Day 4.
(I’m not sure what Touch & Go’s actual policy on blogs using their music is [they used to be very restrictive], so it wouldn’t surprise me if the links had to be taken down quickly. As much as I would understand that, as much I hope that it’s clear that I’m doing what I do for the love of the music and the urge to understand more about it (and myself, quite frankly). Nobody can stop the free of charge circulation of music in the net anyway and we probably have seen only the beginning. As a blogger, that is my strong conviction, you can still be of help, by putting work and enthusiasm into what you do. This will set some sparks free, I’m so sure about that, and will in the end make some people rather buy and enjoy music, than download and consume it blindly. Not many, but the few that can still be reached.)
NEGATIVE APPROACH first came onto me on a compilation tape, where some buddy of mine had recorded his favorite Hardcore songs and he asked me to do the same for him, with my favorite music. I don’t have the tape anymore, but believe me, I still recall how it felt. It was such a weird experience. I was no novice to extreme music: Venom, Motörhead, all that kind of stuff, I was very familiar with that. So some bands I could easily relate to, others were just so damn extreme, it made me question certain musical preferences of mine. Two songs, “Negative Approach” and “Pressure”, were among my fave picks and I kept just rewinding the tape and play and play these again. They were (yet) simpler and meaner than the other songs on that tape and what really shocked me was this band’s total lack of whatever you might want to call artistic. The cardboard drums, the mosquito guitar, the hardly audible bass, the one or two riffs-songs. And then Brannon’s voice.
Shortly after, I saw “Tied Down” in the news section of a record shop in Zürich, but didn’t buy it (the $ exchange rate was very high, so imports cost a small fortune), but I checked it out and couldn’t believe my ears. How much the sound had changed – from thin to monumental. And how unimportant that was, cause still, NA were about the voice of their singer John Brannon. The good looking man with the crazy eyes and the impressive presence. This guy, it seemed, means business. Violent, angry, hotheaded, unpredictable. To me, that was Hardcore and that was what for a period of a few years, made it impossible for me to listen to Metal. I started buying more Hardcore stuff (Agnostic Front, D.R.I. Damage, Terveet Kädet, Appendix, Suicidal Tendencies, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, B.G.K. – you name it) and step by step alienated myself from Metal, the first musical love of my life. When the crossover wave of 1985 emerged, bands like Corrosion of Conformity or D.R.I., Ugly Americans or the epochal S.O.D. album seemed like a centerstone, holding things together, but actually it was the other way round. Metal started to collapse in my world. First the old bands, then stone by stone fell out. Everything, the music, the people, the shows, the aesthetics, the lyrics – everything started to piss me off massively. Hardcore was the thing. Hardcore seemed to embody and represent a form of aggression that was real and not virtual. Hardcore was political. Hardcore dealt with the world as it is and with human beings and their feelings as they were. Milder bands like Marginal Man made it even possible to talk about positive feelings. I’m not shitting you, to me, that was a personal liberation of sorts. Under the influence of Hardcore, I began to remodel my “self”.
After many turbulent years, during which one of the only constants was my love for music, I ordered a Negative Approach DVD (that was about in 2007, I think). I couldn’t believe my eyes. Now, around 40 years of age and definitely not a teenager no longer, what I saw looked childish and kind of embarrassing too. I can’t really say what I had imagined, but it wasn’t this. It started with the most obvious, the age. The guys on stage, the audience – kids! But it was more than that. The seriousness, the militant atmosphere, the violence I had felt through the songs so many years ago – I expected to see something that would somehow relate to that. But instead, I saw just rather goofy rituals of a young, male, white middle class audience. Did I mention male? Yes, very, very male.What I thought of as Boyscout Hardcore when those abominable Revelation Records bands made me close my doors to anything contemporary in “Hardcore” forever … it was in fact there already. But I didn’t see it. I had not expected that, really. All that rally around the microphone stuff put me off totally. So different what you see in the live footage from, say, “Decline of Western Civilisation” – no chaos, no expression of individuality, no triumph of the selfs. Just the exact opposite. Maybe this was the moment in which I fully understood what old Punks say when they point out that the movement as an urban movement ceased to exist after 3 or 4 highly inflammable years. Then suburbia took over.
I’ve never watched that DVD again and rarely ever watch footage of Hardcore bands on Youtube – the factor of disillusion is just too great.
But the good thing is: The music magically has survived for me. I know that I could shake it off, if only I wanted to. And I know that especially these little Hardcore EPs are something special in terms of music. Can you even speak of music here? I would much rather say it’s just energy. Raw, primitive, simplistic – and at that very efficient. When they sounded thin and cheap 25 years ago, they must sound archaic now.
