tmidgett wrote:I agree with one theme of the better-back-in-the-day comments--that the capacity to shock seems to have been lost, in the particular form that many of the bands in the film were shocking.
But then again, I was shocked to my core when I first heard and understood Bedhead or Nina Nastasia or Destroyer or the very first Built to Spill record or whatever. I have no idea if any of that is punk, but it's shocking music. It's on me 100% that I haven't felt that way more in the last several years.
I don't know that's it's the capacity to shock, but a willingness to do it in an artful creative way seems like it burned out as hardcore just wratcheted shit up to a simplistic frenzy where there was nowhere to go but sludgy and slow.
I fucking loved hardcore. It was what was most available to me and it scared me just the right amount. I needed that aggression, the contact, the shout-along-while-getting-bruised at matinee shows to feel at home in the world then. Of course it looks retarded to me now, and I see the price--the machismo and lack of creativity factored into driving out the weirdos, the queers and the girls. I couldn't believe how many women I'd see at shows of old Cleveland bands, like the Pink Holes and the Pagans. Killer fucking women who had had radio shows and made art. Those folks were "smart, engaging and clear-eyed", as Steve said. There was a price to pay for being weird-o, it wasn't studied, it was inevitable and for the incredible punk rockers now in their forties I had the pleasure of knowing consuming that weirdness via music was a relief, a delight, as necessary as water.
The shock that I saw in my childhood version of punk was so much less artful, things seemed to evolve to a place where the shock was brutal or gross. Not "just" weird or beautiful.
It's out there now, and I agree with the "on me" about finding it. No more pouting about never seeing the Slits or X-Ray Spex or the Big Boys. I can see the Bitter Tears every other month and they take the fucking cake on artful weirdos.
Movies and discussions like this remind me being around punk rock music, having the people, the great weirdos is something I've been able to count on for almost twenty years.
These punk rocks, she is so beautiful.
I hope to be able to see this film.