LA-Protest Nazi & Fascist Music Show

Fu said:
1. Do not censor.
2. The more attention you pay to these assholes, the more publicity you give them.

40spokes said:

Ditto.

Fu said:
1. Do not censor.
2. The more attention you pay to these assholes, the more publicity you give them.

CS: I don't want to offend you by mentioning this, but I've been curious for years. I used to read Sassy magazine when I was a teenager, and I still have the issue that you're in...
BR: No, you can mention that. This was about the time that I was visiting Charlie Manson in prison, and he was really fascinated by the skinhead movement, and he kind of wanted me to co-opt the skinhead movement and turn it into a Charlie Manson movement. I was good friends with that guy Bob Heick from the American Front; he was a really funny, smart guy. He'd just come into a party and turn everything topsy-turvy. I really liked him and I really liked all his friends. I was never really a member of the American Front. I called him up one day, and he said, "Hey Boyd, how would you like to be in a teenage fashion magazine for girls?" [laughter] I said, "That's great! What do I have to do?" He said, "We need as many cool-looking people as possible, so just dress up in a uniform, and come along, and you'll get free booze all evening and a free meal." I said, "THIS sounds like fun!" So I show up, and it was kind of sprinkling that night, and there were supposed to be about 20 other guys showing up. I was the only other person who showed up. So it was me and Bob, and this weird girl reporter and this weird older woman photographer. That picture [of a leering Boyd Rice and Bob Heick, brandishing their knives in a tavern] was the best one in the whole photo spread. [The photo ended up in a book] and it was the best photo in that book, so it was the one that was used as a publicity photo. It was blown up huge in The Los Angeles Times Book Review, in the Sunday edition, and it was just all over the country ... The article is mostly centered around Bob, because I kept steering it, bringing in Manson, and all these other things. This girl [Catherine Gysin, the Sassy writer] was really into William Butler Yeats, he was her favorite person on Earth, and I said, "Oh, did you know he was like an Irish fascist?" He was affiliated with the Blue Shirts, and he was into all this weird stuff that she had no fuckin' idea about. The girl had a real crisis of conscience, because we were both smart, funny guys, and she liked us. Bob was saying, "Admit it! This is the most fun you've had in a year!" She said, "Well, yeah."
CS: She even said it in the article.
BR: She couldn't get to sleep, and she had to take three showers. [pause] Everybody says, "If you had that to do over again, would you not do it?" Because that's just plagued me. Whenever somebody wants to ban me from playing someplace, they'll fax a photograph of that. I don't care. I don't think I ever made a wrong move. The bad stuff is just good. America loves its villains.

JD: We heard you guys were catching some shit out West, is that true?
BR: In Los Angeles, there was one guy who put an ad on the radio that said to come down and protest this show at the El Rey Theatre. It was this guy with five other people who didn't even know him; he couldn't evenget a friend of his to show up. Five people heard this on the radio; they had no idea who I was. And because of these five people, a thousand people got denied my show ... I've been prohibited from playing places before, but this is the first time I was physically there [and was told I couldn't even walk onstage and say "Hi, Mom"]. That's like somebody calling up and saying, "We understand Douglas Pearce might be homosexual. We're gonna have people down there protesting if you put on degenerates." The guy would've said, "Fuck you people." If it had been anything else - "I understand there might be a Jewish person in the band" - would they say, "You can't go on, people are protesting the fact that you're Jewish"? ... These people don't know what I think, they won't even come up and ask me what I think. But in the worst case scenario, if I was a Jew-hating bastard from hell - so what? You're free to hate whoever you want or love whoever you want in the United States. It's nobody's fucking business but your own. I'm not some Jew-hating bastard from hell, but, you know - these people don't want to know the truth, because it's more fun to have a whipping boy, it gives them emotional satisfaction.

CS: On a lighter subject, we also hear that you collect Barbie dolls.
BR: Yeah, just because my cousins were all girls, and when I'd go over to their house to play, we'd play with Barbie dolls. This was in the early '60s. And I'd look at these dolls and think, "I can't wait to grow up and have a shot at something like this." [laughter] I grew up and the world changed on me. There aren't girls with big ponytails and flip hairdos. So that's kind of my own fetishism ... I actually met the real Barbie. The Mattel guy's children were named Barbie and Ken, and that's who he named the dolls after. I went to a video editing suite [and met the guy] and he said, "This is Barbie, who [the doll] is named after." I was so excited, and she was just embarrassed as hell, going through life named Barbie. Ironically, she kind of looked like Malibu Barbie, with blond hair and a really dark tan.

