The sad thing about hearing numerous punk and pseudo-punk bands on the radio (if you must) and MTV (if you can stomach it) is not that all the preppie kids are listening to half-decent music and calling it their own. I was never down enough to be so territorial.

What does mystify me about the new punks is their lack of interest in (or knowledge of) DIY culture and DIY things. Nobody wants to create anymore (be it records, zines, or little plastic things); nobody even wants to destroy. <

Righteous Babe is not the only, nor the best, independent record label under the sun.

Nor is Epitaph.

You can go to school and learn to make pretty, but you don't have to.

DIY is so American. You really can make something from nothing if you check out all the good dumpsters, and you can make it beautiful.



P.S. Wintersweet, the Mormon Church was pretty fuckin' DIY from the outset, some 150 years ago. The Mormon subculture would not have survived so long as it has were it not for the resourcefulness and sense of community among its members. Where's the irony?