A mind is a terrible thing to waste, sir.
More liberals unhinged.
Liberal HATRED.
Posted on 12/10/2005 7:07:27 AM PST by raccoonradio
The Living Things might be the most controversial band you never heard of - yet.
Forget Green Day’s Bush-bashing, or Kanye West’s post-Katrina assault on the president. The Berlin brothers, who make up the core of Living Things, go much further.
They were arrested at the Republican National Convention.
Their show sometimes includes skits in which women wearing Bush and Cheney masks and dominatrix outfits simulate sex onstage.
Before each show they ritually set fire to a photo of the president before urinating on it.
These attention-getting efforts have earned the Living Things enemies, death threats and a few post-show beatdowns. Such radical grandstanding would be mere bluster if it weren’t for the band’s remarkably powerful and infectious rock ’n’ roll.
The Living Things play Monday at T.T. the Bear’s Place in Cambridge, in support of their new “Ahead of the Lions,” a critically drooled-over album that garnered a rare four-star review from Rolling Stone.
Lead singer/guitarist Lillian Berlin - and this Lillian is a guy - spoke by phone in the midst of his band’s Republican-baiting national tour.
Herald You’re originally from Missouri, which is Red State territory. How did you fit in?
Berlin: Our mother was a political activist. Ours was the house that was always egged or t.p.’ed. It just became part of everyday life. It made me aware of things I wasn’t getting taught at school. School would teach me one thing, and my mom would teach me the opposite.
Herald: It’s strange to hear radical politics on a sugary pop song like “Bom Bom Bom.”
Berlin: I’m more of a performance artist than a musician, and my performance art at this time is doing a political skit on stage, a musical with the band Living Things. I look at it like a play. For me, the point of doing this performance art/science experiment is so that I can make people aware in a simple way of what’s going on in the world. People can disagree with us and that’s fine, but I just want America to start forming strong opinions and to start doing something about it.
Herald: Doing something about it doesn’t seem to be your band’s problem.
Berlin: There aren’t too many people in entertainment that are really doing anything about the social climate in America right now. You have a handful like Green Day that have good intentions, but to do something you have to take it a step further and put yourself on the line.
Herald: Do you regret anything you’ve done onstage?
Berlin: No, it’s all a part of grabbing people’s attention to be aware of political matters. Because people’s attention span is so short you have to be very eye-catching.
Herald: Are you still burning a photo of the president before shows?
Berlin: Burning him every night is my way of praying to the gods. It’s my prayer that I’ll do every night until the regime is out of office.
Herald: Ever fear a backlash?
Berlin: No, because I would never put Bush on the same plateau of the Pope. He’s a mere mortal businessman, while the Pope’s got this spiritual level going on. If I were up on stage burning an American flag that would be one thing. But burning a picture of a businessman? I don’t see that as disrespectful. He’s killing people every day. All I’m doing is lighting his picture on fire.
Herald: How do you handle death threats?
Berlin: In the middle of America there are a lot of conservative people, a lot of militia groups. Occasionally we’ll have problems. It’s been a bit quiet lately, but at one point it was getting over the top. The last time we played St. Louis somebody called in a bomb threat.
Herald: Considering your anti-establishment message, why sign with a major label?
Berlin: Here’s the deal. We’re singing about stuff that needs to reach people. We’ve met with independent labels and major labels and there is no difference. It’s all the same political bull(expletive).
The Living Things play T.T. the Bear’s Place, Cambridge, Monday. Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 day of show. Call 617-492-2327.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste, sir.
More liberals unhinged.
Liberal HATRED.
I had no idea Green Day was that bad. I like their music and American Idiot in particular.
Trite.
Their music (Green Day--they do Boul. of Broken Dreams, don't they?) might not be too bad but their politics are extreme
lefty. The "American Idiot" they're talking about is us.
(Tired of the activism-as-advertising, shock-for-attention culture.)
This is really an example of "viral" advertising: getting attention because of being outrageous. Awhile back, there was _supposedly_ a commercial for VW (IIRC) in which a terrorist
gets into a VW which then explodes (his bomb went off
prematurely, I guess). It wasn't an actual ad, but an ad-maker released it on the Net almost as a "demo".
It got attention, and never saw the light of day on TV. But it also have publicity to VW (and forgive me if it's not VW,
but whatever company the "ad" was for). So these guys go out and do this outrageous stuff and it gets attention. Sure,
people like us will get outraged (and I guess I played right into it by posting it, but i thought it was a good example
of "unhinged liberals"--Malkin can put this in "Unhinged Vol. 2". But the target audience for this will hear about it and go, "Awright! I'm buying THEIR album!"
Am curious what would have happened if Kerry had been elected and a band called, say, the Kerry-okies
went up on stage and burned a pic of him then urinated
on it. It would be front page news in the MSM!
oops, should say "it also GAVE publicity". G and H are next to each other on keyboard and I typed wrong letter!
Yawn.
All Frank Sinatra had to do was sing.....
update from Boston Herald:
For a band that’s made its reputation with controversial stage shows and radical politics, the Living Things sure seemed tame Monday.
A lackluster show at T.T. the Bear’s Place did nothing to bolster the St. Louis-bred rockers’ buzz. It certainly didn’t help that lead singer Lillian Berlin’s vocals were inaudible for the entire set.
The problems weren’t solely due to the woeful sound. The Berlin brothers, who are at the core of the Living Things, seemed to be mailing this show in. There was none of the band’s usual antics: no burning of President Bush photos, no dominatrix dancers masquerading as the vice president. There wasn’t even much revolutionary rhetoric. The only pageantry came from Lillian Berlin’s ”Spinal Tap”-like rock star grandstanding. He has Mick Jagger’s serpentine slither down cold.
Showing some old-school showbiz savvy, Berlin let his band start without him on the opening salvo, ”Bombs Below,” making a grand entrance from the side door in an impossibly tight matador suit, his bare chest exposed. With the band sounding tight and polished, the tune’s punishing drums and insistent riffs instantly caused fists to raise in rock salute. But without audible vocals, any message was lost. For all the crowd knew, Berlin could have been singing about puppy dogs and ice cream and not the Iraq war.
While the hit ”Bom Bom Bom” was well-received, the crowd eventually lost patience and grew agitated with the miserable sound quality,shouting ”We can’t hear you!” between tunes and shooting nasty looks at the stressed sound man.
Berlin shucked the top half of his suit midway through the set, opting for the Iggy Pop-barechested look to the delight of the girls bunched near the stage. Not that Berlin had any intentions of staying front and center. He spent as much time carousing with the audience as he did onstage, taking full advantage of his microphone cord’s length. Had any sound been coming from his microphone, this might have been a bit more effective.
etc
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