Do you remember the 80's hardcore punk scene?

The punk scene here in Los Angeles back in the 80's when I was in my teens and early 20's played a big part in influencing my anti-corporate, anti-republican, anti-reagan, anti-war, anti-phony patriotism, anti-police state, counter culture identity. I consider myself lucky in that just a few blocks away here in San Pedro, CA we had a small local venue where a lot of the popular punk bands played.

Now in my 40's my favorite music is classic rock and I don't really listen to hardcore anymore, but, I am glad it was around at that age in my life. I couldn't imagine what it would have been like without it. I have to admit I feel sorry for the kids today because I really don't see anything for them the way I and the 70's and 60's youth had.

Anyway, I was watching this documentary on google video about hardcore punk and it brought back some memories I thought to share. If you were into the punk scene back then and haven't yet seen this video or find the topic interesting, this is a good video to watch. LOL, right now I am hungry and this just reminded me of Oki Dogs in Hollywood. Yummmmmmm. :)


American Hardcore ((video link))

Those were the years I was raising young children. . They can be a tremendous distraction.

Different generation.

Does that count?

are you still in a band?

...in my sig line!

At least musically.

But the 80's scene had it's moments too. I really love the "do it yourself" attitude that comes across even in the fliers.

Some of my best memories are from those really small, illegal shows that the kids used to put on in abandoned building downtown. To me, that is the real essense of "punk"- kids doing their own thing no matter what.

We agree- music & culture probably does more to shape politics than people realize.

I also wonder what kind of Rock & Roll scenes are out there for kids today- I've just started to assume that a true Rock & Roll teen-to-early 20's scene doesnt even exist anymore.

I saw the Clash, Buzzcocks, Pistols,

X Ray Spex were terrific b/c they were real live teenagers.

War Bondage- Up yours!

Lucky you for witnessing history 1st hand!

I was never a big fan myself, but I had a bunch of friends who were listening to the Dead Kennedys, Black Flag and the Circle Jerks at the time. They were pretty rabid about it too.

What I do appreciate about that scene, even though I only had a small appreciation of it, was that it really glorified SoCal for me. It became a mythical place and it seemed that there was always so much happening on the music and cultural scenes there that carried well into the 90's. I remember watching movies like "Repo Man" and "Fast Times" when I was a teenager and thinking I really wanted to be a part of that, and that it was such a far cry from my sleepy WV upbringing. Now I look at SoCal and all I see is too many people, too many cars and expensive living. I would still like to visit though.

Except when we finally got there, it really WAS cool. ;)

During the period of time that the OP referenced, I was heavy into music from the Athens scene and associated acts: REM, the dB's, B-52's, Guadalcanal Diary etc...

I spent some time in Athens in the early 90's and it was a kick-ass environment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twSREBowTwQ - DOA World War III

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5ZKEuRrR3E - Black Flag - Rise Above/American Waste

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu4VeAzx8HI - The Misfits - I Turned Into A Martian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01l8AjsRL5E - Social Distortion - Mommy's Little Monster

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDcfPZOBiow - Dead Kennedys - MTV Get Off The Air

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOf6w59jz_g - Minor Threat - In My Eyes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tOEGniwus4 - Bad Brains - Pay to Cum

til the 80's something...

The L A scene was amazing....

http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Punk/pflyers.htm


Tikki

and a good movie...

Remember Punk was leaderless by design. Like the OP said...
Gave you a chance to define yourself and become your own idol.




Tikki

I don't want to think of what Salt Lake was like in the 80s.

Maybe a bit more liberal than the Reagan-loving Utah, but nowhere near where it is today.

My parents probably have some stories, though.

In Atlanta,at least.
Its Centered around a club called Lenny's.
Black Lips,Carbonas and The Selmanaires are some of the hot punk bands these days.

Frankly, I think they are better than most hard core I've heard- they have a sense of melody that is missing (for better or worse) in most 80's hard core.

They are closer to the original "garage" punks of the mid 60's than 80's hardcore, and one of the few newer bands that I like.

I'll have to check out the other bands you are associating with them- glad to hear that you are a fan of that sound...

Members of the Selmanaires are friends of mine.
Musicly,they don't sound like 80's punkers(as in they actually know how to play their instruments),but they have the same attitudes as the 80's punkers.
The fan base,however,is,imo, just as crazy as back then.
Want commit suicide?Go to Lenny's dressed like a hippy.

The whole "we hate the hippies" thing always made me laugh.

