I wrote this for some English zine that asked me for a piece on this topic, but thought I’d put it here as well, via print media only being a novelty artform for hipsters. And now that I think about it, I may make “THE DAY THE SCENE WENT FGGT” a recurring feature to document various moments in gheyness over the years. – Sgt D
I want to tell you a little story, because it makes me raeg inside. It’s about some friends growing up, and all the crucial mosh they tried. Then one day something happened, and it scared the shit out of me: kids started showing up at hardcore shows with pompadours, tight black pants and Creepers. They wrote songs about girls. My mind was blown… WTF was happening?? Where did these fggts come from and how did they end up at hardcore shows?? As I found out, the answer was simple: they were the first wave of hardcore kids to jock Morrissey and The Smiths.
Fig 1, Undertow pre-Smiths worship. Giant pants, skate shirt, and bleached hair.
Fig 2, Undertow post-Smiths. Note the 1950s dad haircut.
The year was around 1993, the place was Seattle. Although Southern California is a long ways away (around 100 hectares or decilitres in Euro measurements, I think), the scene was so spread out that we were heavily influenced by what happened down there. Especially our most popular band Undertow, who did a split with a very lulzy San Diego band called Struggle (later to become Swing Kids and The Locust) and toured with Unbroken. It was through Undertow that I found out that hardcore kids were jocking the ultimate artfag band, The Smiths.
Fig 3, The Smiths circa 1983 #nohomorrissey
Fig 4, Unbroken at their prime. Note gas station jackets, bowling shirts and Social Distortion hair.
At the time, it was all about giant pants, bleached hair, and skate shoes– just like your favorite New Deal skate video. In retrospect that look is about as dignified as getting fisted by Danny Dyer, but it was considered cool at the time and that’s how most bands dressed. You can imagine my surprise when Undertow suddenly changed their look from standard, early-90s-giant-pants-skater to “introverted 1950s dad.” And more baffling, I saw John wearing SMITHS and MORRISEY shirts!! WTF! Along with The Cure and Siouxsie, those were the definitive artfag bands… and artfags were the enemy!! What happened?! I realized that the “patient zero” of hardcore’s infatuation with The Smiths and Morrisey was Unbroken, originators of the infamous “San Diego look” aka dressing like you’re Johnny Marr in 1983.
I never knew any of the South County/San Diego guys from that generation, so I couldn’t tell you how they became obsessed with the most beta, gay band of all time, but the whole rockabilly/greaser thing has always been strangely popular in nearby Orange County. Maybe that was it, I don’t know, but I do know the trend was in full effect by 94 or so. All the cool hardcore kids were on the Morrissey/Smiths bandwagon, and it was all downhill from there. Goodbye bleached hair, Mean Season t-shirts and size 46 Planet Earth jeans; hello pompadours, gas station jackets and Creepers!
Fig 5, Dr. Spock of Star Trek
Fig 6, Swing Kids. Perhaps the ultimate “Spock rock” band.
Fig 7, Creepers. These were the San Diego/Smithsfag uniform, usually coupled with highwater black Dickies (see Fig 6).
Although it was gay when Unbroken and Undertow started dressing like British dads, their music was still sweet and moshable so I looked the other way. The much, much more offensive musical crime was the San Diego screamo scene of the 90s. Everybody called the dumb bands like Swing Kids, The Crimson Curse, and Jenny Piccolo “Spock rockers” because well, they all had the same haircut as Spock. They took Smiths worship to a whole new level of gayness, and made me run away screaming from the whole DIY hardcore scene in favor of greener pastures (Merauder, Earth Crisis and Bloodlet).
