Punk Rock Academy Fight Song – “You do what for a living?”

“You do what for a living?”

That’s usually the response I get from most people when I tell them what I do and it’s usually followed by “that’s pretty damn cool”.  Not that my job is that fascinating or unique but rather it’s the fact that somebody like me does the job that I do. So what is this mysterious occupation that elicits so much curiosity? Presidential advisor? Bomb Disposal Technician? Dog Catcher?

Nope. I am a high school counselor. It is my job to mold and guide the minds of teenagers. I also happen to be a heavily tattooed Punk rocker that still rides a skateboard and loves to get in the pit every now and then and works as a high school counselor. My life experiences tend to be just a little bit different than most people in my line of work I know everybody and their moms have tattoos these days and that by itself doesn’t make you a Punk, nor does riding a skateboard. For most people those things are just accessories and a hobby but for me it’s been my life since I was a teenager and it’s not a phase I plan on outgrowing. I just had to figure a way to keep my passion for this lifestyle going well into adulthood. A lot of us grow up, settle down, get “real jobs” and move on to more mature pursuits (yeah right). Some of us keep flying the flag and damning the man in our own different ways. And then a lot of us spend a lot of time trying to figure out a way to do both. Believe me there was a long list of jobs I thought I'd have and counselor was never really on that list.

Throughout high school and college my main job requirements involved my being able to dress however I pleased and not working in an office. I was all about rebellion and the outward appearance of rebellion. The idea that I would some day be some kind of authority figure still boggles my mind but I like to think that I’m trying to teach and inspire these kids that you can be successful on your own terms. I like to call this my SLC Punk theory. At the end of the movie the main character cuts his Mohawk, puts on a suit and decides to go to law school with the idea that sometimes it’s better to try and change something from the inside than fighting from the outside. Here endeth the lesson- I stole that from Sean Connery in the Untouchables

-Daniel N-



 

I’ve found myself listening to the same record over and over

In the past month I've found myself listening to the same record over and over again almost on a daily basis. It's not a new release or even a new addition to my collection, but rather one that I have owned for over ten years. When I was in middle school my friend, Joe Rokes sold me his copy of Operation Ivy's "Energy" L.P.. I'm not sure why he didn't want it anymore, but I do remember that prior to buying it from him I used to make him put it on the turntable every time that we hung out at his house, which was pretty much every day. Maybe I made him get sick of it. I know my wife is getting sick of it now.

In junior high most of my friends and I knew of Op Ivy as a band that had featured Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman before they were in Rancid and also as a band that Green Day had covered on an early E.P. This was the mid 1990's and Green Day and Rancid were both really breaking into mainstream culture in a big way for the first time. For a lot of Punks my age Op Ivy was sort of a stepping stone band from the "Punk rock" that was playing on the radio and MTV and into the underground Punk rock culture. Op Ivy were not the most obscure band and their music was fairly accessible in comparison to the other stuff that we were discovering at the time (i.e. old Black Flag, Minor Threat, and Dead Kennedys albums). I think it's safe to say that actually a lot of our moms even tapped their toes along to some of the songs. However what made Op Ivy a "stepping stone" band was probably their deep lyrics which reflected an idealism that a lot of us needed to be exposed to as young and angry kids searching for an outlet. This is what formed a distinction between Operation Ivy and the more "New school" punk bands that the mainstream media took to when I was first coming up into the Punk scene.

One day when I was examining the liner notes I realized that this year marks the twentieth anniversary of "Energy's" release. Despite the fact that I was only seven years old when it came out and did not discover it until the band had long since broken up this was a bit of a mind fuck to me. I can't completely put my finger on it, but I think that the reason that it weirds me out is that I think of Operation Ivy as the band that anticipated the modern day Punk scene. In their own wisdom they somehow knew that bigger things were coming and in 1989 they called it quits a month after "Energy" was released. By all accounts that I have come across the members of the band knew that if they kept going that the band was going to blow up and that was something that they were not ready for as young and idealistic Punk rockers. In some ways I'm sure that this seems stupid to a lot of people, but to me it reflects a very rare sort of wisdom. By breaking up the band before they got in over their heads they allowed themselves and their musical legacy to remain pure and unperverted by greed and ambition.

