Some punk loser rants on about life in general (not the MxPx album).

 
Wow, you know that crappy pop-punk band mest? (they are friends with good charlotte) Read this (it's pretty old, but still...)

A few weeks ago, this column profiled Tony Lovato, leader of Blue Island pop-punks Mest, as he celebrated the release of "Destination Unknown," the band's second album for Madonna's Maverick Records. Like many Chicagoans, I'm a fan. But the column prompted some disturbing e-mails and discussions on Internet message boards.

Eight years ago, when he was 13, Lovato played drums in a band called Confederate Storm. Initially, the other musicians were skinheads as a fashion statement, but they came to embrace that controversial subculture's racist attitudes, and the group's songs included white-power lyrics. I returned to Lovato to ask him about this, and he welcomed the opportunity to set the record straight publicly for the first time.

"Kids bring this up all the time, and the record label and publicity people are like, 'Let's not address it,' " Lovato says. "But I'm an honest person, and the more honest you are with your fans, the closer they feel to you--it's not like you're some singer who [messes around with] little girls, then turns around and acts like he's a Christian."

Lovato says he grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood, and his first girlfriend was African-American. Then his family moved, and he found himself isolated until he was drawn into the skinhead scene. Eventually, he started to think about its poisonous attitudes. He then split and paid the price, being ostracized and getting involved in fights. (He compares his experience to the film "American History X.")

"When you're 13, you don't think for yourself, and you just go with the flow with the kids you hang out with," Lovato says. "The scariest part about Nazi skinheads and that cause is that they get you at a young age, and they warp your mind. After two years of that, I was like, 'This just isn't right.' It wasn't like it wasn't cool anymore, and that's why I got out of it. I realized: 'This is [messed] up, these people are [messed] up, and I am being ignorant and rude to people.' "

In the liner notes to the band's first Maverick album, Lovato writes, "Sorry to everyone I hurt in the past from my ignorant ways--I hope you can forgive me."

Now, the group tours with representatives of Anti-Racist Action, and he steers fans to their information booth from the stage. "Because of what I did in the past, maybe I can turn this around and do a positive thing," he says. "The truth is, I hung out with these kids for a few years, then I had enough brains to realize it was wrong, and I hope other people can learn from my experience."

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Hmmm, you've gottat wonder about someone who could even lean that way, though.I guess he found out that being rascist wasn't cool anymore and joined a pop punk band instead.
posted by muskawo at 3/17/2004 08:16:00 AM