HARDCORE
PUNK
NORMALLY, I'M all for the wonderful diversity of
punk and anyone's right to be into whatever they
like, and all that liberal bollocks. But hardcore punk
today doesn't deserve to exist the way it is. It should
be banished to the realms of pop or that other
manufactured drivle they call Ska. Its continued
presence on the punk planet is an insult to all the
punk rockers who (albeit naively) once tried to
change the World!
Making a vocal noise more reminiscent of rhythmic
burping than human communication, and all done at speed with no finesse
or intelligence where bands like the Casualties and their ilk really do take
the biscuit.
I blame Discharge although the Yanks will scream they invented Hardcore.
But it depends on what side of the pond you were residing in? But for us in
Europe its the Stoke pneumatic brigade that started Hardcore Punk, and the
bastard problem was they were really very good at it for a while. But little did
they know that their anti-war anthems and rampaging powerchords would
result in an on-going melee of spiky shouting, bare chests and stage diving
copy cats for the next 25 years. Dis-core, dat-core, thrash core, speed
metal the list just goes on and on.
A whole generation of Punks like this fucker to your right are weened on this
now very one dimensional racket that passes itself off as the hardcore punk
made by punks for punks who are decked out in carbon copy online
Punk store kegs with all the nice dyes, patches and cool band names
painted affectionately onto their studded jackets with meticulous efficiency.
Coz hey kid, you could get serious peer pressure if your choice of sheep is
deemed out of sink with the rest.
Hardcore punk has image problems the size of Sadam Husseins, not least
because of the majority reaction that anything connected with Hardcore that
is remotely good isn't really hardcore punk.
And of course, they're right. They're right because hardcore punk, judging
by the taste of many of its followers and the trends of the bands', the scenes,
the zines and record sales, stands for two things: lack of imagination and
hunger for uniformity. When these standards are seen as positive and
laudable qualities, we're on dangerous territory.
The tragic irony is that hardcore punks perceive criticism like this as people 'not understanding' or old
wankers stuck in a '77 bubble wrap - like anyone who doesn't like HC is straight somehow! I often read
reviews by obviously indoctrinated disciples of the new world order with utter embaressment. They
describe this music as "the only real underground music in the punk scene". But 'underground' is a term
which was coined to broadly describe the counter culture. No fucker wants a different culture where the
music is even more boring and predictable than the pop crud in the charts, for punk's sake. As for
describing it as 'music'. . . I know Rick Wakeman once objected to the Pistols' presence on his record
label, but I never realised that made it legitimate for punks who followed in their wake to churn out any
old kind of uninspired tripe that made up a large part of the 80's bands. These kids then try and ape
some long lost blueprint zerox that ain't quite readable after so many copies, so it innevitably comes out
as a 3rd generation mess.
Why don't you find synths or strings on HC records? Or any kind of open-mind mutation? Because too
many punks have been stuck for too long in a world where they only ever listen to hardcore and very
poor hardcore at that. They listen all day, every day. . .to the point where the slightest variation becomes
a mind-blowing revelation of originality, though remaining undetectable to normal human ears. Unless, of
course, you count doing a one-second long song or instead of grunting they groan - I've laughed longer
at a Frank Skinner joke. Once.
And as soon as you get to a 'progressive hardcore' stage and all its off shoots, it ceases to be hardcore
- of course. A sad facet of the 'scene' (typically wank word) is that bands such as The Briefs and Turbo
Negro can't count cos their musical style ain't 'hardcore' enough.
All of this gives the lie to all these excuses about integrity and passion. Integrity and passion are in
categories all of their own. To try to box them in with hardcore punk today is pathetic. It's all too easy for
bands to say they won't do MTV/sign to Epitaph when they know they'll never be asked to anyway. Let's
see these hardcore punks make a record that's got half a chance, and then repeat it. Real hardcore is
uniform hardcore — anything else just ain't kosher to the 'open-minded' kids.
It's the bastard revenge of punk rock. Style instead of originality, following instead of leading, acceptance
instead of pioneering - and the wholesale purchase of American culture, from the tips of their bandanas
and baseball hats through to their goatee beards and spiky barnets right down to the bottom of their
skateboard wheels. Worst of all, that ridiculous little jump the singers tend to do and that phoney
American dialect every punk under the sun seems to bleat out gets so fuckin lame.... please!!!!
It's all very well being right-on and producing your own labels, records and promotion etc. but no
revolution ever started without a fear of conformity right down to the music and its spirit. Even old out of
touch cunts like the Buzzcocks and The Damned knew that.
This is the arse end of 2005, just 5 days off 2006, and the ghetto mentality don't fit. Open your ears and
minds, you deaf tight bastards!
