American Hardcore: The Movie

Discussion in 'Movies, TV and Music' started by Dyvel, Aug 24, 2006.

  1. Dyvel

    Dyvel Member+

    Jul 24, 1999
    The dog end of a day gone by
    Club:
    Leeds United AFC
    Nat'l Team:
    Ireland Republic
    American Hardcore

    I didn't care too much for the book but I'll go see this film.
     
  2. Footix

    Footix Member

    Dec 11, 1998
    Left Of The Dial
    Dyvel--I think you'll love it. Quite a bit of NYHC action, though little mention of the Jersey scene.

    I think it's scheduled to play NY & LA for at least 2 weeks starting late next month.
     
  3. Dyvel

    Dyvel Member+

    Jul 24, 1999
    The dog end of a day gone by
    Club:
    Leeds United AFC
    Nat'l Team:
    Ireland Republic
    I know I'll love the movie, it is my teenage years come to the silver screen :)

    That was the problem I had with the book, the slagging of the Jersey scene. NJ had an active scene all over the state. There were plenty of bands and plenty of places to see shows but the author of the book, Steven Blush, couldn't get past his own NYC snobbery to see that. Without the kids from Jersey coming in to NYC, CBGB's would have been pretty empty on Sunday afternoons.
     
  4. Iceblink

    Iceblink Member

    Oct 11, 1999
    Chicago
    Club:
    Ipswich Town FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Heard about this.... do they spend any time on the Chicago scene?
     
  5. MeridianFC

    MeridianFC Member

    Jul 26, 1999
    Washington, DC USA
    So Ron Jeremy and Jenna James are not in this?
     
  6. Dyvel

    Dyvel Member+

    Jul 24, 1999
    The dog end of a day gone by
    Club:
    Leeds United AFC
    Nat'l Team:
    Ireland Republic
    From viewing the trailer I noticed they interview Vic Bondi from Articles of Faith, a Chicago band.

    No, but Peter North and Nina Hartley are.
     
  7. metroflip73

    metroflip73 Member

    Mar 3, 2000
    NYC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    No Raylene?!?! :eek:

    Hogwash! :(
     
  8. Dyvel

    Dyvel Member+

    Jul 24, 1999
    The dog end of a day gone by
    Club:
    Leeds United AFC
    Nat'l Team:
    Ireland Republic
    It's all about the early 80's
     
  9. Iceblink

    Iceblink Member

    Oct 11, 1999
    Chicago
    Club:
    Ipswich Town FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yeah... ok. Good band, but Chicago was one of the best places for hardcore in the early- to mid-80s. So many bands... such a huge scene... and it didn't even start to suck until the very late 80s.

    I had some of the best times of my life then.

    Holy crap. I just went to the American Hardcore site. When the "Pay to Cum" music stopped, I did a total doubletake. The kid on the left, in the track jacket looks like the spitting image of me in 1986-1987. Weird. Of course, I don't know those other two guys in the pic. Holy crap, it's freakin' me out.

    Edit: Looked through the pics. That's some guy from Wasted Youth. I need to look into this further. Oh... and a random one of 30 pics loads after the intro... so you might not see it right away if you look.
     
  10. Iceblink

    Iceblink Member

    Oct 11, 1999
    Chicago
    Club:
    Ipswich Town FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Man... that freaked me out. He's Chett, the guitar player... he was 17 at the time... I was 15 in this pic at the beginning of the school year. I was a hell of a lot angrier after a couple months, so I'm sure the smile was gone.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Hmm... well... I was too young. Man, that guy looks just like I did in 86-87... then I shaved off a lot of hair... so..... still, you can see it, can't ya? I need to find a different pic... but I think I must have shunned cameras back then.

    Except one... some guy came up to a bunch of us punks and skins in a place called Aetna Plaza... he said he was taking a pic of us for a book of photographs of Chicago. In retrospect, I think he just wanted to take a picture of a bunch of freaks... If anyone sees that pic though... let me know.

    I bet if I found another pic of him he'd look nothing like me though.
     
  11. JeremyEritrea

    JeremyEritrea Member+

    Jun 29, 2006
    Takoma Park, MD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I didn't get a chance to see this when it was in theaters. But I just ordered the DVD, which comes out tomorrow.

    [​IMG]
     
  12. servotron

    servotron New Member

    Mar 4, 2004
    St Paul, MN
    Why am I not surprised? I am pretty much sick of NYC snobbery across the board.
     
  13. bojendyk

    bojendyk New Member

    Jan 4, 2002
    South Loop, Chicago
    Me too. When you think about it, the amount of honestly great music to come from NYC during the 70s and 80s is actually pretty paltry, especially once you get past the first wave of CBGB bands. Furthermore, some of the best bands (Ramones, New York Dolls) came from the unfashionable outer boroughs.

    Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Patty Smith, ********** Galore, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, most of the No Wave scene, and 99% of the hardcore bands would have been consigned to the dustbins of history had they not come from New York. To put it in perspective, around the same time, Cleveland gave us Rocket from the Tombs, the Pagans, the Dead Boys, and Pere Ubu.
     
  14. servotron

    servotron New Member

    Mar 4, 2004
    St Paul, MN
    OK so I am just watching American Hardcore here at work.

    It's interesting but not blowing me away or anything. It seems like it was made for the people who were there the first time, not 5 years too late like myself.
     
  15. art

    art Member

    Jul 2, 2000
    Portland OR
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I liked the book and listend to alot of these bands as a kid (especially the Minutemen and The Replacements) but I was always dissapointed that Husker Du didnt make it into the book; to me their record 'Zen Arcade' in 1984 was the sort of high water mark for Hardcore, that record still gives me goosebumps today. Maybe for some reason it's not considered "Hardcore" but to me the're a helluvalot more hardcore than The Replacements ever were.
     
  16. Crimen y Castigo

    May 18, 2004
    OakTown
    Club:
    Los Angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    So I finally caught this movie on cable late last night, and it was quite good. I mostly appreciated the lack of narration and the reliance on almost entirely first hand accounts of the various regional scenes.

    Of course this is also the main flaw, as by definition they were limited to who they had access to and the perspectives / memories (hah!) of those folks. But having heavyweights like Ian MacKaye, H.R., Rollins, Ginn, etc. was great.

    Ultimately, though, I think the movie kind of bummed me out.

    Ian MacKaye's comments about how violence became so central to the scene was dead on, and for me I remember those gigs as being amazing experiences, but rather joyless. I saw lots of local gigs in San Jose and I saw the DK's in SF and other gigs at the Fab Mab, the Stone, the I Beam, etc. And I think I saw Black Flag at the Stone -- I definitely went to a number of Black Flag gigs, but riots of varying degrees broke out almost every effing time before they even took the stage.

    But when I compare those gigs to seeing X or the English Beat or even listening to the Specials, I remember getting the same energetic high, with an equally political bent -- but with a heavy dose of fun.

    And that's the difference: American Hardcore was about intensely personal expression, societal rebellion and aggressive non-conformity. It seems driven much more fundamentally from personal pain, which comes across very clearly in the movie. And it's an easy migration that I can fully understand from personal pain to inflicting pain.

    Anyway -- Ian MacKaye's story about punching some dude who attacked his brother and then saying "That's it. I'm done." really hit home, because I remember a similar moment very, very vividly.

    Just my two cents.

    Oh, and Blink 182, et al, still suck.
     
  17. bojendyk

    bojendyk New Member

    Jan 4, 2002
    South Loop, Chicago
    Interesting post, but I disagree re: how hardcore involved aggressive nonconformity. If anything, hardcore promoted aggressive conformity, at least after the first year or two. It's interesting to hear Rollins, etc. recount the negative reactions to their early experiments in non-hardcore music.
     
  18. Crimen y Castigo

    May 18, 2004
    OakTown
    Club:
    Los Angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    There was another clip from someone recalling how a kid climbed onstage and begged on his knees: "Pleeeeeease...play something fast..."

    So, yeah -- there was certainly a high degree of conformity within the scene. I can easily hear people I know saying every single one of those songs in the film sounded exactly the same, they all looked the same, etc.

    But as the film protagonists said: They were trying, aggressively trying, to reject the conformity they saw in the 80s. The heavily produced rock, the Izod shirts, the Reagan moment. I'd give them credit for that.
     
  19. Claymore

    Claymore Member

    Jul 9, 2000
    Montgomery Vlg, MD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Part of me really wants to see this. The other part of me got really depressed when a DC Hardcore photo exhibit came out this year, and there was a picture of yours truly (among others) out in front of the Wilson Center between shows.

    I used to get passionate about things. Not so much anymore.
     
  20. Claymore

    Claymore Member

    Jul 9, 2000
    Montgomery Vlg, MD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The real irony, which a lot of people realized early on, was that they had simply created their own conformity; the whole scene got co-opted almost instantly.
     
  21. servotron

    servotron New Member

    Mar 4, 2004
    St Paul, MN
    I'd like to add (since the thread got resurrected) that the movie had WAAAAAAY too much Bad Brains and too much Black Flag. Sort of the way "A Different State of Mind" had WAAAAAAAY too much Social D.
     

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