Michelle Shocked attends to new dog audience

Last time we heard from Michelle Shocked, she was trying to explain her disappointing-cum-heartbreaking anti-gay ranting as some sort of play acting.

She's back, though, and going after a softer target - digital music executives. And she's, erm, using the medium of songs only dogs can hear (a step forward from stage shows only Republicans can stomach, I suppose):

She recently released a silent album on CDBaby.com called “Inaudible Women,” containing 11 brief “songs” named after big-shots in the music industry. With titles like “David Drummond (Google, Youtube),” “Robert Walls (Clear Channel),” and “Chris Harrison (Pandora),” she’s calling out people who run the digital streaming world.

Or possibly acting the part of someone who calls out the people who run the digital streaming world.

Dygeddit? It's not a silent album, because that would be bad and break the rules; it's an album with music on, but music that only dogs can hear.

A spokesperson for some dogs issued a statement, saying that while they enjoyed her early work they're more excited for the La Roux album right now.

Michelle Shocked tapes mouth, stages protest

Can't help feeling that Michelle Shocked might have done a better job salvaging her image if she'd stuck a bit of duct tape over her mouth before she embarked on the anti-gay rant, rather than outside one of the venues which subsequently canned her.

Shocked is trying to claim that the withdrawal of a platform is akin to being silenced. That would be muddle-headed enough from someone who hadn't lived the life of an activist, but from Shocked is just heartbreakingly crass.

Nobody is silencing you, Michelle. But that doesn't mean that anyone wants to listen to you.

Mich-understood? Shocked claims hate was example

Last Sunday, Michelle Shocked managed to trash her reputation by standing on stage in San Francisco and announcing that gay marriage would bring about Armageddon (the Jesus not Willis version).

After three days of being called out, gigs being pulled and former fans back-masking The Texas Campfire Tapes to see if she'd hidden 'Jesus is Lord' messages in the songs, Shocked has finally responded with a statement.

Why, yes, of course there's a reasonable explanation - she wasn't talking about what she believes, it was just what "some folks" believe:

I do not, nor have I ever, said or believed that God hates homosexuals (or anyone else). I said that some of His followers believe that. I believe intolerance comes from fear, and these folks are genuinely scared. When I said "Twitter that Michelle Shocked says "God hates faggots," I was predicting the absurd way my description of, my apology for, the intolerant would no doubt be misinterpreted. The show was all music, and the audience tweets said they enjoyed it. The commentary came about ten minutes later, in the encore.

And to those fans who are disappointed by what they've heard or think I said, I'm very sorry: I don't always express myself as clearly as I should. But don't believe everything you read on facebook or twitter. My view of homosexualty has changed not one iota. I judge not. And my statement equating repeal of Prop 8 with the coming of the End Times was neither literal nor ironic: it was a description of how some folks - not me - feel about gay marriage.

Here's the thing, though. You know that the couple of paragraphs wasn't my words, but somebody else's, because I introduced it as such (and formatted it differently).

Shocked doesn't appear to have used a framing device.

Likewise, if I decided I wanted to draw attention to people who want to punch kittens, I'd not do a post which simply said "Let's punch kittens" as I think I'd be unwise to expect readers to somehow grasp that I'd lurched unannounced into the character of a kitten-puncher.

And even if I did do that, I think I'd not need three days of 'Music blogger calls for kitten pain' response before realising that people had thought I wanted cats attacked and grudgingly released an explanation that, no, I was just pretending to be a feline fighter. For some reason.

The bigger problem with Shocked's explanation is that people were taping the gig and a transcript destroys this idea that there was some sort of third party defence:

"From their vantage point – and I really shouldn't say 'their', because it's mine too – we are nearly at the end of time," she is heard to say, "and from our vantage point, we're gonna be – I think maybe Chinese water torture is going to be the method. Once Prop 8 gets [repealed] and once preachers are held at gunpoint and forced to marry the homosexuals, I'm pretty sure that that will be the signal for Jesus to come on back."

