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32-532: Fat Mike started his record label Wassail Records in 1987. He put out two NOFX records, The PMRC 7” in 1987 and Liberal Animation in 1988. In 1990, he and his wife Erin Burkett co-founded Fat Wreck Chords, and re-released NOFX's 1987 EP, The P.M.R.C Can Suck on This . In 1992, Fat Mike went on to produce Lagwagon , Propagandhi , and No Use for a Name . In 1993, the label released records by Rancid , Face to Face , and Strung Out . Fat Mike & Erin continue to run

64-441: A band member's surgery and was about the fear he imagined one would experience undergoing surgery, announcing that "the only sadomasochism, bondage, and rape in this song is in the mind of Ms. Gore." He further stated "Ms. Gore was looking for sadomasochism and bondage, and she found it. Someone looking for surgical references would have found it as well." Snider concluded that "The full responsibility for defending my children falls on

96-523: A few committees before anybody smells a rat. One of them is chaired by Senator Thurmond . Is it a coincidence that Mrs. Thurmond is affiliated with the PMRC?" Zappa had earlier stated about the Senate's agreement to hold a hearing on the matter that "A couple of blowjobs here and there and Bingo!—you get a hearing." Folk rock musician John Denver referred to the proposed labels as censorship and stated he

128-634: A note to listeners to send to Zappa's Barking Pumpkin Records for a free Z-PAC , a printed information package that included transcripts of the committee hearing, and a letter from Zappa encouraging young people to register to vote. Zappa's full testimonial was released on a posthumous 2010 compilation called Congress Shall Make No Law... On November 1, 1985, before the hearing ended, the RIAA agreed to put " Parental Advisory " labels on selected releases at their own discretion. The labels were generic, unlike

160-403: A right to speak Say what we want, Tip—your argument is weak Our records have stickers with a warning from Tipper 'Cause they're no good for kids; if we'd get her, we'd strip her Tipper, won't you understand the message that I want to say It's kind of rude but here it goes: it's "fuck you!" I don't like what you do, and I don't like you. WARNING: The inside fold out to this record cover

192-530: A so-called generic label on some selected records". Like John Denver, Snider felt that his music had been misinterpreted. He defended the Twisted Sister songs " Under the Blade ", which had been interpreted by the PMRC as referring to sadomasochism , bondage , and rape, and " We're Not Gonna Take It ", which the PMRC accused of promoting violence. Snider told the panel that "Under the Blade" was inspired by

224-529: Is a benefit album for the animal rights organization PETA , and PROTECT: A Benefit for the National Association to Protect Children is a benefit album for the children's rights group PROTECT . Between Liberation and PROTECT , two other compilation albums were released in protest of President George W. Bush and his administration : Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 . To celebrate 20 years of business Fat Wreck Chords released

256-468: Is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes the civil liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years dealing with the interpretational and enforcemental problems inherent in the proposal's design." He went on to state his suspicion that the hearings were a front for H.R. 2911, a proposed blank tape tax : "The major record labels need to have H.R. 2911 whiz through

288-437: Is hidden becomes that which is most interesting. Consequently, a great deal of time and energy is spent trying to get at what is being kept from you." When Denver came up to give his speech, many expected him to side with the PMRC. Dee Snider , frontman and lead singer of the heavy metal band Twisted Sister , testified that he "[did] not support ... [RIAA president] Gortikov's unnecessary and unfortunate decision to agree to

320-528: Is independent from Fat Wreck. Fat Wreck Chords regularly releases compilation albums, often to promote bands signed to the label, but also, since 2003, to raise funds for various charities. The earliest Fat Wreck Chords compilations have titles with some reference to fatness. Shortly after Fat Music Volume IV was released, Fat Wreck Chords released a similarly titled album, Short Music for Short People , which features 101 songs, all averaging approximately 30 seconds. The shortest song ("Short Attention Span" by

352-435: Is our contention that the pervasive messages aimed at children which promote and glorify suicide, rape, sadomasochism, and so on, have to be numbered among the contributing factors." Tipper Gore asked record companies to voluntarily "plac[e] a warning label on music products inappropriate for younger children due to explicit sexual or violent lyrics." National PTA Vice President for Legislative Activity Millie Waterman related

