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Prowl Music Video

This one was fun. In the end, it looks pretty proper. We were going for that Texas Chainsaw Massacre grit. But the production felt a little more like an actual chainsaw massacre. First off, Dan drove into the mountains above his house in the dark. 5am. To prep to shoot the singing scene. Because Dan lives far the hell away from the band, he was alone. He found the spot, trucked all the gear down a mountain hill, no trail, and set up. He opened the fake blood and poured it over his head. It was much colder than he expected. He hit record and filmed 3 takes of the song as quickly as possible because the average temperature at 7,000 feet above sea level in October is, well, fucking freezing. As he was packing up, a friendly looking jogger passed on the road. "All good," said Dan as she's tried to make sense of the seeming bloodbath before her. But he got then. Then came day two with the full band. Every drove the far ass drive to Dan's hood. Then returned to the location. They trucked Drew's drums down the same hill, no trail. Dan forgot the tripod. So instead the guys ductaped the came (read: iPhone) to a ladder and got it done. It wasn't much warmed but it helped that no one was soaked in blood. The air guitar and air bass scenes moved quickly with Byron and Trevor doing their best to put on a show when they were very literally not. When we got to drums, Drew went hard. A truck parked up the mountain from us and took in the super hot beat show, cheering when we wrapped. It was cold. It was bloody. It was way fun. What Milk Money is all about.

#Youtube

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Cop Kid Greatest Hits Volume 2

All we wanted to do yesterday was stay home, put on our best pair of underwear, take a couple cute pics in the mirror, have a good cry with our best friend Meredith, and listen to a record that made us whoop and weep while tripping the light fantastic like Steve Martin in The Jerk. But we didn't have that record. And not having that record made us want to explode so very violently. Either Cop Kid knew this, woke up early and made their entire record, Cop Kid Greatest Hits Volume 2, for us to rebuild ourselves to today. Or our psyches share edibles on some spectacular ethereal plane in the multiverse where we just lay around on land-locked, reservoir beaches forgetting days even exist. Cuz damn. This record hits like Summer showing up at our igloo with a 6-pack of something fruity like, "Shhhhhhh, I got you, fam." This record hits like the first time you heard Pharrell's voice. But if that had happened while you were spooning with Pharrell in a hammock on a beach at the same time a Caribbean breeze that smelled like passion and passionfruit made the hair on your arms stand up. Like, damn, could this be the real thing? This record hits like running into a distraught polar bear and being like, "What's wrong, friend?" And you learn polar bear toenails really are as cold as Andre insinuated and you're like, "You won't believe this but I have 4 polar paw mittens and a battery-powered blow dryer in my back pocket." Then some wizard or magician emerges from an alleyway and casts a spell on you and you turn into the toenails and all of a sudden you're wrapped in wool and warm air engulfs you, and Outkast was wrong. So like, it's the soundtrack of this summer or something.

#Bandcamp

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Metallic Hardcore Madness

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BUST IT!

Not really a secret that M$ is a hardcore band in rock disguise. Bump our fave new hxc with us here... https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6TLJlTuBEikYAHdTDnW0WF

#hardcoremusic #hardcore music #hardcore punk #hardcorepunk #punk

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Alone - Vertical Video

#metal #alternative #emo #punk #grunge #screamo #numetal #nu metal #post hardcore #posthardcore #indie #music video

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Mercy - Vertical Video

#music video #milk money #rock #grunge #alternative #punk #metal #post hardcore #emo

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// YӨЦ ΛЯΣ ᄂIƧƬΣПIПG ƬӨ ΛᄂӨПΣ

#milk money #howl #metal #punk #grunge #hardcore

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// YӨЦ ΛЯΣ ᄂIƧƬΣПIПG ƬӨ MΣЯᄃY

#milk money #rock #grunge #alternative #punk #metal #hardcore #post hardcore

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// YӨЦ ΛЯΣ ᄂIƧƬΣПIПG ƬӨ PЯӨЩᄂ

#milk money #metal #punk #hardcore #indie #alternative #grunge

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// YӨЦ ΛЯΣ ᄂIƧƬΣПIПG ƬӨ ΉӨЩᄂ

[milkmoneyzine]

Who the fuck do you think you are? #5

We’ve done five of these already? Wow, you guys can’t get enough of this stuff. Or maybe you’ve already had enough, and we just don’t care. Probably the latter, but we’re still in quarantine mode, and we’ve gotta pass the time somehow. So! On to your questions.

@DarthVaderFromPlanetVulcan asks: Will you please review Huey Lewis & The News’ new EP, Weather?

