Gravy Train!!! vs. Jared Swilley of the Black Lips
September 30th, 2008 by Chad Radford in Music news
Update: Brontez responds here.
In the October issue of Maximum RocknRoll Brontez from the Bay Area multicultural Queercore/pop/Electroclash leftover whatever you want to call it band Gravy Train!!! writes a scathing installment of a column, called “She’s Over It” in which he points some pretty damning words at Jared Swilley from the Black Lips, painting him as a racist.
The column begins with a disclaimer, “TO ALL COLUMN READERS: I’M ABOUT TO TALK HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLA SHIT (be warned…)“
From there he begins the column with “Fuck Jarrod [sic.] from the Black Lips.”
In his column, Brontez tells a story about hanging out at B Jay Womack’s, which is known to the locals as “The War Room,” after Gravy Train played a show at The Drunken Unicorn a few months back. He goes on to include some pretty illicit details, such as “Everyone was popping shrooms” and “…doing shitty coke…” He also adds that he got cozy with a “hot hooker boy on the couch.”
From there he describes a party that sounds like a scene lifted straight out of Gummo. A tanning gun was being passed around and Brontez claims that Klan jokes, immigration jokes, and various racial and ethnic jokes were thrown about so flippantly that afterward one member of Gravy Train!!!, keyboard player/dancer FUNX (who is of both Jewish and Latino descent) felt so alienated that she cried afterward for not speaking up.
This is perhaps the best part of Brontez’s rant:
“My homegirl had to sit down in the other room and come down on shrooms and listen to those hipster redneck motherfuckers talk all of this insane pro-Klan shit about how ‘the Mexicans’ need to ‘quit complaining’ and pull themselves out of poverty like the Irish Catholics…”
Anyone who knows or has spent any time around the Black Lips, whatsoever, knows that they like to test the limits of acceptable social behavior, but racists they are not. Brontez’s account sounds like he was having a bad trip, and because of his admitted drug use, his story seems to be a bit suspect.
I caught up with Swilley on his cell phone at a golf course in Los Angeles. At first he was reluctant to even comment on the article, but after reading parts of it to him over the phone he opened up.
“It surprised me a lot to hear about it,” says Swilley. “I thought we were friends. We partied with them after the show in Atlanta, and it bums me out to be called out like that. The guy was making out with another guy on our couch all night and none of us were uptight about that. You know … I grew up going to all black churches, the guy who is producing/recording the next Black Lips record is black and our manager is gay. I don’t even remember what we were joking about that night and I don’t remember saying any of that stuff. The guy Brontez or whatever wasn’t even in the room! I think he’s majorly embellishing.
I mean … There are legitimate problems with racism in the world. It sucks that he’s calling out someone like me, who is the antithesis of a racist.”
Swilley added that a few months back Brontez approached him to try to help Gravy Train!!! hook up with Vice Records, an offshoot of Vice Magazine which is HELLLLLLLLLLLLA well known for not exactly being a bastion of political correctness. “If he doesn’t get that kind of humor, I don’t think he really thought that one through.”
Swilley’s Gaye Blades bandmate B Jay Womack (a.k.a. Bobby Ubangi) was there and recalls, “I remember eating a lot of mushrooms and everyone laughing a lot. There might have been a few off-color remarks made, but they were jokes! It was all done in fun and it’s really fucking childish that he wrote that column and it’s even shittier that they published it. It feels like something I would have read in Maximum RocknRoll like 15 years ago.”
Brontez was not available for comment at the time of this post.
Update
At 5:14 p.m. on Wed., Oct. 1, the night after publishing this post, Brontez returned my request for a comment via Myspace, which says “the only comment im willing to give is that i stand by everything i’ve written and i think jared owes a MAJOR public apology to Funx (my bandmate). thanks for reading my column!”
–brontez
Update: Brontez responds here.
Send to a friend:
October 1st, 2008 at 10:55 am
It only takes one queer, to make
a nation of queers.
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:48 am
Screw that Brontez chic. That is the most retarded shit I have read in forever. Black Lips rule!
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:11 am
I heard Jared tried to sleep with Brontez
October 3rd, 2008 at 12:41 pm
haha “that brontez chic”
she’s pretty fierce!
October 3rd, 2008 at 7:59 pm
yeah, that’s pretty funny (in a scratch your head kinda way). the last time i checked, i was still a black guy and the lips have only help my career for the past 8 plus years. racist indeed.
gravy train and maximum rock and rock can kiss my black ass!
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
because “they” “help a black guy” , jared can’t be racist?
HUH???
October 4th, 2008 at 3:23 am
Yea, really. Strom Thurmond fucked a black woman so he must not have been a racist either!
