Thank you for listening to our music. We have worked hard on this project with friends from all over the world. Without the aid of modern technology, a project like this would have taken years to complete waiting on our various countries’ postal services to ship tapes back and forth to one another. The speed and ease of cloud computing completely made this band possible. It allowed us to be creative together despite the onset of a crippling global pandemic and ensuing economic depression.

That same speed and ease has largely consolidated the marketplace around music into the hands of two or three large companies (Amazon, Google, and Apple), every platform we use (including this one) provides substantial income for these companies. Every stream we make further enriches people who have no interest in making art, this is simply naked commerce. It goes without saying that all of our computers, mobile phones and the servers on which the internet that connects them all depend on rare earth elements which has prolonged the war in Afghanistan and exacerbated conflicts in Africa and South America, and that is before we even get in to the labor practices that make all these cheap electronics accessible the world over.

It is useless to pretend there was ever a golden age where people cared about art more than commerce. For all their pretentions, even Dischord Records and Maximum Rock and Roll were dependent on major distributors in their heyday, which is why I could buy their collective oeuvres at the Barnes and Noble in Huntsville, Alabama as a child. It has never been easy to create truly independent music and by signing up for a platform like Bandcamp, we are relinquishing some of our independence. I have made a calculated decision that it is better to be on a platform like this to expand the scope of our audience and give more people than our immediate circle of friends a chance to hear this music.

It does not seem like there is much of an alternative to signing on with these platforms which monopolize the pipes of the Internet into a type of walled garden of which AOL could have only dreamt. Even bands who once shunned using the Internet at all like TRAGEDY are now a part of these platforms because this is how music listening habits have evolved. Most of us involved in this project have also personally contributed to this transformation by changing our listening habits to go with modern convenience. This letter not meant to accuse anyone, just point out the problem as it currently exists.

The conversation does not have to end here. There is still the possibility of creating a new alternative way of distributing music to the underground that does not solely depend on the very people we have spent our lives singing against. What does it mean when Crimethinc is on Apple/Google podcast apps? Why is CRASS on Spotify? Why do I have the option to buy a JOEY TAMPON AND THE TOXIC SHOCKS record on Amazon? There are a lot of smart people involved in underground counterculture, and we can think of an alternative to the current status quo. Maybe people are too tired to think about something new? Maybe our jobs are bogging us down too much that we cannot dedicate the time to create something outside of this mainstream ecosystem? I think we can make something new and I believe that many of us want to. Most artists are not happy with how their work has been devalued by businesspeople who have no interest in ever making any art. When will enough be enough?

Please download these songs directly onto whatever device you want. You will make a difference in not creating revenue for these streaming companies. All our songs are and will always be free. If you want to donate, we will give any money made to help free political prisoners around the world/pay cash bail in the United States. Feel free to make a tape with any of our songs and share them on peer to peer file sharing networks. Soulseek has long been one of the best places to find new DIY music and it still works. You can download a copy at www[dot]slsknet[dot]org.

Thank you for reading this long note. I hope you can destroy whatever system is oppressing you wherever you live.

(A)//(E)