It’s All About Punk Show on Tour #1 (#20)
Photo: Episode cover. Picture was made in Boston in summer ’19.
It’s All About Punk Show #20.
Interview with Alexander Herbert.
Edited by Alexander Herbert.
This interview was the first one I made out of the FSK studio (*Freies Sender Kombinat, Radio station in Hamburg) and the first one from abroad. It was made in Boston, MA together with Alex Herbert, a great guy who is running Punks Around Fanzine and wrote the book about history of Russian punk. I didn’t know Alex in person before, but we wrote each other few times after my show about Russian punk for Maximum Rock’n’Roll Radio. He wrote me that he had the same idea, but was waiting until his book was published. That’s how we got to know each other. We exchanged some messages on facebook from time to time, and one day he wrote me that he is going to Russia in the summer (2019) and will be in Switzerland and in Berlin on the way there and back, and he asked if I’d be willing to make a radio show with him. It was funny, because I was already planning a trip to the East Coast of the US and Boston was on the list, so that’s how it worked in the end.
Intro: Test of Time – Matter of Taste
Me: Hey Ho! Let’s go! It’s All About Punk Show. Here’s DJ Wasted.Again and I’m in Boston, MA right now, visiting a friend who lives here, it’s Alex. Can you introduce yourself, Alex?
Alex: Hey hey, It’s Alex! Now I live in Boston, I lived in Chicago for a little bit. A lot of you guys might know me, I’ve just came out with a book, a history of Russian punk rock, so we can go over some of that and then I also run a fanzine out of Boston called Punks Around—stickers are all over the toilets, it’s how I advertise😊 And… I go to shows a lot, you know, just hanging out.
Me: Yeah, that’s cool. So, as Alex said, it will be kind of a show partly about the book he wrote, Russian bands he likes, about his experience visiting Russia and then we’ll play some local bands from Boston and around. The first song will be «Войны для войнов» (Eng. Wars for warriors) by the band «Отдел самоискоренения» (Eng. Department of Self-Eradication).
Track 1. Отдел Самоискоренения – Войны для войнов
Track 2. Наив – Танки-панки
Track 3. Проверочная Линейка – Папа
Me: So, you’ve probably just heard the song by the band «Проверочная Линейка» (Eng. Straight Edge), we can’t decide right now which one, because we’re recording this podcast remotely, and we’ll put songs after. They we’ll be written somewhere, I guess
Alex: Set in stone somewhere
Me: the song before was by Naïve, called Tanks punks
Alex: everyone’s heard of it, who knows Russian punk
Me: yeah. How actually did you come to the idea to write a book about history of Russian punk scene?
Alex: Mostly because, when I went to Russia for the first time, I think it was 2012, to study the language in Nizhniy Novgorod (also Nizhniy)… You know, I had like tattoos and all that stuff at that time, and I was studying at the linguistic university and somebody who did graffiti found me and they were like, “Oh, you’re interested in punk music” and they brought me to a Partybreaker Show
Alex: Yeah, when they lived in Nizhniy. The experience of that was still dangerous. You know in the west a lot of shows now, they are not as dangerous as it was there. So, that experience made me realize that Russian punks are not like everybody else, I mean punks in the west, the scene is kind of young, especially in the provinces and stuff like that. Of course I learned later, I looked it up when I got home that night, after the Partybreaker Show, but if you think of Svin (*Andrey “Svin” Panov of Avtomaticheskie udovletvoriteli) or even Egor Letov (*Yegor Letov of Grazhdanskaya Oborona) and Grazhdanskaya Oborona, kind of really making moves, (I mean Svin may be in 70’s) Russian punk doesn’t really pick up until the early 80’s, because in the west, if you consider proto punk and kind of that, it started a lot earlier. So, just the youthfulness of that and the fact that Russia was extremely late to hardcore for example, they didn’t have it through out of the 80’s until they started to play faster punk music. That all fascinated me.
Me: That’s cool. How long does it take actually to write a book? You visited Russia few times, how many, like 5 or so?
