Authority Zero: Zero tolerance

Authority Zero bags on posers, plugs new album

By Newt Briggs

It's no secret that the first wave of British punks--among them, the Sex Pistols and the Damned--were in it for the money and not the revolution. In particular, Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten seemed lord and master of the say-one-thing-and-do-another ethos, wailing about anarchy in the U.K. while schlepping from gig to gig in a stretch limousine. For the people in the scene who actually believed in the cause, this kind of betrayal was almost biblical in its proportions--a punk-rock Judas forsaking his faithful clan for a handful of silver.

To this day, punks still wrestle with this Catch-22: Passion and authenticity beget success, which subsequently compromises the appearance of passion and authenticity. When Florida anarcho-punks Against Me! released their debut LP on Fat Wreck Chords last year, zealous fans called them sell-outs and slashed the tires on their tour van. A similar backlash was inspired by Green Day's Dookie, AFI's Sing the Sorrow and anything released by Blink-182 after 1993's Fly Swatter EP.

"There's really almost no way to avoid being a hypocrite anymore," says Bill Marcks, guitarist and songwriter for Mesa, Ariz.'s Authority Zero. "You can be the most hardcore band in the world and still be traveling on someone else's dime. We were actually just discussing that about a band that we know. They sit around bitching about capitalism and the failures of democracy, yet they're touring around every night in a $250,000 bus."

While Marcks concedes that Authority Zero has also taken advantage of this pop-punk windfall--its major-label debut on Lava Records has sold almost 100,000 copies--he says the band has tried to stay true to its anti-establishment roots. As proof, he points to the band's spot on NOFX's Punk Voter tour--a 16-date rock festival that pushed a liberal political agenda on college students pushing each other in the mosh pit. At the very least, it's a far cry from Johnny Ramone, who declared, "God bless President Bush, and God bless America" when the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

"He did what?" Marcks asks. "I'm really not sure what to say about that. How can you be a conservative punk? I don't get that at all."

Not that Marcks is a diehard Democrat by any means. "I don't really believe in any side, whether it be Democratic or Republican," Marcks says. "In this instance, though, I really think we have to choose the lesser of two evils. We've just got to get George Bush out of power."

An aspiring linguist who currently speaks three languages, Marcks says his political views have been as influenced by what he's seen outside of the U.S. as by what he's experienced inside it. The punk-rock equivalent of Papa Hemingway, Marcks spent a college semester soaking up the language, culture and customs of Spain and its people. "Everyone should go to Madrid," he says. "That place is rad. They were oppressed by a dictator for like 50 years, so they're pretty nuts now because they can do whatever they want."

He's also folded much of this Spanish influence into his music, which isn't just straight-ahead "Oi! Oi! Oi!" punk but incorporates everything from flamenco to ska to reggae. On Authority Zero's forthcoming album, Andiamo, these influences are underscored by NOFX and Lagwagon knob-twister Ryan Green's clean production and highlighted on songs like "Siempre Loco," "Chili Con Crudo" and a cover of Wall of Voodoo's "Mexican Radio."

"Everything we hear we mix into our songs," says Marcks. "It's totally different than the last album. We got real overzealous on the last record because we'd never been in a studio, and we thought we needed to fiddle with everything. It stripped away a lot of the spontaneity to our sound."

Slated to be released June 29, Andiamo is also a linguistic exercise in itself. As Marcks explains, the word literally means "We go" in Italian, but it can also be phonetically broken up to say, "and I am zero." "I guess that's kind of how we feel," he says. "We're not trying to be rock stars. We're just trying to be authentic and to live well in a crazy world."