GATHER: Total Liberation

Pressing Info:

Production:

This record was recorded between June 12th and June 14th 2004 at the Sweat Shop in Fresno, CA by Scott Crouse. By the way Scott Crouse plays guitar in the band Earth Crisis, which I hope you know. Scott Crouse played also the additional guitar on „No Contest“.

Cover:

The full artwork was designed by www.emptydesign.net Unfortunately you can no longer find this work online over their portfolio. They designed also artworks for bands like Graf Orlock and Zann. And who knows why they also designed artworks for Graf Orlock for example? Yes correct, Adam, drummer of Graf Orlock designed the full artwork of t heTotal Liberation 7“. And in addition also the split of Gather with Seven Generations for example, but there only the first press.

If you are interested in his actual artwork of Adam, please check out his personal website

Testpress:

Not only one edition of test press were made, no another one was pressed too. Two different types of test presses where I will provide some information to you which will allow you to understand both pressings. First of all, I think I will start with the very first test press. This one was pressed over the vinyl manufacture company Erika in US. In general New Eden pressed all their releases there. And now the tricky part. Not even Erik from New Eden Records itself can remember if this test press was a rejected one or „only“ the first press and the other one later for the second press. Anyway, it doesn’t matter from which point you see it, this one is the first edition of test press. With that test press an unbelievable record was born. I guess every release of New Eden Records was made of 8 initial test presses for the label. I can not promise to you, that every release made over Erika starts with 8 test presses, but at least those ones from New Eden for sure. But then I talked with Dustin about both test presses and finally received a confirmed statement about both test presses. That one of the test presses that came back they did reject, because they made it 45 rpms instead of 33 rpms, and it was actually sped up! It didn't sound right! So maybe that explains the different labels.

The second type of test press has only a standard white label, nothing special. Nevertheless this time the pressing plant was correct and it was made for 33 rpms instead of 45 rpms as the first rejected one .This one has also a cool sticker with it. The design shows the word „Gather“ and two rabbits/bunnies. The stickers were drawn by a good friend of Dustin Shane Smith. He is still a good friend of him. When they were getting their first Gorilla shirts made, the company that they were ordering from https://www.vgkids.com had a deal, where if you ordered a shirt design AND a sticker design, you could get 5% off of your order, so the stickers ended up being FREE, which is why the band always ordered stickers. And here comes the insider info: Shane drew also the cover for the demo/zine for Gather. And why they choose bunnies as design? Haha yea correct, at the time (2004 or 2005) ALL designs by HXC bands were, like, brass knuckles, or razor blades or blood splatter, with red and white print on black shirts. They wanted to be very different (which is why they had bunnies and no black shirts, ever. However you may see some black shirts, but I will explain that fact separately).

Regular Presses:

This one is definitely my favorite one. It is not that thin as the other ones are and there were two different colors. The main color is green. Additionally they added black with a nice kind of swirl/marble. Both colors are very common for green anarchists. The green stands for the nature/ veganism /animal liberation and the black for anarchism. I will talk in another post about the principles of anarchism, veganism etc. In my opinion it is also a little bit heavier than the other are, because of the thickness.

I am not quite sure if the pressing info regarding the copies is correct, but from different sides I got this information. Anyway, except the approved test press this one was my last needed official release of this 7“. I am not sure why, because 400 copies is not really a small amount. What I heard from Dustin is: the solid presses were all made with the same amount of copies. So on, I’ve read many times in the internet that the solid green was made of 400 copies, the green w/black swirl should have the same amount of copies. In my eyes it is not a standard solid green color. It looks more turquoise. As I wrote above this one and the rest of the pressing was also thinner than the green w/black swirl. Maybe this is caused by the mix of two colors and the rest only one.

Unfortunately I was not able to figure out how many copies were made of this edition, or the other second press edition. But I got confirmed information from the label and the band, that both clear editions were made for the second press. Thats at least something, how you can differ them from the solid editions.

All releases of this 7“ were really expensive in the production, because as you know the full cover was printed with colors, same for the booklet, then the vinyl too and the labels on the vinyl were also printed with colors. If you image the prices for a production of a 7“ in that days in the past, a complete colorful record was really expensive.

