CORPORATE RE-EDUCATION OF ALLEGED PUNX
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Artist:
Yesterday I started thinking about Racetraitor because I've been working on two different musical projects that are explicitly anti-whiteppl.
Maybe you've never heard of Racetraitor, but when I was in high school, I was tres moved by the urban legends about this band that filtered through the hardcore scene down into the hands of my wide-eyed friends and I. Pillsbury D James with the pierced labret pictured here was, it turns out, their drummer.Isn't that the guy from--Yep. But before we get to that, peep the description from Wikipedia, if you've never heard of Racetraitor:"Known for calling audience members 'crackers' and for espousing radical beliefs influenced by black nationalism, third worldism and other anti-colonial ideologies (and for some members, eventually, Islam). Their lyrical content revolved around issues of privilege, Western dominance of the Third World and inequalities in globalization. Additionally the band addressed issues pertaining to constructions of sexuality in America, corporate dominance of economic and public life, veganism and the straight edge lifestyle. The name Racetraitor was in reference to using one's social and economic privilege to create a more egalitarian world. The band's message also held that "race" was an artificial and constructed human category."The only urban legend I can specifically remember was when Guy Blakelee came back from playing some NC hc-fest or whathaveyou where one of his other bands played before Racetraitor. Guy said that they hit the stage and started accusing everybody in the audience of being racist imperialists. "What'd you eat today???" the singer or whathaveyou asked some little doofus in the audience. "Some fries?" he answered, unsure.And then the dude from Racetraitor yelled some stuff at him, hilarious stuff about kids in Africa and starvation and the food industry, but I don't remember any of that part. I just remember, "Some fries?" as becoming my stock answer to odd questions for at least a week or two afterwards.Anyway, so yeah, this guy plays drums in a popular band that's made a fortune filing hardcore tropes down to toys safe enough for capitalism's teenage cadets to play with. From PDJ's own wikipedia entry: "Hurley has somewhat extreme views on politics, and believes that someday civilization will collapse. When confronted about this in the February 2007 issue of Rolling Stone, he claimed that his career contradicted his beliefs, but at the same time, he had to make a living."Please set aside the fact that the second half of that sentence does nothing to mitigate the contradiction mentioned in the first. I don't care about contradiction-- I *LOVE* contradiction, obviously. Consistency is almost always my enemy.AND I'm ALL for a celebratory attitude about the coming (cue the first side of the Ziggy Stardust LP) collapse, and by that I mean I pretty much think trying to plug the holes in this sinking ship is a fool's errand, and that one's time is better spent on personal sexual, psychological, and spiritual development than wasting time at the carnival game called politics (Play til you win! Everyone walks away with a prize!)--All that said, if you EVER see a Scion or any other brand of automobile prominently featured on my band's tour poster, I want you to find me in the parking lot and throw acid on my face. It's not about hypocrisy, it's not about integrity, it's not about values or any of that shit. It's about lobotomies. The drummer of Racetraitor was obviously abducted at some point and either lobotomized or otherwise reprogrammed before being set back into the world with some drool on his chin and a list of valuable music biz contacts in his pocket. Perhaps a pre-emptive strike against a trend of anti-whiteppl hardcore acts, perhaps just Hiram and his people's notoriously cruel sense of humor at work-- either way, their interference in this case is obvious.Look at his eyes again:Eyes of a golem. No light. How many other of these Wonka-brand bands are made up of punkers who have been secretly reprogrammed in the bowels of a Grand lodge? Please forward any tips you might have about other golems to my Mogmailbox and I will investigate further.
Maybe you've never heard of Racetraitor, but when I was in high school, I was tres moved by the urban legends about this band that filtered through the hardcore scene down into the hands of my wide-eyed friends and I. Pillsbury D James with the pierced labret pictured here was, it turns out, their drummer.Isn't that the guy from--Yep. But before we get to that, peep the description from Wikipedia, if you've never heard of Racetraitor:"Known for calling audience members 'crackers' and for espousing radical beliefs influenced by black nationalism, third worldism and other anti-colonial ideologies (and for some members, eventually, Islam). Their lyrical content revolved around issues of privilege, Western dominance of the Third World and inequalities in globalization. Additionally the band addressed issues pertaining to constructions of sexuality in America, corporate dominance of economic and public life, veganism and the straight edge lifestyle. The name Racetraitor was in reference to using one's social and economic privilege to create a more egalitarian world. The band's message also held that "race" was an artificial and constructed human category."The only urban legend I can specifically remember was when Guy Blakelee came back from playing some NC hc-fest or whathaveyou where one of his other bands played before Racetraitor. Guy said that they hit the stage and started accusing everybody in the audience of being racist imperialists. "What'd you eat today???" the singer or whathaveyou asked some little doofus in the audience. "Some fries?" he answered, unsure.And then the dude from Racetraitor yelled some stuff at him, hilarious stuff about kids in Africa and starvation and the food industry, but I don't remember any of that part. I just remember, "Some fries?" as becoming my stock answer to odd questions for at least a week or two afterwards.Anyway, so yeah, this guy plays drums in a popular band that's made a fortune filing hardcore tropes down to toys safe enough for capitalism's teenage cadets to play with. From PDJ's own wikipedia entry: "Hurley has somewhat extreme views on politics, and believes that someday civilization will collapse. When confronted about this in the February 2007 issue of Rolling Stone, he claimed that his career contradicted his beliefs, but at the same time, he had to make a living."Please set aside the fact that the second half of that sentence does nothing to mitigate the contradiction mentioned in the first. I don't care about contradiction-- I *LOVE* contradiction, obviously. Consistency is almost always my enemy.AND I'm ALL for a celebratory attitude about the coming (cue the first side of the Ziggy Stardust LP) collapse, and by that I mean I pretty much think trying to plug the holes in this sinking ship is a fool's errand, and that one's time is better spent on personal sexual, psychological, and spiritual development than wasting time at the carnival game called politics (Play til you win! Everyone walks away with a prize!)--All that said, if you EVER see a Scion or any other brand of automobile prominently featured on my band's tour poster, I want you to find me in the parking lot and throw acid on my face. It's not about hypocrisy, it's not about integrity, it's not about values or any of that shit. It's about lobotomies. The drummer of Racetraitor was obviously abducted at some point and either lobotomized or otherwise reprogrammed before being set back into the world with some drool on his chin and a list of valuable music biz contacts in his pocket. Perhaps a pre-emptive strike against a trend of anti-whiteppl hardcore acts, perhaps just Hiram and his people's notoriously cruel sense of humor at work-- either way, their interference in this case is obvious.Look at his eyes again:Eyes of a golem. No light. How many other of these Wonka-brand bands are made up of punkers who have been secretly reprogrammed in the bowels of a Grand lodge? Please forward any tips you might have about other golems to my Mogmailbox and I will investigate further.
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