

 WHY ARE STRAIGHT EDGERS SUCH DICKS?
        A Rhetorical Question

by Jim Testa

     I've   been  in  this  punk  rock 
business   a  long  time   now   -- my 
fanzine,  Jersey Beat, just celebrated 
its 8th birthday - and I've seen bands 
come  &  go.   I've  know  some  great 
people who've played in bands; some of 
them  still do.  I've known some  real 
assholes too.  That just goes with the 
territory.

    But year in and year out,  through 
all  my  dealings  with all  kinds  of 
bands,  there's  one  constant  I  can 
count on.

    If they're straight edge,  they're 
probably going to be dicks.

    Now I know this sounds like one of 
Ben  Weasel's  diatribes,   an  unholy 
sweeping  generalization,   and   I'll 
grant  you that there are a couple  of 
decent   straight  edgers  out  there.  
Well,  maybe one or two.  I have a lot 
of  respect  for Ian and the  guys  in 
Fugazi, for instance.  

    On the other hand...

    The Case of The Vanishing Van

     ABC   No  Rio  is  an   abandoned 
building on the Lower Lower East  Side 
of Manhattan, in a neighborhood that's 
mostly hispanic and very poor, but for 
nearly  a year,  it's been the home of 
the only real hardcore scene New  York 
City  has  known.    The  shows  there 
starting in December,  1989,  and have 
continued,  week  in and week out,  on 
almost every Saturday  since.  They've 
missed  two or three weeks,  I  think, 
but   basically,   ABC   No  Rio   has 
delivered  a show,  with four or  five 
cool bands, a low door charge, a great 
table   that   sells  7   inches   and 
fanzines,  and  lots of fun.  Most  of 
all,  there's no club owner or booking 
agent  making all the  decisions;  the 
shows are run by a collective of fans, 
musicians, and writers. Every show has 
more than its share of fanzine  people 
there,  and  a small group of regulars 
who all play in other  bands.   Nobody 
segregates   the   music  by   labels; 
"straight edge" and "punk," scum  rock 
and   stenchcore,    everybody   plays 
together and everybody watches all the 
bands.   In  a city where hardcore and 
even ska have been banned from  almost 
every   other   club  because  of   an 
uncontrollable violence  problem,  ABC 
No  Rio  hasn't had one fight in  over 
eight months of shows.   If that isn't 
what  a "scene" is all about,  then  I 
don't know what is.

    Now the drawback to ABC No Rio  is 
that it's small,  and the shows aren't 
advertised  in  the  newspapers;   the 
regulars  know about them,  and spread 
the word with flyers.  

    One week, the popular South Jersey 
straight  edge band Vision was  booked 
for a show.  Now, remember, ABC No Rio 
didn't call up Vision and beg them  to 
come; they asked for a show there.  So 
Vision pulls up in their van, and take 
a  look  at the place,  and count  the 
number  of people there,  and sort  of 
say,  in an offhand way,  that it's  a 
lot smaller than what they're used to. 
So  the  band,  with the exception  of 
their guitarist Pete,  clamber back in 
the  van,  and announce they're  going 
for some food.

    Apparently  they went all the  way 
back  to  Trenton  to  look  for   it, 
because  they  never came back to  the 
show.   That  left  Pete to  face  the 
crowd  and  announce  that  his   band 
decided they didn't want to play there 
because  it was too small.   I hand it 
to the guy,  it took a lot of guts and 
he  accepted  responsibility  for  his 
bandmates' actions.  Okay, Pete is one 
straightedge guy I respect.

  But the rest of Vision?  Dicks.


  Ingrate, Thy Name Is Straight Edge 
    Another  straightedge  band   that 
came   to  play  No  Rio  was   called 
Insight,  from  Salt Lake City,  Utah.  
They had some problems on the road and 
lost a lot of their equipment, so they 
show up without a drumkit or amps  and 
ask  if  they can borrow  some  stuff. 
Since  there are a lot of bands on the 
bill (including Supertouch,  the head
liners,   who  have  a  lot  of   good 
equipment),  it`s decided that Insight 
would go  on right before  Supertouch, 
use their equipment, and save a little 
set up time between bands.

    So what does Insight do? They pack 
together  in their van and stay  there 
all  through the first  three  opening 
bands.  Then  they come out,  set  up, 
play  three songs,  and announce  that 
the  singer's  throat hurts,  so  they 
stop playing.   Then they get back  in 
the van, and don't even hang around to 
watch Supertouch,  who loaned them all 
their equipment.

    Dicks.


