Publication:
MaximumRockNRoll

Author:
Felix Von Havoc

MRR #204
This is MRR's family or breeding theme issue or something like that. I'm officially sterile. Sperm count zero. I had a vasectomy in 1988 at age 19. I wrote about this experience in the first issue of Profane Existence. I outlined what were then my political and environmental concerns that lead me to my zero population growth opinions, especially in regards to myself. Re-reading my reasons for taking such a drastic family planning measure 12 years ago I have to say I still hold al the same views. The population of our planet continues to grow out of control as we do untold damage to our natural environment even with our current population. So I thought some of you might like to hear the viewpoint of a guy who had a vasectomy as an idealistic teenage punk kid some twelve years later.

First I'm still amazed that a doctor would conduct such an operation on a nineteen year old kid. I mean I look now at some of the tattoos I got when I was nineteen and ask myself "what the fuck was I thinking." I had to go into the doctor's office with my girlfriend at the time for a counseling session. We told him we were planning to get married and spend the rest of our lives together (which was a lie) and that we didn't want to have a family ever. He seemed to think I had my mind made up, maybe he needed new tires for his Cadillac, either way he consented to perform the operation after this one counseling session. In contrast when my mother re-married some ten years ago it took months of counseling for a doctor to agree to perform a vasectomy on my step-father. The operation cost only 240$ which was a little more than a weeks pay for me as a screen printer at the time. People were amazed that I would take such a drastic action. Lots of people told my I'd regret it. I never have. Here I sit 12 years later, still unmarried and childless and happy to be so.

I started fooling around sexually at age 14, I got my vasectomy at 19, I'm 30 now. In that time period I think I've had sex with between 80 and 90 women. I never got any of those women pregnant! I never had to force a woman to choose between carrying and ending a pregnancy. Never had to make her go through emotional and physical stress of abortion or childbirth etc. It's sort of embarrassing now, but I when I was younger and drank a lot I was a "player" a "skirt chaser" and all around male slut. Older now and over six years sober I'm still trying to live that image down, but I think I acted about the same as a lot of punk guys who liked to party, played in bands and toured around a lot.

In the swinging seventies getting a vasectomy was a hip form of birth control for guys who got around. In the age of AIDS and increased awareness about STD's a vasectomy is considered a great form of family planning within a monogamous relationship where both partners have tested negative. However, it is no longer a license to swing without a rubber. This was a big problem for me in my wilder, drunker, looser days and in drunk and horny stupors I often failed to practice the safe sex that I should have. I was lucky and I've learned, a few close calls with STD's shocked me enough to be more careful, and I must add respectful. Our society gives kids a lot of mixed messages about sex in their formative years. When I first started fooling around AIDS was just starting to become recognized as an epidemic, and there was none of the AIDS prevention sort of activities going on as there are today, such as punch bowls of free rubbers at places where young people hang out. In those days, the number one concern was pregnancy not STD's and once the threat of impregnating a woman was removed from my shoulders it was easy to forget about the threat of STDs. Like a lot of young people I thought it couldn't happen to me and luckily it didn't. However, that was just blind luck. Unsafe sex is like Russian Roulette and someone as "active" as I was spun the chamber too many times.

The temptation to engage in unsafe sex is to my mind the only drawback or regret I've experienced in 12 years of sterility. I've never harbored any desire to breed or multiply. I don't care much for kids. I don't want the responsibility of raising a family. I've never met a woman I'd seriously want to spend 18 years raising a child with. And call me selfish but I'm too absorbed in my own projects to be any sort of father or even boyfriend. I don't think I'll change my mind, ever, but if I ever did I could always adopt or hook up with a single mother. That's not likely, but it’s the kind of thing I tell my grandparents who can't understand my lack of "family values." I've seen a lot of my friends change their lives in major ways due to (usually) unplanned pregnancies. I know a lot of men who knocked up women in moments of furtive passion who are now paying child support for decades to a woman they barely know and child they never see. This sort of social irresponsibility turns my stomach. I know men who had children and have worked hard for years to support them while their mothers lead a dissolute life. Parking the kids with grandparents and partying until the welfare and child support checks run out. I know many who put kids up for adoption or struggle to raise kids with no support from an absent father or mother. All in all I know very, very few couples who sat down and decided to have a child, planned for it and are still happily together raising a family. I hate to sound conservative but I feel that a lot of the social problems we have in America today are the result of poor parenting. And these failed parents are typically thrust into a world of responsibility for which they are unprepared as the result of a sudden and unplanned pregnancy.

I was born as the result of an unplanned pregnancy in the days before legal abortion. My parents split when I was three and I grew up with my mom, on welfare, struggling to make ends meet until I hit the streets myself at 16. My dad stopped paying child support when he went to prison one time and never really took much of an active role in my life. Sometimes I 'd see him every other weekend, sometimes not. I don't regret or resent my parents for any of this and to tell the truth I'm glad I didn't grow up in some sterile middle class suburban environment. But I'm not sure I'd recommend that upbringing to every kid. Since many of my childhood peers died or went to prison quite young I'd have to say that I was one that beat the odds rather than the norm. That said let's talk about music.

I recently had the good fortune to see From Ashes Rise again. They really tore it up at the Old Barn Punk Fest this summer and I was stoked to see them at the Inferno last month. If you are not dialed in to this band get with the program, totally raging, powerful, intelligent hardcore. They seem to have found the perfect mix of dark, brooding and metallic hardcore with full throttle 80's style thrash. The turnout at their Minneapolis gig was paltry (it was a Monday night) but those of us who showed up have seen the light.

