So, the world is freaking out over these SOPA and PIPA acts that Congress is trying to push on us. Personally, I haven’t read into it much and don’t know the specifics, but I know that the government is run by old dudes who don’t know what an internet is, and they’ve all got their own masters to serve, none of which are the people out here in the streets, so I know it can’t be good. That, and that the terms SOPA and PIPA remind me of sopapillas, which are delicious. I’m sure everywhere you’ve gone on the internet today has probably had a hundred messages about contacting your Congressman or whatever, (or completely blocked itself off, like Wikipedia, which didn’t so much raise my awareness as it did piss me off at Wikipedia) so I’ll spare you that whole thing this time. What I can do is show my solidarity with everyone who likes free things and information about other things through simple means: INTERNET PIRACY.
So, in a weirdly appropriate (but not really, kinda) offering to you, the folks out there is “Uncensored Material,” a promotional cassette single by Sacred Reich, a band of much metal thrashings that I liked so much that I once had a whole website named after an EP they put out back in the day. (and come to think about it, I posted this thing there back in the day, too.) This came out in 1990, right around the time everyone was freaking out over 2 Live Crew talking about boobies and butts and Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest having evil hidden messages to make all the people who buy their records kill themselves, and the government had a huge censorship boner that peaked a couple years later when “Copkiller” came out. It’s not really the same thing as what’s going on now, but I guess it is good to remember that this kind of nonsense has been going on since a “cassette single” was still a thing, and we made it out okay. For the record, I guess this has been out of print for over twenty years, (oh Jesus, that makes me feel old) but if Hollywood records didn’t care about what became of the Sacred Reich stuff they own, (the single is from Enigma Records, but Hollywood owns their back catalog now) they would have sold the U.S. rights back to the band, and people wouldn’t be having to buy copies of The American Way from overseas nowadays. Whatever. Anyway, this is a few parts of a few songs from that record, mixed together with some spoken word type stuff from Phil Rind, the bass player/singer/general mastermind. It’s just one long thing, so I split it into three parts for convenience.
Anyway, fuck a government, listen to old heavy metal from time to time, spay and neuter your pets, always bring a towel, be excellent to each other, party on dudes, and eat more sopapillas.
