The Feederz
| Feederz | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Arizona, United States |
| Genres | Punk rock |
| Years active | 1980–1987, 2002–present |
| Labels | Anxiety Records, Placebo Records |
| Associated acts | Dead Kennedys |
Feederz are a punk rock band, originally from Arizona. They were known for their controversial song "Jesus" (aka "Jesus Entering from the Rear"), which was featured on Alternative Tentacles' infamous Let Them Eat Jellybeans compilation, and for their provocative album covers. Feederz had strong Situationist tendencies, verging into communism and anarchism. Their songs were highly critical of government, consumerism, and religion.
Lead singer Frank Discussion is also known for his "subvertisements" or "derailments", an adaptation of the situationist tactic of detournement, as well as what he calls "interventions" whereby one detourns physical events by intervening with an out-of-place element in the physical world, a tactic expressed as simply as placing disparate items in unsuspecting people's shopping carts, thereby raising the action beyond the level of mere prank to a conscious tactic used to undermine society and to express a unified critique of it. He is also known for being one of the developers of "antistasiology", defined as the comparative study of various types of tactics, strategies, and organizational structures used by various resistance movements, historically and currently.
History
Frank Discussion and Clear Bob (Dan Clark) formed Feederz in 1977. Art Nouveau (John Vivier) later joined as a drummer. Before performing publicly, Feederz issued a press release that the local media mistook as a terrorist communique. At their first show, Frank Discussion caused a panic by firing blanks from an AR-15 rifle into the audience. In 1980, the band released their first recording, the four-song EP Jesus.
In 1982, Frank Discussion wrote "Bored with School",[1] a diatribe against school and work posing as an announcement from the Arizona Department of Education, and distributed 5,000 copies to local high schools. He fled Arizona to escape arrest for this incident and settled in San Francisco.
In 1984, Discussion reformed Feederz with Mark Roderick and D.H. Peligro, with whom he recorded Ever Feel Like Killing Your Boss?. In Situationist style, the album sleeve was covered in sandpaper. In 1986, Teachers in Space was released with Jayed Scotti replacing Peligro on drums. Scotti, a partner of Winston Smith, created album art for bands such as the Dead Kennedys, MDC, and Crucifucks. The cover of Teachers in Space featured a photo of the Challenger disaster. Later in the decade, Discussion again disbanded Feederz, but by then their orbit of influence had expanded, for among their many fans was Kurt Cobain. A fan's post to the Nirvana newsgroup, alt.music.nirvana, revealed that Cobain had taken a bumper sticker from the Feederz' Teachers in Space LP and proudly stuck it on his all-black Fender Stratocaster, made famous at the 1991 Reading Festival (see Reading and Leeds Festivals) in England, where Nirvana performed with Sonic Youth. The sticker read, "Vandalism: As beautiful as a rock in a cop's face". In small type underneath were these words: "Courtesy of Feederz: Office of Anti-Public Relations". (This bumper sticker message would become the title of Feederz' comeback release more than a decade later.) Cobain's use of this guitar in the 1991: The Year Punk Broke film later that year indirectly lent even more exposure to Feederz (until Cobain smashed it into pieces at a Paris show the following spring).
Feederz reformed in 2002 and released Vandalism: Beautiful as a Rock in a Cop's Face, engineered by Jack Endino. This lineup included Ben Wah on drums and Denmark Vesey playing bass, both from Seattle. They toured throughout 2003. Frank Discussion and Ben Wah both relocated to Los Angeles in 2003-04, and continued the band, playing with bassist Brant Boling, until 2007, when they played their last show at Mondo-Video-A-Go-Go.
Discussion has been expanding on "antistasiology" (the study of resistance), which he helped develop in the early 2000s. He is also believed to be working on a movie titled Amor y Saqueo (Love and Looting), which he describes as a "charming tale of a young girl who finds happiness through wholesale destruction, theft, sabotage and, of course, looting." [2]
Discography
- Jesus EP (1980)
- Ever Feel Like Killing Your Boss? (1983)
- Teachers in Space (1986)
- Vandalism: Beautiful As a Rock in a Cop's Face (2002)
References
External links
- Feederz' official webpage
- "Sodomized Again!" comic by Frank Discussion
- An interview with Frank Discussion
- Interview by Alexander Laurence
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