Just what is it about Halloween and punk rock? It seems like every October 31^st the punk and hardcore kids come crawling out of the woodwork, decked out in full celebration of the season. But just what is it about Halloween that independent punk rock finds itself drawn to, exactly? It seems like almost anyone you meet these days who likes punk rock will proclaim a love of Halloween. I myself am no exception to this rule. Even though they scare the shit out of me, I love horror movies and have probably seen too many for my own good in the past few weeks leading up to the 31^st. I’ve been to a haunted house AND a viewing of Tim Burton’s classic movie The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D. My high school soundtrack at one point included massive doses of the Misfits. Today I watch the resurgence of horror films in the mainstream with excitement, knowing that this can only be a good thing for the creation of even more gory slasher, sci-fi horror, and vampire films, among others, for my own personal amusement.

In 1977, the Misfits formed in Lodi, New Jersey. There’s no reason for me to go into and extensive history of this band, because let’s face it, they’re the freaking Misfits. The imagery of old horror movies used for their stage presence and costumes, all of that has become an almost integral part of punk rock’s history and an influence on hundreds of bands since then. The Misfits “Skull” logo is on countless shirts, hats, coffee mugs, and tattooed arms and legs at almost any show you go to, especially in October as the end of the month draws closer and closer.

What made it last though? What is it that made the impact of the Misfits last, that makes thousands of punk rock fans turn out on opening nights for horror movies, to perusing Blockbuster for old horror films and get dressed up in costume and celebrate Halloween when other traditional holidays of our childhoods such as Christmas or Thanksgiving are practically shunned by punks? Is it the delicious candy? The mild heart attacks we give ourselves watching movies? Or maybe the fun of putting Richard Nixon masks and Nightmare Before Christmas t-shirts on?

Let’s face it, it’s because it scares people, and such an integral part to punk rock is scaring people. For years Halloween was (and still is sometimes even today) connected to Satanism and other macabre and decidedly non-mainstream Christian-friendly practices, and there’s always a few places in America where Halloween isn’t Halloween without bored teenage idiots pouring chicken blood into a pentagram drawn into the earth of the local cemetery. Even today in 2006, Halloween scares people, inspiring fear and censorship in small-town school dances and haunted houses, and countless babysitters and small children in front of the TV screen. What could be, to delve into cliché, more anti-social and anti-mainstream than the embracement of movies and culture that for years have been derided as “lowbrow” by popular critics and culture? Because lets face it; for years, horror movies were seen as literal trash, something that kids would watch and were seen as having almost no artistic value beyond their commercial draw on late-night TV and in the rental market. To this day, you can still find horror movies in those traditional outlets.

Punk rock for many of us in the end came down to scaring people. Scaring our moms and grandmas with the music and the clothing. Scaring the kids at school who would pick on us. It has been embracing the weird and quirky because we can appreciate the humor and uniqueness of quirk. Sure, the rise of Japanese horror movies and remakes has brought horror to the mainstream. Now, even your mom knows who Leatherface is, and it isn’t unusual for low-budget independent horror films like the Saw trilogy to catapult to the top of a moviegoer’s to-see list. Remind you of any particular time period recently? When Mom and Dad drove you to that Blink-182 concert?

Still, in the end there’s always going to be that thread of connection between the disenfranchised and the slasher film, between those tired of the shit they see around them and midnight monster movie showings. Just like punk rock, horror movies have always been a prime starting place for aspiring film makers, because there will always be someone going down that video store isle looking for a good scare on a Friday night, as sure as there will always be a bored teenager looking for an outlet to their terrible, mundane life. Anyone can get into either horror or punk rock, no matter what. Be it being a sub-par guitar player, or a first-time filmmaker and a fan with a dream.

And that’s what is so fucking great about horror movies. They’re fucking punk rock.