M$: Huey Lewis and the News is known for two things: AMERICAN PSYCHO and BACK TO THE FUTURE. You might think they’re also known for the GHOSTBUSTERS theme song, but that’s actually Ray Parker Jr. The producers went after Lewis first, but he declined. When they couldn’t get him, they hired Parker Jr., and told him that they wanted the GHOSTBUSTERS theme to sound like a Huey Lewis song. He took that suggestion a little too seriously, and delivered something that sounded almost exactly like Lewis’ song “I Want a New Drug.” There was a lawsuit and everything. The GHOSTBUSTERS theme is better, if you’re wondering.

Anyway.“Hip to Be Square” and “The Power of Love” are all-time classics. Those songs basically define what the 80’s were like, and Huey Lewis was a god among men in 1987. But it’s 2020, and even though we’re all stuck in isolation, no one cares about a new Huey Lewis record. It’s got some decent bits, and it’s a bummer that Lewis’ hearing declined so much that they couldn’t actually finish it, but it’s just not the same. No one wants to hear the new stuff. Just play the hits, man. That’s literally the only thing we’re here for. We can’t wait to be at that stage of our career—probably without the fame or success though.

Anyway.

“Hip to Be Square” and “The Power of Love” are all-time classics. Those songs basically define what the 80’s were like, and Huey Lewis was a god among men in 1987. But it’s 2020, and even though we’re all stuck in isolation, no one cares about a new Huey Lewis record. It’s got some decent bits, and it’s a bummer that Lewis’ hearing declined so much that they couldn’t actually finish it, but it’s just not the same. No one wants to hear the new stuff. Just play the hits, man. That’s literally the only thing we’re here for. We can’t wait to be at that stage of our career—probably without the fame or success though.

@OnlyTrueBelievers asks: FMK - Despair, Buried Alive, Terror

M$: Scott Vogel may not be a hardcore icon, but his name has to come up in the discussion at the very least. He’s earned that much.

Now there are two ways to think about Vogel.

First, if there were a “Lead Singer” draft, and your new band had an early pick, he definitely goes in the first round. Maybe he’s not the overall Number 1, but he doesn’t fall out of the Top 10. He’s a workhorse, and has all the connections to get that new band well positioned for the future. Listen to his suggestions, let him lead the way, and you’ll be on tour forever.

The second way might be a little more accurate. Vogel is like a seasoned politician—maybe a well-regarded Senator, or a popular Congressman. He’s been actively involved in hardcore since like 1993, knows how the game is played, and he’s fucking GREAT at town halls and rallies (aka club shows and festivals). When you get down to it, though, and start looking a little deeper at his campaign speeches (his lyrics), they don’t really mean anything. He definitely follows the Jamey Jasta approach to songwriting in that his catchphrases are phenomenal, and they sound awesome when you’re shouting them into the mic at the top of your lungs, but they’re pretty generic. If you’re a young straight edge kid, and don’t know anything about Vogel as a person, you can easily interpret those lyrics as an anthem for your anti-drug beliefs. If you’re an old guy who doesn’t give a fuck about straight edge, has probably crushed a few beers with Vogel, and loves the sancity of the hardcore scene, he’s speaking directly to you. That’s the hallmark of a great frontman and a great politician: say as much as you can, without actually saying anything and you’ll be in a position of power for the next 30 years. Vogel has that shit on lock.

That’s a lot of sidetracking for what was, honestly, a pretty easy question. Fuck Despair, Marry Buried Alive, and Kill Terror. The first Buried Alive record is still one of our favorite HC albums, and we want to be close to it forever. Despair is the band you brag about. It’s not fair, but someone had to lose in this scenario. If “Keepers of the Faith” has to die so that “The Death of Your Perfect World” and “One Thousand Cries” can prosper forever, so be it. Vogel will be fine. He’s always been an underdog, anyway.

@DefinitelyNotTheProphet asks: Can Mormons really be straightedge? M$:

@StickToHardrock asks: If there were an election for Governor of Hardcore and Mayor of Straight Edge, who would they be?

M$: This is something that we think about a lot, for no real reason. The first time it came up (for us, anyway) was way back in 2001. A bunch of us went to Syracuse, New York for Hellfest. The lineup was stacked*, headlined by Earth Crisis playing their final show** on the last night.

The first day we got to town, we went out to eat. Agreeing on a place to eat with 25 people is damn near impossible, because no one wants to split up, and risk being in the group that’s less fun than the other one. FOMO is a serious thing amongst friends. After about an hour of arguing, a few of the locals stepped in, led the way, and we all followed. There were only a handful of us that were vegan, and looking over the menu, there didn’t seem to be anything for us to eat.

