Punk rock is a genre of music that originally started off as a sub-culture, urging its listeners to go against the grain, always question the government, and stand up for what you believe in. Punk rock is also known to be quite liberal, and while there is the occasional band or musician who is a conservative (Dave Smalley of the bands Down By Law and ALL, for example), the rule generally stands true. Before I go further, donlt get me wrong: this is not a bad thing. Punk rock loses some credibility, however, when a band is taken off a compilation album because Fat Mike doesn't agree with a statement the band made regarding a certain well-known liberal.
Fat Mike's upcoming compilation entitled "Rock Against Bush" was originally going to include a song by the oft-offensive but thought provoking band Propaghandi. The band, which recorded a song called "Free John Hinckley", wanted to include a liner note insult aimed at philanthropist George Soros, who the band refers to as an ?international billionaire, global financier, war-profiteer and all-around asswipe. The comment went like this: "This November, be sure to exercise your right to vote for either the war-mongering, planet-raping, corporate-billionaire functionaries or the other war-mongering, planet-raping, corporate-billionaire functionaries!� Wake up for f*ck sakes.� The planet doesn't need another U.S. election.� It needs an American Revolution.� This message not brought to you by George Soros."
Why would Fat Mike become incensed over this? One would think that when someone bashes a "war-profiteer" the punk world would be all for it, after all, according to punk, war is never the answer. Not only that, Soros is also a billionaire, and as punk fans know, capitalism is bad. What gives?
According to a statement on www.punknews.org that Fat Mike released shortly after the incident occurred, "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."
Ah, now it is clear to me! As soon as a band on Fat Mike's label says something that the honcho doesn't agree with, all the tenets of punk rock go out the window! I thought punk was about individuality, standing up for your own beliefs, and questioning authority, corporations, and philanthropists like Soros. I personally own every NOFX album, and Fat Mike has sure exercised his opinions a lot over the years, but now since Propaghandi's view does not jive with Fat Mike's, the song gets yanked from the compilation. Imagine that - a musical scene based on flipping the finger to censorship now censors one of its own.
In the end, Fat Mike offered to include the song and the liner notes, uncensored, on the "Rock Against Bush Volume 2" compilation when that comes out, but Propaghandi respectfully declined. According to Propaghandi's website, "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?" I would personally like to thank Propaghandi for standing by their beliefs, and for not simply giving into Fat Mike's demands. Now if most punk rock fans could start thinking for themselves as Propaghandi does, and not eat up everything they are told by some band, maybe we could get somewhere.