Sheer Mag: "Can’t Stop Fighting"

Sheer Mag make anarchic power pop. “Can’t Stop Fighting” is more of what made last year’s pointedly political II EP such an undeniable listen: killer hooks filtered through squealing distortion, led by Christina Halladay’s righteous voice. It begins by referencing the hundreds of unsolved murders in Ciudad Juarez, where poor, working-class women have historically been targeted on their way to and from the maquiladoras, the manufacturing factories that are primarily staffed by those women. The killers are rarely identified, and almost never convicted. The cause is gang violence, and most likely the local government’s collusion to keep matters under wraps. Halladay sets the scene with two economical, chilling lines: “Paloma walks at night from the maquiladora/ Eight days later, no one has saw her.”

Contemplating the horror of Juarez is difficult. In his sprawling opus 2666, Chilean author Roberto Bolaño described it as staring into an abyss. At its root is the violence against all women, which goes unpunished around the world. It’s hard to imagine a solution beyond the total eradication of virulent, violent masculinity, of which there’s no current shortage. On “Can’t Stop Fighting,” Halladay’s sister reminds her there’s no justice to be served—no “grace or glory,” no moral to be gleaned, only a dead body and a man with no motive but idle cruelty. What can a punk rock song do about it? It’s a voice, and Halladay is determined to fight. “We’re striking back, baby, and you can find me in the vanguard,” she sings. The song’s title is both an empowered call-to-arms and a desperate lament, repeated over and over again.

Comments are closed.