CRIPPLE BASTARDS BANNED BY ABCNORIO/NYC,
WHEN PUNK BECOMES AN INJUSTICE.

written by Cika Giulio the Bastard >> [email protected]
translated by Srdjan Milosavljevic, journalist at Serbian Cafè/TO.

What you are about to read in the next lines is the report of one of the most unfair and vile acts of moralism and discrimination we have ever come thru in over 14
years of CRIPPLE BASTARDS, an act of censorship, imposed policy, a window shut in the face to a different mentality, culture... an act of intolerance that went hand
in hand with stress, language barriers and above all ignorance.

On May 25/05 ABCNoRio from NYC refused to let Cripple Bastards play. The basic reason they'll give you is: ABCNoRio volunteers find out CB have a record cover
with the photo of a girl forced to a blowjob at gunpoint and when they asked for a justifiable explanation to that artwork, the CB members weren't able to offer any
good one. So according to the ABC's set of rules about bands that can play and those that should be banned, CB were seen as a disgusting sexist outfit promoting
rape, and they weren't let in. Now, here's a detailed description of the facts from the CB's side.... first of all - here's the meaning of the "Almost human" cover. The
whole concept of that Cripple Bastards CD is human insensivity, the progressive decay of feelings and emotions in modern man's ethics, in few words.. the loss of
humanity of humans in the contemporary world, sentimental decay becoming a norm, a standard imposed from above thru medias, education, sexual inputs we get
thru TV, ads, stratification of society. The title "Almost human" gives a sense to that cover art. It's a portrait of human degradation, the "almost human" status is the
modern man's current condition, a parallel world of insensivity gradually replacing what according to us was our real nature and identity of human beings. If someone
reads the CB lyrics one by one he'll certainly get a clear idea of what it's all about and will certainly figure out that the cover of our CD is certainly NOT meant to
inspire rape, sexual control or sexism of any form. CB is just a band expressing negativity without taking a specific political stance. The "Almost human" CD is all
about giving a portrait of human degradation, insensibility, feelings and naturalness being castrated by a hallucinating reality of abuse, indifference,
resignation. A collective of people that books a band ignoring what is it all about just proves to be ignorant and irresponsible - the ABC volunteers assumed to have
good knowledge of the CB music + they pointed out the fact they had been looking to see the band playing. Our response to this is that they were totally IGNORING
which kind of band was going to play there. Since the early days of CB we always made it very clear that lyrics cover an essential rule in our style, and without
reading them - you don't get even 2% of what we are trying to express. If the ABC guys would have checked the CB lyrics before booking the show, they would have
certainly got the fact that they are all about human degradation, decay of feelings, frustrations in daily life and personal relationships - also including sexual
psychology. This is very fucking clear since day zero of CB... and this gets the right idea of what the incriminated cover art is about. They told they hadn't seen that
CD cover before.... well, "Almost human" has been the main CB release of the last 2 years along with "Misantropo a senso unico" LP/CD, so they could simply have
a quick view at www.cripplebastards.com : by the time the show was booked we still had on very evident ads of both CB's most recent albums and with a few clicks
they would have got to that cover pic. Plus, I still want to say that in 1995 Cripple Bastards released a 7" called "Sexist society... must destroy it!!" (on a US label)
including all our views about sexism and a very long explanatory insert on the so-called "sexual liberation" + above all the woman condition/objectification in today's
society. We clearly told to the ABCNoRio volunteers that we weren't sexist or pro-rape and we were rather surprised that they hadn't realized it by themselves already.
