MovieChat Forums > American Hardcore (2006) Discussion > They forgot the most important band

They forgot the most important band


In my opinion the greatest hardcore band ever was the Dead Kennedys. I kept thinking while watching this.... "they should be coming up very soon"... and then nothing.

Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables was released in 1980, so it went right along with the timeline of this movie.

It made this movie less than perfect, because it almost felt unrealistic not to mention them. Did they refuse to participate or something? Please, someone enlighten me.

Anyone else think the same thing while watching?

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[deleted]

There are an amazing number of bands left out-

DK, for one. Anyone who doesn't consider Fresh Fruit a landmark of hardcore punk should be shot at dawn...Pol Pot style.

Misfits...Earth A.D. is another cornerstone record. Granted, most of their stuff falls into the more rock-based Sex Pistols/British style (so does early Black Flag though), but Earth A.D. is a masterpiece of brutal punk.

No talk of revolution summer, Embrace/Rites of Spring/Three/Scream/etc...this is where the nail was hammered into the coffin of the first wave of hardcore...it wasn't the break up of Black Flag (they stopped being hardcore and were a second-rate Black Sabbath cover band by 84-85).

Like them or not (I personally can't stand them), but the Lower East Side scene was totally ignored...Youth of Today (what a funny band), Gorilla Biscuits, Judge, Chain of Strength, etc. etc. To say that Agnostic Front and Cro-Mags are the major NYC hardcore bands is ridiculous (although AF/CM do represent the NYC attitude better than Youth of Today). However, the second wave of hardcore (the infernal sXe years- Earth Crisis, Victory Records, etc.) was fueled far more by Youth of Today and Judge than Black Flag or AF.

Not to mentions...The Meatmen, The Necros, Melvins (their early stuff was hardcore..no doubt)...

plus...why stop at 85-86? Hardcore was just as relevant up until (or even a bit after) Nirvana as ever...unfortunately, this documentary falls into the trap hardcore meant to destroy...hero worship with Black Flag being the backbone of the narrative.

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[deleted]

and no DESCENDENTS.

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As to the NYC bands, Agnostic Front was very representative of NYHC between 1983 and 1985. As to the other bands you mentioned, Youth of Today were from Connecticut, Chain of Strength was from California, and Judge were a joke. You mention the Victory bands like Earth Crisis as part of the second wave. They were more like the third or fourth wave... if you even want to consider them hardcore. Bands like Youth of Today, Gorilla Biscuits and others you mentioned were part of the second wave.

You're right that a lot of important and influential bands were left out... but that's because Steve Blush, who wrote the book and made the movie, was hated by many people, including myself. There were a lot of bands that wanted nothing to do with this film and Steve Blush didn't want to include anyone who talked badly about him. He was almost universaly despised by most zine writers... and you'll notice no zines are covered in this film either. He chose to tell the history of hardcore the way he wanted to tell it, not the way it was.

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i think the gorilla biscuits were left out because of Civ's radio days in the mid 90's. in there eyes he essentially sold out, i.e. made a little bit of money but nothing super substantial. on another note, a funny thing about agnostic front is their unplugged scream-off with murphy's law in Cremaster 3. a movie that the average nirvana fan my not understand with it's symbolism and introspection. but yeah. there was a time you could get sick of it all to play at your house for $200. ahh, the good ole' days.

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I don't think they FORGOT DK and Misfits, I think it has something to do with copyrights (i.e. Jello and Danzig did not agree to be featured in the movie). But that's just what I've heard...

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" ozhezhi on Thu Oct 4 2007 05:26:33

I don't think they FORGOT DK and Misfits, I think it has something to do with copyrights (i.e. Jello and Danzig did not agree to be featured in the movie). But that's just what I've heard..."

CORRECT.


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There were a number of bands that wanted nothing to do with this movie because they hated Steve Blush... rightfuly so.

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DK is in the book alot. There is an entire chapter on the Dead Kennedy's. Though why they are left out of the movie beats me.

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Probably because they read his book.

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The DKs and Misfits have been involved in a couple of legal issues which prevented them from being able to participate in this. That's really all there is to it.

The film is not about anything that happened after 1983. If you think that this is a problem, maybe you should correct it by making your own film about the music you believe to be relevant.

I was surprised that John Stabb and GI were not mentioned even once! They never sold out whatsoever and they're still kicking arse! Anybody have any insight? Does John dislike Blush to (and please don't answer yes if you don't really know).

The only way to refuse tomorrow is to die. ~ Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

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I believe that to be correct. Legal issues and infighting kept several prominent bands out of the movie, the Dead Kennedys and Danzig among them.

Also, some people are just not possible to work with. Eric "Jello Biafra" Boucher may have been a punk genius, but as a human being, he's an a--hole. Seriously. Sure, "people with issues" can be colorful and wonderful (Henry Rollins, anyone?) but past a certain point, some people just don't work or play well with others.

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Bobby Steele did have a small...very short comment in the movie. I don't fully understand why they couldn't involve him more. He was with the Misfits in '78. I guess that didn't fit the whole time frame the movie claimed HC existed ('80-'86).

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He was in the Undead too


And why do so many people hate Steve Blush?

__________________

AIM - CycoFishHead

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I haven't seen the movie but from what I see they don't mention the germs.
one of the best hardcore bands.

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Weren't the Germs like the first wave of L.A. punk? I think this film is supposed to be about what happened right after the initial bands of the late-70s.

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Yes, they are generally not regarded as HC. However, I always thought of them as sort of proto-HC, like X, Fear and early Black Flag. If you want to see some great stuff about these bands check out Penelope Spheeris' Decline of Western Civ -
http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt0082252/usercomments-29


The only way to refuse tomorrow is to die. ~ Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

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The Germs are to hardcore what The Stooges and The MC5 are to punk. They don't really qualify themselves, but they clearly and undeniably were a major influence on the first bands who were hardcore.

EDIT: Actually there probably are some songs on GI that do qualify as straight up hardcore, I guess I was thinking more in terms of who came first. Other bands were obviously already doing hardcore before GI came out in 1979. The Germs released the Lexicon Devil 7" in 1978, but it's not quite hardcore. No God comes very close... but it has handclaps. HARDCORE CANNOT HAVE HANDCLAPS, YOU HOOKER.

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in a very condescending manner that I really took offense to. it's not like hardcore sprang from the head of Ian MacKaye fully formed, you know? to say that they LA scene merely adopted punk as a style and not in a true sense was completely wrong.

and they totally blushed over the Fullerton/OC scene.

although kudos on digging up the Middle Class. I've been looking for a recording of "out of vogue" for years.

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I also was surprised to not see DK and The Misfits. The very thing that hard core was against prevented two of the most well known bands from participating. I swear it's like a fkn disease. Corporate greed.




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I assumed bands like Misfits and DK were excluded because they are not Hardcore Punk, this doc is about hardcore. They are traditional punk. Am I wrong here?!

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While DK were closer to traditional punk (at least in the beginning) compare to other hardcore bands, they are generally considered one of the most important bands in hardcore (their In God We Trust EP, in particular, is hardcore through and through). Anyway, musically, they were far from traditional and they also went beyond hardcore - just like Black Flag. As for the horror punk legends The Misfits, some of the songs on Walk Among Us could be considered hardcore punk. But Earth A.D.? It is undeniably hardcore.


Hey there, Johnny Boy, I hope you fry!

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