Publication:
MaximumRockNRoll

Author:
Felix Von Havoc

MRR #218
Don't worry, my column in the last issue was not missing because my lawyers told me to stop writing for MRR. I missed last month's Issue as I was on tour with Vitamin X. I always think I'll be able to dash off a breathless report from the front when I go on tour, but it never seems to happen. A LOT of people fell for my April Fool's column. I guess it's a rather sad commentary on the depths of commercialization to which punk has sunk that so many people bought such a far-fetched tale. I added a lot of details to make it believable, but it was still preposterous. I won't embarrass well known scenesters who bought it by publishing their names.

I spent three weeks on tour with Vitamin X a hardcore band from Amsterdam, Holland. I was pretty blown away by the reception they got and the generally healthy state of the scene. As I said a few months ago, we are in the middle of a full on hardcore revival. This is the strongest the scene has been since 84 or so. Now I'm going to write about some stuff that might sound negative, but keep in mind that its easy to forget all the great people, good times, and wicked bands that are ripping it up and pick on the few bad points. But, we need to focus on the flaws to improve the scene right?

One thing I've noticed about the hardcore revival is this it occurs precisely at a time that larger labels and distributors are going under and laying people off because punk is less popular than it was a few years ago. And go figure. Just like the first wave of hardcore started when some of the 77 punk bands went commercial now kids who got into punk during the pop-punk explosion of the early-mid 90's are disillusioned with the commercial sounds of that scene and reaching for something real. Simultaneously a large group of SE kids have been turned off by the lame metal and jock bands and commercialism in the SE scene and have gone back the hardcore punk roots of Straight Edge. Add to the mix the still huge crusty hardcore scene and all of us who have been waving the flag for 15 years and you have a really solid scene. I keep repeating this but across the board hardcore punk has some of the best bands and labels ever right now. Furthermore, the scene is more organized, self sufficient and DIY than during the first wave of hardcore.

During the first wave of hardcore MRR was the flagship publication that really brought it all together. Together with the radio show and the comp LP's MRR really exposed a whole generation to the amazing world of international hardcore punk rock. Now, just as hardcore really takes off again MRR is better than it has been since the early 80's. Look back at the last few issues. See what I mean, interviews with cool bands you want to read about, not obscure French garage rock bands. I could go on but remember this. MRR is what you make it. Send in interviews, scene reports and pictures. I think it's high time for a regular photo supplement. Remember "Welcome to Cruise Country", "My Rules" and "If life is a bowl of Cherries?" why not a few pages of photos in each issue? So get off your ass, don't be a spectator in the rebirth of hardcore pride.

As I mentioned above, a lot of bigger punk labels and distributors are going broke. One of the best things about the current hardcore revival is that the scene is very DIY, insular and self-supporting. We've been organizing things on the underground without any outside help for so long that we no longer need the music business for our scene to survive. And that my friends, is great news, because when this music goes back out of style its just gonna be me and you watching the band instead of 100 kids and we'll still have the skills to make it happen. So far all of the great hardcore bands have stuck to DIY labels and established punk labels but I fear a replay of the 80's.

Three M's, Metal, Meatheads and Majors.

Metal: Don't get me wrong I love thrash metal and cross over. I even like metal in my punk, sometimes. Lemmy once said "When the punks learn to play their instruments, they will play metal" and often this has been the case. Sometimes with very bad results. I'm afraid that some of the current great thrash bands will decide to "progress musically" beyond the "constraints of generic thrash" and record weak second LPs that pale in front of their first 7"s. This might sound far fetched, but remember, it happened before. If you told the dudes in COC or Discharge in 82 that in the future they would be putting out lame overproduced metal records with 10 minute guitar solos they would have laughed, but it happened. I rather enjoy bands now that are giving crossover a second take like Crucial Unit or Holier than Thou. But I think you see what I'm getting at when it comes to bands "progressing." Like in the 80's I say we let cheese metal bands progress right the fuck out of hardcore forever. The other thing I fear is a replay of the strife the ensued when metalheads started coming to hardcore shows in the 80's.

Meatheads: Remember when the crossover thing started to take off in 85 and 86. Suddenly there were fewer small punk shows. Everything seemed to be oriented towards big gigs in big clubs until the DIY scene took off in the late 80's. Why do you think this was? Because the meatheads like skinheads, jocks and violent hessians started coming to shows with their macho violence and bullshit. In the early 80's punk was a relatively close knit and bohemian sort of thing. When it really took off commercially the asshole factor multiplied by about 10 times. I don't want to sugar coat things and make it sound like there were no thugs or violence before, but certainly after 86 or so it got a lot worse. The whole problem was compounded after the nazi skinhead scene exploded after the Geraldo show. Every day I am thankfull that those meatheads that caused so much shit in the 80's now have their own scenes and bands to follow. I fear that the average Korn or Limp Bizkit fan will suddenly be like "Dude these DS 13 guys sound like the Priest with short hair" and start coming to shows to "beat up fags" and "kick ass the pit" and "get some punk pussy" sounds ridiculous but remember, it happened before. Mark my words, if those nazi boneheads start listening to hardcore again, I will be at the door with my baseball bat. The metal scene can keep those losers. I'm all for punk music being accessible and open to everyone. But no one needs another wave of thugs invading the scene.

