Rob Miller from Tau Cross: Stupid, Full of Sh*t, or Both?
Earlier this week, Relapse Records dropped Tau Cross — a mere month before the scheduled release of the band’s new album, Messengers of Deception — after it came to the label’s attention that frontman Rob Miller (also ex-Amebix) thanked Gerard Menuhin in the liner notes, reportedly for being a major influence on Miller’s lyrics.
Menuhin, for those of you lucky enough not to know, is a columnist for National Zeitung, a far-right weekly propaganda pamphlet posing as a newspaper. In 2015, he published Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil, a “re-interpretation” (read: fictionalization) of history that argues for Adolf Hitler as a great statesman and concludes that “The Holocaust is the biggest lie in history. Germany has no blame for the Second World War.” There is nothing — nothing — credible about his work, which is roughly as informative about the history of World War II as Game of Thrones. He uses the fact that he’s half-Jewish as a shield against accusations of anti-Semitism, but everything he writes is deeply, deeply anti-Semitic; either he loathes himself or he’s a huckster. He was the CEO of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, a group his father, an acclaimed violinist, founded in order to use art education programs to encourage “intercultural dialogue and social inclusion of children and young people from lesser-known minorities.” Unsurprisingly, Gerard Menuhin lost that job when he politics came to light.
In other words: Relapse Records had every right to feel disturbed by Miller’s apparent infatuation with Menuhin, and dropping the band was the right decision. Even if the other members of Tau Cross don’t share Miller’s views (which seems to be the case — more on that in a second), Messengers of Deception is now forever tainted with this Holocaust-denying bullshit. It’s not a question of just firing Miller and getting a new frontman, because Messenger is itself a work of propaganda. Miller didn’t just say dumb shit in an interview; he fucked over his entire band.
Little wonder, then, that the other members of Tau Cross — guitarists Andy Lefton and Jon Misery, bassist Tom Radio, and drummer Michel “Away” Langevin — have since released a statement pleading ignorance with regards to Menuhin, distancing themselves from Miller, and condemning his message:
“This is a statement from Michel, Andy, Jon and Tom regarding the recent events with Tau Cross and Relapse Records.
“On Monday, July 1st, the four of us received a very concerning e-mail from Relapse stating that they will not be releasing our upcoming album and severing all ties to any previous work. To say that we were blindsided by this news is an understatement.
“During initial production of the album, we were asked individually to provide our thanks list, which for us consisted of family and friends.
“Now, the four of us were informed that Rob Miller has submitted a thank you to a notorious right-wing author who none of us are familiar with. We promptly researched this author’s history and we are adamantly against anything relating to this kind of ugliness. We’ve been vigilant in our attempts to get answers as to why this has happened and, frankly, how it could possibly happen considering our background and beliefs.
“We are all crushed. We’ve worked so hard on this album—to have something of this nature destroy it is absolutely devastating. For the many of you who know us, you’re aware that we are sincere and honest with ourselves and with the world. Tau Cross was an outlet for us to experience the love and passion we all have, while staying true to our beliefs and ideals. It is truly beyond comprehension to see it take this very unexpected turn.
“With that, we want to extent our love and appreciation to Relapse Records and all our friends and family who have supported us.
“With love and light,
“Michel, Andy, Jon and Tom”
These guys are all prominent musicians outside of Tau Cross — Misery, Lefton, and Radio are all in Misery, while Langevin is a founding member of Voivod — and they can probably keep playing together, if they so wish, without Miller. But, again, they put all this work into an album which they now can neither release nor perform, and their very band name is probably too tainted to use. Their biggest crime was being blissfully unaware of who Menuhin is. You have to feel for them.
For Miller? Not so much. He’s released a statement attempting to defend himself and his use of Menuhin as inspiration, and it’s so overwhelmingly idiotic that you can find a big fat fallacy in nearly every assertion. Which we can do right now:
“I would like to second the sentiments of the other members of Tau Cross, i do owe them an apology for not explaining my lines of enquiry or the people who have influenced my view so dramatically over the past few years,they are not in any way to blame for anything i have written or read,and i understand the need to distance themselves from that subject. i wish them all the very best in their futures and treasure the times we have shared together.”
Other than repeatedly demonstrating a complete lack of awareness as to when to capitalize “I” and the import of putting a space behind each comma, which is like two of the first things they teach you as a child, so far so good. Miller’s willingness not to drag the rest of the band down with him is the only admirable thing he’ll write in this entire stupid statement.
“The book ‘tell the truth and shame the devil’ by Gerard Menuhin is available on Amazon and Kindle,”
Except that it absolutely is not. There are a multitude of books with the same title available on Amazon, but none of them are by Menuhin or have anything to do with the Holocaust (in fact, the first one to come up is by the mother of Michael Brown). If you’re willing to pay upwards of $150 for a used paperback copy of Shame the Devil in French, that is available from a third-party buyer, as is Menuhin’s one novel. Otherwise, none of Menuhin’s work is available on Amazon in physical or digital formats. In fact, if you search Amazon for ‘Gerard Menuhin,’ that French edition of the book is the first thing to come up, but the second thing is The Ugly Truth, a romantic comedy starring Gerard Butler.
Update, 1:06 p.m.: A reader tells me the book was still available on Amazon prior to the release of Miller’s statement. I don’t think that negates the way the rest of Miller’s defense plays fast and loose with the truth. But unlike Miller, I own up to my fuck-ups, so I’m letting you all know.
