Inspirations
They change a lot. The local hardcore bands I was in in the 90s were influenced mainly by local hardcore bands from the 80s. I feel like that wore off quite a while ago. It's weird that I was driven that way for as long as I was. You'd think more would have changed for me between 1988 and 1998.
Maybe moving to Saskatchewan had something to do with it, although nothing stands out as having changed the way I think about music during that era. It did clean the slate in a way I guess. All of the comfortable musical niches I'd been a part of in Halifax were gone. I had to choose between being open minded and embracing what was available, or sitting home listening to my old records and pining for the glory days. The more people my own age I saw doing the latter, the more driven I was to do the former. That policy remains in full effect.
By the time I moved home, everything I'd known about the Halifax music scene before was obsolete. All of the genres I had been into just 2 years earlier were either wiped off the map or stale to the point of uselessness. I was still reluctant to stop going to shows, even though I wasn't quite sure what to embrace and make my own.
I'd spent the last 2 years in a state of musical flux, unsure of where my tastes were headed, but knowing they were changing very quickly. I'd tried getting into certain musical styles that just were not me. I even went so far as to join a band playing music I was only peripherally into (I joined because I was friends with everyone in the band, and that alone made it fun for a while, but it ended up not being enough). Anything to try and find something really inspirational to immerse myself in.
Looking back, there were three bands from that era that made a deep enough impact to influence me years after the fact, affecting both of the bands I'm in today. I normally go out of my way not to name-drop here, but I'm going to forget about that for now.
The first two bands affected me in a very similar way; both were very tight, dynamic units that "played physical", to use another sports metaphor. That is to say, they felt the music they were playing, and it showed. They swayed in the slow parts and threw down in the loud parts - all members. Both played with a ton of aggression and emotion. They communicated with each other visually, and this was evident in their music. Both gave the impression that a lot of what they did was improvised, although this may not necessarily have been the case. Both left me feeling like I'd been flattened by the force of their set, and that by the time they were done, they had nothing left inside to give. These bands were from Halifax and Fredericton, respectively: the Plan and 283.
The third band was a little different. They didn't possess the emotional or physical power of the aforementioned two. They played very loose and were not lyrically profound. What they did do though, was show me that fun, silly, enthusiastic, exciting, youthful punk rock was not as dead in Halifax as I thought it was. They jumped into the crowd. They set stuff on fire. They knocked the audience over. They knocked themselves over. They seemed to be telling the music scene's more ponderous elements it was ok for punk rock to be goofy after all. A lot of bands that could be described this way have a subtle undercurrent of resentment toward subgenres of punk that embody progression or originality - but that wasn't the case with the Mackoids. Their lyrics were ridiculous, yet they seemed intelligent and positive-minded. And these weren't a bunch of enthusiastic late-20-somethings trying to bring back the good ol' days - these were kids in high school. They were a real breath of fresh air. Fun will never die.
A mention should also be given to the Hold, who came to my attention not long after the three above dropped off the radar. They have intensity and power in common with the first two bands I mentioned, but their songs are short and fast. They can pull off a simple four chord song just as well as something more experimental. I also quickly found out they were very approachable people with whom I felt a personal connection. This is why I'm friends with them to this day. After seeing them play a couple of times, I got the sense that a music scene built around them would be a lot like the one that was such a huge part of my life in the 90s. This turned out to be exactly the case. It's called Divorce.
That was cheesy. Ha!
Maybe moving to Saskatchewan had something to do with it, although nothing stands out as having changed the way I think about music during that era. It did clean the slate in a way I guess. All of the comfortable musical niches I'd been a part of in Halifax were gone. I had to choose between being open minded and embracing what was available, or sitting home listening to my old records and pining for the glory days. The more people my own age I saw doing the latter, the more driven I was to do the former. That policy remains in full effect.
By the time I moved home, everything I'd known about the Halifax music scene before was obsolete. All of the genres I had been into just 2 years earlier were either wiped off the map or stale to the point of uselessness. I was still reluctant to stop going to shows, even though I wasn't quite sure what to embrace and make my own.
I'd spent the last 2 years in a state of musical flux, unsure of where my tastes were headed, but knowing they were changing very quickly. I'd tried getting into certain musical styles that just were not me. I even went so far as to join a band playing music I was only peripherally into (I joined because I was friends with everyone in the band, and that alone made it fun for a while, but it ended up not being enough). Anything to try and find something really inspirational to immerse myself in.
Looking back, there were three bands from that era that made a deep enough impact to influence me years after the fact, affecting both of the bands I'm in today. I normally go out of my way not to name-drop here, but I'm going to forget about that for now.
The first two bands affected me in a very similar way; both were very tight, dynamic units that "played physical", to use another sports metaphor. That is to say, they felt the music they were playing, and it showed. They swayed in the slow parts and threw down in the loud parts - all members. Both played with a ton of aggression and emotion. They communicated with each other visually, and this was evident in their music. Both gave the impression that a lot of what they did was improvised, although this may not necessarily have been the case. Both left me feeling like I'd been flattened by the force of their set, and that by the time they were done, they had nothing left inside to give. These bands were from Halifax and Fredericton, respectively: the Plan and 283.
The third band was a little different. They didn't possess the emotional or physical power of the aforementioned two. They played very loose and were not lyrically profound. What they did do though, was show me that fun, silly, enthusiastic, exciting, youthful punk rock was not as dead in Halifax as I thought it was. They jumped into the crowd. They set stuff on fire. They knocked the audience over. They knocked themselves over. They seemed to be telling the music scene's more ponderous elements it was ok for punk rock to be goofy after all. A lot of bands that could be described this way have a subtle undercurrent of resentment toward subgenres of punk that embody progression or originality - but that wasn't the case with the Mackoids. Their lyrics were ridiculous, yet they seemed intelligent and positive-minded. And these weren't a bunch of enthusiastic late-20-somethings trying to bring back the good ol' days - these were kids in high school. They were a real breath of fresh air. Fun will never die.
A mention should also be given to the Hold, who came to my attention not long after the three above dropped off the radar. They have intensity and power in common with the first two bands I mentioned, but their songs are short and fast. They can pull off a simple four chord song just as well as something more experimental. I also quickly found out they were very approachable people with whom I felt a personal connection. This is why I'm friends with them to this day. After seeing them play a couple of times, I got the sense that a music scene built around them would be a lot like the one that was such a huge part of my life in the 90s. This turned out to be exactly the case. It's called Divorce.
That was cheesy. Ha!
posted by the baron ash von foolishness at 9:54 PM
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