Hey, even the hippies were "punks" until they all went to college. The cut-off point must be early 1968- but I digress....

do not realize they are neo hippies either.
They flip out when I tell em that raves are just updated versions of electric kool-aide acid tests.After I have to explain to them what an acid test is,that is.

I believe this is were I developed my sense of anti-authoritarianism from.

Not in LA. I lived in NY. Not NY, NY-- upstate. But we got around, showed our own bands at places like the Ukranian Home and Community Centers. A local live music club hosted the Ramones, Sonic Youth, Black Flag, Red Hot Chili Peppers, 7 Seconds, Butthole Surfers, Bim Skala Bim, Bad Brains, SS Decontrol, The Replacements, Husker Du, Violent Femmes, Faith No More, Circle Jerks, Cro-Mags. We would go to shows in other cities close to ours, that is how I caught The Descendants and many others. Later, I did go out to CA but to San Diego and saw other bands -- lots of other bands--MDI, COC, Plain Wrap, -- I can't remember them all. I caught a great show -- Minutemen --up in Berkley on a road trip-- right before D. Boone was in a fatal accident. Our local scene was very good although we used to complain about it being lame all the time. But isn't that always the way? If we were in a kicking active scene, we would have been priced out.

The music and the scene gave me a place to let off the frustration of the Reagan years. It gave me room to be an independent thinker no matter how unpopular an opinion, it was accepted that pissing people off was usually a good thing.

The Lollapalooza-- I was going to go but ended up not d/t adult responsibility and I see that as the point in which I drifted away from the whole scene and focused my live on more practicalities and seriousness of work. I realized later, when considering attending the Warped Tour, there is really no place for a 40 year old there (unless bailing someone out). The scene belongs to the young.

I am very glad to have the experience and the suspended adulthood it afforded me. I have no regrets as I had so much fun. I met so many different people but we all had the very same look in our eye. What really saddens me is stores like Hot Topic. I think we would have worn shredded Izod rather than shop at a place like that. DIY all the way.

... I was always wary of taking my politics from social movements. Much of the "Sixties Generation" became actively oppressive in this era. It required a great deal of commitment for the early Boomers to maintain their politics if their convictions came from socialization alone. Few made the transition, but most of them seem to have ended up on DU. :)

I also never really liked the practice of the bourgeois criticizing the bourgeois for being bourgeois, and proclaiming themselves as radical -- the Dead Kennedys, for example. And I found the whole idea of "The Soundtrack To The Revolution" to be repulsive, more "corporate" than even irony would allow.

So like most of my friends, I grieved for Darby and pined for Olivia and cultivated my cynicism, but a few years later was an instant REM/dBs/Three O'Clock/Guadalcanal Diary/28th Day fan. I was a little older than the crowd then (b. 1958), but the "college music" scene was much more to my liking.

No political wank. More approachable, smaller venues, a less-competitive scene, less starry-eyed. I'm still in touch with some of those friends.

--d!

... Social Distortion and the Dead Kennedys started making money.

You're only describing the Los Angeles punk scene, which was very different from Washington, DC. Many considered DC the punk capital of the East Coast. Your claim that punk everywhere was "anti - republican" (lower case r) and "anti - corporate" hardly applies to the DC punk scene where many punk musicians had day jobs in all sorts of places, even though they had to talk about those day jobs discreetly.

Is it a coincidence that punk rock never had an outdoor rock festival like Monterey Pop or Woodstock attracting people from all over the United States? No. Punk audiences were always much more fragmented than 1960s festival audiences.

In the 1980s (and to a certain extent today) you can't make a living as a background extra actor in the DC area. So many punk musicians had to take day jobs outside the entertainment field. Working for the Kennedy Center just didn't seem right.

In Los Angeles people understand that a stage costume or movie wardrobe is a superficial ticket to new opportunities, so 1980s musicians like Johnny Depp had no trouble finding a day job where they simply wore different costumes. They told their fellow musicians their costumes were just costumes, but Washington, DC people couldn't say that so easily. In DC, blind loyalty to a small group is everything. So the DC punkers had a "don't ask, don't tell" policy about their Monday morning activities at an office or store. Don't look for evidence that the punk guitarist hangs out with other democrats all the time. Why didn't punk guitarists and drummers play punk music full - time? Because in DC punk isn't supposed to make much money. If it does, then the band has sold out. It was like that in the DC of the 1980s, and it remains today. The band Fugazi never has wanted to make a large profit.

Xicano, your post contains so much time traveling back and forth, some of it to the 1960s, that you might as well say punk rock influenced the creators of the 1970s TV network series "San Pedro Beach Bums." Of course, it didn't.

