MRR 246
Most pressing issues first. Mr. Mike Thorn mentioned my moustache (make that MOSHSTACHE sucka) in the last issue. OK, I sported this moustache for all of three weeks. It was a bet with the other members of Damage Deposit. We were playing one very metal show with Martyr AD and thought it would be a good idea to put the ‘stache back in thrash for this event. In the end Mario, Colin and Nic backed out and it was left to Ben Crew and I to represent the facial hair at the metal show. I backed this up by wearing a cop uniform that would have made the village people proud. Photos will appear on the Damage Deposit website before long. I promptly shaved off the ‘stache the next day. I have been rocking ‘stache free for some time since. But you know what, so what if I grew a moustache. I mean there’s no reason you can’t be DIY and rock the ‘stache at the same time. Who is Mike Thorn to make the rules and say moustaches aren’t core? At least one super hot local super punk girl thought the ‘stache was rad, although most said I looked like a child molester. I think Mike Thorn should stick to writing burrito reviews and keep his clean shaven face outta the punk fashion world when there are real crisis afoot in the world. Such as:

Flip Flops in hardcore! Who the fuck started this? I keep seeing kids at shows in flip flops. In fact, I went to see Annihilation Time when Fred was still singing and duder was wearing flip flops, oakly’s and Jamms. What the fuck? That’s not Core dude! Look at the map, this is Minnesota. Leather boots are still in style for manly footwear in these parts. I saw the singer of a local tough guy hardcore band at a show the other day in flip flops. What the fuck? Tough guys should wear shit like 18 hole oxblood doc martens with steel toes. Sorry, but all the militant SE posturing in the world is gonna come off superficial without proper footwear. I wear Red Wing boots year round, do you know what’s going to happen to your delicate flip flop clad feet when you get caught in a mosh? Fucking broken toes and shit. That’s fucked up. Flip Flops out of hardcore now!

Pointless fest in Philly was fucking amazing! Thanks to all the kids who came out and made this shit larger than life. Most of the best bands in North American DIY crust and hardcore got to play, plus last ever gigs from Totalitar. And best of all the show was attended by 100% die hard true believers from all over. There were almost no poseurs, just people who really believed in the thrash. It was great to see so many friends and great bands in one place. Inepsy and AOS totally took my by surprise as I’ve never been into either bands records. Totalitar, Tragedy, From Ashes Rise, Drop Dead, Aphasia, Municipal Waste, Crucial Unit, World Burns to Death, Caustic Christ man, so many great bands coming one after another like some sort of three day multiple thrash orgasm.

Tough HC/Moshcore bands No Warning and Sworn Enemy have signed to major labels, following Hatebreeds lead. Rumor has it the industry is going to try to market tough guy mosh to the Korn/Bizkit crowd as “urban metal.” I hope this one doesn’t pan out for the industry.

Here’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I think the punk scene, especially the street punk/pogo punk scene, at the moment is sitting wide open to another onslaught of right wing/nazi organizing and attacks. There are fewer and fewer people active in the scene today who remember all the trouble nazi skinheads caused in the 80’s who will take a stand. And since sept 11th it seems more and more common for bands to avoid political topics altogether or even to swing to the right. I look around at a lot of places and I don’t see a lot of kids who would take a stand until it was too late. From what I know the far right in this country is currently leaderless and regrouping. I would be very concerned that a new breed of youth organizers might come out of left field and try to capitalize on the current political situation to start a lot of trouble in the youth culture. Keep you eyes out for this sort of activity, this is a war we don’t need to fight over again.

One last thing, and this is deadly fucking serious. I’d like to open the floor for debate on Linear versus Circular Mosh. I’ve noticed on tour that in a lot of towns the circle pit has been replaced by this sort of “red rover” mosh that’s really just three guys running back and forth across the room and mashing into the crowd. This one man wall of death thing I think it ass backwards. In the circular mosh format the energy is concentrated towards the center of the room. The participants contribute to each others intensity building like a hurricaine about to hit Miami. But in linear mosh the energy is diffused from the center outside the pit. The energy at a show needs to be up front by the stage this is where the stage dives and sing alongs occur. Driving the energy to the sides and back of the room just goes against the laws of physics and creates a vacuum in the center of the room into which no energy builds up. As Ready To Fight put it “circle mosh or fucking die!”

Boss records that made my summer: A team 7”, Career Suicide 7”, Knife Fight 7”, Violent Minds 7”, In the Wake of the Plague 7”, Uncurbed 10”, Headless Horsemen 7”, To What End 7”, Sitkids LP, Martyr Dod LP, Oktobr 7”, Exhale Diallo split 7”, Copenhagen Hardcore double 7” comp. Rock that shit.

Publication Date:
November 1, 2003

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