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384-475: The Furnaceface song "We Love You, Tipper Gore", from their 1991 album Just Buy It , suggest that the label "only whets my appetite ... only makes us want to hear it that much more". Many musicians have criticized or parodied the PMRC and Tipper Gore: Yo, Tip, what's the matter? You ain't gettin' no dick? You're bitchin' about rock 'n' roll—that's censorship, dumb bitch The Constitution says we all got

416-650: The RIAA and the music industry to develop music labeling in the form of a rating system similar to the film rating system developed by the Motion Picture Association of America . Additional suggestions from the PMRC that appeared in an article in The Washington Post included: printing warnings and lyrics on album covers, requiring record stores to put albums with explicit covers under the counters, pressuring television stations not to broadcast explicit songs or videos, "reassess[ing]"

448-495: The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on "the subject of the content of certain sound recordings and suggestions that recording packages be labeled to provide a warning to prospective purchasers of sexually explicit or other potentially offensive content." Paula Hawkins presented three record covers ( Pyromania by Def Leppard , W.O.W. by Wendy O. Williams , and W.A.S.P. by W.A.S.P. ) and

480-508: The 3-disc Wrecktrospective compilation on December 8, 2009. Disc 1 is composed of the label's greatest hits, disc 2 is composed of unreleased demos and rarities, and disc 3 is composed the Fat Club 7" series in its entirety. Live in a Dive is a series of live albums recorded by Fat Wreck Chords. In order of release: In addition to the Live in a Dive series, Fat Wreck Chords also released

512-579: The EP featured a black-and-white photo montage of Tammy Faye Bakker pegging then-husband (and televangelist ) Jim Bakker as its cover, but was eventually changed to a picture of guitarist Eric Melvin playing on stage. The track "Shut Up Already" borrows a riff from the Led Zeppelin song " Living Loving Maid ", while the Liberal Animation version ended with a riff from " Black Dog ". All

544-469: The Fat Club series of 7" vinyl records during 2001. The series was only available to mail-order subscribers which received one single every month. Fat Wreck Chords did not publish any information on the upcoming releases so subscribers would not know what they were about to receive until the record arrived in the post. Although the Fat club series was limited to 1,300 copies for each single, the songs contained on

576-541: The Fizzy Bangers) is only eight seconds, and the longest ("Out of Hand" by Bad Religion ) is 40 seconds. Some of the songs were commissioned and recorded specifically for the album, while others were from the bands' pre-existing repertoires. Since the last Fat Music album has been released, the Fat Wreck Chords compilations have been explicitly for charitable causes. Liberation: Songs to Benefit PETA

608-536: The PTA's role in the debate, and proposed printing the symbol "R" on the cover of recordings containing "explicit sexual language, violence, profanity, the occult and glorification of drugs and alcohol", and providing lyrics for "R"-labeled albums. In addition, Dr. Joe Stuessy, a music professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio , spoke regarding the power of music to influence behavior. He argued that heavy metal

640-736: The access of children to music deemed to have violent, drug-related, or sexual themes via labeling albums with Parental Advisory stickers. The committee was founded by four women known as the "Washington Wives"—a reference to their husbands' connections with government in the Washington, D.C. area. The women who founded the PMRC are Tipper Gore , wife of Senator and later Vice President Al Gore ; Susan Baker, wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker ; Pam Howar, wife of Washington realtor Raymond Howar; and Sally Nevius, wife of former Washington City Council Chairman John Nevius . The PMRC eventually grew to include 22 participants before shutting down in

672-410: The contracts of musicians who performed violently or sexually in concert, and creating a panel to set industry standards. One of the actions taken by the PMRC was compiling a list of fifteen songs in popular music, at the time, that they found the most objectionable. This list is known as the "Filthy Fifteen" and consists of the following songs along with the lyrical content category for which each song