Now, here's what happened exactly. On May 23rd we played in Boston, MA. Some time before CB went on stage, some kid came to me and asked for an
explanation to the CB "almost human" cover. My spoken english is quite lame and all what you read here since now is done with the help of a translator-friend + I'm
at home relaxed behind a desk, the US tour we made got us so tired and stressed that we couldn't almost talk in our own language!! anyway, I tried to give him some
brief explanations about the cover, he started to shout at me like an old irritated granny who had just found a kid pissing in her garden. "this is rape, raaape!! where's
the provocation??". In few minutes some US friends took my defence in this quarrel, including girls pointing out the things from a female view. The guy kept on yelling
bullshits so the CB guitarist repeated it all quietly promising that we are not sexist at all and embracing the guy in a friendly way. The main point for me is that all
these arguments here in Italy are out of discussion. Those who like CB know perfectly what we're all about, they come at our shows, share our views/mentality, stay
in our network of friends. But also the part of the scene disliking us is aware of what we do: our lyrics, cover arts, attitude etc.. so they simply don't come to our
shows, don't distribute our records, don't feature us on their 'zines. We ignore each other and that's all. If people come to ask for explanations we're certainly able to
justify our choices (and in our native language it's 10000000 times easier and more detailed), if after that they still yell "this is rape, sexism" like a bunch of inquisitory
cunts, the only remaining matter is LACK OF RESPECT .. what the fuck are you doing at a CB show, so in that case the only thing we have to offer is punches in the
face. Ok, this was to explain the fact that here in Italy those who are not into CB's mentality simply stay away, it doesn't happen that somebody comes at a show to
start screwing our balls as the guy from Boston did. Why goin' at the concert of a band without even knowing what they sing/talk about?? you go there becoz "it's
italian grindcore" - ok, but you end showing up like an ignorant dick when you start to complain about a CD cover proving that you have no idea at all of what's the
main style/mentality of the band (and CB is doing this since 14 fucking years). After the Boston argument.... well, the day after we played in New
Haven/Connecticut. The show was really good. At the very end of the night, when we were packing up the stuff for loading the van... a girl came to ask some
explanations for the "Almost human" cover. I tried to give a very calm and relaxed feedback and I think I made it quite well. The girl kept on questioning so I told her
that the best thing she could do was downloading all CB's lyrics from our site and read them, then take a look at the "almost human" cover again and get to the real
sense of it. She just briefly opened the booklet of our "Misantropo a senso unico" CD and read a couple songs, including the one attacking radical feminists. This
was enough for her. "Uh, are you against feminists??". "Yes we are ma'am". In my head I had just this: "shall we start an argument that could take days to get to a
point?? no way". In reality CB wrote a song about the radical branch of man-hating feminists that used to be quite diffused here in Italy a few years ago, and that
according to us was just another form of sexual supremacy, helped by the fact that nobody ever dares to question sexism out of the arrogant macho
stereotype. Here in Italy we used to have many negative experiences with these radical groups (including riot-girl bands promoting violence against men), so we
think that in the contest/scene where this was thought out, the CB song has a deep sense and effect, it's not just a rough way to say "feminists suck, they hate
me becoz when I hang around I turn my head to watch girls' asses and I like to fuck sluts". The point was once again that the girl in New Haven didn't know a fucken
shit about CB but wanted to get an opinion with a brief look at our stuff and few words with somebody who has 2% of the english knowledge she had... a.k.a.
how prejudices rise. After a while we got really frustrated about she investigating on this and that, just to see if he she could find a new target to spit shit on... so we
started to make fun on that in italian (me in serbian) and film it with our camera. The girl just went away saying something like "Ok, this is enough for me". Fuck it, this
tour was an incredible strain for us, we had to play months and months all around Europe to put together enough money to buy the plane tickets, our bass-player
had to spit blood to get enough free days from his job and join us... we were all tired, burnt out but also excited to be there in a completely different world,
experiencing things we had never seen before... man, were we still supposed to waste time and patience at each show to justify ourselves in front of those who
never gave a shit about CB, never got a single record or read a single song-text, but were there to make sure that in the underground scene nobody breaks the
supreme rules of sexual equality and moralistic conscience??!?!? Fucking senseless. In the last 5 years I got TONS of mail from US kids asking about CB touring the
States, saying they were looking forward to see us badly... at the end we did it, we flew to the other side of the world for what?? giving explanations for a CD cover
and being banned from a militant Punx venue just becoz we were offending their frustrated girlfriends suffering of who knows what kinda sexual deficits. Fuck that.
