HARDCORE ARCHITECTURE

New publication! Hardcore Architecture: 47 Years of Living / 1988 Playlist [PURCHASE]

For my 47th birthday I made a new one page ‘zine reflecting on the first issue of my first zine, Primary Concern, from way back in 1988. Despite being only a folded card-stock sheet, this has about 2500 words worth of new writing. From the back cover:

I PUBLISHED MY FIRST ZINE IN APRIL 1988. I WAS 17 YEARS OLD.

I was a junior in high school, living in the suburbs of Philadelphia. My zine was called Primary Concern and the first issue was ambitious: 26 double-sided, photocopied 8 ½ X 11 inch pages with five band interviews, record, concert and zine reviews, opinion pieces, and a couple articles. I printed at least 150 copies. The copying was done on weekends at the downtown office where my dad worked. He let me use their machine and I went through a ton of paper and toner. I kept publishing after I moved to Pittsburgh for college in 1989 but by my junior year I was too busy with school and having a girlfriend to continue. I started publishing again as part of my art practice in 1997 and I’ve been going non-stop since.

Today is November 2nd and it’s my 47th birthday. Tonight I’m going to a punk show in Chicago, where I live, and the show is having One Page Zine Day. This idea is new to me. The invitation to make a one page zine to exchange with others is excellent. It provides an opportunity to celebrate the creativity of attendees who may not be musicians, but don’t just want to be spectators either. One double-sided page is an unusual format for a zine but in the 1980s, Mike Bromberg, who published the chaotic handwritten punk zine Bullshit Monthly from New York City, made at least one issue that was nothing more than a single 11 X 17 inch sheet. It was filled with energy and information and I hope this attempt feels as solid.

What this zine is about: inside this sheet, I reprinted a scan of the playlist that appeared in issue #1 of Primary Concern. This is what I was rocking out to in 1988. All of the commentary that follows was written between October 31st and November 2nd, 2017. The printing was done on a RISOGRAPH duplicator. I’d like to thank Grace Ambrose and Ralph Rivera Jr. for telling me about their bands’ show, which led to this publication. It was energizing and fun to do this and hopefully it won’t be my last one page zine. — Marc Fischer

Outcasts

The address given for their “Music to Eat By” cassette in Hazel Crest, IL 60429. Source: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, issue no. 55, December 1987. Street view date: July 2007. Sample quote from the review: “Very fast, tuneless ultra-thrash…” (WG).

The group exhibition GENERATORS, curated by Anthony Steptor in conjunction with the Toronto Art Book Fair, will include all of the printed materials I’ve made for the project Hardcore Architecture so far. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to make a quick new flyer featuring everyone’s favorite Toronto-based gentrifiers (here, in case you missed it). Order any of the Hardcore Architecture booklets from Half Letter Press and I’ll send you one.

I was recently interviewed by Kira Schneider for the German website Intro. If you can read German, check out the interview here. For English readers, here are the responses that I sent Kira before they were edited and translated. It’s a pretty long read for a Tumblr post but it was nice to be asked some new questions about this project. Enjoy!

Kira Schneider: Since a lot of things are now mostly happening online for young bands, do you think digging through online archives will be equally as alluring in, say, 2050 as looking at their old homes? All we are potentially going to be left with is ancient bandcamp.com accounts, if you look at today’s Maximum Rock’n’Roll (MRR) website.

Marc Fischer: It’s true—you can’t do a project like this with most new demos; what used to be a tape you mailed away for is now a link on Bandcamp or Soundcloud. There’s no home address and often no need to contact a band to hear their music. I’m not optimistic about a lot of web-based content still being accessible online 50 years from now or even 10 years from now. I do like the idea, however, of a bunch of 65-year olds reaching out to people forty years from now to ask if they happened to download some band’s stuff off Bandcamp back in the year 2017 and if they could share it with them. People will always want to hunt down sounds that excited them in the past or that they are curious about based on hearing something many years after the fact. Many accounts or websites for all sorts of things have vanished once the people that made them lost interest and moved on. The web isn’t being archived all that well.

