Editorial Page

September  2010 Editorial
Southern California is the birthplace of Hardcore Punk, slam dancing, circle pits, and the H.B. strut. Chances are if you live here and you are involved in any sort of underground subculture you grew up up on these simple things. . . Black Flag, the Adolescents, T.S.O.L., Fear, Agent Orange, the Circle Jerks, skateboards, stage dives, and living fast, hopefully not dying young. The influence of Hardcore is so ingrained in our culture here, but somehow it seems like the music itself is dying away.

I moved to Southern California four years ago while Hardcore was experience a serious and vibrant revival. A band called Rabies was making people excited again and commanding a loyal following while other great bands like Tipper’s Gore, Bad Reaction, Broken Needle, C.O.P., and The Dead Reagan Tour were lending their own support, and making sure that everyone was busy every day of the weekend checking out new music and killer gigs. It seemed like every show went off and kids were just excited to see new bands who were playing fast and aggressive music. It was around the time that the American Hardcore movie came out and a lot of adults in the area who had ducked out of the scene for a while to start families now were seeing their kids grow into adulthood and were getting a chance to go out again. Many of them found that with the new crop of bands popping up they were able to recapture some of their youth by supporting the budding scene.

Things got big, the more popular bands started breaking up one by one and local Punks wore out their welcome at most local venues. A large portion of the teenagers who were going to gigs grew out of their Punk phase and over time things just got more mellow. In the past two years Hardcore Punk has been becoming a hard thing to come by here again. Shows are smaller and many newer bands have gone into a more arty or Garage Rock direction. All of this is cool, but it is a bit sad to see that Hardcore is once again losing some of its vitality in the region that gave birth to it.

While we are all riding this wave out maybe it wouldn’t hurt to dust off our copies of "Group Sex" and remember where our roots are. No matter what becomes cool and cutting edge,  Hardcore Punk will always be a part of who we are and it wouldn’t even hurt if a few new bands started to try to spit some of their own Hardcore again. Here’s to the future…

-Ditch-
Managing Editor

 

 

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