“I don’t see any vegan options,” I (Trevor) said. “Do you know if they have any?”

“Oh, I didn’t think about that,” said one of the locals. “You might have to go to the grocery store around the corner.”

“No vegan options?” said Brandon. “This is Syracuse.”

“I thought Karl from Earth Crisis was the mayor of this city,” said Brook.

“He’s allowing businesses that don’t have vegan options? That’s kind of bullshit,” I said.

“Pretty shitty mayor,” said Brook. “Probably won’t get re-elected.”

None of the locals laughed, and were convinced that we thought Karl from Earth Crisis was actually the mayor of the city.

Ever since, whether it’s on long tour drives, late night games of 31, or parking lot hangout sessions well after a show has ended, we’ve debated who would be the Governor of Hardcore, and The Mayor of Straight Edge. We still don’t know the answer. But seeing as how it’s an election year, let’s throw down the gauntlet, and open it up to suggestions.

Maybe we have a primary and then a general? I don’t know. We’ll figure this out on Twitter and Facebook over the next couple of weeks. Get those nominations in.

*I forgot just how stacked this show was until I found the setlist. Holy shit.

**No hardcore band will ever have a final show. They’re all like professional wrestlers, in that they’ll just quietly disappear for a little while before making a less than stellar comeback every few years until someone actually dies.

[milkmoneyzine]

"WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" #4

Q: What’s your favorite band with ‘sun’ in its name?

M$: One of the most important things you can do as a musician is try to impress strangers with your wealth of musical knowledge. People are usually super into that, and it never, ever backfires or makes you look like a douchebag.

Naming a favorite band all depends on what situation you’re in. Since we’re obviously only here to make people think we’re cool, here’s a list of bands to use for different, but very real situations. 1. At A Local Up-and-Coming Hardcore Show These are the shows that you, a seasoned veteran of heavy music, waltz into like you’re King Dick of Fuck Mountain. All the younger kids know who you are, even though you’ve never met any of them. You can coast easily on the reputation of the band you were in a few years ago, and you act like it. You strike up a conversation with the guitarist from the headlining local band and casually drop Sunn 0))) like you’re mentioning the weather. It’s likely none of the youngsters have gotten that deep into doom metal, but now they’ll always remember you when they’re out of hardcore and playing thrash metal at Metro on a random Tuesday in a few years. 2. Appearing As A Guest on Your Friend’s New Podcast That Will Last About Nine Episodes If you want to show that you have a sensitive side, but still have a little bit of an edge, you go with Sunny Day Real Estate. It’s weird how many people have forgotten about this band, and you’ll be hailed as some sort of savior the next day when you get a text that says “Holy shit dude! I forgot how fucking heavy ‘In Circles’ is!” Then you can just be like…

3. SaTuRdAyS aRe FoR tHe BoYs:

When you next find yourself at The Garage, hanging around the fire pit with some chopper-riding, alt-country guys, you should definitely casually bring up the

Sons of Anarchy

soundtrack. Neil Young’s classic “Hey Hey My My” shows up as a cover by a band called Battleme—who you’ve probably never heard of, but can easily learn all about by spending a couple of quick minutes on Wikipedia. Talk about them confidently, and everyone will be impressed—even if you’re full of shit. Which you are, because the Sons of Anarchy soundtrack sucks.

4. At the Merch Table After Our Set

If you’re talking to us, Milk Money, there is only one answer:

via Gfycat

5. Writing a Mildly Humorous Advice Column

If we’re just being honest, then it’s always going to be Sunsleeper.

@CuckNorris asks:  This guy I follow on Twitter keeps talking about pegging. What’s that? M$: Something that’s probably going to give you one, two, possibly all of these reactions. 

@XMethTilDeathX asks: My girlfriend just left me because I broke edge. But now we’re stuck in quarantine together and she says she can’t stand me smoking meth in the apartment. How come? M$: Two possibilities: First, maybe she’s just irritated that you’re smoking all her meth and she has to keep leaving the apartment for "non-essential" tasks like getting more. Second, she actually doesn’t care about the meth, but Pat Flynn liked one of her post break-up selfies, and now you’re cramping her style.

Mom asks: How is your diet coming along?

M$: Check out our Instagram side project (@MilkMoneyEats) where we just post pictures of our food in lieu of developing any semblance of a personality. Since we can’t play shows, we’re trying to become influencers and get some of those sweet product endorsements for flat tummy tea or something. #LikeForLike

Q: What’s your favorite pedal?