CD:

New Eden also made CD’s of this great record. But is a way more difficult to figure out how many copies were made, I was not able to get an approved information for you.

All I can say is, the CD version is similar to the record version and I only noticed a difference in the booklet, where something went wrong on the last sites. The lyrics and explanation were identically as on the record booklet, but a little bit shrinked for the size. On the last pages it starts with the lyric of Total Liberation, then comes the special credits and it goes ahead on the last page with the explanation. So not the same order as you might assume.

In my eyes really interesting is the fact, that the band/label did not used the normal picture of the label as you saw on the records, no the upside of the CD is only covered with the Name „gather Total Liberation“ and the label logo.

Lyrics & Explanations:

1. Done and Done

Perpetuating insecurity / Sexism won't be taken lightly / Trend hopper - you're not fooling anybody / Murderer - betraying the animals / Drinker - betraying your own morals / Now you'll have to face the monster you helped create

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To understand this song in a better way and the explanation, I have to show you the first explanation of this song, written in the Demo/Zine.

Culture, the militant vegan straight edge band in the 90’s fooled us into believing that their lyrics were expressions of deeply held convictions. I guess we should not be too surprised (remembering how one of the members wearing a „Pervert 69“ jersey in the Culture/Kindred Split) that Damien was really just your average trend hopper, claiming edge and being vegan because it was cool at the time. The next trend came along and sure enough he jumped into it; he embraces pop culture, which includes drinking, smoking and eating meat and being a completely sexist piece of shit. This song is my reaction to seeing the music video for his new solo project which was thoroughly disgusting, disappointing and even heartbreaking because it always hurts to see someone you assumed was „true“ totally abandon all they stood for. He helped convert hardcore kids into vegan edge „warriors“ and it is just kind of funny how the tables turned on him.

Initially, I wrote this song specifically about the singer of Culture (the explanation for that is in our demo/zine.) However, it applies to just about every sell-out. For someone to realize the significant suffering animals are put through in labs and factory farms, to know the devastating effects drugs have on populations, to know what it is to take a stand against these injustices in hopes of creating a better world and then to turn a blind eye to it all is a choice I can not comprehend. I do not know how a person can ever go back to a lifestyle of careless living and killing, self-destruction and apathy knowing the things they have learned in the struggle against them. They either deny the harm they contribute by pushing it out of their minds, or they simply convince themselves that they do not care. Refusing to see the truth of a matter, or knowing the truth of a matter and just not caring is unacceptable. I realize this path may seem futile or overwhelming at times and some just want to live the „easy life“, but as Derrick Jensen states: „I have neither patience nor sympathy for this form of malaise, which reveals nothing less than an incapacity to love: No one who loves could consider inaction in the Face of a threat as a form of freedom.“ I could never feel „free“ by giving up, but to those who already have, do not try to stand in our way. The struggle continues with or without you…

2. No Contest

No one should have to ask for their life / let alone fight for it / we forget how dire the situation's become / because we are not the ones effected first hand / we're too comfortable! But the animals are defenseless so we must treat this war as our own / I too slip into the comfort of my own life everyday but the guilt cannot be absolved / no matter how much I wish it didn’t have to be this way / No revolution will occur unless we act up / The animals need an army to fight for them / See how useless your pacifist views are now? / as long as I sit here, animals will be killed / veganism is crucial but we can't wait for the world to change their diets-(that's futile) / (my diet) prevents some slaughter but the fact still remains that billions are dying everyday / the only way to stop this is to physically set them free / saying you won't support this is saying you don't care / (ExC part) I refuse to turn my back, I refuse to shut my eyes / steadfast against the deluge of evil of man's devise / the quest of their freedom won't cease until it's won / reconcile your sins or you blood will have to run / to say we can legally win this war is insanity / if it were another human holocaust we'd be preparing for battle undoubtfully / you cant deny the suffering that is their every day lives / there are no rules in this fight / there's no action to harsh when the result is their liberation / "Fear" is crushed by the greatest sense of urgency and necessity / rationality? The case is inarguable! / persist or perish / join the struggle or watch their lives crumble / your faith in peace will lead off to cease / if we could have the masses on our side / then we wouldn't have to fight but we are the minority! / there is no contest-your tactic is bound to lead us into defeat

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To understand this song in a better way and the explanation, I have to show you the first explanation of this song, written in the Demo/Zine.

