First of all allow me to explain that when I say Hardcore I'm not talking about tough guy-beat down-Biohazard-sounding wannabe metal crap, nor am I talking about eyeliner and tight pants wearing-arm hugging whiney emo crap. If you like either of those types of music right on, I have no problem with that, but that ain't what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about bands like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Negative Approach, SSD, Void, Black Flag, Necros--you know, the real stuff!
Never before or since has there been a more organic and real "music scene". OK maybe when field workers were singing songs out in the fields before there were records (or illegal downloading), that was pretty real too. But the original hardcore scene was entirely a grassroots, word of mouth kind of thing. You heard about bands from your friends, older siblings or xeroxed fanzines. MTV didn't exist and even when it finally did there certainly weren't any Meatmen or Circle Jerks videos being played (or being made for that matter). If you were lucky enough to have one in your hometown (or if you lived in a city) you could also go down to your local independent record store and check out the latest stuff. I bought plenty of albums and 7 inches based soley on the fact that they had cool looking covers.
The internet was still years away. There were no tour announcements in Rolling Stone magazine. No one else at your high school had heard of the shit you were into, and a lot of them wanted to beat you up for it even. You had to work for this stuff. Not to sound like your great grandpa telling you how many miles he had to walk to school through snow and rain without shoes, but it wasn't easy being hardcore back then. If I had a nickel for every time some asshole yelled "Rock Lobster" or "Whip It" at me from a passing car or pickup truck I could definitely go buy a fresh case of Budweiser right now.
This was music truly by and for the people. It was completely ignored by mainstream culture and corporations except when they wanted to ridicule it/us or make fun of it. Anyone remember the "punk" episodes of Quincy and Chips? How about the movie "Class of 1984"? They always got it wrong when they tried. Always.
There were no interested record labels so people put out their own records. Eventually there were a couple hardcore labels but even those were mostly just people from the scene putting out records they liked in relatively small pressings. Plenty of classic HC 7"ers now go for one or two hundred bucks or more. Ever see someone pay 150 bucks for a Michael Jackson record? I haven't.
One thing that hardcore never seems to get credit for is great songs. As far as I'm concerned, the true test of a great song is whether or not you can sing and play it on acoustic guitar and it still sounds like a great song. You can do that with Black Flag songs, you can do it with Misfits songs, you can even do it with Negative Approach tunes. Try doing that with a Britney Spears or a Rihanna song. You can't. They need the studio gloss.
I'm not saying other forms and styles of music aren't good (I'm as open minded as the next guy after all), I'm just saying that to me this is the real thing, like no other. It's the ultimate form of rock music--stripped of all fakery and bullshit star trips and played with utmost intensity. Playing music for the sake of playing music, not to get rich or be on the cover of some slick magazine. This kind of thing doesn't exist anymore. It's like the blues almost.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Iggy Does Madonna!
Ok, everyone knows that the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame is completely lame and almost totally un-rock n' roll. At least I hope you all do. However, once in a while there are some cool moments in their annual induction ceremony. For instance, I thought Dee Dee Ramone's acceptance speech was pretty awesome--"Hi I'm Dee Dee Ramone and I'd like to congratulate myself and thank myself and give myself a big pat on the back. Thank you Dee Dee you're very wonderful I love you." I also liked it when the Clash got in, and when the Sex Pistols sent a hand written note saying they weren't coming, that was pretty cool too.
I just watched this year's thing where the Stooges played a couple Madonna tunes after her induction. Wow. Burning Up was actually pretty good and strangely enough kind of sounded like a Stooges song. Ray of Light, hmm, not so much, but the Ig reciting a few lines from Like a Virgin afterwards was damn funny. Seeing Madonna shaking hands with the Stooges backstage was also pretty funny ("Hi Ron, hi Scott."). And Iggy singing while sitting in Justin Timberlake's lap, oh man.