Trevor: I feel like I have to let you in on a secret here. I really don’t know anything about gear. Most of my pedal purchases are based on design. I know what effect I want, but instead of  finding the “best” one, I usually go for whatever looks the coolest. Half the time it works, and the other half of the time it backfires, and I end up texting my buddy Oz, who then shames me for not asking him first. Then he sends me links to a bunch of boring boxes, I convince myself that I didn’t want that effect anyway, and try to sell the one that I just got. It’s a fun little game.

But right now, my actual favorite pedal is the Rainbow Machine from Earthquaker Devices. It’s a pitch shifter, but you can adjust it to get a really nice chorus sound. There’s also a “Magic” button that produces a really spacey vibe, that is really hard to make work in an actual band setting. I’ve only successfully used it on two songs. I don’t think I dare try recording anything with it, but I play around with the settings on it constantly. At some point I’ll have the confidence to use it for real, but by then I’ll probably be obsessed with a different, cooler pedal and the Rainbow Machine will be gone. Such is life as a hardrocker, you know?

[milkmoneyzine]

"WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" #3

#Follow4FollowMyGuy asks: As an artist in uncertain times, how can I keep promoting my music from quarantine?

M$: The first thing you need to do is find some compromising evidence on a friend that runs a website. Then you blackmail them into letting you write a pointless Advice Column that no one actually cares about. That’s the most important place to start.

Once you’ve got that secured, and the money from the blog is flowing endlessly into your account, then you just hustle. Hustling is a lost art these days. There are so many online outlets, and so many different social media platforms that it can get overwhelming pretty quickly. The key is to not let that happen. Focus on one or two at a time. Get weird on Twitter and sneak in some links. Ask for questions on your Instagram story, then find a way to relate your answers to songs you can post. Dive into the hellscape that is Reddit and find a thread that your music fits with, and drop a link. Not all of this is going to work, but it’s worth a shot.

The other important thing to remember is that you don’t have to promote a specific song, or an album, or a video. Just interact with people. Everyone else is online all the time, so just be visible, be friendly, and be accessible. As long as you’re doing something online, no one is going to forget about you.

Maybe don’t use the band page to drop heart eyes on thirst trap photos. Slide into those DM’s from your own account, you know? The last thing you want is the fucking bass player seeing their reply first and stealing your thunder. But then again, all is fair in love and hardrock.

Dan Price asks: Can I have your milk money?

M$:

@FiendingForMosh asks: When are shows coming back?

M$: The real answer is that no one knows. Probably sooner than you think, which is also probably too soon. It’s kind of a lose/lose situation.

Live music is in a weird spot. To go from “Everyone needs to practice social distancing until we can get a handle on this extremely contagious thing” to “Well, it’s not contained, and we don’t have a vaccine, but fuck it. Go ahead and pack as many people as you can into a tiny, poorly ventilated space and let them all slam into each other” in the span of a couple of weeks seems insane.

There are some medical experts that say live shows shouldn’t start again until 2021. That’s not going to happen. That can’t happen. Every place that relies on a steady stream of smaller touring acts and local shows—which is almost all of them—will close if that’s the case. No one wants that. Venues need to make money and bands need to make money. The only way to do that is with shows.

What’s going to be really interesting is seeing who takes the risk. Some bands are going to hit the road two days after “shelter in place” ends. There will be venues ready to host the shows, and people dying to see them—no matter who that band is. The very idea of getting back out in public and seeing their friends is going to be enough for a lot of people. Those bands are probably going to do pretty well, and play for a lot of grateful people every night.

Then there are going to be other bands that take the whole rest of the year off. To them, the juice won’t be worth the squeeze. They’ll stay home, write new songs, make a new record, and continue to wait it out. The bands that take this route are probably the bands that are a little more established, and have other sources of income. Some bands can afford not to tour. Others can’t.

There are also going to be a lot of people who just don’t trust anyone in a large crowd for a while.

“I’d love to see that band. But there’s no way in hell I’m going to stand in the dark while a drunk, sweaty guy—still wearing a heavy denim jacket in fucking July for some reason—brushes his damp hair across my face as he tries to squeeze through an already tiny space.”

It’s weird, it’s scary, and it’s pretty unprecedented. But it is going to be okay. Live music will always be something that people enjoy, and there will always be someone who figures out how to make the most of it. Things aren’t going back to normal anytime soon, but maybe that’s a good thing. It gives everyone a chance to decide what the new normal is.

There is one upside that could come from this, and one that Milk Money wholeheartedly supports: Maybe venues/bars/clubs will actually keep their bathrooms clean, stocked, and operational.

