Publication:
MaximumRockNRoll

Author:
Felix Von Havoc

MRR #216
Stop jamming my mailbox with letters calling me a sell out and a traitor. Last months column about buying records for wealthy investors was of course an April Fool's joke. We have a thing in the US called SARCASM. I've detected elements of sarcasm in England, but in other parts of the world I don't think sarcasm is as highly regarded. Lesson one, don't believe everything you read. Lesson two, sometimes people write stupid, silly or funny stuff to make a point. Guess what point I was trying to make? Buying records because they will appreciate in value and enhance your portfolio is STUPID. Collecting records is cool, you get to listen to records, learn about music, build a collection that covers a certain time, place or genre, become and expert etc. You won't get rich. If you want to speculate, please play the stock market! Yes I have lots of records I bought for a few bucks that now sell for over a hundred. That's not why I bought them years ago. I bought them because I liked the music, the message, or the guy with the mohawk on the cover. Are they worth more now, some are some aren't. If I'd invested an equal amount of money in tech stocks I'd be a millionaire. I rarely buy more than one copy of a record, and I have to laugh at people who buy like 10 copies of the new Charles Bronson record to sell on Ebay in 6 months. I'd rather buy one Charles Bronson record and nine other records by nine other bands I might like. Enough of that.

Hardcore is starting to show its age. Recognize that it's over 20 years since Bad Brains, Teen Idles, Middle Class and Discharge spearheaded the medium. Consider that in 1980 boring old hippy music was only 10 or 15 years old. Much ink has been spilt on 77 punk. I have a whole shelf of books on the 77-79 period, although I must admit most of them are just photobooks or focus only on the Sex Pistols. When was the last time YOU listened to the Sex Pistols? Talk about an over rated, dated band. Their music is OK, and without a doubt they were really important in a wider cultural context, but the music just hasn't held up. Not so for the first wave of Hardcore. The 80-84 period of hardcore is one of the greatest, most creative periods in the history of rock music. And only a few of us even give a fuck. So many rock critics and academics have cranked out book after book comparing '77 punk to Da Da, Situationism or the Lettriste Internationale. They all sort of universally agree that punk died in 79, only to resurface with Nirvana in the 90's. What? Personally, I think Hardcore has affected more people than any of the avant garde art or music movements of the 20th Century. The Dirty Rotten LP means more to me than the Bible the Mona Lisa, or Shakespeare and definitely more than any marginal art movement trying to make a statement or whatever. Yet as a musical or artistic medium, social movement, or subculture hardcore punk has been totally dismissed by rock critics and academics. Why? Because these jokers are all totally square. They are not moved, touched or reached by hardcore, to them it is just a bunch of noise. Most of these people are looking either for "talented songwriting" or "artistic progression" in other words watered down shit like they play on the radio. One cat once said that all rock critics love Elvis Costello because all rock critics look like Elvis Costello. Pretty much every book written by rock critics or academics has missed or dismissed hardcore completely while gushing over totally unimportant fringe art rock or commercial radio friendly pablum. These jokers tend to equate commercial success with artistic validity. I doubt someone like Greil Marcus has ever heard Minor Threat or Discharge and even if they had, wouldn't understand the power or the significance such music would have to tens of thousands of kids over a 20 year period. Am I really bent out of shape about this situation, not really but here‚s the point. The history of Hardcore can only be written from the inside. Squares will get it all wrong. Like it or not hardcore is a valid American musical form just like Blues, Zydeco or Bluegrass and isn't going to die out, ever. One shining ray of hope is Mark Anderson's Dance of Days, which I hope will be published soon. I haven't read this yet, but I've known Mark since he first moved to DC and I think he's one of the only people who could successfully write about DC hardcore, the first, best hardcore scene, in its heroic era. (thanks for letting me sleep on the floor when I was homeless Mark) So the challenge to us is to write the histories of Denver, Oslo, Sao Paulo, and Melbourne hardcore. Or at the least assemble the primary source materials for the next generation to write it. Hardcore record, zine, and video collections will be the archives of our movement for the future. This original documentation becomes rarer and more inaccessible each day, so lets preserve it and keep it alive. Of course lots of people collect records. A few collect old flyers, some collect old zines, live tapes, radio shows, set lists etc. This stuff could be more important than you think one day. Which brings me to:

MRR Radio Shows! I'm still trying to compile an archive of the MRR radio shows. Especially the early 80's shows that document the most explosive period of hardcore. Since this won't be published until two months from now, I can't really say for sure what shows I'll still need by then. If you are a former MRR DJ, collector, or fan who taped the shows at home, write me c/o Havoc Records, P.O.Box 8585, Minneapolis, MN 55408 USA. or E mail MRR and have them forward it to me.

I hope everyone has been following Stuart of Game of the Arsehole's hardcore history columns in these pages. It's up to guys like Stuart to start to connect the dots between a few rare old records and the fabric of the movement that developed around the world in the early 80's. I've been trying to do as much in this column over the years. For all the old guys who were there, its time to write it down before its lost forever.

