From notes@igc.apc.org Fri Jul 1 08:18:29 1994 Received: from mail.igc.apc.org by fido.wps.com (8.6.5/wps.com-hackery) id BAA08441; Fri, 1 Jul 1994 01:18:28 -0700 Received: from igc.apc.org by mail.igc.apc.org with SMTP (8.6.9/Revision: 1.33 ) id BAA16953; Fri, 1 Jul 1994 01:17:18 -0700 Received: by igc.apc.org (8.6.9/Revision: 1.166 ) id BAA02936; Fri, 1 Jul 1994 01:08:25 -0700 Path: cdp!NFMail!pine.3.89.9406302323.a23528-0100!io.org!zodiac Reply-To: Conference "iww.news" From: zodiac@io.org Newsgroups: iww.news Date: 30 Jun 94 20:22 PDT Subject: Killdozer To: Recipients of conference "iww.news" Message-ID: <-352176536@pine.3.89.9406302323.a23528-0100> Sender: Conference to Mail Gateway Errors-To: support@igc.apc.org Precedence: bulk Lines: 189 X-Status: Status: OR From: Zodiac Thought this might of interest to some... There have been so few in-your-face lefty bands in the 90s. Buy Killdozer. :) Ken. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ eye WEEKLY June 30 1994 Toronto's arts newspaper ...free every Thursday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ KILLDOZER with Steel Pole Bath Tub and Grasshopper Tuesday, July 5. Sneaky Dee's, 431 College St. $10 (from Rotate This, Record Peddler), 368-5090. COMMIE ROCK -- KILLDOZER'S UNCOMPROMISING WAR ON WIMP ROCK AND WAL-MART by JASON ANDERSON As an officer of a somewhat confused German high command once said (at least according to Martin Rowson and Dr. Kevin Killane's Scenes From The Lives Of The Great Socialists), "The Kaiser's compliments, Herr Lenin, and here is your trained seal!" Glory be to comrades willing to have a chuckle at their own expense. Another example is Killdozer's current tour poster. The band's logo is displayed prominently above Lenin's portrait, and across the bottom, the type reads: "WE WILL BURY YOU." The image is not just Marxist chic -- like Rowson's hilarious cartoons, it's at once parodic and deeply felt, celebrating the struggle for socialism while taking the piss. And who better to take up the cause than Killdozer? After years of obsessing over the barbecue consumption of the white-trash proletariat, the band take it to the next level by embracing hardline communism, trumpeting its virtues all over their new album, Uncompromising War On Art Under The Dictatorship Of The Proletariat (Touch And Go). And however ridiculous this all sounds (or how funny the album is), it's not all for laughs. Formed by education students Michael Gerald and Dan and Billy Hobson in 1983 in Madison, Wisc., Killdozer have made some very smart and very silly albums. It's unfair to call their music "grunge" because it is much filthier. On albums like Intellectuals Are The Shoeshine Boys Of The Ruling Elite and 12 Point Buck, industrial-strength guitars slunked through knee-deep sludge as Gerald (sounding like the Cookie Monster, if it had a part in Deliverance) sang tributes to hamburger martyrs like serial killer Ed Gein, lupus victim Flannery O'Connor and filmmaker Irwin Allen. They developed, as they say, a cult audience. But in 1990, Killdozer did the unthinkable -- they entered the workforce. Three years later, Gerald and Dan Hobson shared a revelation: work sucks. Billy being reluctant to return to the fold, they drafted "the Greek Jimi Hendrix," Paul Zagoras, and restarted the revolution. On with the struggle. NEWS FROM THE FRONT When this interview took place, our comrades were in St. Augustine, Fla., interrupting their campaign only to visit the Tragedy In U.S. History Museum (the final resting home of the car in which actress Jayne Mansfield was decapitated and the ambulance Lee Harvey Oswald rode in after he was shot by Jack Ruby). As he expresses in "Working Hard Or Hardly Working?" Gerald recalls his time with the capitalists less than fondly. "I worked as an office temp and then became a permanent receptionist. I answered phone calls and I had to learn to be a lip reader. If someone called for someone in the office, that person would silently tell me to tell the caller he was in a meeting when he was actually standing in front of me drinking coffee... The worst thing about working there is that I had to listen to these people talk about how great NAFTA was." Gerald and Hobson explain that something happened to political discourse in rock since the Gang Of Four's Entertainment. Punks