2. The Band Is Passive About What They Do
Recently,
Collapse Board (the site that has been leading the discussion on Iceage) interviewed their bassist, Jakob Tvilling Pless, and the result was...
disappointing. Pless comes off as mildly befuddled and highly defensive, but one thing he states over and over again is that the band is apolitical. Whatever their actions may have been, they were not trying to make a statement. That is troubling in of itself, as it shows a band that can't be bothered with the consequences of their behavior. But more troubling was his response about politics, in which he states, "To be honest, I dont really follow politics that close" and then asks to stop talking about politics because he "doesn't think it's relevant." Considering the highly political nature of the imagery they play with, it seems less like a legitimate excuse and more of an evasion. Pless refuses to speak for anyone but himself except to state what they aren't: fascist, right-wing, or political. But the issue here is what they
are, and if they can't figure that out, maybe they shouldn't be using such charged visual rhetoric.