San Pedro is not far from Long Beach where bands like Fleetwood Mac and REO Speedwagon filmed concerts specifically for the syndicated TV series "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert." Contrary to punk rockers' belief that that rich kids paid to sit in a television studio to hear the "ritzy" Fleetwood Mac, in fact the crew of "Rock Concert" rounded up drug users from the beach at Long Beach to sit in the audience of the theater where the show was always filmed. If people use enough drugs, they will express enthusiasm about any rock band in order to see them for free. And they might meet other audience members who will give them free drugs or alcohol.

If you understand anything about punk rock, then you know it was the first genre of music that white people in the DC area ever became possessive about. Electric guitarists in the DC area contributed very little to 1960s rock, and those that did like Jorma Kaukonen hitchhiked to California to contribute. Then in 1976 when London launched punk, DC found out about immediately, grabbed it and never let go. To this day inexpensive rock clubs in downtown DC feature punk bands almost exclusively. You don't hear "electro hop" bands like LMFAO.

Have you seen the Capitol of Punk web site? You might get a kick out of it. http://yellowarrow.net/capitolofpunk/

Links are mostly broken but there are podcasts here: http://yellowarrow.net/capitolofpunk/pod.xml

Some of the interviews back up exactly what you're saying.

Google The Authorities or Hot Spit Dancers. There was a pretty big scene going on in NoCal at the time as well.

Dead Kennedys told the truth.

that is about it,

concert of 2008 in London - they sold out a theatre for 5 days straight in about an hour. They are in their late 40's and sober now, and they are an incredible band. I also loved the late great Ramones, who inspired the Pistols, and I like a lot of Social Distortion. Punk brought the focus back on simple but absolutely right guitar playing, reminding me of the OLD rockers, like Steve Cropper and Scotty Moore. I love that type of music still.

mark

of the fifties and sixties, the two best decades in popular music. I enjoy a lot of punk. Some I don't care for.

I haven't given up listening to OSHCPunk...this must be the cycle
that always happens 'cause right now it is everywhere to be heard on the internets.

Think of the most obscure song and you will find it on a blog or podcast or some radio show somewhere.
Play it loud for the neighbor kids to hear. If you want to be a part
of influencing new music....this OSHCLAPunk is a grand site and sound for young musicians.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivDsKQtou_w
"Survive"..... Bags
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOZBGJHw4Tw
"Mindless Contentment"....Plugz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaneGU4Xg0w
"No God".....Germs




Tikki

and everyone played. Ummmm Oki Dog.

Club Argyle, Stardust, Starwood, Masque, Florentine Gardens, Elk's Lodge Hall, Al's Bar, Hong Kong Inn...
someone here, already, mentioned Madame Wongs, and there was the Golden Bear, Club 88...so many others besides the
Whiskey and the Roxy and the Troubadour.


Tikki
The (Perkins) Palace and the Palladium..

Jello Biafra impression and he knows ALL of the words - which is a feat in itself....:P

Does anyone remember when Jello Biafra went through a long obscenity trial in 1985 ? Frank Zappa testified on his behalf. Someone who didn't like Mr. Biafra donated money to Jerry Falwell's organization in Virginia using the name "Jello Biafra" and using the real Jello's mailing address in California. The actual guy from the Dead Kennedys got a letter in the mail thanking him for his contribution, and Mr. Zappa published it in his 1988 autobiography. You can see it in a library copy near you.

story as I recall. He's a really interesting and intelligent guy. He's always into something new too.
I think my husband said DK might reunite or something, maybe for a show or a tour...

I was so fond of the punk movement from an old dude looking for the youth to rise up perspective.
Damn, that was cool.




"Pretty vacant....no future"

Protest doesn't get any scarier for the establishment than that!

I've got my Circle Jerks and Black Flag in my collection, as well as proto-Straight Edge stuff such as Minor Threat and Youth Brigade.

It really gave some perspective on how punk changed the music world.

The movie was all about Factory Records, Tony Wilson and the UK Manchester music scene.

I remember it all. Wonderful.

The bands: Benedict Arnold & The Traitors (#1-5) and The Hundredth Monkey (#6-7)

#1: Benedict Arnold & The Traitors, circa 1982



#2: Band's flyer for Cathay de Grande, 1982



#3: Band's flyer for Club 88 gig



#4: Flyer for Smog Marines/Stains/Benedict Arnold & The Traitors, 1981



#5: Flipside (punk fanzine)- Rodney Bingenheimer Top Twenty list



#6: Rock Against Reagan Tour, Los Angeles CA, October 30, 1983



#7: Preliminary sketch by artist/band member Brad Frost, for RAR Flyer (above)



More at http://www.BenedictArnoldAndTheTraitors.com

A great band, sir...


