Publication:
HeartttaCk

Author:
Felix Von Havoc

HeartAttack #10
Top Ten

1. MK Ultra 7"
2. Rajoitus- lp and 7"
3. Youth against Fascism 7"
4. Amanda Huron's new band
5. The Proletariat-all
6. Clusterbombunit-Opfer
7. All the new stuff on Distortion Records
8. All the new stuff on HG Fact recordss
9. In/Humanity
10. VA-All Go No Slow Twin Cities comp.

First, I'd like to say thanks to everyone who helped out Code-13 on our January US tour. We only completed four out of six weeks due to problems with our van. This means we still havn't made it to the west coast. I met a lot of old friends and made a few new ones. As always it was great seeing lots of new bands and going to lots of record stores. I was most impressed by the scenes in Atlanta and Pittsburgh. Its funny how you can play really to small uninspired crowds in New York and Philly yet the kids in North Carolina and Oklahoma are totally into it. But still its the band from New York that gets popuar not the one from Oklahoma. And now back to what Dave Hake called "80's recidivism."

This time around the block I'd like to talk a bit about how the individual puts his or her politics in action and the conflict between activism and lifestylism. I have used this space before to bemoan the lack of political sentiment in todays hardcore scene. I do truly feel that punk/hardcore can be a force for social awareness and perhaps change, making a concrete difference in the lives of many young people. Music and lyrics can educate and inspire you to think, change, choose and most of all act. In its purest form the punk underground is a counterculture type movement with a program based around self-expression, anti-authoritarianism, autonomy and progressive social change.

Bands like Minor Threat and Crass inspired me to think for myself and question what society told me and expected from me as a ninth grader. Through punk I was exposed to many new ideas. I read every book on anarchist theory and history in the Hyattsville library. I embraced animal rights, took a stand against nuclear war, opposed US intervention in Central America etc. I boycotted many products with connections to industries and policies I opposed. I would like to think this is a typical political development of many thinking, caring, young people who are exposed to punk and radical/progressive political thought.

As I listened to bands like Conflict, I felt that it was time to take more direct action on my political beliefs. I attended and later organized political demonstrations, I started to take a militant stance on a lot of issues. I began to study revolutionary movements, guerrilla warfare, sabotage and terrorism. I was inspired by the militant economic sabotage and actual animal liberations of the ALF. Later I got increasingly involved with "the movement" and political activist types. I started to spend less time wrecking shit and taking to the streets and a lot of time debating theory and sitting around in meetings. Eventually I got fed up with political acitivists, vanguardists, and poltical organizations in general and decided to concentrate on just working in the punk scene. That is not to say I changed my beliefs or "burned out" on politics. I just got fed up with the inward looking, narrowly focused nature of most activist types.

I would argue that politics without action are about as meaningful as no politics at all. Talk minus action still equals zero. The level of political conviction I see in today's hardcore scene is very personal and lifestyle oriented. You may feel that by being a vegan, dumpster diving, squatter on the edge of society that you are living very close to your anti-capitialist anti-system ideas. You may feel that boycotting products X, Y, and Z is doing major damage to the corporate system and bringing major corporations to their knees. While you may have a lot of moral fiber and integrity, you are making virtually no difference in the big picture. Lifestylism is a trap, a cop out and a dead end. The lifestylist winds up acting only to make themselves feel better and very little to change the world around them. Nuclear war and intervention in Central America are no longer looming. There is no specific threat to catalyze the youth. However, the social forces at work spell doom for our generation just as certainly as ever. The system acts continually to concentrate power and wealth whilst marginalizing and oppressing any real or percieved threat. We, my friends, are part of that percieved threat. And we, the youth, are very, very effectively pacified by drugs, alcohol, television, NOFX and Rancid. How much of our rebellion is real and how much merely plays right into the hands of the man?

As much as I dislike the hippy culture, we can point to a high level of political concioussness and action among the youth of the late 60's. The Weathermen,AIM, the Black Panthers etc. were not fucking around. They conducted real acts of social revoltuion and direct action against the system. They took and stand and were ruthlessly crushed by the the FBI's COINTELPRO program. They were assasinated, jailed, blackmailed, and many are still in prison today. 60's radicalism was very effectively co-opted, commodified and by now trivialized. How was this done? Drugs and rock music. The Nazi's and the CIA had experimented with LSD and other drugs as a means of mind control. A few years later an entire generation had "tuned out" while the FBI rounded up the most active resistors. Our stereotype of the sixties today is not the raised fist or the Days of Rage it is a stoned zombie rocking out at woodstock. And what image has society generated for our generation-the net surfing, alternative rock loving, lazy, indifferent, self centered slacker. And I would have to say it's working. I havn't seen much of anyone take to the streets for any cause lately. Anti-Racist Action is lucky to get 50 people to turn out against the local nazis. Youth culture is social control. Heavy Metal, Rap and much Punk music are a safety valve. Carefully controlled and commodified false rebellion which channels potentially revolutionary impulses of the youth back into consumption and self destruction. (Even the CIA couldn't have thought up a more com;lete and insidious means of social control than the fucking rave scene)

A few years ago local animal rights commandoes destroyed several vehicles belonging to a major meat distributor in an arson attack. As far as I know tens of thousands of dollars in damage was done and no one was caught. This sort of thing should happen every day, not once in a decade. As Brotherhood once said "get involved." Find or start an organization that will push forward some avenue of social change close to your heart. Take a stand. From lifestylism to protest and from protest to resistance. Identify the manifestations of the system in your area and take action against them. Direct action, sabotage, economic warfare, all out war I don't care. Just do something other that be smug about how your "alternative" lifestyle is going to topple the system.