In high school I made the transition from vegetarianism into veganism. I t felt like a big step, I began to realize that even though I was not directly consuming meat, as a vegetarian I was still supporting the meat industry as well as the enslavement and rape of animals. I’d spend all my energy trying to make people realize the harsh impact their diets had on the earth, that they must go vegan in order to reduce their wastefulness and end animal suffering.

While I still believe that it’s crucial to go vegan, I have since realized that it is futile to wait for everyone to adopt that diet. There are some people who just won’t ever go vegan (unless they are forced to do so by the conditions they will reduce our world to), and there are some people who will, but it will be too late for the animals whose lives are being jeopardized today. Even when you convince people to go vegan, there are animals being killed by the billions and no diet can save them. once you have realized the urgency these animals live under - and that their lives are in your hands - you realize that you must become an „extreme vegan“. This means that even after we change our diets, we also need to change our activism. Being an extreme vegan is realizing that the way we eat is not enough and works much too slowly. (Issue #21 of No Compromise has a good little article on „becoming an Extreme Vegan“.) „Animal Liberation“ is not merely „Abstain from Animal Products“. For those who feel that we need to work within the system in order to change the abuse animals endure, you must wake up and realize that process is not quick enough for beagles in the HLS laboratories; that process is not quick enough for the battery hen in the transportation truck. Take this how you will, but remember that as we become comfortable with our lives and diets, the hell never stops for the animals.

In our first demo/zine I wrote my explanation for this song where I referred to an article in No Compromise #21 because it was pretty darn close to what No Contest is about, so this time I’m just going to quote the majority of that article:

Becoming an Extreme Vegan by David Hayden

„It is a day much like any other… a day during which over eight billion animals will be killed… countless animals will suffer through being burned, electrocuted, beaten, denied enough room to even turn around, and otherwise tortured, exploited, and enslaved. Step inside a slaughter-house and see the horror for yourself.

Bodies strewn about, dead or dying, the stench of blood of thousands is in the air. Yet the butchers continue their work, slashing the throat of one chicken after another. Their still-quivering bodies then immersed in boiling water. Some still live, until their last moments they are boiled alive. Some fall from the hands of their killer and lie twitching on the floor living out their last hours of futile desperation trying to regain control of their bodies for just long enough to drag themselves away. But there is no place to go, no place to run - they are powerless before their butchers.

It’s just another average day in the United States of America.

The plight of these animals is so extreme it seems incomprehensible that anyone who cares about animals would do anything less than they possibly could to help as, many of these animals as they can.

Becoming vegan is a great place to start. It saves lives, and every life is precious. But in our fast-food nation these lives are a mere drop in the bucket. Simply trying to avoid taking an active part in the exploitation, abuse, and killing of animals is not enough. Nor can the animals afford for us to become complacent, settling for only avoiding supporting animal industries when it’s easy for us.

Think of the animals being tortured and killed as you read this and ask yourself: Is there really nothing more you could be doing to help them? Whether it be engaging in direct action, protesting a vivisection lab, doing public speaking, supporting vegan businesses, rejecting consumer society, campaigning for legislation, or simply urging businesses to not use bone-char sugar in vegan products, the bottom line is the animals need you to get active and do your best for them today and every day. Our society is incredibly apathetic, and it’s all too easy to get mired in one’s doubts over which campaigns to spend one’s time on, or to simply give up out of despair that one can never do enough. But look into the eyes of a calf as she is taken off to slaughter and tell her you’re really doing everything you can. Tell her that it’s more important to go to a show than to hand out flyers about veganism. Tell the mink imprisoned on a fur-farm that you’d rather stay home and watch TV than free him. Certainly this doesn’t mean one needs to spend every waking moment of every day fighting for the animals. We all need our down time to recharge and keep from getting burned out. The trick is not to use that as an excuse to do less than we can, but instead constantly challenge ourselves to do more to help the oppressed. This is what being an Extreme Vegan means: challenging the limits of how much we can do to help others every single day of our lives. Visit www.ExtremeVegan.com today for fresh ways - to challenge yourself to be all you can be - for the animals.

