“Fans at a recent right-wing extremist rock festival in Germany thought they were getting free T-shirts that reflected their nationalistic worldview. But after the garment’s first wash they discovered otherwise. The original image rinsed away to reveal a hidden message from an activist group.”
Exit Deutschland, a group that helps people get out of the neo-Nazi scene, made shirts that change when washed to reveal a different image. Participants were given these shirts at a right wing extremists rock festival sponsored by the right-wing extremist German NPD. The shirts had a skull and crossbone and said “Hardcore Rebels – National and Free”. When washed it said –
If your T-shirt can do it, so can you. We’ll help to free you from right-wing extremism – Exit Deutschland
Some commentators have criticised this tactic saying you won’t change people’s minds by changing their shirts. I disagree. Right-wing extremists will now fear cleansing clothing lest their shirt speaks its mind. Inevitably, the neo-Nazis will adjust and turn into loveable, stinky, feral hippies.
And for your information Exit Deutschland is not a Euthanasia organisation. In fact it was founded a decade ago by a criminologist and a former neo-Nazi leader. According to the group’s estimates, they have helped some 400 right-wing extremists to escape the scene.
26th July, 2011 outside the Federal Courthouse in Salt Lake City, Utah. 26 people arrested in support of Tim DeChristopher, Climate Activist.
This was the trial where Tim DeChristopher was sentenced to two years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. This was for his non-violent civil disobedience action in 2008 at the end of the Bush Administration. Tim disrupted a federal oil and gas auction of $1.8mil worth of leases which would have been mined for oil, gas and coal.
Before his sentencing, Tim noted the squalor of his childhood home state, West Virginia, where he said his mother worked through the legal channels to fight mountaintop-removal coal mining, but to no avail.
In good news, Mantle Mining has abandoned plans to explore for brown coal in South West Victoria after a campaign by residents. Yeew!
Lots of musicians have kids. All the famous old guys have kids: John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Elvis. But for a male musician it’s much easier – their female partner can hold/feed and soothe the baby during gigs. Or stay home with the baby. For a woman with a baby, you can’t just leave the baby at home and hit the road. Breastfeeding means you pretty much have to be with the baby 24 hours a day.
First gig with baby Griffin in tow
This means bringing your baby to gigs and having a pair of loving and trusted arms to hold the baby while you play (and if the father of the baby is in the band, it can’t be him!). It means breastfeeding just before you go on stage – and getting bandmates to set up the stage and maybe even soundcheck for you. Otherwise you might end up with the trauma of a hungry, crying baby up the back of the room mid set. It often means taking the baby outside while the music is playing if the levels are too loud for little ears. It means not having a drink with everyone after the show – and still being the most sleep deprived the next day. Being pregnant on the road was a breeze compared with having an 8 week old with us!
People find the sight of a new mother on stage a bit confronting – breastfeeding mothers are a strangely uncommon sight for many people. I was almost turned away by security at one gig, because they had never seen a baby at a venue before. Even shop assistants say things like “Wow! You’re brave leaving the house with such a tiny baby!”. I don’t bother telling them I’m on tour with a band and have a show that night.
But it’s also totally doable, and lots of other amazing women have done it. Ani DiFranco, Sarah Humphreys, Clare Bowditch, and the pioneer Maybelle Carter have all managed it. Taasha from The Audreys has just announced the birth of her baby boy – and a raft of gigs in a few months time.
We just survived our first mini tour with a baby. Late nights, 1200km, 5 gigs in 5 days combined with sub-zero temperatures made for some challenging moments. But the shows were good, baby Griffin was content and happy and our baby holders were amazing!
Much respect to all the other breastfeeding performers out there.
I hope you’re enjoying the queens b’day longweekend. Coinciding with this was two nights of the raw Australian punk, thrash, grindcore and heavy metal (and a touch of ska) over the weekend.
