[kj] 1000 SUNS Outside Gate and PHANTASMAGORIA

[B. Oliver Sheppard]

Actually, a member of The Replacements was interviewed in the American 
Hardcore documentary (briefly) saying that in effect he felt the 
Replacements' stuff approached hardcore, but wasn't quite a part of the 
hardcore scene the movie talks about.

I think Jello's non-appearance is because of what someone (Alex?) said 
-- his reluctance to be involved with stuff like this nowadays, esp. 
since the, uh, "Dead Kennedys" have re-formed without him -- yes, with a 
new singer, like the Newfits -- and it might've meant 
commiserating/dealing with, or reminiscing about, his old DK "buddies," 
from whom he's bitterly estranged now. Bobby Steele, who was technically 
briefly a member of the '77-'83 Misfits lineup is also interviewed in 
_American Hardcore_ several times, but he's credited not as a Misfit but 
as a member of of his own band, NY's Undead, the band he's better known 
for anyway. Steele doesn't discuss the Misfits at all. I have heard a 
live recording of The Misfits from 1981 or so where Danzig throws a 
tantrum on stage, into the mic, and goes on about how their ex-guitarist 
Bobby Steele sucks and so does his new band, The Undead.

The major coup for the documentary was getting Ian MacKaye to 
participate at all; he is also notoriously pee-shy about stuff like this 
-- esp. considering this is a Sony Pictures Classics release. Ian would 
not let Rhino, for example, use Minor Threat tracks for their "Faster & 
Louder" hc punk anthology from the early 90s, seen by many as a 
definitive (though not exhaustive) document for the '80 - '84 US HC era. 
That was a major blow to Rhino's compilation, which wanted to be the 
"Nuggets" of US hardcore, and it even had GG Allin on it -- who is also 
not mentioned in American Hardcore, either, now that I think about it.

Still, the Misfits were in the trenches playing right along with the 
Necros, Poison Idea, & Negative Approach in the early 80s -- and all 
those were bands covered in this documentary. The documentary isn't 
perfect but I'll admit it also isn't bad. But not covering the Dead 
Kennedys and/or the Misfits in barely any form makes it way less 
complete than it'd ideally be. I mean, the DK's were hugely responsible 
for forging a definite, striking, political direction for hardcore in 
those days, and they had the obscenity trials in '86, etc.

-Oliver



GREG SLAWSON wrote:

>

> I think American Hardocre was trying to stick w/bands that were truly 

> undergound--Maybe the DKs were too big, and Misfits were more like 

> old-school British punk...Notice that Husker Du, Meat Puppets, and 

> Replacements were also not featured...

>