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704-770: The label together and remain 100% independent. The label grew during the 1990s selling over a million records per year. It had eighteen employees and four offices. A documentary about Fat Wreck Chords called 'A Fat Wreck' was released on October 25, 2016. The label has had two subsidiaries over the years, Honest Don's and Pink and Black . Honest Don's released records from Chixdiggit and Teen Idols amongst others, while Pink & Black released albums from female-fronted bands like Fabulous Disaster and Dance Hall Crashers . Fat Mike advanced $ 50,000 to Chris Hannah and Jord Samolesky of Propagandhi which he recouped within months from sales of Propagandhi records to help them start up their own label, G7 Welcoming Committee , though G7WC

736-514: The mid-to-late 1990s. The Parents Music Resource Center was founded in May 1985. The group's formation was cemented with the financial help of Mike Love of the Beach Boys , and Joseph Coors , the owner of Coors beers. Both had actively supported Reagan's candidacy , and Coors offered offices to the PMRC. As a method of combating this alleged problem, the PMRC suggested a voluntary move by

768-429: The most part [the sticker] might even sell more records in some areas – all you've got to do is tell somebody this is a no-no and then that's what they want to go see." Ice-T 's track "Freedom of Speech" contains the lyrics: "Hey, PMRC, you stupid fuckin' assholes/The sticker on the record is what makes 'em sell gold./Can't you see, you alcoholic idiots/The more you try to suppress us, the larger we get." While lyrics from

800-498: The music videos for " Hot for Teacher " by Van Halen , and " We're Not Gonna Take It " by Twisted Sister , commenting: "Much has changed since Elvis' seemingly innocent times. Subtleties, suggestions, and innuendo have given way to overt expressions and descriptions of often violent sexual acts, drug taking, and flirtations with the occult. The record album covers to me are self-explanatory." Susan Baker testified that "There certainly are many causes for these ills in our society, but it

832-494: The original idea of a descriptive label categorizing the explicit lyrics. Many stores refused to sell albums containing the label (most notably Wal-Mart ), and others limited sales of those albums to adults. It is uncertain whether the "Tipper sticker" is effective in preventing children from being exposed to explicit content. Some, citing the " forbidden-fruit effect ", suggest that the sticker in fact increases record sales. Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire said that "for

864-537: The records were later released as the third disc of the Wrecktrospective collection. The P.M.R.C. Can Suck on This The P.M.R.C. Can Suck on This is an EP by the American punk rock band NOFX . It was originally released in 1987 through Wassail Records with hand-written labels (limited to 500 copies) and was re-released on January 1, 1990, through Fat Wreck Chords . The original version of

896-596: The shoulders of my wife and I, because there is no one else capable of making these judgments for us." Notable snippets of audio from the hearing found their way into Zappa's audiocollage "Porn Wars", released on the Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention album. Senators Gore , Hollings , Gorton , Hawkins , and others appeared. The album cover featured a parody of the RIAA warning label. The LP included

928-502: The tracks were compiled on the Longest EP compilation as tracks 26-30 respectively, where Johnny B. Goode appears at the end of "The Punk Song". This 1980s punk rock album–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Parents Music Resource Center The Parents Music Resource Center ( PMRC ) was an American committee formed in 1985 with the stated goal of increasing parental control over

960-473: Was "strongly opposed to censorship of any kind in our society or anywhere else in the world", and that in his experience censors often misinterpret music, as was the case with his song " Rocky Mountain High ". He further compared the PMRC proposals to Nazi book burnings , and expressed his belief that censorship is ultimately counterproductive: "That which is denied becomes that which is most desired, and that which

992-551: Was considered objectionable: In August 1985, 19 record companies agreed to put "Parental Guidance: Explicit Lyrics" labels on albums to warn consumers of explicit lyrical content. Before the labels could be put into place, the Senate agreed to hold a hearing on so-called "porn rock". The hearing was held on September 19, 1985, when representatives from the PMRC, three musicians— Dee Snider , Frank Zappa , John Denver —and Senators Paula Hawkins , Al Gore , and others testified before

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1024-493: Was different from earlier forms of music such as jazz and rock and roll because it was "church music" and "had as one of its central elements the element of hatred." Dr. Paul King, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, testified on the deification of heavy metal musicians, and to the presentation of heavy metal as a religion. He also stated that "many" adolescents read deeply into song lyrics. During his statement, musician and producer Frank Zappa asserted that "the PMRC proposal

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