But, hey, maybe it she wasn't simply doing it in the character of a person who believed this shit, but doing it in a metacharacter of someone who believed it, but wanted to distance themselves from it slightly.

Back to the statement, then. Having opened the sluice gates of asshattery, Shocked then calls for people to forgive the asshats:

The show, and the rant, was spontaneous. As for those applauding my so-called stance that "God Hates Faggots," I say they should be met with mercy, not hate. And I hope that what remains of my audience will meet that intolerance with understanding, even of those who might hate them.

Yes, that's right. If someone hates you because of who you love, it's up to you to make the adjustments to tolerate their hatred.

On she ploughs:

Folks wonder about my sexuality, but denying being gay is like saying I never beat my husband.

I think this is meant to be a reference to the loaded 'when did you stop hitting your wife' question, but... this is meaningless, right? The model would only work if she said 'being asked if I'm still gay is like being asked if I'm still beating my husband'.

My sexuality is not at issue.

That's the first sensible thing she's said so far. This isn't about her sexuality at all. Other things it's not about are cheese, horticulture and water towers.

What is being questioned is my support for the LGBT community, and that has never wavered.

Except for a few moments ago when you suggested that it's incumbent on the LGBT community to understand and tolerate people who would see them dead, or degayed-through-prayer, or whatever.

Music and activism have always been part of my work and my journey, which I hope and intend to continue. I'd like to say this was a publicity stunt, but I'm really not that clever, and I'm definitely not that cynical.

Also, Michelle, if it had been a publicity stunt, 'reminding people I exist and then making them wish I had never made a record' would have been a pretty dreadful stunt.

But I am damn sorry. If I could repeat the evening, I would make a clearer distinction between a set of beliefs I abhor, and my human sympathy for the folks who hold them. I say this not because I want to look better. I have no wish to hide my faults, and - clearly - I couldn't if I tried.

With love,

Michelle

How would you go about making the distinction clearer, Michelle? Perhaps by not saying "it's my vantage point too".

Or maybe the only distinction between you and a standard class asshole is the other assholes haven't just had an entire US tour axed.

There was a second statement which followed, which somehow tries to suggest that there's something "punk" about putting the doctrine of evangelical fundamentalists ahead of just letting people who love each other say so in a public forum:

I believe in a God who loves everyone, and my faith tells me to do my best to also love everyone. Everyone: gay or straight, stridently gay, self-righteously faithful; left or right, far left, far right; good, bad, or indifferent. That's the law: everyone.

I may disagree with someone's most fervently held belief, but I will not hate them. And in this controversy, that means speaking for Christians with opinions I in no way share about homosexuality. Will I endorse them? Never. Will I disavow them? Never.

I stand accused of forsaking the LGBT community for a Christianity which is – hear me now - anathema to my understanding of faith. I will no doubt take future flack for saying so. I'm accused of believing that "God hates fags" and that the repeal of Prop 8 will usher in the End Times. Well, if I caused such an absurdity, I am damn sorry. To be clear: I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of any so-called faith preaching intolerance of anyone. Again, anyone: straight or gay, believers or not: that's the law.

That means upholding my punk rock values in the most evangelical enclaves and, in this case, speaking up for the most fearful of fundamentalists in, well, a San Francisco music hall full of Michelle Shocked fans.

As an artist in this time of unbearable culture wars, I understand: this means trouble, and this is neither the first nor last time trouble has come my way. And that's fine by me.

I know the fear many in the evangelical community feel about homosexual marriage, as I understand the fear many in the gay community feel toward the self-appointed faithful. I have and will continue speaking to both. Everything else – facebook, twitter, whatever – is commentary.

Let's not see this as a shabby attempt to try and salvage a career, and take it at at least one of its faces' value and ask: if Shocked really was trying to 'speak up for evangelicals', why did she feel the need?

