The RUTS DC Tickets

Here we go again. That one. The one that says acoustic guitars go against punk.
 The Evidence: Item A: Woody Guthrie’s Gibson L-00. Exact age unknown. Instrument body hand 
painted with the words “THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS”
 Because sometimes it feels right to strip back, to pare down and to scrape off all that is surplus.
 Because sometimes it feels important to reveal the bones and the purpose.
 This, of course, does not diminish the significance of the other records. The ones which glow with 
studio radiation. The full, the deep and the burnt dub low end offerings.
 No your honour.
 Some people won’t let it go.
 The Evidence: Item B: Johnny Cash’s Martin D-35 as played in St Quentin Penitentiary.
 Tell the lifers and the knifers banging metal cups that the music has gone soft.
 Ruts DC was, is, and always will be, a belief system where urgency, necessity, purity and primal 
energy are solemn commitments.
 And that as long as what comes out of the speakers has power, attack, groove and prowess the 
instruments used in it’s making isn’t, really, that important.
 What you hear on this record is what was played, and captured, in the studio.
 Simple as that. No indulgent studio refinement. No afterthought solos fileshared across timezones 
and seamlessly digitally grafted in by a software technician who never heard of Link Wray, Big Star
 or The Modern Lovers.
 But do not mistake the primitive for the sloppy. No sir. Do not mistake that for one minute.
 The precision here is from practice. From playing. Honed instinct. The seventh sense understanding
 that a great band has. Forged and tempered over time. The road. The studio. Life. Death.
 The Evidence: Item C: Ruts DC Electro Acoustic Volumes 1, 2 and, now, 3. What you are holding 
in your hand is pure, uncut, high grade Ruts DC. Another mistake not to make. Do not think it is a 
record to be played quietly.
 Play it loud for the same reasons that it was recorded. Because it matters. Melody, ideals, rhythm 
and rights. The word is the weapon.
 Still.
 No further questions your honour.
 People Unite.
 Graham Erickson 2024