Since "Energy" was released no band has come close to making a similar record. Sure thousands of bands have attempted to emulate Operation Ivy's Ska-Punk sound and many have done so with significant commercial success. Most of these bands play a cute, safe, and silly cartoon version of what Op Ivy was doing. Unlike Operation Ivy they are influenced by other bands of the Ska- Punk hybrid, rather than being influenced separately by hardcore Punk rock and traditional ska. The result is a watered down third generation rip off of something with substance and musical integrity. Operation Ivy of course had their precursors- The Clash, The Specials, and Bad Brains had all experimented with blending Punk and Ska/Reggae, but Op Ivy were unique at the time in the sense that all of their influences were simultaneously potent and blended together. None of their songs were just ska songs, hardcore songs, or reggae songs, but a seamlessly blended concoction. Every song had pieces of Minor Threat, pieces of the English Beat, pieces of Bob Marley, and even sometimes pieces of Public Enemy or Run DMC.

I'm sure that there are some purist rude boys out there who are better informed than I am who may cringe when I make this next statement, but I truly believe that Operation Ivy made the most profound impact on Ska music out of any American band. And they did so by taking ska music and giving it a distinctly American twist by infusing the influence of American hardcore Punk. It's unfortunate that in a sense much of what has gone wrong with American Ska music can be traced back to their influence, but I think that it would be unfair to blame the band themselves for who they influenced.

I am sure that by this point I have probably beaten this point into the ground, but the musical landscape covered on "Energy" is still overwhelmingly astounding. From the goofy pop singalongs in "Knowledge" (the album's opening track), to the anthemic Punk rock of "The Crowd," the reggae grooves of "Take Warning," the snotty hardcore vocals on "Vulnerability," and the rap interludes in "Unity" and "Caution," this record covers a vast number of territories. Almost any other band would surely find themselves face first in the dust if they attempted to accomplish such a feat. Perhaps the most clever musical venture that Op Ive make is with "One of These Days," which is their reworking of "These Boots are Made For Walking." The song  was originally popularized by Nancy Sinatra and later would become a ska standard after Symarip did their own version of the song in the late 1960's. In this tradition Op Ivy turned the song into their own by maintaining the ska rhythm but also speeding it up to a Punk rock tempo a la 7 Seconds.

As mentioned early on in the article Operation Ivy's lyrics were probably equally as important as their music. Vocalist Jesse Michaels came from a literary tradition, no doubt with some influence from his father, the celebrated author, Leonard Michaels. The lyrics that Jesse Michaels contributed to Op Ivy were perfectly balanced. They are poetic, but not overly abstract. He wrote about a lot of things that almost any kid can relate to- a fear of getting lost in the shuffle of every day life (see "The Crowd"), pressures from parents and teachers ("Knowledge," "Gonna Find You") and finding solace in music ("Sound System"). However unlike many lyricists who get pigeonholed into writing simple lifestyle type songs, Michaels, in the best traditions of both punk and reggae, challenged listeners by addressing socio political matters in songs like "Freeze Up" and "Missionary" where he speaks out against imperialist foreign policies and "Big City" which addresses issues of poverty and inequality.

A few years ago my friend Mary was donating to a toy/gift drive at her work. In this particular drive everyone was selected to pick up a gift from wish lists made by various kids living in the same youth shelter. Since she was assigned to buy a gift for a fourteen year old boy who wanted a disc man, she made sure that she slipped in a C.D. for the kid to listen to before she submitted it to the gift drive. After a little consideration she decided that "Energy" would be the perfect choice because of its positive lyrics, musically diverse approach, and because almost every teenager who hears Operation Ivy falls in love immediately.


-Ditch-
Big Wheel Online Magazine

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