Hail to Sweden department: Everyone knows by now that I'm hooked on Scandinavian thrash and there is a lot of great stuff coming out of Sweden right now that some of you might be missing. DS 13 finally has their 12" out on Deranged Records of Toronto. Some of this material is previously released stuff from splits and such but it should serve as a good introduction to the North American masses. Totally killer hardcore like Poison Idea, DRI, Minor Threat and Negative Approach crossed with modern fast hardcore. This record is "all killer and no filler" start to finish soon to be a classic and my pick for best album of the 21st Century. Skitsytem is a band finally getting some attention, I can't keep their new LP on Distortion on the shelves at Extreme Noise. This LP is a real hardcore monument. The production is clean and powerful while still feeling raw and brutal. After seeing these guys once in a Minneapolis basement and then again on a big stage with a killer PA in Umea I'm totally won over. Uncurbed's new LP on Sound Pollution is almost as great as Peace Love Punk Life, but not quite as over the top. Totally killer raw punk thrash with out of control guitar solo's and some of the wackiest political punk lyrics, I love this shit. Another band I can't keep in stock at Exteme Noise is Wolfpack. With an LP on Dirstortion, and Lp or Farewell and a split with Skitsystem this band is weighing in some heavy hardcore damage. Accursed new LP will be out by the time you read this, I haven't heard it yet but I'm certain it will be 100%. Some 7"s to look out for M'Pati from Gothenburg, really heavy and brutal HC. Despite from Malmo (not the Wisconsin Despite) Vicitms, Scumbrigades, ENS, Intensity, fuck why are people still listening all that wack shit they call hardcore nowadays when the real good stuff is there for the taking. Finland's Diaspora has an LP out on Elderberry, political HC with two female singers. There is also an 8" flexi comp. out of Finland called Outoo Maa with some killer fast core, thrash bands.

Much ado has been made lately about new Clash releases. I think the live double LP was kind of weak. I saw the Clash, albeit during their weak 1984 tour, but they still were a very high-energy band. I was pogoing around in front of the stage for the whole set. That energy just doesn't come through on a double live album. Another item is the re-issue of re-mastered Clash LP's on CD. Why? Why tamper with the classics. I don't want the Clash S/T and Give 'Em Enough Rope to sound "better." I want them to sound the same way they did when I first heard them as a kid. What's next "we've digitally re-mastered and cleaned up all those Minor Threat sessions." Leave the digital, CD, whatever to the new music and preserve the artifact that is 70's punk in its original context, on vinyl the way it was released.

I was excited to see the first issue of Short Fast and Loud, a new zine that will cover fast hardcore. There was a feature where the columnists listed the five most embarrassing records in their collection. This got me thinking about what five records I'm most embarrassed to have. Let me say this first though. I have a lot of records that have little or nothing to do with punk and hardcore and I'm not embarrassed of that at all. I have tons of 60's and 70's rock albums, lots of soul, R&B, Hip Hop and Reggae, lots of what we used to call New Wave, some Blues, Jazz and a lot of Metal. Records that I was embarrassed to have a few years ago are now probably big tickets on Ebay like my autographed Judas Priest and Slayer picture disks or early Siouxsie and Banshees and Adam and the Ants 7"s. Things go around and come around and what's not cool now might be the next big thing. I mean who would've thought that Swing music would make a comeback fifty years after its heyday. That said some music will never come back into style because it had very little merit to begin with.

Here than are my five most embarrassing records

Skrewdriver- Antisocial. 7" OK, we all know that this record came out before Skrewdriver got mixed up in Nazi politics but that doesn't really help because we all know what this band became. Still, Antisocial is a pretty kick ass song, and the lyrics are right on too. Of course this band went straight down hill after this record and I in no way endorse their later material.

V/A-K-Tel comp. Hot Nights, City Lights. I actually paid 50 cents for this one. Primarily because it includes Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell." An old girlfriend of mine used to play "Ring My Bell" whenever she was in the mood for ---- ---. Being a guy who can never get enough ---- --- I now have the fondest of memories attached to this song. That said I remain on record as being totally against Disco music.

Loverboy-Get Lucky. This record is incredibly corny. It has no redeeming value critically and will not even be remembered as a footnote when the history of Rock Music is written. However, after ten years in construction I feel special empathy for songs like "Working For the Weekend" which is a Friday afternoon job site favorite. "You take me to the top" is a great ballad and ladies of the 80's will agree with me that this was a great "make out" record in it's day.

Portishead-Dummy. OK this one is especially embarrassing because I heard this band on commercial "alternative" radio then went out and paid full price for the record at a place downtown that carries a lot of import vinyl. Call me a sucker but I really like this band's mix of hip hop, soul and pop. That said this is the only contemporary popular music record I own, period.

Weird Al Yankovic-S/T- Ok this record mostly blows but it's totally worth it for the two big hits "My Bologna" and "Another One Rides the Bus." I played this album for some people recently and they didn't quite get it. But in the early 80's this was so fucking funny since bands like Queen and the Knack were actually taken very seriously then.

Trying to narrow this down I actually rejected a lot of records that I decided I wasn't embarrassed to own at all and I kept telling myself "hey (fill in the bland with Jethro Tull, Urban Dance Squad, Montrose or who ever) really isn't that bad. There is of course no substitute for real punk. Hardcore Rules!

Publication Date:
January 1, 1988

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