How Did You Get Into Punk?

[dave]

Was it all at once, was it bit by bit? Did you take a break when hardcore was the norm?

For me it was the skaters at my high-school ('80) who listened to anything different. Two brothers turned me onto the Sex Pistols (who I thought were hilarious, but only as a black humor comedy group, not as a band. All these years later, I have enormous respect for Lydon, but that opinion still holds) and tried to get me interested in Black Flag (who would have to wait 'til far into my senior year before I heard them.). I already was into stuff like Devo and the B-52's, but the breakthrough for me was hearing the 1st Clash album the summer before my senior year, wow!, and the Nuggets collection that Fall at a friend's house (which was ultimately the more powerful argument for non-commercial sounds). Because hardcore was everywhere (still can't stand it) I took things at a slower pace, finding out about the Butthole Surfers/Birthday Party/Scratch Acid, then going into Blues, Soul, Ska, etc. and 60s Punk/Rockabilly comps before coming back to Punk (Aussie Punk was vital to me, and remains so). About then the whole Mummies/Gories/Oblivians/Japan thing happened. I did get burned out around '99, but the slow pace I kept let me keep my interest in the long run.

[Evan ODell]

Some of my metal friends, who were into punk, invited me to see Bikini Kill with Sleeping Body playing in someone's garage some time around 1989.  There was a zine library, a vegan potluck, a record distro, music trading plus a general vibe of friendship and support.  After that, I just got the idea that punks had it going on and metal heads were a bunch of immature tossers who couldn't get laid and tried to act tough when the reality was they were anything but.  When my metal friends were only good for landing in jail or dying young, it wasn't a hard choice to leave metal in the dust.

[Ghislaine]

i was born  punk.Honest.So the first time i heard a punk song it was like a shock it was so new yet so familiar!!

[John Spokus]

Junior High School, 9th Grade 1977: I was a huge Kiss, Led Zep, Ted Nuge fan. Was reading newspaper articles about some new cutting edge "punk" bands, and it got my curiousity. I bought Never Mind The Bollocks, but didn't get it at first, even tried to take it back to the record store and swap it for the new Styx album (thankfully they wouldn't let me do it). I finally got it on the 4th or 5th listen. Then during a big snowstorm in the Winter of '78, where we were off school for an entire week, I discovered college radio, while bored, turning the dial (back when radios had hose things). WCVT, Towson (then State) University had a punk/ new ave show, Friday evenings from 5:00-7:00. DJ Rod Misey played all the latest, Clash, Costello, Patti Smith, Damned, UK Subs, as well as the proto puk classics from Stooges, MC5, Dictators, Amboy Dukes, Velvet Undeground. I was getting "schooled" every Friday evening, and buying a whole new genre of records, trying to catch up. I wrote songs, formed the first all original music band to play at my high school's annual variety show. I'm still playing and enjoying this type of music today.

[TeenFink]

your mom got me into punk.

[dave]

I thought you looked familiar! ;)

TeenFink said:

your mom got me into punk.

[Dennis Guthrie]

Someone gave me a tape with Suicidal Tendencies on one side and The Exploited on the other.  It was all downhill from there.  I realized it was ok to be pissed off at what was going on around my.  I liked a lot of the hardcore stuff too (Cro-Mags, Agnostic Front...), but there was a lot of directionless violence and the straight-edge thing was crazy in Florida (late 80's).  The Damned, Motorhead, and The Cramps were and still are my favorite bands and that led me to explore the more rock-n-roll side of punk.  Those were good days and I miss going nuts in the pit and I miss all of the raw energy.

[John Battles]

WHAT WAS THE LONGEST BOGIE EVER PRODUCED ? YES , RIK FROM SCUMBAG U.?
 
Bry Nylon said:

I got the horn whilst playing with my Mayan Calender and it took them 3 hours to remove it up at the local hospital... I missed all the fireworks but someone left a Time Magazine with Sarah Palin on the front of it in the cubicles so it wasn't all bad... Previous to all of this I manageried to stretch a very long piece of snot all the way from last years door handle and droop it directly onto this years computer screen ... Dolly said it was probably a new world's record  being that it would in real terms most likely be classified as a year long snot ...did you know that 2012 is "The Year of the C*nts" ?

John Battles said:

I've got that Derek and Clive LP with the sick ass cover (As seen below.) . It's shameful that my countrymen will never know how funny Dudley Moore once was.

"OH , GAWD ! WHEN I SAW DUDLEY MOORE , LYING IN STATE. IT GAVE ME THE HORN !!"

"Gave me the 'orn. Worrabout Peter Cook , then ?"

"OH , GAWD ! ROGER FUCKIN' NELLIE , VOICED BY PETER COOK , GAVE ME THE FUCKIN'

 ' ORN !!!". 