DIJ & Rice are not fascists. As pointed out, DIJ have been involved in spreading anti-rascist messages. Here's what I dug up in my own "2 minute" internet search: "..Despite their disillusionment with leftism and popular fronts, when Pearce and Wakeford formed a new band called Death In June (DIJ) their first gig was a benefit for Workers Against Racism (a cat's paw of the Revolutionary Communist Party) at Central London Polytechnic towards the end of 1981.." http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/dij.htm (The essay is actually not very pro-DIJ, but it serves to demistify the misunderstanding that they are fascists. The author's point is that they are ambigious simply to sell records. His point being that Douglas P is a right-wing/"individualist" anarchist.. not a belief I personally share but surely not enough for me to hop on the censorship bandwagon.) On the subject of Mr. Rice, he clearly claims to being a misanthropist. See, the guy just hates everybody. He has quite a history of pulling pranks to increase the air of confusion about him. (I highly recommend RE/Search's Pranks to anyone who wants a good laugh.. some inspiring material for any "culture jammers" as well..) What it really boils down to is I may not agree with all points of the artists' philosophy, but I do enjoy their music. Boyd Rice was extremly influential in the early industrial/noise scene and, as artists, I respect both him and DIJ. Please do a little (and by that I don't mean 2 minutes) research before jumping to conclusions. It's a real shame that these artists have been slandered. So much for freedom of speach.

PaulNikon said:
I know SG's have been kicked off the site for spreading nazi propoganda. So the site should be a good place for this.

In other works, bump.

Good Luck.

VM said:

Wowa, there was a Neo-Nazi SG??

VM said:

Wowa, there was a Neo-Nazi SG??

VM said:

Not to jump in on the nazi issue, but I was under the impression that Asians were also considered Arrayon (or however the hell you spell it) by the nazis, hence the alliance with Japan? The war with China wasn't to do with race at all, anymore than the war with Russia or England.

Notably I'm really not sure on this and am certinally not pro-nazi, I only passingly looked into it because after hearing so much about the nazi ideal and how utterly racist they were, how they could work togethor with Japan without wanting to stab each other the back over it.

Fu said:
1. Do not censor.
2. The more attention you pay to these assholes, the more publicity you give them.

googuse said:

No. There was never a "neo-nazi" SG and no one was kicked off for "spreading propaganda"

It's the grapevine game!

googuse said:

Quoted stuff is from Portland Indymedia

[Edited on Jun 26, 2004 by googuse]

smithers_jones said:

Please, DIJ identify with National Bolshevism, use Nazi and fascsist symbols and Art, and have a mysterious tendecy to play alongside all kinds of fascist and white power bands in Europe, including a benefit show for Yugoslavian fascists. There name comes from the infamous Nazi "Night of the Long Knives" and they are not being ironic or "postmodern". Boyd Rice is a long time Nazi and founder of the Nazi punk band American Front. Apologize all you want for them, but there is no doubt these people are fascists.

smithers_jones said:
When groups like this are free given free reign to organize it is a sign to them that there is no community opposition and makes it more likely that they will increase their activity and escalate the activities until they start hurting people.

Cash said:

Aren't they entitled to organize? You have the right to peacefully assemble as well...but doesn't this group share the same opportunity regardless of their message?

This reminds me of the time the KKK wanted to demonstrate at my college. They wanted to intimidate the newly appointed black, female college president. Obviously, the college denied their request. Since we were a state school, we couldn't legally refuse them access to the college. Eventually the college had to relent and let them assemble. The college booked them around 12 midnight...in the smallest room available. Nobody showed up to hear their racist shit.

VM said:
Not to jump in on the nazi issue, but I was under the impression that Asians were also considered Arrayon (or however the hell you spell it) by the nazis, hence the alliance with Japan? The war with China wasn't to do with race at all, anymore than the war with Russia or England.