The event was called Decolonise II – diy punkfest held in the murky underground the inner west. Recently, I’ve been asking around to get some experience with sound and so I was helping a bit behind the desk, mostly just turning everything up to 11.Being involved with awesome bands like Thorax, Infinite Void, Kids on Glue and White Male Dumbinance(video) made me ask some questions about whether we have any right to call ourselves punk. The diy attitude, subversion and having fun while not taking yourself too seriously are things we have in common. At Midien there was a bunch of ‘scrn-prntng’ where you could print your favourite band name onto your hoodie. Also, there was a free stew going for the punks.
All of this along with not being out there to make money, not afraid to sing songs you love but think might challenge others and doing it for the love is what we have in common with this sound.
There is also a tradition in punk for activism and speaking out – bands like Dead Kennedys, Propaghandi and Black Flag don’t hold back. Neither do these great young Australian bands.
Decolonise II was the last gig for Do Not Resuscitate and Thylacine and they rocked the crowd. New bands like DOSS and Las Banditas are just firing up and definitely worth checking out. My fav band from last night was Steppin’ Razor (myspace).
Some of you in the big lurky family might already know (or have noticed) that I’m about five and a half months pregnant. From what I’ve found so far, there are two types of difficulties with being pregnant and travelling round being in a band:
1 – the actual physical and emotion constraints, and
2 – coping with other people’s judgmental comments.
One of the first things someone said to me when they found out I was pregnant was ‘oh you’ll have to stop doing gigs then’. This was astounding news to me. All I could say was ‘um, I disagree’. (This comes along with a litany of other unhelpful advice along the lines of: you’ll have to get a bigger house, sensible car and buy heaps of plastic crap).
5 months pregnant at Peats Ridge Festival: yes, that's lemonade
Why is it that when you announce you’re pregnant, people assume that you have to get a lobotomy and start living a suburban nightmare?
Admittedly, there are definitely some physical and emotional constraints that are very real and need to be factored in:
Oh wow, the exhaustion!
I had no idea I could feel so utterly utterly buggered. For the first couple of months, I would come home from work, sleep for a few hours, eat some tea then sleep for another ten hours. It felt like being on some kind of sedative 24/7. Feeling tired and crap for the first couple of month made rehearsals a bit unproductive. Also, Pretty Boy Floyd and the Weary Hobo have been doing most of the driving when I’ve been feeling so sleepy I could fall asleep any time, anywhere.
Morning sickness
Performing with morning sickness was a bit of a challenge. At a gig at The Shack in Narrabeen, I was dry wretching through the show which was a bit tough while trying to sing. Here’s a video of that show:
Crazy mood swings
I feel very lucky that there’s a lot of love and trust in The Lurkers and the Weary Hobo and Pretty Boy Floyd are extremely accommodating with my mood swings and unexplained tears. Playing music makes me feel so much better and usually the tears dry up after a song or two. A cuddle, some singing and not being treated like a freak are a pretty good cure for pregnancy mood swings.
Travelling
Actually travelling so far has been great. We toured to Melbourne and Adelaide when I was 11-13 weeks pregnant. I was feeling tired and sick for the first bit, but turned a corner about a week in. Being on the road was really great at that time – playing music and travelling with The Lurkers makes me feel good despite the weird hormones pumping through my body.
At the Switch off Hazelwood rally in Victoria (3 months pregnant)
Despite the travelling, it was much easier than being at work, where it’s not really appropriate to cry during meetings.
We’re planning to go back to Melbourne and also do another stint in the rehearsal studio in March, at which point I’ll be 7 months pregnant. We might need to take the driving slowly and plan in a few extra rest breaks than usual.
In our last recording session, the baby actually started kicking in time after listening to “I’m in love with a skinny man” for 90 minutes. I’m hoping that means it’s starting to recognise the music and will therefore feel safe and happy at gigs.
At Pirate Studios near Tathra (5 months pregnant)
Playing at Peats Ridge Festival was awesome, though the heat was full on. Your body is already hotter when you’re pregnant, and it definitely makes the heat harder to cope with. So the chai tent at 40 degrees on a summers afternoon did take it out of me. You can see in this video my hair is drenched cause I had to duck backstage and douse myself in a bottle of cold water halfway through the set.
