Henry Rollins has this bit called Future Parents, where he talks about this generation of parents as the first to be more [musically] intense than both their own parents and their own kids.
At the end of the bit, Rollins imagines a parent today, upon hearing his 15 year old son's idea of hard music, teaching the kid what hard really means. Rollins imitates a crying, sniveling kid talking to his friends:
"And then...he made me listen to Danzig....and Black Sabbath and Slayer...really loud!"
Every time I listen to that I'm sorry to say that Rollins was right.
Natalie thinks Avril Lavigne is punk. DJ thinks Matchbox 20 is hard. We sit in the living room watching the Grammys and I listen to them discuss music. I shake my head in sad disgust and ask my husband where we went wrong. Finally, when Natalie insists that Good Charlotte defines the new punk movement, we realize it's time for action.
Obviously they don't remember the days of turning the living room into a mosh pit while listening to Metallica's Black Album. If they did, they wouldn't be calling Puddle of Mudd heavy metal.
We drag them over to the CD case. It's time to teach these kids right from wrong. Mind you, I don't care what kind of music they listen to. But I insist they pay homage to the bands of my wreckless youth properly.
They sit on the floor, more frigthened than Dave Matthews in a mob of Guns n Roses fans.
This, I say, is punk. I spit when I say the word punk. I'm holding a Misfits album. Yes, album. As in vinyl. I don't have a turntable to play it on, but they get the point by just looking at the album cover. I run through my vinyl collection. I call out the names of the bands and shout PUNK! after each of them. My husband punctuates this by yelling out New Found Glory, NOT PUNK!
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— go to most recent comments1 - Andrew
Real punk will get you in trouble for listening to it in a public place (i.e. work + antiflag = can only listen to the radio for the rest of the summer).
Avril : The new version of pop, take that as you will. And the whole Bowie thing is an absolute crime, for most people, but if you're in the industry (and are thus representing it) participating in a press conference for a sham of an award show and you don't know who David Bowie is ... you should be shot.
I still like some NFG and Sum41 songs ... but punk rock they are not.
Great Punk Songs: Nofx "The Decline"; weighing in at damm near 19 minutes long, reason enough to at least listen to it once.
The Exploited "Sex and Violence" ... its just that simple.
One thing that will make you respect the Ramones less : Try watching Rock and Roll High School sober.
2 - Eric Olsen
Andrew, I just saw R&R High School over the weekend - sober - and I don't agree at all. I loved it, and though obviously stylized, whenever the Ramones played anything the energy was through the roof. Our 3 year-old got so charged up dancing around the room that when I tried to pick her up she kicked me in the jaw so hard it nearly came unhinged.
All that movie is about is the great manic energy of rock 'n' roll, which it conveys spectacularly well.
3 - mike
We haven't lost 'em all just yet. A kid I work with ran up to me the other day all excited that he was able to find, on vinyl, Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables by the Dead Kennedys.
4 - Eric Olsen
My son rocks hard at 15, although he didn't know whaat to make of Napalm Death
5 - uglyamerican
My 4 week old ordered the Morbid Angel reissues on line last week. Now that's hardcore.
6 - The Theory
*The Theory... is 19 and rocks hard*
I'm all about the older music.
peace.
7 - Rusted Metal
I do like some of the "harder" stuff that is played today, some of it is actually kick-ass...
One thing you will notice is that virtually none of the artist today can be considered proficient at playing their instruments...
GODS OF ROCK
Led Zepplin
Pink Floyd
Rush
Yes
Deep Purple
Jimi Hendrix
etc...
I could go on for hours...
The bands of today are nowhere near in talent or intensity of any of the GODS!
8 - The Theory
i disagree with that, somewhat. It's not that bands aren't talented, it's just that the talented bands aren't getting popular.
peace.
9 - Bill Sherman
Welp, I'm enjoying a lot of the new pop-punk bands, but, then, I also liked a lot of power pop groups (20/20, Shoes, Rezillos et al) back in the day just as much as I loved the Ramones and Sex Pistols. It really does depend on when you came in on the music. Michele considers Metallica heavy: to me, it sounds as dull and removed from the source as a sixth generation Freddy Krueger flick.
