Dedicated to Jenny!
Jenny- Sloan Hardcore 7˝
Stupid Rock Star's Dream- The Riffbackers The Curtain Shop and Alterations
Time Rolls On- Free Energy Love Sign
Shout It Out- Hello Keeps Us Off The Streets
World's On Fire-The Cryers The Cryers
Cherry Red- Lime Spiders Nine Miles High 1983-1990
Let's Play House- Pearl Monica
Somebody New Is OK- Public Enemy Possession
^Hey Stoopid- Alice Cooper Hey Stoopid
I Just Wanna Love You Girl- The Wellingtons In Transit
Hello Girl- The Jumpers Waves: An Anthology Of New Music, Vol. 2
So It Goes- Primitive Souls Primitive Souls
When I Am With You- Translator The Best Of 415 Records
Speeed King- These Animal Men The Brit Box: UK Indie, Shoegaze and Brit-Pop Gems Of The Last Millennium
*Stupid- Vibeke The World Famous Hat Trick
*Stupid Guy- The Paranoics Shake Some Action Vol 1 (UK)
*Stupid Idea- The Windbreakers Time Machine (1982-2002)
*Stupid Einstein- The Three O'Clock Sixteen Tambourines
*Stupid Now- Bob Mould District Line
*Genetically Stupid- The Jetsons Suicidal Tendencies 7"
*Stupid Enough- Van Duren Are You Serious?
*Stupid People- The Wigs File Under: Pop Vocal
*Mr. Stupid- Richard Thompson Sweet Warrior
*Stupid and Shallow- The Futureheads The Futureheads
When My Baby's Beside Me (Alternate Mix, 1972)- Big Star Nothing Can Hurt Me: Original Soundtrack
Butterfield 8- Pills A Fistful of Pills
Go Girl- The Pop Hearts And Knives
>Everybody's Stupid- Sparks Big Beat
Who Needs Love- Material Issue Destination Universe
To Pretend (Is the Advantage)- The Misstakes National Pastime
Stupid Heart- Game Theory Distortion of Glory
^Power Pop Peak: #78 Billboard Hot 100 6/15/91
*SacroSet: Stupid Songs
>Power Pop Prototype: 1976
While DOA's Joey "Sh**head" Keithley is the rare exception, if you take a walk down any hipster street in any American city you'll soon
realize the cold hard fact that punk rock doesn't age well. I may
wish to hold it closed, but I no longer look down my nose at the hippies on Haight
Street in San Francisco or Telegraph Ave in Berkeley. As I've said
before, if I judge the guy in tie-dye, dreads, Birkenstocks and cloud of
patchouli harshly I must also do the same to the bemohawked dude beside him in
studded leather jacket, bondage pants, Discharge t-shirt, and cloud of b.o. holding
a leash with a similarly rancid, miserable
looking pitbull on the other end. No disrespect to punk rock icons like Mr. Keithley, Charlie
Harper or Keith Morris but as I got older the music became less relevant to
me, especially after I had kids. I mean The Ramones are timeless and I
still listen to The Clash regularly but it's been a while since I've spun the
DOA, UK Subs or Circle Jerks.
Even so, I totally dig Sloan’s Hardcore
7” the source of tonight’s dedication song “Jenny.” Sloan seem to have made peace with the fact
that they will never attain that Weezer-level of fame they so richly
deserve. On the plus side for us fans,
that means Sloan get to do whatever the hell they want- including put out a 7”
vinyl hardcore single with an album length bonus download of their versions of
classic hardcore songs by bands like Angry Samoans, Minor Threat and (here they are again) Circle Jerks. You’ve gotta love it- a
genius Power Pop band of guys now in their mid-40’s kicking ass on a bunch of
snotty teenage-angst ridden rants. I
especially love the picture sleeve- an homage to Minor Threat’s 7” swan song
“Salad Days.”
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| Minor Threat, 1985 |
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| Sloan, 2013 |
Sure the Sloan record is pure nostalgia, but it is fun as hell too.
The timing of the Sloan release is interesting because after years of
listening to nothing but hip hop, my son 
Jack has been getting into hardcore
lately. Based on what Sonoma kids listen to from the era, you'd think
Minor Threat and The Misfits were the only punk bands around in the 80's.
