchier than Slapshot tends to be. Then as yer shouting along at home, following the printed lyric sheet, if need be ya realize how black & white Kelly’s world is. “Either your (sic) with us or your a foe” he announces on “Dedicated,” a sorta war chant for an all-skin revolution or somethin’. Yeah, there’s lotsa that, but also lotsa this good/this bad, no room for the middle complaints. Fightin’ the good fight against a long list of villains, that’s better than good. Same with hangin’ out with the boys (and fightin’ the good fight – tho’ “Here’s One For the Lads” has a weird “All The Young Dudes” vibe, which maybe is only a nod to glam’s influence, via Slade, in developing the “Oi sound,” but I dunno). Flipside of the coin: lotsa bad stuff; cops, the government, immigrants, Arabs, the rich, “yuppie faggots,” etc. Kelly ain’t some garden variety punk rock misanthrope – here, he’s an activist. Sure, the guy’s just enunciating opinions that lotsa people routinely spout off, albeit more euphemistically, in the halls of Congress or on the news. He may not necessarily act on the stuff he’s preachin’ (‘cept nuking Iraq, I hear he’s perfected that fusion in the glass thing that was so popular a few years back), but plenty of his fans would, and do, all the fucking time.
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