Forum Closed
The forum is now to new posts. All the historical content is still available to browse.
if you are looking for musicians to play with, please view the Bands Seeking Musicians list, or use the Musicians Directory
You can use our pages on social media to connect:
Written on the Walls...
| Message Board > Music Chitchat - Heavy > Written on the Walls... |
| _Griphin_ User Info... | Written on the Walls - An independant history of Victoria Punk by Galina Pembroke Monday Magazine, October 11-17, 2001 I'm sitting in Thursday's pub with four of the key players in Victoria's ever-changing punk scene. Assembled around a heavily-used table are drummer Dustin Schwam of The Pricks, producer-musician Scott Henderson, producer Jason Flower and writer Rick Long. The smell of hand-rolled cigarettes and strong beer merge with that of unlaundered clothing. I am in punk heaven. Punk is crude, no question, but is it a crust covering something shiny and valuable, or is it just all spitting and skateboards? As we hurtle towards the 25th anniversary of local punk, these four veterans, along with a Dayglo Abortions nicknamed Cretin, are going to give me the final word on the real meaning of Victoria punk. DISCO NO MORE It was 1977 when punk's salent birth shattered the disco-ball culture. In New York, The Ramones chanted "Blitzkrieg Bop;" in London the Sex Pistols shouted "Anarchy!" Here in Victoria, the four member, all-female Dishrags looked for a venue to say anything. To hear Jason Flower tell it, the Dishrags were the first punk group on Vancouver Island - even though they had to move to Vancouver to release their only two singles. Flower, owner to the non-profit recording studio Breakeven, is helping to legitimize Island punk by compiling All Your Ears Can Hear: Victoria Underground Music 1977-84, a CD collection of early Victoria punk - including the Dishrags' 1978 Bullshit Sessions. "They got stuff thrown at them and were booed off stage," Flower tells me while examining his beer from under his Elvis Costello-style glasses. "It's a fuckin' Island," Flower says heatedly, but then corrects himself. "The isolation is really what has made such a big scene here." Like myself, Flower (formerly of Stick Farm) sees the shine beneath the rust of punk. "Through it all I think there is a political message," he says. "Not exclusively political, but it's there, whether metaphoric or direct." Flower's insights are based on years of studying local punk: since 1984, he has been collecting every poster and record he could find of independant music on the Island. Some, like the Dayglo Abortions, went on a certain degree of fame; others, like the Sick Fucks, Section 46, Disciples of Abalar and the Salty Seamen, came and went. ANGER MANAGEMENT Flower's friend and collaborator on the Ears project is Offbeat writer Rick Long. A connoisseur of early punk (he used to play with That's Rude), Long is tackling the visual documentation and biographies for the project. Despite witnessing dozens of seminal bands form and perform, Long himself sees no political or complex message in the music of punk. An angry teenager during the early 80's, Long tells me that's exactly when he got out of Victoria punk at the time: "A lot of anger and confusion. Politics?" he laughs scornfully. "I pay my fuckin' taxes - that's my politics." His brother, Randy Long, was also a rebellious teen, and a talented bassist for local speed-metallers Mission of Christ - until he was killed in a confrontation with the police in 1990. Not surprisingly, Long's view is affected by the loss of his brother. "I'm a parent of three children," he says ruefully. "I'm much happier when my kids are listening to happy music." Ironically, The Prick's Dustin Schwam agrees with protecting young ears from the rude sounds of punk. "My kids don't even know about my band," Schwam says as he rolls a cigarette, his heavily tattooed arms politely waving the smoke rings away. "When the relatives come over we call it 'The Ricks'." Ever the gentlemen punk, Schwam seems at first a walking contradiction: a skater and drummer but also a father and, since 1987, a journeyman glazier - but there's no questioning his punk pedigree. Throughout the '80s and '90s he helped establish the Island scene, first in the communist-learning, surf-punk band Red Tide, and later in the harder, more raw-sounding Shutdown. Schwam is also a 15-year member of the Jaks. "I consider us the freemasons of the skateboarding world," Schwam proudly says of the international punk organization. "We're like a cult," he laughs. This "cult" is very organized: they arrange both gigs and places to crash whenever punk travels. Notable names include Guns N' Roses, Dr. Know, U.S. Bombs and Death Sentence. The local division was started