On this episode we try to untangle all the BACKWARD ass coverage of this 9/11: 20th anniversary memorial. We try yo get underneath all the endless bullshit people are telling themselves about who they were 20 years ago and the weird myth shit that was flying around all the media coverage of this day and how it has been used. Also…we talk a ton of shit!  This is DEFINITELY NOT your normal 9/11 coverage. We don't lament any deaths except for who were murdered using the guise of that fateful day in 2001. But we also don't spin any conspiracy shit, so we walking a thin line. See if we hold up.  plus we listen to tunes from Crazy & the Brains, Bridge City Sinners, Sorry Mom, and Cop/Out.  

Dispatches from the Underground

DftUnderground Episode 406

On the first part of this episode, Joey talks about the challenges facing the community as the world opens up again and the opportunities we have to redefine what it means to truly be together again. Whether it be in punk communities or others, we have a unique opportunity to reflect on who we want to be and intentionally reorganize ourselves to be that, together. On the second part of the episode we look at the relationship between mass movements and elections. As we have gone from a summer of MASS protests only a year ago which clearly declared Black Lives Matter and demanded justice and accountability from the police to this summer where the streets are quiet of any major protests but filled with discussion of Biden’s plans and at least in NYC talk of the future (likely) police officer mayor of NYC. We look at some possible reasons for this change and talk some trash in the process. Plus we listen to some tunes from La Armada, All Torn Up!, and Rebelmatic.  

DftUnderground Episode 405

Pansy is back this week, this time talking about punk shit. We talk about the best and worst of the culture we love. We talk about what attracted us here and why we still revel in this gutter today. We also talk about the elitist gate-keepers and backward shits who make us doubt our affinity. We talk about being drawn to the provocative and confrontational elements but also being frustrated by the inability of punk to grow and break with some basic ass elements it continues to cling to. This episode is a lil longer because we we talk a TON of shit about the state of punk today and the place we would like to take it to as well, but I can’t stress enough the amount of shit talking we do in this episode. We really outdid ourselves here. We go there time after time. Strap yourself in, this one gets bumpy. PLUS we listen to tunes from Penny Dreadfuls, Pansy, Mandy and Cop/Out. 

DftUnderground Episode 404

Jehiel Winters from NYC’s Winter Wolf gets down to talk about the right-wing riot that invaded the Capitol on on Jan. 6th. We work past the mainstream media’s superficial analysis on this riot as an attack on democracy at large and go deeper to look at the white supremacist roots of this event. We talk about the Trumpian trajectory these fascists have been on for years, and how this minor racist rebellion will likely have major ripples in the days and years to come. On the second half of the show we discuss what all this shit means for us in our daily struggles for justice. We talk about the role the police played and also how we should see the fight to combat these right-wing extremists in relation to the struggle against systematic injustice by the police and the struggle for Black Lives. Don’t fret, we still manage to talk a ton of shit, get attacked multiple times by chickens, and properly explain how this Capitol riot in Gulliani’s Beyond the Thunderdome fantasy gone wild. PLUS we listen to tunes from The Clash, Maafa, Winter Wolf, and All Torn Up! 

DftUnderground Episode 403

Al from Cop/Out, Trashy, and Leftover Crack and Kacie Kerrigan are back! We ring in the new year the only way we know how, talking shit and playing tunes. This episode we turn our sights to figuring out what is in store for us in 2021 but we don’t ignore the opportunity to take one last final dump on this dumpster fire of a year. We talk a ton of trash, sort through the things that need sorting through, find any kernels of goodness to carry with us into the next year, and make some extremely short sighted predictions about the fresh hell that awaits us next. It’s fun, but there is some feeble attempts to get some perspective in there too. PLUS we listen to a bunch of 2020 tunes from Cop/Out, Days N Daze, All Torn Up!, and Pansy. 