Although the Spock rock scene died out in the early 00s, it’s my understanding that the kids in Boston picked up where they left off. But since I’m not a homosexual, I don’t listen to Boston bands and really couldn’t tell you about all that. Maybe someone else can explain the Boston “tortured artist” scene of the 00s, and where The Smiths fit in. I’m happy to say that I can’t.
slowclap.asf
audiencebeginstoclapalong.jpg
This style is huge where I live :( feelsbadman
Honestly tho, I think the pre-Morrisey era hardcore style is fukin groce too. Makes me sad 2 think of all the curtains that never got made just so those fggts could wear their giant pants!!! I blame them and wiggers for the global fabric shortage!
“big pants waste precious fabric”
good pull.. wasnt that the name of a no idea records comp?
i never owned it but i liked the name :(
Please see every pro-skater from that era, Ethan Fowler being a prime example, then more recently every skate-photographer such as Giovanni Reda, Kosick etc. & their influence on “youth-culture”.
I will fully admit that I like Smiths/Moz, AAND that I’ve seen Morrissey live almost as many times as most fat college girls or ghey mexicans, but it’s lame to see dudes “discover” them & change-up all their shit overnight. Even tho Chris Isaak is alpha as fuqq, a similar agument could be made regarding him & srs-bro’s..
Saw him once, recently. 30+ year olds crying for days. So much estrogen…
ethan fowler and the piss drunx
TO DIE BY YOOOOOOUR SIDE
IS SUCH A HEAVENLY WAY TO DIIIIIIE
Fuck that. Band shirts with ignorant phrases and mesh shorts for days.
Moar liek MOSH shorts amirite
brb buying mosh shorts to play basketball in.
Dude there were like half a dozen girls in mosh shorts as sbsw, I have a pic of at least one (she’s wearing a tank top & DCs too)
aww say what? no love for this Bona Drag superstar!!! I’m so sorry ;-D IIII’mm sooo sooooooorrrrryyy…… On behalf of stupid fat n chunky rockabilly/smiths/morrisey artfag hispanics in LA jocking this faggety faggot that supposedly doesn’t like fucking guys or gurIs ( which by order of elimination means he’s either a sheepfucker or a closet hermaphrodite tranny) I APOLOGIZE!!!! Now I know why vince vaughn and his pre-entourage bros looked like that in SWINGERS!!! hard lol @ “artfag band” hahaha…..
back to fapping to Marry Queen/Miela n then zzzzzzzzzzzzz……………………..
Came to apologize for the style, and moz fandom, but was beat to it. Jav should give his input, considering I bought my last moz shirt from his site, and i’m pretty sure dude experienced unbroken first hand (not to mention he fronted a mean season incarnation with the guitarist from unbroken for the last showcase theater show).
In addition to inventing scene hair, he was Sr Marketing Director for morrissey hair
More interesting is Mexi-obsession with Moz & the like. Whiny white boys always like other whiny white boys .
Didnt mention this because i feel like its familiar territory. Didnt some white person make a doumentary about it?
yes. It was called An Inconvenient Truth.
Question – is it familiar to anyone other than you & I? Srs – I have a hard time judging this…
(around 100 hectares or decilitres in Euro measurements, I think) <- awesome
Jimmy Neutron’s dad was a Spock rock fggt? lol
LOL at how you think that 411 shirt on the first Undertow picture is skateboarding-related.
it has a guy skateboarding in the 1, so I am assuming it was for 411 the skateboarding videomag?
yeh that’s a common mistake, 411 was a sweet HC/Punk band from Orange County circa 1990 with Dan’O from NO FOR AN ANSWER on vocals and dudes from Farside. I figured you’d know them given some of your posts. It’s actually a soldier in the 1: http://xshirtsx.blogspot.fr/search?q=411
Ah- I know the band 411, just got thrown off by what I thought was a skater. File under “all those rly mediocre early 90s OCHC bands I listened to once or twice in 9th grade then forgot about.”
also, lol @ how you think you ‘rly called me out’ for making a perfectly understandable mistake about a t-shirt which is irrelevant to the post as a whole.
brb being pedantic
brb splitting hairs
brb congratulating myself
crying again? lol
…and Da Scorn shows up to once again prove to everyone that he is extremely Euro
The comments section needs a disclaimer: attempt to pwn Sarge at your own risk.