Ahhh, who are we kidding? No one is going to learn anything from the last five weeks.

XtestpressX asks: Who are M$’s favorite current #SLCHC bands?

M$:

M$ PRESENTS THE #SLCHC2020LOVE THE MIXTAPE: 1. Victim To None - Sacred 2. Devoid - Another Life Wasted 3. Ape $hit - Pretty Neat ft. Dea Giokas 4. Degeneration XXX - Bitter End 5. Dirty Mike - Angel (Prod. by Teemane) 6. Zodiac Killer - Serpent's Tongue 7. Crow Killer - Close Grip 8. Witchtrial - Burn 9. Absent - Dimmed Love 10. Tamerlane - Absense

Run tha trak!

Milk Money Mixtapes

·

M$ presents #SLCHC2020LOVE The Mixtape

@StatuteOfLimitations asks: What is your wildest tour story? Dan$: As all of Milk Money will attest, my memory is not the hottest. But I’ve been blessed with a metric shit-ton of sketchy/amazing tour experiences, so here’s a montage of pretty true events... - Coming up with the idea for Milk Money with Trevor on west coast Cherem runs.

- Roger Miret teaching me his prison workout regimen in an old church in Switzerland. 

- Watching Madball and Obituary festival sets in Turino, Italy from the fancy comfort of an above-ground pool.

- Breaking up fights between American soldiers and German hardcore kids.

- Breaking up fights between American soldiers and Japanese hardcore kids.

- Getting into fights with American soldiers in foreign lands.

- The time Lord Ezec asked me if I wanted to smoke some crack with him.

- The time the moon crashed into Idaho.

- Hiding outside the backstage tent of symphonic metal cover band Apocalyptica in a giant mud puddle during a Czech Republic downpour with Vinnie Stigma, waiting for them to take the stage, so we could sneak in and steal coffee from their espresso machine.

- Taking Matt Mascarenas to the beach for the first time in his life.

- Fuck Nick Cannon. - Watching an aggro road-rager freak and back down a steep-ass, 500-foot grassy slope into a cow pasture after he pulled us over to fight. - The Lightkeeper’s Trail (What's good, Countdown to Life/Broadway Calls?!?!?!) - Watching Sparky from Demented Are Go bite the head straight off a dead rat, pound a bottle of vodka, and say, “That’ll clean it up.” - Chasing a not-be-identified drummer from brothel to brothel in Graz, Austria to watch him dance with girls for a few seconds before running to the next brothel… just to make sure he didn’t get left behind by the bus.

- Not joining Hatebreed in a backstage jacuzzi full of actual erotic dancers. - 30 Seconds to Mars telling us we were “pretty heavy” when we shared a venue in Minneapolis. - Moshing in a Drum’n’Bass tent at a Euro festival with a not-to-be-identified NYHC band who were skying way high on ecstasy. = Learning so many important lessons the hard way while making all of my closest friends cuz… hardcore. Trevor$: I don’t have nearly as many globe-trotting adventures as Dan, but some of my favorite moments with my friends happened on tour. - Spending two full days at a Fazoli’s (the only kind-of vegan option in the city) in Grand Island, Nebraska on our first tour because the transmission went out 13 hours after we bought the van. - Directions to a venue that were “Turn left at the women’s prison, and drive to the end of the road. It’s in the junkyard.” Once inside the junkyard, getting the instructions “Stay away from the fences. That’s where the ladies have ‘yard time’ and the guards in the tower get really angry when we talk to them.” - Air guitar and autographs with a drunk guy named “Deth” in Tijuana. - Almost having to fight a promoter in New Mexico because he accused us of stealing a microphone, only to find out ten minutes after leaving that Bill accidentally put it in the pocket of his cargo shorts and forgot. - Swimming too far out in the Florida ocean and getting stopped by the beach patrol just before the shelf drops off and all the bull sharks hang out. - Going on tour without confirming anything, then having to beg every promoter to let us play when we showed up. - Trying to pretend there wasn’t a fight happening in the crowd until Jake pushed his drums out of the way to jump in at every single out-of-state show Tamerlane ever played. So what we're saying here is, once this plague blows off, GET IN THE FUCKIN VAN CUZ LIFE IS SHORT AND YOU SHOULD LIVE IT!

Until next time, this is Milk Money saying, “Tamerlane is not the Five Finger Death Punch of Salt Lake Hardcore."

[milkmoneyzine]

WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE #2

Originally published on the Gold Blood Collective Blog.