For example, a project I've recently undertaken is a discography of Minnesota Punk. Hopefully this will be completed by the time this reaches the newsstand and you will be able to check it out at www.havocrex.com or www.extremenoise.com. I tried to dig up basic information on every punk and hardcore record released in Minnesota from the first Suicide Commandos record from 1976 to records that came out this week. There have been numerous projects like this already, although most have focused on the late 70's and early 80's. The very best are Suomi Punk, 1977-1998 by Jarkko Kuivanen (Finland), Pogographie, German Punk and Hardcore Discography 1977-89 by Ralf Kirstan, Smash the State, Canadian Punk Discography 1977-92 by Frank Manley, and of course the Flex book and web site compiled by Burkhard Jarisch. There are several such discographies on the web accessible from www.collectorscum.com but these focus mostly on 77-80 punk and not so much on hardcore. Isn't it about time there was a discography book for Sweden, for Australia, and so on? Why not start such a project for you city, state, country. What about a bibliography of zines from your town? A list of shows? A web site of gig flyers? Lets document and celebrate our movement and what makes it great. Write it down now or lose it forever.

The punk slump.

In the last year several distributors have gone under and record sales for larger labels have plumetted. MRR's circulation has dropped, as have other zines. Boo fucking hoo. Remember punk before Green Day and the Offspring? I was hardcore when hardcore wasn't cool. That long tedious period between 1986 and 1992 when hardcore punk was uncool, unpopular and the flame was kept burning by the true believers. Remember how big a deal the Born Against/ Rorschach tour was? That's because they were two of the first successful DIY hardcore bands to try something like that. So what if Lookout ships fewer units? So what if tired old band like AF and Suicidal quit doing reunion tours? Hardcore is back where it belongs, in the hands of the fans. We are better organized than ever and Doing It Ourselves on the underground without anyone's help. Look at the fine roster of labels that are cranking out totally top notch hardcore right now: Prank, Sound Pollution, 625, Deranged, Six Weeks, Tribal War, Clean Plate, Mind Control, Ebullition, Lengua Armada, etc. etc. If you love hardcore music you are probably buying at least 10 records a week, and they are all fucking good. Left alone punk will continue to grow and thrive. Ten years from now we'll talk about how great the bands and gigs were today. The extra bodies at shows in the late 90's helped pay the bills, but where are they now? Who really needs the posers anyway? I'd rather sell 500 records to kids who really love and appreciate the music than 10,000 to people who just bought it because its cool and their friends were doing it.

We were talking above about DC Hardcore, the furstest with mostest when it comes to hardcore music. One record that I've been listening to a lot lately that I fear has fallen off a lot of people's radar screens is Marginal Man's first, Identity. Identity was released on Dischord in 1984. This was Dischord number 13, and one of the last good records on Dischord before they entered the indie rock nose dive from which they never recovered. Marginal Man was one of the most intense of the more melodic hardcore bands of the period. Ironically at the time people called this emo-core or emotional hardcore, although it bears no resemblance to what they call emo today. To me Marginal Man are a straight up melodic HC band along the lines of Seven Seconds, SNFU or Dag Nasty. However, Marginal Man had deep introspective lyrics that were deemed at the time "emotional" as they dealt with the human condition rather than politics or social issues. If you have any doubts about how Hardcore these guys were just look at the photo on the insert! Talk about air, Cappo never jumped so high! Of course three of these guys had been in Artificial Peace another great DC hardcore band, who had a more thrashy sound. Not to put Artifical Peace down, but they were one of many thrashy HC bands in DC while Marginal Man really had a totally intense and original approach. This record has only 9 songs, so I guess technically it's an EP, although the songs are a little long for hardcore. While musically Marginal Man are not nearly as thrashy as many of their contemporaries they have a ton of power, aggression and yes emotion in their sound. The songs are catchy, yet hard driving. Melodic yet aggressive. A finer melodic HC record has not been made. I have to wonder why SNFU and Dag Nasty got so huge and this LP which stands way over those bands albeit worthy efforts fell into obscurity. Growing up in DC Marginal Man's live show was not to be missed. I still have a copy of the LP I bought at the record release gig, 4$. Marginal Man put out a second LP called Double Image which I believe has recently been re issued on CD, but I don‚t think it is half as good as Identity. From what I recall hearing these guys interviewed on WMUC back in the day, Marginal Man is a psychology term for an alienated person, an outsider who doesn't fit into society. And looking at the band's lyrics you can really pick up on this point of view. Marginal Man's lyrics are poetic and anguished in same way those French dudes you study in college are, but to me they mean so much more because they are set to music that really grabs you. I'm sure Dischord has let this classic go out of print on vinyl, but I imagine it's still available on CD. Guitar player Kenny Inouye of Marginal Man was the son of a Senator from Hawaii who was some sort of famous liberal. He and some other guys used to set up gigs at the University of Maryland in an art gallery. For a while I lived a few blocks from these guys, but I don't think they liked me and my friends because we went to a party at their house and made fun of them for eating sushi. All that aside, Marginal Man were one of DC's best hardcore bands in an era of great hardcore. From what I read in an interview with Good Clean Fun, Kenny Inouye is still around the DC hardcore scene. Who knows what happened to the rest of these guys. Who knows what happened to all those super creative and talented people who were drawn to hardcore in its early days then left music. Are they still being creative and talented? Are they dead of drug overdoses and car crashes, are they raising kids in suburbia, are they dotcom millionaires. I don't know, but I do know this record rocks. Don't end your life without giving this record a spin, who knows it might prolong your dropping out of hardcore for another year or two.

I don't regret who I am
And what I've done
At the start it was all just for fun
But now things have changed
It's just not the same
It's a part of me that I can't let go

It's from my heart, these things that I feel
Nothing is fake, it's all for real

Identity, Identity

Publication Date:
January 1, 1988

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