If you are interested on the zine „No Compromise“, you can download them here

3. Escalate

Straight Edge cannot be considered the final goal / but in order to achieve the things that count the most, we must use it as a tool. / There is more to it than simply being drug free / it's the clarity of mind to act most effectively against this system we're fighting / It's the first step, it's the key to unlock you from your apathy / but if you stop at that, you're just a waste to me / You've broken your addiction, but now you just sit / as stagnant as a passed out frat-boy - you're no threat! / I know plenty of Christian who don't drink / Do they deserve praise for being revolutionary? NO! / Do you really believe that Straight Edge alone is going to do shit? / If drugs are the reason everyone's so passive, use your sobriety to act! / Do you think it's just about health? / The how does it effect anyone but you? / Now that you're liberated, what are you going to do? / Merely Straight Edge - not enough! / Merely Straight Edge - step it up! / If you think that we have things in common just because we both wear X's on our hands, you're wrong! / We both may abstain from substances, but that is not enough to make a bond.

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A few days ago, I was sitting in a lecture at school and somehow the topic of „punk“ came up. Students gave their definitions of „punk“ and what it involved. Some of the students said things like: „My sister was a punk; it was just an easy way out, it was just about taking a bunch of drugs.“ Another kids said: „Yeah, I agree that it’s an easy way out. All you have to do is get a piercing and you think you’re rebelling.“ Yikes. Maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised that the average college student would have no idea what punk is about, but I fear that these views are based on the lifestyles that too many punks or hardcore kids actually are living. So many kids in the punk and hardcore scene completely embrace these things (drugs, fashion, etc.) Maybe it really is an easy way out to some.

However, I do think there are some fundamental aspects that make punk rock what it is. The rejection of hierarchies, where ever they exist, is one of those fundamental aspects. Punk rock is an alternative to pop-culture. It’s a resistance to the mainstream lifestyle that never questions the way things are, and that blindly accepts the media’s definitions of what is cool, what is feminine, masculine, moral, etc. Punk and hardcore should always stay „dangerous“ in the eyes of the system, it should always pose a threat to the things we despise. if punk were just about „taking a bunch of drugs“ we wouldn’t be posing much of a threat at all. But there is where straight edge comes in. Straight edge kids reject a major aspect of popular culture by abstaining from drugs and alcohol, but even if the extent of our rebellion stops there, we’re still not much of a threat. The whole point of keeping a sober mind and a healthy body is to prevent ourselves from becoming pacified, which we recognize as a tactic governments use - don’t play into their hands. Yes, drugs keep us down, but so do things like racism, sexism, anthropocentrism, consumerism… Don’t waste your sobriety, use it to maximize your resistance and be more effective toward which ever cause you stand for.

Refusing to support oppressive industries like tobacco and alcohol are crucial, but so is refusing to support other industries like meat, diary, and sweatshops that exploit the earth, animals and people. There is so much that needs to be done once you are sober and in the optimum state to act effectively. There are animals that need to be liberated, SUV’s that need to burned, vivisectionists who need to be harassed, and a civilization that needs to be destroyed!

4. I Hate Ayn Rand

'Individualism' is the mentality that you don't owe anyone anything. / "Don't tell me how to live my life and i won't tell you how to live yours" - Fuck that / Manifestation of living in a capitalist system / Everyone is just looking our for themselves / We shun and ignore the one that need our help / But our action affect everyone around us / And the choices we make have very real consequences / And the thing you demand and the things you take for granted... / Convenience for you could be the result of another's life / Step out of you little world... And open your eyes and your hearts! / A luxury for you could be the result of another's suffering / Can you trace the origins of what you consume back to torture and abuse?/ Never stop questioning / The unexamined life is not worth living / This is not PC chit chat / This is what it is to be a human being / Taking shortcuts to happiness / will not bring you a lifetime of fulfillment

