Rumble Young Man Rumble: Our Correspondent In LA Breaks It Down
There’s an acceptance of pain involved in the individuality of things like skateboarding, punk and noise, graffiti and not being able to do things ’cause you’re underage and just not belonging to whatever ‘normal’ is; but through this pain comes creativity and a bit of its own sort of feeling good.
The Smell, in downtown Los Angeles, is a kind of culmination of all these things and acts as a breeding ground for an all-ages revolt against accepted aesthetics, sonics and ideology. Relatively broad ranges of groups perform at The Smell, but its definite roots are in hardcore punk and noise. On any given night you can walk in and feel your body tremble from a frequency you never knew existed, upon further examination you’ll see, not hear, singers screaming on the floor or on an amp, ripping their shirts and about to pop a blood vessel, yet, because of the amplitude already at its peak, the vocals make little to no difference in the enveloping soundscape.
ANAVAN IN ’40 BANDS/80 MINUTES’
The Pehrspace in Echo Park is another center for bands and artists with this DIY approach; Sean Carnage organizes a night on Monday’s there that features a good variety of progressive noise and other experimental groups. A little more than a year ago Sean released a documentary entitled ‘40 Bands 80 Minutes‘, the film is a document of 40 bands from the L.A. DIY scene playing for 2 minutes a piece for a total of 80 minutes. Abe Vigoda, Explogasm, Wives (Dean and Randy from No Age) and Anavan were among the bands involved in the project. It’s not only a showcase of these bands but also about the support the bands give to each other, something quite redeeming about the L.A. scene in general. Everyone’s in it together, pushing each other yet not in a competitive manner, much like the support from peers while skateboarding. A group of individuals helping each other and whoever else wants to get involved.
NASA SPACE UNIVERSE
One band that’s really pushing things on all levels is NASA Space Universe. They combine the harshness of noise with the fast anxiety of 80′s hardcore to produce violently direct music with a piercing social message warning of societies doom and decline. Kevin Rhea, the singer, goes off into deeply emotionalized conspiratorial, psychological and philosophical rants about the draining of our minds through media and the government, all the while working up the audience into a frenzy.
THE MAE SHI AT THE SMELL
Bands keep forming and un-forming, house venues and art galleries start then get shut down but still optimism remains amongst everyone. Even with all this press the scene’s getting, there’s still a genuineness that remains and doesn’t seem to be leaving, in fact all this attention seems to only add fuel to the fire; for something that started with no direction, it’s become quite an interesting journey to watch.
MIKA MIKO
JASON-Jesse, it’s interesting that the scene is so defined by it’s youngest participants. I know that’s really true in places like the OC that the kids are really shut out of things. And this reclaiming of territory and marking out something that is really meant for the kids is rad. It’s not something I think NYC kids relate to because teenagers in NY are kind of hanging around clubs and bars from a young age.
JESSE-I get pretty bummed about most things being 21+ since i’m 20 and because i’m very much against the elitism that it sort of produces by keeping ‘kids’ out of ‘adult’ things.
JASON-It seems the roots of hardcore run pretty deep for sure. Does this mean that the scenes you’re talking about are boy-centric like hardcore was and is, or is this more inclusive than that? I was looking at the pictures on NASA Space Universe’s myspace and there did seem to be a number of young ladies in the pit.
JESSE-Just from my personal observation, I’d say that there is a definitely larger male presence but it is a very open scene and there are quite a lot of girls involved with things.
JASON-Who’s the girl’s version of NO AGE?
JESSE-Theres a few bands with all or mostly girls, namely Mika Miko and Vomit Bomb there’s also this band All Neon Like, they’re all different though vomit bomb’s like 77 thrash/metal and mika miko is like no wave punk stuff.
VOMIT BOMB AT THE SMELL
JESSE-When things are at their craziest there’s still a love that’s present and if you fall, people are gonna pick you up, and girls are just as involved with all that as guys are, there’s just overall more guys in the scene than are girls but no one really discriminates.
JASON-Awesome. And it’s also interesting because even though it seems there’s a big carry over of some of the more agro aspects of Hardcore and Noise, there’s also a definite break from it’s traditional images. The bands and their artwork and style all seems much more playful and colorful than hardcore. Do you see that same difference in the scene between ‘FUN’ and something more ‘agro’? Is it a big party atmosphere and is humor important to the scene?
JESSE-I’d say it is definitely a fun environment, although there’s alot of heaviness, overall people are quite positive even amongst the gentle violence. Humor is definitely a substantial factor, there’s alot of blurring the lines between seriousness and parody. But some take it so far that it’s hard to know they’re satire unless you know them personally.
JESSE HLEBO IS A PHOTOGRAPHER, FILMMAKER, WRITER, and the editor of Commonism, “an online art/music/culture/collective zine who’s purpose is to promote positivity in the san francisco, los angeles and orange county scenes with the hopes of creating a closer unity and sense of community between them.” See more here. and here.
GET MORE INFO ON THE BANDS AND VENUES DISCUSSED HERE AT THE FOLLOWING:
THE SMELL
PEHRSPACE
40 BANDS/80 MINS
ABE VIGODA
Explogasm
WIVES
Anavan
NASA SPACE UNIVERSE
Mika Miko
VOMIT BOMB
ALL NEON LIKE
DOWNLOAD NO AGE, ABE VIGODA, MIKA MIKO, ALL NEON LIKE AND MORE FROM OTHER MUSIC
All Photos in this post BY Jesse Hlebo. All rights reserved.
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