Alexander+Tufts

media type="youtube" key="YFQnX98Kh4w" height="344" width="425"media type="youtube" key="_pt9ccupIoE" height="344" width="425" Alex Tufts Eng 101 State Radio: Band or Service Group? State Radio is a band out of Boston that speaks about social problems all over the world. I had heard State Radio’s music before but never knew anything about the band. I knew they sang about social issues when I had heard one of their songs through a friend. Upon doing more research on State Radio I realized what amazing things this band did to deal with the social issues they write about.

The three band members in State Radio are Chad Stokes Urmston, Chuck Fay, and Mike “Mad Dog” Najarian. Stokes, as they call Urmstron, used to be in a band called Dispatch with two different band mates who had the same purpose, to help people. State Radio went on a tour in February of 2009 hitting 25 cities and every single concert was sold out. In each of these 25 cities the crew made time to do some community service. In under a year State Radio and their fans performed 1,800 hours of community service that had impacts on local, national, and on the global level.

Stokes said in an interview once that “There are times when there’s a service project every morning at 9am—and we’d had a late night the night before—where it’s like, ‘Are we a service group that plays music, or are we a band that does service projects?’ There’s a balance between the two things because they feed each other. I want to experience the stuff I’m writing about.” The things these guys do for people are amazing.

Stokes, Mad Dog, and Chuck have performed countless hours of community service throughout the bands existence. Long before State Radio these guys were helping people out individually. Mad Dog volunteered as a mentor for the Big Brother Big Sisters and Chuck Fay is a big voice in reforming the election process in this country. Stokes was part of the band Dispatch who sang and performed for causes all over the world, just as State Radio does. Dispatch was started when Stokes was attending Middlebury College in Vermont. The band was active from 1996 to 2002. Dispatch has gotten together three times since the break up in 2002 for performances to help certain causes. They got together in 2004, 2007, and 2009. Their 2007 performance was to help raise funds and awareness for the poverty stricken country of Zimbabwe. The concert was held in Madison Square Garden and was supposed to only be a one night gig. The first night sold out so quickly that the decision was made to do a second night and it sold out just as fast as the first. The band performed again the next night and sold out once again. Dispatch became the first unsigned band to headline the Madison Square Garden, let alone sell it out three times.

State Radio not only acts upon problems in the world, they sing about them too. The band has many songs that sing about things they see as issues all over the world. The two songs I picked spoke about two problems in the US. One song is “Camilo” and the second is “Unfortunates”.

The song “Camilo” is about a young man named Sergeant Camilo Mejia who returned from the War in Iraq on leave in 2003. In October of that year he refused to return back to Iraq and he classifies himself as a “conscientious objector”. A conscientious objector is someone who refuses to participate in military service on the basis of religious or moral preferences. His request was denied and still he refused to return to the war. In March of 2004 he turned himself in to military authorities and was charged and convicted of desertion and sentenced to one year in jail. The song went a little something like this:

Woke him up with a barrel to his head His eyes shut tight bracing for the blow Resigning his life to the metal held In another man's hand

“Camilo” actually opens with lead singer Stokes stating that this song was about his friend Camilo and what happened to him. This first verse is about the War in Iraq and a situation that could and may have happened between an American soldier and an innocent Iraqi citizen. The soldiers were clearing out a building and found an Iraqi citizen strapped with a weapon that was sleeping. One of the soldier’s wakes him up with by putting a barrel to his head and the man closes his eyes in fright and braces himself. 

Twenty days in a concrete fallout What life have i to take your own Oh my country won't you call out Doorbells are ringing with boxes of bones And from another land's war torn corners To a prison cell in my own Punish me for not taking your orders But don't lock me up for not leavin' my home  The first few lines in this verse are about that the risk that is taken when a soldier goes to Iraq, or any war at that. It is said that doorbells are ringing with boxes of bones. These are the bones of soldiers on both sides of the war. After touring in a war torn country like Iraq and serving his or her country, a soldier should be punished for not taking orders and not sent to jail like Sergeant Camilo Mejia was. 

Your words just a bloody fallacy A house of cards you painted white You tried to recreate normandy But you made up the reason to fight And now red oil is spillin' down on the street And your eyes too big for the belly is weak Will you not refuse this currency Or is blood money just money to you Is blood money just money to you  Here it says that the government’s words are just lies. It indicates that the White House is just a house of cards painted white, meaning it’s weak. It says government made up the reason to fight and there is no reason for all of the innocent people in Iraq to be dying. Blood money is money given to the next of kin of a murder victim. When they ask “is blood money just money to you” they are asking the government if they even care that all these soldiers are dying. 

Twenty days in a concrete fallout What life have to take your own Oh my country won't you call out Doorbells are ringing with boxes of bones From another land's war torn corners To a prison cell in my own Punish me for not taking your orders But don't lock me up for not leavin' my home

Camilo Camilo Leavin' my home Camilo  The other song I picked that spoke about a social issue is “Unfortunates”. This song is about some young kids who were blamed for something very serious that they never did. It was talking about how authorities wrongly accuse the youth for a lot of crime and act upon what they think happened other than cold hard facts. This goes on all over the place I have not only witnessed it, but experienced it myself.

Come all the unfortunates, Come on with your throwaway youth. They say it's written for you, No matter what you do.

'Cause you see something happened up in robin hood hills, The devil had his way. But the locals say they're on to something, They say they know his name.

In these verses State Radio calls the youth the “unfortunates”. The youth across the country gets accused for things that they don’t do. Police all over the nation blame crime on the youth without thinking twice. A crime was committed in a neighborhood called Robin Hood Hills and the locals in the area say they know the name of the kid that did the crime. The locals are wrong and a few young men are wrongly accused. <span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"> Did you happen to see the paper today, And see what them troubled boys had done? Another unidentified youth, Mistaken for something he'd never done.

Come all the unfortunates, Come on with your ghetto youth. There's talk on the police radio, Any suspect will do.

'Cause there was an on-scene deputy, And he had it in for the West Memphis Three. Got them for murder of the first degree, But the crowd wanted more.

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">In these three verses something is read in the paper about another wrongly accused youth. The last line in the second verse suggests that police get a call about a crime, and any youth spotted near the crime scene is assumed to have committed the crime. The third verse here talks about how the on-scene deputy had it in for a few boys nicknamed the “West Memphis Three” and he arrested them for the crime they didn’t commit, murder of the first degree. <span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"> Did you happen to see the paper today, And see what them troubled boys had done? Another unidentified youth, Mistaken for something he'd never done.

So get goin', get gone. So get goin', it's time to move on.

So get up get going, see what them troubled boys have seen. 'Cause the future is all-knowing, but get too close and too close you'll be.

So get up get going, see what them troubled boys have seen. 'Cause the future is all-knowing, but get too close and too close you'll be.

'Cause the future is all-knowing, but get too close and too close you'll be.

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 200%; msotabcount: 1;"> <span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 200%; msotabcount: 1;"> <span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">All-in-all, these are some great people. To be that famous and talented and just give your money and time away, is something few people do. State Radio is truly an amazing band.

"About The Band." __Www.stateradio.com__. State Radio. 17 Oct. 2009 <http://www.stateradio.com/about>. "Dispatch (band)." __Www.wikipedia.com__. 17 Oct. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispatch_(band)>.