There are some moments in history where not only do the ideologies of the old and pragmatism collide, the very origins of what the system stood for are tipped on its head in a reversal of morality and customs in such a significant shift that in one day it can be defined by a former antonym. This has recently taken form in the recent
Magrudergrind controversy, for those who have no clue what I am on about, fear not for I shall elaborate. Car Manufacturers
Scion being the North Americas arm of what is known as
Toyota for the rest of us, have funded a number of
Magrudergrind shows, which has allowed
Magrudergrind to perform these shows to their audiences for free, and more recently
Scion agreed to pay for all costs of recording & production of their new E.P
Crusher.
The backlash to this has been very venomous with people; metal heads and punks alike bringing up the old punk rhetorics of "DIY or Die!" and "Down with the Corporations" which although are gross simplifications of the arguments they serve well as summarising the general attitude, and one that is to be expected given Grindcore is a bastion of punk ideals. Now I have kudos for those who remain the
Punxs for Life, and have conviction with what they do, however I do not belong to this side of the camp, and the time has come for me to be drafted in the ranks of the reactionaries and defend
Magrudergrind.
Lets face the facts Punk is dead, not musically but ethically, there are small pockets of true punks here and there and once again I salute you, but many of those nowadays in my generation from experience are those who like the aura and allure of the scene but not the responsibility, a true and unrelated story is when I was on the bus once there were a number of punks sitting on the back of the bus talking shit about how unfair the world is, and when an old woman asked if she could sit down in one of their seats they told her that it was a free country and they were sat there first and therefore were going to stay sat there, only afterwards to continue talking about how unfair the world is and how it should be changed, talk about hypocrisy and ignorance. However coming back to the argument as I have illustrated ethically punk is near enough as good as dead, and for those who still promote its cause have neglected one of its more important ethics, the thou shall not work for the man nor cash in from him on page 2 of the unwritten Lex Punkus, we have
Henry Rollins whose done work for MTV, Johnny Rotten whose done
adverts for butter to name a few, so complaining that Grindcore has sold out based on a singular event is an exaggeration and perhaps you should pay attention to your own house before critiquing ours.
You could justifiably question the business practice of
Scion asking why on earth are they doing this, but to
critique the business practice and conduct of the band in a childish manner has really missed the whole point of it all, and bears no significance on anything remotely connected.
The worst argument which I have seen twice now, but only once in the application of this current scenario was that Grindcore should not only have no corporate element to it, but it should be a taboo subject so that it gains an underground notoriery. Possibly the single most ignorant thing I have heard in a long time, evidently the commenter whose identity and link I shall spare has never grasped the concept that merchandise, recording studios and record labels are all in themselves either corporations or corporate tools , the music industry is a business even with something as remote as Grindcore, luckily we have not reached the obscene levels of cash that have destroyed entire genres, but having subsistence level income has allowed bands to continue writing material and putting out there, as belonging to a label or having merchandise cushions the economic blow to releasing material, and allows you to continue doing so upping their game each time. And the whole fiasco of not speaking about is negated by the fact that you have a blog and on occasion talk about Grindcore!
In fact any criticism about this issue towards the band is completely unjust, the band have made the right decision, they write their music for their fans, and when they were by sheer luck offered to play for their fans for free, and have their latest EP released for free at non of their economic expense, they did the right choice and agreed. Grindcore may have been a lifestyle regulated in its lyrical ideals, but I belong in the side of the camp where to me its just music(and a addictive life consuming addiction), of which the lyrics take a poetic application (albeit a very grim and loud one) instead of a legislative role. I was pleased to see that of those who had slandered the band were quickly met with fierce counter arguments by a larger community, it would appear that those who don't care about the corporate friendship with our musical scene is much larger than I expected, either that or we are the more computer literate group.
I think its almost admirable that
Scion, are investing in a social project of a obscure and stigmatised music genre, the music kicks ass, and the production value can really be seen, but I shall leave that for my review, all that needs to reiterated is that
Magrudergrind made the right choice
, and that corporations can go hand in hand with our music.
If you want a copy you can download the digital
here or order it for free bar postage and packaging
here, enjoy.
