By promising, you mean incomplete and inaccurate, right?

For example, the Bad Brains were a homophobic mess powered by HR's catchy pop-punk songs:

And there's so much more. HR is an asshole swept up by his ugly religion. Nothing more, nothing less. The 'man' is nothing but a homophobic zelot. I can't wait for the day where our confrontation comes to happen. I'll waste that motherfucker in the same way he loves to waste homos via his backwards religion. This is a direct theat: If i happen to run into HR Badbrains, I'll break at least one of his limbs. That's a promise. Too bad his sister group, the KKK, has no influence on the modern hadrcore movement, as it'd be an entertaining match to watch.

and, um, i'm drunk, do please take all said with a grain of salt.

that said, i'd love an item/HR deathmatch. i'd yake the homophobe like the the weak piece of shit that he is.

i'll shut up now, other than to say that if HR wants to find me, email's in the profile. Thanks for having the same effect on punk that Skrewdriver had, you racist fuck.

Excellent. It was nice to hear AoF: Bad Attitude on the web. No pictures of Vic Bondi, though, who, Larry, went on to become a History Prof.

item - don't forget that Channel 3 were litterbugs and several guys in 7 Seconds didn't recycle.

I'm always excited to see more footage and interviews of the early punk era*. And seeing We Jam Econo last year has just whetted my appetite for more footage of the American hardcore scene (my worn third generation dub videos of Another State of Mind and Decline of Western Civilization just aren't enough).

*Actually, I get excited for more footage and interviews of most music scenes. I just love rock documentaries.

great post.

*writes fuck on one shoe, and you on the other*

For example, the Bad Brains were a homophobic mess powered by HR's catchy pop-punk songs:

Perhaps, but you'll get my copy of 'I Against I,' when you pry it from my cold dead hands.

(seriously, if we start making bands off-limits because of linguistic gaffes and ideological violations, we eventually be left with nothing but Ani DiFranco and RATM. And what kind of world would that be?)

full disclosure: liked some hardcore, was never a full-fledged member off the scene. it was a wee bit to rigid for me and I probably committed too many style violations for many of them, although I've known some great hardcore kids.

The difference between Skrewdriver and Bad Brains (assuming for the moment HR is indeed homophobic) is that one's music is openly hateful and the other's kicks the pope's ass.

Calling D.O.A. 'American', however, does qualify as inaccurate. And what's up with Internet Explorer favicon? But, yeah, what Slack said. Thanks for heads up, LarryC.

item - don't forget that Channel 3 were litterbugs and several guys in 7 Seconds didn't recycle.
posted by Slack-a-gogo 16 August | 08:27

Bastardos!!

No, really.

full disclosure: liked some hardcore, was never a full-fledged member off the scene. it was a wee bit to rigid for me and I probably committed too many style violations for many of them

I was caught up in the hardcore scene enough to buy a bunch of records, go to shows, religiously read Maximum Rock and Roll, and tried my hand at starting a fanzine (which made it two whole issues). But to me it was really just yet another genre of music I dug. The rigidness of the scene was a little much for me. And I'm sure the fact that I played my XTC, Monkees, Shoes, Sparks, and Fleshtones records more than any hardcore record wouldn't have helped my standing anyway.

I think I liked the spirit of the North American hardcore scene, but didn't want to deal with the baggage. Outside of Naked Raygun, Youth Brigade, Minutemen, Effigies, Circle Jerks, TSOL, and DOA there aren't many of those records I've had any buring urge to put on the turntable in the past decade. I tended to veer towards the hardcore bands that actually put some pop melodies into their songs.

In college I co-hosted a few punk shows, but we always ended playing as much British 70's punk (and garage, Stooges, and anything else that had what we felt was a compatriot of punk), because two hours of hardcore outside of a live concert can get tedious fast.

Punk taught me to pay a bit more attention to local and world politics, instilled a bit more of a DIY attitude in me, and got me to go to start going into the city (since, as far as I knew, there were no punk shows in the suburbs). Plus I made some great friends becasue of punk.

Of course they're anti-gay, they're Rastafarian.

And if you're interested in hearing some hardcore from the era, you could start with these MP3 blogs:

Strange Reaction
Something I Learned Today
Dressed For the H Bomb

And if that's not enough, those sites have links for loads of other sites with the same wares.

actually, a friend of mine back in the day told me that there used to be a Gay Rasta bar somewhere in the East Village. I can only imagine the scene.

'By Jah, Dem jeans be huggin' ya ass nicely, bwai!'

mr. gaspode was your typical little straight-edge kid. I find it cute. But he doesn't like my taste in music either, so.
Our house used to feel like a shrine to Dischord, until I made him pack a bunch of stuff away.