This becoz everything must be done with correctness, true diy conscience, following a schedule of ethical rules that can't be violated in any way. Doesn't it sound
fucking rhetorical and conformist?? But let's go back to the facts. An ABCNoRio volunteer was there when we were discussing with the girl. He didn't say one single
word, had no fucking confrontation with us. He just went to talk with the guitarist of STRONG INTENTION (the band touring with us) saying that CB could not sleep at
his place in New Haven that night due to the "Almost human" cover. He told it was OK for him to host S.I., but not C.B. This tour was organized since months and
one of the first things we made clear when we started to get it booked was to be sure to have a sleeping room at each single town we were playing at. This failed just
becoz of a CD cover and two morons not getting the sense of it; a kid masturbating all day long probably hating himself for not being able to improve his sexual life, a
frigid cunt doing the witch hunter among people that have nothing to do with what makes her feel such a non-fucked nullity. Go to a psychiatric therapy next time,
you'll get better results. We ended up taking 2 rooms in a cheap Motel, we're certainly not the kind of people to beg for charity to a bunch of retarded church-kids.
The day after we had the ABCNoRio show booked in the afternoon. I had no idea that place was so politically correct. I had knowledge that some bands of friends
like DROPDEAD, CRUDOS etc had played there, I thought it was a venue kept by real street kids and not pc nerds. When I think about punk in NYC my mind goes
to my all time favourite public animal GG ALLIN, so I really couldn't expect the mothertown of GG and tons of other great Punk acts being the nest of such a
moralistic gang, questioning everything to the last detail in order to have it "in line" with a fucken policy of correctness and clean-ass morals. Anyway, the guy + girl
from New Haven got there before us and probably spent a lot of their time saying that we are a sexist band promoting rape and woman humiliation, that we shouldn't
be let to play there and so on... Look at the point: THEY DROVE FROM CONNECTICUT TO NYC JUST TO PREVENT A BAND TO PLAY A SHOW. And not a band
coming from 50 miles away, a band coming from Italy and being stressed to death after 10 days of extremely long drives and few hours of sleep x night. A band that
tons of kids would have loved to see and judge by themselves (rather than getting it censored by the ignorant set of rules of few PC pricks) and that they would
probably never see again. We were on tour since one and half week and the van we got had no back-seats, so we spent all the time stuck between the amps and
the driver's seat, using our own luggage as "chairs". It was one of the hardest tour conditions we ever passed thru.... Nobody at ABCNoRio informed us about the
fact they wouldn't have let us play, and the most terrifying detail is that when we called them some hours before they even gave us directions on how to get there!
They wanted us to be there to give us some ABC-lesson on what's correct and what's sexist and then send us to hell. When we arrived I saw our friend M.Castro
from Vicious Interference Rec./Florida coming straight to us and say there were big problems, the CB show was going to be fucked due to the CD cover. Then I saw
the nerd-guy from New Haven standing in front of the ABCNoRio door like a freaky bodyguard there to save the virginity of that place, and I clearly understood what
was goin' on. It was the 3rd bullshit in 3 days. We couldn't take it anymore and really didn't want to waste time/voice to give explanations. Plus, the guys standing at
the door were the worst sight of sadness I can think of. Here in Italy a lot of people joke on the average US hardcore kid, looking like a total nerd, hiding his
ignorance behind big rhetorics, columns on some "politically aware" pseudo-anarchist mag and so on. Well, I expected ABCNo Rio to be run by real life people, just
like EL PASO's crew here in Torino or FORTE PRENESTINO in Rome... that's what I mean for people living in the street and standing for their ideals in a concrete
way. The militant place of motherfucking New York City had 3 geeks (looking like school kids, one dressed like a fisherman) on the front-door waiting for us to have
an "intellectual confrontation" (that's how they called it). Here in Italy most squats lasting since a long time and having some real political action are handled by
people with iron balls that could make a big barbeque with those 3 kids. I found it offensive as shit: the guy and the girl driving from New Haven to prevent us to play
there, those 3 geeks waiting for us to have the intellectual confrontation and decide if letting us play or not. Shit, should we ask for your charity just because you're
so nerd and cock-slapper that you can't take the sense of a CD cover?? Me and the drummer didn't want to talk to them at all, just turn our backs and go to the next
