All Leather

All Leather- “Mystery Meat”

Continuing on the day of videos we present to you the new All Leather video for their single “Mystery Meat”. Their new album is eventually going to be released on Dim Wak records, and by eventually I mean whenever they get their shit together. Having pushed the release a handful of times and promoting the remix Bloody Beetroots did of this song instead of focusing on the original is the way they roll I guess.

As you may know All Leather is Justin Pearson’s new vehicle fueled by Nathan Joyner and fellow paisa Jung Sing. At first glance it seems it may just be another hardcore band. This time around though the magical production hands have converted this could be monotony from San Diego trapped in the 90′s to a future styling and push forward to the San Diego we are coming to love today. The electronic vibe only adds science and magic to the screeching and shit coated lyrics and nonsense. “We don’t expect anyone to get it” is the kind of vibe JP’s bands usually want to portray. This time with hope of something new and less forward I have to say this video and the way they are being sold pinched a nerve. Maybe that mentality is exactly what they were going for and I’m just an idiot.

Growing up I really understood the in your face mentality of Three.One.G, it’s something we needed. As a gay teen I thought of how being in your face was the only way to get society to see we are a force not to be reckoned with. The in your face politics in conservative San Diego was fun and needed. Never had we thought we’d come this far, was it JP kissing a man on Jerry Springer? No, it was most likely Will and Grace and reality Bravo TV, unfortunately. Not that JP didn’t help and hell he even got some boys questioning their sexuality, which I obviously didn’t mind.

This video is a bit too late though, and just does not fit the vibe of what All Leather represents, to me at least. Using the same recurring subjects as other JP fittings like straight boys kissing, shit, vomit, zombies, and animal abuse just isn’t controversial anymore. Now that it is on Dim Mak records too, it just makes me even more upset as it’s being marketed and promoted by a label that thrives on commercializing artists that should only work on an underground level and to the hateful and shameful masses. The kind of place appropriate for fist pumping, gay bashing, and prohibited ass grabbing.

I’m not going to lie, I love All Leather the music and the boys in the band, but this strategy is just not working for me. Am I the one deciding their fate? Of course not. Am I over analyzing? Of course. Let me just show you a quote Dim Mak put up on their site about All Leather, thinking they were promoting the band. This brutally sick commentary is “not meant to be prejudice” and the words are being used by a white heterosexual male, in the same vain as a white rapper using the word “nigger”. It doesn’t matter how much you can relate to the people being stereotyped this sort of language should be kept for inappropriate inside jokes and not as a way of promoting anything or to be controversial, as we all know some ignorant people just don’t get the joke and end up hating the people you are trying to protect.

“All Leather is what one would find on the (dance) floor of a seedy gay bar … the sonic perception of the last true socially accepted prejudices. One can hear, “Fucking faggots”, being yelled over and over as the poor brown and white trash trio make their way to the charts among all the social dick suckers, looking for some sort of justification in their own lives. You know, the lives full of thievery and legitimate trash. The band calls for more irony, more distortion, more annoying tones, as well as bleeps, zips, snaps, and glitchy jabs. Yeah, they are over it, as its pretty apparent. They could not give two measly shits if anyone cared. Take a look at the world we are living in, it only makes sense. One would write them off as some gay band with tight trousers, but none of these cats are sucking anyone’s dicks just yet…”

Has this guy even gone to a gay bar? What’s with mentioning all the dick sucking like it’s a terrible thing. Trust me it can be quite magical, maybe that old man’s never gotten one, and no I would never offer it to him. The references of “White and Brown trash” only make me more confused.

It’s this sort of propaganda I am talking about, controversy for exposure. It might have worked back then, it might even still be working, but I refuse to believe people aren’t smarter than this. I refuse to believe All Leather isn’t smarter than this. Dim Mak not so much. Beyond the political awareness and care JP seems to promote in his real life through his lyrics and interviews he’s done. There’s still a small doubt in my mind I think other people will get the tongue in cheekiness. Exposing the cruel torture that is the meat industry is by far one of the main things I remember about being that young vegan punk kid in the 90′s and early 00′s and having in common with JP. Now he’s sporting leather costumes for All Leather’s shows, claiming he’s not gonna eat his jacket. Maybe I just don’t get it but it reminds me of people saying they aren’t racist because they “have a black friend”. So what’s up with the puppy bashing? Is it so smart maybe I just don’t get it?

I’ve heard the album in its entirety and I have to say I really love this album, apart from all that other shit I just fed you. It’s incredibly smart and fits the moment like no other. Let’s face it, shit hit the fan with Bush and even though we are fed to believe everything is going to be ok now with Obama in office, it really isn’t. People are struggling, people are frustrated. This album envelopes all of this perfectly. People want to dance and people want to scream, and now it’s all in one package. I just want the image to suit the mentality and with this video there is no intelligence required.

Justin, Nathan, and Jung you guys have the talent, you have the power, fuck you even have the brilliant record. Now make this happen. Screw the man for real, no matter how tight his pants are or how long his hair is.

Also send some love to Jung out in Mexicali where the earthquake hit, hope everything’s alright over there.