Stupid bands (Jesuit) have stupid cover art (their discography)

Wow, so edgy. Women are evil and it's cool when they're dead. So original too. Let's go stab skinny bitches with big tits in the heart with knives and strip them except for high heels and some kind of lacy thing and wrap them in barbed wire and wait until they rot. It will be cool.

Here's their self-important description from Deathwish Magic Bullet:

JESUIT were an unrelenting, noisy hardcore band from Virginia Beach, VA. They existed from the mid-90′s up until the changing of the century. In their wake, they left a rather nice-sized dent in the intensely-PC witch-hunt/”safe space” era of DIY hardcore. Whereas events attributed to Charles Manson are often credited with bringing a savage and brutal end to the peace, love, and drug culture of the 60′s, events surrounding bands like JESUIT and GEHENNA not only elicited controversy at every tour stop, but pushed a movement toward hardcore finding its more violent, unpredictable, and entirely irreverent roots as the “Portlandia” cult of 90′s hardcore crashed to a halt.

Taking the old "controversy" route in an attempt to substitute for lack of substance. Style over substance, except I don't think Jesuit had that either. Zzzzzz....I like the part where they swipe at safe spaces (it's easy for men to not have to ever consider such a concept - what are those bitches crying about?) and refer to people trying to make their scene a better place, eradicating hateful manly shit as a "PC witch-hunt." Did Rush Limbaugh write this? Thanks to people like the men of Jesuit and their mentalities, hardcore is about as dumb as it ever was. Jacob Bannon, you should be ashamed.

In reality, this band was bad. I don't know anyone who ever liked them. They recently played a pointless reunion show and no one gave a FUCK that they were playing. For the whole time. People left when they played, I'm assuming cause the band was just that breathtakingly original. People went off for the band before them and the bands after them, but the room stood still when the mighty Jesuit played. I guess they were just awestruck.

I'm not one to talk about what hardcore is "really about." However, at the very least, hardcore has historically been a rejection of "them" and "out there." It's a counterculture, or was. Shit like this is just aping the mainstream to the fullest. It's just one more round in the never-ending hail of bullets coming at women the world over. It's not that I hold out any hope, in the least, for hardcore or punk to become some revolutionary, redemptive or even benevolent force (more to come on that in a later post), but I do want to take the time to point out how fucking shitty this record cover and the concomitant (lack of) thought process are. This is worse than a Motley Crue record. At least those guys liked women (as well as looked like them). This is the kind of thing one should expect from Avenged Sevenfold or  Buck Cherry. This has everything to do with the mainstream. This challenges nothing. Women are put down at every turn. Women are sexualized constantly. They are told they are not good enough. Let me help you with that. Their efforts are "cute." Their bodies are routinely violated with impunity. I'll kill you if you fight back. Daily media blitzkrieg sensory overload says you are fat. Don't try, because you will likely fail. Give it up. Just take it. Know your place. Slut. If that's what you're into, stay in the fucking bar where you and your numbingly mediocre band belong. Offending people is not hard. In this case, it was a replacement for having anything worthwhile or creative to say.

I guess this record cover is their last hurrah, their final go at those PC Police. WE'LL SHOW THEM. YOU CAN'T SILENCE JESUIT. Sorry I'm such a faggot guys. I bet you'd never call me a nigger though. Cause that's just not cool, right?

Aside from the thoroughly anti-woman, misogynistic theme and aesthetic, the "art" just sucks. It's fucking stupid. Super trashy. Who likes this shit? It's about as cool as this:

Edit: Oops on the Jacob Bannon tip. I saw this listed in the Deathwish store and assumed it was from them. Made sense, with Nate Newton and all. However, as a commenter pointed out, it's on Magic Bullet. In that case, Brent Eyestone should be ashamed.

This past weekend

We played a show in Philadelphia on Friday at the Adobe Cafe. In our previous encounter, it was the scene of a strange convergence of a large number of drunk, angry and militantly apathetic people mostly wearing the same thing. This time around was quite different. No one was belligerently wasted, people watched bands, and not everyone was decked out in the same costume. Playing a show in a siege situation, such as our first appearance at the Adobe Cafe, is fun, but it's stressful. This was a welcomed change.

We got to see lots of friends, like Remainder and their tour entourage, as well as people like Jerry, with whom Todd and I used to play in a band, and Sarah, with whom I went to Rutgers the first time. Now Todd works with her and I know her again. It was really good to see these people, even though we didn't really spend much time together, with it being a show and all.

I really liked playing that show. I had a good time playing and felt confident about it. Our equipment sounded really good. Aside from the fact that we have good equipment, we recently repaired a bunch of it, so that helped us sound even better. It was nice having a p.a. that did something. We brought friends with us as well. The atmosphere was totally enjoyable and satisfying.

It's good to see Mikey, Jack and Welch playing music together again. They're quite good at it. I love Attrition, I loved seeing them, and it's been a long time since they played. Remainder is definitely not Attrition, but they definitely are good. I'm really glad I finally got to see them, as I was not able to make it down to their first couple of shows. They will be back soon, and I will go. Also, I predict us playing shows together.

Last night, half of us (Chris and Phil) plus our friend Aaron (Raza, Enron, Ron) went to see Converge at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia. The initial plan was to get vegan cheesesteaks from Gourmet to Go and then hit the show, as we didn't care about the first two bands playing. We got there a bit late (6:30, the show started at 5), so we went to the show first to see what was going on. One band had played already and the second was about done. We immediately ran into friends Carni and Andy from DC. It was so rad and unexpected to see them there. We proceeded to hang out for the rest of the show.

Ceremony played third. Phil and I were pretty excited for this. They were bad. Real bad. I've seen them three times. The first time, they were sick. The second time, they were pretty good. This time, what the fuck. I don't even know. I own the band's entire recorded output and I did not recognize most of the songs they played last night. They still didn't replace the other guitar player and this is the third bass player I have seen in the band. He looks like Kim Thayil from Soundgarden. Ceremony were legit jamming on songs on stage. The singer said yesterday was his first day sober on tour. The guitarist was playing the star spangled banner at one point, for at least twenty seconds. Judging by what I could identify, they seemed to have played almost entirely newer songs.

After that, we dejectedly went to get our cheesesteaks. They were really good.

We came back in time for Converge to play. They played really well. They are pros. What can you say? They have basically the sickest drummer. Their set was comprised almost entirely of post-2000 songs, save for the requisite performance of "The Saddest Day." At least the songs they chose were mostly good, relying heavily on their last LP. And they didn't play that awful Ozzy song.

The show was over by 9:30, which was pretty rad, so we ran to catch Todd finishing up his shift at the Wooden Shoe. We hung out there for a bit, till they started closing up. Then we took off and were home by about 11:30.