Now, do I even need to explain to you how lame Justin Timberlake is? If so then you probably shouldn't even be reading this. Like I said, the whole thing is lame. But I'm going to go ahead and assume it was Madonna's idea to have the Stooges there and give her kudos. I mean, I'm sure the Hall people would've much rather had Madonna herself or like Christina Aguilera or Avril Levigne sing some Madonna tunes you know? When I heard that she was getting inducted I'd been thinking, I actually like Madonna but she's NOT rock n' roll, then she gets possibly THE most rock n' roll band EVER to do her tunes! Plus I like the whole Michigan connection thing--"Now I'd like to introduce another asskicker from Michigan!" That was pretty rock n' roll.
What a boring collection of inductees in general though. John Cougar? Leonard Cohen--even if you like him, which I don't, how is that even kind of rock n' roll? And Lou Reed (though I love him) looked like he was going to keel over during his Leonard Cohen induction speech. Kind of depressing to watch actually, I mean his hands were shaking and he's wearing a leather (or possibly pleathur) leisure suit.
But yeah, Iggy did Madonna!
I just watched this year's thing where the Stooges played a couple Madonna tunes after her induction. Wow. Burning Up was actually pretty good and strangely enough kind of sounded like a Stooges song. Ray of Light, hmm, not so much, but the Ig reciting a few lines from Like a Virgin afterwards was damn funny. Seeing Madonna shaking hands with the Stooges backstage was also pretty funny ("Hi Ron, hi Scott."). And Iggy singing while sitting in Justin Timberlake's lap, oh man.
Now, do I even need to explain to you how lame Justin Timberlake is? If so then you probably shouldn't even be reading this. Like I said, the whole thing is lame. But I'm going to go ahead and assume it was Madonna's idea to have the Stooges there and give her kudos. I mean, I'm sure the Hall people would've much rather had Madonna herself or like Christina Aguilera or Avril Levigne sing some Madonna tunes you know? When I heard that she was getting inducted I'd been thinking, I actually like Madonna but she's NOT rock n' roll, then she gets possibly THE most rock n' roll band EVER to do her tunes! Plus I like the whole Michigan connection thing--"Now I'd like to introduce another asskicker from Michigan!" That was pretty rock n' roll.
What a boring collection of inductees in general though. John Cougar? Leonard Cohen--even if you like him, which I don't, how is that even kind of rock n' roll? And Lou Reed (though I love him) looked like he was going to keel over during his Leonard Cohen induction speech. Kind of depressing to watch actually, I mean his hands were shaking and he's wearing a leather (or possibly pleathur) leisure suit.
But yeah, Iggy did Madonna!
Monday, March 10, 2008
Why and How did Rock n’ Roll Ruin my Life?
Due to the title of this illustrious blog I have received many enquiries as to why I called it that. So I will now attempt to explain. When I was a kid I believed that Gene Simmons was part demon. I thought that Jim Morrison had mystical qualities. I also believed that you could live your life by Rolling Stones lyrics. Well, at least I knew that Venom was mostly kidding.
I loved Kiss (and I have a photograph of myself by the X-mas tree, clutching Kiss’ “Alive II” on vinyl, of course, from when I was about 9 years old to prove it) but I’m pretty sure I didn’t exactly know what partying every day meant--though I am sure I understood the sentiment. At an extremely early age I knew I wanted to do my own thing and not be brought down by the man. When I was twelve years old one of my parents’ friends accused me of being a hedonist. This happened within days of my finishing reading “No One Here Gets Out Alive” (the biography of James Douglas Morrison, if you didn’t know) when I was in 7th grade. My father was right there and he did not disagree.
Therefore it is not too far fetched for me to tell you that I never conjured up a realistic vision of how to live my life according to any of the supposed reasonable expectations of so-called mainstream society. I remember being about 13 years old and listening to Exene from X singing “No one is united and all things are untied” and thinking, Yes, that is true. And When I heard the song from Black Flag telling me that, “Swimming in the mainstream is such a lame, lame dream” I was all, “Fuck yeah Henry, I could not agree more!”.