like Kurt Cobain internalized the struggle of the common man and woman, turned it into fodder for personal exorcism, but to what end? We all know the personal is the political but how does it extend beyond the angst toward actual progress for working people? Gerald questions the usefulness of devoting a career to bemoaning a "shitty family life." (In the words of periodic socialist Denis Leary, "Join the fucking club.") Says Hobson, "What I miss is bands like Gang Of Four and the Mekons because they could deal with politics but have a sense of humor and fun about it. "We're not making fun of these ideas even if we do sometimes have a satiric edge. We do believe in what we're saying and I don't think having some fun with it takes anything away from that. The idea that someone who's leftist is really dour and serious is so false. You'll find that the best people you meet do have these opinions and they're not these insufferable types you find on college campuses." NOTHING TO LOSE BUT THEIR CHAINS One must ask how many capitalists die on the new album. "Not as many in the songs as in the liner notes," says Gerald. Ah yes, the liner notes, there to enhance songs like "Knuckles The Dog (Who Helps People)" -- "the tale of two brave socialists, one a crippled boy and the other a dog" -- and "Grandma Smith Said A Curious Thing" -- in which "the workers justifiably kill the capitalist land owner." Killdozer also provide footnotes. Says Gerald, "We thought why not do this instead of just printing the lyrics? The footnotes are there for people who want to read more about what we're talking about. All of those books [including Rosa Luxemburg's Reform Or Revolution and Fidel Castro's Nothing Can Stop The Course Of History] are in the Chicago public library." Listening to Uncompromising War, it's hard not to mistake Killdozer's version of Marxism as, to an extent, completely ridiculous (besides, their music hasn't budged much further toward accessibility). But this doesn't mean their vision's not potent -- they present issues in an entertaining and enlightened way, with humor instead of sentimentality. The struggle, they insist, is real, and if you doubt this, consider the most pertinent song on Uncompromising War to Canadians, "Enemy Of The People," that enemy being Wal-Mart mogul Sam Walton. Does Killdozer have any advice for citizens of a country about to be squeezed dry by one of corporate America's most evil tentacles? "Yeah," says Dobson, "stop them! Just fuckin' do it. But Canada will be taken over by Wal-Mart. That's what's going to happen because that's where the power is going, to the big corporations. It has to reach a point where people just have to say no. It has to stop. So when the revolution comes, Killdozer will call the shots. Just kidding about that." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Subject: KILLDOZER SIDEBAR KILLDOZER SIDEBAR :Subject CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION by JASON ANDERSON Killdozer's new album features the band's second tribute to Black Oak Arkansas (the first, "I'm Not Lisa," is on 1986's Burl EP). What did this greasy '70s rock act contribute to the workers' revolution? Says drummer Dan Hobson, "Black Oak Arkansas didn't really contribute anything to the revolution. We just liked that song ['Hot N' Nasty'] so much we thought we'd stick it on the album. Black Oak Arkansas were really big for a year in the '70s... but you should never trust anybody from Arkansas." On the B-side of Killdozer's latest single, "The Pig Was Cool" ("the story of one young idealist's fantasy of a socialist utopia, where the police are helpful and considerate of their fellow citizens"), there is a cover of EMF's "Unbelievable." What have these hedonistic young Englishmen contributed to the revolution? "Well," says Hobson, "not everything we do has to contribute to the revolution. That was Michael's [singer Michael Gerald] comment on a song that he had to hear every day at work." And what of Poseidon Adventure auteur Irwin Allen (subject of 12 Point Buck's "Man Vs. Nature")? "Irwin Allen just made great movies, many of them starring the late great O.J. Simpson." Among those listed in Killdozer's recent "Worst Enemies Of The People" manifesto are Oliver North, Boris Yeltsin, Lee Iacocca, Rush Limbaugh and "mealy-mouthed corporate suck-ups, the United States Congress." Long live the revolution. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Retransmit freely in cyberspace Author holds standard copyright Full issue of eye available in archive ==> gopher.io.org or ftp.io.org eye@io.org "Break the Gutenberg Lock..." 416-971-8421 From notes@igc.apc.org Thu Jul 28 03:02:17 1994 Received: from mail.igc.apc.org by fido.wps.com (8.6.5/wps.com-hackery) id UAA19494; Wed, 27 Jul 1994 20:02:16 -0700 Received: from igc.apc.org by mail.igc.apc.org with SMTP (8.6.9/Revision: 1.36 ) id UAA09302; Wed, 27 Jul 1994 20:01:16 -0700 Received: by igc.apc.org (8.6.9/Revision: 1.169 ) id TAA00645; Wed, 27 Jul 1994 19:38:56 -0700 Path: cdp!NFMail!pine.3.89.9407272045.a4692-01000!io.org!zodiac Reply-To: Conference "iww.news" From: zodiac@io.org Newsgroups: iww.news Date: 27 Jul 94 17:25 PDT Subject: Music and Revolution To: Recipients of conference "iww.news" Message-ID: <-565554292@pine.3.89.9407272045.a4692-01000> Sender: Conference to Mail Gateway Errors-To: support@igc.apc.org Precedence: bulk Lines: 83 X-Status: Status: OR From: Zodiac You have to hear the band Killdozer to get the atonal grit-dirt-rock effect of the lyrics that follow... so buy their latest CD called _Uncompromising War On Art Under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat_. In the meantime, I enjoy this fine piece of modern _folk_ poetry. :) (And punk-snarl was just folk taken a step-higher -- Dylan was aufhebunged by Johnny Rotten.) Personally, I consider bands like Killdozer important. Yes, you've probably never heard of them, but then you probably never heard of the Wobblies until late in your existence. The left has relinguished the youth music market. Most potentially-radical youth don't give a fuck about "give peace a chance" folk-rock, they are angry and need a form of music which expresses that. Here in Ontario, we have something called the Heritage Front -- which is related to the Church of the Creator, and other racist-right groups. They understand the tactic. The one-time leader of the Toronto chapter of the Church (George Burdi, 24) formed a band (called RaHoWa -- Racial Holy War) which is on Resistance Records -- a racist-right label. This band attracted hundreds of local followers, and rallies were indistinguishable from concerts. In the late 60s and early 70s, the radical left used angry music to express ideas in a format attractive to youth (who have enough fucking problems without worrying about Zero Tolerance in universities or if Trotsky and Stalin could have been pals). Killdozer, while completely hilarious and tongue-in-cheek, are constantly _harping on politics_ while talking about personal realities -- and laughing at media stereotypes, left and right. WORKING HARD -- OR HARDLY WORKING? by Killdozer I work hard on Monday; And I work harder still on Tuesday; And I hustled my ass around the shop on Wednesday; And I worked like a slave on Thursday; And I put my nose to the grind stone to get the job done on Friday; Then I partied hard all weekend! I got fucking wrecked all weekend! I fucking partied hardy all weekend! And the weekend was over... And I was back at work again on Monday; And I worked like an ox on Tuesday; Then I bent over backwards to make my boss see just how hard I work on Wednesday; Then I worked four hours of overtime without getting paid for it on Thursday; Then I worked right through my lunch hour on Friday; Then I partied hardy all weekend! I got fucking blitzed all weekend! I was totally bombed out of my head all weekend! Then I went back to work on Monday; And I worked like I never worked before on Tuesday; And I worked so hard that I split the seam of my pants on Wednesday; And I had to lift 100 lbs boxes becoz the forklift was broke down on Thursday; But then I started my weekend early on Friday; It was a three-day weekend! Becoz it was a three-day weekend! Yes, I had three days to get fucked up all weekend! I got totally shitfaced all three days last weekend! I got fucked tanked all weekend! I got blitzed all three fucking days last weekend! I got totally fried last weekend! I was shit fucking faced out of my fucking head all of three days last weekend! ... last weekend. Ken. -- "Don't HATE the media... | K.K.Campbell beCOME the media!" --*-- - J. Biafra | . . . . cum grano salis