Pinkwash is Joey Doubek and Ashley Arnwine. Last year, the Philly duo released its debut cassette, Your Cure Your Soil, an emotionally intense five-song collection of jagged post-hardcore with visceral start-stop drum beats and blown-out riffs, all pulsing through sounds of anger and anguish. In a November interview, the band talked about the toxic realities of of pinkwashing, a term for when, say, a corporation puts pink ribbons on their packaging and claims to donate funds to breast cancer research. “Some of the very products marketed this way, like perfume and bath products, have gross shit in them that have even been linked to cancer,” Arnwine explained. The band also explained how most of Pinkwash’s songs were an outlet for Joey to process the 14-month period during which he was primary caregiver to his mother, who was dying of breast cancer.
Where the band’s first tape was full of abstract forms of rage against the medical industrial complex and the capitalistic business of cancer, “Cancer Money” takes a more direct, all-caps rip into said target. “CANCER MONEY MAKING YOU GRAVE,” Doubek shrieks over guitars that sound like sirens. “DANCE SONNY MAKING YOU PAY YOUR.” The song’s haunting video (above) is made from footage he found online from the ’50s about the prevention of spreading of disease and infection in hospitals.
“Cancer Money” will be out on a 7-inch in March via Sister Polygon. Pinkwash will also release a full-length this year on Don Giovanni; they play the label’s annual showcase this weekend in New York, plus some other shows, all listed below.
Pinkwash tour dates:
February 05 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat w/ Puff Pieces, Sneaks
February 06 – SUNY Purchase w/ Show Me The Body, PWR BTTM, HAK (Ratking) DJ set, Tippwerk
February 07 – NYC @ Knitting Factory, Don Giovanni Showcase
February 08 – Baltimore @ The Crown w/ TRNSGNDR/VHS, Baklavaa, Quitter
