CLINTON ST. QUARTERLY the bands here work together, and in bigger cities or other cities there’s a lot of competition. I think that’s something unique to Portland. CSQ: You haven’t played anywhere for quite awhile. Are you planning on playing in public soon? Kim: We’ve been working on all new material, and we just want to work with Meg [Neoboy’s new guitarist) for awhile. And we don’t have enough material. Well, I guess we do. We just want to start all over again. (laughter) We kind of got in a rut last year. CSQ: What’s your music about? Kim: There are things we’re trying to say, but it’s not like a particular topic. It’s not like all our songs are political, all our songs are personal, something like that. It’s like just a feeling or expression—what / feel, or what KT or Pat or somebody feels. I usually write the lyrics, but it’s just hoping that maybe the audience can understand that feeling, that they could understand the situation I’m singing about or experience or something, or something you know, that’s on my mind. CSQ: When you’re practicing, who do you think you’re audience is? Kim: Well, when we first started playing, KT just started playing bass and I just first started singing, so it was like the instruments were new. It wasn’t like well yeah, I know how to play rock-and-roll or I knew how to play heavy metal or whatever. It was just—everything was really new. KT'. Then, learning to play, you can experiment with the way you want it to sound. You’ll do something—hey, that sounds really good. We just like Play. CSQ: So how did you start performing? KT: When we first started there wasn’t such a thing as a scene or groups really. There was this house over in Northeast, a place that a lot of people lived. It was just rented. And everyone decided we had to do something, something about getting a club, a place to play, because bands were all spread out— Kim: We were playing in basements— KT: And playing parties and things like that so we just—John Shirley I think—said, called a meeting of anyone that was interested in trying to find a club. So a lot of people showed up and then he heard from this guy that used to live here [Clockwork Joe’s] that it was a place, and that’s where we first started doing a show, here. Then it was just the same, you know, everybody was running it but it wasn’t in a form then. CSQ: How did you feel about always having to find new places to play? How did the landlords react— KT: It’s weird. But it was worse before. Plus a lot of times we just couldn’t make the rent, because the T T T T T T T T New wave is held up by serious participants as music toward a better society, or perhaps a true expression o f com m on e x p e r i ences, much like the rock-and-roll o f five or twenty years ago. scene was so underexposed. New wav$ or punk or whatever.. . That’s what happened at the New Arts Center. We were only open a month because we couldn’t make the rent, it was $500. That club was over in Southeast. Kim: But it seems like then it was like nobody knew punk rock or anything or new wave but now it’s like people, well, the only problem we’re having here is like with the bars and stuff. CSQ: What about the punk image, now that it’s more fashionable to be punk, has that changed things— Kim: You know, it just seems like punk rock or new wave has just got a bad reputation, that it’s been exploited— KT: It either has a bad reputation or it’s chic. The people with orange hair walking down the streets, they never show, they’re never at the shows. CSQ: What about the violence, sometimes it’s pretty rough at some of the shows. Is that the regulars? KT: There really hasn’t been that much violence. Kim: And it’s all like fun. You know, like pushing somebody, they push you back, punching somebody, they punch you back, and stuff like that. It’s not like bam bam bam bam gesturing slam slam slam slam. Maybe it is in bigger cities but it’s never been a real problem here. There was one incident where we played, uh, we held a show out at Linnton Community Center and there were like high school jocks, kids that came in with like 2x4’s beating up punks and stuff. And that was only one incident. KT: That was weird because it was Kids— Kim: Yeah, kids your own age. KT: Not like the police or anybody like that, it’s just these kids who have this image of what punk rock is. They’re going to destroy it because they don’t like it. CSQ: What about sort of fascistic tendencies; there were a bunch of swastikas painted in the alley outside of Urban Noize when I was over there last weekend. Kim: That’s creepy...and stupid. I mean, I don’t understand that end of it at all. I think that a lot of kids that are getting into it now, that’s what they think it is, like swastikas and all that bullshit. They think that’s cool, that’s what you’re supposed to do—wear swastikas and stuff like that. Kim: I don’t know if kids think that or think this is really shocking— I’ll shock a businessman by painting a swastika on my forehead [laughter]. And that’s what you have to do to be a punk. I don’t understand that end of it, why they have to do that. I | M IS PUNK I f " DEAD? Jrban Noize, currently at 2637 NE Union, is the successor o f many attempts to establish an underage club fo r new wave music. Ronnie Noize and Fred Seegmuller stage the shows wherever their club finds itself. Ronnie: A lot of the people, in my opinion, who’ve been involved in the scene for a long time are social misfits. I think punk is dead. I don’t know many punks, at least I hope I don’t. New Wave, though, encompasses ail new music: rockabilly, pop, reggae, country, all sorts of things. Punk is the old hardcore ethic, of what’s it called—nihilism? I can never pronounce that word. Fred Seegmuller joins us after spending a half hour painting over the graffiti swastikas pu t on the side o f Urban Noize during last weekend's sh ow . . . Most of those [swastikas] were painted later by a couple of real punks. There was a thing painted first that was a swastika equals a peace sign equals the anarchy sign. Now the person who wrote that was Dave Javalosa (sic) of Los 'Microwaves. And the reason he wrote that was because he jokingly said he had a vision; he kind of realized that the swastika used to be the Youth for Hitler sign, and the peace sign was the hippie sign, and now the anarchy sign is today’s new wave youth symbol. He says to him all it means is a smile face, it’s just a stupid symbol to write on the wall. CSQ: So what do you think about the whole anarchy associations with punk or new wave, is that what you think, that it’s just a smiley face? Ronnie: When I first saw that sign it meant anarchy to me, I went to In the beginning, what happened in ’ 77 and stuff, it was a p o lit ica l movement, but so many people have come into the scene since then, and they don ’t understand what the roots are. a political rally in Europe and it turned into a riot. And I came over here again, but I could never figure out why somebody would want anarchy. I think a lot of people put it up because they think it’s the sign of a punk. Fred: In the beginning, what happened in ’77 and stuff, it was a political movement, but so many people have come into the scene since then, and they don’t understand what the roots are. J A A THE LOUD I f f CROWD B r is like the hippies: the co-ops ^ a n d people creating names and homemade fashions (or plastic reproductions), being young or radical and HIHHHHHHH ina Records WE BUY I ! Rock, Blues, Jazz, Classical — Collections Unusual & Hard to Find Imports — 45's & 78's Posters & Rock Memorabilia 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily believing in music and wanting to belong. But unlike the hippies, this is not the movement o f the times. High school students are more likely to imitate Peter Frampton than any new wave figure. Being punk has the same aspects o f illegality, anti-social sneering and guerrilla theater that '60s and '70s counterculture often featured; new wave is held up by serious participants as music toward a better society or perhaps a true expression o f common experiences, much like the rock-and-roll o f five or twenty years ago. New wave can be seen as similar to the '60s and '70s before all fashions and ideas and slogans and symbols were made into commercialized cool. The attempt to make business decisions reflect a collective desire and intent is admirable. The results to date are fragmentary, and here in Portland are many times marred by personal conflicts between participants. These conflicts arise, however, because the music and ideas o f new wave, the “scene, ” is trying to make connections between art and politics and fun. Support your local musicians. ■ Learning to play, you can experiment with the way you want it to sound. You 7Z do someth in g— hey , tha t sounds really good. Special thanks to the following fo r interviews: David Corboy o f Sado- Nation; Mark Sten; the board and members o f the Alternative Arts A ssociation; K T Kincaid, Kim Kincaid, Pat Baum, and Meg H. o f the Neoboys; and Ronnie Noize and Fred Seegmuller o f Urban Noize. 46
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz