Posted by Jason Diamond
24 hours after everybody on the internet was talking about the Disney Joy Division t-shirt, Brooklyn Vegan has reported that another merch controversy has arisen, this time in the form of an Akron/Family shirt that uses the logo from the hardcore/noise/power violence band Man is the Bastard. Akron/Family has come out and said that the shirt (at $20 bucks a pop) is a “tribute” to M.I.T.B, and has apparently been in communication with memebers, with the reaction being, “YOU GUYS ARE GODDAMNED THIEVES AND YOU SUCK. FUCKING LOGO STEALING LOSERS. FUCK YOU!!!!!”
So to break down the whole situation:
Crust punks wear Man is the Bastard patches on their pants.
Crust punks are basically hippies.
Akron/Family are an indie band.
Akron/Family act and sound like a hippie jam band.
Man is the Bastard create a logo.
Akron/Family use that logo.
Where do we go from here?
Akron/Family:
A) Turns a profit off that logo.
B) Say sorry, keep making the shirts and give some of the money to charity, and some to M.I.T.B.
C) Say sorry, then stop making the shirts. They eventually end up on eBay for $100 bucks each.
Crust punks will:
A) Continue begging for change and drinking shitty beer on my stoop.
B) Never find out about this whole ordeal because they don’t go on the internet.
C) Go on the internet when they go visit their parents upper-middle class homes, find out about this story, realize that punk logos on t-shirts are a big thing right now, sell all the info they know on crust punk culture to some big fashion conglomerate, and become rich from consulting.
Or:
Man is the Bastard sues Akron/Family, involving “the man” in the situation. Copyright infringement, intellectual property, lawyers with slicked back hair, and other awkward things become involved.
Possible outcome: The dark side of capitalism wins. People realize the 60s are dead, “punk” as they know it started as more of a fashion statement, and indie hasn’t ever been that independent.
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4 comments
And as it also says on that Pitchfork post, the circle is ripped off from Crass. Which brings us full circle with this offering from Crass Records’ Sleeping Dogs:
http://anarchoscene.blogspot.com/2011/07/sleeping-dogs.html
Yes, the circle and the script. That’s totally right.
And then there’s this from MDC, which already looks a lot like that MITB/Crass hybrid:
http://tinyurl.com/7ugm8ej
And if I had my druthers, I’d be listening to MDC.
A bunch of crust/doom/power violence/hardcore logos look the same. I wonder if the M.I.T.B. reaction would have been different had the art been co-opted by a band that sounded like them?