I’m sorry this is all sounding so confused and almost like I wouldn’t adore NEGATIVE APPROACH. But that’s how it is. I’m not very good at playing fanboy and the reasons why I still listen to this music after all remains mysterious to me, cause it goes without saying that when I now play these 10 songs, I do not listen with the same ears anymore. After so much time, you know much more about music (for instance, during ripping, I spontaneously associated this EP with the first Skredriver album – a thought I would have never had back then) and it’s banal to mention that such a long stretch of time lies between these recordings and where we are now, that due to this time gap alone, it is just not possible to maintain the same relationship to the music you once had. But it’s more than a personal thing: The world of today is so different in many aspects (and so similar in others) to that of the first half of the 80s, I wouldn’t even know where to begin describing them. The medium of sound is air. The medium of music is the social.
None of us has an “identity”, none of us is like a flesh made tupperware container that conserves and beholds things that once were put in there. Everything, without an exception, changes – and most lively so memories and emotions you attach to memories. And you know what? The recorded music changes with it, since music is not what is engraved in the vinyl, but what is between the recording and you and everything around you. It’s silly to believe anything about music is “true” or lies within the music itself, or the bands, or the musicians. Sure, these conceptions of “truth” and whatnot in music (and elsewhere) are also a bit touching, cause they seem sweet in their naivety. No, no, when I play these songs today and feel an overwhelming power and (I admit) a feeling of great security whilst being in a sometimes hefty state of euphoria and excitement, I know that this is what I want to hear, what I need, what is part of my daily routine of excess. Yes, I need the rush. I need the sensation. And I need the illusion of continuity. It appeases me with myself to think that music is like a socket in which I can plug myself in and the power flows. Yes, that’s the point. When in the 80s, the music rather used me, I now use the music.
I love the moment before waking up, when you’re half asleep and half here, when you’re floating, when you can let your imagination take control for an intense moment. The use of substances can lead to a similar state of mind – drugs, music, food, whatever. Everything is real then.
Can’t tell no one.mp3
Sick of Talk.mp3
Pressure.mp3
Why be something that you’re not.mp3
Nothing.mp3
Fair Warning.mp3
Ready to fight.mp3
Lead Song.mp3
Whatever I do.mp3
Negative Approach.mp3
Buy all Negative Approach legally here (and make sure you check out that truly incredible remake of the original EP cover design … with all due love, this is ridiculous). And buy the book, dammit!
24 Comments
PS: You wanted personal? Now you got personal.
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You know what? Such writeups make me happy. I’m not kidding. I cannot think of any other intellectual (I hope you don’t take that word as an offense – actually, I’m sure you won’t) writing about this music. Dammit, this post makes me more than sentimental.
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Admin Reply:
May 28th, 2011 at 20:08
That’s very, wow, nice, thank you. No, no, “intellectual” sure ain’t no offense. At least as long as to you, artists, architects or biologists are not intellectuals either (actually, I’m sure they are not).
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Feeling like a mental midget after reading your post. I don’t put near as much thought into why I listen to, or need, this music on a daily basis for 30 (!) years. But I think you’ve captured it in the final sentences. Brannon, probably the best front man in hardcore.
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Wow! What a write-up! Interesting as always, Erich.
It’s funny how hardcore totally takes over your life when you get into it. I came from a pop background (with a year long obsession with the Sex Pistols & Buzzcocks inbetween), rather than metal, & when I ‘got’ hardcore (it took a while to get up to speed with the velocity & noise), it became my life. It sharpened my politics, gave me the balls to genuinely do what I wanted to do, rather than my parents’ & made me the person I am today, be that good or bad.
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Admin Reply:
May 29th, 2011 at 22:18
Yeah, that “take on your life” thing is really what I and many of my buddies back then experienced. And you know what? It was a 99% male thing at that too.
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“Milder bands like Marginal Man made it even possible to talk about positive feelings.”
MM is the wellspring of emo imo.
another great essay, the longer personal stuff is the best. thanks!
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Oh my ….. Mr Keller on a roll =:0
On a serious note I don’t know how I could possibly contribute to this post. Not sure if I get everything but you sure found words for how I feel about my own HC past now (in my early 50s). Much obliged. Keep on rocking.
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you maybe an asshole but you sure know how to put things into words. impressive. now give me your hc records.
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wow! one of your best write-úps, very impressing. makes me think about how and why i listen to music. that’s why i love your blog: it’s much more than just consuming music, it’s inspiring, it opens new views and it has both, intellectual qualities and so much love and passion for the music.
interesting is the fact that hc absolutely took over your life and you started to hate metal. although i’m younger, i had the same experience. as a teenager i was totally in love with metal, then came hc and it felt so real, so deep. years later i felt the same about all these goofy male rituals in that scene, which really pisses me off now. but maybe i needed that to realize that there is much more great music than my oh so cool hardcore record collection. and i rediscovered that old metal stuff. and things that never were allowed to take place in my little hardcore world. everything’s changing and it feels good. thank you for inspiration.