Alex: so, I’ve been to Russia a total of 4 times now and it was one of those things that… like I said, the first time I was in Nizhniy Novgorod and I wasn’t interviewing in that summer at all, I was just doing language study and then the 2nd time I was living in Moscow. That’s when this idea of doing this oral history style really came to me, because people seemed eager to tell their stories about whether they were involved in the anti-fascist movement or they were in a band or they were from the provinces, like they were in a struggling band from the provinces. The idea of interviewing people just was more fascinating to me and especially in a tradition like oral history that already exists in punk, it’s all more oral histories, letting people talk for themselves, really diy way of doing it.
Me: Yeah. And we’ll continue playing some songs, the next one will be…
Track 4. Distress – Resource of war
Track 5. Unbroken Bones – Empire of the City
Track 6. Minefield – Шоу 2012
Track 7. Minefield – Destroy (RAW Power)
Photo: Minefield. Photo from bandcamp
Me: Hey again. You’ve just heard 2 songs by the band Minefield. I actually don’t know the band, they’re from Izhevsk, and they’re really cool. Can you tell something about them?
Alex: Yeah. It really became kind public that I started to research a book, I had people from all different parts of Russia trying to reach out to me and invite me to their city to interview, so, I got invited to like Kazan, Izhevsk also. I didn’t think at the time of researching there was enough things happening in Kazan to spend the money to go there, because I think that «Споры» (Eng. Disputes) at that time had already broke up or were living in Moscow. There was another band from Kazan. OffXKey they also weren’t existing anymore. But I heard for some reason the bands from Izhevsk, like Minefield and then Nikita from Unbroken Bones contacted me too and that became the furthest geographical place in Russia I could imagine myself going for a summer and, so, I said, why not? and I went there. It was this crazy thriving scene in the middle of the fucking nowhere. Izhevsk, the only thing they’re famous for is the Kalashnikov Rifles, that’s really all, but that kinda created like a really great consistant scene. When I came, Sasha from Minefield organized a show, he told me like it was the first really big local show for a long time and we all had a blast. Everybody was super energetic. Sometimes, when you go to a big city, everyone is standing with their arms crossed and just watching the show, but there, everyone was dancing, and it was a lot of fun.
Me: I don’t know if things like that are happening in Moscow right now, but when I lived there, there were plenty of really energetic shows, people were dancing like all the time. If I’ll compare this to Germany, it should be really popular band with plenty of fans, to make people dance, or band should do something, like, we won’t play anything until you start move yourself a bit.
Alex: I think there’s 2 kinds of dancing. The first one is, when you hear the song which you know and love, like a cover song. I remember Warshit playing Seeing Red by Minor Threat , when I was in Moscow. That was the first western cover I’d heard in Russia and I thought, fuck, and I just ran up there. In the context it was really cool, because they were playing Seeing Red, in Russia, and there’s an irony to it. But there’s the other kind of dancing, like, just, if you go to hardcore shows, there’s kind of a hateful moshing, which isn’t that fun and those kids, they don’t even need to know the songs, they just hear the breakdown and start. In Izhevsk everyone was just having a blast, it was a really cool scene to document. Minefield was completely unexpected to hear and also Scrap Monsters, Sasha’s other band. There’s just a group of really great musicians that have a number of bands, that all sound amazing.
Me: That’s cool. You’ve just showed me Maximum Rock’n’Roll (MRR) Issue with Minefield in there, that’s kind of cool, I hadn’t read it.
Alex: I guess I’ve got two of them. Oh, there’s one right here. But yeah, I have every issue of MRR that mentions Russian bands, interviews Russian bands or does a scene report from Russia and part of that was for researching the book.
Me: Do you feel any kind of difference between shows you had seen in Russia and here in US? Something about people, music, shows organization.
Alex: If you had asked me that question 2 or 3 years ago my response would have been that the whole experience of the anti-fascist movement in early 2000’s, in Moscow and St. Petersburg, was something that I, growing up in the United States, had never really experienced before. I mean it was known in the certain areas that there were neo-nazis, but they never fuck with punk shows. But now, I mean now we have alt right neo-nazi people, they still don’t go to shows. There’s a sort of historical trajectory of Russian punk that went through the 90’s, the early 2000’s of anti-fascism and I think this battle with fascists in such a real way has made at least the history of Russian punk a lot more interesting than in the west. Like the story of Distemper, for example, having to say, explicitly at their shows that nazis are not allowed. I mean, I’m sure that there were bands in the west that had to say that, but it never happened in my lifetime. So, it’s crazy.
