To coincide with the deluxe reissue of their landmark 1998 album, The Shape of Punk to Come, Refused vocalist Dennis Lyxzén spoke to Exclaim in a new interview. Dennis explains why Refused will not be reuniting for a tour:
I grew up in a small part of Sweden. It’s not like I got to see hardcore bands or punk bands come to town. We had to invent everything ourselves so there are tons of bands I wish I could have taken part of but they were out of my reach. It’s the same for people that never got to see Refused live. They want to understand what we were doing, were a part of. To be in that band is one of those things that half the time I’m sympathetic and understanding towards why people would do it. The other half, it’s just such a useless manoeuvre. It’s a defeatist attitude but if your objective is to play music with your friends and have a good time, there’s no harm in reuniting your band for a couple of shows. For us, there have always been so many other aspects of what we did, that it always felt like a complete no-no. You can’t do that shit. Minor Threat never got back together. That’s kind of our take on it. With some things, the legend is better than the actual thing.
He also discussed his thoughts on the reissue itself and why the double LP finally came together:
Well, it was two or three years that they suggested they were gonna do this reissue of the last record ’cause it was the 10-year anniversary. It was supposed to come out two years ago but we got involved and started saying, “Oh, if you’re gonna put it out, we should add stuff to it or make it a bit more price-worthy for people to buy. It’s too weird for people to just go out and buy it again.” So we actually instigated the fact that the live recording would be in there and I know David added extra photos and stuff for the booklet. That’s why it took a while to get everything together: ’cause we got involved. I also sent multiple emails to our management saying that if it’s not gonna be released on vinyl, you can’t release it at all.
check out the interview here.
Continue reading Dennis Lyxzén talks about “The Shape of Punk to Come” →
We’re happy to bring you the finalized day-to-day schedule for this year’s Sound and Fury Festival. The fest is being sponsored by Hellfish Printing, AMP magazine and us, Punknews.org. It’s set for the the weekend of July 23rd and runs until July 25th (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) at the Earl Warren State Fairgrounds in Santa Barbara, CA. 
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