Performing while very pregnant
This logistical challenge is still to come! My tummy is sticking out a bit, but I can still hold the banjo with no dramas, and I haven’t had any breathing troubles yet. We’ve got a song on an upcoming compilation of Eric Bogle songs, which is being launched at The National Folk Festival at easter – by when I’ll be eight and a half months pregnant. I’m hoping we’ll be there to perform at the launch, but we might just need to see how we’re faring then. There are so many changes in such a short time it’s really hard to know what it will be like.
Hibernation period (baby arrival time)
After the baby is born (due 8th May), we’ve put a line through all of May – no gigs and no pressure as we spend some time hibernating and showing a new little person around this amazing word of ours. But we’ll ease our way back in gently, with a show at Hornsby Folk Club in June, and then our album launch in August.
Lurking with a baby
We’re also contemplating a trip up the NSW north coast in October. We’ve put a window in the back seat of the Lurker van so we can bring this new little character on the road.
Also, before you ask, no – The Lurkers are not planning to become a kids band.
All offers of baby holding during gigs will be taken seriously and are very much appreciated.
Two weeks ago, I was one of the people who locked-on to a coal track in a protest against the building of a new coal-fired power station. I don’t break the law regularly. Don’t even have a speeding fine. Two days ago I sat on a coal track to stop the trains and refused police requests to move. Over the past seven years I have tried a variety of ways to participate in the growing climate change movement including:
changing my light globes and lobbying my parents ; )
local campaigning, lobbying and protest at Macquarie University and in the community with ASEN and Climate Action Newtown and at work,
national lobbying of politicians and corporations, campaigning and creative actions with AYCC,
international actions with Youth of the United Nations NGOs, and
making activist climate music with The Lurkers
It is important that there is variety in the way we address an issue like climate change because it is an issue unlike any faced by the globe. I sincerely believe that all of these actions listed above help in small and large ways and congratulate you if you are doing any of them. On the weekend I took the further and less common step.
I did this because I reflected on what is effective. I don’t have cash to donate. I do climate unfriendly stuff like drive a car. I work and have fun. When I looked at what needs to happen in our community to get traction and what I can offer, this action fitted the spot. If you want to know more about Bayswater check out this site. As the UN negotiations to respond to climate change continue past their sixteenth year our planet continues to heat up due to coal burning and other fossil fuels. As our leaders talk about the difficult decisions without acting, the time to act is here.
In Copenhagen last year young people were asked by Kumi Naidoo from Greenpeace International to give their lives to solve climate change. He asked us to act, not out of desperation or fear but to act out of love for the world. Climate camp at Bayswater was overflowing with this love.
So that Friday, I went along to Climate Camp in the Hunter Valley and on Sunday I participated in civil disobediance with 130 other people. They were people from the local area including indigenous people, local farmers and city folk like me. I locked-on to seven other people making it impossible to be moved by the police while causing no property damage.
I was hooked up with carabeenas and rope to my old friend Erland as well as four sixteen year old girls from northern NSW. We had a huge amount of support and care from friends and activists who gave us sunscreen, water and food. We sat in the beating sun and heavy rain singing, dancing, telling stories and playing music for seven hours. There was even a radical marching band!
Police took us away in the paddy van and we sat in the holding cell for a few hours chatting and were out by 10:00pm. The under-age protestors got a lecture from the police and were let off without any charge! My court date is set for 21st February, 2011. Me and Erland will be heading back up to Muswellbrook on that Monday and might be let off the charge of ‘tresspass and remain’ and ‘ locking on’ with a Section 10 if we can show we are of ‘good character’.
The action was a coordinated, peaceful demonstration of the community’s frustration about expansion of coal-fired power stations in NSW. It was successful and positive. I feel proud to have been involved, even as someone who was not brought up to be politically active. Climate change is something that I think we can beat if we act in substantial ways now and continue to. I have not written this to convince you to lock-on but to explain my story.
When we were locked on we sang a lot of songs. One song by David Rovics resonated with lots of people. Here are the lyrics and here is a video of David singing it for some people arrested in the Copenhagen demonstrations.
So much gratitude to the Climate Camp organisers for creating such a wonderful event.
I’ve been asked by lots of other musicians how we get by. They ask how we get gigs and how do people hear about us so I thought i’d offer you an insight into the murky lurker world and perhaps you can glean something. There are three parts: creativity, promotion and admin.
