Over the last three decades, San Diego’s Justin Pearson has been in dozens of bands that have defined the sound and aesthetic of modern punk, electronic and experimental hardcore. You may have a hard time tracking them all down though as Justin and his bandmates, have removed much of their work from Spotify. You will not find his most celebrated project The Locust there, nor many other pockets of his catalog. The reasons for this are several, but two that stand out amongst Spotify’s playbook of incessant greed, and ceaseless corpo-political maneuvering - Spotify has funded approx $700 million dollars in AI warfare technology (Helsing), and they run ICE recruitment ads on platform, aimed at people who cannot afford AD-FREE premium accounts.
Since he started touring at the age of 15 (Struggle, 1990), JP has been an uncompromising, unapologetic, hard left activist, a figurehead of veganism and animal rights, a card carrying feminist, and a sober voice of dissent. He has been unwavering in his beliefs in both policy and practice, despite frequently forfeiting both visibility and revenue. Musically, JP is probably most known for sharing vocal duties and playing bass in The Locust (late 90’s/early-mid 00’s). the locust invented their own sub genre of grind-core known as Sci-fi cyber grind, and were the longest running performance art act to ever play blast beats. The Locust are in a league of early 00’s avant garde which remains unparalleled. Those bug uniforms will be studied by grad school art kids for decades to come. They’re actually already in two museums now, the PPIM and the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas.
Three One G, Justin’s label since 1994 (named after a Joy Division lyric) has been/continues to be a literal who’s who of influential underground punk and electronic bands. Adult, Black Dice, Kool Keith, Antioch Arrow, Melt Banana, The Blood Brothers, Arab on Radar, Cattle Decapitation, N8Noface, Unbroken, Quintron, Metz, and Head Wound City (his project with Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs), plus many more have released there.
He is currently active in Deaf Club, Dead Cross with Mike Patton (Faith No More) and Dave Lombardo (Slayer), and Satanic Planet, also with Lombardo and Lucien Graeves. Justin has a podcast with his other SP bandmate Luke Henshaw called, Cult and Culture. John Waters has been a guest. prior to that, waters synced SEVERAL Locust tracks in his film Cecil B Demented.
Justin is also a published author, four times over. He has penned From the Graveyard of the Arousal Industry, How to Lose Friends and Irritate People, GG Alien and The Mystery Meat, and Race to Zero, a comprehensive collection of lyrics and short prose spanning his career. He has acted in films by Asia Argento, and also on the Jerry Springer show, in 1999, playing a made up version of himself. his early Cult bands, Swing Kids and Crimson Curse, both from pre-Locust days, have reunion dates planned for this year.
You can find all of his work on Apple Music, Bandcamp, and the other slightly less warmongering dsp’s.