Tags: essay, halloween by Matthew
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Tags: News by Matthew
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I was hanging out with my friend Genevieve a few days ago, as she was going through her music collection to find stuff she didn’t want anymore. One album she came across was a split EP in CD form from a little no-name label, from two obscure bands that probably aren’t around any more. Four of five songs from each band. On vinyl, each band would have had a single side of a 7-inch record to themselves here. CD technology allows us to put it all on one disc the size of a coaster. Which is great for those of use who don’t have room to spare to store records.

Now, in looking at this EP, I noticed a few things. One was that the album had no bar code on it, not even as an added-on sticker after production. Whoever had done this was expecting to only sell them perhaps through the mail, or at shows. The second thing was that, going through the linear notes, was the surprising lack of any sort of “real” internet presence for these bands or this small label. There was contact information posted in the form of personal e-mail accounts, but that’s about it. No label site, no Myspace.com account or Purevolume site, nothing.

Nowadays, you can surf a site like Myspace and find hundreds, if not thousands, of small-time independent punk rock record labels using Myspace to have a solid online presence, to say nothing of the thousands upon thousands of bands that form every day and put up a Myspace page for themselves to establish an internet presence, sometimes without even having any recorded music. The rise in general “computer-savviness” of younger people these days has also brought about such labels and bands finding their own regular websites and domain names on their own, thanks to cheap internet site hosting and a growing level of knowledge in how to create websites. It seems almost impossible for bands to exist in 2006 without some sort of internet presence to showcase their music, to allow for getting contacted for booking, and even for potential label A&R people to seek them out as the “next big thing”.

Even five years ago, such a phenomenon would have been impossible. The long tradition of punk and hardcore traces itself back to DIY and non-mainstream press. Independent zines, newsletters, and catalogues, flyers, and word-of-mouth networks go back to the days of the infamous Black Flag criss-crossing America, playing anywhere that would take a chance on a punk band, and letting their friends know that such venues existed. The Internet boom certainly helped in expanding communications, allowing for an internet version of the book Book Your Own Life (www.byofl.org), and websites for bands so that they could get their music out to people who had never heard of them before.

In 2005, members of several long-running and defunct East Coast hardcore punk bands such as Ensign, Ex Number Five, Mouthpiece, and Lifetime, banded together to form The Fire Still Burns. The Fire Still Burns have, so far, released a 7-inch single on Koi Records, as well as an EP on Blackout! Records. This is just in their first two years of existence so far. TFSB owe much of, if not all of, their rise in popularity thanks almost exclusively to Myspace. Epitaph Records band Matchbook Romance, formerly known as The Getaway, were “discovered” when Epitaph head Brett Gurewitz heard an mp3 posted on the internet punk news site punknews.org. He flew to the East Coast to see them perform and signed them to his label, arguably the most well-known independent punk label today. Another newer Epitaph band, I Am Ghost, proudly boast on their Myspace profile about having only played 4 local shows before getting noticed and signed, selling, as Myspace states, over 20,000 copies of their Epitaph debut .

And yet, in comparison, you can find bands such as Tragedy. The infamous Portland, Oregon, hardcore punk band formed in 2000, and is known for rarely giving interviews, putting their material out on their own label (Tragedy Records), and maintaining no internet presence at all. They have no label site, no blogs, no Purevolume site, no band site, no Myspace (beyond several fansites). They have rarely given interviews and even the contact information listed for Tragedy Records on their releases is sparse. And yet, despite all of this, they still tour and have a dedicated fanbase, having toured as far as Europe.

Beyond their label, Jade Tree Records’ profile on their own website, the only place to find out information about Toronto’s Fucked Up is their blog site, found at http://lookingforgold.blogspot.com. An unusual site, in comparison to other bands, but until recently, it was the only place to find out any information about Fucked Up. Even then, the blog has only been active since November of 2005. Like Tragedy, Fucked Up, who formed in 2001, has a solid fanbase thanks to a slew of vinyl EP releases over the years and constant touring.

How could this happen? As I’d sat there on Genevieve’s couch, staring at the poorly-drawn cover of this EP, I was reminded of what it was like when I first began to dip my toes into punk rock, looking through catalogues and linear notes of albums, and finding almost no information on the internet about punk rock at all (this was back in 1997-1998, when I lived in Athens, Greece, and punk rock was strange enough to frighten the Greek shopkeepers on my block to avoid me as I walked around). I depended on paper mediums and word-of-mouth to find anything out at all, from new releases to tours to basic info on where my favorite bands were from or if they were even still active.

