Redemption Won't Be Mine

I'm currently reading Michael Azerrad's book Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991. Reading a book like this, which tells the biographies of 13 bands who were (in some cases are) varying levels of punk , can feel like a copout because it's mostly an author telling me that things I already think are important are, in fact, important, but I'll be damned if I still don't get caught up in it.

I don't know what I was expecting when I started the book, but there was a part of me that hoped that the author would devote time to knocking the bands down a peg for a little bit. Even though I love the Replacements and Minor Threat, there's a weird part of me that wants to read a differing opinion and see a take other than "Minor Threat were an amazing influential band and all of their copycats struggle to replicate them". That's not exactly what I got, but my thoughts on the thing changed in the process too.

I think that that desire to see a dissenting point of view comes from my, I don't want to say disillusionment with punk, but I can't think of a better word. I'm not, and never will be, done or over punk music, but as I grow older I find that it's not as consistently inspiring to me as it was when a 13-year-old and first discovering it. The first time I heard "The Decline" by NoFX, I immediately felt like I had tell everyone I knew about and earnestly believed that if everyone heard it, they would feel like I would and we would change the world.

Now, after listening to punk for so long, and going to shows, being a part of different scenes in different cities, playing in a band, helping to put on shows, that feeling has changed. You grow up and realize that not everyone has the same experience in punk as you and most people don't care as much. A lot of bands care about drinking and playing fast, but not so many care about the politics. And I don't even mean the left-wing stuff that most good bands espouse, I mean the personal politics baked into the genre from the very beginning: doing things yourself as a collective, respecting your peers and welcoming others and weirdos, giving everyone a shot and breaking down the barrier between the stage and the audience. It's disheartening to see a rejection of those things in contemporary punk and seeing more and more bands caring more about the plastic lanyard on their waste than the message in their music. It makes it almost impossible to not become jaded about punk and wonder why you even care when everyone else seems to think that the concept of caring is lame.

I say all this though, because what I think is important is that, like many other things, punk can still be perfect in small moments, which is echoed in Our Band Could Be Your Life's introduction and throughout the stories of the bands represented. I think that, in theory, punk is perfect, but people fuck that theory up all the time because they don't understand it. It's hard to watch it happen, but then when you're watching Wayfarer open for the Sidekicks and this band you've been watching grow for ten years, but never break out of Southern Ontario, debut new material that is somehow better than their past stuff and you are instantly floating on the floor because you're reminded that punk matters.

I hate to sound like I'm unrealistically idealistic, but I notice that I gravitate towards things like this, which don't ever work out in the long run consistently, but give you a glimpse into a utopia where people work together and respect each other and good things happen as a result. Is that why most punks tend towards the left politically? Because we're all hanging onto that dream?

There are three bands in particular who drum up this feeling in me, who stayed punk for their whole existence, no matter how long it was or is, and proved that it is possible to stick to your moral and not have your art ruined by business or jaded assholes who don't care anymore. They always remind that punk does still matter and that we should always keep pushing and dreaming on making it work. Unsurprisingly, they all lean a little lefty loosey too. It's so comforting to me to know that no matter how overwhelmed with stupid scene politics, or bad bands getting big, or shitty stories about shitty band dudes, there is still that small perfect nugget of punk buried in there somewhere.

So let's all take a moment for ourselves and be inspired.






 The funny thing is that I'm not even what you would call a huge Minutemen fan. I don't know all the lyrics off by heart and, relative to other bands I like, I don't spend tonnes of time with their music, but damn if jamming econo doesn't fill me with so much joy. They're approach to punk and being in a band is so inspiring and I really do think that everyone should strive towards what they laid out during their perfect career. In my mind, that is what the general understanding of punk should be.

Healthy Body, Sick Mind

I'm person who looks back on their past a lot. I would say that I do this in a healthy way, in that sometimes I remind myself of friends I used to have and things I used to do that I wish I could bring back, but also think about things I did or ways I acted that were wrong. I think it's important to learn from your mistakes, but also that it's important that you don't forget who you are.

Since I've always been very involved in music, whether it be playing in a band, or going to shows, or buying records, looking back on musical taste is one of the main ways that I do what I was talking about in the last paragraph. Everyone's tastes evolve over time and if they don't, you are way too boring. There's nothing wrong with still loving stuff you discovered as a pre-teen, but if you don't grow in your interests that sucks.

Everyone has some bad music they used to listen to, but I try to look back on shitty bands I used to love within the context of where I was at the time. Sure, Pennywise really sucks and I can't believe I loved them at one time (let alone had the cover of Self-Titled as my MSN display picture), but me listening to Pennywise is directly tied to Punk-o-Rama 8, which was huge in introducing me to a lot of bands who I still love and are undeniably good. They also were a band that Damien and I used to play together on guitar and bass, so they are also tied to my friendship with my best friend and to me learning how to play bass.

In looking back on bands, I always find very empowering when I think about I still love a band as much as I did when I first heard them. I was listening to the Operation Ivy compilation yesterday and that is what inspired this blog post, because I still absolutely love those songs and they all still sound as fresh as the first time I heard them. If I've been listening to a band for like 15 years, then there has to be something about the band that draws me to it more than others. And that means that that particular idea has to be more important to me than other things. If that idea is more important to me and is something that draws me back to things regularly throughout my life, than it must be an integral part of my personality.

Right?

Right.

In the case of Operation Ivy this would the social awareness and criticism contained in their lyrics, and if that is an integral part of my personality, from the above logic, then that is a good thing.

It doesn't hurt that they play fast as hell too.

I don't know. This is a shitty blog. Operation Ivy rules and I still feel as powerful and positive as I did the first time I heard them in 8th grade. That's all I'm trying to say.

One of the Greatest Men Ever

http://www.punknews.org/article/33911

More people need to be like Jesse Michaels:

When asked about Op Ivy's influence (they did basically create a genre and every "ska" band around today rips them off whether they're aware of it or not), he says that they didn't really do anything, that bands were doing it before them. He says they were just a link in the chain. This just straight up isn't true every ska band rips them off.

When asked about his new band, he says that his "backing band" are a band also, deferring attention off himself.

When asked about Barack Obama, he says that he doesn't care if he's black or white, but likes the things he's doing.

"I try not to think of myself as higher than anyone in the audience"

Seriously the guy has written some of the best lyrics punk has ever seen. He completely changed how a genre of music was played. Put out two incredible albums with Common Rider. Still he acts like he formed some small time band two weeks ago.

More people should be like Jesse Michaels.

"This time I got it all figured out, all I know is that I don't know, all I know is that I don't know nothing, and that's fine"