#384

I want to write as the Gonz skates. Or better I want to live how he skates, I want the world to be familiar to his style of thrasin’ because it’s far from what reality is and if I could write like that then when it gets printed out on paper this utopist vision will be a bit closer to reality. I was thinking about the rhythm of life and walking with a groove and ended up at the similarities of skateboarding and punk.

Both hobbies are very concerned about self-documentation. Tribes hidden from civilization thought a camera could steal your soul. Modern man thinks only those things exist that are documented. This set of mentality leads into the challenge to film something that really worth to be filmed and all of a sudden the whole skate industry hyped itself into a constant stunt act in which skaters only go out to jump down from neck breaking heights and the actual thrashin’ lost it’s representation and in the rare moments when it appears on screen it feels so heartwarming. To use an allegory here professional skate world seems as if in music progrock won. But kids filming kids skateboarding is very familiar to everyday punk struggles, if a part of a skater equals a song and the whole movie as an album. And just as the best punk albums, good skateboarding movies too, do make you want to go out and participate in the same fun. This eagerness of self-documentation, that probably made the bed for selfies and the whole web 2.0 society, brought every skate rat crew a camera, just as how all the punk crews have a band with a demo. I started to think about what is a stunt in punk. Writing the tightest, coolest songs in Switzerland? Trashing spoons at neck breaking speed in Finland? Dorks, assholes, maniax hitting back the terrorize the society that has melted in the fear of a nuclear war in the shittier parts of the US? Art school drop outs trying to paint shit pictures with their guitars? Mexico holding satanic rituals that is crushing? French people being French but it actually sounds pretty amazing?  

In punk the documentation is focused on the falling not on a controlled and successful landing. The risky minutes when anything can happen. Could everything happen? Everywhere, all the time. I watched a Suicide interview where they said they wanted to make something new and as a listener I could state that they still sound fresh. They created modernism. But are the limits of sonic creativity really border-less? Is it even punks duty to out-do and reinvent themselves? It’s supposed to save the society, bring anarchy and kill cops but it’s not destined to figure out new song structures and produce another sonic dimension. It has to be itself and people who love punk music aka punx have to be themselves as well. I try to accept that when I want something new I don’t always have to look among punk bands. My own social problem is that I always want something new because for me the unknown is what’s interesting so whenever I name drop a band here, I feel as the most boring person ever, because I know that band and for me their greatness is obvious while I wanna be surprised. I want the uncontrolled falling in my head to grab me with it’s weight so we can offer ourselves to gravity and so it be. So I started listening.

I was re-amazed by the awesome noise of Shellac, had a brain crush on Steve Albini and hammered my worn out-work-wise mind with Jesus Lizard’s Goat. When factory workers take ecstasy and I hear it behind all my desks. Fell in love with the finnish Nolla Nolla Nolla and their ep from ’81 what a great reproduction of chilling gloom, no new romanticism but guitars. Mauna Kea’s transcendental noise is amazing, they are probably close to Rakta. Deformity continuing being themselves and why the fuck is short music short, kill shuffle mode and put that in repeat, discovered Piece War, who are such dreamy, cool folk, I wanna watch people draw to their music, Doc Dart’s Patricia is just as exhaustively interesting as his profile piece written by that Born Again dude, and if I were there than I listened to Crucifucks stayed close to the sound and spent hours at work to put Spike In Vain and the Landlords on repeat, death to false historians for forcing interesting bands into the shadow of all that boring shit. Why is it too logical that the majority loves crap? Chrome’s alien disco is mathematical language for free thinkers, too many ideas, Shitlickers swinging their boots so we can like them while Rattus makes me amazed by their too much guitar in my room, Roy Montgomery write songs from different rainy nights soundtrack for the stopped cameras, PERVERS ET TRUANDS bringing heaviness like a river bringing you thrown out trash making a whole city ugly when running through it, Les Vandales writing hymnal hate songs, Barcelona who are the most destructive beautiful band.

These bands are painting a much better picture of the world than what it is actually. That is basically stupid people staring on themselves. If you browse through the holiday photo album of your parents and your friends the main difference will probably be that your parents made pictures of scenes and views when they were happy. If they had enough ego they stood in the left corner of a huge cathedral being happy, smiling. They captured moments. On the other hand your post-modern friends’ digital photo album will be nothing but close ups of their faces with something amazing landmark hidden in the background that is not covered by a pair of pursing lips. They capture their face. You think it’s fucked. But punx helped to arrive here. Some of your friends are probably already this fucked. Most of the shitty bands are just selfies of boring people standing in front of formalities.

Have you read it? New Yorker being tldr over Age of Quarell and United Blood! That was a terrific article. It could have proved that none of us is qualified enough to write as good as it would fit into the New Yorker and at the same time understands hardcore. But it’s not true because punk has so many great minds who can use the language in a really entertaining way when they have to express how good Saccharine Trust is and why do they love Tampere SS. But that article demonstrated the true style of those funny/dumb bands. Hardcore when it is bad takes only one thing serious. The codes of being hardcore. While punx who play hardcore take themselves serious, their circumstances, the world around them and it’s not a terrifyingly awkward ego trip of proving yourself to very stupid people. I agree that hardcore is music played by punx who are more punk than regular punx. But again it’s mostly just fast, angry, heavy, noisy music with some ideas that you can dumpster dive even in a fucking library. When HARLEY FLANAGAN WANTS TO KILL THE BAND MEMBERS OF FVK he is not out punking the punx he is showing how fucking sad, shallow and empty his life is when he is still frustrated over some band beef that happened decades ago. Also only American hardcore is American. Do your fucking homework and open a map then imagine guitars are sold even outside the USA and people can play as fast on them as they want to.

Just take Hungary and my weekend that was ruled by Rákosi, Önkiírtás, Gross Out, Berosszulás. Best hardcore bands of 2015.