Creativity The most important part
Every month or so The Lurkers are part of a songwriting group. This means we meet up with people who write songs near us and share new stuff. It is often a productive space where you get genuine, critical feedback on songwriting. This process was inspired by Christina Olson at Summersong Music Camp.
We’ve started doing individual creativity stuff as well by allowing an hour or two a week to do something that inspires us. I’m really looking forward to visiting an exhibition called In The Balance: Art for a changing world. It doesn’t have to be musical inspiration but could be a stencil or a film – anything but you have to make the time to do it! In fact, a lot of our inspiration comes from activism
PromotionTime to put your soul out to the world
A lot of bands work hard on their music but don’t get it heard. Our promotion is done on the Internet (website, email list, facebook, this, twitter, myspace, reverbnation), playing unpaid gigs (not at pubs but for good causes, or supporting bands you like), sending our music to radio stations (2SER, fBi, 2RRR), and the lurker van! The Lurkers are active in the Australian Musicians Coop and artRiot. We also promote before gigs with posters and flyers. And it goes without saying that we use copious amounts of illicit drugs, cause trouble and sleep around as much as possible ; )
AdminSo boring and so important
A band is effectively a small business. Like most businesses, there is a fair bit of admin. Tax, updating email lists, organising tours, managing finances, APRA/AMCOS LPRs, printing posters. We’ve started a fortnightly catchup to do admin together for moral support called, of course, a lurking bee. It is important to spread the load around between the band members. Try to do the bits you are best at, but at the end of the day you are going to have to do stuff you don’t enjoy.
Being indie is so cool yes. and until someone comes along and offers to do the other stuff for us we will do it ourselves cos we love playing for you and making music.
The eternally inspiring Climate Action Newtown have been doorknocking around Newtown in the seat of Grayndler in the lead up to the federal election. Us Lurkers volunteered for a few afternoons knocking on doors and chatting with local people about what they think about climate change. The community consensus among people we spoke to was pretty clear:
76% of residents said that the Federal Government is not doing enough to tackle climate change
92% of people believe that Australia should develop a plan to move to 100% renewable energy
77% of residents believe that the government should stick to its 2007 election commitment to put a price on carbon and make polluters pay
83% residents believed that new energy in NSW should come from renewable sources rather than coal
73% of residents were more likely or much more likely to vote for a candidate committing to a price on carbon and significant investment in renewable energy
Ingrid from Climate Action Newtown made this awesome little video of the doorknocking. We’re proud that Ingrid chose our song ‘Got My Boots On‘ as the soundtrack.
The Lurkers are part of the artRiot collective, which is curating a multi-disciplinary exhibition and performance as part of the Sydney Fringe (10-26 Sept 2010).
We’re currently on the hunt for radical artists whose creativity is changing the world. Submissions are now open!
We are seeking art from Sydney-based artists that can change people’s lives and help to create radical social change for a better future.
Expressions of interest are now open for an interactive, multidisciplinary exhibition upstairs at the Annandale Hotel as part of the Sydney Fringe Festival.
artRiot is looking for radical works: the exhibition is not targeted at working families and it’s not a feel-good campaign. It’s about meaningful art that is honest, uncompromising and dangerous in a way that dares audiences to believe in a radically different world. Any art form is fair game: music, fashion, sculpture, photography, fashion, crafting, graffiti, tattooing, painting, poetry or any other form of creative expression.
We know that art can change the world – from Peter Dombrovski’s pivotal photograph of the Franklin River to the music at the heart of the struggle against the apartheid in South Africa. We’re asking contemporary Sydney artists to show how their art is creating radical social change.
Round one expressions of interest close May 31st. The exhibition will run at the Tap Gallery in Darlinghurst from the 20th September to the 3rd October. Submit your ideas here: http://artriot.org.au/eoi/
Punk bluegrass ratbags The Lurkers released their first album "Shoot to the Moon" in 2009. They spend much of their time travelling the country in a biodiesel powered yellow van, playing at festivals, parties and protests. Their second album is due for release in 2011.
Lurkerlust 