I just wanted to write my thoughts on this and mainly get people to think about this issue. Im not perfect myself and have made mistakes in the past such as laughing along with a crowd of people at someone and then finding out later that the person was really upset and hurt by it and then felt really shit about it. Ive been into the punk scene since about 87 and seen lots come
and go. Punk has been very important to me as its pretty much been my life, I think the vast majority of the time things are great. but here's a few things that piss me right off.

Age bullying

This goes both ways , ive seen older punks talking down to young punks with such things as "you don't know nothing about punk , you young kids" and "There not real punks, they are just playing at it" and the other way round I've seen older punx being dismissed as not current or not valid any more . I was talking to some younger punx at a gig not long ago and one of their group came over and actually butted in and said "why dont you talk to some people your own age" I kid you not! and this is a guy who likes to paint a picture of himself as right on. Both of these points I would say get over yourselves, and the silly limitations you are acting on.

Cliques

We all have groups of friends and there is nothing wrong with this, and some people are not naturally talkative either which is fine. What Im talking about is the more hostile passive aggression , of hanging in a group and giving dirty looks to everyone who is not worthy or lucky enough to be in your cool group, I've been openly ignored directly in my face a few times by these groups when ive tried to break the ice and chat a few friendly words, other common behaviours by these type groups is to answer you with a snort , grunt or bored roll of the eyes. Ha Ha I actually have to stop typing to laugh at this point..... Right yeah I've heard comments from these groups like "Who's She? no-one knows her on the scene" My comment on this is lets keep the punk scene friendly and open to all, and not silly exclusive elitist cliques with delusions of grandeur about themselves.

Bullying About The Way You Look

Who gives a fuck about how anyone dresses, whether you wear punk stuff, or train spotter stuff or what , doesn't matter if people wear what's deemed punk clothes or not, have spiky hair, long hair ,short hair or whatever. yet sometimes people get pointed out and laughed at for being different, "he's not a punk" doesn't matter if they dress what is deemed punk or not, they have come a gig same as everyone else to enjoy the music, I know this is an issue and people feel uncomfortable ,because people often come up to me and apologise for the way they dress, like" I know I don't dress punk but I really enjoy the music" people should not feel they have to do that. I've seen men bullied for wearing make up at gigs too, from wry smiles behind their backs to verbal abuse , All of this stuff is unacceptable to me and needs to stop, especially in the Punk scene when we are supposed to be Accepting to difference and diversity.

Mental Health

In sure there are are quite a few people with Mental Health issues on the punk scene I know one lad who gets people bullying him deliberately to wind him up , so they can laugh about it when he snaps, the person is a really nice guy and he does not want to get angry and snap but gets driven to it, and I would beware of the "we are only having a laugh" thing , Its just pretty cruel in my view

Band stuff

Ok I'm in a band not much of a problem in bands as most punk bands I've come into contact with are really cool, I have come across a bit though , you get the odd band that are ultra competitive and seem to view all other bands as enemy, and will slag off and bad mouth all the other bands, a typical comment is " These should not be 3rd on the bill and us first on!" then being shitty with the other bands all night in a similar way to cliques. You can also get the were are more punk than you type stuff, "we roll round in dog shit before each gig , none is more punk than us !" haha Seriously most of us punk bands work together and help each other out, their is no need to isolate yourself with over competitive behaviour.

About who you are

The worse Ive come across in the punk scene is like a subtle bullying of gay punks i have seen a few times, I don't know if this comes from the macho male dominated rock n roll bullshit world of groupie, chics etc type of thing ,somehow misplaced into punk , but like the bullying about make up , I've seen wry smiles behind gay peoples backs when they have walked off after talking to people , pretty horrible really, luckily i've not seen that much of this but it does happen. This one definately needs to stop.

Sexist Bullying

On a final note at a few gigs Ive seen bands with women in them get quite sexist bullying "show us your tits" ect and even people in the audience get up close and try and grab at the singers in totally inappropiate ways , Its times like these when I think we are going backwards instead of forwards but again luckilly i have not seen this happen often , and the vast majority of the time Punk gigs are exciting , fun places for all, lets try and keep it that way!

- Johnny Mutant

D.I.(Why?) - The Way To Succeed And The Way To Suck Eggs
(From Brew For Breakfast Issue #2 - Written by Mark Michaelides)

First, I'd be remiss not to give credit where it's due for the title of this article. The first part is the title of a song by TNS Records' Revenge of the Psychotronic Man (shameless plug #1), the second part is the subtitle for the album Psalm 69 by Ministry.

I felt that the two combined would make for a good title for this collection of thoughts and experiences, otherwise know as an article. Phew!! Now that that's out of the way...

