Crucifix: Logo #335

Designed by anarcho-punk band Crucifix (detourned from Gerald Holtom's original 1958 symbol of the British nuclear disarmament movement) for their 1983 album "Dehumanization," issued by the Corpus Christi label, the sub-label owned by Crass.  The mushroom cloud is here used as a wise and incisive presentation of the modern cross on which we were all hellbent on crucifying ourselves back in 1983.  Here's Crucifix live in concert before they broke up in 1984.  If I'd had to perform in front of a lethally bored audience like that one, I'd want to hang it up, too.  Here's a faintly illuminating interview with Sothira Pheng, Crucifix's fiery Cambodian lead singer; it apparently dates to just before "Dehumanization" was issued.  Pheng has some entertaining things to say about the episode of "Quincy" in which the punk rock menace was "revealed."  I wonder if any other punk bands were interviewed about that particular network television event at the time.  Here's another clip, riddled with clichés as it is, with traditional heavy William Forsythe playing the lead singer of Pain on the "CHiPs" punk rock episode.  Another ridiculous scare attempted by squares.  Time passages.

Flux of Pink Indians: Logo #324

This mix of Native American imagery and the peace symbol was designed for Flux of Pink Indians in 1981 by Exitstencil Press, Crass' in-house design firm founded by Penny Rimbaud and Gee Vaucher. I write "Native American" because, by inference and the time in which it was cast, likely "Indian" means "Native American" - although one never knows. So by what signifiers do we infer that these are two Indians? The "head-dresses" could just as easily be mohawks; are the raised knees part of a dance? They could just as easily be climbing the angles of the peace sign - which just as easily could be a teepee. The fringes might be frocks. Mssrs. Rimbaud and Vaucher maintain a stony silence on the matter - smoke signals notwithstanding.

Keep in mind that Derek Birkett, the bassist of Flux of Pink Indians, co-founded One Little Indian, the record label that last year signed Paul McCartney. Long and winding roads that intertwine are what make life worth living, ultimately.

Apropos of something, here's a nice piece on Clinton Riggs, the Tulsa PD captain who created the yield sign in 1950.

Contravene: Logo #301

Eric, bassist for Phoenix anarcho / peacepunk band Contravene: "We found the basis for it in a book of Japanese design motifs. We changed a few things about it, added the peace and equality signs and our name and that was that. As for when it first appeared, I believe our design came about in 1999. The original Japanese motif has been around much, much longer."

This Day in Death:
Nigel Christopher Preston (Sex Gang Children, The Cult; April 4, 1963 - May 7, 1992)

Timothy R. "Tim" North (Crash Worship, Rhythm & Noise; September 17, 1960 - May 7, 2003)

Logo #73: Conflict

Contemporaries of Crass, Icons of Filth, Gauze, Lost Cherrees and other paragons of freedom, Conflict's striking "Mortarhate" logo was designed by Paul "Nihilistic Nobody" Friday, the visual mastermind behind the band. The symbol first appeared in 1980 published in "Thanatos," a modest underground pamphlet helmed by Toxic Graffity editor Mike Diboll, who currently teaches Comparative Literature in the Middle East. Dicey! Conflict toured the U.S. this past springtime, and, judging from the interactions on their website, seem rather friendly. Handy tip: whenever you're traveling around the world and you stay in a squat, the cleanest room in the whole building will likely be the laundry room. Anarchists like clean clothes occasionally just like anyone else. Per Conflict drummer Francisco ‘Paco’ Carreno, the Mortarhate is not an stylized acronym for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, but instead "...incorporates two 'A's for anarchy and autonomy, and an 'N' for nihilism." And yet for all that anarchy therein, there's that lovely all-inclusive comfort of the circle tying the whole thing together as nicely as a well-placed Mylar Barcalounger really brings a room together.

Like the man sang, "Going against nature is a part of nature, too."

Logo #53: Discharge

Actually the face of Discharge drummer Terry "Tezz" Roberts, this image appeared in 1977, during the first incarnation of the band, when Tezz was the vocalist. Word from Discharge Central is that, due to "family commitments," Tezz is no longer playing drums, so Dave Bridgewood from Broken Bones (whose logo we will cover a bit later and whose guitarist, Tony "Bones" Roberts, co-founded Discharge) takes over the drumstool. Inspiring scores of punk bands with names beginning with "Dis-" (much as the band members on the SST label in Southern California nicknamed themselves by adding "-o" the ends of their first names), the band also furthered the rhythmic and aesthetic conceit known as "D-Beat," which deals with apocalyptic nuclear visions and a driving beat used as a blueprint by later hardcore bands around the world. As punk band logos go, it's unparalleled in its ability to inspire curiosity - slathered on a thousand crusty denim back-patches, just who is "Anarchy Face," and was he mercilessly teased throughout the playground with taunts of "Anarchy Face! Anarchy Face!"? Well, now you know - and that's one to grow on!

Logo #46: Icons of Filth

Led by founder Andrew "Stiggy Smeg" Sewell (August 22, 1962 - October 23, 2004), Icons of Filth were a deeply, righteously angry "anarcho-punk" group of political activists that began life in 1979 as Mock Death. Real death came for Sewell in the form of a heart attack during the early hours of Saturday October 23 after an Icons of Filth action in Hackney, London. It effectively ended the band, but not before two benefit concerts for Sewell's family in London and Los Angeles (where was I!). At least he didn't go out like Alan "Nidge" Miller (January 23, 1958 - February 10, 2007), the lead singer of Blitz - run over by a car as he crossed a road in Texas, MySpace page forever frozen in time. Icons of Filth's logo hints at a biting disdain for the symbols that fueled punk rock in those days when everyone was trying to get a handle on how to exploit the form. The star, the anarchy symbol, and peace sign - all of which offered no substantive, concrete solutions but were merely fetishized as commodities (the belt buckle, the T-shirt, the badge) and remain so today. And the recursive perfidy of leftism is that, were this logo changed to contain the "filthy icons" of Judaism or Islam or Christianity, the band would be pilloried for "intolerance" instead of their apparent desire to escape the symbol as an unthinking magog ruling over countless lives ignorant of their myriad meanings. Designed by the shadowy Squeal in 1983, the logo originally had a... longer arm of the law with... the truncheon... oppressing... what the State perceives as... filthy icons. Okay, never mind - it's a comment on the Good Guys vs. The Man. Peace signs and anarchy symbols for everyone!