Group warns of racist music label

MINNEAPOLIS -- An anti-discrimination group is warning parents about a "white power" music label that is using bulk mailing lists to send racist CDs to teenagers across the country.

An official of Panzerfaust Records said it was pressing 100,000 copies of a "pro-white sampler CD" in a campaign dubbed Project Schoolyard USA, after a similar effort earlier this year in Germany.

"Panzerfaust has intentionally designed its CDs to lure unsuspecting teens with a free giveaway that has the appearance of being just another free compilation of cutting edge music," Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement last week.

"In reality it is a thinly veiled attempt to attract kids to hateful, racist music and white power bands," he said.

Panzerfaust, based in the Twin Cities suburb of Newport, says on its Web site that white teenagers are the target audience for its CD, which features song titles such as "White Supremacy," "Hate Train Rolling" and "Commie Scum." "Obviously there's a message behind the music, and the message is one that we're also interested in marketing as well," said Byron Calvert, one of the men who operate Panzerfaust, named after a Nazi anti-tank weapon.

Calvert, 33, said Wednesday that his label already had sent out 5,000 CDs -- most were direct-mailed to teenagers nationwide with interests including heavy metal music or skateboarding.

Calvert bought bulk mailing lists to obtain the teens' names and addresses.

The CDs were also sent to supporters to distribute at skate parks, gun shows, flea markets and schools, Calvert said. They also were available via the Web site for 15 cents a copy.

Calvert, whose legal name is Bryant Calvert Cecchini, last worked at Resistance Records, another white-power label based in West Virginia. In 1989, at age 17, he was sentenced to more than three years in prison for stabbing two men.