Militarie Gun Are Taking an Honest Approach to Hardcore

BACKSTORY: Formed by Regional Justice Center’s Ian Shelton at the start of the pandemic after that band came to a halt, what was initially meant to be a solo project has blossomed out of all expectation
FROM: Los Angeles
YOU MIGHT KNOW THEM FROM: The Mannequin Pussy remix of their song “Pressure Cooker,” which recently appeared on a Taco Bell ad, or their EPs All Roads Lead to the Gun I and II
NOW: Militarie Gun will be releasing their debut album Life Under the Gun at the end of June via Loma Vista

It shouldn’t need to be said, but let’s just say it: punk’s not dead. That’s been stated explicitly ever since the genre and surrounding lifestyle came into existence, not least with the cover and title of influential Scottish Oi! outfit The Exploited’s debut album—albeit without an apostrophe. It’s also something former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra proclaimed when he was still in the band: “Punk will only die when corporations can exploit and mass produce it.” That, of course, is something that has happened, but Biafra was wrong. Punk still isn’t dead. And as long as systems of oppression remain in place, it never will be—at least until the drive for shareholder profits plunges humanity to the brink of self-destruction. 

It’s those systems—specifically the prison-industrial complex and everything which upholds it—which essentially gave birth to Ian Shelton’s band Regional Justice Center. Formed by Shelton back in 2016 while his younger brother Max was awaiting sentencing for attempted murder (a charge that was later reduced to Assault in the First Degree, and for which his 18-year-old sibling was sentenced to six years), the powerviolence project started to sputter out when the pandemic struck. Shelton’s work directing music videos for hardcore-adjacent projects like Angel Du$t, Supercrush, Knucklepuck, and Drug Church had started picking up, but he wasn’t content not making music. 

In the spring of 2020 he started Militarie Gun as a one-man project to scratch that music-making itch. “I never lost the passion for making music,” he explains over a video call from behind a black screen displaying just his first name. “It was just more of a practical approach where I told myself, ‘I’m going to make these hardcore records, but then I have to actually go make money and have a career.’” That was the plan, anyway. But in the time that Militarie Gun weren’t able to play shows due to the pandemic, the band’s reputation grew steadily through a series of stunning EPs, and what he calls “the obsession” he never thought he could do on a professional level turned into just that. 

“I never lost the passion for making music. It was just more of a practical approach where I told myself, ‘I’m going to make these hardcore records, but then I have to actually go make money and have a career.’”

Expanded to a five-piece featuring William Acuña and Nick Cogan (who also plays in Drug Church) on guitar, Max Epstein on bass, and Vince Nguyen on drums, that’s partly because “Pressure Cooker”—the band’s collaboration with fuzzed-up one-man power-pop band Dazy—was given the remix treatment by Mannequin Pussy and was featured on a Taco Bell ad. Jello Biafra would probably be turning in his former band’s uncovered grave, but fair credit to any artist able to make a little money in this post-Spotify day and age. Besides, it’s something that Shelton is very philosophical and level-headed about.

“I mean, the commercial element is definitely a very complementary one, but it’s pretty far removed from the actual creative element of everything, which is what is reciprocated between us and the audience and anyone who actually cares. People aren’t watching the Taco Bell ad and caring, you know? It’s doing its job of selling a taco. Which is cool. I love to eat Taco Bell, but at the end of the day, it’s just something separate that’s brand new to me. I’ve never experienced anything like this before, but it’s not a reason to keep going or anything. It just exists. Things like that can help pay the bills, and that helps us figure out better what the next thing we want to do is. The less stressed we are about money, hopefully the more creative we can be.”

Militarie Gun at Lost Weekend/Brooklyn Vegan SXSW party at Mohawk

In fact, this is something that’s deep at the heart of Life Under the Gun, Militarie Gun’s debut full-length. When the pandemic unemployment money was in full-flow, people suddenly realized that, without having to worry as much about making ends meet, they were able to indulge in more creative pursuits. It’s why most children of well-known people turn to artistic pursuits—because they don’t have to worry about breaking their backs to survive under capitalism. Shelton didn’t quite have that level of cash at his fingertips, but the pandemic Unemployment Insurance Relief money that he was able to claim meant he could focus on his passion for music. “The only thing I had to do was make music. I basically treated it as if I were being paid to do that, and that’s where all these songs come from.”

Indeed, there’s a rough, frayed edge—musically and lyrically—to these songs that recall those uncertain early days of the pandemic when nobody knew what the hell was happening. But through Shelton’s incisive lyricism and the band’s nihilistic, monochrome melodies, it all expands to capture the essence of life as a whole, regardless of the pandemic that inadvertently allowed for its creation. “I’ve been feeling pretty down,” he sings on “Very High,” for example. It’s simple, but the despondency at its center is something everybody can relate to, even if they’ve never ingested anything stronger than a breath mint. 

“The commercial element is definitely a very complementary one, but it’s pretty far removed from the actual creative element of everything, which is what is reciprocated between us and the audience.”

It’s the last line of the last song that really captures its essence and its spirit, however. “A life of pursuit,” he sings on the title track, “ends up pursuing you.” He then repeats that line, minus the last two words, before the song and the album end in a jarring jangle of fading feedback. In a previous interview, Shelton has stated that All Roads Lead to the Gun—a compilation that bundled together the band’s previous two EPs with four new songs—was all about not being able to outrun himself. With this record, with that line, has he got any closer to doing so? He answers with what you imagine could be a giant grin behind the blacked-out Zoom screen.

“The goal is to actually not run,” he says, “and not to outrun. I don’t want to run away from anything. When you’re younger, you’re much more intent on trying to escape self-criticism and not take an honest look at yourself. But I think this whole record is about allowing yourself to make mistakes and then trying to do something different. And then, in my head, it’s like you get hit by a car right at the end.”

Maybe punk is dead after all. FL