Tales From The Drop Box - Better Than Radio

I was almost emotional watching the moms and dads in Portland intercede between the criminal government agents and the demonstrators in the on-going public discussion about race in America. I never thought I would ever see the day that the federal government would use a secretive unmarked paramilitary force to kidnap citizens off city streets and use an unlawful level of violence against demonstrators all to, arguably, protect against vandalism of federal monuments erected as a reminder, in some instances, of our country’s oppressive and racist past and the ongoing struggle for equality by the disenfranchised because of race, gender, disability, and privilege. Wow, that was a long sentence. Here is the short version – the Trump administration’s actions violate the constitutional rights of peaceful and lawful protestors. No one is condoning vandalism, violence or anarchy. I am not an anarchist. Anarchy only exists in my mind. What is being missed in the Fox masquerading as “news” opinion network’s daily screed is that the government represents the majority of the people i.e. we apparently elected our representatives. When the majority represented by government agents interferes with the peaceful minority’s right to disagree with the majority, this interference is the first step towards the majority repressing minority viewpoints. That action, is tyranny.

José Ortega y Gasset in “The Revolt of the Masses” (1930) recognized the issue of the mass mind:

As they say in the United States: “to be different is to be indecent.” The mass crushes beneath it everything that is different, everything that is excellent, individual, qualified and select. Anybody who is not like everybody, who does not think like everybody, runs the risk of being eliminated. And it is clear, of course, that this “everybody” is not “everybody.” “Everybody” was normally the complex unity of the mass and the divergent, specialized minorities. Nowadays, “everybody” is the mass alone. Here we have the formidable fact of our times, described without any concealment of the brutality of its features.— Chapter 1, “The Coming of the Masses”

The Fascist and Syndicalist species were characterized by the first appearance of a type of man who “did not care to give reasons or even to be right”, but who was simply resolved to impose his opinions. That was the novelty: the right not to be right, not to be reasonable: “the reason of unreason.”— Chapter 8, “Why the Masses Intervene in Everything and Why They Always Intervene Violently”

Sound familiar?

Finally, in case you haven’t heard, Burger Records is no longer a record label and Lollipop records is also in the middle of a reckoning. Both labels are accused of participation in rape culture and support of artists who have engaged in abhorrent behavior with and towards young female fans and scene followers. Please support those brave individuals who were have come forward and expose the truly dark side of Los Angeles’s garage rock/indie scene.

I should also shout out Globelamp aka Elizabeth LeFey, who has tried for several years to have her voice heard regarding her time with Foxygen and now seems to be finding support in the indie community.

For details on what is transpiring in the Los Angles indie rock scene and so you can form your opinion as to what has happened, what is currently transpiring, the bands, record labels, and music festivals involved and, more importantly, the young women and their treatment, follow these IG accounts:

1. @globelamp
2. @lured_by_burger_records
3. @lured_by_lolipop_records

Here is what you will find in Episode 169:

1. Whispertown – “Born To Ride” (I’m A Man)
2. Affidavit – “The Truth” (Abducted)
3. The Tissues – “Blind Beast” (Blue Film)
4. Space Age Playboys – “Rocket Girl” (New Rock Underground)
5. Viagra Boys – “Lick The Bag” (Common Sense EP)
6. Varsity – “Heaven Sent” (Fine Forever)
7. Starflyer 59 – “Miami” (Miami)
8. The Head & The Heart – “Sun Is Rising” (Living Mirage: The Complete Recordings)
9. SiM – “Black & White” ( Thank God, There Are Hundreds Of Ways To Kill Enemies)
10. The Destructos – “The Sight” (Blast!)
11. The Detectors – “The Decline” (Ideology)
12. Swampmeat Family Band – “Friends In The Floor” (Muck)
13. Hanni El Khatib – “Alive” (Flight)
14. The Outcasts – “Sex And Glory” (BBC Radio 1 John Peel Session, 29 September 1982 (1982-85)
15. Blushh – “Make It Better” (RIP Apathy)

We’re sittin’ ’round on the couch we were makin’ words with our mouths we had a pile of junk that’s already runnin’ out . . . I can’t believe I survived! It’s all around and upside down. I’m alive! How can this be true?

KFR