“Punk rock should mean freedom, liking and accepting anything that you like, playing whatever you want, as sloppy as you want, as long as it’s good and has passion”
Joe Kidd recently posted this “interesting” article on Ricecooker. I manage to read the whole thing (and skips the comments section, for fucks sake most the comments on Ricecooker are fucking retarded posted by some idiots and are unworthy for me to waste my time on) and do a little bit of thinking (I am surprising myself as well, I thought spending too much time playing Winning Eleven had killed my ability to think). Here’s my two cents on the whole thing. Yes, contrary to popular belief I do care a little bit about the local punk rock scene.
Stop laughing.
Fucker.
I used to think that punk rock, the music, should be adventurous, open to new ideas and always evolving. Yeah I think I am echoing Joe Kidd’s view. Some of you probably think that’s lame but whatever. If things doesn’t evolve, punk rock will still sounds like it was in the 70’s (and tell me how many people actually listen to that shit nowadays?) and metal will be totally boring. But that was like ages ago. I threw all that out of the window when I realized that “originality” and “unique-ness” doesn’t always mean good. Do tell me, in the last 10 years, are there any note-worthy bands that bring something totally new to punk rock? Tragedy, despite being the “IT” band in today’s hardcore scene don’t really do nothing much but overdoing that sweet-melodic crust thingy that is common with some Swedish and Japanese bands. That tech-math-core shits are nothing but prog-rock played by a bunch of kids having ADD that don’t have much patience playing one song that last for half an hour. And most metallic hardcore we have nowadays is nothing more than a bad attempt at copying shitty metal. Submission Hold is original but fuck me if people actually enjoy the music and rock out to it. Proper rocking out I mean, sitting alone in your bedroom and stroking your chin is not what I mean as “rocking out.”
Face it, punk rock, the music, is fucking dead. It is not adventurous, open to new ideas and evolving. Get out of punk rock and you will experience that sort of thing somewhere else.
I don’t really want to get all “academics” on this issue. Personally I think that all the “new” ideas that we have back then was somehow a reaction against what was going on. Punk rock became hardcore because some kids realize how boring punk rock was back then and felt that it was time to take it back from the art crowd. Those kids want their punk rock to be crude and simple and not pretentious and full of bullshit. This constantly continues with other punk rock offshoots, be it grindcore, emo and what-ever-you-want-to-call-it
I am going to be honest and say that most “punk rock” that we have nowadays can put me to sleep in less than a minute. It is yawn inducing and horrible. If I have a trouble sleeping, I will just put on some shitty “punk rock” (both local and non-local, if you’re wondering) and go to sleep. And you know what? If I am not talking about your band in my blog, it is either I have never heard of you or you’re nothing spectacular and I am only listening to your music so I can go to sleep. Fast. Tough luck, I know, but you can’t really please everyone right?
And I am not going to be a pussy and deny saying something like “man, all those tech-math-core shits sounds scarily similar to DEP, can’t they like steal from some other band?” to some of my friends because that’s like the fucking truth. None of them are fucking original to these ears. That is what happened when you are jaded with something. But instead of shit-talking to no end (there is a huge difference between occasionally shit talking and continuously shit-talking) and lose sleep I just decided that I am going to get as far away from any of that abomination and make fun of them every now and then (like now). Every time I read a show flyer with tech and screamo and math thrown around like someone life depends on it I will approach that show with caution. The same goes with other “punk rock” genre as well. And don’t get me start on emo. If I want some bad college rock, I will listen to bad college rock and not something “marketed” as something else. Face it you’re only “emo” because the indie scene thinks you’re horrible and are a fucking disastrous to even have a sniff at their scene. LOSERS.
But at the end of the day do all this “discussion” matters? Most who consider themselves punk rocker only acknowledge it as nothing more but a music genre. We have to thanks MTV and Myspace for diluting the real meaning with whatever bullshit they can throw along with so they can sell it to the masses. Most people are punk rock so they can be look upon as cool by others. It is fashion more than passion. It is blablablablablablablablablablab
Holy fuck! Enough with this “discussion” shit. Man, why do I bother with all this in the first place? Anyway I think I remember that Joe Kidd ask me to recommend something new to him when I was at the ricecooker shop. I am quite dumbfounded. Being out of the loop for a while that’s probably the last question you want to hear. If only I have the latest issue of MRR handy to impress people when such question pops out. But I didn’t buy MRR for ages and could only give a sheepish smile as a respond. Yeah lame. So Joe, if you are reading this, I am sorry but I couldn’t recommend any new punk rock shit that you can feast your ears to. I am too fully occupied with old Japanese hardcore and French BM to even bother checking out what’s hot and what’s not in the current punk rock circle. Anyway I don’t think you’re missing much because there is hardly anything new around, but do check out Bone Awl. Those guys rule!
