Photo by: Jammi Sloane York
Long Island NY's 1776 play a fucking mean style of heavy hardcore backed up with some eye opening lyrics. On 1776's radar is the TSA, bankers, politicians, corperations and anyone else who they feel is corrupting the USA. I first saw these guys at an Agnostic Front show this past April and although they went on early to a smaller sized crowd than what AF got they still went all out and the message is not something delivered just in the lyrics but in between songs as well as the passion for what they are saying is obvious. I might not agree with everything they say but they have my respect and if their job is to open people's eyes they did it to me that day. I am sure what bassist Joe Rubino says in this July 2012 interview will make you gravitate to 1776 or avoid them at all costs. Thank you to KatScan Photography, Jammi Sloane York, and Ms Izzy B for the photos and video at the end of the interview. Graphic artwork by: Bas Spierings
IE: For those out there unfamiliar with 1776 give us a brief run down about who you are and what 1776 is all about?
Joe: The band came out of the ashes of Tension*, Outrage and Pitfight...we talked about going on as Tension but decided that we wanted to shed that skin and start fresh...how can we tell you that we are in some serious shit as a nation in one breath then start singing "We Got The Beat" (Go-Go’s cover) in the next? Those days were a huge part of our lives but we came a long way since then musically and mentally. The message is simple...wake up and realize that we have been lied to every step of the way since even before 9/11 and that if we don’t all stick together and understand that we the people have the power to kick out the traitors..we are done!
IE: You guys caught my attention at a recent show with Agnostic Front on Long Island. The passion behind the bands message is obvious first in the lyrics and also on stage with Mike’s between song interactions with the crowd. Who or what opened your eyes to the bands political views?
Joe: After 9/11 things just didn’t add up. When so called "conspiracy theory" documentaries provide more evidence than official stories or mainstream media then we should look deeper into things. Why did so and so go to these lengths at the risk of being passed off as a crazy kook?...Who are these people who ended up dead after appearing in this film? Questions like that got the ball started for me personally so I started doing my own research into everything I hear..and a lot of the time it checks out...the answers are there. We just gotta stop being lazy enough to look.
Photo by: Jammi Sloane York
IE: And how would you categorize the bands political views?
Joe: Most definitely politically atheist. Politics are just like the world wrestling federation.. it’s all staged and scripted... you got your good guys.. you got your bad guys... they beat each other up in front of the camera and then they hang out and have a beer and laugh about how they pulled the wool over our eyes and we buy it hook line and sinker over and over and over again.
IE: “Homeland Impurity” is one of your songs that deals with the TSA and it’s obvious you are not a fan of them. Was there a particular incident that you were involved in that prompted these lyrics or was it something that you saw in the news or elsewhere?
Joe: I won’t fly because of the TSA. We teach our children to never let strangers touch them and now it’s.. "Now Junior, don’t ever allow strangers to touch your peepee... except the TSA"... ya see these unsafe naked body scanners that shoot out 10 times more radiation than an MRI and the invasive pat downs of the TSA were supposedly the result of the Christmas underwear bomber Abdulmutallab.. yet witnesses including a guy by the name of Kurt Haskle saw a drugged out Abdulmutallab aided onto the plane without a passport by a "sharp dressed man" and the state department admitted in congressional testimony that they were ordered to get him on the plane... the TSA is not in the airports to keep us safe. It’s all about humiliation and seeing how much the American people will take before rolling them out into shopping malls and sporting stadiums.. and our basic daily lives. It’s about acclimating our children to grow up in a world where this is normal procedure. They treat us like terrorists... yet just last week the TSA approved flight training for 25 illegal aliens at a Boston-area flight school, which was owned by an illegal alien, according to the Government Accountability Office. This was due to a gaping loophole which should have provided background checks for flight school attendants, or a proof of citizenship at least. The Fourth Amendment states:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall NOT be violated…”Furthermore, airports are not required to have the TSA, which, in fact, has not been successful in catching a single terrorist.
The problem with the TSA employees is that it didn’t require any discipline to attain their positions. They simply stood on the shoulders of a corrupt administration, only to fulfill the position of the newly created bureaucracy, which brought in “order out of chaos.” America was so preoccupied with “terrorism” bombarding their every thought through the state-run media, and before the American people knew it, it was slapped on the table under the guise of “security.”
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” -Benjamin Franklin
HOMELAND IMPURITY by 1776
Force fed tyranny
Red alert! We got a breach in security
Brown shirt Gestapo: Homeland impurity
Open your eyes, for they are here to stifle you and me
Hands up and keep your head down
Follow the rules and keep your eyes to the ground
Naked scanners and invasive pat-downs
Molest our children as we watch without a sound
Let the threat to civil liberties no longer be ignored
We all must fight until faith and freedom is restored
So here we say
Fuck the TSA
The Sexual Assaulting Agency
Demoralizing homeland impurity
No longer will we stand your threat to civil liberties
We’ve fucking had it
What won’t you let them get away with?
Federalized chicken hawks and criminals
Grope your children
Yet resistance remains minimal.
They aren’t here to protect you
It’s meant to publicly humiliate you
And rob you blind of your dignity
They are the terrorists they make us out to be
So here we stand screaming
Fuck the TSA
Out to be more than airport security
Bus terminals, shopping malls, and stadiums
That doesn’t sound like a free country to me
Strategic, systematic demolition of our nation
We’ve fucking had it
Enough is enough
IE: With your lyrics is it necessary for everyone in the band to be in agreement with the songs message for you guys to write it?
Joe: I’m sure we won’t always agree on everything but the whole idea is keeping your freedom to disagree. Little by little they take away our freedoms in the name of protecting our freedom. Doesn’t make much sense does it? We just say how we feel about what’s going on in this country today and we aren't afraid to say it. We aren’t afraid of looking un-cool for thinking outside the cage we live in.
