PROPAGANDHI:
Remember last month when my fine feathered friend Mr. Todd Kowalski informed you that we had recorded a song for the upcoming "Rock Against Bush" comp coming out on Fat Wreck Chords? Yes, that's the one. You have an excellent memory.
Well, guess which band got booted from it because they refused to remove a pot-shot aimed at international billionaire, global financier, war-profiteer and all-around asswipe George Soros from their liner notes? No, it wasn't Good Charlotte. Good guess though. Try again.
That's right, it was us!
Next time someone comes knocking on our door hawking the virtues of joining a unified front against something, we'll be sure to ask them this: unity on whose terms? At what cost?
This message not brought to you by George Soros.
FROM FAT MIKE:
Hello everybody. Well this Propagandhi thing has gotten a little out of hand when there really is no issue. A lot of people seem to want an explanation, so here it is in detail. I asked Propagandhi to be on the Rock Against Bush comp and they agreed. They also made it clear that they didn't want to be censored and that their political views differ from ours. I said no problem and that I would be stoked to have a different viewpoint on the album (as long as it wasn't pro-Bush). So they send the song which happens to be a song off their last album, but with a different title. The lyrics are about how both political parties in the US are totally fucked and that it doesn't really matter which one wins because there will not be a significant change in the capitalist system anyway. Here they are:
Bullshit politicians. Bloated pin-dick motherfuckers. Bullshit politicians bow and curtsey to the seats of power. We'll never learn and nothing will ever change if we stay this course of followers and slaves. I can_t believe we're still content just reshuffling the same old deck of kings and queens and faux-democracies. I say we hand it back to the bullshit politicians. Free John Hinckley.
Okay, so this is really not the message that I am trying to convey because I believe that Democrats are a bit better than Republicans, and I think that Bush is fucking the world worse than anyone possibly could. But, I still want the song on the comp. So we get the liner notes from the band and at the end it says, "This message was not brought to you by George Soros". This is where the problem starts. George Soros is a Billionaire who got his money from exploiting the foreign currency exchange. He screwed a bunch of countries to make his money. It is also important to note that he is also a member of the Carlyle Group, which is a company that makes money from selling weapons. Okay, that sucks. Meanwhile he has been giving close to 500 million dollars annually to progressive causes and has founded a network of philanthropic organizations in over 50 nations throughout the planet. He is spending a good part of his fortune trying to get Bush out of office. Maybe he feels guilty or something, I don't know. The point is that he has given money not to us, but to many great organizations such as Moveon.org and America Coming Together, and these organizations help support us. I didn't want an anti-Soros message on the first Rock Against Bush comp, because I don't want to make enemies within our movement. I am trying to unite people not alienate them from each other. So I asked Chris from Propagandhi if he wouldn't mind taking that last Soros comment out of their liner notes. He said he wouldn't take anything out. I said okay, then asked if they would mind being on the Rock Against Bush vol. 2 comp instead of the first one, which will be coming out 3 months after the first one.
There were 3 reasons why I wanted them on the second one. First and most importantly, MoveOn.org is going to send a mass email to their 3 million members encouraging them to buy the comp. Letting them know that the more CDs we sell the first week, the more of an impact it will make on the music scene. If it's the number one independent record in the country, CNN and other news sources will report it. It will be a powerful message to Americans. MoveOn did this for the "Uncovered" DVD and it sold 40,000 more copies because of them. So I do not want to piss off MoveOn, not to mention that they are doing fucking amazing work. They are leading the online anti-Bush movement. Second reason; The first comp is a little Fat Wreck Chords bands heavy. There are already 8 fat bands on the comp. We had asked the Lawrence Arms to be on the second one too. They said okay. The 3rd reason was that the Propagandhi song wasn't new. It was an old song with a new title. I thought that this might piss a few people off.
So I ask Propagandhi to be on the second comp with all the lyrics intact and with the George Soros comment and everything. NO CENSORSHIP. Chris politely said no thanks. He said that the band has had cold feet about the comp from the beginning, that their politics don't mesh with ours, and that he doesn't want to be shuffled on to the 2nd comp. I was bummed, but I felt that our message of getting Bush out was more important than Propagandhi's anti-Soros message. There are no hard feelings between the band and I. Not only do I think they are the most important band in punk rock, but I feel that they are amazing people, and I am incredibly proud to put out their records.
There it is. The whole explanation. Sorry no drama, but it never was a big deal until it got all over the internet. Thanx for listening.
Sincerely,
Fat Mike | |
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