CODE OF HONOR
from Ripper #8, 1983interview & photos by Tim Tonooka
It's great that Sal and Dave got over their skating injuries and Code of Honor has resumed playing again. They really made a name for themselves in 1982, and I expect they'll go far in 1983.
Code of Honor is a band that carries on the tradition of the politically charged early San Francisco punk bands like the Avengers and the Dils. They are committed to social and political change and gelping the scene become more politicized. Their songs are very anthemic, with inspiring lyrics that call for action and express a strong sense of values, as in their theme song, "Code of Honor."
Their music is very articulate, with a hard dirve and sharp changes in rhythm and structure. Johnithin has a dramatic way of singing, with a unique style of lyrical pacing. The whole combination makes for an exciting, captivation sound.
Their unique style demands a lot of musical skill, something they've got plenty. Their roots in the San Francisco scene go back quite a ways. Johnithin Christ was previously in Society Dog, who you read about in Ripper #5. They put out a single, a four song EP, and a cut on the S.F. Underground #2 compilation EP - classic S.F. punk well worth looking for if you haven't already got it.
The other three guys were previously together in Sick Pleasure, a local S.F. legend whose final lineup was the same as Code of Honor, except with the incredibly mean and raw sounding Niki Siki on vocals. In both music and outlook, Sick Pleasure is completely different from Code of Honor. It was a raw, savage sound with lyrics of unmitigated nihilism. They were together from early 1980 to mid '81, and appear on the flipside of the Code of Honor album.
Before that, Mike Fox, the guitarist, was in the Tools, his first band. They had ideas similar to Code of Honor, which show in some of their records - two singles, a four song EP, and a song on the S.F. Underground #1 EP. By the way, all the records mentioned so far came out on the Subterranean label, which Mike does most of the recording and producing for. The tools started out as a hardcore band, there were some personnel changes, and they went through a sort of mod phase before breaking up.Sal Paradise, who is well respected in the San Francisco scene for his drum skills, was born in Washington DC but grew up in England, where he was in several bands before he came to S.F.
Dave Chavez, the bass player, grew up in the Bay Area like Mike. (John grew up around Moorestown, New Jersey.) Dave was in the X-Isles in 1979. I saw them once when they played at a free show in Provo Park in Berkeley. As I recall they had several singers who acted out theatrical skits during the songs. They put out one single. Dave is also real sharp on a skateboard, he does competition skating. John and Sal like to skate too, mostly on the street. And Mike can skate but would rather ride his motorcycle.
Code of Honor formed in early September 1981, played their first gig in November, and in December they started recording their "Fight Or Die" side of the Code of Honor/Sick Pleasure LP which came out in August 1982. Code of Honor also has a song, "What Price Will You Pay?" on the "Not So Quiet on the Western Front" compilation LP.
On September 15th they left on their first national tour and played 14 cities: Eugene, Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York, Garfield NJ, Vineland NJ, Baltimore, Tulsa, Dallas, and Houston. Sal broke his wrist skating in Houston, so they returned to San Francisco near the end of October.
The crowd response on the tour was great. They played a bunch of big shows but John's favorite was in New Jersey where they played in a garage for about 15 kids.
Code of Honor's new single, "What Are We Gonna Do"/"What Price Would You Pay?" should be out by now. They're currently working on their second album, which will be a lot different than the first. They'll do a bunch of gigs along the West Coast, then go on a national tour. And in July or August they plan to take off for Europe with Target Video, where they'll play in Finland, France, West Germany, England, and Italy. People there are already familiar with Code of Honor through their video that Target has shown in Europe. It's especially popular in Finland and Italy.
Mike and Johnithin were interviewed at their home in S.F.
WHAT'S THE MAIN DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CODE OF HONOR AND SICK PLEASURE?MIKE: Basically, there's a lot more morality in Code of Honor. Me and Johnithin really dug deep together to find out what we really believe in and what was really important to us.
WHAT INSPIRED YOU?
MIKE: I was kind of disillusioned towards the end of Sick Pleasure. We were just having fun and fucking off, and I wanted to really have a meaningful thing. I've always thought music was the greatest media force for young people. Kids really believe in rock'n'roll, it's almost like their religion. The directoin everything was going in was just real negative, and me and Johnithin got together and decided we wanted to put a message out there, that we really believed in.
JOHNITHIN: We felt if we could help society in any way, then we'll help it, rather than let it go to waste.
WHERE DOES THE NAME "CODE OF HONOR" COME FROM?
JOHNITHIN: Those three words have been used throughout the centuries, everyone's had some kind of code of honor at one point or another.
MIKE: Honor is the most important thing to us. We're trying to put the message out there that you can follow your own morals and you can be a good person. You can support others and care about other people even though you're a punk rocker. Like a lot of punk rockers try to be violent and they're rebellious, and they end up fucking themselves over and their friends and other people besides.
JOHNITHIN: And what they should do is channel their aggressions and really fight something that's worth being fought.
MIKE: Not just be rebellious for the sake of being rebellious
WHAT KIND OF POLITICAL VIEWPOINT DO YOU TAKE?
JOHNITHIN: I just don't believe in the Amerikan system. People see in a couple of our songs that we'd like to separate California from the rest of the United States and make it its own country, because I coan't morally stand what our government does in other parts of the world with arms that they supply and wars that they cause ust to benefit our economy.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN ANY SYSTEM?JOHNITHIN: Not any systems I've seen so far. I'm more or less just an agitator trying to get people to realize that the system we have now is wrong, and let's get together and think of a way to change it.
MIKE: I think that the youth of Amerika is the future. We're trying to get them to think and ask themselves questions. We don't have the answers. We just want people to think, and try to decide for themselves.
JOHNITHIN: We're not saying to everyone, "Follow us, live the way we want ot live." We're just saying live your own life. We're just saying what we believe and what we've come to learn through life. What all of us have learned, we haven't learned from some textbook that our society has printed up to program the yound mind in Amerika. We've pretty much learned everything we know on the street, just basic survival.
MIKE: The big difference between us though, and a lot of other people that just survive is that we care about people, and a lot of people don't. The people I care about are the young people, because they have a chance of changing their minds, and a lot of older people are stuck the way they are, and they'll probably live out their lives like that. We're all in it together, and if we all get together, we can change something. Because the world's going to fuckin' hell, especially the United States. We're screwing up the rest of the world, and we're all involved and responsible for it.
JOHNITHIN: We're all responsible as long as we let out government do what it's dong. That's what bothers me the most, is that everyone in Amerika just sits back while our government is doing all this stuff.
MIKE: The main thing about our band is that we are interested in the young people and what's going to happen in the future. We want the young people to get together and work something out, and care about what's gonna happen and try to change things. We're really interested in supporting each other, we want to emphasize that.
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