PETER DON'T CARE (December 28th 2005)
PUNK
NORMALLY, I'M all for the wonderful diversity of
punk and anyone's right to be into whatever they
like, and all that liberal bollocks. But hardcore punk
today doesn't deserve to exist the way it is. It should
be banished to the realms of pop or that other
manufactured drivle they call Ska. Its continued
presence on the punk planet is an insult to all the
punk rockers who (albeit naively) once tried to
change the World!
Making a vocal noise more reminiscent of rhythmic
burping than human communication, and all done at speed with no finesse
or intelligence where bands like the Casualties and their ilk really do take
the biscuit.
I blame Discharge although the Yanks will scream they invented Hardcore.
But it depends on what side of the pond you were residing in? But for us in
Europe its the Stoke pneumatic brigade that started Hardcore Punk, and the
bastard problem was they were really very good at it for a while. But little did
they know that their anti-war anthems and rampaging powerchords would
result in an on-going melee of spiky shouting, bare chests and stage diving
copy cats for the next 25 years. Dis-core, dat-core, thrash core, speed
metal the list just goes on and on.
A whole generation of Punks like this fucker to your right are weened on this
now very one dimensional racket that passes itself off as the hardcore punk
made by punks for punks who are decked out in carbon copy online
Punk store kegs with all the nice dyes, patches and cool band names
painted affectionately onto their studded jackets with meticulous efficiency.
Coz hey kid, you could get serious peer pressure if your choice of sheep is
deemed out of sink with the rest.
Hardcore punk has image problems the size of Sadam Husseins, not least
because of the majority reaction that anything connected with Hardcore that
is remotely good isn't really hardcore punk.
And of course, they're right. They're right because hardcore punk, judging
by the taste of many of its followers and the trends of the bands', the scenes,
the zines and record sales, stands for two things: lack of imagination and
hunger for uniformity. When these standards are seen as positive and
laudable qualities, we're on dangerous territory.
The tragic irony is that hardcore punks perceive criticism like this as people 'not understanding' or old
wankers stuck in a '77 bubble wrap - like anyone who doesn't like HC is straight somehow! I often read
reviews by obviously indoctrinated disciples of the new world order with utter embaressment. They
describe this music as "the only real underground music in the punk scene". But 'underground' is a term
which was coined to broadly describe the counter culture. No fucker wants a different culture where the
music is even more boring and predictable than the pop crud in the charts, for punk's sake. As for
describing it as 'music'. . . I know Rick Wakeman once objected to the Pistols' presence on his record
label, but I never realised that made it legitimate for punks who followed in their wake to churn out any
old kind of uninspired tripe that made up a large part of the 80's bands. These kids then try and ape
some long lost blueprint zerox that ain't quite readable after so many copies, so it innevitably comes out
as a 3rd generation mess.
Why don't you find synths or strings on HC records? Or any kind of open-mind mutation? Because too
many punks have been stuck for too long in a world where they only ever listen to hardcore and very
poor hardcore at that. They listen all day, every day. . .to the point where the slightest variation becomes
a mind-blowing revelation of originality, though remaining undetectable to normal human ears. Unless, of
course, you count doing a one-second long song or instead of grunting they groan - I've laughed longer
at a Frank Skinner joke. Once.
And as soon as you get to a 'progressive hardcore' stage and all its off shoots, it ceases to be hardcore
- of course. A sad facet of the 'scene' (typically wank word) is that bands such as The Briefs and Turbo
Negro can't count cos their musical style ain't 'hardcore' enough.
All of this gives the lie to all these excuses about integrity and passion. Integrity and passion are in
categories all of their own. To try to box them in with hardcore punk today is pathetic. It's all too easy for
bands to say they won't do MTV/sign to Epitaph when they know they'll never be asked to anyway. Let's
see these hardcore punks make a record that's got half a chance, and then repeat it. Real hardcore is
uniform hardcore — anything else just ain't kosher to the 'open-minded' kids.
It's the bastard revenge of punk rock. Style instead of originality, following instead of leading, acceptance
instead of pioneering - and the wholesale purchase of American culture, from the tips of their bandanas
and baseball hats through to their goatee beards and spiky barnets right down to the bottom of their
skateboard wheels. Worst of all, that ridiculous little jump the singers tend to do and that phoney
American dialect every punk under the sun seems to bleat out gets so fuckin lame.... please!!!!
It's all very well being right-on and producing your own labels, records and promotion etc. but no
revolution ever started without a fear of conformity right down to the music and its spirit. Even old out of
touch cunts like the Buzzcocks and The Damned knew that.
This is the arse end of 2005, just 5 days off 2006, and the ghetto mentality don't fit. Open your ears and
minds, you deaf tight bastards!
PETER DON'T CARE (December 28th 2005)