 I REMEMBER ASKING PEOPLE AT SCHOOL WHAT THEY THOUGHT ABOUT ONE OF THE BEST DARK COMEDIES OF THE 80's , "NEIGHBORS" . WITHOUT FAIL , THEY'D SAY , "THAT WAS STOOPID ! "ARTHUR" WAS GREAT !!!".

BRY , I KEEP FORGETTING HIS NAME , OLD HEDGEHOG - FACE , WHO CALLED THE DOLLS "mock rock" on ogwt.
 
Bry Nylon said:

when we were kids we were diggin  & scuzzy 45's from jumble sales...later on learning of by heart all the rude bits from derek & clive LP's ...apals uncle worked at the DEcca pressing plant and we got given tons of promo 45's - mainly boring 'hit' crud like the stones and stuff... most of which we hung on a nail on an old willow tree and shot with a high power .22  air rifle ... other neighbours used to go see the who and stuff at the Bull & Bush in richmond [way before i was aware of it all ] andso later on...  they lent me a dansette and piles of obscuro LP & 45 crud for me to bop to in my bedroom ...Troggs and stuff like that ...  also got hand me down 60's trash reel to reels and LP's from my pals elder brothers when they all f'ked of to tibet in f'ked  old flower power painted bread van in '68 / 69 - Zappa / Iron Butterfly / Weird shit like that  [...he was youngest of 7 ] - when I was nine in 1972 I saw NY Dolls on late night TV [old grey whistle test] - an earth shattering experience [and mohicans layin' railway local tracks the same year... ]  but I still had to wait another whole 6 excrutiatingly boring years for the Wayne County & Electric Chairs, Stranglers, ME. Smith & The Fall to arrive on 45's...  

 

[melissa scott]

Mr. Rotten

I'm pretty sure this was the first photo I ever saw of Johnny Rotten. My friend Trixie came into homeroom and showed me a news article -- she'd clipped it to show me. Pretty sure I have the article plastered in a book somewhere. Around Dec '76 or Jan '77? I read the article, stared at the photo, then refused to give it back to her. Got told off by the teacher for wrestling over it. The rest of the school year was pretty much wasted on me.

She and I had already been hooked on old Who LP's -- and when the Ramones lp came out, we both went on an all-day mission to find our copies. Success!

So we were ready for The Pistols. There was an awesome newsagent in Evanston, IL who stocked PUNK. Seriously, the only one in town:

Wish I'd been the one to buy 'em. Read hers. :-(

I've checked my school diaries from '78-'81 and there are photos pasted in of The Clash on almost every other page for 2 years running. Wow. What an impression they made. I'm sure if I hadn't seen 'em live, I wouldn't have been so stuck on them for so long.

Funny, there aren't there any homework listings, but almost every show or gig I attended is marked in girlish handwriting. I love how many pictures I have of Blondie. And Mick Jones! I guess The Rose came out that year, huh?

Remember The Effigies? DV8? The Special Affect? Don't know why, but I had a habit of clipping the show ads from The Reader (Chicago) and pasting them in. At the time, it seemed like overkill, but now I'm glad I did it.

Thanks Dave for the trip down cloudy memory lane. Mel

[Pikini Death Ray]

Getting drunk on cheap German wine and listening to the Sex Pistols and The Dead Kennedy's. The Dead Kennedy's are still my favourite band to this day : )

[Otto Parts]

I'll try and keep this simple:

I saw some tv show special about 'new music' around 1980, it had Blondie, Gary Numan, etc, but what stood out to me was the Devo, Adam and the Ants and Lene Lovich stuff, they were total weirdo's from outer space and I wanted more - hey I was 13 and from the 'burbs.

Around 1981/82 I saw RUDE BOY on cable and picked up The Clash's Give Them Enough Rope shortly after that.

Met a guy in high school that had the Sex Pistols and Generation X stuff around '83, we borrowed each others records and became friends.

Then came skateboarding/Blag Flag/Dead Kennedy/etc. various hardcore albums/comps/etc. and finally going to as many punk/hardcore shows as possible.

[Allen Siddle]

 I was led to the punk, garage music because it was the opposite of what I was told was acceptable. I was raised in a Pentecostal household where all I could listen to were spiritual songs. Everything else was from Satan himself and if I listened to it I would burn in Hell for all eternity.

 But FM radio, the Animals, and cream magazine changed that.  Cream led me to Blue Cheer , MC5, and the Stooges. It went quickly down hill from that point. I'm sure if they were right I have a special place in hell waiting for me.

[Satan's Majestic Request]

My uncle played me a warped cassette of the Dead Boys - Young Loud and Snotty. Told me they were THE Cleveland punk band (I'm an Ohioan). A few weeks later, my best friend says his older sister gave him a burned CD of some awesome Cleveland band. It was the same Dead Boys album. I got a copy from him and to this day the Dead Boys remain a favorite of mine.