Scoop's Interview With Vic Bondi, Singer of Political Punk Band Report Suspicious Activity

Normally I would use this space for a more detailed eloquent introduction to this interview. But as I just explained in this quickie memoir piece tonight is not a normal nite (no computer for scoop means scoop must change his ways, temporarily)
Instead I will just link to three punk pieces:
I explained here, at Logan's piece about punk music, about my fascination with straight edge punk music.

So why not delay this interview so I can write a more detailed introduction? Because the political questions are timely and in a few days I - and I expect many others - will be so sick of talking about politics that others will do articles like this, a politics-free zone.

Vic Bondi was in Articles of Faith. Also in the band are former members of Jawbox, Burning Airlines and Kerosene 454. The band is on the same label, Alternative Tentacles, as 16 Horsepower, whose album I previously reviewed. I think that is why I received an email about a week ago informing me that Report Suspicious Activity was doing some rare live shows in my area (I live near Baltimore and D.C.)

I quickly set up this interview to capitalize on the election.

I am writing this to you two days before a historic election. Do you have any thoughts on the election?

Vic: I'm a bit terrified. McCain and Palin are so obviously wrong--it's like they're distilling the rancor, bad faith and sheer evil of the last 30 years into some transparently vicious concoction. They have nothing to run on. No economic agenda that hasn't been firmly discredited; no foreign policy that has any measure of reasonable outcome. It's pure resentment now, and bile: they don't really want to win, and don't have an agenda for victory. Nothing meaningful.

They just want Obama to lose. And their supporters share that. They hate Obama. There's nothing positive there. In a way, the best thing for them is for McCain to lose; they get to keep their resentments that way. If McCain wins, they won't have an object for their resentments, and they'll still have nothing positive by way of policy or plan. But they'll take the rest of us down with them. So bad, win or lose.

Can you explaining the meaning behind the song titled "Bush is Brezhnev?

Well, you know, in the last eight years there were so many invidious (if merited) historical comparisons made between Bush and people like Hitler or Stalin. He's not really like any of them; he's the type of homegrown American greedhead unique to our culture and our moment. So I thought, don't glorify him by comparing him to Hitler; compare him to Brezhnev. Like Brezhnev, he's a grotesque; he's a hack. It's a bit of a joke--You'd have to know who Brezhnev was to get it. A lot of people don't.

What was the reasoning behind the name of the band and the name of the album?

When Bush was appointed president, it was as if a light turned on for me. I hadn't written very much music during the Clinton years--just the one project with Morello. But when Bush came in with that endless array of criminal misadventures, I felt so hopeless. So it was back to protest songs, if for no other reason than that I felt like screaming.

Originally the band was a solo recording project, but things gelled so well with J, Darren and Erik that it started to feel great to play again. I think we were all just thrilled to be playing some fairly aggressive rock, especially at our ages. So now, the band has a very unique vibe and something of a life of its own. On the new record we actually wrote several songs together; J wrote some songs; and we all started swapping lead vocals. It feels pretty good.

The name of the band came from traffic signs I kept seeing when we did the first record. My parents live in Northern Virginia, so I stayed with them when I was recording, and on the way back and forth to practice and record in Baltimore I used to see that sign on I-90: Report Suspicious Activity. It seemed appropriate.

As you have gotten older have you mellowed? In what ways?

I suppose I've mellowed. I like to think I'm not quite the arrogant prick I was--I certainly don't know as much about the world now as I thought I knew at 21. I'm a father and a husband, and both change you in so many profound ways. Maybe I'm more attuned to just how fragile life is. But that makes me twice as angry at the villains out there cheapening life and dehumanizing the culture. They're destroying my daughter's world now, too. So, naturally, I'm pissed.

What have been the high and low points in your musical career?

Most of it has been pretty great. I wish I could have made a living with it. It would have been nice JUST to play music. But I've managed to have quite a career nonetheless, and there are some real strengths to never having to compromise what you like doing to make money. What is it--eighteen albums now; four bands; thirty years of music. It's gratifying when people write me and say they knew about RSA but not AoF and vice versa--and then they discover the back catalog and they're thrilled. Hopefully it says that the music holds up over time.

If you were not a musician what do you think you would do with all of your energy? How would you describe your band's music to someone unfamiliar with any of your bands?

Madnessrackedguitaragressopolticoranting.

Do you expect the country to change much after the election or do you think the changes will be more cosmetic in nature?

Obama or McCain are not really the point--the point is and was the people. There's an article of faith on the left that somehow the last eight years has been a fake or a con--as though the people out there are genuinely confused or misled. But I think a lot of folks know exactly what has gone on. They approve. They're probably not the majority, but there are a lot of them, and they'll still be here after election day. Determined to wreck it all.

What should people who come see you live expect to see? Foreheads popping to the point of aneurysm. And a lot of sweat.

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