Panzerfaust Records

Panzerfaust Records was a Minnesota-based white power record label founded in September 1998 by Anthony Pierpont, Ed Wolbank and Eric Davidson (who had previously worked at Resistance Records). In 2000, Davidson returned to California and by 2003, Wolbank was focusing more on music production than distribution. That same year, Bryant Cecchini, alias Byron Calvert, joined the company and was instrumental in increasing the company's Internet presence. Panzerfaust Records, named after a German anti-tank rocket, distributed the music of several white power bands and organized concerts across the United States.

Anthony Pierpont was one of the most notable promoters in the white power music business, and he earned the respect of most members of the extremely violent Hammerskins, in part by supporting white power skinhead inmates in United States prisons.fact|date=October 2007

Pierpont was reportedly approached in 1998 about purchasing Resistance Records but he refused, leaving it to the National Alliance to pay the $250,000 price tag. At the label's peak around 2000, it was the main competitor of Resistance Record, and they had grown close to the neo-Nazi White Revolution group, which mostly involves people who have left the troubled National Alliance.fact|date=October 2007

Pierpont's relatively dark skin and vaguely Hispanic looks have caused him problems. Pierpont has repeatedly sworn that he is white, but detractors have pointed to his dark skin as evidence that he is not. [http://www.splcenter.org/images/dynamic/intel/report/8/ir111_pierpont_200x276.jpg] In 1995, when he attended the Aryan Nations Youth Fest, he was accused behind his back of being Mexican. In early 2004 at the annual Aryan Fest rally in Arizona, Pierpont was manning a Panzerfaust booth as security guards kicked out a cinnamon-skinned teenager for "not being white." Several white power skinheads pointed out that the boy's skin was obviously lighter than Pierpont's. Later White Revolution leader Billy Roper took the stage and stated: "I'm here to say that's a white man!" while pointing to Pierpont, who fervently sieg-heiled from behind his stacks of merchandise. Some neo-Nazis returned Pierpont's salute and others pointly refused to do so.

In 2004, the label launched "Project Schoolyard", a United States-wide campaign to distribute free Panzerfaust sampler CDs to middle and high school students. In response, police were under pressure to silence the headline-grabbing record label. On Nov. 30, 2004, the Minnesota Gang Strike Force raided Pierpont's home and arrested him after finding marijuana and traces of cocaine. Also in response to "Project Schoolyard", the anti-fascist record label Insurgence Records offered a free downloadable compilation called "Project Boneyard". [ [http://www.insurgence.net/info.aspx?action=band&item=boneyard Insurgence Records ] ] [ [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-128170210.html Project Boneyard USA: a battle for hearts and minds. | Article from Canadian Dimension | HighBeam Research ] ]

In January 2005, Cecchini claimed to have found Pierpont's birth certificate, which shows that Pierpont's mother is a Mexican-born woman named Maria Marcola del Prado. [http://www.splcenter.org/images/imglib/I/splc_pierpont_500x248.jpg] Cecchini also mentioned tawdry messages that Pierpont had posted on the Internet, detailing a sex tour he took in Thailand in October 2004. The messages indicated that Pierpont has had sex with non-white prostitutes and shemales. This, combined with the Southern Poverty Law Center's evidence of a photo of Pierpont in a prison yard in California, where he was serving time for a drug offense. He is posing with two Hispanic men who were apparently his friends. [http://www.splcenter.org/images/dynamic/intel/splc_pierpont_200x204.jpg]

Within days of these revelations, Panzerfaust had shut down. Cecchini says Pierpont refused to take a DNA test to establish his whiteness. On January 22, 2005, Cecchini posted on the Internet that he quit the record label, as did its webmaster.fact|date=October 2007Hammerskin Nation and Volksfront, two notable neo-Nazi groups that supported Panzerfaust Records, denounced Pierpont and withdrew all support.fact|date=October 2007 By the end of the month, the label and website were gone.

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=213 The Well-Tanned Skinhead" - SPLC Intel Report]
* [http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=536 Panzerfaust collapses amid Aryan purity debate]
* [http://www.splcenter.org/intel/news/item.jsp?aid=9 Panzerfaust collapses amid accusations against founder]
* [http://www.adl.org/extremism/panzerfaust_records.asp Panzerfaust Apparently Out of Business]
* [http://www.myspace.com/anthony_pierpont Anthony Pierpont's Myspace profile]
* [http://onepeoplesproject.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=649&Itemid=2 Panzerfaust Misfires]

See also

* List of record labels