Fresh ink on Henry Rollins, 1984
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We Got Power co-editor Jordan Schwartz stands in front of a realtor’s office against a stark white background on the cover of this new coffee table book. He’s junkie-thin, teenaged, pimpled, brace-faced, Jew-fro’d, and flanked by his battered skateboard. In a word, he’s punk — or, more accurately, he’s hardcore.
The hardcore scene in southern California in the early 1980s is exactly the kind of scene we’ll never see again. It was a living, breathing entity, fueled by the ambition of youth, constantly teetering on the brink of total anarchy, and totally out of step with today’s musical climate. We Got Power! (after the famed fanzine) is a gorgeously realized requiem for that fiercely tribal era, unabashed in its admiration for the best parts but unafraid to stare the nasty bits – addiction, death, and worse – straight in the face.
The book’s format is part of why it’s so successful. Its 300 oversized pages include more than 20 essays by people within the scene, hundreds upon hundreds of photos, and full reproductions of every issue of the original We Got Power zine by Schwartz and David Markey. It’s an approach that makes the book somehow feel both anecdotal and utterly complete.
The essays contribute mightily to the anecdotal feel, with clashing remembrances of the same events given by people who the years and the drugs have affected differently. But there’s a real sense of democracy within the essays; Henry Rollins is treated with the same amount of reverence as someone who occasionally wrote a blurb for a fanzine. There were no rock stars in California hardcore. Guys like Rollins and Jello Biafra went and got tacos with guys like David Markey and Jordan Schwartz. The us-versus-them attitude was so strong that almost everyone without a badge or a mullet could be considered part of the “us.”
The photographs do an even better job of revealing the nonexistent line between fan and musician. When Jordan Schwartz got his first 35-mm camera as his graduation present in 1981, he probably didn’t realize it would become the most important tool in documenting the rise of one of the most important heavy music scenes in American history, but that’s exactly what happened. His candid shots of bands and fans hanging out in the L.A. area and his shockingly polished concert photography provide an invaluable window into the scene that we’re lucky to have. Plenty of other amateur photographers have credits in We Got Power!, but it’s because Schwartz chose a camera over a guitar that our portrait of early L.A. hardcore is as complete as it is.
The zines included are just as essential, though they’re sometimes problematic. The aesthetic of hand-assembled content with type-written reviews, magazine collages and primitively drawn comics still has a lot of appeal, but the adolescent humor that often descends into casual homophobia is depressing. Still, We Got Power! is meant to be a warts-and-all examination of the scene, and that element was certainly present. It’s only a minor distraction from the historical importance of the zines, which still mostly hold up. If nothing else, they’re valuable just for the confirmation that, even before he made any money, Glenn Danzig was an enormous douche.
Perhaps the best thing about We Got Power! is that for all its historicity, it never feels like a museum piece. Reading it will make you think, but it’ll also make you want to put on your old hardcore records. And as much as the photos and fanzine layouts hold up today, the music feels even more relevant. Hardcore has come a long way since 1980, but its primordial ooze still stings with the same white-hot intensity that it must have for kids like David Markey and Jordan Schwartz. Long live the old noise.
-Brad Sanders
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To enter to win a copy of We Got Power!, tell us in the comments below which pioneering hardcore band is your favorite and why. This contest will close at Midnight on February 5th. You must have a mailing address in the United States or Canada to be eligible to win.
BUY WE GOT POWER!
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Negative Approach. Because California and New York get too much credit.
All kidding aside, I was listening to Michael Jackson when hardcore took off, but I came of age during the heyday of Touch & Go and Amrep, and I picked up Negative Approach’s career-spanning _Total Recall_ because I liked the Laughing Hyenas so much. Shit blew me away, and I still listen to it on a fairly regular basis. John Brannon’s voice is as raw as it gets, and the anger and frustration in the songs rings true to me.
I’m disqualified but I would say Die Kreuzen’s “Cows & Beer” is one cornerstone of midwestern hardcore. The riffs were so weird and angular that even bands like Voivod and The Jesus Lizard were influenced by them. Hell, even Voivod recently invited them to play Roadburn. There was just nothing else like them at the time.
@pseudonymous
I saw Negative Approach last year and shit was gnarly and violent. I saw a dude stagediving with not one but two horseshoes tied around his waist with two chains. A brawl also happened. Can’t wait to see them again.
Agreed on Die Kruezen. Maybe it’s regional bias, but I think Midwest hardcore and punk was less dogmatic /more inclined to take chances.
Happy to hear that the recently reunited Negative Approach is worth seeing. The last I saw of John Brannon was with Easy Action, probably ten years ago at a small venue in Louisville, Kentucky called the Rudyard Kipling. It didn’t ruin my memory of the great Laughing Hyenas shows I saw back in the day or anything like that, but it left a lot to be desired. Brannon’s microphone didn’t work, and, instead of fixing that, the band played the entire set with his vocals completely inaudible. And without his voice, Easy Action is just another band that sounds like the Stooges.
