My local record store, Vacation Vinyl had organized a cool event on Saturday afternoon, a panel discussion around the second edition of ‘American Hardcore, a tribal history’, written by Steven Blush, who has updated and expended his very successful book, first published in 2001. The book was in fact so successful that it led to the documentary ’American Hardcore: The History of American Punk Rock 1980-1986’, a film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006.
Steven Blush organizes these panel discussions on record or bookstores all over the country, in order to talk about the cultural impact of hardcore music, and yesterday he had decided to focus on ‘The Process Of Weeding Out: American Hardcore and the Rise of Stoner Rock’,… a genre born on California,… from Hardcore.
Beside Steven Blush, Brant Bjork (Kyuss, an American stoner metal band), Chuck Dukowski (Black Flag), Mario Lalli (Fatso Jetson, an American desert rock band), Pete Stahl (vocalist of DC hardcore band Scream) and Greg Anderson (Sunn O))), and co-founder of Southern Lord Records) were participating to the debate.
It was funny to see these punk rockers looking like scholars, analyzing each one of their memories, intellectualizing about music and ethics, suddenly giving to the menacing look of Hardcore punk a very civilized figure.
The term DIY came back constantly in the conversation, the DIY ethics of punk which started modern rock, as all bands can be traced back to hardcore as Blush said to open the debate: ‘You hipsters, we paved the path for the whole shit!’, he said, addressing the crowd which began to laugh.
Several times the conversation turned around this same point: this DIY ethics has never been more victorious today as more and more bands have now their own label.
They started to talk about Stone Rock, an LA thing born in the suburbs from LA guitar culture, but even though stone rockers were big cannabis users, something already present in hardcore (Bad Brains!!), Blush insisted they were no hippies, but rather an ambitious and productive bunch; he gave the example of the big concert promoter (Coachella, Stagecoach) and Goldenvoice founder, Paul Tollett who was a heavy weed smoker…‘The long hair people were more punk rock than the spiky hair people’.
Mario Lalli talked about the large influence of the desert on his music coming from blues and psychedelic-classic rock. As there were no venues, it was once again the DIY attitude, rockers creating a scene themselves. He talked fondly about the first show booked for Black Flag in ‘Rumors’ a restaurant in the desert, as it was ‘a big fucking deal’.
Chuck Dukowski was having fun during this time, rhythmically tapping his hand on his tight all the time. He said it was the occasion to ‘spread the fire’, to reach new scenes, new places, new people, to break down the barriers of our so segmented culture. ‘It was hot as fuck’, he said ‘but it was a sort of spring break weekend’. It was also the occasion to spread the DIY idea, and help other bands.
Brant Bjork insisted again on the influence of the new desert scene, and on the ideology of independent music, underground and non-commercial. For him, Kyuss took some elements of its environment, and the psychedelic dark heavy music sounded like the desert, as a new sense for Brant to approve himself.
Even Pete Stahl, on the East coast, recognized the influence of stoner rock. His band Scream, which featured Dave Grohl at one point, also endorsed the DIY ethic, recording its first record in a basement in 3 days.
But what is left of this famous ethic now that they are older? Blush asked them what part of their ethic they were able to maintain and what part they discarded. Pete said that he has been struggling to make a living as a musician, and he had to compromise his believes sometimes. Chuck jokingly added that people lose track easily, and when ‘the suction tube is hooked, when you start sucking, you suck actively!’
Greg Anderson, who hadn’t talked yet, mentioned a few bands which had this hardcore ethic and aesthetic, bands like Black Sabbath, and the Melvins. His label, specialized in experimental heavy metal, doom metal, stoner rock, was the occasion the put independent underground bands on the scene, a ‘huge middle finger to all that bullshit’.
By bullshit, he meant mainstream music and big labels. But now that these big labels are destroyed, what do these punk rockers think?
For them, these times are super exciting, super interesting… a lot of music is now more effective and authentic, there are just more of everything, more good stuff, but more crap too! Chuck gave a little history lesson, pointing out how music business has always been very separate from the instinct to create music, but they all agree on the fact that music is now gonna float on its authenticity, as people want real artists.
But the current LA music scene? It is ‘fucking awesome’, the most exciting one they have seen since the early 80s!
Chuck talks like an idealistic, he gave a long and great talk about the fact that people can tell, that music cannot lie, that good bands are the ones who have the courage to act it out, to say it aloud with deep conviction, because they are selling their bare soul and a vision of purity. ‘Music gotta have soul and some content, and it does not matter how well it is produced’, and then he once again joked about the tons of records which no one cared about and were used as Frisbees … music has to make an impact, otherwise it will only be an environmental problem.
‘Yeah it’s like KISS’, said Brant, ‘shooting lasers from guitars is a concept, but it is not really happening…’
They also talked about how easy it was to make music these days,… ‘if you have a Mac, you can make a song in an hour,’ said Mario,’ it may be bad, but the creative tools are there’.
And they discussed the new musical landscape, the mp3 culture, the free music available on the internet, the numerous blogs that make finding the good stuff easier, the disposable aspect of music… sure who still want to buy music from Walmart or Best Buy? ‘Steal it from them!’ said Chuck always joking, or was he?
Finding the new stuff is good, but what about the fact that kids listen to the old stuff too, that they idolize 30 year-old music! Pete and Brant said it had always been the case, as any good band has always been doing its homework, … Stoner rock was inspired by Sabbath and Zeppelin!… ‘It is just interesting to see what this new generation will do with it!’ said Greg.
Chuck concluded by saying it is more acceptable to mention other types of music now, whereas it was not the case in the punk culture, the new culture is less exclusive, the barriers have been broken!