Lemme tell you a little story about how I offended a good number of folks in a room full of people I had just met or hardly knew. I know what you’re thinking: “You’re only going to tell us one story?” I know, right? Anyway, I was working. Seriously, a real job and everything. What I was doing is inconsequential, but suffice to say at the time of this incident, I was in a waiting/herding area surrounding by many of my colleagues who happened to be from all corners of Canada and the world. We all had two things in common: the work we were there for and that we all had time to kill. Some people whipped out phones to sate their Angry Birds addiction, some people shot the shit, some people read, I donned the ol’ headphones and sank into a couch with some tunes. As time ticked along and the wait became longer, a couple of people ended up engaging me in small talk by introducing themselves before asking what I was listening to. Without thinking (as is usually the case on the best of days), I blurted out “Fister. Their (then) new split with The Lion’s Daughter called And Their Master’s Bled For Days. Awesome dirty doom metal, dude!” Cue looks of nervousness, unbelieving, surprise, horror and/or shock.
We extreme music folk sometimes forget we live in our own bubble where band names like Carcass, Death and Cannibal Corpse are the equivalent of a florist rhyming off, “daisies, roses and tulips.” Needless to say, after the inevitable double-take and come-again questioning, I was greeted with a variety of nervous tittering, various “Omigod”s, “How could you”s and probably forever branded as a potentially violent serial killer/sex offender because of my open admiration of that “kill you dog, rape you mother” noise. Hilarity all around. Makes you wonder what this St. Louis-based trio, those who would sport their merch and Washington Nationals pitcher, Doug Fister have to put up with on a regular basis.
The band aren’t going to be making their relationship with the mainstream any easier with the release of a provocative, self-shot and edited video for “Life is Short, Life is Shit and Soon it Will Be Over” off of their forthcoming split with Primitive Man to be released on Black Friday via A389 Records (which we will be streaming next week). We asked vocalist/bassist, Kenny Snarzyk to let us know about the video, give us some insight into its making of or about the process of writing the song. He was brief and terse in his response, to say the least:
“I like to think it kind of speaks for itself. I honestly don’t have anything too interesting to add. The title is a Kids In The Hall reference and there are a lot cops getting set on fire in the video. There’s a short sample of our other song at the end. Also, Primitive Man’s side fucking crushes. Sorry it’s brief. I really don’t know what to say about it. I’m glad it’s coming out.”
Here it is. Look for a stream of the split sometime next week:
UPDATE: In a just-before-going-live response to what’s happening in Ferguson, MO at the moment, Snarzyk wanted to add the following post-script, expanding upon his original response above.
“Kevin originally asked me if I had anything to say about the video and I didn’t have much to say aside from my regular ‘fuck cops.’ In light of what’s happening in my city right now I should mention a few things.
1. The footage I used (aside from us performing) was compiled back in March during the heat of the Crimean Crisis in the Ukraine. It made me feel like people can still fight against the corrupt powers that try to oppress common civilians and it inspired me deeply. It had nothing to do with the murder of Michael Brown. In fact, Michael Brown’s murder was months after I edited this footage with our track.
2. The rioting in St. Louis right now is being orchestrated by two horrible groups of people. Opportunists and cops. Opportunists are looting stores and attacking people. Cops are gassing peaceful protesters. They are waging war on people that are sick of having their civil rights stripped away to nothing. I myself, have never been to a single protest in my life. I’m not going to act like I’m on the front line of any protests peaceful or otherwise. Right now I’m sitting on my couch listening to the sirens wail down the highway I live next to. What’s happening in St. Louis right now is horrible, but people are hurting here. They feel they can’t trust the very government that is supposed to protect them. There’s a strong us-vs.-them mentality between the lower class and the police right now and there is no one to blame but the police.
3. I hope that Darren Wilson goes blind and deaf and lives a long painful life in constant fear for his safety. He hurt our great city deeply and I will never forgive him for what he’s done. ACAB
Photo by: Corey Woodruff
A389 Records
Fister Facebook
