Well I grew up in the ignorant depressing deep south full of rednecks. I resented and hated the mulleted Camaro jockeys that I was sure to join when I crossed through adolescence. When I found Punk Rock I thought I was home. Here was a place for losers, misfits and nerds like me. Except after a while I realized, I liked the people, but the music was boring and conservative.
One year I saw a punk rock band from San Francisco, "Flipper". Later I also saw this funny TV show called Night Flight.
Flipper was the only interesting punk act I ever saw. They weren't trying to be macho, aggressive or political. They just spewed nihilism and heavy weirdness.
Night Flight was a 4 hour long mini MTV which played on the USA network. They introduced me to "New Wave Theatre" and Some Bizarre. This was where I found out about Einsturzende Neubauten, Cabaret Voltaire, Skinny Puppy, Throbbing Gristle, Killer Pussy etc.
Oh, so there is a scene that is doing something besides spiking the hair and buying fancy leather.
At some point there was a punk rock record store called "Toxic Shock" which opened in my hometown, New Orleans. They started out west someplace, and this was their expansion into the southeast. Lord knows why. They were a goner in a couple years. However the owner of that shop introduced me to all kinds of aberrant bullshit. Swans, Nurse With Wound, DAF, and some funny guys from SF, Negativland.
This all influences my life in a lot of ways.
Primarily it convinced me that making music which did not 'rock' and was not 'dancey' was valid. That I did not have to buy into a genre to play music. A lot of people my age or older seem to say the same thing about the "Sex Pistols" or "Ramones" in that regard. But they were still rock and roll bands. Playing guitars, basses and drums. With fucking guitar solos.
Hearing early industrial, experimental and electronic acts that eschewed traditional 'songs' and instruments gave me courage to think the silly stuff I did with tape dubbing and a few cheap instruments could be valid.
There are a few recurring threads in this discussion I don't agree with.
I do not think that Industrial is inherently misanthropic. Most people I have met in the sparse industrial scene are pretty nice. Sure a lot of them are on drugs and some can be prima donnas. But overall they are people who are bookread, have their act somewhat together, and are conversational.
I also don't get the whole left vs right bullshit. In my experience the Industrial scene, whether it was tape traders, clubs like House of Usher, or bands in general are apolitical. This has allowed a lot of people to go off in a lefty direction as bands like Test Dept, Babyland and arguably SKinny Puppy. Or to grow a quasi-fascist scene as it seems that a lot of the neo-martialist acts have.
Frankly I think the baby-fascists are just misinterpreting Laibach and other similar acts.
Personally I think the left right paradigm is stupid. I don't think being liberal about everything is smart, or being conservative about everything is clever either. Overly simplistic.
