Buried in a bunker beneath a Tesla storeroom in South Austin, three former CIA operatives are hard at work on a new mission: a chaos-driven upheaval of the music industry.
D.O.O.M. Inc. was tasked with infiltrating subcultures in the Cold War battle of hearts and minds, getting involved in many of the most notorious operations of the era – like hooking David Bowie on cocaine, for one. After infamously helping British electronic band the KLF burn a million quid on a remote Scottish island, D.O.O.M. Inc.’s handlers became concerned about their potential as double agents.
They put the project on ice – literally, freezing its members in cryogenic pods in a CIA facility where they remained untouched for decades – until recent efforts by DOGE accidentally unearthed Mr. Demon, Mr. Green, and Mr. Fiction, the art-punk band’s founding members.
Blinking away the pseudo-primordial goo, D.O.O.M. Inc. found themselves in a world perfectly suited to their ambitions of world domination through exposing government secrets and sowing chaos. The experimental hip-hop fusion of then up-and-coming artists like Gravediggaz and Wu-Tang Clan, which D.O.O.M. was inspired by at the tail end of their political career, was already back in style and, better yet, their needs for propagandizing were being eagerly met by new-to-them social media platforms.
“When you emerge from being cryo-frozen for a few decades and you see that people are carrying around propaganda and sharing it from their pockets, [you realize] a lot of the enemies that we used to have are now a part of the system,” Mr. Demon says. “Our biggest enemies would be anyone who is just creating music for the algorithm.”
Mr. Fiction cuts in: “If you’re trying to climb the ladder for popularity, we’re trying to climb it for chaos.”
To ascend the shaky ladder of fame in our attention economy, D.O.O.M. Inc. knows they’ll need more than the three of them.
“It’s all about recruitment,” Mr. Fiction says. The scheme is off to a good start. New single “Endearing (Like a Dog Driving a Car),” out today exclusively via the Chronicle, features local rappers WKDZD and Fak3 5miles, who have been fully and painstakingly brought in to join D.O.O.M.’s mission.
“A little over 10 years ago, I started noticing what I later found out to be the D.O.O.M. Inc. insignia randomly popping up in my home, my job, even various studios in Austin,” WKDZD tells the Chronicle. “One night last year I was just vibing at Mohawk where everyone smokes at when I saw a figure in the upper deck with that damn D.O.O.M. logo. As soon as I got up there, I blacked out. [I] woke up at D.O.O.M. Inc. and Mr. Demon was in front of me. They said my lyricism was something they covet and I can either be of use or be ‘of use.’”
Fak3 5miles has a similar origin story. Now that he’s assimilated, he sees his part in the operation clearly: “My role in D.O.O.M. Inc. is to infiltrate, collect, and expose new realities into the world without being seen. It’s not to be thought of as real. It’s to be thought of as something fak3.”
Re-educated and re-inserted into Austin’s music lexicon, alongside members of punk outfit Subpar Snatch, these local artists are well-poised to assist in D.O.O.M.’s justice-driven nefarious takeover. It’s a good thing, too, for who else could co-write this latest single, self-described as a “catchy anthem for a third world dictator”?
“All jokes aside, I do think it is important for people to understand how bleak the government’s intrusion into art is right now,” says Morgan Davis, the man behind Mr. Demon. He points, for one example, to the recent controversy over Bob Vylan, one of the group’s biggest inspirations. After the punk-rap duo led a chant of “death to the IDF” at a performance at Glastonbury, the act was dropped by their agents and the Avon and Somerset police launched an investigation. The U.S., following suit, revoked their visas. The band was quick to explain that their intent was not to call for the death of Jews, only the “dismantling of a violent military regime.”
“When you look at history, the most successful revolutionary movements have distinct artwork associated with them,” Davis says. He hopes that D.O.O.M. Inc. can inspire – or recruit – more artists in Austin and beyond to push back on the capitalization and censorship of art via their respective platforms. “The most important protest music that’s coming out these days is coming from less-traditional places,” he opines.
The group’s sound oscillates wildly, though firmly within that non-traditional zone, with promises to expand even further into diverse genres with upcoming singles and an EP fittingly aimed for a Halloween release.
“It’s garage-y, it’s in your face, drum- and bass-driven, and pretty jagged,” explains Mr. Green. He’s also known, at alternate times, by Travis Kohnhorst and Jack Greenwood.
Harnessing the power of punk, hip-hop, rap, hardcore, and electronic influences, D.O.O.M. Inc.’s satirical messaging and pointed, though irreverent, songwriting aims to pull the curtain back on capitalist-driven music campaigns, arts censorship, and the influence of the military industrial complex on major music operations like Spotify and South by Southwest.
“At the end of the day it’s going to be up to the audience to trust themselves to question the established systems,” says Cesar Reyes, aka Mr. Fiction. Slipping in and out of character, he adds: “It’s really cool to see everyone who’s been working with us align with the message – not that they had a choice in the first place. But it’s great to see people embrace the path of least resistance.”
This article appears in August 8 • 2025.