Believe it or not, we’re back for a second dose of “Who the Fuck Do You Think You Are?” and we’re just as shocked as you are. They’re letting us do this again for some reason, but it seems as if that’s a good thing. From the looks of these questions, some of you are just as bored as we are. So here we go again with answers you definitely weren’t looking for.

moshxlord666 asks: Are panic chords still cool? Why or why not?

M$: You know how when you go to Comic Con (or, more likely, when you’re walking around downtown during Comic Con) you see all these people dressed up as characters from their favorite comic books/movies/video games? That’s called cosplay. Now some of the costumes are really, really good. There’s an attention to detail in them that only die hard fans pay attention to, and it’s what makes those costumes special—even if most people won’t even notice. 

That’s a long way of saying that panic chords are pretty much just HC cosplay. You might get close to being a poor man’s Knocked Loose, or a second-rate Emmure, but you’re never going to be Disembodied. People are going to hear it and say, “I see what you’re doing. I get it, but now I just want to listen to If God Only Knew the Rest Were Dead again.”

Try as you might, but you’re never actually going to be Legolas.

JaStan69 asks: Is Hatebreed a good band?

M$: Here’s the thing—Hatebreed is fucking awesome. But that’s not your question. And determining whether or not Hatebreed is a “good” band requires an entirely different approach, but it’s one that we’re more than happy to explore.

Discovering Hatebreed is a rite of passage for anyone getting into hardcore. It’s like when your parents first heard The Rolling Stones, or when we first heard Nirvana. Eventually, someone younger than you is going to be talking about Code Orange or Vein, and you, in your infinite wisdom, are going to hit play on “Doomsayer” and everyone is suddenly doing spin kicks in the living room, or stage diving from the passenger seat and trying to headwalk on everyone in the back of the car. 

Satisfaction is the Death of Desire is still an all-timer, and needs to be enshrined in whatever ends up being the HC Hall of Fame. Perseverance and The Rise of Brutality both get close to the peak, but never quite make it. Anyone that says Under the Knife is the best one is trying to sound cool. Hatebreed also has other albums.

Now back to our original point—those three records are fucking awesome. But they’re actually not that good. If you listen to two straight hours of Hatebreed, it really doesn’t take very long before you start wondering if you’re just listening to the same three songs over and over again. Certain tracks stick out, but more or less they all follow the same structure, with slight variations on the same four power chords. A lot of the lyrics are about suffering, smashing enemies, and having the odds stacked against them. None of these songs mean anything, but they all mean the same thing—even if no one actually knows what that is.

That’s kind of a theme with hardcore bands of Hatebreed’s status. You have to be as vague as possible, while also latching on to a few specific phrases that can be interpreted in any way, by anyone, no matter their worldview. The absolute last thing Hatebreed wants to do is alienate someone that might spend money on their stuff. Jamey Jasta is a businessman, and Hatebreed is a business, man.

We have all the respect in the world for Jamey Jasta, and Hatebreed, again, is fucking awesome. But no, they’re not a good band.

Soul Jail asks: How do y’all hardrock so hard?

M$: It’s pretty easy, actually. Every day we wake up and think “What Would Trapt Do?” Then we do the exact fucking opposite.

@beelzaibub asks: My question is: Why does heavy music matter? Why do you think it’s something so many people latch onto? What does it say about the people that find comfort in heavy music?

M$: Well this is a change of pace. 

Who let actual writers with rational thoughts, intelligent questions, and interview backgrounds in here? It’s much harder to make jokes when there’s a real level of sincerity involved. God damn it, Zaina. But since you asked…

Punk, metal, and hardcore became staples of what you listened to when you (sometimes subconsciously) wanted to piss off your parents or annoy your siblings. We were all angsty teenagers once, and sometimes heavy music just spoke to us. It’s always kind of dismissed at first as garbage or noise, but once you get a little older, start listening to more and more of it, you start to realize that it takes a lot of craftsmanship to write a good song that’s also heavy. In 2004, everyone thought they could be Hatebreed, but no one actually understood how to do that—which is why there’s still only one Hatebreed releasing albums in 2020. 

Heavy music evokes a feeling inside of you that you either relate to or you don’t. There’s really no way to cheat your way through being a fan. It’s like a cool little club that only a few people know the password to. And like Rob from High Fidelity said, “What really matters is what you like, not what you are like.” All of the best M$ friendships were forged in the flames of shitty venues listening to breakdowns while someone accidentally kicked us in the stomach as we were trying to grab the mic to sing along. I don’t think any of us would trade that for anything.

