Crib Notes

Last night Brontez from the Bay Area band Gravy Train responded via Myspace to my earlier post about his “She’s Over It” column in Maximum Rock and Roll calling Jared Swilley of the Black Lips a racist. I don’t think he liked it. Be warned, it is long and full of objectionable language.

Subject: you gotta lot of nerve fat man……

Body:

its lucky for you that i can’t post this on your website so i guess ill just have to settle for you.

FUCK YOU. First of all the reason i didn’t initially respond to you email for a comment Mr. Radford is that i figured that you were friends with Jared and would defend his fucked up behavior AND I WAS RIGHT. My MAIN problem with this article is that it presents us as ALL hanging out telling racist jokes TOGETHER and THEN Funx got all hurt AND THAT IS NOT THE CASE. If you had read my article you would know that the reason we are upset is because Funx was the ONLY ONE UP when 5 white boys SHE DIDN’T KNOW (Jared included)verbally attacked her and said some serious racist shit. Even if i were to entertain the whole “they were just joking” explanation (which i fucking won’t) what gives five white boys the authority to “joke” like this with a Latina women they don’t know? thats scary and fucked up. I don’t give a fuck how many black people Jared is friends with or that he grew up in black churches (i grew up in black churches too bitch-so what?)It obviously didn’t teach him shit if he thinks it’s cool to behave like this. I didn’t even print to worst of what he said (i.e. shit like how he thinks the south should have won the Civil War-wow Jared did you learn that in black churches too?). Shame on you Mr Radford, what do you have invested in defending this fucked upness? You paint us in this article as humorless PC whiners-AS FUCKING IF. We aren’t humorless- we just don’t laugh at shit that ain’t funny. Five white boys (two who were there from the start of the night-Jared and some fat boy-and three that came out of nowhere) corner this lone girl, read her to filth, and you Radford think that this is perfectly fine and even go so far as to co-sign on this behavior in this article. The thing about racists is most are never going to admit to it. Duh. I grew up in Alabama and have seen it ALL honey. i even knew racists that had mixed race kids. These days it all plays out as some weird shadow game. If Jared had any character he would grab some balls and admit he did something fucked up and do the descent thing and at least apologize. Instead he opts to paint us as whiny PC’ers (you ever notice how people want to paint you as “sensitive” or “PC” when they want to be able to say/do fucked up shit to you?) who aren’t in on the “inside joke”. You don’t fool me NONE Jared. Just because you know some black people doesn’t mean you get to say fucked up shit about Mexicans ( black people don’t need an “ally” like you on our team). Funx is NOT some humorless girl and she clearly states everything she heard in that room as OVERTLY RACIST and NOT in a “jokeing” tone at all. You can hide behind your post-racist white liberal bullshit in the guise of “provocative humor” all you want but i got your card.This faggot ain’t havin it. In fact SHE’S OVER IT. I hate this whole “joking on the square” angle that saturates hipster circles where they say they’re joking but really theres some part underneath thats getting off on the fact that they’re saying fucked up shit to someone. sooooo slimy. Why don’t you admit to all your fans your view on things such as the Civil War/Palestine/Mexicans and MAKE SURE not to hold back (you SURE AS FUCK had alot of opinions on it that night.)Not that the soul-less hipster trash that saturates the scene would care or even remember for a month but it would be alot more honest than the shit your pulling now. as far as contacting you about Vice Records BULLSHIT. That was for the Younger Lovers NOT Gravy Train and thats before i knew about the level of dick you were and BESIDES i wouldn’t be apart of any team that would have you as a member. You think my article was childish? FUCK YOU. I think your behavior was childish and BRUTAL. YOU LEFT ME NO CHOICE BUT TO CLOWN YOU, LITTLE GIRL. You think my article was “15 years ago”? I think your world view is from last century. You wanna call my crew “sensitive”? We’ll i’ve made some conclusions about your crew myself: y’all are a bunch of fucked up white boys sittin down South defending each others fucked up behavior. Not that what your pulling doesn’t go down on the West Coast and EVERYWHERE but theres just something about it that stings even more to me. maybe cause i grew up in it. in the end its a hard job being completely right but its all i have to hold on to. feel free to email me, im not done bitching at you [Ed. note: email removed].
GET BENT,
Brontez

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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.

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