So you see, I never stood a chance and that’s why I can tell you that rock n’ roll ruined my life. I mean c’mon, I was about ten or eleven years old when my mom and dad first brought me to CBGB down on the Bowery here in New York City (if you go down there now CB’s is long gone and the whole area is VERY family friendly, but back then it was a different story). I couldn’t tell you the band’s name that was playing that night but I do remember that there were still movie theater seats in there and that the band I saw had a singer with a ginger afro and a skinny new wave tie over a blood red shirt under a black suit jacket.
It’s like I was born into this. Maybe If I had a choice I could have said, “I’ll take a mom and dad that are stock brokers and/or doctors, or possibly lawyers and yeah, I’ll have a profession for myself that’s going to get me rich too.” But you know what? Here I am on Staten Island, still playing guitar and punk rockin’ my way through life against my better judgment. A life ruined by rock n' roll.
I loved Kiss (and I have a photograph of myself by the X-mas tree, clutching Kiss’ “Alive II” on vinyl, of course, from when I was about 9 years old to prove it) but I’m pretty sure I didn’t exactly know what partying every day meant--though I am sure I understood the sentiment. At an extremely early age I knew I wanted to do my own thing and not be brought down by the man. When I was twelve years old one of my parents’ friends accused me of being a hedonist. This happened within days of my finishing reading “No One Here Gets Out Alive” (the biography of James Douglas Morrison, if you didn’t know) when I was in 7th grade. My father was right there and he did not disagree.
Therefore it is not too far fetched for me to tell you that I never conjured up a realistic vision of how to live my life according to any of the supposed reasonable expectations of so-called mainstream society. I remember being about 13 years old and listening to Exene from X singing “No one is united and all things are untied” and thinking, Yes, that is true. And When I heard the song from Black Flag telling me that, “Swimming in the mainstream is such a lame, lame dream” I was all, “Fuck yeah Henry, I could not agree more!”.
So you see, I never stood a chance and that’s why I can tell you that rock n’ roll ruined my life. I mean c’mon, I was about ten or eleven years old when my mom and dad first brought me to CBGB down on the Bowery here in New York City (if you go down there now CB’s is long gone and the whole area is VERY family friendly, but back then it was a different story). I couldn’t tell you the band’s name that was playing that night but I do remember that there were still movie theater seats in there and that the band I saw had a singer with a ginger afro and a skinny new wave tie over a blood red shirt under a black suit jacket.
It’s like I was born into this. Maybe If I had a choice I could have said, “I’ll take a mom and dad that are stock brokers and/or doctors, or possibly lawyers and yeah, I’ll have a profession for myself that’s going to get me rich too.” But you know what? Here I am on Staten Island, still playing guitar and punk rockin’ my way through life against my better judgment. A life ruined by rock n' roll.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Career Killing Albums
You don't seem to see it so much these days but I remember a time when bands would inexplicably release albums so far away from their original formulas and out of left field that it would alienate most of their fan base and sometimes even kill their whole careers. Bad Religion had "Into the Uknown", SSD had "How We rock", Black Flag slowed everything down, cleaned up, then slowed down even more on sides one and two of "My War". The career killingest album of all time? Has to be "Grave New World" by Discharge.
Just in case you don't know, Discharge made their name with short, straight to the point, political blasts of punk/metal fury. Simply by reading the titles of their tunes you already knew how the songs were going to go. Here are some examples: "Protest and Survive", "Free Speech for the Dumb", "State Violence/State Control" and "Drunk with Power". Now grunt or yell them at the top of your lungs like your angry neighbor screaming at his wife and that's pretty much how the song goes. So I have to wonder, was it boredom or insanity that made them come out with 1986's "Grave New World"? We don't know.
Featuring guitar riffs lifted directly from Dio era Black Sabbath and/or Led Zeppelin and screeching vocals so high even King Diamond was envious, this album had people showing up to gigs just so they could toss bags of rotten garbage at the band. Seriously, people were that pissed. Discharge's new look didn't help matters either. Singer Cal was now "Kelvin" and instead of the usual two foot high liberty spikes he now sported a long straight "That Girl" flip along with a stylish brown leather jacket (everyone knows punks ONLY wear black leather!).