It's almost like some weird music embargo was in place and those two groups
were the only ones that managed to breach the blockade. I blame Hot
Topic. In any case, I've enjoyed 
broadening Jack's musical
horizons. He of course
first asked to hear- you guessed it.... The
Misfits and Minor Threat. After that though, I set him up with Angry
Samoans' Back From Samoa, Black Flag's Damaged, and for some
scorching hometown 
flavor This Is Boston Not LA. It's been fun listening to
those records with him- hearing them with his ears. Hardcore was never my
favorite music as I've always been a melody fan. And yes, those who do
not have an ear for the music might quibble with my designation of groups like
Stiff Little Fingers
and The Damned as "melodic," but they certainly
were to me. I definitely appreciate the power of hardcore- there's
no denying its speed and fury. The fact that it was mostly made by
suburban white boys just like me was also a selling point. Plus, these
were the
 |
| I was there! |
halcyon days of the "all ages matinee hardcore show" when we
got to see Black Flag, Husker Du, The Misfits and many others at Boston clubs
where we were not welcome after dark. Once I got to college at Emerson
there were also a ton of hardcore shows at VFW halls and Community Centers
where I saw bands like Minor Threat, The Necros and The Meatmen. Would I
have rather been seeing The
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| I was here too! |
Ramones or The Clash every weekend instead? Sure, but I missed the scenes in New York in 1976 and London in 1977 so I
was going to take full advantage of my scene: Boston in 1982.
The thing I liked least about hardcore was what was first called
slamdancing, then moshing. It just seemed so pointless to me- a bunch of
jocks playing football in front of the stage, completely oblivious to the
band. Stage diving was even worse- I thank Jello Biafra for bringing it
to Boston at a Dead
 |
| Jello in 1981 |
Kennedy's show in what would eventually be the dining hall
of my Emerson dorm, Fensgate. The practice of jumping up on stage,
grabbing the mic from the singer and screaming into it- well I've hit on that
one before. At my first punk shows it was pogo dancing- jumping straight
up and down. Yes you would bounce off other people and toes were stepped
on (we were all wearing Chuck Taylors so no harm) but the point was not to slam
into other people. Moshing seems all about drawing attention to yourself,
battling for
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| Pogo Dancing! |
supremacy in "the pit." Pogoing faced the band and
to me was all about celebrating music you loved so much you had to jump for
joy. The sucky thing about the advent of moshing in Boston was that
people started doing it at all shows- not just hardcore bands. I'll never
forget being at The Channel and getting shoved out of the way by a bunch of
dudes moshing at a Hoodoo Gurus concert. Putting up with a pit full of
douche bags was the price of admission when you saw hardcore bands like Negative Approach or Deep Wound but the HOODOO
GURUS?!?! Come on!
 |
| The Dreaded Mosh Pit |
That said, I will never forget
seeing DOA at the tiny club Cantones near Government Center. A particularly
fierce mosh pit broke out during the first song "F**cked Up Ronnie"
and someone jumped up and smashed one of the ceiling tiles. Within a
minute half the ceiling tiles were down and the room was filling up with
asbestos dust. Owner Teddy Cantone runs on stage and tries to calm
everything down but DOA didn't really help him any by launching into "The
Enemy." Then the rest of the ceiling tiles came down along with a lot of
the metal structure holding them in place and the cops busted in to kick us all
out. Best two song show EVER!
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| DOA, truly hardcore in '81 |
I later heard one of the kids at
the show turned up the next day with a load of ceiling tiles from his dad's
company and rebuilt the ceiling. Don't know if that's true or not but I really
hope it is.
As a postscript I’ve got to mention
that after 35 years , DOA are finally calling it quits. Believe it or
 |
"Mr. Speaker..... Mr. Sh**thead
has the floor" |
not, Joey Sh**head has decided to run for political office in
British Columbia. I respect DOA's tenacity, but I haven't bought any of their records since the early 90's. The last time I saw them was in
1994 or so at legendary all ages punk rock collective 924 Gilman in
Berkeley. I made the mistake of taking my wife Jaime to the show.
It would be an understatement to say she did not have a good time- she found
the 14 year old punks spitting on each other especially horrifying. A few
years earlier Girlfriend Jaime may have pretended to be okay with filthy punk rock clubs,
but Wife Jaime was having NONE of it.
Click the link below to stream this show, or to download, right click and "Save Link As:"
ALL KINDSA GIRLS #107