If you want people to uncover your work in the future, turn it into something tangible. This is part of why I make printed things and not just web-based projects. I like posting things on Tumblr but I don’t trust it to be around 30 years from now.

Has anyone ever reached out to you from a town you posted about, someone who recognised their neighbourhood, or maybe even a resident of one of the houses?

I try to pay attention to comments people make when they reply to a post or reblog things on Tumblr. Some cities are fairly well represented but for other places that had far fewer bands, it’s a big deal to people from that region when I uncover a band from their town in Montana or North Carolina. People that live in smaller cities get excited to see their town represented at all. I’ve seen cases where people recognize a house as being within blocks of where they live, even though they’ve never heard of the band.

I have learned that some band members still live in the houses that are included in the project from a cassette they released in 1986. In some cases, people’s parents have either died or moved out, and left or sold their homes to the children. So someone’s house from when they were 17 years old, may now be their house once again at the age of 47. Some people’s parents also still live in these homes. I have yet to receive any emails from current residents that are not a member of one of the bands. I love when Google Street View reveals current residents and neighbors hanging out on the lawn or sitting on the curb in front of a house that someone from a band like Rotting Humans once lived in.

Have you talked about the project with any of the people who ran Maximum Rock’n’Roll back in the day?

Not really. Back in the late 1980s I corresponded with Martin Sprouse and Chris Dodge from MRR but I lost touch with both of them. I did get a nice note from Chris asking me to let him know when I started finding houses associated with his record and demo tape reviews. Chris was one of the funnier and more creative reviewers for MRR and a number of his reviews from the late 1980s are quoted on the blog.

What are your thoughts on what MRR is doing these days?

I have done a poor job of keeping up with the music that MRR covers, and there have been long stretches of time when I did not pay attention to MRR itself. This project made me curious again, and I recently met and interviewed Grace Ambrose (one of the current coordinators) for a Hardcore Architecture publication. I think she’s been doing a fantastic job and talking to her helped clarify how the magazine has evolved during the years when I wasn’t reading it much. MRR looks better than ever, the quality of the writing and depth of the interviews is generally improved, the reviews are longer and more detailed than the issues I was reading in the 1980s and early 90s, and the array of people that are making the magazine is far more diverse. My project, so far, has focused on the 1980s, which means that it’s from the period when MRR was almost entirely white guys writing about music made by other white guys. This is much less the case now, which is refreshing. 

Did running the Hardcore Architecture blog ever result in anything unexpected?

I assumed that Hardcore Architecture would be interesting to people that listen to this music but I did not give much thought to what the people that played in the bands might think, or even if they would find out about the project. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many members of these bands talking about the project on social media. It was an unexpected pleasure to see how much they enjoyed being included. I was worried people would be angry to see their childhood homes shown and that has not been the case. I also did not expect to have so many email exchanges with band members. I’ve made some great friends through doing this work.

Hardcore Architecture, to me, establishes a completely new visual narrative around youth and subcultures - we get to see the roots of those bands completely detached from the aesthetic and the message they choose to convey. How does this change the perception of those bands, what are your observations?

One has to be cautious in making assumptions about bands and their music based on images of where they lived that were captured 25-30 years after the fact. Some parts of the country have changed very little, whereas other cities like New York and San Francisco have since become so expensive that certain neighborhoods are impossible to imagine as places where underground music might take shape. America is a huge country and a home that looks extravagant in one part of the country might cost 1/5th of what a home 1/3rd the size might sell for in Los Angeles.

That said, it’s also true that kids in affluent suburbs may have had more time, space, and resources to do things like play in a commercially unviable hardcore band - sometimes with a lot of support from their parents. I wasn’t in a band but I published a music ‘zine as a teenager and it was mostly printed on weekends on the photocopier at the brokerage firm that my dad worked for. My dad and I didn’t agree on much politically, or when it came to music, but he was supportive of my art. He also mailed out most of my 'zines using the firm’s postage meter. I think he liked scamming his employer for my benefit. Anti-authoritarian art and music happens in a lot of curious ways, with some unlikely forms of support. I think the project has teased out more of these stories about how parents sometimes encouraged this music, which is something that’s very unpopular to talk about and almost never shows up in bands’ lyrics. I currently work with public high school students in Chicago and some of them like music and play instruments but their lives are much too hard for them to also be in a band. Simply surviving and helping their families takes all of their energy.

Something about Hardcore Architecture is so incredibly nostalgic - how would you pinpoint where exactly that stems from? The fact that the cradles of bands we know and watch today are still out there, somewhere? Or some palpable evidence that all those bands, known or not, were once just small-town teens at some point, something we blend out when reminiscing over stylised concert photographs?

Music fans love geeking out about the past and hanging on for dear life to memories of bands they got to see 'back in the day’ and records they bought when they came out, before they became rare and expensive. I don’t think people that listen to hardcore and punk rock are immune to that, and they are probably even worse about it than the average person that loves music. I think it’s healthy to remind people that the dudes in that legendary rad band you love had someone in the group that grew up in a big fancy house in a scenic suburb with lots of nice trees. Maybe it helps shatter the romantic stuff a little bit? Everyone is from somewhere, and it’s not always as interesting as people like to imagine. Or maybe it’s more interesting that they could make something extraordinary and angry in such uninspired or comfortable conditions?

Hardcore Architecture is, in a sense, also a testimonial that your origins don’t necessarily define you, and in this, a bit of a monument for DIY culture. Where do you see the same kind of rebellious, anti-authoritarian DIY spirit in today’s young people?

I live in Chicago, which has a thriving DIY music scene that is doing some radical things, but I tend to think more about the fearlessness of the young people of color here that are protesting police violence, protesting the current administration in the extremely White House—that they were not old enough to vote against—protesting immigration laws, and putting their bodies on the line to disrupt business as usual. I recently took part in a youth march against the racist, rapist that was elected President and I was one of only a few adults. At one point a kid who was probably 12 years old was leading a march, which certainly had no permit. These kids figured out how to get downtown (many of the high school students I work with have never been on public transit because their parents are afraid to let them leave their neighborhood) and—without any parental guardians—they are out protesting and leading protests. That was an amazing thing to experience. One of the chants I particularly love is, “We’re young. We’re strong. We’ll be here all night long!”

What’s also interesting to me as a European is that we see lots of intensely American suburbia on Hardcore Architecture, and to most people outside the US, the American suburbs are a dreamscape of their own since we only ever come across them in movies, in art or in literature: the suburbs are either the all-american, sunny paradise, or a nightmare in disguise alà David Lynch or Gregory Crewdson, so there is a whole new dimension to your project if it’s viewed from an non-American perspective. Have you ever thought about this aspect?

I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and a lot of the houses on the Hardcore Architecture blog could be something like my parents’ house. There are regional differences in some of the kinds of architecture and living situations, however, and I think the project helps reveal that to people that may have never visited or seen much of the US. I never thought of the suburbs as a dreamscape, or a paradise, or a nightmare. All of those things are more interesting than the suburbs I grew up in! The problem was always to dig for the imaginative, radical, subcultural weirdness - which was usually hiding in record stores in the 1980s, or in bookstores and maybe in college libraries, or in video rental stores that had non-mainstream films and documentaries. It is very different with the internet. In the 1980s I primarily escaped the suburbs by corresponding with people all over the world who shared by values and interests, via postal mail. Taking the train into downtown Philadelphia also helped.

Since hardcore and punk music is inherently political, I hope you don’t mind this (probably) painful question: how do you feel about 2017s USA? Is there any hope for the States?

Some of these struggles are not new, but a lot of people with terrible beliefs are now feeling galvanized by the new administration. Living in Chicago, there is a ton of resistance to the recently elected fascist fuck, and that gives me hope. I see a lot of people all over the US, including my mom and sister, becoming more politically active than they have ever been. It is very disturbing time, however, make no mistake. I don’t sleep well. Most of my friends can’t sleep either. Protest and organizing meetings have become a more normal part of my life. When people in stores ask how I’m doing, I’m more inclined to admit that I feel sick and will tell them why. People need to share their anger and not pretend that things are okay. We need to rearrange our lives, and help the vulnerable. Immigrants and refugees particularly need our support. White Americans needs to step up and fight for those who can’t resist as safely. 

N.I.D.S.

The address given for their “Music to Detassle Corn By” cassette in Bloomington, IN 47401. Source: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, issue no. 55, December 1987. Street view date: Aug., 2014. Sample quote from the review: “Chunky garage punk with that charming raw quality.” (WG).

Media Freak

The address given for their “Always Forward, Never Straight” cassette in Elizabeth, NJ 07208. Source: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, issue no. 55, December 1987. Street view date: April, 2016. Sample quote from the review: “Pretty scorching forceful HC with metallic tinges. Can’t comment on lyrics, but a couple titles (”My Bitch”, “Cops are Gay”) seem a little odd. Hmm…” (WG).

M.I.S.

The address given for their “Donations for Broken Glass” cassette in Longview, WA 98632. Source: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, issue no. 55, December 1987. Street view date: Aug., 2012. Sample quote from the review: “Screaming thrash with shitloads of energy.” (WG).

Kingface

The address given for their untitled EP in Arlington, VA 22201. Source: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, issue no. 55, December 1987. Street view date: Oct., 2016. Sample quote from the review: “I was really surprised to hear a very modern blend of rock and blues and some real classy harmonica playing. Not thrash but it rocks like a mofo.” (DOG).

Infants of Sin

The address given for their “Live” cassette in Columbus, OH 43220. Source: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, issue no. 55, December 1987. Street view date: Oct., 2015. Sample quote from the review: “Pretty grunged out noise from this young act, who crank it out sloppy, loud, and aggressive.” (WG).

Hard Stance

The address given for their “End the Hate” cassette in Irvine, CA 92715. Source: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, issue no. 55, December 1987. Street view date: April, 2015. Sample quote from the review: “Considerably better than average “positive” act, these guys play mostly straight HC, but it’s got a good sense of personality.” (WG).

Flys on Shit

The address given for their “Nerve Damage” cassette in Manchester, NH 03104. Source: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, issue no. 55, December 1987. Street view date: Aug., 2011. Sample quote from the review: “Humorous chunky punk with metal influence (solos) which don’t fit with the music. Lots of “fuck you” attitude & lyrics.” (WG).

Dresden 45

The address given for their untitled cassette in Houston, TX 77019. Source: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, issue no. 55, December 1987. Street view date: July, 2016. Sample quote from the review: “Run-of-the-mill speed metal without anything to set it apart from the pack.” (WG).

Declared Ungovernable

The address given for their “Before the Beginning” cassette in Winter Park, FL 32789. Source: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, issue no. 55, December 1987. Street view date: May, 2013. Sample quote from the review: “Well-produced punk & thrash with metal influence. Lyrics are in the the “Fuck you, eat shit” vein.” (WG).

U.S. Distress

The address given for their “Nowhere Fast” cassette in Kenosha, WI 53140. Source: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, issue no. 51, August 1987. Street view date: July, 2012. Sample quote from the review: “This blows doors! Innovative powerful thrash with lots of spark and bite, great production, the works.” (WG). You can see other homes associated with this band here.

Twisted

The address given for their “Wounded” cassette in Riverside, CA 92507. Source: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, issue no. 51, August 1987. Street view date: June, 2012. Sample quote from the review: “Pretty good thrash from this SoCal outfit. Lyrics mostly fall in the personal category: values, friends, etc.” (WG).