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I got to see John Brannon with the Laughing Hyaenas once, and there he definitely got that “scary” thing over; only recently is sludge becoming sort of a trend; anyway, its the same in about any scene you look at; once things get ritualized, they start to attract people who like to play it safe, and they get boring rapidly (or, as someone put it referring to the (originally very gay) Berlin Techno scene: “when the girls arrive, its over”).
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Admin Reply:
May 29th, 2011 at 22:20
That quote is too funny, thanks! The way I see it, things are often over when “the girls” arrive, cause the guys change so much.
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too much blablabla. great record though.
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What an incredible post. Absolutely jaw dropping writing. While I came from Glam/Hard Rock(Kiss, Sweet, Rush, Angel, Starz) into punk and then HC I think the early punk was what was appeald to me: you could be just as you wanted to be and the more unique you where the more “punk”. HC rather fast moved into the quiet opposite(as you points out): group thinking, unity, close mindedness and in the end generic music too, mostly attributed by the whole NYHC scene. In Sweden it was the whole d-beat scene that put me off.
Once again a big hat off for this post Erich!
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Admin Reply:
May 28th, 2011 at 22:12
I don’t know what to say, really. It makes me very happy to see that you can rely to what I wrote. 🙂 That’s the good thing about the blog for me: It helped me to get a better understanding of the whole thing.
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Admin Reply:
May 28th, 2011 at 22:14
OF course I’m thanking everybody else too. That’s what I meant: It’s the comments that make the blog world go round. And they could be a bit more critical too, I wouldn’t mind. 😀
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” When in the 80s, the music rather used me, I now use the music.
I love the moment before waking up, when you’re half asleep and half here, when you’re floating, when you can let your imagination take control for an intense moment. The use of substances can lead to a similar state of mind – drugs, music, food, whatever. Everything is real then. ”
man this is among the best I ever read about music. like peter said:jaw-dropping.
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In 1984, Negative Approach was supposed to open up for the Adicts and Toy Dolls at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles and they cancelled because their van broke down! I’m still sad about that to this day 🙁
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Very interesting post as per usual. When it comes to NA, it depends what mood I’m in when I listen to them nowadays. Sometimes it’s fantastic and sometimes I just get bored. Don’t know why. Btw “Nothing” has got a special place in my heart at all times.
Keep em coming Erich!
Luv from Sweden…
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Great write up! Thanks for the in depth look at this and some of the stuff behind what makes you feel the way you do about this music!
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Erich, I’m looking forward to your fifth post! I hope it’s hardcore punk and hold the metal please !!!
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“fuck you wrote: too much blablabla. great record though.” … Ha! you see this, mates!? real NA reply and you are all bunch of old crass hippies full of love and more amicable than Buddha himself. at least here in this post our dear Admin deserves a bit of HATE! and then maybe some Beef & Beer. no British contemporaries around – like razor sharp early Blitz and heavy skinhead stomp of the 4-Skins? why is that so? ready to fight?
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Admin Reply:
May 29th, 2011 at 11:10
Yeah, saw that. Nice one!
How do you think Blitz or 4 Skins would fit in a short series of American Hardcore?
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d. Reply:
May 29th, 2011 at 15:15
oh. i mean, not right here in the 5-seven-inch series of US hard core – just cannot find them nasty UK boys in good-bad music of bad-bad times. there is a place for seven inch EP by die kreuzen thou. but that’s the obvious one – tiny record with many super fast songs. not a wish this time, just a bit of chat. hugs!
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Admin Reply:
May 29th, 2011 at 22:24
Not that Die Kreuzen’s 7″ was super fast, but yeah, it’s super great, no question aboutthat (though the LP is much greater). I’m not following any sort of a “national” agenda here when it comes to posting music. But Hardcore was in fact an american movement. By the time its aesthetics and musical style got more or less established in europe, it was already over in the u.s.a. (with maybe the exception of italian bands, but also they differed remarkably from their idolized bands from america). I’ve had quite a few UK bands on GBM alone the metal bands are legion here. 🙂
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Grrrreat writeup! I too feel embarrassed about the whole “boyscout” thing that was a big part of hardcore, but in a way, that was punk too, because HC started as an anti-reaction to the whole 1979/80 urban drugged-out-ness of the 1st generation punks. Just like say, the Dils started to play Country because everybody hated it, or Billy Zoom was grinning all the time because that wasn’t allowed in punk. Most of the great HC records (’80-’83) came from the tipping point where something that had just come into being was about to burst onto a new audience. One of my favourite HC recordings, a Minor Threat live tape from summer ’81, in Chicago in front of a jaded over-21 audience, perfectly captures this spirit. And not a boyscout in sight! Alas, exactly because of its combustible nature, HC had its own demise built-in from the start.
