"Army of Silent Kids" is a song by Soda Fountain Rag, a band mostly composed of Ragnhild Hogstad Jordahl, and sometimes two other guys.
Ragnhild is one of them new-fangled musicians who records songs and posts them up for free on Myspace. She plays all of the instruments and sings and writes her own songs, but of course, live, it's rather a tall order to do everything by herself, so she gets Anders Kaasen to play guitar and Nickolai Nilsen to do bass.
Anders also produced the album It's Rag Time! for her, which this track is off of. You might be disappointed to hear that It's Rag Time! is not, in fact, a ragtime album. No, it's jangly indiepop twee something or other. You know...that insufferably cute stuff you put on to test the patience of your anarchohippiepeacepunkcore friends when you sneak control of the radio at their house.
"Yeah! 'Alternative Ulster!' That's a great Stiff Little Fingers track back from 1979! Alright, new Iggy Pop! Um...ok, Green Day. And now what the hell is this one? What do you mean, it's DIY? This isn't punk rock! What the fuck is K Records? Let's put on some Crass!"
Then they shut the speakers off and start drinking heavily.
Ok, even more heavily.
Ragnhild is from Bergen, Norway. I first heard her music when she popped up randomly on a Last.fm station. A few minutes later, I caught a video of a concert she did in Milan, Italy. Such are the wonders of the Internet. To top it off, the album was released on Yesboyicecream, an Irish label. It's really dizzying if you think about it. If you're, like a grandma: "What's this worldwidewebs thing on my computer, Milky?"
"Army" is a short (two and a half minutes long) song; just drums, vocals, and a sinister little organ. Ragnhild (can I call her Rags?) sings with a slight Norwegian accent, calling attention to the unusual meter of the lyrics. I believe these are dactyls? Correct me if I'm wrong. The meter and the subject matter both attracted me to the song.
Look, there just aren't many songs about silent kids. There's one about silence kits, and there are a couple about really really wanting to DO that one particular quiet girl or boy, but rare indeed is the rallying cry for the silent kids: RISE UP!
Your average silent kid is probably crying alone in their room while listening to music exactly like Soda Fountain Rag, except even sissier...stuff about girls dumping them...or maybe boys dumping them...just dumping things in general. That emo angsty stuff never gets them anywhere. I wholeheartedly agree with Rags that silent kids should join together in solidarity and fight their oppressors. Damn the Man!
Army of Silent Kids
She was a quiet kid
She was no trouble at all
So she wasn't noticed
She was never shouted at
And she should be hating you
For neglecting her
And all of the other quiet kids around
Let's build an army
An army of silent kids
If we all whisper a little bit louder
The noise will be heard
And, we'll be seen
She was the angel
So she was overlooked
Playing her violin
Secretly she wished she was
One of the spastic kids
One of the noisy kids
Who got all of the attention at school
Let's build an army
An army of silent kids
If we all whisper a little bit louder
The noise will be heard
And, we'll be seen
Let's build an army
An army of silent kids
We will destroy you
We will be the most powerful
Force the world has ever seen
The song sort of reminds me of "I'm nobody! Who are you?" by Emily Dickinson. However, whereas Emily commiserates with her fellow nobody, Rags urges revolución. Maybe if Emily Dickinson was into indiepop, and had access to music from Norway, and recorded music existed back then, and Soda Fountain Rag also existed back then, and, like, she heard this song, she wouldn't have been so lonely. And insane. But none of that stuff actually happened, so Emily Dickinson was screwed. It's pretty tragic.