Kid Durango

Record's out yo! https://kiddurango.bandcamp.com/

I’ve spent a some time on this blog talking about rape culture. I’ve also spent a lot of time talking about our producer Matt Very. This post is about both. On July 2017 while recording with him I witnessed him doing some pretty unspeakable things to a particular woman who was not his girlfriend while his girlfriend slept only feet away. As the summer progressed, I started hearing from other women who had eerily similar stories about his behavior. I want to say right away this is not a #MeToo story. I was not abused. My role in this narrative is more sinister as I simply sat back and watched this shit happen to other women because, as a man, I did the Very thing predators want. I made excuses. I told myself Matt was a good guy since he never did anything bad to me personally, and I liked the way he mic’d a kick drum. The truth is, I’m just as guilty and I realize that now. The pattern of abuse goes like this. Girl is in or just got out of a bad relationship, Matt shows up. Alcohol is plied, (Matt likes to do shots with girls), lines are crossed in a clandestine sort of way where Matt always makes the first move and the girl can barely remember what happened. She is inebriated, but also, she is broken. Matt acts like nothing happened until that nothing happens again, always behind closed doors, or in my case, in front of someone who doesn’t ask questions. And that’s when he knows he has you. The shame of what happened is so great on the people he does this too, it can go on forever because no one wants to talk about what happened or if it was even consensual. Alcohol is always involved and the man doesn’t seem to care if you are awake or not. But no one wants to tell the girl’s boyfriend or Matt’s girlfriend, so it keeps going on. The pattern I’ve noticed is whatever woman Matt is doing this to is so ashamed by what he’s doing to them in secret without consent, and without anyone to talk to, that they convince themselves they are cool with it. It’s easier that way. Who wants to scream in a basement for help and risk waking up a girlfriend when you can end it faster and without a potential catfight if you just give the guy what he wants? It's as though his inappropriate clandestine behavior constitutes some weird relationship. “our little secrete” is what he would say. I’ve heard a bunch of stories that have mirrored what I have seen. They are not mine to tell. But I will say I believe them only because they are so eerily similar to the point where there is a pattern of perpetration. There will be bro’s who will call me out in a mealy mouthed Billy Bush kind of way (I was one of them), and I have no doubt Matt is capable loving women the same way Harvey Weinstein loved his wife. I’ve known Matt for a while. I’ve worked with his dad building his studio. But the shit I’ve heard is only paralleled by the shit I’ve seen this man do. It’s vile and entitled. I’m sorry to anyone I sat and watched this happen to. Me writing this is the beginning of my atonement for this. Not just with Matt. Any predator who gets by on the grace of men that don’t want to get involved and women who can’t beat back the shame that comes with what he selfishly does to them. No more. Maybe you don’t want to get involved… but I break. know what I’m saying?

It’s fitting that the songs were written in the dead of winter and are being recorded in the dog days of summer. I guess everything cycles. That’s the other theme. Change. The other half of the songs are written with the perspective that everything changes, and if you don’t like something, change is right around the corner.

See this woman? This is the mother of Corey Batey... in a court room... listening to a judge sentence her son to 15 years behind bars for assaulting a woman while she was passed out. I wanted to post her face because I see her face at my shows. At first, the faces we play to don’t look like this. They may be smiling or frowning; most of the time the faces are turned to a phone or another person completely ignoring my set. But then we get to the part in the set where I say: “This song is called Steubenville, it’s about rape...”.  That’s when I see the faces above. I usually follow up the intro with how atrocious the act of rape is and how I shouldn’t have to speak out about it in 2016 but here I am telling you not to do it and telling you to find help if it’s happened to you. It gets really awkward. My guitar player has told me to stop talking about it on stage. My drummer has joked about how awkward it is when parents hear me say it to their children at our all ages shows. But I’m not going stop, because A) music is supposed to make you feel something even if it is uncomfortable, and B) the unpleasant look I see on the faces of parents only serves as a reminder of how uncomfortable we are at having this discussion with our youth. If I could play that song twice at our shows I would, because I have to make up for all the times we are not talking about rape even though it’s happening all around us. We use DARE to talk to our kids about the dangers of drug abuse, but we can’t have an frank conversation about rape? I don’t see either drug abuse or rape going away in the near future, but I have seen an article or two report how convicted rapists argue that ignorance plays a roll in the committing of their crime. I’m not naive enough to assume all rapists are unaware of what they are doing, but I also know that there is no harm in screaming DON’T RAPE! DON’T RAPE! at the top of my lungs for 3 min out of each set. I would rather see your contorted uncomfortable faces in the crowd than at the sentencing of your son... so... I guess what I am saying is... you’re welcome. 

