Last Friday (June 21), the New Zealand city of Dunedin was shut down and evacuated after a local noise-rock band’s cassette was mistaken for a bomb.
Much of the central business district of the southeastern city of Dunedin was shut down due to a menacing note attached to a package, stuck to the wall of a former strip club, Spin reports.
The package turned out to be a cassette by a noise-rock/drone band called LSD Fundraiser – stylised as L.$.D FUNDRAISER.
According to the Otago Daily Times, the New Zealand Defence Force dispatched an explosive disposal squad which arrived on the scene by helicopter. The cassette was destroyed in a controlled explosion detonated by a bomb-diffusing robot.
Authorities were notified after a report of the cassette note came through. The note reads: “When there’s nothing left to lose. I will firebomb your car. I will hack into your computer. I will leak trade & state SECRETS. I will hammer holes in your office windows. I will raise [sic] your buildings to the ground. I will bring you down.”
Listen to LSD Residency 36-minute, two track album below.
https://lsdfunraiser.bandcamp.com/album/streetnoise
The cassette was a copy of the band’s new tape, ‘StreetNOISE’. While the physical note was more threatening, the attached memo on the tape’s Bandcamp reads: “Free giveaway! On a wall hear (sic) you? limited run of XIII, C38, cassette tape. Longslowcomfortablescrewagainstthewalltapes #5″.
The band was obviously attempting some viral marketing with a noise-rock edge. You can’t argue its effectiveness but, as a rule, don’t leave notes promising to set off firebombs in people’s cars.
A 43-year-old man has been charged with threatening to destroy property after planting the cassette on the wall in Moray Place.