John "Porcell" Porcelly (born 3 February 1967), also known as Paramananda Das, is an American musician, best known as the guitarist for the 1980s hardcore bands Young Republicans, Violent Children, Youth of Today, and

Judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

. He also sang in Project X (under the pseudonym Slam), and has had stints in other bands such as

Bold In typography, emphasis is the strengthening of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text, to highlight them. It is the equivalent of prosody stress in speech. Methods and use The most common methods in W ...

and Gorilla Biscuits. More recently he has played in bands like Shelter, Never Surrender and Last of the Famous. He also wrote and published the fanzine ''War on Illusion'' and ran the record label/fanzine

Schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

along with Alex Brown (Gorilla Biscuits/Side By Side/Project X). Porcelly currently runs the record label Fight Fire with Fire. In 1991, Porcelly formed a band with Zack de la Rocha based at the Revelation Records headquarters in

Huntington Beach, California Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County, California, Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 duri ...

, in which Rocha was the vocalist and Porcelly played guitar. Although the group never officially had a name, at one point in time, Rocha proposed the name "Rage Against the Machine", however Porcelly believed the name to be too long, leading to Rocha using it as the name for his other band at the time. The band's music merged elements of hardcore punk and hip hop. In 2006,

reunited with Porcelly on second guitar and began a European tour while also writing and recording a new album. He also sang a live set of 80s straight edge cover songs with the Florida band Gator Bait at Florida's Significant Records Fest. The set included songs from his previous projects Youth of Today, Project X and Judge. In 2008, Porcelly launched his straight-edge clothing company "True Till Death".

Personal life

Prior to his joining of Shelter, Porcelly took interest in the spiritual movement ' International Society for Krishna Consciousness' and has maintained interest in it since; he is an active member of ISKCON. He is referred in ISKCON by his 'spiritual' name "Paramananda Das". He has been

straight edge Straight edge (sometimes abbreviated sXe or signified by XXX or X) is a subculture of hardcore punk whose adherents refrain from using alcohol, tobacco, and other recreational drugs, in reaction to the excesses of punk subculture. For some, thi ...

and a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

for most of his life.

References

American punk rock guitarists Living people American Hare Krishnas Place of birth missing (living people) American male guitarists 1967 births 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians Youth of Today members Project X (band) members {{US-punk-rock-guitarist-stub