Hammerlock is “Back” ?
According to their Instagram video of 4/4/21 the Oakland band Hammerlock, who claim to have been “fighting Socialism since 1995” are attempting to bring their “Pure American Music” back to the Bay Area. Having been relatively quiet since two thirds of their members were identified as part of a violent fascist mobilization in Berkeley in 2017, and were subsequently deplatformed from social media and the local music scene, the three members clearly feel emboldened by recent events and appeared ready to crawl out from under their rock
As one of the only musical acts scheduled for the Proud Boy-aligned “Fall Love Fest” — a rally organized hoping to replicate the violent Proud Boy rally in Portland Aug 22 — Hammerlock backed out of the “festival” at the last minute and appear to have been no-shows at the San Pedro event. Regardless, their willingness to openly fraternize and organize with Proud Boys, American Guard members, and racist “RAC” (Rock Against Communism) boneheads of varying stripes all suggest that they’re emboldened by the current political climate of racist/anti-vax street rallies and looking to find a place within the local far-right ecosystem.
Hammerlock, comprised of couple Travis and Elizabeth Kenney, with drummer Michael “Mikey” Kingshill (and sometimes joined by the Kenney’s daughter Cheyenne) has positioned themselves within the local outlaw biker subculture, and pedal their “Oakland Born Southern Rock” to bikers of all stripes, many of whom would probably be hesitant to attend a show held by individuals with documented ties to out and out neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and Charlottesville Unite the Right attendees. At first glance Hammerlock’s social media presence shows a libertarian “outlaw” MAGA conservatism with some neo-confederate imagery — but within their online chat-rooms their attempts to cultivate an explicitly racist fan-base become much more apparent.
Rock Against Communism, abbreviated as RAC, started in the UK as an explicitly white power reaction to Rock Against Racism, an organization itself founded in 1976 as part of a response to Eric Clapton’s open affirmation of Enoch Powell’s anti-immigrant “rivers of blood” speech. Rock Against Communism lyrically focused on antisemitism and white pride and sought to recruit for the fascist British National Front and further racist street violence through the appropriation of Oi! music and subculture, which up to that point had been either apolitical or explicitly involved with left wing or anti-racist politics. The main RAC band at the time, and one still synonymous with the genre is Skrewdriver, a band fronted by the now deceased Ian Stuart Donaldson who formed the white nationalist label Blood & Honour — named after the Hitler youth’s slogan — to network for and raise funds for the neo-Nazi cause at the time.
The significance of RAC’s legacy in understanding Hammerlock is both in their continued usage of RAC imagery and talking points, and their obvious affinity with bands like Skrewdriver, the American “Hatecore” band Aggravated Assault, and “confederate rock” like Antiseen who themselves have drawn criticism for covering Skrewdriver (and who have done a split single with Hammerlock as well as formed the informal musical group “Confederacy of Scum” together). Due to their repeat association with, and open support of neo-Nazi bands and musicians it is well within reason to see Hammerlock as a part of this musical subculture, and by extension the same violently racist movements .
** More information on Atlantic City Skinhead Joshua Matthew Croom Williamson (pictured above) can be found here thanks to the work of @AntifaGarfield **
Hammerlock Band “Banter” chat shows Hammerlock’s overlap with white power Proud Boys and American Guard
With relatively unremarkable music and a declining fanbase, Hammerlock — headed first and foremost by the Kenneys — has turned to flirting with American Guardsmen and Proud Boys to advance their brand and secure venues for them to play on tour. Within their telegram chat, Travis Kenney appears to have bantered back and forth with Ryan Ramsey, attempting to gig in Florida. Ramsey also sent videos to the chat showing members of the Bold City (Jacksonville) Proud Boys listening to Hammerlock before throwing up “ok” -sign hand gestures. Later videos sent to the chat show Bold City Proud Boys meeting up flying confederate flags and burning crosses.
Another amateur fan music video editor in the chat is Andrew Duncomb a/k/a “Black Rebel”, a neo-confederate organizer, former Proud Boy, and Patriot Prayer associate. Duncomb attended Unite the Right in Charlottesville, and was more recently present along with Proud Boy and “Groyper” Philip Anderson for his failed “Free Speech Rally” in San Francisco on 10/17/20, which saw the fascists quickly routed, and with a few less teeth than they came with. Within the Hammerlock chat Duncomb shared an edit of “Tear ‘Em Down” edited to footage of violent Stop the Steal rallies in Salem, Oregon that saw pro-Trump supporters and white nationalists attempt to storm the Oregon state Capitol and throw improvised riot munitions at and draw firearms on anti-racist protestors.
