CONTRA
NOTE: We were going to be posting a far more current interview with the band featuring their latest line up after they got back from touring.. Apparently Craig quit the band so read this solely from his point of view Maybe we'll have something posted with the current Contra at a later date...
ex: One of the reasons I’m approaching Contra for an interview is simply because you guys are doing something that seems to be really scarce in the LI scene and that is addressing issues in your music that 9 out of 10 so called “punk” bands aren’t. You view punk as a movement of social change, rather then an entertainment alternative. I think that’s great. Now that I’ve blown some smoke up your asses I’m going to bombard you with some questions. Since you guys focus on the rather drab stuff as opposed to the usual la-la, be bop b.s. bubble gum stuff that other bands are addressing, how has the response to Contra been? Get any flack from the “no-politics!!!” kids?
Craig : Yeah, we’ve gotten some. Mostly earlier when we were playing more diverse shows and people didn’t know what to expect from us as much. Not that we don’t play diverse shows anymore, but we rarely get stuck on shows with ska bands or “anti-PC” bands. The truth is that Long Island needs someone to say something. The hardcore scene used to be full of politics here, granted most of it was animal rights activists (not to downgrade animal rights activism, most of us are vegetarian or vegan. But animal rights activists never seem to draw any other conclusions other than “go vegan and stop animal testing”, i.e. how it ties into our system and into human rights issues etc.) but at least it was something. Now that seems to have gone away as well.
The newer punk scene is just full of apathy- a lot of overuse of the word “gay”, “fag” etc., which normally is just something small. But it’s part of a bigger problem- there is a lot of Christian presence and its brought a lot of Christian right views with it. A lot of pro-life views and what not. But a lot of the people are really young and just getting into punk so maybe some will change. I have seen a small group of kids really excited about getting involved with things.
ex: So what’s the average age of you guys and what made you decide to start this sort of band. Why be political when it’s so much easier to write Seinfeld-esque nothing songs?
C: Well, we’re half 18 and half 19. We started at a time when we were all getting into the more political side of things. I know me and Jon had started getting involved with a lot of labor issues and corporate abuse issues (i.e. Nike, Disney etc.). I think a lot of it comes from just realizing that being so self-absorbed get’s annoying. There are much more relevant things to life to sing about then getting dumped by a girl who you dated for two weeks five years ago.
ex: What’s the significance of choosing the name Contra for a band?
c: I wish there was some real significance to it. I mean sure, it means “against” and that’s one of the reasons we picked it. We are “against” a lot of things, but isn’t everyone? Sadly, it came out of playing Contra the old Nintendo game. It seemed logical- we’re a “political” punk band, it fit.
ex: Are you guys involved with any activist causes outside of the bands. If so what are they?
C: Yeah, all of us are involved with something. Most of us are active with Food Not Bombs and the Modern Times Collective. We’re all very involved with anti-war and labor activism.
ex: Allright, I have your split seven inch with the Insurgent in my hand, so I’m basically going to go through your stuff and call you on your shit. So i guess maybe you should put on some smocks so you don’t get dirty in the shit slingin’ frenzy.[ed note: that was my feeble attempt at humor-yuck! yuck!] But let’s start with your tune Propaganda, in it you address how popular opinion is shaped by soundbites and lame ass news reporting. This is something that dates back to the days before the printing press was even invented. What makes you think Punk is any closer to the truth then what you see or read on tv. TV presents you with a lot of bias and prejudice. Doesn’t punk to some degree do the same, especially when it comes to current trends , yes, no?
