Brand New Is Selling, Uh, THAT Shirt Design at a Discount for an AIDS Charity

This week, the story of noted AIDS drug price gouger Martin Shkreli became such a massive national story that even Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton cited Shkreli in their calls to regulate Big Pharma. But while the politicians argued over the larger problems with drug industry overhaul, mid-aughts emo kids read the story of Shkreli and noticed something else: Hey, this smug-faced jagoff is wearing a Brand New shirt. A little pull on this emo thread unraveled a larger story: That Shkreli was the silent partner funding former Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly’s Collect Records. Rickly has since severed ties with Shkreli, putting the future of Collect in jeopardy.

Back to that Brand New shirt. Rickly and many other acts on Collect, like Nothing and Wax Idols, have publicly spoken out against Shkreli. But Brand New, whose only sin was having an obnoxious millennial for a fan (which was already pretty evident for anyone who had ever been to an Emo Night), has been relatively silent. Last night, though, they announced via Facebook that for the next 48 hours, they would be selling the infamous "Electricity Is Dangerous" shirt design worn by Shkreli at a 20 percent discount, and that all proceeds will go to the Whitman-Walker AIDS charity. Nowhere on the band’s Facebook post or online store does it make any direct reference to Shkreli, which is classy.

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For the next 48 hours we will be offering a 20% discount on all of the Electricity is Dangerous tee shirts. During that…

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Brand New

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Thursday, September 24, 2015

So, Brand New fans, here’s your chance to not let your culture be co-opted by the internet’s most hated man. Don’t join the internet lynch mob’s public doxxing of Shkreli—don’t go to his house, don’t call his phone. Be part of the solution.

Also, it should also be mentioned that by cutting ties with Shkreli, Collect Records is in debt by thousands of dollars, which they need to pay bands. So if you’re being generous with your Paypal account today, you might also consider picking up something from there today. May we suggest the Black Clouds LP?

[UPDATE: Whitman-Walker has clarified that they are not specifically an "AIDS charity":

Whitman-Walker Health is a non-profit, community health center serving Washington, D.C. Our mission is to be the highest quality, culturally competent community health center serving greater Washington’s diverse urban community, including individuals who face barriers to accessing care, and with a special expertise in LGBT and HIV care. Established in 1978, our services include primary medical and dental care; mental health and addictions counseling and treatment; HIV education, prevention, and testing; legal services; and medical adherence case management. With four sites in the District of Columbia, we serve over 15,000 patients annually and administers about 10,000 free HIV tests.]