SAN FRANCISCO — Members of renowned San Francisco Anarcho-Punk band Reagan Splinter announced that in the past few years, they’ve moved away from their original anarcho-punk label and now view themselves as a “centrist liberal punk band.”
“Something about San Francisco lately, it’s made me start to think maybe a little structure is what America needs,” said bassist and lead-singer Gordon Davis. “I used to sing songs about smashing the government, abolishing private property, and overthrowing Capitalism. You know, I wrote that one… ‘Guillotine the Bankers,’ that’s a really popular one at our shows. But that’s not me anymore. Now I live and let live. And also, I’ve really started to relate to the ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ mantra. And also I ‘Live Mas,’ because I’m sponsored by Taco Bell.”
Loyal fans like Seattle’s Jason Kelly have noticed a change in the band’s politics over the past few years.
“They no longer play ‘Every Politician Can Suck My Ass,” “Dead Whales,” or “Grandma Got Run Over by a Tank” at shows anymore because they claim those songs no longer represent their ethos. Last time I saw them live they actually had a table to get people registered to vote, it made me sick,” said Kelly. “I remember they used to do these abrasive punk covers of Phil Ochs songs. But now they reworked their song ‘Peace or Destruction’ as ‘Peace or We’re Voting.’ Then, they told us if we were going to go out and protest Israel, we should ‘Not get too crazy with it’ and to remember that ‘Cops are just doing their jobs.’ It was a really weird show.”
While most punk acts, especially ones with histories of violent lyrics and multiple arrests for trying to burn police cars, don’t often gain universal appeal, Reagan Splinter has gained one new loyal fan: U.S. Senator Joe Manchin.
“The thing about me is I never really cared about punk music,” said Senator Manchin. “And these guys… they used to make all these statements about how Congress has blood on its hands. Now they all tweet at us about income tax reform and making sure we have legislation that strengthens the middle class. And their music has just gotten better and better. They rock!”
At press time, Reagan Splinter were slated to play their newest song “Democracy is For the People” while appearing on “Real Time With Bill Maher.”