Exploring Every Sticker on the Route 15 Trolley Sign

Evil Kids

My assumption was that there was a shitty punk band called Evil Kids, but googling is turning up jackshit. It might be because it's such a generic name, I dunno. There were a couple leads, musically speaking, but nothing that felt right. First, there is a German punk rock band called Die Toten Hosen, who were originally called "The Evil Kids," and who released one song under that original moniker, the shitty "Head Over Heels." Second, there is a Belgian band called Soldier Six that released a song called "Evil Kids" just a couple years ago. I'm not sure what genre you'd call this band. Post-punk with metal stylings? '90s alternative dipped in horrorcore? See for yourself:



Still, neither of these options feel right, as far as our sticker goes. There wouldn't be a sticker with the name of a song, and there would be a "The" in front of "Evil Kids" on the sticker for the German band. Even googling such things as "evil kids sticker" or "evil kids michael myers" turned up very little relevant material. I'm at a loss. Let's move on.


Voyage Triumf

This one was even more mysterious than the Evil Kids sticker. First, I'm only 90% sure that the sticker reads "TRIUMF," which obviously isn't a word in English, but when would that stop a sticker maker? I think that's an F at the end, as opposed to a stylized P, just based on the sharp corner of the upper right part of the letter—it'd be curved if it was a P.

If it was a P, though, then there is exactly one hit on google, and it's this YouTube video. The Russian caption translates to: "To see the world is the dream of every person. How many new and beautiful things our planet has in it. How many countries in the world—so many unexplored distances, roads and discoveries" and on and on and on. But I am almost certain that the title of that video is just a misspelling of "Triumph," so let's forget we ever wasted a paragraph on it.

Voyage Triumf... hmm... No bands even close to that name. "Triumf" is apparently how to spell "Triumph" in Romanian, but I couldn't find anything "voyage + triumf + romanian" or any permiation of that. I dunno, kids. Some vandal is just fucking with me, I guess.


Stella Ruze

Finally, an easy find. Stella Ruze is a roots rock band hailing from Philadelphia. I listened to their entire discography (not that extensive), and mostly enjoyed it. They kind of remind me of Record Club alum Lake Street Dive, except some of their newer songs have a distinct New Orleans flavor baked in. If you listen to bands on XPN and tend to like them, then you will absolutely like Stella Ruze. Here's their most recent single, "The Trollop & the Tippler." It's not bad!



I weirdly noticed that a lot of my sister's friends were fans of this band on Facebook, so I texted her. Apparently, one of her friends used to date the manager of Stella Ruze. My takeaway from this is that the band is indeed super-local, which is a good thing, as far as my musical tastes are concerned. Though they are not the type of band that I would've thought would be plastering stickers on trolley stop signs, I guess it makes more sense to know that they have probably played at the venue across the street from the sign (Johnny Brenda's) at some point.

Anyways, they have an album coming out next week, if that's your thing. I'll probably pass, but I'm at least glad I am aware of their existence.


Pang Lock Shit Down

Yet again, I'm not finding shit. This is a little frustrating, how many nonsensical stickers were placed on this trolley stop sign! Google, tight-assed little imp that it is, keeps trying to tell me that I mean "lock shut down" in my searches. I'm allowed to curse, google! Fuck!

There is a rap song from 2009 called "Lock Shit Down" but it has nothing to do with any kind of "pang." There is a recently released album called Pang! from a Welsh dude, but there are no songs called "Lock Shit Down" or anything like that. The hashtag #pang brought me to an art gallery in Great Britain a lot, but again, nothing that said anything about "lock shit down."

I was going to give up on this one, but then the answer struck me like a bolt of lightning—this is probably a graffiti thing, right? Sure enough, there is a "muralist" named Pang, and there are a couple #lockshitdown hashtags underneath some graffiti photos on some websites. I don't have the energy to see if there is a connection. Let's assume there is and move on.


19 Percent / mouse drawing

It's very possible that someone drew a picture of a mouse on a name tag, and just stuck it on the sign when s/he was waiting for the bus. As you can imagine, "19 percent" is completely ungoogleable. There is a boy band called "Nine Percent" from China, but NO, we're not going down that rabbit hole. The sticker clearly says "19."


Agnostic Front / Gallo / BPLA

Agnostic Front actually has a Wikipedia page! Yikes, they are a crossover thrash band. I enjoy hardcore music in theory, but in practice it's usually a little tough to stomach. They actually released a new album in 2019 called Get Loud!, which is impressive because it looks like their first album was released in 1984. That's some longevity. I listened to Get Loud! It is exactly what you'd expect.

Yikes again—Wikipedia describes them as a "skinhead" band. Or they were at some point, anyway. In a 1985 interview, lead vocalist (then and still) Roger Miret tried to make a distinction between English skinheads and American skinheads, stating that the former camp were fascists, and that the latter just "didn't like how the government worked sometimes." Hmmm.

There's more to this sticker. Under the Frankenstein's monster, there is a caption "Gallo," which is the surname of Agnostic Front's bass player, Mike Gallo. And I'm pretty sure that is supposed to be Mike stylized as a Frankenstein's monster? I dunno, you tell me:

Finally, there is a logo for something called BPLA, comprised of logos for the Red Sox, Phillies, and Dodgers. This took me a while to find, mainly because the picture I took is shitty and I couldn't see what was written below the logo. But through some extensive hashtag research on Twitter, it seems that this is the logo for the Below Poverty Level Clothing company, and affiliated "Sticker Army."

They are located in LA. Agnostic Front is from NY. I'm not sure how the rogue sticker industry works, but I guess I'm imagining someone at this clothing company being a fan of this crossover thrash band, and creating a sticker, and sticking it on a sign in Philadelphia... for some reason...? I got nothing.


Jedi Drew

Yup, this was a shitty idea for a blog post after all. Nothing for "Jedi Drew" on google that could make any sense for a sticker. Some fucking jabroni calls himself JEDI Drew on Twitter, but he only has 54 followers, so I can't imagine he's making stickers to support his brand. Another jabroni, this time a high school tennis jabroni from MN, with only 16 followers. No FUCKING way his nickname ends up on a sticker in motherfucking Fishtown, Phila., right?

A martial arts center in Texas posted a video of a "Jedi Drew," which appears to be a mental challenged child playing with a pool noodle. I give up.


SIROB TUIST VOYAKE KFS 29C EK

No.