I guess the point of all the following is to take a look at the DIY ethos, it's benefits, detriments and some of the attitude, both good and troubling, that surrounds it. I remember way back when I was playing in a band called Down For the Count (shameless plug #2) in Atlanta, GA. It was early into our stint when one of the guys came into practice one day and said that he met a lady that may be interested in 'managing' us. I thought the idea was kind of funny at the time being that we had really just started out and, frankly, we really weren't that great at the time. We hadn't really gelled as a band yet, but I figured, 'What the hell, why not?' It would be interesting to see what came out of it.

So, she came into watch us practice one day and afterwards sat down with us to ask some questions. The questions really centered around the main question which was, 'What are your expectations out of the experience and where do you want to go with it?' Hmm. I don't think that any of us had given that too much thought, but we answered the questions and the answers varied. We were all in consensus that we wanted to have fun, but there were a few differences at to what but nothing that really suited the kind of band that we were.

What's the point? I think that question, 'Where do you want to go with it' is a question that every band needs to think about and discuss with each other. In the end we all just want to have fun, but having fun can be relative. Being on the same page, however, helps. I don't think that many of us start punk bands with the notion that we're going to be swimming in money pools like Scrooge McDuck and, the few punk bands that do approach or end up at that level often have their 'punk' credentials removed or get labeled as sellouts. Success, at least in money terms, seems to be looked down upon and many seem to relegate the hard work and early DIY efforts of bands like Green Day or Against Me to some sort of Orwellian memory hole. One could argue that these bands get labeled as such because of the way their music evolved and the motivations behind that evolution, but that's an entire article unto itself.

Fast forward a few years, and I found myself doing promotion in Europe for Nashville based label, Stikman Records (shameless plug #3). My initial motivations for getting involved in promotion were keeping in touch with the music scene that had given me so much fun and good memories over the years and The Carry-Ons' 2008 album, 'Is Anyone Listening' (shameless plug #4; last one), an album that I thought should be heard by a lot of people not only for the fact that it's a solid album musically, but also because it had a political tone that was insightful and intelligent. In addition, it gave me something to do when I travelled alone, and selling CDs on the streets can help in that crucial pinch when you're in a foreign city and find yourself a little light in the pocket.

Anyway, so I found myself in the Netherlands, doing some promotional work, and ended up at a show in Leiden. I hadn't heard any of the bands before, but I met with a guy who runs a booking company there and he said it might be worht checking out. It wasn't, but that's beside the point. Before the show, I'm enjoying my 'non-capitalist' beer, as the bartender liked to remind me (apparently the show was a 'Socialist Culture Center'), trying to turn some people on to the music I was promotion, and talking to the bands that were playing that night. So, I approach one of the bands, tell one of them that I'm doing some work on behalf of a record label, and ask if he wants a free CD. Not many people say no, but you'd be surprised. I've even been accused of trying to spread computer viruses. The guy takes the free CD and we started talking about music in general, his band, etc. Seemed like a cool enough kid, so I offered him another CD in trade for the 4 song album they had, and told him that I'm looking to put together a compilation of European bands to promote in the US. We traded CDs, but his response was, 'Man, we're DIY.' Now, I don't know if he assumed that Stikman Records is some sort of corporate megalith where we sit around drinking champagne and snorting blow off the tits of high class hookers, but I found the smug, self satisfied tone and smirk kind of annoying. I took a large gulp off my Gulpener beer and informed him that I burned all 200 of the promotional CDs on my laptop and hand cut each of the inserts with scissors. No smug sense of self satisfaction, just a statement of fact. He was actually kind of shocked.

Finally we got to the point. The point of this is not to put DIY culture on blast, just to point out how being smugly self satisfied with it will inevitably hurt the punk scene. First, you would have to be totally ignorant to think that even the most monetarily successful musicians, in any genre, didn't start off printing their own fliers, booking their own shows, etc. Even Lady Gaga probably did all that stuff, albeit under her real name and less flamboyant. Second, there's no shame in being somewhat sucessful moneywise. Some of the bands we all looked up to are relativel sucessful moneywise. They're not riding in Maseratis, but they get a decent residual income off of albums that they created. I'm talking the Bad Religions, The NOFXs, the Rancids, etc. etc. etc. And, let's face it, many of us came into the punk scene because of the exposure that these bands got on MTV in the early and mid 90s. Some of us had siblings who were into the 70s and 80s punk, but I think that that amount is fewer.