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Individualism and capitalism alienate us from one another and make it easy to forget the way our society is run in order to meet our demands. We are not self-sufficient, as much as we would like to believe we are. Not only does individualism make us completely lose a sense of community, but it leads to a complete disregard for anyone and anything that we don’t have a personal relationship with. We imagine that because we don’t see someone, they aren#t really suffering. We must be aware of what we consume and how it effects the environment, animals, and people. Most things available for us to buy are products of exploitation: In order to get clothes cheaper, someone had to work in a sweatshop for little pay, in horrible conditions that you wouldn’t subject yourself to; to get your meat, water was inefficiently used to grow the grains which were in turn fed to the animal when those grains could have been fed to people who consume less food than most livestocks, excessive amounts of methane gas went into the air, and waste run-off polluted more streams, an animals was confined, treated as an object - not a sentient being - and brutally denied a full life; to get your dairy, a male calf was taken from his mother and turned into veal, his mother was forced to be impregnated every year of her life without being able to feed her baby, and then when her production went down, she was killed for beef; to eat your non organically grown GMO’s, toxic chemicals were sprayed, DNA was altered and diversity eliminated, poor farmers were forced to buy seeds every year since seeds are now sterile and the farm is no longer self-sufficient. All I can ask is to educate yourself on your consumption, and to rethink they way we view others - do we really want to support a lifestyle that requires us to oppress one another?

DeTocqueville writes: „Individualism is a mature and calm feeling, which disposes each member of the community to sever himself from the mass of his fellow-creatures; and to draw apart with his family and friends; so that, after he has thus formed a little circle of his own, he willingly leaves society at large to itself… [Individualism] originates as much in the deficiencies of the mind as in the perversity of the heart. Egotism blights the germ of all virtue: individualism, at first, only saps the virtues of public life; but, in the long run it attacks and destroys all others, and is at length absorbed in downright egotism… [Individualists] owe nothing to any man, they expect nothing from any man; they acquire the habit of always considering themselves as standing alone and they are apt to imagine that their whole destiny is in their own hands.“ (Sorry about the gender exclusion in that passage.)

If you don’t know who Ayn Rand is, you can check this website for more information

5. Total Liberation

for every life for liberation / we're dedicated to bringing freedom for all enslaved / tear the blindfold from over your eyes / forget all that you thought you once knew / after 10, 000 years of telling lies / dedicated to spreading the truth / taking pride in this path that we tread / in defense of the earth / speaking out so the words of the voiceless can finally be heard / now's the time to take action for freedom / and justice deserved / FIGHT FOR LIFE / take a stand / for truth and compassion / there's no time to wait for change / show dedication / through your words and your actions / together we can end their suffering / TOTAL LIBERATION / smash hierarchy / don't buy into authority / strive for sustainability / resources are running out / discontent because we're not free / oppressors act out of greed / compassion and equality / are both necessary / reject the myths we were taught to believe / it's time to deprogram ourselves / question stereotypes and traditions / follow no gods, no masters / look at the root of racism, sexism, speciesism / and you'll see, it's all been fabricated to keep us apart / BREAK DOWN / THE BARRIERS / THAT ENSLAVE US ALL

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So what happens if you really are one of those people with an earnest desire to save the world? What if you are one of the individuals in a growing population who sense that there is something amiss with the world? What do you do if you are one of the individuals who - for whatever reason - deviate from the public norm begin to notice the glitches in this design? You’ll recognize these glitches I’m talking about: for the first time you notice how many advertisements are bombarding you every day and you notice that the people on them look airbrushed and alien. Maybe you begin to feel uneasy that the amount of beer ads double during Cinco de Mayo and you begin to question Mexican culture should be exploited to support Anheuser Busch. You’ve made the connection between your „pet“ and your „dinner“ and begin to question why there is a cow’s flesh in your mouth and not a cat’s. You get sick of all the ads on TV and the radio and then realize that you’re actually sick of TV and radio itself. You notice your sister cringe every time a man speaks about other women’s body parts. Generally, you begin to feel snags throughout your day. Your effortless glide through society and the public has been interrupted, like nicking the side of the cliff after a while of free falling. And then, after a short while, the pesty and upsetting „snags“ begin to feel more like „moments of clarity“, a clearer glimpse of a worldview that better fits your personal interactions with world and universe.

