In the upcoming show, I will be talking with Clean Girls alumni Josh Makela about the bands Poison Idea and the Meatmen. Though these bands seem to be unrelated, I have found one thing that they share: both bands felt a need to offend. Both of the bands were proud of how offensive they were, with the Meatmen priding themselves on being one of the most hated bands in hardcore, a genre that generally prides itself on being offensive (we looked at this earlier with Black Flag and will revisit it when we talk about Minor Threat's "Guilty of Being White"). The question is this; in a world where things such as 4chan, encyclopedia dramatica, and South Park exist, were these bands the start of a movement towards having no boundaries in the realm of joking? Is there any topic that is off limits for these bands? Is saying things like "Crippled Children Suck" an endorsement of the idea, a mockery of it, or neither? I will try to play the devil's advocate, so please keep in mind that what I say on my show is not an expression of my particular opinion unless I specifically state it as so. I'll be playing some of the Meatmen vinyl hopefully, but I don't have a setlist together yet (Saint Patrick's Day took a lot outta me).
