It all started with the Middle Class. When one hears the Out of Vogue 7inch, one knows instantly that this is the beginning of something. It laid the proverbial rock-n-roll gauntlet down. Maybe not all over the USA but in LA, and particularly with early fan Keith Morris of the Hermosa Beach-based band Panic who went on to become Black Flag. Black Flag, as we all know, went on to spread the gospel like a disease. Kids afterwards in LA and particularly Orange County wanted to play fast and faster and they started rejecting the over the top look of punk in favor of the more conservative look of the guys in the Middle Class and Black Flag. Hardcore didn’t instantly become a mass movement across America. It started with a small pop in Santa Ana, CA and then it just started to slowly ooze all over the place. Eventually it hit DC, Minor Threat released its first 7inch and that is when shit just blew up. 1981-1984 were Hardcore’s prime years.
Can we all just agree that Out of Vogue was the start of something and move on? The bigger question is when did it end (or did it end at all). One of the stranger things about Hardcore seems to be this practice of refuting anything new and claiming that the stuff that came before was more legitimate and “real”. The stuff that you were a part of. So the dude that was at Oki Dogs in 1980 hanging out with Darby Crash will tell you without a doubt that Hardcore ended in 1982 and anything after that was just poseur bullshit. The original Boston Crew member will tell you it came to an end in 1984 when SSD released How We Rock. The old school DC punk will tell you that it all came to an end in 1985 with Revolution Summer. In Texas it was over when the Big Boys broke up. Maybe it was in 1987 when DRI released Crossover and Suicidal Tendencies released Join The Army? A dude in the New York Crew will flat out tell you that HC was still going strong 1989 with bands like Bold, Gorilla Biscuits and Judge.
Hardcore ended for me in 1985-86. But I can’t choose that date as the end for everybody. As a historical cycle the first wave of Hardcore ended in 1990. The cycle that started with Out of Vogue in 1978 came to its death in New York City towards the end of 1989. The Post-Victim in Pain NYHC was the end of the first wave of US Hardcore. I’m not saying a lot of it was any good. In fact, if you listen to the track by Judge on the attached compilation you may think it was pretty terrible. But it had all of the signifiers that were part of the original Hardcore scene; the mosh-pits, the stage-diving, the Doc Martens, the mixture of weird religious iconography that started with the Bad Brains, the flirtation with Right Wing Ideology, the boys-only crew. Sure some things had changed, the flannels had given way to hoodies but the heads were still shaved. It was all there in NYHC. And then it was over.
And yes, it had been over for a good part of the late 1980′s in most of the rest of the country. Sub Pop was already laying the ground work for Alternative Nation. Am Rep was in full swing. LA was knee-deep in glam. Texas was knee-deep in acid damage. Gillman Street was redefining the San Francisco scene with less of an emphasis on speed and aggression and more emphasis on hooks and emotion. The young punk scene of the early 1990s from Screeching Weasel to Green Day was very inspired by bands coming out of the Lookout label in San Francisco. The Gunk-Punk scene of the 1990′s was well underway and a lot of the older hardcore folks were playing rockabilly and garage punk. Some scenes just dried up and died on the vine altogether. NYC dealt their hand and folded in 89-90 and the game was officially over.
If you don’t want my word for it, how about Andrew Beattie from the early 1990′s powerviolence band No Comment who stated that his band “just wanted to show that “Hardcore” was still alive yet there was no real “scene“. The few bands playing this form of music in the early 1990s like No Comment were playing in a vacuum. By the late 1990′s a new wave of hardcore bands had cropped up. But I had moved on and wouldn’t be the expert on that so I will leave that up to someone else to document.
Too many people want to refute their Hardcore pasts. I’ve never understood this. There is no reason not to reflect upon it. It made you what you are today. Chances are, unless you were just a total tool back then, you still are pretty against the grain and face it, Hardcore was a part of that. Other people want to live in their Hardcore pasts. Today, you can go down memory lane and see one of the countless “reunion shows” going on. How depressing is that? Another option is to check out the Hardcore Scene in your town today. You may notice if you do try, that a lot of the signifiers from the 1980′s are long gone. Nobody wears Doc Martens for instance. It ain’t the same. It’s not because it’s not as good, it’s just that your moment is gone. “Never go back”, as Dave Smalley once said. Leave the past in the past.
At least Stumble can make you some podcasts.
Here is the second set of tunes (Right Click And “save image as”). More to come:
First Wave Hardcore Podcast #2
No Empathy – Public Service Announcement
The Worst – Loud & fast
Rebel Truth – Child hosts the Parasite
Impact Unit – Dead Meat
Reflex From Pain – Chemicals
Rhythm Pigs – Baal
Ribzy – All Cut Up
Roach Motel – Creep
Pillsbury Hardcore – kill everyone now
Detox – Radio Henri
Absurds – Future’s Nature
Killroy – 66 big build up
The Malmsteens – Flyhead
Negazione – Cannibale
Artistic Decline – Dolphin
Terveet Kädet – A.l.i.e.n.
Violent Apathy – Society Rules
Fatal Rage – U.O.A.
Love Canal – Friends
White Cross – Child Abuse
Urban Assault – Join The Army
Lockjaw – You Dick
The Fems – Go To A Party
Violent Children – Live free or die
Ugly Americans – Fearchild
Vicious Circle – Blood Race
The Micronotz – Smash
Beyond Possession – Hard Times
The Delinquents – System Pressure
Razzia – Arsch im Sarge
Condemned To Death – Hair Spray Randy
McRad – Sundial
Judge – new york crew
Dead Youth – Phantom Citizen
Artificial Peace – Force It
Mecht Mensch – Zombie
White Pigs – Fuk Fuk Fuk
Vidiots – Laurie’s Lament
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