American Hardcore

ahhhhh. I sat in a row of old men in the front of the movie theater. These men all had hardcore connections. The Beak was the guitarist for Nuclear Errors, Jungle Reggae was the guitarist for the Do-Wops, JFK was the bassist for the NEOs, John London was the drummer for Jerk Ward, Scream.... well he was in the Bedspins and they weren't hardcore.... and then thier was myself, I was the guitarist for the CommodeS but we where really more of an Adam Ant cover band. All of us men were involved in punk music in the early eighties.... I consider us lot the historic Victoria Hardcore guys.... but they never made a movie on us.

So we all sat in this movie theater watching a visual documentation of the music that fed us in that time in our lives. We were there and had the privlage of seeing some of these great bands live. But alot of these bands where just pics on records or fanzines. We used to mail order these records and the good ones where then recorded onto mixed tapes and spread out like wildfire in our isolated island punk community. After over twenty years a handfull of us punks who had lived it finnally got to see it. American Hardcore... i sat in awe as i watched old footage of these hardcore bands. Bad Brains...... i need not say anymore about this band if you are a fan of punk, but the footage was hair-raising. Keith Morris narates his account with Black Flag onto the Circle Jerks and the state of American youth. Our Canadian folk heroes DOA are represented oddly but they did change the song "Fucked Up Baby' to "Fucked Up Ronnie". Vic Bondi gives his two bits and then we see some live Articles of Faith. Then we get a glimpse at what was happening in Washington DC and Ian MacKaye's Minor Threat and the Discord crew. Discord records where one of these basement record companys that we used to order records from.... and they had some good ones. Scream, Void, Teen Idols, SOA (Henry Rollins) and a fist full of others. Skip over to Boston and bands like the Freeze and SS Decontrol. Texas had Really Red and Big Boys. Detroit with Necros, Negative Approch and MDC. The MDC album is one of the all time greats and this band had a heavy following that would get slapped in the face when the lead singer ,Dave Dictor, would inform them he was gay as a flower. Then back in California Battalion Of Saints and the Adolecents where all keeping the coast jumping. A quick jump to the other coast in New York and we are sitting face to face with Harley Flanagan form the Cro Mags. He describes a Bad Brains live show and boom you instantly get goosebumps. New York was tough and probably the toughest with bands like Agnostic Front . Girls in the hardcore scene have a brief say but they where never really represented musically.

This movie has a ton of in your face footage and although it misses a few things I think it it is probably as good as it gets. It was America and the hardcore punk music was obtainable for the angry youth of that time. About 1984 it was all over, sure alot of great bands still carried the flag but the movie was a documentary about the beginning. So if your interested in this offshoot of punk rock you better see this film. Then if you can't find any of those old mixed tapes head on down to you nearest music store and pic up the soundtrack for the movie.... hmmm i guess the days of mailorder from Maximum Rock-N-Roll or Flipside are gone. But hey if that ain't enough certainly get the book American Hardcore by Steven Blush. Man did Steven ever cover his bassis in formats.... i wonder if thier is any MPEGS or JPEGS or MP3s availiable?

Maybe us Victorians should document what happened in Victoria.... wait someone is!

-ricky Jak