Athens, Ga. musicians join Barack Obama t-shirt industry

For the first time in almost two decades, Georgia just might be a battleground state in the November election. Converting the peach state from red to blue is no mean feat, but the folks at ObamaRad.com are looking to do just that with their new line of Barack Obama t-shirts. Joining the illustrious ranks of The National, three Athens, Ga.-based musicians are offering pro-Obama (prObama?) designs screenprinted on American Apparel tees. They'll be donating 25% of t-shirt sales to the Georgia Campaign for Change.

Which three Athensites, you ask? We were curious too, as the website is pretty anonymous, so we shot an e-mail to ObamaRad.com HQ, and here is the response we got:

"The folks involved are Nick Canada of Satisfactory screen printing and the band Dark Meat, Jeff Griggs of Je Suis France and Masters of The Hemisphere and myself, Ryan Lewis, co-founder of Kindercore records and member of the animation band the Buddy System."

Their mission statement? From the website: "Our county (Clarke) has long been a tiny blue oasis in a sea of red. We've certainly experienced our fair share of war-mongering, unfair taxation, oil-whoring, environmental destruction, ridiculous lending practices and general tyranny. America should not be a 98,589,451,022,605.6 square foot Wal-Mart. We're ready for change." Now tell us how you really feel.

Athens already shifted the musical landscape by giving birth to bands like R.E.M, Neutral Milk Hotel, Of Montreal and the B-52s. Now, it seems, the city's arts community is setting its sights a little bit higher.

Related links:
News: The National have a (t-shirt) crush on Barack Obama
ObamaRad.com
VisitAthensGa.com

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