After much insistence from some friends, I watched this documentary last night called “American Hardcore”. It covers the Hardcore punk scene from ’80 to ’86 throughout the states and Canada (DOA only).
Growing up in the west island and being a skateboarder in 1988 meant you probably listened to some hardcore at one point of another. A good friend of mine at the time had a subscription to Maximum Rock ‘N Roll magazine which showed us some of the music scene beyond MTL, but it was another friend (who later went on to play with “The Ripcordz“) who truly introduced me to this scene. I had heard a bit of D.R.I. and some local HC when I lived in the country but this was the full deal. He must’ve had a 500 HC records and knew every band.
Black Flag to this day remains one of my favorite bands. The documentary is well worth seeing. Blockbuster on Pine has one copy – I’ll be returning it early next week ;-).
“Generally unheralded at the time, the early 1980s hardcore punk rock scene gave birth to much of the rock music and culture that followed. There would be no Nirvana, Beastie Boys or Red Hot Chili Peppers were it not for hardcore pioneers such as Black Flag, Bad Brains and Minor Threat. Hardcore was more than music—it was a social movement created by Reagan-era misfit kids. The participants constituted a tribe unto themselves—some finding a voice, others an escape in the hard-edged music. And while some sought a better world, others were just angry and wanted to raise hell. AMERICAN HARDCORE traces this lost subculture, from its early roots in 1980 to its extinction
in 1986.”