Brian Walsby - Manchild 3
One of the aging pseudonymous hipsters at rduwtf.com links to a series of posts by Brian Walsby about the North Carolina punk rock scene in the 1980s.
This is a bit off-topic except that I know most of those folks and spent quite a bit of time in that scene in the 80s in Raleigh though I was never a punk.
More relevant to my readers, Walsby's first post gives one a sense of how the punk rock scene communicated and built national networks before we had the Internet:
I became sort of infatuated with the North Carolina scene of the early eighties when I started reading scene reports in the then brand new (& 'crucial") Maximum Rock N Roll magazine, & it more or less started when I heard the "Why Are We Here?" seven inch that came out on No Core Records in 1983. A friend of mine, Ron Cerros, had it. It had the following bands on it: No Labels, Corrosion Of Conformity, Stillborn Christians & Bloodmobile on it. We listened to it all of the time.
Then I got a copy of the Paul Mahern (of the Zero Boys, a criminally under looked Midwest hardcore band)'s massive double LP compilation record he assembled on his own label, called "The Master Tape Volume II". No Labels had two songs on it. I thought they were both great. Then shortly afterwards, I got a dubbed copy in the mail from an Australian pen pal, of the No Labels "Jane Doe" demo. I thought it was one of the best hardcore tapes I had ever heard, & to this day I still think so. From then I started writing to all of those guys out there. It was what you did when you were involved in that scene.
Zines, mailorder and actual mail helped build an informal national and even international network of like-minded artists and fans who would then put bands up when they were coming through town and, often, the shows were at house parties or other alternative sites.
Since there was such a critique of society embedded in punk rock, in the early days the idea of getting signed to a major label sounded like a bad thing but every other kid you'd meet had started a record label to put out the bands they liked. So networks weren't developed to build careers but to build the scene, i.e., to create counter-culture.
Pop's gone punk and it's a different world even without the Web but punk and indie rock bands have continued the DIY tradition and shown that it's a great way to build alternatives to mainstream society, to establish one's independence while working within mainstream society and/or to build as an artist while creating the foundation for a successful signing to a major label.
If you're interested in that NC punk rock history, Brian Walsby also has interviews with a lot of the folks that were there before he arrived on the scene.
If you're familiar with Ryan Adams, you may know that Ryan started out in Patty Duke Syndrome with Brian Walsby before he went on to form Whiskeytown. Unfortunately, Adams will not allow the material to be released:
"Despite the baggage, Patty Duke Syndrome was definitely my favorite of all the bands I've played in," Walsby says. "I'd like to release the recordings we made, but the last time I tried, a lot of lawyers got involved. Ryan made a point of not getting back in touch, until I finally called him out in an e-mail. He responded with a lot of obscenities and swearing. So not much has changed. I still think he's the most talented musician I've ever played with and also the most incredible mimic I've ever heard.
What's particularly sad about that is that when I first heard this story from Walsby a year or two back, he expressed how much he still respected Ryan as a musician and seriously regretted the fact that some of his own best work will probably never be released.
That's why I hate Ryan Adams and his boring music.
For more on Brian Walsby, who is a very nice, cool, smart and talented guy, please see his official website.
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