Musical Throwback #13 – Anarchy Waltz

I’m sure you, like myself, have occasionally looked back at a song, band, or haircut from your teens and thought “Oh god. What was I thinking?”

This is not one of those times, though I thought it would be. The band: The Distorted Penguins. The Song: Anarchy Waltz. This track, thought to be long dead, was resurrected by a mythical mix CD that suddenly came to light in the shuffle of shlepping off to Wisconsin.

I’m not sure how I know of The Distorted Penguins. I’m debating whether or not they hit the tiny little venue in Butler, Pennsylvania that was once called Apparitions Food Court (and is now called a denture office). Apparitions was a little food court with a party room that quickly became the punk hang out for the under 18 crowd. Those were heady days, however, and the haze of watermelon and whipped cream somehow prevents me from recalling with any certainty who I did or did not see there. Alas, my connection to the Distorted Penguins will forever be a mystery.

That does not mean it should be a mystery to you. Go to their Myspace here, listen to Anarchy Waltz, and pretend you’re 15. It’ll be awesome, I promise.

This might be the quintessential simple local band song ever. The saxophone is simple; i could probably break out my sax from the 3rd grade and figure it out by the end of the evening. The way they use the sax to punctuate the beat, though, is captivating.

The Hey Hey’s and Oi Oi’s, of course, get me going every time I hear the song, and I almost seem to remember being crammed into a small foul smelling room, pumping my fist along with the song, until my memory falls away to reveal I’m just in my apartment.

The lyrics are great too. “What you call expression they call moral decay”? Brilliant, and not in an angsty 15 year old sort of way. It’s simple, applicable, and non-drammaticised. I could probably break it out in an argument and get away with it.

The song is a simple style of pop punk and ska, but it doesn’t have that generic fell I’m used to when it comes to local punk bands.

Another fun aspect of this song is that you can replace “Waltz” with just about any one syllable word. Driving home from work, we spotted a shopping cart turned over on the side of the road. Dave goes “Anarchy Cart! Oi oi oi oi” and now it applies to almost every cart we see. Also cropped up: “Anarchy Dog”, “Anarchy Stove” and by far the scariest, “Anarchy Car”.

It falls in line with an illustrious list of songs I alter consistently for shits and giggles, but the rest of the list will have to wait until later.

What to drink with Anarchy Waltz?
Lemonade with Rum. Have strong enough lemonade, and no one will realize you’re drinking underage…until you pass out under a table. Which never happened to me. Honest.