Photo: Unbroken Bones 2011-2012
Me: Yeah, that’s true. We also have many friends in common. How did you meet them, like Bagi?
Alex: Bagi, I’ve met through Mariia actually, because he was doing East Beat Records at that time, I’m not sure if he still is.
Me: No, I think not, since year or two they don’t do this anymore. He’s running a booking right now though.
Alex: It became a thing, through Bagi and through others… I mean I would go to shows first of all and one of the first shows in Moscow that I went to was Komatoz, from St. Petersburg, and I would go up to Alexey Minton and I would talk to him, wanting to know more about St. Petersburg, even though we met in Moscow, and in that way I kind of expanded to other people, but mostly when it came to trying to get interviews I would ask Bagi or Alex Minton at that time, because Alex seemed to be close to a lot of the guys who were more into the corporate side of things. Like you could get access to Dima Spirin (singer and guitarist of Tarakany) through him or something like that. But it was also one of those things, when you’re interviewing someoneone and they say, “you have to talk to so and so, because they know more than me.” And rather than just letting that pass I actually sought that person out and talked to them more about what happened, to such a point where, in 2018, when I finally finished the interviews I had to stop myself because it’s just kind of… I described it like a nesting doll, because you get one source and you dig deeper, and deeper, deeper and deeper and you just keep going, I had to stop it at some point—you can’t keep going to the microscopic. That’s why in the introduction I had to say that I don’t doubt that I missed something, for example, Sektor Gaza is not in the book at all. There’s nobody from Sektor Gaza and I know that somebody might be like, “oh, you didn’t have them,” but you know, I don’t care, because you can only do so much and I think I did reach out to the remaining members of Sektor Gaza and none of them responded to me.
Me: You know it was kind of the big poppy band at that time, I used to visit the cemetery where is the grave of Yura Hoy and we were just drinking there with some crazy people cognac, it was really funny experience. There were some locals from the city of Voronezh, totally drunk, just invited me and a friend, it seemed like great idea to spend a day.
Alex: You know, if they were a great band, that’s fine, but don’t think that book is missing anything.
Alex: Originally the book didn’t talk about Siberian punk at all and a couple of my friends said, “you know, you have to talk about Siberia, at least a little bit, because it was so important in the 80’s.” I was going to focus just on western Russia, St. Petersburg and Moscow, and also because Vladimir Kozlov made a movie about Siberian punk and he has made articles. Instead of going out and reinventing the wheel, I just reached out to him, so there’s chapter in the book by him, it’s the same style as the rest of the book, but its on Siberian punk.
Me: Have you visited some festivals in Moscow at that time, like Youth a Beauty Fest or TROYKA Fest? It was like in 2010 to 2015, in the forest somewhere near Moscow. Or may be some other festivals?
Alex: There was a festival, that I went to that summer, 2015 I think, 2014 or 2015, and it was in the woods. I went with Mariia, Bagi and Alex. That was kind of the weirdest realization in my life, because I was at a Russian underground punk festival, in the woods, serving vegan hot dogs to support this all. I was like, “where the fuck am I right now?” It’s the weirdest thing, but it was really cool. You know, a lot of people wanted to talk to me, which was also cool. Sometimes you can tell that people just wanna talk to you because you’re a foreigner and then there’s the people that genuinely wanna talk to you because they’re interested in like your music or the city that you’re from, because Boston always carries a famous name when it comes to hardcore punk.
Me: I guess like that’s all with the part of the show about Russian music and the book “What about tomorrow? The oral history of Russian punk”. Everybody who is hearing this, just find this book and buy it, because it seems to be really cool.
Alex: Oh, I should say, I’ll be doing talks in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Berlin this summer. I could pitch that. St. Petersburg will be June 28th, ask a punk where it is, because it will be a talk and show. Moscow will be the 29th, I’ll take a train that night, it will be in a major independent bookstore, I forgot the name, something with F. (“Falanster”), Maksim Dinkevich knows and Berlin, I’ll be at Hopscotch, it will be on August 10th.