C: Well, no punk zine has as much relevance as say the New York Times to how the world works. I can’t really remember last time I found some punk band trying to hide something that would really effect my life. Depends what you define punk as I suppose. There’s “punk” as in bands like say Profane Existence (bands like A//Political or Doom) type stuff, completely political, diy etc. There’s also bands like bands on Tooth and Nail bands who consider themselves punk (i.e. MxPx, FIF etc.). All this is lumped under the term “punk” which would make the answer drastically different for everyone.
ex: Since we’re talking about propaganda and lies, rather then just focusing entirely on the downside. Let’s try to be positive. What does one have to do in order to find the “truth”? How do we sort the filler and fodder to get the truth? What do you suggest? I always say question everything, which is great as a concept but very few ever execute it properly. I tell kids, if you really want to know what’s going on, read the business section of your news paper. They don’t put any spins on the information. It’s all raw, and don’t blink an eye when they talk about tapping into third world labor in order to gain profits. You can read about this tobacco company bought up this natural spring water company. .blah..blah..blah. You’ll read a lot about mergers and news companies gobbling up one another. It’s really good stuff. Better then what you’ll see in the rest of the paper or on TV. I tell people, if you want the truth and you want the knowledge, you have to do the footwork!!! Simple as that, the pay sucks but the rewards are priceless. There’s newsletters from Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), i suggest looking into. I really like Z magazine a whole lot. I encourage people to read the Earth First paper. Try to get your hands on the Multinational Monitor if you can. Most of the stuff you can subscribe to and you check off the student/low income rate and you can get it for a rather reasonable price.
C: . The “truth” is so much harder then anyone ever thinks or says. I think the best way I’ve learned how to decide what I believe and what I won’t believe is by looking simply at who gains out of the situation. For example, if Disney or some other corporation deny paying 3rd world workers slave wages of say around 30 cents an hour, but I’m looking into the National Labor Committee’s information and I’m seeing footage of workers from El Salvador or Haiti and photos of pay slips and I’m seeing all this information proving the corporations denials incorrect, then to me it comes down to who’s got reasons to do what each is doing; Disney is a multi-billion dollar multi-national corporation who’s main goal is always to profit. The National Labor committee is a grass roots organization who’s main goal is to get the workers in these countries a fair and liveable wage (and they have done a great job of getting the word out about corporate labor abuses over seas.). Huge corporations main goals are always to profit, and they will attempt to profit no matter what the consequence; this being why you have the situation with corporations using 3rd world labor and paying slave wages (Nike, Disney, JC Penney, now The Gap (again!) etc.), why you have the Ogoni situation with Shell etc. etc. the list goes on and on.
Keeping that in consideration I think it’s wise to look at things the same exact way when you are reading information. First of all, the media in the U.S., the media which people trust and the media with the best circulation (i.e. New York Times etc.etc.) are all huge corporations and their goal is to make profit. And not only are they themselves huge corporations, but in many cases they are owned by larger corporations (ABC to Disney etc.). So basically what ends up happening is that the media’s coverage is generally kept in line with huge corporations interests or the governments interest (which essentially is corporations).
Therefore I’ve come to believe that it’s impossible to trust most major media. Actually, reading through the business section, as you said is a good way to see what’s going on with the corporations and who’s buying who etc. So keeping this in thought it is definitely a good idea to look towards alternate sources for your information. You mentioned some good examples, Z is a great magazine I think and one which I generally trust the information from, particularly because the magazine’s writers are extremely intelligent people who generally are able to back what they say up with fact.
FAIR is also a great orginization and one which is starting to get more and more notice I think. But I also find times where relying on only the left for information leaves you with bullshit answers (and only taking one side of the story is not a good idea in any case). For example the internet has become an amazing networking and communicating tool. I ended up signing up for all these activist email lists, I’m probably on about 25 of them. At the time of the last bombing on Iraq there were tons of emails sent out regarding protests and activities, and what was going on etc.
Basically I got this one email from some group where the person stated that one U.N. spokesperson had said “..Offend Arabs”, this was in reference to boming right before Ramadan. The person was using this quote in order to stir things up, to make it so people would think that the U.N. is doing blatently that, trying to “offend Arabs”. But the thing about it was that if you looked for the words before the person started quoting, they were “not to”, then “offend Arabs”. This story might be off a little, but you get the idea. In the left its become an OK thing to use quotes in the wrong context, which is a tool the major media uses and a tool that is used to decieve people.
This is just one small example, there truly are tons of others. Now in this case, the actions of the U.S. spoke loud enough that mis-quoting shouldn’t be needed at all. The bombing was itself so ridiculous and horrible that telling another side, the side that the major media wasn’t reporting (specifically the side of the Iraqi people,the victims of the U.S. sanctions, which have killed over a million and the victims of these bombs), and also giving notice to the roots of the war and making sure that people knew that money had much more to do with this than Saddam Hussein being a threat ever did, should have been what was done on the left I think. But there ended up being quite a few people mis-quoting, and basically doing anything they could to convince people to their side.
This is a weakness of the left, specifically a major weakness in trying to convince people that the major media isn’t giving all of the story. If the major media is able to make it look like we’re lying or exagerating, and are able to back it up, then noone will trust us and we’ll look like a bunch of lying wackos. Anyway. When trying to discover the “truth” of a story, it’s always best to stick with your gut on it I think; if it sounds too wacko, then maybe someone’s exagerating, if it sounds to clean then maybe someone is not giving the whole story. But I think looking through who has to gain off the situation and then looking exactly where the information is from is a good way of doing things. Big corporations who control the world, also control the major media, that’s something that needs to be kept in mind.
The magazines and newsletters you mentioned are definitely good places to look because I’ve found that they tend to give much more of a factual and realistic and whole story. Also if you’re looking for information on specifics there are definitely good groups to look into. For example, I mentioned the National Labor Committee, a group whose main purpose is to educate people about corporate abuses and to get the victims of these a buses a better living condition, wage etc. Another group which I recommend, a group I’ve found extremely truthful about their information East Timor Action Network. ETAN is a group of activists dedicating their time to free this small island from the control of Indonesia, who invaded it illegally in 1975. East Timor being a perfect example of something basically ignored by the major media, even though over 150,000 people have died directly due to a U.S. supported invasion. I’ve gotten way off point here. None the less... a rule of thumb is be careful where you read things, always consider the source. The truth is somewhere out there.
ex: In the notes about the song you wrote called “Unity” you make the statement that there is a double standard within the punk scene as far as stances like anti-racism and anti-fascism are concerned. As an example you site kids hasseling someone because that person might be wearing an MxPx t-shirt at a show. You state that the person who very much indeed likes MxPx could also be into Contra afterall he paid the $5 to get in to your show. Now perhaps I’m reading into this too much and maybe MxPx wasn’t the wisest choices to use to illustrate what you’re saying. I do understand what you’re getting at, if you like NoFx fine. We have bigger problems to worry about. Now with MxPx and I am going to get to some sort of question for you, just bear with me here. MxPx represents something far more darker, what they are, is a stealth Christian rock band packaged in the guise of punks. They’re the Trojan horse of the Christian right. They have an agenda of which I certainly don’t condone, simply because I’ve had my head kicked in two or three times by some “good, wholesome, god fearing Christians.” They have this agenda and you see it in other Christian groups like Five Iron Frenzy, Ws and the Dingees and that is to gain a certain level of legitimacy within the scene, and their infiltration has worked to such a degree that some kid who likes MxPx views them and a band like Contra on the same level, which I’m sure you’ll agree is wrong. They’re not the same. Now I only can speak for myself and my “run ins” in the past with religious zealots have been rather unpleasant. But the reason I display certain levels of discourse towards people who are buying the lie is because of the fact that I’ve seen what these people are capable of. They want to get their foot in the door by any means necessary and once they’re there, they want to spread the word of the “good book.” Which I view as bigotry at it’s best, and they are here to cleanse punk rock of all it’s “immoral” behavior! Before I come off sounding like some paranoid let’s look to the past a bit, the bible is a great place to start as any. Let’s for a moment accept it as “historical” documentation and accept it as the “truth”. Then what we are holding is a document of genocide. Christian barbarism and ethnic cleansing at it’s best, and what we should also find chilling is the level of contentment displayed by the global community. The bible captures the spirit of ease that exists in the shadows of the mass genocide glorified under the guise of Christian faith and the love of god. These people have re-written history so well that they’ve buried all the corpses, washed the blood from their hands and have made whatever signs of inhumanity that they couldn’t dispose of, they’ve candy coated it. Therefore the atrocities that we are aware of, aren’t really acts of murder or genocide. They’re acts of faith. Given that, now these people want to mingle with punk rock? What good can come from this?? I’m very cautious and I’m damn well extremely suspicious of them. The punks are one of the few anti-Christian voices that haven’t been eradicated from the history. The last front that haven’t been slaughtered, but now..surprise, surprise we have these bands coming in, and people aren’t even questioning them. I wouldn’t be surprised in the far future Pat Robertson is hosting the 700 Club made documentary on punk rock and they interview one of the forefathers of the scene and it’s guess who, MxPx and who do they consider to be the granddaddy of the scene, Iggy Pop? No Pat Boone!!! Could this really happen, yes!! Will it?? It’s up to you and I !
