DON VAN VLIET

When I was in the 5th grade my interest in heavy metal was starting to wane. I began listening to classic rock radio and soon found a record store in the neighboring town that carried vinyl. Around that time I visited my aunt who lived in Queens. One evening while flipping through the channels on her tv, I settled on watching an old episode of Saturday Night Live featuring musical guest Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band. The next few minutes would have a lasting impact on me and the way I thought about music. After that weekend I returned to the record store to ask if they had heard of this man and his band. I ended up buying a copy of Trout Mask Replica and like most people, forced myself to believe I liked this music.  Later, in my late teens I bought a copy of Safe As Milk and it took months or maybe a year until it went out of regular rotation.

SMALL FORTUNE: PETER'S HOUSE MUSIC REMIX

Peter made a phreshhh remix of Small Fortune. The original will be on our new record.

 SmallFortune PHMremix by silkflowers 

SANTA'S MAIL BAG

Richard Dawkins reads his holiday mail.

1990, again

In 1990, a lawyer sued the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), claiming that a $15,000 grant given to the artist David Wojnarowicz for the exhibition "Tongues of Flame" displayed "open and notorious hostility toward religion." Much of the work in the exhibition demonstrated outrage at the silence of the government and religious right and their inaction regarding the AIDS crisis. I don't want to get into "the open and notorious hostility" toward victims of AIDS or gay people in general, in particular during the first decade of the crisis, but I do think it's worth remembering that in 1990 it was illegal for HIV positive people to travel to the US, Reagan was advising mandatory HIV testing and quarantine, and nearly half the American population believed that "AIDS might be God's punishment for immoral sexual behavior."
In the past 20 years, it's important to note that a lot of progress has been made regarding HIV/AIDS (for example, as of 2007, only a quarter of the American population believes that AIDS is God's punishment), so it's a bitter surprise to hear that David Wojnarowicz's video "Fire in My Belly" (1987) has been pulled from the current exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian in Washington D.C. The reason? The Catholic League has complained that the video was "designed to insult and inflict injury and assault the sensibilities of Christians."
Blake Golpnik wrote an excellent summary and response to this action for the Washington Post. I haven't yet seen any organized response to the censorship, although I have written an email to the National Portrait Gallery Director Martin Sullivan. As of 2009, an estimated 35 million people are living with HIV, and nearly a quarter of HIV/AIDS care is provided by Catholic ministries. A lot of progress has been made since Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell's hate mongering (at least with regards to AIDS)--hopefully this bullying is a misstep, rather than a indicator of things to come.

PS Former Ghosts was amazing last night!

New single, Band of Color, off our new record on PPM, Ltd. Form. Out February 8th.

 

THE COURSE OF EMPIRE

        

GUILTY PLEASURES: WE'VE ALL GOT 'EM

JUDGE- Like You

I think I'd have to consult NASA to get an accurate idea of how many times I listened to this song in my adolescents. The thing I find most appealing about it is that, unlike most other straight edge hardcore songs,  there's not a lot of blame here. He's seeing something he dislikes in himself in someone else. That's pretty honest. Especially in their world.

Judge is an interesting band to me because they were older and came around after the hey day of New York hardcore. Mike Judge (the singer) was playing in bands during the early 80's and this band didn't really fully form until 1989ish. Plus, you just don't see a lot of guys with beards and dew rags in that scene in general. He was trying to do something more personal and emotive but, they split up when their shows became so violent that they felt their audience was really missing the point.

Fun Fact: Mike Judge was from a neighboring town where I grew up in NJ. He worked at this arcade that was converted from a church (there's a cemetery across the street) where kids from school used to have their birthday parties!