Majors: Sooner or later someone upstairs is gonna notice that hardcore records sell well and a lot of hardcore labels are flaky and can't keep the record in print. Great bands will record records that no one can get because the label was too disorganized or elitist to press more than a few hundred. First it will be semi major labels like Relapse, Revelation and Victory that still maybe have a few bands with street cred or an impressive back catalog. Then it will be a 90's version of Combat or Death, a hardcore subsidiary of a major label with some sell outs from the underground hired to run it. By then we will have all worked for nothing. Struggled to keep a scene alive only to see it commodified and sold back to us by uncaring and soulless corporations. I am sharpening my knife now for the first thrash band to sell out. If I ever hear about hardcore on MTV it's clobberin' time.

What I‚m trying to say is this. There is always room for improvement but the scene is pretty damn good the way it is. Don't let a bunch of people from outside who don't care about the music or the message come in and fuck it up for us.

Next month I'm going to try and assemble a "listeners guide to the hardcore revival" that you can stick in your pocket and take to the record store. But first I'd like to talk about Hype. As we have seen hype can be all the difference between a band being a first string starter, getting good record deals, touring nationally, and internationally, or being a second string benchwarmer, opening for out of towners but never really getting very far. Clearly a lot of the so called hardcore bands on a label like Victory only have hype going for them as they are some of the most turgid bands around. Still, they probably sell more records in a month than I've sold in my life because they have the right hype and marketing behind them. One step down from that sort of commercial hype that advertising and promotion budgets can buy is the hype that follows certain bands in the underground scene. For instance anyone who was at the Posi Fest saw the hype that surrounded Shark Attack and American Nightmare. Don't get me wrong I liked both bands, especially Shark Attack, but it seems like certain bands get a buzz and others just don‚t. I think Don Austin and Vilently Ill are both great but they suffer from a lack of hype that follows other bands with very similar music. I know that a lot of this has to do with a band's location, personalities in the band, who they are friends with, previous bands etc. However, I'd like to encourage people to take a step back and buy a lot of records and spin them and give each band a chance, not just the bands whose T-shirts everyone is wearing. Some great music is being made in virtual obscurity even in today's well connected punk scene.

OK, picture this, it's 2021. Two kids come home from the record store:

"Dude, check it out I just picked up this bootleg comp called "Killed By Thrash 2001"

"Fucking Crucial Dude, who's on it"

"Oh man, all those old bands from the early 21st century when they were still good, you know Life's Halt, Tear It Up, Last In Line, Total Fury, No Parade, shit like that"

"Cool dude, can I copy it onto the computer chip implanted in my head"

You laugh now, but it might come true.

I hope the guys in Vitamin X will write something about their tour and send it in. There are only a few things I'd like to say myself. First, thanks to everyone who booked Vitamin X and gave us places to stay food etc. Second, respect is due to Anton of Underestimated who set the whole thing up, I was really just the driver. Third I'm gonna say a few things about the general status of bringing foreign bands to the states.

As we all know the first DIY US tours for foreign bands were set up after bands like Toxic Reasons and MDC went to Europe and saw how cool the scene was there. They invited bands like BGK, CCM etc. to tour the USA. Lets not forget too that Chris X of BCT who was a major force internationalizing hardcore with the BCT Tapes set up the Raw Power, Riistetyt tour. But in the late 80's and early 90's very few European (or Japanese) bands came to the US. As far as I can remember the first real DIY tours for foreign bands were the Dirt, Hellkrusher tour set up by Neil of Tribal War and the Chaos UK tour in 92 or 93. After 94 it seemed more and more foreign bands were coming over, Hiatus, Varukers, Vorhees, and of course Gauze which was unprecedented at the time. But lets not forget at the same time way more US bands were touring Europe and Japan. We still have not even begun to reciprocate. The last few years have seen some less well known European and Japanese bands tour the USA pretty successfully and lets not forget the tours of South American and Israeli bands as well. I think we should all be working to try and set up more tours by bands from abroad. American corporate cultural imperialism dominates the world, lets subvert that paradigm with some international DIY punk rock.

Now I'm gonna talk some shit. In the SE and NYHC scene tons and tons of bands have toured Europe and cleaned up. Lots of those kinds of bands exist only to tour Europe and don't even play at home or tour the US. Now only two SE bands from Europe have toured the US, ever. Mainstrike and Vitamin X. Mainstrike didn't do very well and Vitamin X did pretty good, but mainly because their support was from DIY hardcore and punk kids. When Vitamin X played the Posi Fest they were only given 100 bucks. They asked for and got another 50$. Still I think that was a slap in the face and shows how little the mainstream SE hardcore kids care about bands coming over from Europe. I think this is total hypocrisy since those sort of bands base much of their careers off of touring Europe. I was really pissed when Vitamin X played to a big crowd at a large fest and got paid less then they got at a lot of basement shows.

Next Month, handy reference guide to the hardcore revival.

Publication Date:
January 1, 1988

Previous | All articles in this category | Next