Excerpts

From Punk Planet 80

When the Independent Press Association went under, the independent publishing community lost more than a distribution arm.

Late in December 2006, while most offices were closed for the holidays, the Independent Press Association (IPA) quietly sent an e-mail to its member publications announcing that the organization was closing its doors. Despite previous optimism expressed by the IPA's board of directors, for many of the publishers whose titles the organization distributed, it came as little surprise. For them, the IPA's sudden announcement was endemic to a total communications breakdown between the organization and its client publications that began in early 2005. Publications represented by the IPA continue to contend with the likelihood that thousands of dollars they are owed will never be seen. For some, such as Kitchen Sink (and Punk Planet itself), this comes as the IPA's final, and fatal, blow. The fallout has been profound-the independent publishing community has experienced an unprecedented bloodletting in recent months, as magazines run on a shoestring have been unable to overcome huge losses in operating income.

Know what? If I can’t bust out my cool roller-boogie moves, I don’t want to be part of your revolution. Fortunately for you, the Coup has dropped their new disc Pick a Bigger Weapon. So now the booty-shaking revolution can go forward.
With Boots Riley on vocals and Pam the Funkstress on turntables, the Coup has been making politically vibrant hip hop for 15 years. Blending politics and hip hop is nothing new, of course. But too often in political hip hop, the beats take a backseat to the ideology, resulting in a kind of overcooked broccoli-with-a-bass-line. Well intentioned, but nobody is going to throw it on to get the party started.

It wasn’t supposed to happen, not like this. There was a time when the future felt within reach—a future built by you, by me, together. It was a future where the rules were changed—where “success” was defined by actions performed, not money made, and where expectations were exceeded or broken, not reinforced. In this future, a band like the Promise Ring—four friends from Wisconsin, of all places, interested in making songs instead of being popular, with a lead singer who could craft catchy melodies but couldn’t sing them—could become famous without compromising what had made them great.

“When did punk rock become so safe?” asks Chris Hannah in “Rock For Sustainable Capitalism,” a song from the latest musical offering by Canadian punks Propagandhi. Potemkin City Limits is the high-energy 2005 record featuring Hannah on guitar and vocals, Jordy Samolesky on drums, and Todd Kowalski on bass. The band is in rare form on this album, reminding us of the roots of punk rock by shattering illusion, creating community, and blasting high-energy music. For over 10 years, Propagandhi have consistently pointed to the importance of social change through personal responsibility and action. They seem as surprised as anyone that they have developed a wide audience for their unique style of music and words that advocate animal rights, a vegan diet, and the bedrock anarchist qualities of self-reliance, political awareness, and discovering what is true for yourself.

Pat Hanlin has been locking his bike up for two years in the same location— in front of the Oasis Restaurant on the Ohio University campus in Athens, Ohio. For two years, no one took notice of the bike’s sticker that promoted the Pensacola, Fla. band This Bike is a Pipe Bomb. But on a Thursday morning in early March, a campus security officer saw the sticker and interpreted the message literally.