Me: Yeah, come to meet Alex
Alex: And I’ll have some copies of the book too. If you’re a really fast reader, you can read it there and you can ask me why Pussy Riot are on the title for example.
Me: Cool. And we’re switching to the part of the show with local bands from Boston and around. The first song will be by the band…
Alex: by Crisis Actors, who are great band, they play a lot of local shows and I’ll do Private Army by Crisis Actors
Track 8. Crisis Actors – Private Army
Track 9. Security – Hollow Walls
Track 10. Security - Abandon
Me: so, you have just heard two songs by Security, Abandoned and Hollow Walls. They are from Boston, before that was Crisis Actors also from Boston. Can you tell something about the bands?
Alex: They’re both from Boston. Crisis Actors in particular play a lot here, at a place called the Greek American Club and also as far as I know their guitar player Jesse, who I’ve known through friends for a while helps put the shows on. They do a lot in terms of helping bringing bands into Boston, getting them a place to play. Also, anybody who’s been at Greek American Club, the old man that is in charge of it is always freaking out when the mosh pit breaks and you know, the people, who put the shows on, they go through a lot in order to make them a success. Crisis Actors have been doing their thing for a while and I thought it was worth it to play them here.
Me: yeah, and we have next song for you, it will be
Alex: Wound Man, We’re going to do two. They are a power violence band, they’ve just been killing it, they’re a great band
Track 11. Wound Men – Rolled
Track 12. Wound Men – Dead Babies
Track 13. Hey Zeus – These Eyes
Me: Hey, we’re back, and it was Hey Zeus, with a song These Eyes, before that were two songs by Wound Men. How do you know these bands?
Alex: They’re from the area. Providence and Boston are so close to each other. Providence is only a 40 min drive from here. Wound Man is a power violence band. I’ve seen them twice now, extremely talented, great show, really lively. Hey Zeus is kind of, it’s cool to parallel them, because Hey Zeus is much more mellow, rock’n’roll style, but also their shows are… I have friends, that think, Hey Zeus puts on the best show right now in the area. They have like, they do this whole thing with this big gong, most of their songs are making fun of religion in some way, like their name Hey Zeus, just poke fun it in some way, and they have this giant… like one of those corny light up crosses in the background on their set. Both of those bands are killing it right now. I thought it would be cool to have them here.
Me: And we’re going to another three songs, the next one will be by the band Hairspray Queen, here’s it…
Track 14. Hairspray Queen – Love Enough
Track 15. Leopard Print Taser – Things You Do
Track 16. Cactus Attack – Wrecking Chain
Me: Hey, we’re back again, and you’ve just heard the song by Cactus Attack, the band before was Leopard Print Taser, they will play a show tonight and we’re going there too.
Alex: They’re playing a show at O’Brien’s, it’s a good venue.
Photo: Leopard Print Taser performing Great Scott, Allston, MA. August 14th ‘18
Me: Yeah, and it’s almost the end. It was “It’s All About Punk Show”. If you have questions about the show, just write me email on [email protected] or leave your comments wherever you’ll find it. And thank you, Alex, for taking a part. It’s the first show, which I’m making out of Hamburg.
Alex: Yeah, it’s a lot of fun. Just thinking about the bands to kind of put together, as you can tell, by the time we got to the local Boston and Providence bands, the music became so diverse. I should say, that Hairspray Queen is from Providence, they’re on Atomic Action, which is a great Providence label and Leopard Print Taser is from Summerville, which is right kind of close to where we are right now. Cactus Attack Hollar out to you guys, because we’re really tight, you know it. You could look the outro bands up yourself. I’m gonna play She Rides, because growing up in Providence punk, they were hugely influential for me.
Me: So, bye bye, we’ll hear us next time, here’s is She Rides.
Book: What About Tomorrow?: An Oral History of Russian Punk from the Soviet Era to Pussy Riot.
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Podcast: It’s All About Punk Show
Mixcloud, Facebook, Instagram
Minefield: https://minefield.bandcamp.com/
Unbroken Bones: https://vk.com/unbrokenbones
Leopard Print Taser photo. http://allstonpudding.com/photos-tacocat-leopard-print-taser-gymshorts-great-scott/
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