Does she really think that people in San Francisco haven't heard the bullshit over and over again? That with Fox News, and Westboro Baptist Church, and Utah-based attempts to rig the Prop 8 vote through endless TV commercials, that people in the city might not have heard what fundamentalists think, again and again and again and a-fucking-gain.

There are many, many platforms where these groups express their views, where they wave the Holy Books they don't quite understand, and declaim.

What gap in the discourse did Shocked think she was plugging?

But even if you do buy this line - then how was merely parroting their words supposed to be of value?

You could imagine Shocked doing the ranty bit, with quote marks around it, and then - like a Culture Wars Yarwood - segueing into a 'and this is me' bit, perhaps trying to find some common ground, or saying 'look, here's the reason why these people think this...' But there was none of that.

Standing in a room and saying 'let's punch kittens' isn't moving on a debate about punching kittens.

Michelle Shocked isn't so stupid as to not understand that.

The apology?

And it's every month I tear it up and mail the damn thing back/
Did you think that would make it alright, did you think I would fall for that?

Michelle Shocked: If love were a train, it'd be derailed

Disappointing to see that Michelle Shocked has gone from the ugly dismissal of her own sexuality to a blanket attack on all gay people, live from the stage at Yoshi's, San Francisco. Matt Penfield was there, and told Yahoo Music:

"She started reading some tweets from the stream and having a dialogue about people's impressions, talking about how she was feeling brave at this point and that she was doing the right thing. Then the tone of the conversation became extremely religious and she began talking about the two things most important to her being Jesus Christ and freedom. Then she talked about how she had just come from a prayer meeting the night before, and the people in her prayer meeting were really worried because these are the end times, and they’re the end times because Prop. 8 is going to lead to ministers marrying gay people with a rifle to the head. At which people got a little riled up; then there started to be some call and response from the crowd about what she meant. She started exhorting the crowd very specifically to go ahead and tweet or write and say that Michelle Shocked says God hates f--s, and some other references to the Bible denouncing homosexuality as sinful and abhorrent.

"At that point a lot of people started getting up and walking out. We didn’t understand if this was for the sake of art or an actual rant. Then she delivered the same Bible verses in Spanish. At that point personally I felt like I was an emotional hostage, and the night of entertainment had become a night for her to deliver this intense personal polemic that, in hindsight, it felt like she had been carrying around since she got on stage, while we were strapped in waiting for her to deliver it."

There's been a few vain attempts to suggest that maybe this was some sort of biting satire, but taken alongside her past description of homosexuality as being "no more of a sin than fornication" (gee, thanks) and her same-sex past either as a lie or an "inconvenient truth" it seems unlikely.

Last night Shocked was retweeting a mix of positive and negative @ messages, prompting one exasperated follower to sigh "the cryptic retweets aren't helping".

What's certain, though, is that the world is treating a former radical standing on stage shouting "god hates fags" - however ironically - like box office poison, with shows being axed all over America.

Michelle Shocked. Come a long fucking way indeed.

Off the road: Pump prices hit touring bands

The saviour of the music industry, for about a year or so now, has largely been thought to be touring. If people won't pay for records, runs the logic, they'll pay for live shows. The logic of tours-to-promote-albums has been inverted.

Live music. That'll save us all.

Trouble is, though, the rise in the price of oil looks set to bugger that plan, too. Michelle Shocked has told Hypebot that she's feeling the pinch:

I always thought that commuting to work by airplane was excessive, but Southwest and JetBlue fares just made it too tempting...It's possible that summer traffic is responsible, but in general I'm assuming that when the fall comes around the prices won't go back down to their 'cheaper to fly than drive' rates...I thought about converting my tour bus to biodiesel, but in the end I just donated it to the church for a building fundraiser.

I've had to develop orbit rhythm sections for the regions of the country.

