Mea Culpa

Mea Culpa was a fun, political punk band from Seattle that played around town quite a bit in the first half of the last decade. The band formed in June of 2000 and played it's first show the following November. In the years after they played throughout the Northwest and had one larger US tour, which was plagued with problems and I think essentially broke up the band. I remember we were in Vegas when they were supposed to play the Double-Down Saloon, so Amy, Carl and I went over to support a hometown band. They didn't show, then called and were broken down somewhere in the desert, so we bailed back to the strip and gambling with our friends. I guess they ended up hitting town and playing the stage at like 4am... at least they got to play, Vegas goes all night.

Mea Culpa released both a single and an LP on local label Empty, both of which are now out of print. They had a catchy blend of street punk and more aggressive '80s punk and were likened to early Clash, Billy Bragg, and early Social Distortion with a little Dead Kennedys thrown in. I really dig their one and only LP. The band broke up in August of 2004. Today Bill plays in Bat Country and Matt is in the Flux Capacitors and Android Hero.

Band members: Bill Bullock on guitar and vocals, Terry Cook on bass, David Byers on guitar and vocals, and Matt McGillivray on drums (Johnny Koubourlis also drummed).

Discography:
2002 "Corporate Nation" (Empty Records US)
2003 "They Put You In A Mask" (Empty Records US)

A few songs (MP3s):
Waiting for America
Good Cop Bad Cop
Corporate Nation

Lyrics to "Corporate Nation"
Commercialized society, dehumanizing all I see
Welcome to the New American Dream
Culture's a commodity, if it can't be sold it's not worth a thing
Fattened for the kill, no one hears the screams
There are police on every corner, their badges say "Place Your Ad Here"
I turned on the news to try and get the facts
And the only headline that I saw said, "Nothing To See Here."
They sell us freedom with our Coke, but our democracy's a joke
They've got the information
And while we buy into the sham, they're busy tying all our hands
Here in our Corporate Nation
They hook us young like a dealer with a lie to sell
Load us up with junk so we won't see the hell
They're leading us, they're feeding us to
They own the place you work and the shows you see,
Where you lay your head while they define your dreams
It's a free market for them, Stalinism to you
And all the public schools get privatized
But we are told to have no fear
But when Nike owns your high school don't be too surprised
To see sections of the history book on labor disappear
They're gonna teach our children well, what to buy and how to sell
They've got the information
Instead of swastikas, a swoosh, but it's the same old Hitler Youth
Here in our Corporate Nation
Life's more than a transaction for someone to exploit
And unless we take some action, we're gonna end up with no choice
Cultural Monopoly, Undermined Democracy
Welcome to the New American Dream
Our government's been bought and sold so many times we don't even know
Who's holding the reigns in the land of the free
But they keep saying my vote matters
And so I stepped into the booth
But the only thing I got to really choose between
Was the color of their power ties and the puppets in their suits
And I look behind the mask and they've twisted every fact
They've got the information
And I tear away the veil and I see we're all for sale
Here in our corporate nation