          No Reply Necessary

    In  eight  years of  publishing  a 
fanzine,  I've  interviewed  a lot  of 
bands.   After an issue comes  out,  I 
mail  the  bands  who appear  in  each 
issue  some complimentary  copies  and 
thank  them for appearing in the zine. 
Their  response  differs   - sometimes 
they'll   send  a   t-shirt,   they'll 
usually  always send their next record 
to  be reviewed,  and more often  than 
not, I get a thank you note.

    Jersey   Beat  #40  featured   two 
straightedge  bands,   who  both  were 
received  a  lot  of  space  - photos, 
interview,  the  works.  One of  those 
bands   was   Carry    Nation,    from 
California.   Two  of  the  members  - 
Frank  and  Dan - each run  their  own 
(straightedge)  record label,  and I'd 
never received anything from either of 
them in the way of press materials.

    This  is  not   surprising.   Most 
straightedge   labels  don't   support 
fanzines  by giving away review copies 
of their records.  I guess they figure 
that  all the straight edge  zinesters 
will   run  out  and  buy  all   their 
releases right away anyway, and nobody 
else  matters.    This  is  a   fairly 
typical  attitude among the SE  crowd; 
if  you're not SE,  you don't  matter. 
Anyway, that's why you never never see 
reviews   of   Revelation  or   Schism 
Records in Jersey Beat.

     So  anyway,  when the issue  came 
out,  I sent both Dan and Frank a  few 
copies  of  the  zine,  and  mentioned 
casually   that   I  had  never   seen 
anything   from   either   of    their 
respective  labels.   Now  that  Carry 
Nation  had been featured  prominently 
in  Jersey Beat,  and they'd seen  the 
quality   and   reliability   of   the 
publication, maybe they'd like to send 
some  of  their  releases  for  us  to 
review?    (Frank's   label,   Nemesis 
Records,  released Vision's lp, by the 
way).

    Well, I didn't receive any records 
to review.  Neither Frank nor Dan even 
bothered with the courtesy of a reply.

    Dicks.

    Another  band that was profiled in 
the  new issue is called Bedlam  Hour.  
They've been around a long  time,  but 
haven't  had  much national  exposure.  
The lead singer and band leader, Chuck 
Walker,  is straight edge,  and  makes 
quite  a point of it in interviews and 
lyrics.

    I  sent Chuck four copies  of  the 
new  issue  for  the band and  a  nice 
little note.   No reply.   Then I  saw 
that  Chuck and a friend had  released 
some old tapes of early Bedlam Hour on 
a  new  EP.   I wrote again and  asked 
about  getting a copy  to  review.  No 
reply. Then I wrote again and asked if 
there   was   any  reason  he   wasn't 
answering my letters,  since he seemed 
so open and friendly in the  interview 
we ran.  No reply.

    Dick.

    Now  I  know a lot of this  sounds 
like whining and sour grapes,  like  I 
expect  something  out of a band if  I 
give  them space in  my  fanzine.  But 
that's  not  true.   I  don't  solicit 
advertising based on who we interview.  
We  get  records  to review  from  all 
kinds of labels,  from the majors down 
to kids who press up 1000 copies of  a 
7" they recorded in their garage.  

   But  there  are rules  of  behavior 
that  govern all human discourse;  old 
fashioned  concepts,  perhaps,  but  I 
still  believe  in  them.  Like  being 
polite. Like answering your mail. Like 
realizing,  if  you're in a punk  rock 
band,  that  your ability to  function 
depends on a complex inter-related web 
of fans,  fanzines,  clubs, promoters, 
radio,  and  record labels,  and  that 
everybody in the web should be helping 
one another.

    Straight edgers,  because  they're 
convinced  of their moral superiority, 
feel they are entitled to their  share 
of  the scene without putting anything 
back.  They take, but all they give is 
advice on moral conduct.   Well,  I've 
got news for them.  

     Generosity,        consideration, 
respect  for fellow bands - those  are 
all  positive moral values  too.   And 
greed,  selfishness,  self-involvement 
and  the  disrespect  you  show  other 
bands are just as wrong as drunkenness 
and promiscuity.  Maybe worse. You can 
get  drunk  and not hurt  anyone  else 
(assuming you don't pick fights or try 
to  drive a car while you're  bombed).  
The    sort   of    self-righteousness 
displayed by bands like Carry  Nation, 
Vision,  and  Insight  hurt  the  very 
people  who are pouring part of  their 
lives   into  the  scene.    When  Ian 
MacKaye  was writing songs  about  the 
straight   edge  movement  for   Minor 
Threat,  he wrote, "Don't drink, don't 
smoke, don't fuck."

   He  never said anything about being 
a dick.
 
 
 





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