My new sounds:

RECORDS ARE IN! #7inch #45 #HaHaHater #newrelease #recordrelease

Records have been pressed. They will be available for one show and one show only. Hear Ye Hear Ye!

https://soundcloud.com/kidurango/what-a-wonderful-world

One night i was driving across a bridge into a popular strip for nightlife to play a show when a billboard caught my eye. There was a man on it vaguely resembling Drake. And under his oVo eyebrows were giant block letters saying "got consent"? It took me too long to put together that this was an add to discourage rape. After I realized what it was, I laughed it off. It seemed absurd to me that anyone in 2015 would need a 200 foot reminder posted over a river not to rape someone before going out at night. We’re adults, this is America, we have equal rights. WTF? Then 2am hit on east carson street and all hell broke loose. I noticed droves of half conscious women being dragged across streets, into cabs, and parked cars. I had seen it before, but somehow that billboard had opened my eyes that night. It was happening all around me, it had been happening for so long, it was hidden in plain view. Words like “stalker” and “creeper” were thrown around by groups of females turning down rides from potential suitors. Epithets like “slut” and “bitch” were given back in rebuttal to ladies who had refused the advances of certain young men. It was unsettling all over again. It felt like a safari for virtue. What made it more unsettling, is the commonality of it. Guy meets girl, guy and and girl get drunk, and then it gets blurry. Was guy too pushy? Or did girl ask for it and just not remember? Where can we intervene? Why isn’t “no” the default in our culture anymore? And why do we let it persist? If idiots in Steubenville can rape a girl and almost get away with it, rest assured that shit is happening every weekend in your backyard too with probably less arrests. So here I am full circle saying I was wrong. That billboard was not absurd. If anything it wasn’t direct enough. It’s sad to say that we have to spell this out in the 21st century, but here it is for the money. “Don’t Rape Me Bro”. Just don’t do it. Pretend that woman over there with the attitude and the ridiculous looking high heels is your little sister. Show her respect, even if her insecurity has put her in the position where she’s willing to pop cleavage and shoot whiskey for a little attention. Alcohol consumption doesn’t mean you need to see her naked, stumbling and throwing up on your mattress. And that goes the same for your buddy. Say something if you see something. I assure you, you’ll have plenty opportunity this Friday.

I left Pittsburgh and the original Kid Durango years ago for a job. When I returned, there was no more band. The individuals that had previously played music with me had gone on to do other things musically. Some of them even held a grudge towards me. This song is about the vision I had before making the decision to resurrect Kid Durango. In this vision, I walked in an abandoned church to find the people I had previously known as fellow musicians and friends. No one smiled and everyone just seemed to shoe gaze and stare through each other. If you have ever been to a local show at The Club at Stage AE you know what I am taking about. Except in this dream, there was no band. It was just me dead on a table with a sheet pulled over my body. Pretty much everything else was just like a local show however. All the local bands were there talking shit on one another behind their backs and making predictions on who was “going to blow up” and who was “done”. The consensus was I was “done”. The old Kid Durango would not have been able to survive a scene consensus of being “done”. Back then, if we couldn’t make the other scene kids like us, we couldn’t like ourselves. But for whatever reason, I was able to walk up to my corpse and kiss my dead self right in the lips. First through the sheet and then skin to skin. Then suddenly I got up off the table and walked out of the church as one person. I can’t remember anything after that, because I woke up from my dream as soon as I left the church. Shortly after having this dream, I started writing new Kid Durango songs. Believe in yourself regardless of what others say be they friend or foe. There is life in death when you kill the things that hold you back. For me, it was the approval of people I barely knew. When it’s dead, it’s not even over. It’s just the beginning. 

I give you the finished work of Kid Durango and Matt Very. I'm really proud of it. So proud that I'm getting records pressed of it. More on that later. We wanted to name it Ha ha Hater because the subject matter of each original song in this recording is about things that truly piss me off. I'm a hater at heart. And sometimes the hate is so strong that you end up joking about it through your teeth. That's what I do anyway. That's what I did on this record. I find myself taking certain issues out of my control so seriously, that only the anger persists and the problem doesn't get solved. Anger is only a good thing if it motivates change. For everything else, there's cynicism. That's what this record embodies. It's the step back from debilitating anger to cynisicm in an effort to calm down just enough to see a solution. I'll post the problems and the solutions of each song here in the days to come. But for now, lets get cynical. Enjoy Ha ha Hater.

This is not the kind of recording update I have posted in the past where we post more pictures than songs. By the time you read this, the record might Very well be done. Matt Very is a force in his element, and tracking at Very Tight Recordings has been the most effortless process I have ever experienced in making music.  There are no opposing creative forces. It’s like tracking with a genie with unlimited wishes. Music will be pressed on vinyl in the coming month and you should get it because it’s shaping up to be the best recording we have ever made. We’ll probably even throw in a cover for all of you that still watch VH1 and listen to Bob FM. You have no idea what’s about to happen to your ears. I’m really excited guys.

Shout out to @1059TheX for playing us last night. See you all March 27th at the Brillobox!

I give you “come and get it”. The “single” off the coal ep released in the post below. Shout out to Austen Burke for the super 8 film. Going into the studio with matt very next week. Wish us luck!

-Pete