“and also in good reads, where it gets a consistent 4.5 stars out of 5,”
Nope. The book is on Goodreads, and it does have 31 reviews (most of which include anti-Semitic language, one of which includes multiple anti-Semitic propaganda cartoons), but its average is 4 stars.
I know that’s a minor difference, but I think it’s worth pointing out how frequently Miller “fudges” the facts so as to support his argument. Menuhin must be so proud.
“so not exactly obscure or unavailable, unless you live in Germany where it is forbidden to engage in any conversation on some of the matters contained within those pages. There are a number of people languishing in Prisons over there for expressing even a slight academic interest in the matter, so effectively all discussion is shut down and we live in a state of what can only be described as Religious obedience.”
Miller is referring here to Germany’s laws against the denying the Holocaust. These laws are admirable, given that Germany, y’know, perpetrated the Holocaust and would therefore have the most to benefit from denying that it ever happened.
“it is a Religion,and anyone approaching the matter is in danger of being charged with heresy and publicly executed, so you can feel free to examine yourself and see if you believe this is a good thing or not.”
I agree, publicly executing people for voicing unpopular opinions would be a bad thing. Having said that, no one in Germany has ever been executed for denying the Holocaust happened. In fact, no one in Germany has been executed at all since 1981 — it has since been banned throughout the country. So “a loose interpretation of reality” is already a running theme in Miller’s statement.
Incidentally, I suspect when he writes of public executions, Miller is referring to the Nuremberg executions of 1946, in which ten prominent members of the Nazi party were hung to death after being found guilty for their participation in the Holocaust (two others, including Hermann Göring, were also scheduled to be hung, but committed suicide first). You can feel free to examine yourself and see if you believe this is a good thing or not.
“As a singer in a band i have always been serious about the Truth,”
All evidence to the contrary.
“trying to refine the material and ideas to some kind of overarching theory, i cannot simply skim the material,i have to go into it and prepare to be changed by that journey. that has happened on a number of occasions, through reading Menuhins book,through John Lash and his work,”
John Lamb Lash is a comparative mythologist, so it’s safe to his work doesn’t have much to do with the “truth” in any factual sense. I suppose you could argue that it does in a larger philosophical sense. But since the whole conflict here stems from Menuhin lying about history, it seems weird to try and make an argument based in writings about mythology.
“through 9/11 research,”
What I would give to see this asshole’s 9/11 “research.”
“through the Europa-the last battle video series that is constantly popping up and being pushed back down on youtube.”
Europa: The Last Battle is a propaganda film that, like the work of Menuhin, abdicates Germany of all responsibility for World War II and places the blame squarely on the Jews instead. Thus, YouTube has banned it. But Miller probably thinks YouTube publicly executed its producers or something.
“If I stop asking questions I stop being true to myself,”
And yet, Miller never stops to ask, “Hey, am I a total shithead?”
“so i have no choice. For 99 percent of people they have already made up their mind about me based on the words of another man written in a book they have never read,”
I actually have read some of it — enough to know I don’t need to read the rest. So having read the book isn’t a prerequisite to not thinking Miller is an asshole. I actually think he’s more of an asshole having read some of the book, because the book is so obviously overflowing with bullshit that only an asshole could ever take it seriously.
“and that is enough to make a judgement,so on you go,join in the feeding frenzy of virtue signalling and outrage if you like”
“Virtue signaling” (or “signalling,” if you’re a smart cookie like Miller) is one of those insults, like calling someone a ‘Social Justice Warrior,’ that has become popular with the Right, despite the fact that it makes no real sense as an insult. I guess Miller thinks it would be more virtuous to keep your yap shut when you see someone behaving like an immoral piece of garbage… although if that’s the case, I have to wonder why he bothered writing this Facebook post combatting people he sees as immoral pieces of garbage.
“but i stand by my endorsement of this book as it was such an important part of this journey, this is not to say that i like the Author as a person or even know that much more about him,”
Huh? What do you need to know besides “he says the Holocaust never happened”? That isn’t enough to tell you whether or not you like the author as a person? What’s it gonna take? “I didn’t mind when he said the Nazis were the good guys, but then he said he never much cared for Metallica and I was like, ‘Whoa, too far, dude.’”
“the book is primarily a collection of quotes and original source materials,”
The book does certainly quote from original source materials, probably at the same rate as many books that are, or claim to be, non-fiction. I would not say it is “primarily a collection of quotes.” There is PLENTY of editorializing in the book.
“a book to study and not for salacious gossip. Others will see what is real in this situation and what is not.”
I assume by “others,” he means “not me.” Because the “history” reviewed in the book is patently false.
“Messengers of deception is probably our best album to date, it continues the enquiry”
It’s “inquiry,” numb nuts.
“and refines it through the lens of the Gnostic heresy and what that really was,why it had to be completely eradicated and what that means for our World today, the irony of having released a single about the inquisition and the suppression of speech should not be lost on anyone.”
This is not suppression of speech. The government didn’t barge into your home and haul you off to prison — your record label decided they didn’t want to work you anymore, as is their right.
“Love and Light to all who want it, Rob Miller-Tau Cross…over and out.”
Eat me.
So, yeah. It is sad that this happened to the other dudes in Tau Cross. But Miller is a fuckwit, and they’re better off without him.
Love and Light to all who want it, Axl Rosenberg-MetalSucks… over and out.
[via dbeatbeater.com]
