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Some words about Drug Church, Joker and Mannequin Pussy

Brutal truth and little hells define the themes of the media I’ve consumed this weekend. I’ve been listening to the new Drug Church album and ah man, I love this band. Patrick Kindlon’s a magnetic front person and his lyrics on the LP reflect so much of the trashy, unseemly parts of society that connect many of us. 

I also saw the new Joker, which has gotten ravaged online by fans and critics alike. I’m not much of a movie critic but I liked it for the most part. It’s a story about fantasies and things we tell ourselves to cope.

Arthur Fleck (the Joker from the movie Joker) lives in reality as a murderer on death row. Fleck finds a little bit of bliss in music, movies and fantasies of violence but by the end of the story, you realize that those things don't change one crucial fact: nobody cares about him.

I won't spoil the movie too much but it reminds me of the people in Kindlon stories (excluding his comic book influences). Small. Powerless. Broken. 

Album art for Drug Church’s “PRUDE.”

Here are a few examples of Kindlon's stories on PRUDE: The lives of “no recent image” kids on a Walmart missing persons wall. A guy who’s burnt every bridge in his life decides to scam his mom for drug money by posing as a hostage (and eventually transfers those skills to a job in finance). Another guy gets his arm shot off robbing a liquor store and presumably succumbing to his wounds in an ER. 

It’s a messy world full of awful people but ultimately Kindlon comes across no better. The opener “Mad Care” paints him (or the song’s character) as a cheating, trash bag of a man constantly seeking self-sabotage at the expense of the woman who loves him. Or like on “Yankee Trails,” which is just a relapse song with similar themes of self-destruction with a genuinly deep desire to change. 

The closer “Peer Review” makes him out to be a self-aware hypocrite. He feels better about himself after witnessing “total scum” while waiting at an Atlanta bus stop. However, the crowd reminds him of his ex-convict father. They are more like him than he first cares to admit. So he just deals with the fact that these are his equals not his less thans. It’s a perfect end to the album because it brings it all full circle. We are just as much the sickness as we are the cure.

Album art for Mannequin Pussy’s "I Got Heaven”

On Thursday, October 3, I saw Mannequin Pussy (MP) live for the first time with my fiance in Baton Rouge. Their lead vocalist, Marisa "Missy" Dabice left me feeling proud of the shit they’re doing. A lot of what she was saying was just leftist Twitter reposts at this point like, “We’re closer to being homeless than we are to billionaires.” But in a city like Baton Rouge, a redder than ever, gerrymandered to fuck, bastion for the backward, Missy’s words felt radical. 

And who she was delivering those words to make it all the more impactful. A diverse, young crowd. Baton Rouge is a college town at the end of the day and they practically played on LSU’s campus but it’s exciting to see so many folks show up for a band that lives their beliefs. 

In the spirit of Kindlon, I don’t want to get all lecturey (as he often loathes in interviews). At the same time though, it’s punk as fuck to say what you believe and even more punk when it prioritizes human decency.

So on that note, I loved the MP show. Missy’s voice strained a little for some of the softer, melodic moments but her energy was there. She’s a provocative front person. At one point she challenged the men in the audience to yell “pussy” which was fun. She also went on a few asides to talk about religious guilt and the fact our government favors funding Palestinian genocide over providing disaster relief assistance to its citizens.

The light show was wild. The best lights had to be when bassist, Colins "Bear" Regisford, took over for “Pigs Is Pigs”, a song about police brutality of POC. Red and blue police lights flashed into the crowd followed by breaks of flashing green. It created an optical illusion, making everything look black and white. They literally removed all color from the room with that trick. All that was left was black, white and Regisford’s red suit (A reversed version of this optical illusion linked here). 

Not sure how to tie this blog all together but here are some songs to check out: 

Orbiting Punk Picks

Drug Church - “Chow”

I think this is the most classic Drug Church track on the album in that it’s very outwardly critical of people while also still establishing some intrinsic belief of Kindlon’s. In this case he’s basically lamenting the state of art and how folks are scared to create bad art but Kindlon’s arguing that’s kind of the point. You gotta commit and trust it will be as bad as anything else from today, looking back 20 years. No shame in being of the moment. 

Mannequin Pussy - “Sometimes” 

By far my favorite from I Got Heaven, this track captures the dynamics of Missy’s vocals and the band’s range. It’s their ability to go from shoegaze indie to hardcore punk that has enabled MP to blow up. 

Aspartame - “Ship” 

Mathy emo out of Brooklyn, NY. Sounds straight out of the early ‘00s but from 2024.

Spite House - “Afraid”

Another modern band revitalizing old influences, Montreal post-hardcore band writes like Jawbreaker but sonically hits like more modern bands like Anxious or Fiddlehead.

Fiddlehead - “Poem You”

Speaking of, I’ve been revisiting Fiddlehead this post-hardcore fall and this was the track that made me love the band. The swinging groove of the guitars vs the choppy drive of the drums makes this one of their more melodic. I didn't know the specific story behind the grief. It’s specifically in remembrance of his father who was a high school English teacher with a passion for poetry.

jumper seat - “windshield”

A bit of a silly track but I love the emo melancholy of it. It feels like an odd mish-mash of thoughts opening with a scene from bussing tables to the chorus about not being able to afford to replace his windshield and then an even stranger second verse. My favorite lyrical bits out of context are “size 14 Fortnite font,” “NyQuil nihilist,” and “You want a man who knows how to use his hands / And admittedly, that's not me.”

BEATEN TO DEATH - “Minus och minus blir minus och minus”

Oxymoron of melodic grindcore from Oslo, Norway but is some of the most dynamic powerviolence I’ve heard. Great even for folks who don't understand Norwegian.

BODEGA - “Gyrate”

A go-to song for me if I want to get into a good mood. BODEGA’s got a lot of wit in their lyricism but this one is just a quick-release valve for me at the end of the day. 

NOVA ONE - “best/worst”

Following the trend of all-caps band names, NOVA ONE is a dream pop band from Providence, RI releasing music under Community Records (a New Orleans label, which is how I heard of them). This is one of my favorites of their 2023 release, creating myself for its simple and catchy hooks. 

Momma - “Tall Home” 

Momma’s really broken out in the last couple of years with them now on tour opening for the wildly successful indie artist Beabadoobee. This is an underrated one from their last album, Household Name.