The Counter Elites : Pledge of Aggrievance

Story By Jeff Milo

Ferndale has its own manifestation of ferocious hardcore punk rock that’s aspiring toward the pantheon of Dead Kennedys, Black Flag or Flipper, so memorize the name:Counter Elites. There’s something grim-chic about a Counter Elites concert. The music is aerodynamic and wound like a coiled spring, the tones are ominous, the drums are tremulous and everything about it feels full blast. Jonny Genocide (under a protruding pompadour and sunglasses) sings (screams) and plays (attacks the) bass, while Switchblade Watson (concealed behind a bandana/baseball-cap and distinguished by his frenetic flailing) plays drums.

Crowds at Metro-area rock venues have swapped conjectures that the two sweat-beaded miscreants behind those outrageous guises are likely local musicians Jonathan Berz and Shaun Wisniewski , longtime friends and collaborators on previous projects/bands. The duo released their second full-length album, Pledge of Aggrievance, this month, after a considerably busy year that fostered significant evolutions for the implicitly-provocative, dada-inspired, art-of-the-hyper honing, propaganda-satirists.

Just like seminal/first-wave hardcore punk outfits, The Counter Elites were careful to present a striking iconography that could inspire as equally as intimidate, or perhaps incite. When Berz and Wisniewski are in character, they’re zeal for this disestablishmentarian dogma they’ve fostered (for fictional theatre’s sake…mostly,) can create characters that seem almost psychotic in their intensity. And that’s why it’s so fun to be at their shows. Fun…and loud.

“Misfit…is probably a better term, without sounding so obviously ‘punk,’” Berz said.
“Most people don’t understand what we do, or why, or maybe even don’t perceive it as music, and we are totally okay with that. But for the people that we do fit with, we seem to fit surprisingly well, and those people are almost always odd birds, or misfits.”

Other influences to hint at their specific aggressive/raw sound would be Sonic Youth, Minutemen, or even epically-costumed thrashers GWAR. These are bands you couldn’t actually corral into the “punk” pasture; there was undeniable musicality, versatility, and authenticity about those bands, just as Counter Elites aspire to an overall presentation (visually, aurally, in personality and in declaration) that would be “powerful and unmistakable.”

“I think we always had the theatre/art aspect of live shows in mind,” Wisniewski said, looking back to their debut performance (Jan, 2013).“It was never supposed to be just a punk band. I feel like from our inception, the posters we make, the album art and music videos, our social media posts, the stage antics, the fact that Berz and I have, maybe only one or two times, publicly stated that we are the Counter Elites and usually play-dumb when asked about it…all of those things are just as engaging as the music and the message.”

The early songs were short (35 seconds at most), but newer ones have evolved into broader spans… “Even if a song is short, we make it a point to create something complex and interesting,” Berz said. The duo had been in a space-pop ensemble called Songs From The Moon, when they started sliding more and more towards experimentation, genre-splicing, and defiance of convention. They’ve abandoned any strict demand for verses or choruses and instead flourish poetic (yes, poetic) stanzas (of anarchic evangelizing) over break-neck hooks, swift cinder-block breaks and mean bass riffs.

“I do hope that the degrees to which we take our art inspire other individuals similarly stricken with apathy and steamlessness to run with some wild ideas of their own,” said Berz.
At this point in the interview, the alter ego, drummer Switchblade Watson took over to say that “… (Pledge of Aggrievance) is going to bring (the Counter Elites) one step closer in (their) plan for global ownership…” Said Watson: “I can’t give away our secrets, but we had literally hundreds of unpaid interns working 60+ hours per week to make this the best record you never knew you loved.”
“Now you know…”

The Counter Elites’ Pledge of Aggrievance is out now. Release Party on Friday, Oct 14th at the New Way Bar in Ferndale.
https://thecounterelites.bandcamp.com
http://www.thecounterelites.com/
facebook.com/thecounterelites