To this day, nearly 20 years on from discovering them, Minor Threat remains my favorite hardcore band. To make a long and probably familiar story short, they opened up a world to me, saving me from the boredom of backwoods suburban life. It was something larger than just a hardcore band to me; it was a way of living. Sure, I got into Black Flag, Bad Brains, Fugazi, and countless other Dischord & SST bands because of them. But it showed me not wasting my nights doped out of my brain was fine. Made me thinking outside of the norm of what a band could be and where it could play. They laid the foundation for the choices I make today from where I buy groceries to where I work. I don’t have the straight edge stubble any longer but one day soon I plan on having that “Out of Step” sheep inked on my arm.
This seems like a typical response, but my pick is Black Flag because they took the “against the grain” hardcore ethic to its logical extreme by writing slower and longer songs and also by giving zero fucks about the cliched punk aesthetic of mohawks and leather jackets.
Black Flag, because they never reformed and did a mediocre comeback album and tarnished their legacy. Wait, what?
….Ok then, Husker Du
Easy Action are one of the better dirty rock n roll bands out there. I’d rather see them then John Brannon flogging the corpse of Negative Approach. I respect Mr. Brannon cause he’s carried on with new bands that all destroy. Tired of reformations. Black Flag/Flag goddamnt. Ha ha grumpy.
Oh ya I dig the book as well as the We Got Power comp.
…but it’s a promise, hahaha.
You’re welcome Brad.
That tat looks like the sun from Rollins Bands major label debut.
Anyways, I can’t remember which cassette popped my cherry. It was either: Black Flag-First Four Years, DK’s Fresh Fruit, or the 1st Suicidal Tendancies.
When I think about it, Suicidal probably had the biggest impact. That video and song for Institutionalized really captured what was going on growing up with boomer parents in the 80s: boomers were (and are) generally really self involved people. Many spent the 70s raising kids in all kinds of crazy ways, many unhealthy. Nothing felt right, even if everything in suburbia ‘looked’ normal. That was the catalyst of the times, if I recall correctly. Rebelling against all the fake and wrong things your parents had bought into.
got the book in the mail yesterday. THANK YOU!
HUSKER DU! they were like the Beatles of punk. not around very long and just kept evolving. honorable mention: MEAT PUPPETS & MINUTEMEN.
The Misfits. Most people think of them as a punk band, but listen to Earth AD and tell me that isn’t a hardcore album. I have been listening to The Misfits since 86, and I have never lost interest in them. They were pioneers in punk and hardcore and without them, I doubt the genre would be what it is today.
as cliche’ as this may sound, I have to say that Black Flag is probably the most important and revolutionary old-school hardcore punk band. I don’t care what anyone says – every single era of the band had something unique and powerful and creative to offer to both the underground D.I.Y. music scene and to late 70’s/early 80’s punk as well. don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of legendary hardcore punk bands that were an important piece of the puzzle – Minor Threat, Suicidal Tendencies, Flipper, Bad Brains, etc. – however, I feel that Black Flag came along at just the right time (and before all those other bands I mentioned), being probably one of the first bands that were able to combine anger, frustration, depression, and wreckless abandon in a way that fueled the American underground scene, offering exactly what was needed in a time of a stagnant, watered down musical culture.
My vote would be for the Zero Boys. Their album “Vicious Circle” rates with anything that came out by the bigger names on the coast. Also, they were proof that the hardcore bug had infected areas of the country (in this case, Indiana) that punks in the bigger scenes had no knowledge of.
TSOL is the first hardcore band I remember hearing, but I was and still am a metalhead through and through. But my friends on the soccer team kept trying to convert me and I gained a huge appreciation for ST, DRI, Cro-Mags and a few others. But TSOL started it all, while ST remains my all time favorite hardcore band.
“If nothing else, they’re valuable just for the confirmation that, even before he made any money, Glenn Danzig was an enormous douche.”
If you’re a genius, you’re allowed to be a douche.
Dead Kennedys immediately come to mind, specifically their debut Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. I discovered this hardcore gem in the fall of 1995 during my sophomore year in high school completely by accident. A few months earlier Sepultura released the VHS Third World Chaos that featured a live clip of Jello performing “Holiday in Cambodia” with Sepultura. I loved the song and the crowd’s volatile reaction to the song. “Holiday” was just the beginning. The band’s offensive name intrigued me in a way that only a fifteen year old can be both offended and curious at the same time. “Kill the Poor,” “California Uber Alles,” “Let’s Lynch the Landlord” and a unique yet brilliant cover of “Viva Las Vegas” are my favorites from the album. Jello’s spastic vocals, East Bay Ray’s volatile guitar playing and Ted’s drumming still stand out to me. Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables was a great introduction to hardcore for me because at the time, (circa mid 90s) Offspring and Green Day were the popular “punk” bands. I wanted something heavier. Fresh Fruit is hardly a perfect-sounding album, but there is so much energy and anger that still holds water today. Even though there is a fifteen-year discrepancy between the album’s initial release and my first exposure to it Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables was my hardcore initiation and my favorite of the early and formative punk/hardcore bands. Better late than never.
Angry Samoans or China White from back in the day. Madball in recent times.(and I know I’ll get shit from this)
Hands down Gang Green. They had the right idea. Tunes to move a pit and pound beer too. Everybody wins!