Sponsored
Sponsored
Don't hate Meth Breath because they're straightedge
"We are not militant or in your face.”
Meth Breath lead singer Jimmy Rodgers was hoping that by giving his band a tongue-in-cheek name it might help defuse the uptight attitude some have about straightedge bands.
Straightedge punks don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs. Their lyrics reflect it. But Rodgers says Meth Breath shows are non-judgmental.
Fans in mosh pits with beer bottles are fine. “As long as you do it responsibly and I’m not getting a beer shower, I’m okay with it.... A lot of people see straightedge as an ‘I’m-better-than-you’ thing. We never want to come off as preachy. Straightedge bands get a bad rap for that. We are not militant or in your face.”
Rodgers admits the straightedge scene is a small subset of an already small scene, punk.
“It seems like the straightedge scene in San Diego comes and goes in waves.” He says that right now the local straightedge scene includes his band, Soul Power, and Drug Control.
“It’s hard to find four or five like-minded individuals, especially in the genre of punk,” says Rodgers. “Straightedge kids will never be the popular kids. They will always be outnumbered. Sometimes younger kids get into it thinking straightedge is cool until they start drinking. You always see kids start off as vegan and straightedge, but it’s not long until they stop being one or the other.”
Meth Breath and PSO staged a release party last Saturday for the release of their split seven-inch record at the MaxWood Co. furniture store on F Street downtown. “We have shows wherever we can...garages, coffee shops, tattoo shops. A friend of ours found a nail salon that had been shut down and just went in and rented it from the landlord for a day. There were no problems except it was a million degrees.”
The problem with last Saturday’s record-release party, however, was there was no vinyl. Rodgers says having the records pressed in the Czech Republic probably didn’t help. He asks that fans check with Meth Breath’s social media to see when the real record-release party will be in December.