Publication:
MaximumRockNRoll

Author:
Felix Von Havoc

MRR #223
Last issue lots of people addressed the terrorist attacks and by the time this issue hits the streets it will be old news. I talked a few months ago about the knee jerk tendency of leftists to jump in bed with anyone the US was bombing. So too will probably be the case with whoever gets bombed this time. I must re iterate. The US system sucks, that radical Islam shit sucks, religion, nationalism and racism are all bullshit. All that shit sucks. The only thing that is real and is ours and is worth fighting for is punk rock. Scott Soriano's column last month was the most poignant to me, I truly fear that the state will use terrorism as and excuse to smash the anti-WTO and anti corporate movements in America just as the sedition act was used to crush the IWW.

Yes, I know Missy Elliot is wearing a Code 13 shirt in her video. I don't watch TV so I haven't seen it, but I can guess what it's like. I get a few e mails a day and tons of people rushing up to me at shows telling me about this. I had NOTHING to do with it. I will receive no royalties or whatever people seem to think It's just an odd co-incidence. A bizarre manifestation of a bankrupt mainstream culture pillaging the underground.

In the last six weeks I've spent on tour with DS 13 I've been frequently asked when Code 13 was touring again. The answer is pretty much never. Code 13 is finished and I'm not planning on starting a new band any time soon. I'd rather devote my energies to helping other bands that I like such as DS 13, Nine Shocks Terror, Vitamin X, Skitsystem, Victims, Holding On and so on than try to start something new.

Before I got into punk rock I was a long haired stoner rock/metal kid. I spent my formative years going to see bands like AC DC and Black Sabbath at the Capitol Centre in suburban Washington DC. I recently got the chance to view the film short "heavy metal parking lot" for the first time in several years. This hilarious piece of documentary film making features interviews with Judas Priest fans in the parking lot of the Capitol Centre in the mid 80's. If there is anyone who really wants to know where Felix Havoc is coming from, or more specifically where Felix Havoc came from just watch this film. Those men and women on the screen were my peers and represent the culture in which I was spawned. Every day I am thankful for hardcore and how it changed my life. Otherwise I'd probably be sitting on the hood of a Camaro in that parking lot today waiting for the Priest and their laser light show. That said, I still love hard rock and muscle cars so fucking sue me, you can't really unlearn everything now can you.

While we were in Nashville we toured United Record Pressing. This is the pressing plant where my label Havoc Records has pressed some 150,000 plus records over the years. One of the things I often hear discussed is the possibility of a group of punks or punk labels buying a pressing plant or pressing equipment and thereby assuring total DIY control and survival of the vinyl format for the future. After touring United I don't think this sort of thing is practical or necessary. First, the actual presses that stamp the records are pretty heavy duty and powered by large industrial steam boilers. This requires a lot of heavy duty infrastructure and is not exactly something you can set up in your garage. Second the amount of time and experience that goes into the plating and stamping seems like something you would have to learn over a long period of apprenticeship not just reading up on it on a web site. The plating also involves lots of specialized equipment and hazardous chemicals. Lastly, although other plants are going out of business, United is expanding. While we were there they were rushing out 30,000 Busta Rhymes 12"s while pressing up the new Dudman 7" in the back corner. I don't think that this place (and other surviving pressing plants) are in danger of going under (and taking the vinyl format with them) any time soon. My advice is to continue to expand the DIY movement into recording and distribution and leave record pressing to the professionals.

While DS 13 was in the Bay Area we stayed at MRR HQ. I am super into today's MRR and hanging out with Mike and Arwen was a blast. But the high point for me was the MRR record library. This collection is the most important repository of punk culture we have. Almost every punk record ever made sits wrapped in green tape on rows of black metal shelving. I sat down with all three volumes of Bloodstains Across Sweden then looked up and listened to every single record on all three comps. Even the most completist collectors can't hope to equal MRR's scope and coverage because in addition to all the great punk and hardcore there is all that garage and pop punk stuff there too. I urge all bands and labels to make sure to send copies of their records to MRR for review and inclusion in the library. I also wish total fucking hate and instant death to the low life ass maggot who took advantage of Tim's death to steal some rare items form the library. Scum like that should be drawn and quartered as a disgrace to the corpse of Sid. Return the records or taste steel toed death shit breath.

Last month I talked about the necessity for a network of DIY gig spaces on the model of Gilman St. and ABC No Rio, I know that such a network sort of exists but the point is that it needs to grow and expand. We live in an age where huge corporations increasingly dominate every aspect of our lives. Media, entertainment, food, housing, everything is constantly reduced to a barrage of "choices" which actually represent the negation of choice. The consumer spectacle has grown from providing the necessities of life to becoming the definition and purpose of life. The recent patriotic calls to consumption were so shockingly crass I really wonder how much lower consumer society can go.

