Dispatches from the Underground

Erin Hughes and Al Ghostcat are back! This episode we try to get underneath a topic that has been floating around the mainstream new a lot lately, democracy. There has been a lot of discussion about the undermining of democracy in the US and other places in the last few years especially, so we took this episode to get far down below all the hoopla and see what exactly we democracy see is to us today.

Joey callously talks a ton of shit about this beloved philosophy / institution and Erin and Al have the objectionable task of sifting through all that shit to get to some productive perspectives. But they do a healthy amount of shit talking too.

There are some real thoughtful parts to this episode, and some truly offensive parts for the looking for that as well. Whatever you hold dear in the realm of American institutions prob gets a good dusting up on this one. As this as one of the topics Joey has been wanting to dig deep into for some time, and needed to get to before we wrapped up this podcast. This week we dump on democracy.

Plus we listen to some brand new tunes from Escape from the Zoo, C.A.M.P.S., and Askeados.

GET DOWN.

Erin Hughes and Al Ghostcat get down this week to talk with Joey about misogyny in punk. It’s great that people are paying attention to the gross man shit that has been happening in society at large as well as our corner of it in the punk community. Calling this gross-man-behavior out is the first step to changing these offenders, changing ourselves, and changing our world. 

Talking about misogynistic behavior in the abstract can be confusing and diffuse. So today we confront a recent incident involving the punk band Stolen Wheelchairs and their troubling, misogynistic behavior. There are endless other examples we could have discussed, this one was the most recent we were aware of, so we used that as a vehicle to get under this overwhelming issue. 

One of the most wonderful and challenging realities of the culture we have today is that the misdeeds of culture creators surface. We are able to judge the art and the artist together. We are able to use this information to shape and protect our communities, however we often don’t have any personal connection to the situation we are judging. Far from the people involved we struggle to understand every facet of the complicated situation and come down with a clear verdict in our hearts. So instead of talking to the people involved in the situation we try to get under the issues from a distance, like so many of us need to in these situations where none of us have personal ties to the story. We talk about the admitted behaviors they participated in, the complexity of our distance from the situation, and their entirely inept response to a deeply wrong and misogynistic act. 

We also talk a ton of shit. 

AND we listen to tunes from Starving Wolves, Kārtël, Cop/Out, and Sick Pay.

On this episode we try to untangle all the BACKWARD ass coverage of this 9/11: 20th anniversary memorial. We try yo get underneath all the endless bullshit people are telling themselves about who they were 20 years ago and the weird myth shit that was flying around all the media coverage of this day and how it has been used. Also…we talk a ton of shit! 

This is DEFINITELY NOT your normal 9/11 coverage. We don't lament any deaths except for who were murdered using the guise of that fateful day in 2001. But we also don't spin any conspiracy shit, so we walking a thin line. See if we hold up. 

plus we listen to tunes from Crazy & the Brains, Bridge City Sinners, Sorry Mom, and Cop/Out. 

On the first part of this episode, Joey talks about the challenges facing the community as the world opens up again and the opportunities we have to redefine what it means to truly be together again. Whether it be in punk communities or others, we have a unique opportunity to reflect on who we want to be and intentionally reorganize ourselves to be that, together.

On the second part of the episode we look at the relationship between mass movements and elections. As we have gone from a summer of MASS protests only a year ago which clearly declared Black Lives Matter and demanded justice and accountability from the police to this summer where the streets are quiet of any major protests but filled with discussion of Biden’s plans and at least in NYC talk of the future (likely) police officer mayor of NYC. We look at some possible reasons for this change and talk some trash in the process.

Plus we listen to some tunes from La Armada, All Torn Up!, and Rebelmatic.

Pansy is back this week, this time talking about punk shit. We talk about the best and worst of the culture we love. We talk about what attracted us here and why we still revel in this gutter today. We also talk about the elitist gate-keepers and backward shits who make us doubt our affinity. We talk about being drawn to the provocative and confrontational elements but also being frustrated by the inability of punk to grow and break with some basic ass elements it continues to cling to. This episode is a lil longer because we we talk a TON of shit about the state of punk today and the place we would like to take it to as well, but I can’t stress enough the amount of shit talking we do in this episode. We really outdid ourselves here. We go there time after time. Strap yourself in, this one gets bumpy.

PLUS we listen to tunes from Penny Dreadfuls, Pansy, Mandy and Cop/Out.