To me that album is a work of pure genius. First of all I genuinely love the songs. I mean, like I said they were all stolen from other bands but man did they rock! And second, you really can't get much more punk than to completely piss off and outrage almost the entire punk rock community now can you? In my whole life I've known exactly three people that liked this record.
One time when I was a teenager a metalhead friend of mine asked me to play him some Discharge because he'd seen pictures of Metallica wearing their T-shirts. I could've done the right thing and played him "The Nightmare Continues" (insert grunts here) or something along those obvious lines but instead I deviously put on "GNW". You should've seen the look on his face as he asked me if I was sure this was the same Discharge and if so why did Metallica like them so much. HAHAHAHAHA
In retrospect SSD's "How We Rock" was really not that different from their previous record "Get It Away" which was loved by most of hardcore/punk rock society. Sure they added guitar solos (which are mostly out of key by the way) and they changed their lyrical content (gone were anti smoking and drinking diatribes, in were odes to rocking and road trips) but the essential heaviness and even the trademark polka on methamphetamines hardcore drumbeat are prominently featured throughout. I mean slap some Pushead artwork on the cover instead of the bad airbrush carnival style crap they went with and most people probably wouldn't have noticed the difference. Black Flag were still loud and fucked up sounding, the tempo just wasn't as high and the production got slicker. Even Bad Religion's foray into '70's style folk prog rock still had their familiar melodies and harmonies that everyone seems to love. But with "Grave New World" the whole thing was like a giant middle finger pointed straight at you and everything you thought you believed in. That's punk rock to the hilt.
Just in case you don't know, Discharge made their name with short, straight to the point, political blasts of punk/metal fury. Simply by reading the titles of their tunes you already knew how the songs were going to go. Here are some examples: "Protest and Survive", "Free Speech for the Dumb", "State Violence/State Control" and "Drunk with Power". Now grunt or yell them at the top of your lungs like your angry neighbor screaming at his wife and that's pretty much how the song goes. So I have to wonder, was it boredom or insanity that made them come out with 1986's "Grave New World"? We don't know.
Featuring guitar riffs lifted directly from Dio era Black Sabbath and/or Led Zeppelin and screeching vocals so high even King Diamond was envious, this album had people showing up to gigs just so they could toss bags of rotten garbage at the band. Seriously, people were that pissed. Discharge's new look didn't help matters either. Singer Cal was now "Kelvin" and instead of the usual two foot high liberty spikes he now sported a long straight "That Girl" flip along with a stylish brown leather jacket (everyone knows punks ONLY wear black leather!).
To me that album is a work of pure genius. First of all I genuinely love the songs. I mean, like I said they were all stolen from other bands but man did they rock! And second, you really can't get much more punk than to completely piss off and outrage almost the entire punk rock community now can you? In my whole life I've known exactly three people that liked this record.
One time when I was a teenager a metalhead friend of mine asked me to play him some Discharge because he'd seen pictures of Metallica wearing their T-shirts. I could've done the right thing and played him "The Nightmare Continues" (insert grunts here) or something along those obvious lines but instead I deviously put on "GNW". You should've seen the look on his face as he asked me if I was sure this was the same Discharge and if so why did Metallica like them so much. HAHAHAHAHA
In retrospect SSD's "How We Rock" was really not that different from their previous record "Get It Away" which was loved by most of hardcore/punk rock society. Sure they added guitar solos (which are mostly out of key by the way) and they changed their lyrical content (gone were anti smoking and drinking diatribes, in were odes to rocking and road trips) but the essential heaviness and even the trademark polka on methamphetamines hardcore drumbeat are prominently featured throughout. I mean slap some Pushead artwork on the cover instead of the bad airbrush carnival style crap they went with and most people probably wouldn't have noticed the difference. Black Flag were still loud and fucked up sounding, the tempo just wasn't as high and the production got slicker. Even Bad Religion's foray into '70's style folk prog rock still had their familiar melodies and harmonies that everyone seems to love. But with "Grave New World" the whole thing was like a giant middle finger pointed straight at you and everything you thought you believed in. That's punk rock to the hilt.
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