Refused Come Around to Capitalism
by Lesley Barger | 00.00.0000

“We will never play together again and we will never try to glorify or celebrate what was. All that we have to say has been said here or in our music/manifestos/lyrics and if that is not enough you are not likely to get it anyway. We therefore demand that every newspaper burn all their photos of Refused so that we will no longer be tortured with memories of a time gone by... Instead, we need to look forward.”

-Refused (from the “Final Communiqué” on the Refused website)

Huh... well then I suppose that the disbanded über-political, anti-establishment Swedish hardcore group, Refused, must be PISSED that Epitaph is releasing a remixed, DVD format version of their classic album, The Shape of Punk to Come in Spring 2004. And they must be even more furious that a “Refused are Fucking Dead” collection is coming out featuring never-before-seen material and videos. And I wonder how they feel about their song, “Sommerholidays vs Punkroutine,” being featured on the soundtrack to the new Tony Hawk Underground videogame.

Well, considering that Dennis Lyxzén (ex member of Refused and current mastermind behind The (International) Noise Conspiracy) has completely pussied out with his new acoustic solo project, The Lost Patrol, he’ll probably just curl up with his blanket to cry and write a sappy song about it.

To give the band its due, this huge rash of Refused memorializing is probably more the idea of their labels, Burning Heart Records (Sweden) and Epitaph (USA), than their own minds. Considering their final manifesto, and the fact that supergroup ceased its triumphant hardcore reign in 1998 due to the members’ inability to handle the commercialization of their politically radical music, we’d like to think that these rereleases aren’t Lyxzén’s brainchildren.

But really, who cares. For us, it’s gonna be pretty fuckin’ sweet either way.