We Jam Econo

It's the title of a documentary about a band called the Minutemen, about D. Boon, Mike Watt and George Hurly, i've been digging into the music of my youth lately, studying the phenomenon that was punk and hardcore and the ethics that went with it, see punk rock was not about a gigantic Mohawk and $150 Doc Martens, it was about an attitude, a way of life, it was about a bunch of kids looking at the world and finding a way to express themselves. Boon, Watt and Hurley were a bunch of working class kids who had educated themselves, Boon was of the opinion that the working class needed art and music in their lives just as much as the rich did and deserved it probably more, he set up shows that started at a normal hour cuz he knew that the Average Joe had to get up and go to work the next morning, basically railing against the rock-n-roll lifestyle of late night parties and the like, real people had jobs and guys in hardcore bands were not getting rich they were doing it because they loved it and in the morning the alarm would go off and you dragged yourself out of bed and punched the time clock, the Hollywood version of rock is for rich kids and trustafaris who have someone paying the bills for them, it's a myth perpetuated by a system, it's a lie, a bullshit piece of the so-called American dream where we're all rich and famous and doing blow in our Maserati's...

This is and was proletariat art, the art made by people who work for a living because choosing to be an artist in this country is tantamount to pissing in the wind, we eke out a living anyway we can so that for a few precious minutes, hours, whatever we can sit down and play guitar or write stories or paint pictures or build sculptures out of discarded furniture so that when we look back on the days they weren't wasted building credit card debt and collecting junk to make our neighbors envious, it may be the only art that really matters, made by people who do it for love knowing that there really is no money in it, and by the off chance they do get paid there it's just that much more icing on the proverbial cake, we work in warehouses and factories or as waiters and cooks so that at night or in the morning we can go home and rail against the system, the oppressive force that is capitalism and it's never ending sales pitch to buy more so that the economy doesn't go belly up...

The do-it-yourself ethic, the way of life was about flipping a giant middle finger to the powers that be and unfortunately you can't do that by shopping at Hot Topic and watching MTV, it's learned from hearing music that speaks to you, from reading books by people that are never taught in Lit. class, it's not about being rich and famous it's about creation for creations sake, it's about finding that voice and thinking about the things around and not just whipping out plastic and thinking everything is gonna be fine.... to be cont.