C: Well, I don’t quite know what to say. I’ll try to answer the best I can. The explanation of that song was written by Steve who I do differ with on certain things. But in this case I know why it was written. I hold as much contempt for MxPx as you do. I’ll even provide you with a story to illustrate your point. I knew this kid James. James got into punk because of MxPx. He found that being Christian and being punk was a mix he liked. His favorite bands were MxPx, F.I.F., etc. Well, sinfull fuck he was, he had sex with his girlfriend without a condom. Next thing he knows she thinks she might be pregnant- she’s 15. His girlfriend was scared shitless. She was 15 and her parents were pretty devout Irish-Catholics. They would probably have kicked her out on the street had they found out she was having sex (ever notice that the most devout Christians and Catholics can be the most heartless fuckers around?). Instead of saying “ok, i’ll stay by your side no matter what happens” he threatened to break up with her if she had an abortion. His “God fearing” self could have sex before marriage, but apparently this was just way too against his beliefs (ironic that having sex before marriage was against his beliefs only a month earlier). But he sure wasn’t ready to take care of the child either, so the girl was in a horrible fucking position. But lucky for both of them she ended up not being pregnant. So everytime I think of bands like MxPx I know that because of bands like them people like this exist in the punk scene. Complete scumbags who worship Mike Herrera and their god but couldn’t really care less about anyone else. Also because of bands like MxPx (and primarily Tooth and Nail records bands, as most of the bigger ones seem to be on that label) their has been an invasion of right wing beliefs into the scene. Whether it be pro-life beliefs (which is actually much more of a fundamentalist fight to keep women suppressed) or anti-gay beliefs (and, yes, the Christian bible does call having sex with the same sex an “abomination”) etc. But I’ve also seen some good come out of it. For example, I know a few people who are Christian and into bands like Mxpx and involved with the punk scene who are ten times more politically active then a lot of “anarcho-punks” i’ve seen. These people have kept some sort of individuality and are not “anti-gay” or “pro-life”. So, it’s not necessarily so damaging to everyone. The song itself has a somewhat simple message though. Too many bands preach “unity” but a lot of them couldn’t care less about unity. A lot of bands that preach “unity” are elitist scumbags. Bands like MxPx are a starting point for some, but it doesn’t mean that they are all pro-life right wing Christians. Maybe some of them will get involved with the punk scene and see a different side to things, maybe discover music with a whole different message, maybe not. But either way, judging someone before you know them because of their shirt is fucking stupid. But it does come to a problem, where do you draw the line? I personally don’t want to be “united” with some right wing Christian who spends their time fighting pro-life fights and is in hopes of women not being able to control their own body- in fact, I fear a person who believes that. Anyone who believes the government should have the right to tell a women what she can do with her body is someone I have strong disagreements with. Contra doesn’t preach unity, but we say that if you are going to preach it, you better practice it. I have friends all over the spectrum, as does everyone in this band. I can say that not wanting to be “united” with someone because of their status in the scene or their dress is fucking ridiculous. But this answer is only from me, so maybe my whole band wouldn’t agree with me, but I think they would. I think being at shows and passing around literature and talking to people and singing about relevant topics are all ways to open peoples minds in the punk scene. Hopefully they can think for themselves before they let Pat Robertson do it for them.
ex: On a similar note, CBS recently ran a piece on Jim Baker. You remember, he’s the guy who ran the PTL and robbed those blind eye faithfuls of millions of dollars. Well now that he’s out of prison Jim is helping his son run a Georgia based activist group called Revolution and guess who Revolution is trying to target, guess who? The bedeviled punk rock and hardcore scene. The visual was really interesting, imagine a 25 ta Life gig mixed with old 82 crusties and some Coolio looking kids all together moshing to some Christian group. It was sad, and what is worse is the fact that this guy Baker, this scumbag who stole so much money from people who barely have a pot to piss in is being treated like a martyr by these kids. Jim’s son says “My dad isn’t a criminal, he was a target!” What bullshit!!! What really bothers me is how people will buy the same lie, three or four times in a row and still not learn from their errors.
