The Venus isn’t the only St. Petersburg rock band addressing systemic racism with a new release this month. CondominiumFL—led by Permanent Makeup guitarist Christopher Nadeau—released the two-song Topical EP on June 26, and is donating 100% of the artist proceeds to the NAACP legal defense fund.
Nadeau (pronounced “neh-doh”) is a brand new father, and he told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that this moment is not his time to physically be on the streets and protests. So the songs are his way to send money and support.
There’s no ambiguity about the songs’ subject matter either.
Just listen to “Using anachronisms to draw the direct line between our racist past and now,” where Nadeau, 36, connects eras in American history using things like smartwatches or events like when Trump’s channeled Miami police Chief Walter Headley in repeating the phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” (as NPR points out, Headley said that in 1967 during hearings about crime in his city; he angered civil rights leaders as a result).
“By putting a smart watch on George Wallace, I can show that everything else about [the mid-’40s segregationist Democratic governor of Alabama] would unfortunately fit right in with our current climate,” Nadeau said.
To put the songs to tape, he recorded each instrument separately with a little Tascam recorder. On “anachronisms,” Nadeau got help on drums from North Carolina poet and musician Clark Blomquist, but he usually just uses the Hydrogen open source program to get the basic drum parts down before adding guitar or synth.
“[After that] I put the Tascam handheld recorder in front of an amp, figure out vocal melodies and words, then put the handheld recorder in front of vocal amp, record that and then jam the files all together in Audacity,” Nadeau added.
When asked about what it’s like to be a white artist at a time when the focus is on justice for Black and Indiegenous Americans, Nadeau explained that there’s room for white punks like him to be knowledgeable and have conversations with people in our lives who don’t intersect with people of color.
“We have to have the backs of every marginalized community. We have to do better,” he said. He wants to see Black Lives Matter marches lead to action that brings change, and he stressed that intersectionality is key.
To Nadeau, people who have the hardest time understanding these protests are those who don’t read anything outside of white experience and don’t listen to anyone’s experience outside of other white people they know. He admits that the larger DIY scene his band used to run through on national tours has room to be more inclusive. He laments the fact that one of the most mixed local punk festivals—Lucky You Fest—got canned due to COVID-19.
“Christian works so hard to put diverse lineups together. And he does it honestly and organically, not tokenistic at all,” Nadueau explained. “So hopefully other local DIY bookers can take Christian’s lead and open up the pit.”
Listen to the release below, and chip in via Bandcamp.
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This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2020.