10 - Eric Olsen
I'm with Bill on the power pop/punk fixation, and I also have probs with Metallica, never could handle the vocals, like an injured seal.
11 - michele
Actually Bill, I only consider Metallica heavy in relation to what my kids are listening to. For me, heavy is Meshuggah or Skinlab, even Rammstein.
While I have no problem with what my kids listen to, the point of the lesson we gave them was to correctly define what they are listening to.
However, it pains me when a band like AFI is just getting noticed in the mainstream now, and only because bands like Good Charlotte paved the way. It should have been the other way around.
12 - tzippora
Michele, I know exactly what you mean. I'd never heard of AFI, and then my friend took me to one of their concerts a while ago...
There are a lot of awesome underground bands, and it's really a crime that so few of them get noticed.
13 - Eric Olsen
I know your point is the ignorance and softness of the latest generation, but it's the same every time. Even the parents who grew up in the '50s thought the music their kids listened to wasn't as wild as Little Richard, Jerry Lee, Eddie Cochran, the first wave.
As kids get older they go back in time and check out the roots of their fave styles - all my sons high school friends are into Nirvana, Primus, RH Chili Peppers, ie a generation back. Have faith in the fruit of your loins.
14 - Andrew
R&R High School:
Eric, people dressed up like giant Rats that explode unless they have head-phones on ... just try and find a way in which that idea wasn't inspired by a combination of shrooms and acid.
The Ramones played while walking ... moving drums and everything.
Highly stylized it was, and more entertaining than many insipid "teen" movies ... but that moving was still pretty bad and F**ked up in its own right.
15 - undertoad
in my opinion, you should not be able to walk the streets unless you have listened to bill hicks and
to the entire catalog of albums by x.
16 - michele
My kids are a little too young for Bill Hicks, but we have the whole collection waiting for them when the time is right.
17 - katydid
i am a diehard fan of the ramones, afi, anti-flag, and any random metal/punk/hardcore music i can find (well, thats in addition to the light fluffy electronic stuff and the dark twisted electronic stuff and all the other random shit), but i do like good charlotte and avril. i cant explain why...wait...yes i can.
i like good charlotte cause they are somewhat of a throwback (in their videos anyway) to the underground punk/newspaper/comic stuff from the early eighties. i enjoy avril cause i like the skater thing, and i just think shes kinda cute. she also reminds me of a friend of a friend...although said friend is even more of the high energy, wacky, playing with things in the mall sort.
my current focus is t.A.T.u. a little russian duo who hit america about a week ago...though i've listened to them for longer. theyre that same in your face, we will do what we like and fuck you if you dont like it sort as many of the early punk bands.
18 - James Russell
One thing you will notice is that virtually none of the artist today can be considered proficient at playing their instruments...
Lack of technical ability isn't necessarily a defect. Was Moe Tucker a technically proficient drummer? I think not. Was she right for what the Velvet Underground were doing? Yes. Same goes for Bobby Gillespie when he was the Jesus & Mary Chain's drummer.
19 - dawn
I always listened to heavy metal throughout my youth, and I always pledged to not become an adult who scoffed at loud and raucous music played by the younger generation. But here I am, wanting kids to turn down the music not because it's too loud or I'm too old, but because it's wimpy and annoying! Props to you guys who are ensuring that when your munchkins say, "I Wanna Rock!" that they're not turning on stuff that's fit for Muzak.
20 - uglyamerican
My 4 week old just bought tickets to the Milwaukee Metal Fest. Now that's hardcore.
21 - Eric Olsen
Perhaps, but when our 3 year-old was in the womb she used to fax out requests for Bolt Thrower and Obituary.
22 - michele
hah! My ten year old was conceived to the strains of Cannibal Corpse.
23 - Eric Olsen
Oh yeah?? Well my 18 year-old was conceived to the strains of ...... I can't remember, it was too long ago.
24 - The Theory
ummmm... my dad used to listen to Stryper. That's pretty hardcore.
peace.
25 - uglyamerican
My 4 week old called me a poser for listening to Cradle of Filth, then he kicked me in the groin, popped a beer, and started singing along to the fist Bathory album (on vinyl). Now that's hardcore.