Look, I’m not calling anyone a racist unless I really know their views on things because I think the r-word gets used a little too easily sometimes.
Do Jared and the others have prejudices? Probably. Most of us do to some extent. But one person calling someone a racist and someone else saying it’s not true kinda misses the whole point. From what Chad wrote it is clear Jared and the others are guilty of being ignorant and inconsiderate. I’m willing to bet they would even agree with that.
Jared, however, took it a liitle too far (surprise surprise) when he claimed to be the “antithesis” of a racist. Would the antithesis of a racist wear a shirt with the confederate flag on it and the words “The South Will Rise Again”? Or how about jokingly calling other people nigger, nigga, nigz, and nig. I’m not saying lots of other people don’t do these things, but I don’t believe the antithesis of a racist would.
Readers should know Chad is friends with the Black Lips/Rob’s House/Die Slaughterhaus clique. It’s amazing that CL allows him to write about and review these bands. Although I’m not totally surprised based on what I’ve heard about CL’s editorial and hiring decisions over the years. I mean, what’s a little conflict of interest, so long as all reviews are positive?
And finally, please have Jared explain the non-racist/non-prejudiced/non-biased reasoning by the names of his bands: The Black Lips, The Spooks, and The Gaye Blades.
October 8th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
so are they racists or not??
October 9th, 2008 at 10:06 am
hey j.
yeah, you’re right, jared and the black lips are racist… however on the strength of that statement couldn’t one also assume that EVERY whiteboy that buys scandalous-ass urban music and recites every last “nigga, bitch and ho” in his bedroom and car but would never say those words around black folks are just as racist or sexist? my option is no on all the above.
i appreciate the out pouring of white guilt but don’t let that shit get in the way of your better judgment. a person’s actions define their character not their words.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:45 am
Mike,
I appreciate the fact that you, like me, think labels like racist and sexist are used too easily by many people. You’ll notice that I never decided to call Jared or the other band members racist. Most times an argument like this one comes up, one person says “you are (blank)” and the other person replies “no I’m not (blank)”. And this debate is no different. You, bigjoe, and others say Jared and the band aren’t racists because… (so and so anecdote about how they do this or that). I guess you hope that way the claims against the band members for their actual words and behavior are negated, and they won’t have to answer the accusations of making biased remarks. And for most people that will probably work. People will think “of course their not racists, they have black friends.” But for people that actually pay attention to all the facts, they will hear and see the band members own words and actions, and can judge for themselves. If you, Chad, bigjoe, the press, and their fans think the things I’ve previously written (which are all true) are okay, then that’s your choice. Most people don’t want to criticize people or things they like. And god forbid should a music journalist actually judge a musician’s behavior. So if the game is to rescue the Black Lips from being called racists, then you can probably rest satisfied because your work is done. However, for people that still care about holding others accountable for insensitive and inconsiderate words and actions, you have your work cut out for yourself with defending this band.
Jared and the boys want the appearance of danger and the freedom to be perpetual teenagers. Unfortunately for them, they also want to be rich, famous, and well-liked. I’m sure they kind of like being referred to as southern gentlemen by those in the press. Of course, the press is mostly unaware that the traditional southern gentlman usually loves a good nigger joke when not in mixed company.
I can guarentee you that my criticisms of Jared and the band are by no means a result of white guilt. For me, guilt implies responsibility, and I am in no way responsible for the band’s words and actions. You might want to talk with Jared and the guys next time you see them and ask them why they even question their own behavior sometimes. As mentioned in the comments in Chad’s follow-up post, the “Last of the White Niggers” album title has been floating around for a couple years, and according to Jared, he nixed using the name for their Vice debut because his father would have killed him. It’s interesting that Jared draws the line somewhere. As much as the band likes to be able to laugh off any criticism of themselves, even they know they can’t get away with everything. The band also fretted over the inclusion of the whoops and hollers in “Lock and Key”, and they even admitted that they didn’t want to be seen as racist.
Knowing all that gives me reason to think they aren’t racists. Although I’m positive there is lots of cognitive dissonance in the bunch. They have their prejudices, like we all do, and they get carried away like a lot of us, too. They are also 21st century American males, in that they want to extend their adolescence as long as possible. Jared’s been using the “blackout” and “I don’t remember” excuses for his party behavior for years. I’m sure it sucks to be called out like this, especially when he works so hard to be loveable for the fans and press.
In true “juvenile” fashion, this whole saga reminds me of when a classmate of mine in middle school was caught shoplifting. Afterwards he told me that he was never going to do that again. I said,”Shoplift?” He replied, “No. Get caught.”