Letter from No Answers #10.25 (written by Kent McClard)
I wrote this letter to Shawn Stern immediately after returning from Youth Brigade's first return show. I sent it to him the next day. A couple of weeks later I got his reply, and eventually I finished the booklet that was included in the Sawhorse 7". And while in Germany I found this message written on a Downcast poster. [the message: HEY KENT. YOU SPINELESS LITTLE SHIT! TALK SHIT TO MY FACE! love shawn] Apparently Youth Brigade had played the night before... I include this not as an atack on Shawn or Youth Brigade but as a statement about the hardcore scene, the glorification of the old days, and the revival of old hardcore bands and scenesters. Once again, this is just my opinion and you are not obligated to believe in it. There is no truth.
Shawn-
I saw you play tonight at the Anaconda in Santa Barbara. I didn't pay the $12.50 so at least, I don't feel so bad about it. The band was good, I guess, I mean if it is possible for Youth Brigade songs to be good in 1992. I used to talk to you occasionally on the phone years ago. In fact I set up an SNFU show in 1985 through you. I don't know why I'm writing, really, but I just felt really angry and frustrated seeing you play, and I just thought that I would share that with you just one fucking time.
Why? I mean what's the point in coming back? Do you really feel so inspired to get back up and play songs you wrote ten or eleven years ago? Is there a part of you that misses playing to a crowd of morons? While you were playing a bunch of skinheads were sieg-heiling. You talk about a song that's message is about caring for other people and then a bunch of bored muscular men throw themselves around in a pit as they sing the words to your songs. I know you didn't notice, but I guess in a way that's why I'm so angry. Not at you, but at what punk and hardcore is all about.
There is a massive division in punk and hardcore right now. There are two camps, so to speak. There is one version in which there are distinct lines between the bands and the audience, where the bands charge $10 for t-shirts and albums, and the door price is $12.50. At these shows the bands talk about political ideas and the need to break away from mainstream American values that are destroying our country, but all along they are just part of the rock'n'roll business. The booking agents set up the shows, the bands get their guarantees, merchandise sales are good, the bouncers kick the shit out of those who don't "behave," and the big macho males run around in circles smashing into each other and everyone else while those that just want to watch the band cower in the back hoping not to get smashed by some stage divers boot. It's all just part of our capitalist society, where in your own words the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And the patriarchy continues as the macho males go down to Pananma or Iraq or the slam pit to fuck shit up and let off a little male steam, while the women sit in back and look nice for their weekend warriors. It's what Bad Religion is making a fortune off of right now. They tour the country playing shows anywhere from $12 to $25 and they stay every night in their hotel rooms just like all the other bands out there in the entertainment business, and when they come home they deposit a little more into their bank account.
But at the same time there is a whole different faction of punk rock. An underground within the underground. It's not big and it doesn't leave much room for making money, but the day the dollar rules is the day punk dies forever. There are bands out there today that play only $5 and $6 shows, and sell shirts and records for $5 and $6, and who don't want their shows turned into football games. And I'm not talking about Fugazi, because they're doing something totally different, but I am saying that there is a whole bunch of people in hardcore that don't want shows turned into violent free-for-alls. Your show was the first show I've been to in two or three years where Nazi skins were strutting their stuff. There just comes a point where you have to decide what you're going to be about. Some of us are tired of violence, and the capitalism and elitism of rock'n'roll. Punk rock losses something when the intimacy is taken away. I think it is really hard to reach people on a large scale. You were talking about revolution of the inside, and I think that's really cool, but I just don't think you're going to get there playing $12.50 shows to large men jumping on each other and trying to pick fights. That sounds like all the other revolutions. One patriarchy replaces another. One power replaces another.
There are people out there that want something different. And sometimes we are willing to sacrifice quantity and popularity for a little integrity. I mean who cares how many people have ever heard of Youth Brigade. The important question is "Did Youth Brigade offer a tangible alternative or did they simply offer lip service?" "Did Youth Brigade attempt change or did they just talk about it?"
I'm not really telling you what to do, that's your fucking business, but if you do what you did in the past and what you did in Santa Barbara then you're headed for a lot of bullshit and little or no integrity. Youth Brigade could easily become as big as Bad Religion, but there is a price to be paid for that. Bad Religion shows are violent. Bad Religion shows are expensive. Bad Religion rips off a lot of people by pretending to be a punk rock band. They're not. They are a rock'n'roll band just like every rock'n'roll band that has come before them. They're not a threat to the establishment, they're not even a minor nuisance, they are the establishment.
Why is Youth Brigade back? Is it to be a threat or is to be a rock'n'roll band? That's all I'm asking. If it's to be a rock'n'roll band then I guess that's cool, but I'll be busy trying to be a threat, or at least an alternative, and so I guess our paths part now. If it was in your mind that you wanted to get Youth Brigade back together to be a threat, then be a threat. Don't play stupid shows, for over inflated prices. Don't stand up there mute as people smash into each other on the dance floor. Don't sell your stuff for ridiculously high prices. Be an alternative. I'll be the first to admit that it isn't that easy to be an alternative, but in my eyes that is something to be, whereas a rock band is nothing but a rock band.
If you don't practice what you preach then your words ring hollow. We both know that. So fucking don't just act like another fucking dumb shit rock band. Think about what you're doing. Do you want to return to the mindless violence of the Olympic shows, or do you want to start new with a real program and an idea about what it means to be alternative?
I realize that things like door prices and record prices may seem trivial to you, but that is what the rock business is about. If you don't challenge that then you're no more than a rock band. And that isn't much to be proud of.
-Kent
P.S. I just feel that hardcore is a democratic form of music. It is a form of music where anyone can pick up a guitar or some drum sticks or a microphone and start a band. To me it is about people involved with the music and the ideas putting on the shows, putting out the records, and doing it at a reasonable price to illustrate that the money is not the motivation but rather the need to express ideas and emotions. It is about trying to take music away from the industry, where 99% of the people involved are simply consumers waiting in line to be fed the next musical product. Hardcore is about inclusion, not exclusion. It is about everyone feeling like they can have an active part. Violence is alienating, and so is consumerism. Punk rock spent a good deal of its time mired in violence and consumerism. It is time to do something different. As a band, Youth Brigade has a choice. You can either become another cog in the machinery of the rock industy, or you can try ot do something that threatens that machine. I assume we share a distaste for the machine called America. The rock industry is part of that machine, that truth cannot be avoided.
As a final note, Public Enemy played the Anaconda a few months ago for $20. The audience was almost entirely white. People of color weren't at that show because they couldn't afford to spend $20 on an hours worth of music. Public Enemy betrayed their people and their message long ago. They became part of the business; part of the machine that keeps the rich rich and the poor poor. In my eyes they, just like everyone else who allows the cycle of inequality caused by our form of capitalism to continue, helped cause the pressure and hopelessness that burned down Los Angeles. But still they spout off about the "evil system" as their bank accounts grow and grow.
What will the revolution change? Nothing, because the so called revolution was just a marketing tool. So where do you stand?
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