show. At the end me and the bass-player spent a few minutes trying to say something, but honestly I was too tired and fucked up for coming to something concrete,
my english was getting worse and worse, plus I was feeling depressed to be there, after 14 years of playing in Italy's oldest extreme HC band and 11 running a
punk/HC label... I had to give explanations to a bunch of moralistic fucks and prove the fact that I wasn't sexist simply becoz they had been too lazy and unrespectful
and hadn't checked before what CB was all about. Here in Italy a situation like this would have ended in a bloody fight, there I was a stranger in a foreign land, didn't
know at all what would have happened if I would have started to punch some kids in the mid of Manhattan/NYC. Our bassplayer tried to make it short saying that we
come from a completely different reality, that CB in Europe has been playing in "political" places for almost 15 years, that few days before we had played in a feminist
collective's venue and no-one of the girls felt offended by our album cover or the way we showed up. I tried to give some words about my mentality, but it's
impossible to explain CB in 10 minutes on the front-door of a X place, surrounded by X people who talk a different language and come from a radically different
culture/life-style. The main point of this story is that CB is definitely NOT a sexist band and I think we did much more against sexism (spreading a record full of things
to read all focused on that matter, over 3000 copies around) than what the ABC gang did not letting a band like us play in their venue. After realizing that the
discussion was driving to nowhere because the ABC geeks had already taken their decision, we have still been asked to pass them a CB record so they could read
the lyrics and take THE final decision. We had a copy of "Misantropo a senso unico" out of the packed stocks and we gave it to one of the kids standing in front of
the door. They disappeared for 5 mins in order to held a private "conference" and decide wheter or not they would have allowed us to play. When they returned we
got the CD back and this final answer "go away, we are disgusted". CRIPPLE BASTARDS have been rejected by ABCNoRio for some of the most unfair
reasons one can think of: lack of information, ignorance, language barrier (I'm half yugoslavian and half italian so I have 2 native languages + I learnt English at
school but I can talk it so-so, would like to know who of those ABC professors pretending to have an "intellectual confrontation" with us could talk some other
language besides English... speak English or die, uh?). On this tour we were introducing our upcoming album "Desperately insensitive" focused on the US
imperialistic policy in Europe expecially concerning the secret support to Albanian KLA terrorism and the savage NATO attacks on Yugoslavia in 1999. We would
have simply said something about these matters, it's obvious we weren't there to sing about girls sucking cocks and Meat Shits style subjects. I'm sorry but we can't
help idiots to get smarter. We can simply fight back an injustice. That's why we want everyone in the Hardcore/Metal scene to be informed about this act of
ignorance/discrimination we have been subjected to, and invite all bands standing for something real and moralism-free to think about it and kick out those who see
Punk as a list of rules to conform and obey, let's put them back in their colleges . Fuck ABCNoRio, don't play for the church-kids, fuck femi-nazism and socialistic
yankees slapping cocks all day long on what's correct and what's unclean, while their fucking government imposes the worst shit to countries on the opposite side of
the world. Spread this info all around, we'll make songs and records focusing on this experience, and we'll also publish a video-report of our East Coast tour proving
the facts themselves, we recorded everything - so you will see those geeks with your own eyes and find out if all what's described here isn't fucking REAL...

Thanks to CBGB and Ralphy Boy/DISASSOCIATE for showing the real side of NYC's Hardcore, our show at CBGB worked greatly, we have been treated with
respect and enjoyed a fucking lot the time spent there. Thanks to anyone else who supported our US tour with the right spirit and understood what CB stands for.
Thanks to STRONG INTENTION, Ann from Providence, DROPDEAD (that sadly couldn't play with us), mighty SUPPRESSION, the Hardcore Holocaust Warehouse,
Rich Hoak, all the Relapse Records people we met....

A promise to the guy Chris from New Haven/Connecticut. You're playing in a band. I'll find out the name and if it'll ever come to some sort of "popularity" I'll do my
best to fuck you over as much as you did with us. If you'll ever come to Europe someday, make sure not to end in our hands and pass thru Italy, or you'll experience
what we would have done here in such a circumstance as the ABCNoRio's one.

Live to hate people, summer 2002