watching the henry rollins show [yeah, i like rollins, so sue me] on ifc tonight i see a commercial for american hardcore. a documentary that chronicles the years [late 1970s to early 80s] and bands [black flag, minor threat, to name but 2] that i was into back in the day. so far on the net the news is good about the film. in fact, i'm salivating like pavlov's dogs to see the movie. and it is about time there is another film that showcases those pivotal bands and those years of sterility in politics, and on the airwaves. a splinter from the punk movement of the late-70s hardcore was the bratty younger brother of the more intellectual bands like richard hell and the voidoids and television who couldn't play an instrument to save his life, but could scream real good, and learn the minimum 3 chords on guitar. and who was pretty fucking fed up of the way the world was going.

the only way to vent the anger and frustration was to yell and strip down the song to a throbbing 30-second, 300 bps pile of goo. carthartic is not the word for when you heard the band gang green, off the boston anthology this is boston, not l.a. album, rip into the song 'liar, liar' you were transported. not to get teary eyed for a music that in the end also was coopted for corporate ends [see the band good charlotte, or the most recent music from a mostly decent punk band green day] but it is important to remember that the furious sounds of the bands, and the anti-fashion of biker boots, short hair, piercings and tattoos were anathema to it seemed nearly everything in those days. you got yr ass kicked for short spiky hair back then.

well, shit, i seem to be going down the road toward misty-eyed rembrance of things past. which is silly. still, i do not live [how can anyone sustain it] like a 15-year-old punker but the music, the diy punk ethos, is still very much a part of me. it greatly influenced my writing, how i view our collective realities. i survived those years and today, at work, on the little cd player i have in my cube was the raucous sound of the circle jerks' album wild in the streets.

now, again i beseech, i implore, i'm begging on my freaking knees, will somebody fer chrissakes release to dvd already the 1st great chronicle of hardcore punk penelope spheeris' decline of western civilization!