Originally forming 30 years ago as The Stains, this is a group
intimately familiar with controversy. They released their initial
7-inch, John Wayne was a Nazi, in 1980 as a direct response to what the
band believed was undeserved grief after the iconic actor’s death.
Dave
Dictor, MDC singer and stalwart in an unstable projectto-project
lineup, intended for the EP’s titular diatribe to “take the piss out of
someone who stood for killing Mexicans at the Alamo, killing Indians,
killing Charlie in the Vietnam movies, killing Asians in World War II
and making it look fashionable to die for your country.”
Following this emphatic entrance, they mocked meat-eaters on “Chicken
Squawk,” railed against their homeland’s “Founding Fathers,” and
lamented that “America’s So Straight.”
It was evident that the band wasn’t about to sanitize their opinions or
the snarling and unrefined sound that came with it, and they received
their share of flak, including threats from white supremacy advocates
who attended their shows.
“In this decade,” Dictor admits, “it’s gone on a lot less.”
But it’s
not like they would compromise anyway: “MDC is over the top so we’ve
never shied away from it. We did this Millions of Damn Christians album
and my grandmother hated it. If you’re going to write a song called
‘Millions of Dead Cops,’ then you’re not holding back.”
(Buy tickets, check out performance times and find nearby bars and restaurants here.)
