Mickey rocks: Sex, drugs and Satan at Disney

Human Events, Jan 22, 1999 by Schweizer, Peter, Schweizer, Rochelle

Where others saw tragedy, NY Loose saw beauty. "A girl committed suicide by jumping off the Empire State Building and landed on the roof of a car," said West in an interview. "And she landed in the most angelic, graceful final pose. No blood or splatter-just this beautiful state of relaxation.

"It seemed like the ultimate example of the collision between violence and tragedy and beauty. It's ironic," she says with a smile, "because it was probably the best photo that this girl had ever taken."

She was such a pretty suicide; oh, what a beautiful mess.

She was such a pretty suicide; right now she looks her best. Suicide looms so large in Disney's new music that Pfeifer even signed a band with the name in it. Like Humble Gods, Danzig, and NY Loose, The Suicide Machines' first major label deal was with Disney. Guitarist and vocalist Dan Suicide Machine (formerly Lukacinsky), who fronts for the Detroit-area band, explains that the band chose the name "as a reflection of the peculiar fatalism" that afflicts teens in modem-day America.

Human Waste Project And the `Virgin Mary'

Fatalism also colors the work of Human Waste Project, another recent Hollywood Records acquisition. The band gets its name, according to bassist Jeff Schartoff, from the group's view of life. "Human Waste Project is an observation," he says, "the result of a black hole in the mind that has to do with the separation of the physical plane to nowhere, the part of the human condition that's lost-the end of the line."

Hollywood Records released the band's first album, "E-Lux," on Sept. 30, 1997. Amidst the shrieking, unearthly whines of the tortured guitar and the angry, ominous rumble of the bass, you hear songs like "Disease," which is supposed to be about relationships.

Well

I bet you thought

you knew everything about me

but you don't

You don't you don't know everything;

no.

So just f___ off,

whore.

In another track, Human Waste Project croons about sex with "Virgin Mary."

His Virgin Mary

away she has come

he's blinded always by her innocence.

He quivers as her mouth glides eagerly

across the flesh;

His eyes close,

he turns away-but she still just shines,

shines, shines

too bright for him to look at.

Shine, shine, shine away my Mary. Shine,

shine, shine.

In darkness his whore she lies in wait

she's ever ready to devour him

Quivers as her mouth glides eagerly

across the flesh;

His eyes close,

he turns away-but she still just shines,

shines, shines

too bright for him to look at.

Shine, shine, shine away my Mary Shine,

shine, shine.

Suicide is the third-leading cause of death

among young people aged 15 to 24. But if that doesn't seem to Disney like a good reason not to glorify suicide to the same kids who grew up on Goofy, Donald, and the Little Mermaid, then it probably should come as no surprise that Hollywood Records also cheerleads for an even greater scourge of teen life today: Drugs.

Besides shipping promotional bongs, the company's bands sing about drugs. On their album "Spanaway," Disney's group Seaweed sings a snappy song called "Free Drug Zone" (as opposed to Drug Free Zone). Humble Gods sing a song called "Mary's in Bondage Pants," about a girl who pops "black beauties."