And that's Michelle Shocked. Imagine what the rapidly increasing price of diesel means for the economics of a multi-trailer, multi-winnebagoed tour across a continent.

And that's before you factor in fans having to decide if they're going to drive halfway across a state or a country to get to a massive venue to see a band, nevermind find the price of the tickets out of a squeezed pocket book. The big tours are going to have do some serious work with spreadsheets to make themselves retain profitability in the next few months.

Whatever happened to Michelle Shocked?

Every so often, Michelle Shocked resurfaces: most recently, doing a performance for Village Voice on the New York streets.

'Chelle lacked

Morag Rose, bsn person and - more importantly - editing force behind the soon-come Twang - witnesses Michelle Shocked in Manchester, Thursday:

so not going to see sparklehorse worked out nicely because i watched the emi and i programme instead. lara made that (well, not on her own obviously) and it was the first time i have ever so slightly wished i didnt change careers. i was happy they used a syd clip.

anyhow it also meant i could afford to seee michele shocked, who i used to love a lot and always gives a good show (if you know what i mean) so i went, looking forward to hearing some dearly beloved old songs and catching up on her new stuff too.
so i guess its always a cause for concern when the touts are selling for below face value (it was £16.50 for fucks sake! i thought she was punk in the old school having principles way. bah)

but my heart was set so i gave a man in a kagoul £14 and went to join the throng; if seeing the rock kids on monday made me feel old, last night i knew i was young and carefree. anyhow there were about 250 people, mostly couples, i imagine most like muesli and have little tarquin safely tucked up in bed so they could have a special night out.

there were grumbles that she didnt come on till 9.20; there was no support so people were a little restless and bored. but then she appered, looking a wee bit pasty and puffy (but then i figured it had been a while since i saw her) and told us 'its so so great to be back in manchester, and on the no bush war tour.i'm michelle shocked and your're.....drunk'

she picked up her guitar; no sound. lots of glares at the roadie and some grumbles but then she's away, starting with a new song, rawer and bluesier and gutsier than i recall, and it sounds fine. another newie and then she's warming up and looking happier; she tells us all to mambo and chachacha as she launched into 'on the greener side' theres a trummpet player (deeply ace) and a bass and some drums; people are dancing in slightly akward manner. then she goes into a story about wet counties and dry counties; big cheer: its making the trip to gladewater and it segues into a a fierce and lovely half spoken version of when i grow up.

then it gets weird. she picks up her water bottle. the lid id on. she takes it off, throws it at her roadie, has a swig of water and says 'excuse me for a moment'

the band look nervous but do some acomplished jamming; its good but its not what we want. they wander off and we are left to our own devices. for a long, long time. i manage to drinkl a pint, eat a bag of crisps, exchange disgruntled sighs with several people *and* think how great a song creep is. being a chorltonite crowd there are only occasional mumours of unease and jeering. i think there should be a riot but cant be arsed to start it.

after half an hour or so the tour manager come on stage. michelle wont be back. they will 'set up a process that ensures we will get a refund and a free show at a later date. she ...never wants to go through the motions and thats what she was doing today.,.....she is really sorry and is fully aware of the difficluties involved in going out at night, getting baby sitters, tube trains (this guy knows manc) and taxis..she's not thrown a tantrum, she's been touring the world since april 2nd and is tired...this is the last thing she wantted to happen but she wasnt giving 100% and could not be convinced we love her anyway...there will be a free show for us all... its her choice (not to play) and that is the kind of temperatemntal decison great artists sometimes make'

great artist? fuck off. i spoke to my mate at the door and apparently she was pissed.
the tour guy promised to sit down and talk to anyone who wanted to discuss issues and says he will stay as long as it takes. i'm curious and his bulshit amuses me so i loiter and listen to peoples jeers and heckles. but then the lihghts come up and they are evicted us early; he couldnt even keep that promise. as i leave i notice the merch stand has been hastily vacated and the box office has closed.