in 1989 by Mike Anus of local punk legends The Dayglo Abortions. HERE TODAY, GUANO TOMORROW Mention Island punk and the Daygo Abortions can't help but come up. As Dayglo guitarist Cretin tells it, he had the "extreme misfortune" of going to St. Michaels University School". Around the time the Dishrags were getting booed off stage, Cretin was getting expelled - but not before being known throughout the school as "that miserable little cretin." Instead of shirking the moniker, Cretin decided to honour it by forming the Dayglo's with fellow SMU-er Bonehead. Their first album, Out of the Womb, was released in 1981 to, uh, limited success. Perhaps Victoria's most successful punkers - 1999's Death Race 2000 was their eighth album - Dayglos' notoriety took off in the late 80's. Fans and foes alike may remember the hoopla surrounding their shock-song "Hide the Hamster," off 1987's Here Today, Guano Tomorrow. Speaking carmly over the phone, Cretin sounds more business-shrewd than punk fucked-up as he tells me about the controversy. "It was based on that urban-myth of Richard Gere sticking hamsters up his butt," he laughs. Charged with "posession for the purpose of distributing pornographic materials to minors", the Dayglos took the case to the Supreme Court of Canada before being acquitted, but Cretin tells me it cost them "hundreds of thousands of dollars." If nothing else, the experience cemented the uncompromising views of the band. Though almost 15 years later, Cretin still gets pissed off when bands have their lyrics monitored by pub managers. Claiming that they "own the record for the most booze sold" in bars, Cretin is admittedly proud that the Dayglos still get to say whatever they want. PRODUCER-MUSICIAN SCOTT HENDERSON WEARS A BLACK THE Pricks T-Shirt, in support of Schwam's latest band. Henderson owns a local studio and has played in punk bands for the past 20 years. "When I first discovered punk rock," Henderson remembers, "I thought, "Yeah, they're right. I'm gonna do whatever the fuck I want!'" Since then he has lived by a strong "no compromise" maxim. In 1992, just two years before Green Day heralded the re-emergence of mainstream punk with their platinum selling Dookie (and not long after they'd played here at producer Gary Brainless' basement club The Rat's Nest), Henderson fought mainstream policing during the "View Street Riots." With the closing of the O.A.P. Hall in 1990, other venues were needed; the F.O.E. Hall on View was one option. Inside, Henderson and his band Shovelhead were opening for the Dayglos, but the hall's owner decided the noise was too loud for the jazz club downstairs; Henderson insisted their music was reasonable. Police were called, barricades erected, people pepper sprayed. Did the audience deserve this treatment? Doubtful. Did it make a difference that they were punks? Probably. Though many were thrown in jail, Henderson remembers that ultimately no one was charged. Cretin has a different view: "There was no riot. It was just people getting out of a gig." Like so much of punk history, what really happened is open to speculation, really known only to the few hundred on View Street that night. It seems likely, though, that police were quick to silence the growing voice of punk, eager to stick its dirty middle finger up at authority. Throughout Flower and Long's CD project, many different, sometimes skewed visions are realized. There are over two dozen bands included on All Your Ears Can Hear, and it would take a multiple-CD set to cover the rest of Victoria's punk legacy. While many relagate punk to the past, it still offers a voice to those muted by mainstream music. Uncensored, marginalized and still mostly misunderstood, punk is the graffiti of the music world. Bands like Schwam's The Pricks and Henderson's Atlas Strategic still break boundaries in the music world, while other acts like Moneyshot, Hudson Mack, The Jizz Wailers and Betty Ford continue to make Victoria (in the words of one hardcore website) B.C.'s punk rock "mecca". More then just music, punk is history. But it's history written on the walls, not in textbooks. - Mon, 21 Feb 2005 4:49pm | ||
| Luc User Info... | Wow...I think I actually remember reading that article.... Hudson Mack, ahhh, good ol' times.... - Mon, 21 Feb 2005 5:12pm | ||
|
|||
Not logged in
Log In / Register (optional)
Featured Events
Featured Historical Events
Featured Article
Newest Profiles
Bridgeman's Bistro North Pender
A stunning bistro with warm service and food as good as the ...
Open / Operational
Kaleidoscope Arts Centre
Inspiring Young People Since 1973...
Kaleidoscope Theatre f...
Open / Operational
Little Fernwood Gallery
Gallery space supporting local, diverse and emerging artists
1923 Fernwood Road Victoria BC
Open / Operational
