Bleed

An indie outfit from London, England manufactured a measure of industry attention by launching a verbal assault on the pornography sector. During 1994 the quartet dispatched faxes to music and mainstream outlets as well as top-shelf adult magazines in support of their anti-pornography 7-inch single “It Makes Money,” issued on their own Bleed Records imprint. Forum magazine received one such message that simply listed “Gang rape, Pair rape, Men On Women rape. Animals On Women Rape. Evisceration. Torture. Penetration. It makes money,” prompting the publication to reply: “Desperate Indie Losers. Mixing pop with politics. Being unable to play. Sad attention grabbing gestures. Anonymous faxes, for instance. Not Very Funny.” The record itself contained the lines “I read a thing about censorship/Saying we should all be free to speak/But with his hand over my mouth/Where was my freedom of speech?” Fronted by Rita Farragher on vocals alongside Noel Farragher on guitar, Graham Hanks on bass and Andrew Paresi on drums, the band placed the track on their 1995 debut album The Good Times Are Killing Me. The LP offered a set of agreeably rendered feminist songs that also featured “No Means No” and “The Art Of Contradiction,” yet drew only tepid notices and modest sales.