C: Christ, I haven’t even heard about that. That’s fucking scary. Yeah, it is pretty astonishing what people will buy into sometimes, but I think there are many reasons for that. One of the main things you’re taught by a lot of religions is that if you pray to God, he will in some way answer you, and that way, whatever it may be, is the correct way. So you lose your job, you pray, but you still get an eviction notice after you haven’t paid the rent. Well sometimes “God” is all people have to hold onto. Instead of looking at the situation and saying “My company closed because they want to move their operation to Mexico where they can pay their workers 30 cents an hour and keep all the profit” they say either “Satan did this, I have to pray more and God will help me” or “This is God’s plan for me”. It’s got nothing to do with God, it’s got to do with capitalism and the idea that greed is number one in this system. If you keep people passive and on their knees you can keep them away from the reality that it is not a god which controls their life, but rather their bosses, their government, and a book full of fairytales designed to eventually destroy the human race.
ex: Okay guys, you also have this anti-war song called Ditch which I guess you released at an appropriate time since in the last two weeks the United States has launched another bombing campaign at Iraq. I caught some of the Counterspin radio program a few months prior to this recent bombing campaign and they more or less were stating what you guys believed that Politicians and even major new networks initiate wars. For example supposedly and I don’t know how true this was but a lot of the major network field reporters were upset that there wasn’t this immense bombings for them to cover. Plus, we didn’t bomb during the Olympics for two reasons 1.)the olympics itself, it seems the networks spent millions on setting up coverage that would go to waste if we started to bomb Iraq and 2.) the whole Olympic Park bombing was giving a lot of Producers a big ol’ boner the size of one of those Mx smart bomb missles!!
c: Well, I haven’t heard exactly the example your using, but I’d like to hear more about it. War itself, just the idea of it, is rather sick. It’s the idea that for some reason we should kill another human being. In the case of Iraq the reasoning was oil and attempting to get the Iraqi government to comply with U.S. wishes. Right now we’re using the excuse of a “humanitarian concern” to go bomb in the Balkans. Well, let’s be honest. Capitalism does not breed “humanitarian concerns”, capitalism breeds greed and destruction and war on every front. It’s a relevant question as to why when Indonesia invaded East Timor and we supplied 90% of the weapons (and trained the soldiers), why that wasn’t a “humanitarian concern” (and still is not). Why when the Turkish government murders thousands of Kurds that isn’t a “humanitarian concern”, why Rwanda was not a humanitarian concern. There’s much more behind it. One of these things being NATO’s credibility. Milosevic refused to have NATO troops on his ground and there was a threat made... if you don’t comply with it but the Albanians do we’re going to bomb. We don’t spend so much of our money on our war machine for nothing, and if we make a threat we damn well better keep it (otherwise other countries who we control may not be so compliant anymore). The bombings have destroyed civillians and towns and other things. Ultimately they have done nothing but made the situation worse. Using war to stop war and to deliver a message against “aggression” doesn’t make much sense. Also, bombing has once again made sure to prove that the U.S. only uses the U.N. to mediate when it picks and chooses- but ultimately it will do what it wants. Ever heard the expression “war is profitable”? Well in America, it’s a fucking goldmine.
ex: I guess this question might seem ridiculous, but I guess you guys aren’t afraid to be labelled pinko commies for being so loud mouthed about your dissident views?
c: Oh bring on the commie jokes! It’s so funny that that’s what you get called when you question why things in the world happen. When you look at the roots of say war and poverty etc. That quote really is true; “They called me a saint when I tried to feed the poor, but when I ask why they are poor they call me a communist” or something along those lines. None the less. Yeah, we’re all anti-capitalists, but none of us are communists. I’d say most of us lean towards the anarchist approach, I know me and Steve do.
