Anthrax Make Firewater Now
I was thrilled to learn that Anthrax are back in the studio; assuming the band manages to get their new release out in 2015 (which seems like a reasonable assumption), it will be the shortest wait between Anthrax albums since Stomp 442 (1995) and Volume 8: The Threat is Real (1998). Fans then had to wait five years for We’ve Come for You All and eight (!) for Worship Music, so a four-year intermediary period ain’t nuthin’.
I was more conflicted to learn that Anthrax make bourbon now. Not because I’m opposed to Anthrax making bourbon — but because the bourbon is called “Indians.”
Just using the word “Indians” to describe Native Americans in 2014 is quite ugh. But the band gets a pass because it also happens, of course, to be the title of a famous (and really great) Anthrax song about the persecution of genocide of Native Americans, which was written in 1987, when people weren’t quite so sensitive to the word.
Still, the name is troubling. As our own Emperor Rhombus put it via e-mail:
“Introducing hard alcohol to the Native Americans is often seen as one of the twisted ways in which settlers and cowboys sewed chaos and dependency among the native tribes. There’s a lyric about it in [Iron Maiden’s] ‘Run To The Hills’ — ‘Selling them whiskey and taking their gold/Enslaving the young and destroying the old.’
“[Anthrax] made a bourbon named ‘Indians.’ Not ‘Caught in a Mash.’ Not ‘Among the Drinking.’ Fucking ‘Indians.’”
Which is a valid point. There’s a bizarre subtext to calling a whiskey “Indians” that’s just kinda yucky (says the guy who made a “firewater” joke in his headline… hey, nobody’s perfect).
Then again, maybe the moniker isn’t so problematic: Joey Belladonna is part Native American. So he’s not only more qualified to say what is or is not offensive to Native Americans than most of us are (and certainly moreso than myself — my family didn’t even get to this country until the 50s), but he also has the “Minorities Can Make Jokes About Their Own Group” card. So the same way, for example, that African Americans can use the N-word as much as they want, Belladonna is certainly entitled to profit from this somewhat strange reminder of how his ancestors were treated.
In conclusion: I’m honestly not sure how I feel about this, and, as is the case with basically every aspect of my life, I am probably way overthinking it. Y’know what really might help put a stop to that, now that I think of it, would be a good, stiff glass of bourbon. Hm.
Indians is available via the Atlantic City Bottle Company for $75 if you pick it up in-store, or $100 if you have it shipped to you.
VIDEO CONTENT PRESENTED BY QELLO CONCERTS:
