{"id":4298,"date":"2017-02-10T18:27:45","date_gmt":"2017-02-11T02:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/?p=4298"},"modified":"2017-02-10T18:27:45","modified_gmt":"2017-02-11T02:27:45","slug":"gather-made-great-pro-animal-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/2017\/02\/10\/gather-made-great-pro-animal-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Gather Made Great, Pro-Animal Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Jon Hochschartner<\/a><\/p>\n

Exploring the vegan straight edge lifestyle.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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I\u2019m not a huge fan of vegan straight edge, a sub-genre of hardcore-punk music. I came to it, originally, as a sort of sociologist. Many of the animal activists I looked up to, who got their start in the 1990s, were inspired by this cacophony. I wanted to understand what the fuss was about, so I might better fit into the political movement I sought to join.<\/p>\n

I bought Ross Haenfler\u2019s book, Straight Edge: Hardcore Punk, Clean Living Youth, and Social Change<\/i>. At about the same point, I was reading Tristram Stuart\u2019s The Bloodless Revolution: A Cultural History of Vegetarianism: From 1600 to Modern Times<\/i>. Learning about practitioners of the vegan straight edge lifestyle\u2014who abstained from intoxicants\u2014in the former and vegetarian teetotalers in the latter, I was struck by the similarities between the two groups.<\/p>\n

Clearly, there was some enduring desire among a segment of vegans and vegetarians for a kind of bodily purity. I couldn\u2019t really relate. For a significant portion of the time I\u2019ve practiced veganism, I\u2019ve subsisted on potato chips and cigarettes. I was suspicious of this purifying instinct. It seemed to reduce eating animals to a lifestyle choice. I was far more sympathetic to the aspect of vegan straight edge music that seemed to motivate activism for non-humans.<\/p>\n

I loved Earth Crisis, probably the most popular band in the genre. But I also loved a more obscure group called Gather, named in reference to the anthropological term \u201chunter-gatherer.\u201d A four-member band fronted by Eva Genie, Gather existed from 2004 to 2007, during which time they released a demo, a split EP, and one full-length album. But what the band\u2019s output lacked in quantity it made up in quality.<\/p>\n

True to their genre, Gather was sonically abrasive. If you haven\u2019t acclimatized to it, the music can make your ears bleed. This goes not just for the band\u2019s instrumentation, but the vocals as well. Remember the beginning of Return of the Jedi<\/i>, when Princess Leia is disguised as an Ubese bounty hunter? Wearing a mask, her voice is transformed into a guttural, alien growl. That\u2019s how Genie sounds. And it\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n

Gather\u2019s lyrics frequently championed illegal direct action on behalf of animals a tactic I don\u2019t think is the most productive, but is increasingly tempting in the era of Donald Trump. In \u201cNo Contest,\u201d Genie argues, \u201cTo say we can legally win this war is insanity\/If it were another human holocaust we\u2019d be preparing for battle undoubtedly.\u201d Similarly, in \u201cGlimpses of Hope,\u201d Genie roars, \u201cCages cut open in the night\/Animals run free for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gather addresses government repression of animal activists in \u201cThe Green Scare.\u201d Genie shouts, \u201cWith phone tapping and harassing, spying and lying\/Infiltration, entrapment, you try to weaken their commitment.\u201d Meanwhile, the group pulls no punches in its description of non-human exploitation. \u201cI watched you take her baby away, product of her annual rape\/He\u2019ll be tortured just like her, until they\u2019re both murdered,\u201d Genie snarls in \u201cDollar Signs to the Industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band advanced progressive ideologies\u2014ranging from feminism to atheism\u2014but animal liberation was their most common concern. They were even skeptical of straight edge culture, which pleased me. In \u201cEscalate,\u201d Genie moans, \u201cDo you really believe that straightedge alone is going to do shit?\/If drugs are the reason everyone\u2019s so passive, use your sobriety to act.\u201d<\/p>\n

While I have strategic\u2014as opposed to moral\u2014reservations about some of the tactics Gather advocated, their work serves as fantastic pump-up music. The group\u2019s discography stands as some of my favorite pro-animal art, alongside the likes of Sue Coe\u2019s paintings and Rise of the Planet of the Apes<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jon Hochschartner Exploring the vegan straight edge lifestyle.\u00a0 I\u2019m not a huge fan of vegan straight edge, a sub-genre of hardcore-punk music. I came to it, originally, as a sort of sociologist. Many of the animal activists I looked up to, who got their start in the 1990s, were inspired by this cacophony. I wanted … <\/p>\n

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