ex: My whole beef with this campaign is the very fact that the military is boasting smarter and more accurate missiles. They’re still stockpiling and inventing more kill technology during a time when Clinton [as if he has any credibility] made speeches that the U.S. was going to downsize our weaponry and nuclear arsenal. What exactly are they doing at Lawrence Livermore laboratories (supposedly where all the new smart missles were developed) these days? Building better pancakes or soy? Secondly after India and Pakistan were having their spat and after the US condemned their use of nuclear bombs we go and drop one in the desert for the sheer hell of doing it [Sept. 26, 1998]. Go to the library and check out the newspapers for the 27 or the 28th, find me an article that makes mention of this. In NY there was zero. That’s what’s screwed up about this whole planet. Asians do it, nukes bad!!! US does it in their own backyard, okay!! I guess we have to try our best to keep the cancer rates sky high.
C: Pretty dispicable, huh? It’s the U.S.’s complex about being a superpower.. “we can do it because we’re smart enough and powerful enough to know how to do things. You can’t because we said so”. Our Pentagon budget is still at cold war levels and isn’t looking at decreasing very soon (and consequently everytime we have any little spat it gives the government justification to increase our war budget). I also heard about us blowing a bomb not too long after Pakistan and India’s testings, but I don’t recall seeing anything in the papers. It’s scary shit.
ex: Another problem I have a whole problem with is how the middle east is depicted by the media. You mean to tell me that there aren’t any dissidents anywhere, you mean everyone is a loyal Muslim or Military idol worshipping sheep? That’s just bullshit!! It’s impossible. Those views are deliberately ignored and I wouldn’t be surprised if the dissidents are snuffed out after making any attempt to contact the western media. Also, if you look at who we’re pals with in the Mid East like the Saudis, that guy is no better than Sadam or even Khadafi. Saudi Arabia has a reputation for huge civil rights abuses, police brutality and really extreme shit like people being executed right on the side walk. Amnesty International has brought this to peoples attention before. Which probably made a little dinky one inch blurb in the “international” section of the news. BUT we ignored it since we don’t want to rock the oil barges.
c: It’s relatively simple... we make friends with people who comply to our wishes and make us profit. Once they stray in the least they’re our enemy. The Middle East has to be depicted by the media as a place of loyal fools who want to destroy America. But if you notice, rarely do we put a human face on those people. Or if we do, it’s a victim of Saddam’s horrible regime, in the case of Iraq, it’s never (or VERY rarely) a picture of a victim of the U.S. imposed sanctions. Not very often are the sanctions discussed either, even though they’ve killed over a million people. The U.S. government’s foreign policy is based off of profit, not “humanitarianism”.
ex: Well I guess we should get back to some rock and roll questions because I’m sure some people are getting pissed off. So do you have any plans to hop in one of those gas guzzling, horribly inefficient vans and taking the show on the road? Any aspirations to hit Vegas anytime soon?
c: Well, the situation with transportation is kind of shitty. But by early summer we’ll have something and we will be going on a 3 week tour from late july to mid-August. Up to Maine, down to North Carolina, west to Tennessee then Kentucky, Pittsburgh, Indiana, and back home. It should be a lot of fun if everything works out ok.
ex: What exactly should we expect from Contra in the future? You have any upcoming compilation appearances or other shit like that, that you should mention?
c: The “Long Island Punk” compilation just came out. Our friend Dave from Mad Cow Dizeaze 182 released it. He’s selling it for 3 dollars, as should all the bands, so if you see it for more point it out. We have a 4 way split LP coming out on Dave’s label as well with Oblique, All Rights Reserved and MCD182. We also have a split CD coming out on Traffic Violation with Splurge. There will be some other comps coming out as well eventually.
ex: Okay brace yourself because I’ve spent hours thinking up this last question. Do any of you have any last words or closing comments that you might want to add?
C: Thanks for the interview.. Contact: P.O. Box 144, Stony Brook, NY 11790.