So in conclusion, we think it’s as simple as this: 𝖑𝖎𝖛𝖊 𝖑𝖆𝖚𝖌𝖍 𝖑𝖔𝖛𝖊 𝒽𝒶𝓇𝒹𝒸🌸𝓇𝑒

@rickley_kilbot asks: Full Collapse or War All The Time M$: Great question given the zeitgeist. M$ stands behind Full Collapse.

Sure we would have to sacrifice all of our current creature comforts. With the grid down, everything electric goes—wifi, cable, light, Animal Crossing. Eventually gas lines and imported resources like gasoline and sneakers would disappear. That would be tough.

We would have to accept that within just a few years, we would be fully reverted to agrarian and/or nomadic ways. Some would hunker down and farm, others would choose hunting and gathering. 

The wisest would band together to maintain some semblance of community. Some tribes would organize around geography, turning their neighborhoods into new chiefdoms, others would organize around more ideological dynamics like religion, politics or emo-rap. 

Life would be harder at first. We would have to abandon everything we currently know as normal. But we would have a chance to start anew. To learn from our past and make better decisions. Removing screens would bring us closer to our loved ones. And we’d all certainly be healthier without all the delicious snacks we have access to today.

Picture it. Perhaps, at fundamental levels, at A0001, we’d have more understanding in tough situations like car crashes. We’d be more honest—less concealers. We’d have more time for our minds. We could all write autobiographies of people, animals or nations. We wouldn’t have the same strife, the same holes in the world. We’d cross out the eyes that judge us daily. Paris would not end up in flames and none of us would be killers. We’d all stand on the edges of beauty at all times, in fall, winter, spring and summer. We wouldn’t wind ourselves up in the petty problems of today. Our nights would be long and we wouldn’t talk about being 100 anymore, We’d all be 1100.

It’s not like we never considered this. We all read Ishmael is high school, right? And while none of us consider ourselves to be Anarcho-Primitivists, I think we all share the wanderlust of Thoreau and some of the ideological fury of the John Zerzan or Billy French’s of the world. It’s clear that our current way of life is based on the exploitation of the common human by an elitist system that only survives because of our manipulated participation. Zerzan sums this up eloquently in his ’02 penning, Running On Emptiness: The Pathology of Civilization:

“Culture has led us to betray our own aboriginal spirit and wholeness, into an ever-worsening realm of synthetic, isolating, impoverishing estrangement. Which is not to say that there are no more everyday pleasures, without which we would lose our humanness. But as our plight deepens, we glimpse how much must be erased for our redemption.”

So I think it’s safe to say that M$ is full-on Full Collapse.

On the flip-side, War All The Time would let us maintain some semblance of our normal routines and conveniences. We’d probably still have Animal Crossing. But in a state of perpetual war between nations, what normalcy would we ever really have? Imagine a world where we could all be drafted at any time to go to battle? Where every tweet could be our last? Come to think of it, we might already be living War All The Time... Shit.. Fuck.

Some Guy Named Phillip asks: You’re still doing this? M$: 

[milkmoneyzine]

WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? #1

Originally published on the Gold Blood Collective blog.  Hi, we’re Milk Money. Welcome to our very first advice column on life, love, and hardrock (like it says up there in the banner). In this time of uncertainty, many of you have questions, but nowhere to turn—that’s where we come in. We’re seasoned vets of hardrock, and were looking for a place to share our unique worldview when Gold Blood Collective stepped in and offered us a platform to do just that. Whether you need advice on scene hair, or how to handle a jilted ex-lover, Milk Money has the answers you probably weren’t looking for. @roxie_kilbot asks: Swoop bangs or emo mullet? M$: Once upon a time, way back in 2004—back when you could actually go to malls, and did so willingly—we walked into a Hot Topic in Olympia, Washington. This was before Milk Money was a band, but after the idea had been planted and discussions were underway. Anyway. We were looking for flyers for our show that night, and figured if any of the stores in this mall had one, it would be Hot Topic. There were two kids working that day—one had swoop bangs, and one had an emo mullet. Both were wearing black button-up shirts with a red tie. They had no interest in us, and all they wanted to do was talk to us about their favorite band My Chemical Romance. We all looked at each other and replied, “Yeah, we kinda figured.”Swoop bangs and emo mullets are synonymous with MySpace (remember Kiki Kannibal?) and anyone that has a picture of themselves with either hairstyle is terrified of it resurfacing. There’s never been a louder collective sigh of relief than when MySpace announced that anything posted before 2016 was likely lost forever in a server migration malfunction. 

