Hateful Notebook: The Shame of Descendents’ American Fans (a Hypercaffium update)

descendents-hypercaffiumToday sees the release of the Descendents big “comeback” ‘Hypercaffium Spazzinate’. Due to an unfortunate and very offensive choice of title, the album has been met with some controversy in the UK. Whether the band meant offence or not, as soon as the word spasm becomes sp*z (by any variant or spelling), it’s automatically becomes a slur against disabled people – specifically those with Cerebral Palsy.

Continue reading

EDITORIAL COMMENT: Descendents – Hypercaffium Outdatum Offensium

descendents_miloAt Real Gone, we love the Descendents. We’ve followed the various band members’ careers intensely for decades, through side projects and even through related production work coming from Bill Stevenson’s Blasting Room Studios. We’ve purchased pretty much everything from the Descendents and ALL catalogues and more besides.

In 2016, they announced a return with their first new album in a almost a decade and a half. You’d think we’d be over the moon. After all, we should be thrilled that some of our favourite punk musicians are adding to their already lauded back catalogue, especially after almost giving up hope of any new material…

We’re not. In fact, we’re upset. In fact, we’re utterly offended. In fact, we are so offended we’re BOYCOTTING the new release and we actively urge all punks with any kind of social conscience to think about joining us.

Continue reading