And now as long as its O.K. with everybody at HaC I'm going to talk a little bit about records I like. I'd like to do this every issue. Not reviews of new releases, but discographical essays on what I think are the most crucial bands of the past. Looking in an issue of Profane Existence from 1990 I saw my list of "top ten records of the 1980's". These were 1.Discharge-Hear Nothing, see nothing, say nothing 2.Rudimentary Peni-Death Church 3.Napalm Death-Scum 4.Crucifix-Dehumanization 5.Proletariat-Soma Holiday 6.Subhumans-Day the Country Died 7.Conflict-Increase the pressure 8.Disorder-Singles LP 9. Carcass-Reek of Putrefaction 10.Amebix-Arise. Today most of these are still all time favorites. I must admit that I have lost most of my interest in metal and "cross over." Therefore I would substitute DRI "dirty rotten LP" for Carcass and Black Flag "Damaged" for the Amebix and NOTA "None of the Above" for Disorder or Napalm Death and you would have my 10 favorite albums of all time. The point I'm trying to make here is that all of the albums on my (albeit revised) top ten list were recorded before 1986. Meaning either I am a fossil who refuses to recognize new talent, I am living in the past, or the hardcore of the last decade has been second rate. Half way into the nineties I'd say Aus Rotten, Los Crudos, the Pist and Vorhees are the best bands thus far and hold their own against any dusty classic. Not so for most of the so called punk and hardcore records which fill fanzine review pages each month, and you've heard me grandstand on this before.

If I were some sort of Punk Professor and it was my job to codify a canon of punk music for the 1980's as part of the syllabus for Hardcore 101 it would go something like this:

USA - Minor Threat first 2 7"s and Out of Step Lp, Black Flag-Damaged, Negative Approach- 7" and LP, Die Kruezen-Cows and Beer ep, DRI-Dirty Rotten LP, NOTA-LP and 7"s. Poison Idea-Pick your king 7", Antidote-7", Reagan Youth-It can't happen here LP, Proletariat-Soma Holiday, Articles of Faith-both 7"s, Corrosion of Conformity-first two LP's, Seven Seconds-7's, the Crew LP, Crucifix-Dehumanization, Bad Brains-ROIR cassette, Faith/Void-LP, SSD-Get it away, Offenders-both lp's both 7"s, V/A-Boston not LA, V/A Flex your head.

UK - Subhumans-7"S and the Day The Country Died lp, Discharge-7"S, WHY LP, Hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing LP, Chaos UK-first two 7"S, Conflict-7"s, Increase the pressure LP, Rudimetary Peni-7"S, Death Church LP, Disorder-7"S and Under the Scalpel Blade LP, Icons of Filth 7"S and LP. V/A-Welcome to 1984, V/A PEACE comp.

Most Swedish, Japanese and Finnish HC of the 80's and of course from Italy-Wretched-first two 7"s.

I'm probably missing a few obvious choices, but I think this selection would give anyone new to hardcore a good start. All of the records listed above have the anger, energy and relevance I feel most of todays hardcore lacks. I sing again my sad lament for the power of yesteryear - where has it gone?

Lastly, If I were to pick any one favorite band right now it would definately be Boston's Proletariat. This band sums up to me what hardcore is all about. Their music was incredibly powerful, harsh and original while their lyrics addressed political and social issues from a very well researched and thought out position. I've probably listened to the Soma Holiday LP an average of once per week since 1983 and it still moves me with its power and relevance. The Proletariat painted a picture of a world so bleak and hopeless. I really can't think of any more clear statement of the alienation I felt as a teenager in the 80's than the way this album makes me feel. The Proletariat left behind the following output Distortion-cassette/demo, one song on V/A Unsafe at any speed 7" three songs on V/A Boston not LA lp, one song on V/A PEACE comp double LP, Soma Holiday LP, Marketplace 7", Indifference LP, and two live performances on WERS radio 1981, and 1983, no doubt there are a few live tapes making the rounds as well. In my opinion the Soma Holiday Lp is the best by far. Shit like the Ramones and the Sex Pistols sounds so weak and vacuous in comparison. Most "political" hardcore bands lyrics seem so one sided and simplistic in contrast. Well, I really don't know if any of this means anything to any of you HaC readers, but it still does to me.

Publication Date:
January 1, 1988

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