A few years ago a friend of mine was trying to cash a cheque at a bank. The teller was giving him a hard time because he didn't have an account, he looked like a standard crustypunk, he smelled bad, and he clearly had just spent a few days in a trainyard drinking cheap wine. So a guy a few places back in the queue says "Hey, he can draw that on my account, it's cool". That guy was Dave Dictor, from MDC, and my friend was able to pay rent that month thanks to Dave's firm belief that any punk kid is a friend of his.

Lumping a guy like that in with shitheels like the Bad Brains just feels wrong.

I've always put aside the backwards homophobia of HR in favor of what felt like amazing music, but then again I was a bad skinhead who didn't care what things meant or that some people assigned a set of beliefs to me depending on what I listened to or looked like. Boots up.

Plus I've seen too many people at bad brains and other hardcore shows that can only be described as Schooly D so eloquently put it "Mean Big Bad Faggots."

In 1987 I began my hardcore collection. Started out with the figurines, which I ordered from the backpages of MRR. Tin Jello Biafra, two little Rollinses, a tiny Keith Morris. Painted them with aching care. My collection grew from there. I ordered some paint-by-number album covers from Raymond Pettibone and Winston Smith. My grandma got me a DRI lunchbox for my birthday.

The thing about painting hardcore figurines is that attention to detail was so important. Choose the wrong color for the shoelaces, and suddenly HR becomes a homophobe. You'd have to strip the paint and start over. Though I once gave Greg Ginn a Hitler moustache just for fun.

Well I've actually got a straight edge "X" tattooed on my hand, did it myself. But, then, I grew up in DC.

≡ Click to see image ≡

Now I can't think of the word without singing the line in Screeching Weasel's "I Wanna be a Homosexual" that goes: "It's the straight in straight edge that makes me want to drink a beer."

This has spawned the following IM comments from a friend (edited to protect the innocent of course):

[12:43] HotGirl4dano: oh hr is a total homophobe and womanizer/misogynist
[12:43] HotGirl4dano: (my friend worked with him and) had to buy diapers and food for various babies/baby mamas
...
[12:46] HotGirl4dano: hr was actually the first person i ever heard say that homosexuality was an abomination
[12:46] HotGirl4dano: not in those words
[12:46] HotGirl4dano: but he was big on the god hates fags stuff
[12:46] danostuporstar: to yr face?
[12:47] HotGirl4dano: yes
12:48] HotGirl4dano: however
[12:48] HotGirl4dano: that was like mid '80s
[12:48] HotGirl4dano: a lot of people were like that -- all the skinheads and most gutterpunks i knew
[12:49] HotGirl4dano: but hr justified it with his religion


On preview: I'd never noticed that, omie. I've got an X scar on my arm that I did myself. More of a 'manson wannabe' thing than a straight-edge thing though. (Nice crotch by the way.)

Dammit, omiewise, now that song's stuck in my head.

Who wears short shorts
You wear short shorts
You're so full of shit

"Dammit, omiewise, now that song's stuck in my head."

What's to complain about?

OMG: 7 seconds littered! I'm burning my "the crew" tape tonight!

I guess my cassette is safe....it turns out they just didn't recycle. How could they've known?

jonmc, I was ripping some music for a friend the other night and discovered that my cd case for 'Rock for Light' was *gasp* EMPTY! I wept. And cursed the bastard who didn't put the cd back and thus lost one of my favourite albums. It weren't me, of that I am sure. *shakes fist impotently*

For what it's worth, I don't generally get too het up about the politics or beliefs of artists unless it's in their art. I don't like the politics of Lyle Lovett or Clint Eastwood, but it doesn't stop me from enjoying their work.

The difference between Skrewdriver and Bad Brains (assuming for the moment HR is indeed homophobic) is that one's music is openly hateful and the other's kicks the pope's ass.

Amen, brother.

I'm very dissapointed. I was expecting hardcore pr0n.

Like Slack-a-gogo (and thanks for the links!), I preferred the stuff with a melody buried in there somewhere. But growing up in late 70's rural Connecticut, we were so far from any kind of scene we listened to what we could find. The Sex Pistols and the Clash were bold departures from anything we knew. There were no college radio stations that played punk or we didn't know them, trying new music involved driving into Hartford and trying to choose from between a very few bins of imported records we knew nothing about. At $15 a pop!

We ended up with strange and spotty and probably uncool mixes of music. Black Flag and Tenpole Tudor. DRI and Blondie. Minor Threat and the Meatmen and Mission of Burma. And local heroes like New Johnny Five and the Reducers. Eventually a smallish Connecticut punk scene did come along, we slam danced at the Lit Club and the El 'n' Gee.

Ah I ramble. G'night.

Man, while I like the occassional hardcore, by the time that I was getting into stuff like that, it all seemed so regimented and so doctrinaire.
Of course, I went whole hog into industrial, which is just as embarrassing now. Moreso, maybe.