Racetraitor
Encyclopedia
Racetraitor was an American political straight edge
hardcore punk
band from Chicago, Illinois.
The band was known for calling audience members "crackers" and for espousing radical beliefs influenced by black nationalism
, third worldism and other anti-colonial ideologies
(and for some members, eventually, Islam
). Their lyrical content revolved around issues of privilege, Western dominance of the Third World
and inequalities in globalization, sexuality in America, corporate dominance of economic and public life, veganism
and the straight edge
lifestyle. The name Racetraitor was in reference to using one's social and economic privilege to create a more egalitarian world. The idea was to take the pejorative term "race traitor
" used by white American racists
and claim it as a positive self-chosen label. The band's message also held that "race" was an artificial and constructed human category. They released an album called Burn the Idol of the White Messiah on Uprising Records
and then a split EP called Make Them Talk on Trustkill with their friends in the Indianapolis
band Burn It Down.
Early on Racetraitor's music could be characterized as power violence, featuring an abundance of noise and blast beats. Songs often timed less than a minute, which gave their early shows the quality of containing more spoken word
than music. Eventually, their 90's hardcore, extreme metal
and metalcore
influences came to the foreground and Racetraitor's songs became longer and more defined.
Andy Hurley
is now a member of Fall Out Boy
alongside occasional Racetraitor fill-in bass
player Pete Wentz. Hurley also played drums
in several other projects, including Killtheslavemaster and Project Rocket
, and was briefly reunited with singer Mani Mostofi in a band called The Kill Pill, who released one record on Uprising before disbanding. Hurley was also a guest drummer on the "Jihad" EP released by the briefly reformed Vegan Reich.
Dan Binaei went on to form Arma Angelus
with Pete Wentz and Jay Jancetic (Holy Roman Empire). For a short time it also included Tim McIlrath
(Rise Against
) on bass, and eventually Andy Hurley on drums. Binaei currently has put together a new experimental rock project entitled Tiger Spirit consisting of previous members of Suicide File, Sweet Cobra, and Nude Celebs.
Bass player Brent Decker continued his activism
in the US and abroad before returning to Chicago
. Currently Decker works at the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention and plays in a band named Tiger Spirit.
After the Kill Pill, Mostofi went on to complete an MA
in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin
. He continued his activism in the anti-war and Palestinian rights movements and traveled to the Middle East extensively. More recently, Mostofi earned JD at Fordham Law School in New York with an emphasis in international law
and works as a human rights
researcher and advocate.
Eric Bartholomae, who played bass and second guitar, spent roughly four years doing animal
and eco
activism in Chicago following the breakup of the band. In the fall of 2008 he moved to Minneapolis, MN. He has since put together a new musical projected called Willoughby.
Wentz went on to form Arma Angelus
with Binaei, who released one full-length album on the label Happy Couples Never Last
.
Racetraitor have been mentioned in the books Burning Fight: The Nineties Hardcore Revolution in Ethics, Politics, Spirit, and Sound by Brian Peterson (ISBN: 978-1889703022), Sober Living for the Revolution: Hardcore Punk, Straight Edge, and Radical Politics by Gabriel Kuhn
(ISBN 978-1-60486-051-1)and New Wave of American Heavy Metal by Garry Sharpe-Young (ISBN 978-0958268400).
Straight edge
Straight edge is a subculture of hardcore punk whose adherents refrain from using alcohol, tobacco, and other recreational drugs. It was a direct reaction to the sexual revolution, hedonism, and excess associated with punk rock. For some, this extends to not engaging in promiscuous sex, following a...
hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
band from Chicago, Illinois.
The band was known for calling audience members "crackers" and for espousing radical beliefs influenced by black nationalism
Black nationalism
Black nationalism advocates a racial definition of indigenous national identity, as opposed to multiculturalism. There are different indigenous nationalist philosophies but the principles of all African nationalist ideologies are unity, and self-determination or independence from European society...
, third worldism and other anti-colonial ideologies
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
(and for some members, eventually, Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
). Their lyrical content revolved around issues of privilege, Western dominance of the Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
and inequalities in globalization, sexuality in America, corporate dominance of economic and public life, veganism
Veganism
Veganism is the practice of eliminating the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarians eliminate them from their diet only...
and the straight edge
Straight edge
Straight edge is a subculture of hardcore punk whose adherents refrain from using alcohol, tobacco, and other recreational drugs. It was a direct reaction to the sexual revolution, hedonism, and excess associated with punk rock. For some, this extends to not engaging in promiscuous sex, following a...
lifestyle. The name Racetraitor was in reference to using one's social and economic privilege to create a more egalitarian world. The idea was to take the pejorative term "race traitor
Race traitor
Race traitor is a pejorative reference to a person who is perceived as supporting attitudes or positions thought to be against the interests or well-being of their own race...
" used by white American racists
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and claim it as a positive self-chosen label. The band's message also held that "race" was an artificial and constructed human category. They released an album called Burn the Idol of the White Messiah on Uprising Records
Uprising Records
Uprising Records is a record label founded in 1994 by Sean Muttaqi - having released records by Fall Out Boy, 7 Angels 7 Plagues, Cipher, Red Knife Lottery, Underminded, Amir Sulaiman, iCON the Mic King, The Crest and more...
and then a split EP called Make Them Talk on Trustkill with their friends in the Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
band Burn It Down.
