Aus-Rotten

When you throw on an Aus-Rotten record, you aren’t only listening to one of the most badass  punk bands out of Pittsburgh PA (and pretty much anywhere else), you’re also hearing a trenchant historical audiobook decrying the most heinous systems in the US. You’re getting a blueprint for revolt, you’re getting an indictment of your own apathy. Fuck cointelpro, fuck prison, fuck corporations, fuck politicians, fuck colonization, fuck xenophobia, fuck rape culture, fuck war. You want a starter kit on how to get yourself involved in meaningful shit? The System Works for Them LP came with a flexi disc of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s “War on the Poor” speech live from death row to educate yourself with – in 1996 – before you could just look anything up online. There was a list of PO boxes for prisoners and pro-liberation organizations. Step-by-step instructions on how to set up a Food not Bombs. An article on the global impact that vegetarianism could have, an article on Assata Shakur. I grew up in a time where a lot of punk and hardcore bands in the scene didn’t comment meaningfully on issues particular to my people, but Aus-Rotten records were very clear: Black Liberation is not a side issue, and all struggles are intertwined.

Aus-Rotten existed before there was a camera on every phone and a pixelated video was really as good as you were gonna get from a live recording, but I sifted through online uploads for any usable imagery of the band to draw, glancing through the comments. Saw a more recent remark, kinda strange as the band has been broken up for quite a while…it said something about the dudes needing to give up their old tirades against the “strawmen” of fascism and white supremacy. But to me the Aus-Rotten message is enduring, right in this very moment, in 2025. Fuck Nazi Sympathy and People are not Expendable, Government Is are phrases that should be screamed loud, right now and to the death. Anyway, the blurry reference issue was solved when my bruv Alex Submachine came through to connect me with the photographer Chris Boarts Larson, who let me sift through her amazing photosets. So now here we are with a new shirt design! Thank you Dave, Eric, Corey, Rich and every other member who has passed in and out of the band throughout the years. – Raeghan – Raeghan Buchanan

LIMITED TO 300 PRINTS. Unisex sizes printed on American Apparel 1301 Heavy Cotton Tees.  Ladies’ sizes printed on BellaCanvas slim cut apparel. LADIES’ SIZES RUN VERY SMALL.