DftUnderground Episode 402

Al from Cop/Out, Trashy, and Leftover Crack and Kacie Kerrigan get down to start a two part discussion about just how rough this year has really been. On this episode we focus on trying to get a grip of our grief. We like so many others have suffered debilitating losses in our community. Grieving all of our friends, families and community members who have passed away has been overwhelming. Not being able to get together has made this so much harder. So we talk about grief in a few different ways from weird social media posts to petty self reflections to socially distant commiserations and more. Al, Kacie, and I all recently lost a dear, dear brother and friend here in NYC. Alec Baillie of Leftover Crack was someone we knew very well, toured with for years, and w personally were very close to. His passing has been absolutely heart breaking to us and so many more here. We and so many others here in NYC and around the world loved Alec with our whole hearts. By no means do we try to fully explore all of the beauty and the complexity of Alec Baillie. He meant so much to so many people. We make an attempt to touch on some of that in this episode. But mainly we wanted to honor our friend in some small way and also we wanted to talk about our journey to mourn him in some functional way. Hopefully in talking about this here it can help some other people get some perspective on this painful topic. We know this is a hard topic, so we also tell some dumb stories and talk a ton of shit, as usual. It’s not all sadness, there is some joy in the pain. PLUS we listen to tunes from Trashy, Leftover Crack, Bad Cop/Bad Cop, and Broken Dead. 

DftUnderground Episode 401

Justin, host of the New Monuments podcast, gets down this week to talk about his podcast and our relationship to this growing movement for racial justice. Justin talks to us about his recent reckoning to be more active in this monumental moment. On the first part of the show we talk about whether OUR ideas are in fact changing or our world is changing. We discuss whether we should be confrontational or understanding in dealing with those changes in our ideas and/our our reality. On the second part of the episode we talk about the challenges of organizing and what actions on our part would be commensurate with the times. We know Black Lives Matter, although we can all know this better, so we ask what can we DO to better understand this and live it. . We are all coming into this moment from different perspectives, but it is exciting and exhilarating, and occasionally frustrating too, to see how ideas and actions clash as they do in this conversation on how to move forward together. PLUS we listen to music from the newly released Shut It Down benefit compilation for The Movement for Black Lives with tunes from Minority Threat, The 1865, Thou, and Racetraitor. And we also play a shot from the past with Time Zone. 

DftUnderground Episode 400

Is voting really in our interest? There is almost zero critical discussion in the mainstream media or in any political realm about whether voting in this society is reasonable or beneficial to the people. So we sort this shit out ourselves. We get neck deep into whether there is justice in the voting booth. Brilliant and talented musician Pansy joins us to give us a healthy, international perspective on the wild political reality we live in as we talk about elections and democracy under capitalism. We confront our own biases, shoot holes in the mainstreams unconscious, and endless ignorance surrounding this issue, and explore questions of privilege and empowerment related to our present voting predicament. We try to take nothing and no one for granted. AND we have a ton of fun talking shit while breaking it all down. PLUS we listen to music from Power Trip (R.I.P. Riley Gale), Body Count, and Pansy. 

DftUnderground Episode 399

With a new wave of protests against the police happening all across the country following the police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor some people have found it hard understand what these protest have been like and what they have been about. That’s understandable given that the mainstream media has us all spun out and confused, so we turned to covering this story how we think it should be covered, in detail, on the ground, and with a conscious bias. We spent some time in the streets and spent some time reflecting and feel like we can give a pretty solid break down of what the protests against the police were like here in NYC after the protests in Minneapolis inspired us all in late May / early June 2020. We give detailed first hand accounts of what happened and what we saw, and also get our heads straight on just how we all should be looking at these protests against the police and this new wave of the Black Lives Matter movement that has swept across the country. Everything the news is unfit and incapable of doing properly, we take as our mission here. We are totally biased, critical, and conscious about our updates from the front lines and from deep down in the underground. PLUS we listen to some tunes from Killer of Sheep, Maafa, Soul Glo, and Ache.