IE: At the show with Agnostic Front and in the song “Binary Star” you bring up “chem.- trails” and told people to look it up online. For those not familiar with them can you tell us what they are and your take on them?
Joe: That song is in part about the theory that we live in a binary star system and that our sun has a companion star that comes back around every 3600 years causing great catastrophe here on earth and the possibility that the chem.-trails create false cloud cover so that we won’t see this thing till it’s too late while keeping us occupied with other shit. Apparently chem.-trails have barium and aluminum in it which would block solar radiation. You can watch YouTube videos from all over the world of two suns, and earthquakes. In fact some of the strongest ever recorded are on the rise. Devastating tsunamis, volcanoes erupting..weather becoming more severe mass animal die-offs...the poles shifting 40 miles a year. In fact there have been quite a number of airports who had to recalculate their equipment to keep up with the new magnetic north to avoid flight path collisions, interesting theory. Another theory is that chem.-trails are poisoning us and depleting our soil and what not. Who really knows though? Either way you don’t need to be a scientist to see that there is definitely something wrong.
IE: You are involved with an organization called “Oath Keepers” What is your role with them and what are they about? Give us a little insight on to what they are doing and how you found them.
Joe: My brother Mike (and singer) met Bill Cooper head of the NYC chapter of the Oathkeepers at a gun show. They got to talking and we became friends quickly. In fact Bill comes to our shows to meet anyone interested in learning more. The Oathkeepers are a nationwide organization of active and retired military, police, firemen, and anyone else who took an oath to uphold and defend the constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic. They are here to recruit and remind any military or whatnot who may have been clouded with illegal orders and remind them that this oath does not expire. You can learn more at www.oathkeepers.org
Oathkeeper Bill Cooper (Left) with 1776
IE: Within the hardcore scene you don’t see a lot of bands dealing with politics as much as you guys do. What kind of feedback are you getting from fans?
Joe: Well I’m sure we can come off as a little preachy but that’s not our intention. We are just trying to open up people’s eyes. We know not everyone will get it or agree with it, that’s up to them. We are not trying to be some famous band and tour, we just wanna offer up things in our songs for people to be able to research for themselves and hopefully open a few doors.
IE: Have you gotten any negative feedback or people that are saying they disagree with the bands messages?
Joe: Nothing negative yet...hahaha...In fact you’re the only one who reviewed it (1776’s CD) but there will definitely be people who disagree with our message. It’s definitely a hard pill to swallow. Hell, I wanna even disagree with our message... who the hell wants to admit to themselves that we have a bunch of treasonous traitors running this train into a mountain while we live blindly and naively without a care in the world? As long as American Idol or Jersey Shore is on TV then it’s all good. Take our freedoms in the name of some fake boogie men, loot our economy while crashing the American dollar, bail out foreign banks and corporations. The very same that did the damage in the first place. Sign us on to debt that never even existed, print money out of thin air..making the debt so high that it will be literally and mathematically impossible to ever pay off so when the bottom inevitably falls out, and your entire life savings share the same value as dirt, people will be so blindsided not knowing where their next meal is gonna come from. This will make the last great depression look like luxurious times.
IE: You’re “One Nation Under Attack” EP is still available as a free download. What made you decide to put it out there for free and what has the response been like?
Joe: Yes it is free, all our music will be available for free in some form or another. We just want to get it out there and let it do whatever its gonna do. You like it?..Cool…You don’t?..Cool..give it to someone else.
IE: Do you have the numbers on how many people downloaded it?
Joe: No I’ve never even looked. It’s on 3 different download sites. I know we’ve definitely unloaded about 1000 CD’s so far but as far as downloads though I’d have to check.
IE: You are currently working on a new EP. What are some of the tiles and what are they about?
Joe: Yes we are in the middle of recording 4 new songs with Scott Gross at Hit and Run Studio, 2 have titles 2 have working titles and we don’t have a name for the EP yet...but it will be available online when it’s finished. 1.”Indefinite Detention” is about the National Defense Authorization Act signed by Obama on New Years Eve...2.”Lights Out Liberty” is about how our negligence is destroying any chance of a future for the children of this world...3.”Death Camps” is about FEMA camps being built throughout the country and the eerie comparison to concentration camps in WW2...4.”Poisonous Doctrine” is about codex illuminates and the poisoning and genetic modification of our food.
Photo by: Jammi Sloane York
IE: There is at least one other 1776 band out there. Who had it first? Who came up with the idea for the name 1776 and why?
Joe: I’m sure there’s 50 bands named 1776, or at least there should be. 1776 is an idea...and you can’t stop an idea who’s time has come. We were all talking about band names trying to fit what we were about and that seemed to be the best fit. July 4th 1776 the Declaration of Independence, the birth of this country, and right now we are pretty close to the death of it...and we are declaring our independence from tyranny. How about you? We are the spirit of 1776 vs. the mindset of 1984.
Photo by: Ms Izzy B
IE: Is full blown touring a possibility for 1776 or do you see the band playing closer to your home base of NY for weekend shows etc?
Joe: None of us can really ever tour. We all have a lot going on in our personal lives, whether it be kids, careers, owners of businesses...we will do weekend road trips from time to time but we won’t be going all out.
IE: Where would you like to see 1776 in a few years?
Joe: Hopefully looking back saying man were we wrong, things are great and the countries back on track...whew!
IE: Anything else that you would like to add that we didn’t touch on?
Joe: We aren’t trying to tell anyone what to think, we are just asking people to think. We live in very dangerous times and we are at the crossroads and the edge of the cliff. The proof is out there and you just have to open your eyes. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us.
1776 Live @ Ollie's Point, Amityville, NY July 21, 2012. Video by Miss Izzy B
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