
Eight Tons of Punk - tintinnabula
https://theoutline.com/post/8002/maximum-rocknroll-record-archives-photo-essay
======
mxuribe
Sorry to loop in software/tech...but...

I remember once years ago explaining to a co-worker about how i felt that free
and open source software (FOSS) in general - but linux (oh sorry, gnu linux)
as a specific example - as being the punk equivalent but in tech. The person i
explained it to was a techy at a large enterprise, and really understood it
once i explained in those terms. My co-worker was your typical buttoned-up
very nice guy, he had only been exposed to the conventional corporate ms
windows platforms, etc...So, while he likely wouldn't go out and listen to
punk nor go play with installing slackware or debian, etc...he really
respected linux (and the rest of FOSS) __BECAUSE __of the context that i put
them in as a comparison to punk. I haven 't worked with him for years now...i
wonder what he thinks now that linux and FOSS are everywhere - well everywhere
but under blankets of corporations like google (android), and others, etc.? I
wonder if he still thinks of linux as punk - as i had described to him long
ago?

~~~
cabernal
When I think of punks of the tech industry I think of the Homebrew Computer
Club. I've tried looking for a similar community but these seem to be few and
far between.

I lot of the tech communities around where I live seem to only be interested
in "startupping", seed funding and networking rather than experimenting and
pushing tech itself. Hackathons, where I used to find a few punks years ago,
are now filled with people mildly interested in tech and big corporate
sponsors.

Maybe it's the fact that technology keeps getting more complex and thus a few
punk hackers are not enough to really disrupt it.

~~~
lubujackson
I grew up in the early 90s in the pre-Internet days, so my idea of "punk tech"
came from the old greybeards who wanted to hack on hardware, software and
everything along the way. I think that spirit still jumps around by curiosity
and idealism, usually through some new technology (like Mastodon, or
cryptocurrency in the early days) or is satisfied with goalless explorations
of tech, like tilde.club or a lot of the early hackathons and maker trends (3D
printing, drones, battle bots, etc.)

~~~
mxuribe
Yeah Linux wouldn't be the only "punk tech"; and fediverse, crypto currency,
and the hardware stuff you referenced would certainly classify as punk tech in
my book too! Thanks for that!

------
dfxm12
_“We don’t want to move [the record archive] to some museum, we want it to be
accessible,” Curran told me._

If not in a museum, what does it mean for records to be accessible? If you
keep it physical, only a select relative few will ever access it.

Start digitizing it, then, if needed, auction off the interesting records to
fund the rest of the effort.

~~~
bmj
You are assuming that the _music_ is the most important thing. It very well
may be, but part of the culture around vinyl is, I think, the actual physical
product, particularly the art that accompanies the vinyl. Add to that the DIY
ethos that drives the punk scene, and those physical artifacts become even
more important.

~~~
dfxm12
_You are assuming that the music is the most important thing._

I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion.

...obviously, you can digitize album covers and liner notes. I thought that
was clear. You're right, there's culture around that, but it's not important
to physically touch it to experience it.

Saying "you just had to be there", "you have to listen to this pressing of the
record", "you must hold this in your hand", etc. is playing gatekeeper, which
is antithetical to punk and DIY.

~~~
barbecue_sauce
> it's not important to physically touch it to experience it

Why not?

------
bane
Anybody interested in the zone
[https://archive.org/details/maximumrnr](https://archive.org/details/maximumrnr)

------
droobles
Slightly off topic: Going to take a moment to shoutout Sunny Singh and his
hate5six project, archiving punk live performances! Awesome project. You can
be a techie and still be punk!

------
richardhod
Somebody here has enough money to help this out and contribute back to SF +
culture!

~~~
vibrio
I hope it is preserved. MRR was key to DIY music scenes across the US and
other countries. The internet dispatched the need for it. At the time (I'm
referencing the mid-late 80's), the crappy newsprint that came off on my
fingers was the only way to find out what bands or cities were doing in really
independent music. It's pretty difficult to put it in context in a world post-
blogs, twitter, and bandcamp etc.

------
rr-geil-j
I just can't articulate it yet but saving this archive feels anti-punk...

~~~
benj111
Its the nature of these things, that the original ethos gets lost, for
example, Green Day is classed as a punk band.

~~~
weare138
Just because some people say that doesn't make it true. Green Day fans are
like the flat Earthers of punk.

~~~
bitskits
Glad to see that the superiority complex of the scene is still alive and
well...

Everyone needs an onramp to discovery. There are WAY worse things to be into
than Green Day. But please, don't let me stop you from telling Hacker News how
you're too punk for Green Day...

~~~
bluntfang
green day dookie was the first CD I owned. It was the first thing I found on
the street (read: garbage), and inspired my interest in free and used things.
I owe them a lot. But man do they suck.

~~~
FillardMillmore
I don't know, I've always been more of an Offspring fan, but I don't think
it's fair to say that Green Day "suck". They've obviously achieved an
impressive level of success and people still pay attention and listen to their
new releases decades after they were truly relevant.

I never was a big fan of Dookie but their next album, Insomniac, is still an
immensely enjoyable album to this day. Whether it's technically not 'punk' and
is instead 'pop-punk' or just 'rock' makes no difference to me. The fact that
their music isn't overtly anti-establishment doesn't affect the quality of the
music.

In fact, and this may get me into trouble here, I like the Dead Kennedy's
'Plastic Surgery Disasters' just as much as I like Green Day's 'Insomniac'. Is
one punk and one not? Who cares? I quite dislike the purity tests in some
genres of music (like punk and metal). That's something I've always
appreciated about pop music - it doesn't have to adhere to some nebulous
framework to qualify for the genre, it simply has to be popular (e.g. Beatles
were pop, Madonna was pop, and Arianna Grande is pop - very different styles
of music)

~~~
adfm
You like the music you like and that itself is as punk rock as you can get.

The difference between "Lookout! Green Day" and "Warner Green Day" is one of
DIY vs Payola. These days, it's much easier and potentially more profitable to
go the DIY route, but back then, you needed a sugar daddy to "make it big"
fast. Taking the easy route meant Green Day were shunned by their original fan
base (somewhat justifiably so,) but they had more energy, raw talent, and
Buzzcocks hooks than anything else on top 40 radio with the exception of
Nirvana (which is why Warner was trolling for talent in the first place.)

It's hard to call any "punk" bands sellouts after Nevermind. Were Hüsker Dü
sellouts? They signed to Warner in '85 (almost a decade before Green Day.)

The music business is harsh. If you're in a band and into it for the long
haul, own your masters and go the DIY route. Your fans will find you and are
more likely to pay directly when they do. If you're in a band and want to make
it big fast, consider this often cited article from Steve "Mr. Gold Bracelet"
Albini on cashflow:

[https://www.negativland.com/news/?page_id=17](https://www.negativland.com/news/?page_id=17)

There's a reason you're seeing a lot of live music. Streaming doesn't pay the
bills.