DftUnderground Episode 398

Quarantine Coverage Episode #4: Community We are airing an episode this week that was recorded prior to the incredible rebellion that has erupted in the US following the racist and outrageous murder of George Floyd at the hands of the police. We could not be more proud of the courageous protesters in the streets demanding justice for George Floyd and making is clear that Black Lives Matter. We are very eager to talk about those issues more on our podcast, however we did not want to distract from Black voices speaking about these issues or muddle anything with our perspective on these issues before everyone clearly heard from those leading this incredible movement. On this issue we choose to listen before we offer our perspective. So we are waiting to talk about these protests until we have listened more carefully and processed the insight and perspectives of Black voices leading this incredible moment in history. We hope to have an episode up soon, but won’t post until we feel we have truly taken the time to understand first. So we chose to air the great episode we had scheduled to be released this week despite the fact that it is not talking about the incredibly important issues burning up our streets. This week we talk about community in the time of Covid. We have three incredible contributions from musicians talking about this moment and helping us get some perspective on what punk community is and what we should be reflecting on during the quarantine. The punk community is so reliant on being able to congregate in a physical space together, since we so often don’t live in a single area and it is hard to maintain any perspective when we can’t be with our community, as we are essentially cut off from each other during this quarantine. So we distill what it means to maintain a healthy underground perspective when we are being bombarded by the mainstream and cut off from our community and friends. With contributions from Paul Rivera of the La Armada, Danielle Kolker and Jesse Sternberg of Out if System Transfer, and Glenn Gentzke of Treads and InRod. Plus we listen to tunes from all these incredible bands AND Power Alone. 

DftUnderground Episode 397

Quarantine Coverage Episode #3: Days and Days N Daze in Quarantine Whitney Flynn from Houston based folk punk phenomenon Days N Daze gets down to help us understand how to stay optimistic and focused during these darks days. She lifts our spirits as she talks to us about what she has been thinking during the quarantine, living in the chaos, and moving to NYC. And on the second half of the show we talk about Days N Daze new record “Show Me The Blueprints.” just released on Fat Wreck Chords. Plus we hear two tunes from the new record from Days N Days, as well as a tune from Skull Caster and Apes of the State.

DftUnderground Episode 396

Quarantine Coverage Episode #2: May Day. We celebrate International Workers’ Day from our unemployed quarantine by focusing on how this unique moment in history has made people more conscious about the ills of capitalism, the necessity of workers, the potential of science, and the need for alternatives to our current sorry state. Since we can’t be in the streets together this holiday, we celebrate by trying to see the joy in the selflessness we are seeing around us and the potential for change even in the most selfish acts of ignorant conspiracy whackos. We hear from Divin, a punk currently in a more literal lock down. He is in rehab and gives us his perspective on what’s going on there and out here in our own lockdowns. And we listen to music from Noogy, and two brand new songs from each of Days N Daze and Racetraitor’s new records. 

DftUnderground Episode 395

Quarantine Coverage Episode #1: Getting a Grip. This week we have a DOUBLE SIZED episode with FOUR special guest contributors. All our minds twisted up in this pandemic pandemonium we need to take some time to get a grip of ourselves, our thinking, and this moment. We spend this episode figuring out how to begin being reflective in this isolation. With contributions from Dick Lucas of the Subhumans in the UK, Chris Mann of the California band Intro5pect, Bobette of Montreal’s Union Thugs, and artist and activist Vittoria from Milan, Italy. PLUS we listen to music from the Subhumans, Union Thugs, Perdixion, and a brand new song from All Torn Up!  

DftUnderground Episode 394

Sick of Corona virus coverage? Yeah, us too! So Justin and Jon from the band World War IX get down to talk a ton of shit about what WWIX has been doing and we have nothing substantive to add to people’s germ obsession. WWIX has a new singer, new tunes, new record, and a new unbelievable comic. I have heard some of the dumbest shit this week while people talking about the virus, let me assure you we have a TON OF DUMB SHIT TO SAY, but sadly you will need to rely on someone else to hear more about COVID-19. We just talk a lot of dumb punk shit, helping you live in the gutter a lil more comfortably. Super fun episode. We could not stop laughing, hope you can’t too. Plus we listen to tunes from a bunch of great DIY NYC punk bands: WWIX, Witch Slap, Citizen Blast Kane, Axolotl, and RBNX.  

DftUnderground Episode 393

Dani, Chris, Donny, and Sara from SoCal’s Intro5pect get down to talk about their genuinely unique blend of punk, why they stopped making it, and why they have started again. And when so many punx are getting timid or confused a out how to or whether to talk politics, Intro5pect gets deep down in it and helps us get our heads right about how to do left wing politics in punk. And we talk a lil shit about going to show also. Plus we listen to tunes from Intro5pect, We the Heathens, and Apes of the State. 

DftUnderground Episode 392

On Dispatches from the Underground host NYC punk Joey Steel, and guests explore the depths of underground, sub, and counter-culture while also trying to grasp a UG perspective on the mainstream and pop culture we are subjected to endure. Dig deep/Get down.