HA! The Little Girls ..."Earthquake"...
Our grandson (7)dances all around the room to that number.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceY2zAMkCqQ



The Tikkis

...The Little Girls beat us by TWO!

I'm so ashamed...

Seriously, I cannot believe how I now look at the "80s" as a great period of my life. I used to hate slogging my shit into the piss-stained environs of the Cathay de Grande, but I now look back at it with a very warm (like stale-warm beer) feeling.

BTW: RIP Brendan Mullen, wherever you are.

Santa Barbara punk bands...and the LA bands like X and Social Distortion, the Germs and the Circle Jerks too, were early scene drivers in SB...never liked Black Flag.

I agree though exposure to that music and its values shaped my own political thinking and growth...it was definitely a radicalizing experience and led me to Nicaragua in the early and mid-1980s.

I'm 43 and still wear my hawk,I color it too. I will not Go along quietly or do what I am supposed to do 43 means nothing to me.. Punk in the 80's was when people realized on some level simple pacifism was not going to free anyone of the state if those same rich psychopath pigs opressing you and co-opting the counterculture didn't give a shit about who they hurt to get thier way.It was liberation with spiked teeth.And the anger was real and directed upwards twords the top where it SHOULD be. People have forgotten what punk meant,the kinds of risk ,outrage ,rebellion,fists,and words and willingness to share what they have,defend each other,and the level of defiance of authority it takes to be free. It has not been fun all the time,life is not easy, but dammit,I refuse to be anything but free and I don't care about what anyone with money, or'normality'as thier chosen POV thinks about it. Either you in the way,part of a solution or the problem.

..."anger is an energy...." "Rise"....PIL

...."life is a scream....mad is an action...." "The Scream"...The Screamers


Tikki

They always had some hardcore punk playing. I could never get into it; it all sounded the same to me after awhile (I know, I know...)

I did see the Clash in concert once ('82).

I hated Reagan all the same, even though I was more of a U2, REM, English Beat kind of a girl in the early 80s.

We had lots of all ages shows here in Boston and the late 70s/80s scene here was amazing.

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2009/02/06/recalling_primal_scream_of_hardcore/

http://www.movienet.com/americanhardcore.html

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.channel&ChannelID=401000547

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/This_Is_Boston,_Not_L.A.#encyclopedia

having grown up in the mid 90's. Nevertheless, L.A. hardcore was my music of choice; and I considered myself a 'hardcore kid'.

will the last American band to get played on the radio please bring the flag, please bring the flag, glitter disco synthesizer night school, all this noble savage drum, drum, drum, astronauts go back in time gonna hang out with the cave people, it's about time, it's about space, it's about some people in strange places, Woody Guthrie sang about b-e-e-t-s, not b-e-a-t-s, I must not think bad thoughts...

and a few decent bands. There's a difference between California punk and NY punk. I grew up in NJ, and to this day, the Adolescents are about the only punk band I can handle from CA. My husband has worked in the punk scene for a long, long time and L.A. is no longer punk and hasn't been for a very long time. When punk shows became fashion shows, it all went down the toilet.

I listen to their music and am always confronted with thought provoking sounds and ideas. I love their whole mythology and the videos that they made . I think that what they had to say about De-evolution is still relevant today.I think my favorite Devo song so far is Freedom of Choice (i think that somes up our society we really want freedom FROM choice) I just found out about Gary Numan and thought his song "cars" is totally brilliant. We do live in our little pod worlds -in cars. I also really like the synths that he uses.
They are not "hard core" but I really think they are more mind fuck rather than fuck you
Just My two cents

Because I like it, it's comfortable and I don't want to change it.However I am not limited. Listened to Devo love 'em,now gary neuman too,he has great stuff,I also like alot of things then and now, off the top of my head.. depeche mode,slayer,katalysm,dresden dolls,statovarious,and cat power and tiger army, bauhaus and paul simon,leatherstrip,assemblage 23 ,juno reactor...If I even tried to list all the music I like it would take days.I would on one tape back than I put dead kennedys,suicidal tendancies,earth wind and fire, ozric tentacles,and tangerine dream. One aspect overlooked about the 80's scene is punk was about exploration and finding the way out of the molds society forces you onto.Exploring music as well as life.