It makes me feel incredibly old and jaded to think this way, but the almost constant overflow of digital presence that the punk rock culture now has seems to deaden it. On one hand, it can make it easier for kids to access and find out about, which for young, alienated and misunderstood kids in the middle of nowhere, far from bustling culturally-overflowing places like New York, is incredible. However, it also does seem to reflect an expectation of almost instant recognition. I remember thinking that a band that could get the money to afford internet hosting and post tour dates outside of local clubs (you can’t flyer the whole nation!) had really “made it”. Now, anyone with a modem and some badly-done promotional pictures can create a website for their band, and they expect that someone will hear or see them and make them big, the next AFI or Green Day or Matchbook Romance.

The internet has almost taken all of the work out of independent, DIY culture, out of the constant touring and, in a way, of the personalization of independent underground networks of contacts and bands. And in the end, sometimes the work itself is all that we have left to set us aside from the mainstream ideals that we’re all about not being a part of.

Tags: DIY, essay by Matthew
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Originally from New Brunswick, New Jersey, Sticks and Stones disbanded in 1995 and played their first full set in a decade on October 30, 2005 at the Hook in Brooklyn. While they were one of the best yet unappreciated punk acts in New Jersey, they are undoubtedly here to stay. This interview was originally aired on BSR - 88.1FM Providence and can be heard in its entirety here.

I’m here with Sticks and Stones, can you guys introduce yourselves?
Pete: I’m Jack Terricloth ni Peter Ventantonio
Chris: I’m Chris
Sam: Osamu Kawahara
Pete: and we’re missing Mr. X ni Mr. Caballero

I’m just wondering first off what made you guys want to re-form?
Pete: Nothing to do between yesterday and tomorrow. The only time I get to see these guys is if we’re playing in a band so I decided to put it together.

Is this the only show you’re going to be doing or do you have any other plans?
Pete: We’ve gotten an outrageous amount of offers in the month we’ve been rehearsing but I don’t know.
Chris: We’ll see if the offers continue after we play tonight. The offers may all drop off very quickly after the performance.

[Read more →]

Tags: Interview, Sticks and Stones by Lauren
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It’s not often that you receive an e-mail from one of your musical heroes. Yesterday, we did. Here is Darryl Jennifer of the legendary Bad Brains, in his own words, responding to my post from the other day.

“I read your review of our first show at CBGB’s , please understand that we have struggled to stay progressive throughout our careers,.. progressive,inventive musicians,not entertainers, but Punk. and yes there is a fine line between a genius and a mad man,my old good friend enjoys walking that line. there is a certain spirit and “way” that is Punk Rock,remember we are a Punk Rock band, HR is 52yrs old, can you blame him creating such a bazaar character for himself , don’t be selfish, let the arts and artist live, why complain about seeing us for $40 ,..we bled for this music,the scene …the right to musical freedom and expression regardless of race,creed ……… literally - can’t we catch 1 pay day?

Did you think that HR was going to come on stage like it was 1982?

we apologize about the head set mic,the guy was only trying to do something different with his presence and stage show, don’t grudge us for not wanting to be a “juke box” we have a whole new album and we decided to play our old shit in respects to our fans. Tuesday and Wed. shows went well and HR abandoned his quest to be himself and “juked boxed” a little for the fans …..sorry you missed it. none of us will never know what to expect when the Brains are set to perform, such is the nature of the music and scene that it is born of - Now come on down to the LIONS DEN on Nov.2nd and catch BLAKVOVA. thanks for your comments. DJ “

I just want to say that I appreciate DJ reaching out and commenting on the blog. I look forward to (and you should to) an interview with him discussing everything I wrote, along with a recap of the three-night stand and the future of the Bad Brains.

Stay tuned as always.

Tags: Bad Brains by Matthew
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