Local Bay Area MAGA organizer and associate of American Guard and Golden State Skinheads, Lindsay Danae Grathwohl (of Castro Valley) was also present in the “Hammerlock Band Banter” chat. Within the chat Lindsay shared photos of her at the Capitol on January 6th, video from a live Hammerlock show, and Travis and Elizabeth’s shared telegram account boosted one of Lindsay’s interviews, which was streamed to the far-right friendly streaming platform DLive. Not unlike Ryan Ramsey and the Bold City Proud Boys Lindsay has recently been spotted driving around with Proud Boy Jeffrey Perrine (of Citrus Heights) harassing people at their homes. Perrine, like the Bold City Proud Boys, has also uploaded a video showing Proud Boys “ironically” burning crosses a la the Klan, marking a potential trend within the Proud Boys internal politics.
Within the telegram channel, Grathwohl also appears to have invited the NorCal California American Guard chapter president Drew Smith into the chat, who claims that on at least one occasion the CA American Guard played Hammerlock at their meetings. Travis Kenney and Elizabeth’s account sent fliers in the chat numerous times trying to get the AG members to show up at their gigs. American Guard has been responsible for significant street violence up and down the coast and Hammerlock’s flirtation with the group’s co-founder and a regional president signal an open affirmation of the group’s racist violence and can be seen as an endorsement of the hate group that has housed former Nazi skinheads and members of the KKK. The presence of Fresno American Guardsmen in colors at the San Pedro rally is additionally noteworthy given this connection.
HAmmerlock’s REcent Gig @ The HoWard’s Mystic Saloon – October 23, 2021
As one would suspect, Hammerlock’s music is permeated with the same hateful rhetoric as their associations, such as above. We assume that they’re referring to Black Lives Matter and the widespread protest of the police murder of George Floyd with the lyrics “BML (sic) raged and shut down half the states”. They also reference “try(ing) to drive the globalists away”, “Globalist” is common code used by antisemitic conspiracy theorists to refer to purported Jewish control over world governments and the economy. Whether it’s songs titled “Hate is Not a Crime”, and “Hate Radio” , or “Conquest Train” where the narrator says he “bows his head and prays for conquest” and is “like a soldier for Coronado”, or the song “Snide Little Faggot”, etc. it’s obvious that hateful ideology is as present in their body of work as it is in their choice of friends. To list it all would require a further article (and honestly, we can’t bring ourselves to listen to any more of their feigned rural, canned rebellion schlock to pick out every nasty example. We don’t really recommend anyone else do so, either).
One of the most powerful tools white supremacists use to spread their ideology is music, and one of the main places it festers and grows is in music subcultures. The thing about “free speech” is that all speech has implications – bigoted speech has frightening ones, and even the most ironic and seemingly casual calls to violence will manifest concretely, sooner or later. Dylann Roof had reportedly never actually met another neo-Nazi in real life when he walked into a African Methodist Episcopal church service and took nine people’s lives. He was reportedly a fan of Screwdriver and had posted on a white supremacist internet forum asking who was in the neo-Nazi band Final Solution. Wade Michael Page, who murdered six people in a Sikh temple in Wisconsin in 2012, had gotten amped up on murderous rage while playing with white power band Youngland in Orange County.
Speech is the bridge between ideas and actions – it always becomes material. Live shows serve a purpose to the organizer, and for performers who have a proven social and political agenda. If there are white power messages in the songs, the videos, the social media, the website, the general communications of the band – there will be a strong white power element to the crowd who assembles to see them. And as has been proven over time, live shows, by giving people an opportunity to network, continue to nurture white-supremacist organizing.
This is a community alert – we hereby request that venues not give a platform to those inhabiting and blatantly organizing around hateful views, including Hammerlock. They should not be given opportunities to foment hate and draw known dangerous white supremacists to our communities. Because of their numerous associations with known Nazis and white power boneheads, members of Hammerlock should be considered dangerous, and it is apparent from their videos that they are armed. Please use extreme caution in the vicinity of where these individuals live and work.
Travis Kenney & Elizabeth Kenney Information:
4100 Martin Luther King Jr Way – Oakland, CA 94609
Michael “Mikey” Kingshill INformation:
Michael is the President of the BP Psychos, and runs Fast Way LLC, a consulting, construction and security team for medical marijuana dispensaries with a staff of five. He lives at the “BP Psychos Compound” 1221 28th Street. Fast Way LLC has a registered address at 1213 28th Street.
If you have more information about members of Hammerlock or the fascists they are adjacent to, please send it to: Bay161 [@] riseup [dot] net