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to be honest, never was all that much into negative approach, great as they may have been. i just keep wondering how much of the “boy scout” thing also applies to the european hc scene of the mid 80’s, that used its ideas of american hc as a starting point for something very similar but alas totally different. don’t remember much of that macho posturing from back then. at least in the beginning i remember it as something very playful, almost childlike. those early spermbirds shows were how we thought shows in the states must be (only having record covers and flipside and mrr to compare), but judging from those absurd videos now never really were.
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Admin Reply:
May 29th, 2011 at 22:26
That’s totally how I experienced it! Playful, friendly, kinda ironic too. Spermbirds – and especially early Skeezicks were just plain and simple FUN live. The HC shows I saw in the U.S.A. in 1986 were often completely different from that – a lot more violent, especially the bigger shows (like Agnostic Front or Cro-Mags, No Mercy and such).
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Thank you for this piece! It’s simply amazing. It brought back many, many memories
I grew up in an extremely, extremely provincial and isolated village. Throughout the 1990s it was a place of extreme boredom and conformism. I was literally to only guy into hc and punk in high school, and there was simply no scene near me. 1-2 imes a month I would go on bus and train journeys to score records in a shoddy record store in X. Nothing was readily available, and it was hard for me to find records. So when I got new records and was exposed to the likes of the Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag (often through bootlegs)…there was a peculiar sensation, not unlike what you mention. I remember playing the Minor Threat demo 7″ every morning before going to school; it would give me energy to go on another day.
Similarly, in 1995 , I managed to acquire the “Life your life for you” bootleg live LP of Negative Approach. it was my soundtrack for that summer. The music, the energy, the attitude, it absorbed my thoughts completely. I was an outsider and a misfit, but I lacked the strength and fierceness of what I heard and saw on that record sleeve. It’s an attitude I could relate to and that I slowly absorbed into my mind. That record made me long for a distant, idealized “hardcore scene”. When I would go to Vort N Vis festival by train, it was a temporary window of escape from my provincial, little town. A little later, I bought the discography in a record store on the railway station in XXX. I like it, but it didn’t capture my imagination as much as the bootleg LP.
Years later, I eventually escaped this little town, moved to a big city with a very active HC scene. It was around 1998, and I could go to gigs every weekend. The internet was slowly making every record available, and it really killed my enthusiasm and excitement . I no longer needed to actively hunt down a specific record, I could just download it in a minute. I remember buying a shitty GISM bootleg around 1994/1995, and being immensely happy with it. Now, you could get their entire body of work in a minute, and every prick was all of a sudden a self-proclaimed expert on early USHC.
Fast forward a few years later, and I dropped out of the scene. It was boring me, and in a sense the reality of a hc scene never corresponded with image that I had built in my mind during all those lonely afternoons in my little bedroom. After years of personal crisis and rarely listening to hc, I have been “rediscovering” HC. Blowing the dust of my vinyl records, going to selective gigs every now and then, trying to recapture that peculiar spirit that feeling when I was 15, 16….may be it’s impossible…I don’t know…but I have been enjoying Poison Idea, Minor Threat and so on, more than when I was active in the scene and would hear regularly a trite, poorly performed cover of “ready to fight” by some fashionable band.
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School and it’s related worries (I’m in the middle of trying to negiotiate myself out of homeless in 2 weeks) have kept me away from the blog, but as usual, the moment I return I am hit with a post like this that reminds me why I revisit again and again. What an epic and yet personal writeup, so appropriate for the EP, which is quite the same, I think.
I agree- so much music is energy, like so many other tools. I don’t know if you’ve ever read Alphonso Lingis, Erich, but he describes many of these experiences in those terms- energy transfers, growths, dissipation- and that language always resonated with me.
On the point about the changes in memories and the emotions we associate with them: I’ve heard, from some science article, that there is a paradox involved in memory. Supposedly, each time you recall a memory, you remember it slightly differently from the previous time, and specifically, with more of your own retroactive and reflexive mind. In other words, the more you call a memory back up, the less and less it will resemble the actual experience you had. If true, the black humor in it is incredible.
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Admin Reply:
June 3rd, 2011 at 10:14
What’s happening, WTT?
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impressive. touching. inspiring. thank you as always!
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I still have the (original) 7″ep & inside the cover it says:
Don’t dye you hair blue or you’ll be out in the streets!
So I suppose, the band members wrote inside the covers before they clued them!
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“And I need the illusion of continuity”
You’ve hit the nail right on the head.
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