Jehiel Winters from NYC’s Winter Wolf gets down to talk about the right-wing riot that invaded the Capitol on on Jan. 6th. We work past the mainstream media’s superficial analysis on this riot as an attack on democracy at large and go deeper to look at the white supremacist roots of this event. We talk about the Trumpian trajectory these fascists have been on for years, and how this minor racist rebellion will likely have major ripples in the days and years to come. On the second half of the show we discuss what all this shit means for us in our daily struggles for justice. We talk about the role the police played and also how we should see the fight to combat these right-wing extremists in relation to the struggle against systematic injustice by the police and the struggle for Black Lives. Don’t fret, we still manage to talk a ton of shit, get attacked multiple times by chickens, and properly explain how this Capitol riot in Gulliani’s Beyond the Thunderdome fantasy gone wild. PLUS we listen to tunes from The Clash, Maafa, Winter Wolf, and All Torn Up!

Al from Cop/Out, Trashy, and Leftover Crack and Kacie Kerrigan are back! We ring in the new year the only way we know how, talking shit and playing tunes. This episode we turn our sights to figuring out what is in store for us in 2021 but we don’t ignore the opportunity to take one last final dump on this dumpster fire of a year. We talk a ton of trash, sort through the things that need sorting through, find any kernels of goodness to carry with us into the next year, and make some extremely short sighted predictions about the fresh hell that awaits us next. It’s fun, but there is some feeble attempts to get some perspective in there too.

PLUS we listen to a bunch of 2020 tunes from Cop/Out, Days N Daze, All Torn Up!, and Pansy.

Al from Cop/Out, Trashy, and Leftover Crack and Kacie Kerrigan get down to start a two part discussion about just how rough this year has really been. On this episode we focus on trying to get a grip of our grief.

We like so many others have suffered debilitating losses in our community. Grieving all of our friends, families and community members who have passed away has been overwhelming. Not being able to get together has made this so much harder. So we talk about grief in a few different ways from weird social media posts to petty self reflections to socially distant commiserations and more.

Al, Kacie, and I all recently lost a dear, dear brother and friend here in NYC. Alec Baillie of Leftover Crack was someone we knew very well, toured with for years, and w personally were very close to. His passing has been absolutely heart breaking to us and so many more here.

We and so many others here in NYC and around the world loved Alec with our whole hearts. By no means do we try to fully explore all of the beauty and the complexity of Alec Baillie. He meant so much to so many people. We make an attempt to touch on some of that in this episode. But mainly we wanted to honor our friend in some small way and also we wanted to talk about our journey to mourn him in some functional way. Hopefully in talking about this here it can help some other people get some perspective on this painful topic.

We know this is a hard topic, so we also tell some dumb stories and talk a ton of shit, as usual. It’s not all sadness, there is some joy in the pain.

PLUS we listen to tunes from Trashy, Leftover Crack, Bad Cop/Bad Cop, and Broken Dead.

Justin, host of the New Monuments podcast, gets down this week to talk about his podcast and our relationship to this growing movement for racial justice. Justin talks to us about his recent reckoning to be more active in this monumental moment.

On the first part of the show we talk about whether OUR ideas are in fact changing or our world is changing. We discuss whether we should be confrontational or understanding in dealing with those changes in our ideas and/our our reality.

On the second part of the episode we talk about the challenges of organizing and what actions on our part would be commensurate with the times. We know Black Lives Matter, although we can all know this better, so we ask what can we DO to better understand this and live it. .

We are all coming into this moment from different perspectives, but it is exciting and exhilarating, and occasionally frustrating too, to see how ideas and actions clash as they do in this conversation on how to move forward together.

PLUS we listen to music from the newly released Shut It Down benefit compilation for The Movement for Black Lives with tunes from Minority Threat, The 1865, Thou, and Racetraitor. And we also play a shot from the past with Time Zone.

Is voting really in our interest?

There is almost zero critical discussion in the mainstream media or in any political realm about whether voting in this society is reasonable or beneficial to the people. So we sort this shit out ourselves.

We get neck deep into whether there is justice in the voting booth. Brilliant and talented musician Pansy joins us to give us a healthy, international perspective on the wild political reality we live in as we talk about elections and democracy under capitalism.

We confront our own biases, shoot holes in the mainstreams unconscious, and endless ignorance surrounding this issue, and explore questions of privilege and empowerment related to our present voting predicament. We try to take nothing and no one for granted. AND we have a ton of fun talking shit while breaking it all down.

PLUS we listen to music from Power Trip (R.I.P. Riley Gale), Body Count, and Pansy.