How A St. Louis Band's Zombie Obama T-Shirt Forced A Virginia Republican To Resign And Got The Attention Of The Secret Service

Categories: News

obama-zombie-hftm.jpg
The original HFTM shirt with the image in question
An official with the Virginia Republican party has resigned, thanks in large part to the T-Shirt artwork of short-lived 2008-2009 St. Louis hardcore band Head For The Mountains. Set apart from most local punk and hardcore bands by its members' right-wing conservative leanings, HFTM commissioned a shirt design lampooning the ubiquitous "Hope" and "Change" campaign posters of the 2008 election designed by artist Shepard Fairey. The artwork depicts the President as a decaying zombie, complete with a bullet hole in his head over his right eye.

As first reported on by Virginia political blog Too Conservative this Monday, Loudoun County Republican Committee Communications Director Robert Jesionowski used the image in a Halloween-themed mass e-mail. He has explained that he found the image though a Google image search for the words "Obama" and "Zombie".

"I check Right-Wing websites every morning before I head off to work," says HFTM vocalist Matt Monroe. "I saw this on The Blaze, along with the part where it says the Secret Service are aware of the situation. I immediately called up the artist that made it for us and told him to delete everything off of his computer and move to a shack in the wilderness somewhere." [Laughs]

"We only made 25 of those shirts," Matt continues. "It took two years to get a response! The design was made strictly for shock value. Obviously the bullet hole is in reference to what you do with zombies, NOT with presidents."

When asked if this recent publicity will have any impact on the inactive status of the band, Matt replied "The band might reform. We have friends telling us we'd be stupid not to, if only to sell some shirts."

The artist that created the picture in question could not be reached from what I can only assume is his underground bunker hideout.

The email that started all this and video of HFTM in action on the next page.

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