Early on Racetraitor's music could be characterized as power violence, featuring an abundance of noise and blast beats. Songs often timed less than a minute, which gave their early shows the quality of containing more spoken word
Spoken word
Spoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....
than music. Eventually, their 90's hardcore, extreme metal
Extreme metal
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound nearly always associated with genres like black metal,...
and metalcore
Metalcore
Metalcore is a subgenre of heavy metal combining various elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two genres. The term took on its current meaning in the mid-1990s, describing bands such as Earth Crisis, Deadguy and Integrity...
influences came to the foreground and Racetraitor's songs became longer and more defined.
Post-breakup
DrummerDrummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
Andy Hurley
Andy Hurley
Andrew John Hurley is an American musician and drummer. He is best known as a member of the Chicago-based rock band Fall Out Boy. Prior to Fall Out Boy, Hurley played in several different bands. He is currently the drummer in the heavy metal supergroup The Damned Things with Fall Out Boy guitarist...
is now a member of Fall Out Boy
Fall Out Boy
Fall Out Boy is an American rock band from Wilmette, Illinois, formed in 2001. The band consists of vocalist, guitarist and composer Patrick Stump, bassist and lyricist Pete Wentz, guitarist Joe Trohman, and drummer Andy Hurley. The band released five studio albums from 2003–2008...
alongside occasional Racetraitor fill-in bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
player Pete Wentz. Hurley also played drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
in several other projects, including Killtheslavemaster and Project Rocket
Project Rocket
Project Rocket was an alternative rock band from Chicago, Illinois that was formed in 2002. After being in such hardcore, political metalcore and punk rock bands as Racetraitor, Spitalfield, Knockout, killtheslavemaster, 7 Angels 7 Plagues, The Kill Pill and Vegan Reich members Andy Hurley, T.J...
, and was briefly reunited with singer Mani Mostofi in a band called The Kill Pill, who released one record on Uprising before disbanding. Hurley was also a guest drummer on the "Jihad" EP released by the briefly reformed Vegan Reich.
Dan Binaei went on to form Arma Angelus
Arma Angelus
Arma Angelus was a metalcore band from Chicago. The band formed in 1998 and broke up in 2002. Members of the band were Pete Wentz , Tim McIlrath , Jay Jancetic , Daniel Binaei , Adam Bishop Arma Angelus was a metalcore band from Chicago. The band formed in 1998 and broke up in 2002. Members of the...
with Pete Wentz and Jay Jancetic (Holy Roman Empire). For a short time it also included Tim McIlrath
Tim McIlrath
Timothy "Tim" James McIlrath is an American punk rock musician. He is the lead singer, rhythm guitarist, songwriter and co-founder for the American punk rock band Rise Against. McIlrath is known to support animal rights and actively promotes PETA with his band...
(Rise Against
Rise Against
Rise Against is an American punk rock band from Chicago, Illinois, formed in 1999. The band currently consists of Tim McIlrath , Zach Blair , Joe Principe and Brandon Barnes .Rise Against spent its first five years signed to the independent record label Fat Wreck Chords, on which it...
) on bass, and eventually Andy Hurley on drums. Binaei currently has put together a new experimental rock project entitled Tiger Spirit consisting of previous members of Suicide File, Sweet Cobra, and Nude Celebs.
Bass player Brent Decker continued his activism
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
in the US and abroad before returning to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. Currently Decker works at the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention and plays in a band named Tiger Spirit.
After the Kill Pill, Mostofi went on to complete an MA
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
. He continued his activism in the anti-war and Palestinian rights movements and traveled to the Middle East extensively. More recently, Mostofi earned JD at Fordham Law School in New York with an emphasis in international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
and works as a human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
researcher and advocate.
Eric Bartholomae, who played bass and second guitar, spent roughly four years doing animal
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
and eco
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
activism in Chicago following the breakup of the band. In the fall of 2008 he moved to Minneapolis, MN. He has since put together a new musical projected called Willoughby.
Wentz went on to form Arma Angelus
Arma Angelus
Arma Angelus was a metalcore band from Chicago. The band formed in 1998 and broke up in 2002. Members of the band were Pete Wentz , Tim McIlrath , Jay Jancetic , Daniel Binaei , Adam Bishop Arma Angelus was a metalcore band from Chicago. The band formed in 1998 and broke up in 2002. Members of the...
with Binaei, who released one full-length album on the label Happy Couples Never Last
Happy Couples Never Last
Happy Couples Never Last, is an independent record label. The label has gone on to produce nearly 40 albums under their title. A majority of the records released have been artist splits....
.
Racetraitor in the press
Racetraitor were featured on the covers of both Maximum Rock N' Roll and HeartattaCk.Racetraitor have been mentioned in the books Burning Fight: The Nineties Hardcore Revolution in Ethics, Politics, Spirit, and Sound by Brian Peterson (ISBN: 978-1889703022), Sober Living for the Revolution: Hardcore Punk, Straight Edge, and Radical Politics by Gabriel Kuhn
Gabriel Kuhn
Gabriel Kuhn is a political writer and translator based in Sweden.-Background:Kuhn lived in a variety of countries during his childhood and youth, including Turkey, England and the USA. Following post-secondary studies in Austria and the USA, Kuhn lived in the Middle East and the South Pacific...
(ISBN 978-1-60486-051-1)and New Wave of American Heavy Metal by Garry Sharpe-Young (ISBN 978-0958268400).