Rock 'n' roll new school

>> Has Punk Planet had too much to think?

by JULIET WATERS

Following are some of the last thoughts from We Owe You Nothing: Punk Planet, The Collected Interviews. Says committed indie frontman Ted Leo: "If you know it's ill that you like that last 'Woo-hoo!' Blur song, fucking stop it! Deny it! Don't let it in! Deny yourself that one cheap pleasure in favour of some loftier goals... I want a world in which people strive to achieve quality. I think it's there, it's just obscured by so much shit that it requires a little effort to get to. And no, talk this big is not out of place in talking about our attitudes toward punk rock. The punk world is not a refuge from the world at large, it's a refuge within the world at large."

Compare this to the first editorial in Punk, the first zine that some say started it all in January 1976: "KILL YOURSELF. JUMP OFF A FUCKIN' CLIFF. DRIVE NAILS INTO YOUR HEAD. BECOME A ROBOT AND JOIN THE STAFF AT DISNEYLAND. O.D. ANYTHING. JUST DON'T LISTEN TO DISCOSHIT. I'VE SEEN THAT CANNED CRAP TAKE REAL LIVE PEOPLE AND TURN THEM INTO DOGS! AND VICE VERSA. THE EPITOME OF ALL THAT'S WRONG WITH WESTERN CIVILIZATION IS DISCO. EDDJICATE YOURSELF. GET INTO IT. READ PUNK."

Punk, the original, could never be confused with Punk Planet, started in 1994 by Daniel Sinker right around the feverish signing-frenzy days of grunge and sub-pop. Unlike Punk and its younger cousin Maximum Rock 'n' Roll--which kept up the old-school tradition of defining what punk was by ranting on about what it wasn't--Sinker's in-depth-interview-format shifted the focus toward what punk might be and what it might become.

This more mature attitude has generated substantial, interesting interviews with hardworking indie musicians like Ian MacKaye, Sleater-Kinney, Thurston Moore, artists like Winston Smith and Art Chantrey, labels like Mordam Records and Man's Ruin, and acts like Negativland. Yet, in all its positive, thoughtful righteousness, stripping punk of its negative energy seems to leave a lot of things out.

Disclosure: as a high school graduate of the class of '79, I feel some protectiveness toward those anarchic, hedonistic, self-consciously stupid, suicidal, squatting, wake-up-in-a-puddle-of-your-own-vomit, saplings of North American punk that don't seem to have much of a place in Punk Planet.

We Owe You Nothing had me in a double bind. The book reviewer found the pseudo-Penguin classic orange, black and white design irresistible. The inner teenage wasteland imagined it opened by a class of undergraduates led by a goateed tenure track prof asking them to compare the revolutionary compromises of Chumbawamba and Bikini Kill.

Earnestness is essential for many life pursuits, but add it to punk and it becomes college rock, inspiring questions like: "What are the political implications of this?" And to Jello Biafra, "Do you think the fact that bands like Rancid or the Offspring (who were at least perceived as having a radical agenda) sold millions of records has had an effect on mass consciousness?"

This said, Sinker does transcend much of the glib crap of most music journalism. He deserves some kind of punk Pulitzer for pulling a music cover in '98 to devote a story to Voices in the Wilderness, a humanitarian group that makes regular trips to Iraq to bring medical supplies. Voices are one of the most interesting organizations popping up in the New Anti-Establishment of the late '90s. So are Ruckus Society, which, like its British counterpart Reclaim the Streets, trains activists for major protests. Punk Planet's straight political interviews held my attention far more than the music ones.

Still, I disagree with Leo. For some, punk can be a refuge from the world--at least on days when the world seems to have had way too much to think.

We Owe You Nothing: Punk Planet, The Collected Interviews, ed. Daniel Sinker, Akashic Books, pb, 350pp, $16.95