Meanwhile, the primary focus of a large section of the punk scene is consumerism. People buy records, zines, t shirts and pay admission to gigs for a several hours of live "entertainment." Is this just a microcosm of the larger consumer society? Yes, and no. One could argue that the exchange of commodities in the DIY punk scene is actually a radical alternative to the corporate marketplace. That by choosing to buy a 7" on a DIY label you are actually supporting and alternative culture, point of view and underground economy than if you bought a Blink or Rancid Cd at a chain store. Others will of course argue that all commodification of punk is wrong and that real punk rock is free for the people and while this sounds pretty cool I think it is a province reserved only for the extremely idealistic and the independently wealthy. So punk is inevitably reduced to a commodity, and we the punks, determine the cultural legitimacy of that commodity in terms of our DIY ethics. A 7" with a screen printed cover sold at gigs by the band is certainly close to the ideal of bands being involved in the creation and distribution of their music on a DIY level. However, a CD ordered from a distant website is a little suspect and worse yet pop punk banality served up at the mall not very punk at all. I've covered most of this ground before, but I still wrestle daily with the compromises of commodifying what to me is a sacred art form into such a consumer oriented package as a compact disc, sold over the internet. I prefer to sell records out of a box at shows, which is where most of you have probably met me. My vision is of breaking down the barrier between producer and consumer to show that the force behind a record label is not a nameless, faceless entity but a person who really is really fired up about hardcore punk music.

On the door of Extreme Noise Records is a sticker that says something to the effect of "Support your local independent everything, resist corporate culture". If we choose to accept that DIY records, books and zines are indeed a radical alternative to the mainstream consumer culture and not just a radical wing of it we must seek out these alternative outposts that create the alternative space in which these items are housed and exchanged. I for one don't do very good at being a consumer of society's products, I don't watch television, play video games or sports, I don't care about designer clothes or pop culture. However, I am a voracious consumer of records, comics, books and zines. Does that make me a brainwashed pawn of the consumer corporate culture gone astray or a refined cognoscenti of the underground arts? I leave that to the reader and their particular point of view to decide. I for one can't get enough punk rock, live or on record and avidly seek out the places in America and abroad where punk rock is the order of the day. These islands in the corporate mainstream are the refuges I am willing to drive ten hours a day to reach. The special places and people that make punk rock worth fighting for. The places where the cool bands play that have the boss records I'm looking for. Our mission: to seek out and explore the true underground independent gig spaces and record stores that have set the standard.

Extreme Noise Records: On Lake St. In Minneapolis, I love this place. In my totally unbiased opinion the best punk record store in America. Run as an all volunteer DIY collective since 1994. Thousands of new and used punk records, tapes, cds, zines,books etc. You can catch me there every Sunday bringing the music to the people.

924 Gilman St.: I have been a card carrying member since Tim sold me a card back in 1987. From the days when I saw Fang, MDC and Christ on Parade there to last weeks DS 13 show, Gilman is the shit. Every city in America should strive to create a space this cool. Truly the jewel in the DIY punk crown.

ABC No Rio: The Streets around ABC sure have changed since Destroy played a show here in 1990 with Born Against, Oi Polloi and Jesus Chrust. But ABC soldiers on, the premiere DIY venue on the East Coast, they even went back to doing shows upstairs like back in the day. ABC is always fighting for survival, especially in the face of gentrification of the surrounding area. Every time I book a tour basically base the whole route around ABC and Gilman. These places and supporting them are central to my vision of DIY hardcore.

Mr. Roboto Project, Pittsburgh: A newer DIY show space that was a subject of a quite scholarly MRR article not too long ago. An awesome space for shows with a zine library too. They are currently expanding to a second space to host larger shows. A shining example to us all.

Brave New World: A cool record store in Pittsburgh you should check out while you are in town to rock out Mr. Roboto.

Reptillian: On S. Broadway in Baltimore, probably the best record store on the East Coast lots of punk and garage plus videos, zines etc.

Sound Idea: On Brandon Blvd. In Brandon Fl (outside Tampa) This excellent punk record store and mail order also serves as a gig space and general clearinghouse for the local punk scene. Local bands play here and produce "burn Brandon" zine and records. The records are given away to promote the bands and the collective raises funds and votes on all the releases. Bob is one of the most honest and dedicated people I know in the punk scene and probably your best bet for mail ordering DIY punk records.

Wayward Council: Gainesville FL: Collective run record store and gig space. When DS 13 and I were in Gainesville we didn't play there as some assholes had stolen some of the PA gear and smashed out some of the windows. Backstabbers like this just can't handle that there is some one in their scene who is actually making an effort.

Mission Records: Cool record store in SF with crucial DIY shows in the back room. This place is so cool most people in the Bay Area don't realize how cool such a spot is.

Burnt Ramen: a DIY recording studio in an old refrigerated warehouse in Richmond, CA. This is a rad gig space plus all the bands are recorded live and presented with a CD of their set just minutes after they leave the stage. The DS 13 set was super well recorded. How many fucking rock clubs care enough to do shit like that for the bands?

Headline Records: Right in the middle of some chi chi Hollywood shopping district is this cool punk record store, also lots of t shirts and books. They used to have gigs here too, I'm not sure if they still do.

Vinyl Solution: In some bogus stripmall in Huntington Beach is this cool record store with tons of old vinyl. So Cal also boasts Dr. Strange Destroy All Music and 45 Revolutions giving it the most underground record stores of any part of America.

Singles Going Steady: This is a cool punk record store in Seattle where I always find some overlooked gem in a box on the floor.

OK I know I've left out tons of spaces, places and people but you get the idea. Places like the above are the highlights of every tour and trip I go on. Sure I enjoy eating at local vegetarian restaurants and hanging out at Bob's Java Hut but it's punk record stores and show spaces run by true punk music enthusiasts that are the light at the end of every long drive through a countryside pockmarked with soul less mall culture.

Publication Date:
January 1, 1988

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