Swoop Bangs were mostly favored by guys that wore tight jeans, fingerless gloves, and praised the brilliance of films like DONNIE DARKO or were dying to tell you that they read House of Leaves while at a Hawthorne Heights show. It’s not very popular anymore, and that’s a good thing. But if you meet a guy that’s super into motorcycle culture, loves doom metal, and extols the virtue of craft beer or mixology, I can almost guarantee that there’s a black and white, angled selfie of him looking sad under his swoop bangs. It’s probably a more recent picture than you think, too. Guys tend to hold on to outdated styles a lot longer than is acceptable.

The Emo Mullet had a longer shelf life, but not for any good reason. This one was favored more by girls than guys—though both styles were totally interchangeable—and can still be spotted today. Women are much better at adapting to a changing culture, so once most girls were out of their teens, they moved on to an ombre, actual bangs, layers, and so forth. Once it was officially out of style by anyone with a sense of fashion, it was adapted by suburban moms and renamed “The Cafe Rio” (our choice) or more widely known, the “May I Speak With Your Manager?” haircut. If you see any woman with this hairstyle today, avoid them at all costs. No good can come from it.I guess the answer to your question then, is neither. Leave both of these ridiculous hairstyles in 2005 where they rightfully belong. You can still listen to Taking Back Sunday and Yellowcard if you want though. That’s what the ‘Private Session’ setting on Spotify was made for.

Armed with Regret asks:

WHY DOES MY EX GIRLFRIEND STILL HAVE MY HAVE HEART ARMED WITH A MIND HOODIE? 

M$:

Because Pat Flynn liked one of her post-break up selfies. Sometimes you just gotta take the ‘L’ and move on. Sorry bro.

Incarcerated Ailurophile writes:

Dear Milk Money, Here’s my problem: I just found out my 1st husband impregnated the desk lady at the big cat zoo I own in Oklahoma. I guess I always sensed he had straight tendencies but I did not see this coming. Turns out he was only gay for the methamphetamines I’ve been supplying him since he was a teenager. Should I try to work things out or should I use this as an opportunity to spend more time with my 2nd husband?

Love that song about the tiger tail.

Rawr,

Joe

M$: If there’s one thing worth fighting for, Joe, it’s love.

Noam Coats asks: How does something that relies heavily on social interaction, like hardcore with hardcore shows, continue existing in a time like now?

M$: When M$ thinks of the relationship between hardrock and society -- and for us the question is always what it could be, rather than what it is -- we think of the word "transcendent." It is a word we never use in public, but it's the only word we can come up with to describe what we think about the role of hardrockers. By transcendent, we mean that hardrock transcends the immediate. Transcends the here and now. Transcends the madness of the world. Transcends terrorism and war. Hardrockers think, act, perform music, and write outside the framework that society has created. Hardrockers may do no more than give us beauty, laughter, passion, surprise, and drama. We don't mean to minimize these activities by saying hardrockers can do no more than this. The hardrocker needn't apologize, because by doing this, the hardrocker is telling us what the world should be like, even if it isn't that way now. The hardrocker is taking us away from the moments of horror that we experience everyday -- some days more than others -- by showing us what is possible. But the hardrocker can and should do more. In addition to creating works of art, the hardrocker is also a citizen and a human being. The way that society tends to classify us scares us.  We are a hardrock band. We don't want to be just a hardrock band, but society puts us into a discipline. Yes, disciplines us: you're a hardrock band, you're a businessman, you're an engineer. You're this or you're that. The first thing someone asks you at a party is, "What do you do?" That means, "How are you categorized?" The problem is that people begin to think that's all they are. They're professionals in something. You hear the word professionalism being used often. People say, "You have to be professional." Whenever we hear the word, we get a little scared, because that limits human beings to working within the confines set by their profession.Hardrock is not a profession, it’s an art-form. And it will persevere because it must.[Noam Chomsky wrote that—but like, ditto.] Some Guy Named Phillip asks: Are you guys for real?

M$:

#milkmoney #milk money #milk #money

[milkmoneyzine]

When plagues and earthquakes strike, you’ve gotta get creative.

We had all these big plans for music videos before Covid-19 rocked everyone and earthquakes rocked Utah. But instead of throwing in the towel, we threw up our smartphone cameras. He’s our quarantined video for “Human Spine” off of our debut album, Reckon. Stay safe out there, friends. 

#milkmoney #milk #money #milk money #covid-19 #music video

[milkmoneyzine]

Kesler Pix: Funk’n’Dive 2.7.2020

Kesler is the bestest. Here are some photographs he took at our recent show at Funk’n’Dive with City Ghost, Sunsleeper and Ugly Boys.

#city ghost #sunsleeper #funk'n'dive #ogden #ugly boys #kesler ottley #show #live