It’s probably the case that the phenomena that resulted in your „earnest desire to save the world“ are different then the examples above. There is great power and pleasure in discovering something yourself, and all these magnificent moments of clarity feel to empowering to abandon for „what was“ (or, actually, „what is“). No matter the method of the journey, you have reached the beginning of a path. We, and our peers, have all at some point stood at the beginning of this path, having arrived there in vastly different ways. What happened next was a defining moment in all of our lives: the day we decided to step forward onto this path, not fully knowing its length or challenges. You may have heard the adage that, „whether you’re dropped in the middle of a pool or the middle of an ocean, you start swimming“. We were teenagers when the desire to pursue the path consumed us, but you may have been younger or even much older. Whether in a juvenile pursuit of the pleasure felt through these moments of clarity, or by maturity reaching down and dragging us forward, it doesn’t matter. We began to walk.

And so began a journey of reading books, reading lyrics, reading love letters and reading hate mail; listening to music, listening to friends, listening to the land and listening to our intuitions; ignore teachers, ignoring advertisements, ignoring impulses and ignoring restraints; loving animals, loving friends, loving resistance and hating to see our friends slip away. There are milestones along the way, almost like gates along the path. The conclusion of one part of our lives always seems to be the beginning of another part. For some of us, becoming vegan straight edge was the result of a difficult path and we may have felt like taking a rest, and so we did. We lived life like everyone else, except that technically we didn’t eat animals or drink beer. What is important, though, is that after resting for a while, we got up and went through the next gate, realizing that being vegan straight edge was the end of one part of the path and the beginning of many more difficult stretches ahead.

It is always exciting to begin down a new stretch. We learn new things along the way, and over time, gather the courage to challenge different aspects of ourselves that need change. A Submission Hold sticker once said: „One day I’ll get this goddam hardware out of my head“. That’s exactly what is happening to us and, we think, inevitably happens to everyone who endures down this long path: we get their goddam hardware and programming out of our heads! We’re challenging the idea that our diet and the way that we acquire food are good enough for the Earth. All around us we learn and debate ideas about Capitalism and stealing food, dumpster diving and roadkill veganism, identifying plants and listening to them as well. As individuals in this band, we’re facing these new questions an challenges and may have progressed very little down this current stretch of personal development. Sometimes this stretch seems as vast as an ocean, but we’re still swimming.

We have some peers that relate to where we are in our personal development in satisfying our „earnest desire to save the world“. Some peers have traveled farther than we have and are doing things in writing, direct action, and consuming food that we aspire toward. Other peers are just now coming to grapple with straight edge, veganism, activisim, learning (and re-learning). Luckily, the metaphor of „the path“ deteriorates here. The metaphor of a linear path makes it seem like those at different toward sustainability and reclaimed sanity, we can come together and hang out, feed each other, share ideas, play music, dance, mosh and hug! This path is not linear, and those who we look up to are people that we’re directly learning from - not people whose backs we can only see down the path ahead. Likewise, we get to hang out with, share, and learn from people who are asking new questions of us and themselves.

The purpose of this band is to instill a sense of community and learning from people who walk this path, hence name Gather. The path may become difficult at times, lonely at others, and threatening now and again, but would we really have life any other way? We’re tried the so called „easy street“ and it resulted in even more alienation: alienation from animals, alienation from people different from us, and even alienation from ourselves as individuals. The important thing is to not abandon this path, this quest, or this struggle. Songs refer to people that do as „sell-outs“. Don’t confuse a „rest along the path“ with „giving up altogether“. Move at your own pace, keeping in mind the haste „requested“ by cultures, animals, and plants going extinct everyday. It is much more important that we reach our personal, and communal, destinations together than it is pushing ourselves to the point of „burning out“. In learning, in walking, in fighting, and in singing we will work toward sustainability and harmony with earth, animal, and plant nations. What is important for all of us now is to march forward - always forward!

Download:

If you do not have this release in digital form, you can download it here

Samstag, 19. April 2014

Total Liberation

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