The point is that if everyone did it themselves, then we wouldn't have what we have today. We're fortunate enough to have people like Bret Gurewitz or Fat Mike that took their success and used it to help the next generation along. At some point, the bands that have 'it' need to step forward and grab the torch. They need to be proactive enough to realize that there is only so much you can do DIY. At some point you need to enlist the help of others, especially if you have real talent and something to say. And you can't be ashamed of 'success'. Selling 10,000 records is an achievement. Fuck, selling a thousand is an achievement. Let's face it, in reality, none of us are DIY. We rely on a network of friends that help us along; from the zines that publish reviews to the casual conversation that turns someone on to the music.

I recently read something from someone that I can only assume has the smug DIY attitude that I'm talking about. They wrote a few paragraphs talking about the years they put into booking shows in the DIY scene, but went on to say that if you're in a band that sees DIY as a 'stepping stone' to bigger things, then they have no desire to help you. Of course they explained it by using extreme examples of 'big money' deals and the like, mentioned that they did like bands that have achieved some success, but it wasn't quite enough to cover that snese of self satisfaction that comes from self imposed limitation in the name of 'keeping it real'. I've dealt with bands who were a little hard to work with, particularly on the money guarantee part, but that band is signed to a decent independent label and has spent several summers touring around with Warped. They aren't swimming in money, they still have jobs, but they are having fun doing what they love, and I'm not going to piss on their parade by selfishly trying to impose my vision of what punk is. That said, one of the other reason I got into music was to try and help others the way that music always helped me. One of the best compliments I got, being in a band was, 'Hey man, yall's music really helped me through some hard times' How could you not want to be albe to help as many as you can by that way? We've all relied on music to help us through shit times.

So? Success and Sucking Eggs? There are multiple ways you can achieve both, often at the same time. I'll agree that if you make music just to make money and keep it vapid in order to gain the highest amount of mass appeal, you could very well be successful, but you probably suck eggs. But, if you make music to have fun, and your music has meaning, can make people feel good, has something intelligent to say, and you intentionally limit yourslef in order to cling to some lofty ideal; you'll be successful at having fun, but you kind of suck eggs when it comes down to paying real dues (namely giving back to others what was given to you). Success is a relative term; sucking eggs not so much. To kind of quote Fat Mike 'At the end of the day, it's not about how big you are, or having the most money, etc. It's about having the most fun doing what you are doing' This is a guy who runs a successful independent label that has helped numbers of bands on their paths. But, he's still doing what he loves, having fun, helping to keep the tradition alive, and working less than two hours a day (his words). And, his main benefit? Getting to spend time with his kids.

From Brew For Breakfast Issue #4

https://www.facebook.com/BrewForBreakfast

Zine Appreciation

 I love zines. I mean I really love zines, I have a stack that's growing steadily higher in my room. Ther's something special about them, something that a blog could never have. I guess in essence they can serve the same purpose; a form of media intent on telling you thoughts and opinions, but zine's are just different. Having that tangible little booklet in your hands is an awesome feeling. Presonally, it makes me feel interconnected with the rest of the scene, knowing someone has poured their time and attention into making it, handling it and giving/sending it to me.

I completely underestimated how difficult it is to put together a zine before I started BFB. They just came at me: folded, stapled and full of delicious DIY and punk content. I never gave much thought to the person who'd sat there spending months writing articles, putting together interviews, finding photo's they could use and scrounging together the money to get it printed. I took these little A5 books for granted and can safely say that's not something I'll repeat. At the end of this little rant I'm going to list some awesome zines you should go get your hands on while you're doing it appreciate how much blood went into them.

See I hate the internet. I really do. And I don't just mean I hate Facebook and seeing people whine and argue about mundane things, I hate how detached it is, how impersonal. The internet (and texting for that matter) have negated physical exchanges. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I don't understand how amazing it is that a band can reach all corners of the globe over night, I'm saying that the daily encounters we exchange have faded into a few text messages or IMs here and there and that's sad. I miss seeing the passion on someone's face when they tell me about a song they've just heard. You don't get to see that over Facebook chat. I miss the excitement in a band members voice when they talk to me about how gigging has been going.

This is why I love zines. Because all though its still written word as opposed to a face to face conversation, you can tell how much love for the content has gone into it. How many painstaking hours the creator has waded through to bring you a little piece of their mind. And my favorite thing about zines? You can leave them lying around for someone else to pick up and share. Imagine finding a dog-eared zine, thumbing through it and wondering 'Who read this before me? What did they think about this?' And never being able to know. Its's an amazing little mystery you get to live for ten minutes.

So I'll stop ranting about zine appreciation now and give you some to actually appreciate. Here goes;

Sticky Sounds
That's Not Skanking (TNS)
One Way Ticket To Cubesville
Rantipole
South London Mess
Good Lookin' South

Obviously there is a hell of a lot more out there and those are just a few of my favorites, but have a dig around in your local record store and distro, you'd be surprised as to know how many you'll actually find.

- Banksy