‘nah, it’s o.k, I touched a dudes dick once’….fag….but that was still great.
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i don’t believe the “since I’m not a homosexual” comment.
BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRN
You too, sycophantic fag.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Afrllp81c
lololol that first picture
I saw that band Himsa in 99 or 2000 opening up for Turmoil, wasn’t a dude from Undertow in that band? They were like a by the numbers 90s screamy artschool skronk-y hardcore band, then 6 or 7 years later they’re all METALAZFUCK. Got thrown out for throwing empty beer cans at hardcore dancers.
dudes from Himsa are my hella tight bros from way back when. KC had an Assuck shirt in like 92, when NOBODY who went to moshcore shows knew what grindcore was
Well I certainly wasn’t listening to grindcore when I was eleven.
himsa is tight but man i still grind my teeth sometimes when i look at the transformation they did when i started listening them, cant believe how much bands jump on the fashion trends. Back in early 00 Pettibone at least had makeup, then went metal as fuq
dude, they were metal as fuck even when he did wear eye liner. Courting Tragedy and Disaster was a brutal metal album.
true. But the emo look, and everything seemed to be about girls.
honestly i never actually listened to Himsa other than when i saw their video on Headbangers ball once (srs) but KC and Josh were into legit, super obscure (ie awful) metal since WAY back in the day- I’m talking real bottom of the barrel shit like KEEL and POWERMAD
you need to fix this cause courting tragedy and disaster. But dunno, you always say you were off the radar to metal/hardcore at dat perioid so you prolly wont liek it.
I’m trying to think of what an East Coast HC equivalent tipping point would be…I’m at a loss. Any rumblings of fggtness that start in smartypants DC or Boston inevitably get overwhelmed by the geographic testosterone gland of NYC-NJ.
perhaps the gay is quarantined to the Boston area? i’ve never been there but it seems to be a high-estrogen region!
I remember about 10 or so years ago here in the UK loads of the moshxcore bros suddenly traded in their camo shorts & caps for their girlfriends’ jeans & Smiths/Joy Division shirts. Skinny jeans = you need to hit the gym & get squatting ASAP.
That’s why the “jock hardcore” tag always makes me laugh when it’s just a bunch of anemic-looking guys in varsity font tees and mesh shorts.
guy(?) in the first pic looks like an artsy punkz version of andy milonakis
Although I do recall the transformation from wearing Blind jeans that were bigger around the ankle than the waist to Dickie’s and plaid shirts, and fully attribute that change to Unbroken, I can’t say it was a bad thing.
I do love Morrissey, and over the past 16 years have seen him 6 times more than I have seen Madball, I don’t really have anything to offer this discussion other than to say check my web store often for top notch bootleg shirts.
Blind jeans that were bigger around the ankle than the waist
this exactly– and totally forgot about Blind!
On Rocco & World Ind./Blind/”Goofy Boy” era:
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/4675184/skateboarding_the_man_who_souled_the_world
http://skateparkoftampa.com/spot/images/lakaidemo/robwelshnolliecrook.jpg
http://www.plaidagain.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Goofy-Boy-300×400.jpg
The only thing gheyer than <3ing the Smiths/Moz is </3ing the Smiths/Moz.
Redundancy is never-not-funny.
Redundancy is never-not-funny.x2
That’s funny.
+1 For mentioning Spock Rock. I thought I was the only one old enough to remember that. My personal progression was: Skate pants —> Fashion Core –> Tr00 w/ a little oldfag thrown in. I skipped over ignorant because I’m not poor and I had a normal middle class life. Had a hard time relating to degenerates.
Post-Beardcore-steampunk-neo-soul-dubstep around the corner?
Serious question: what is gay about Boston? I always associate that city with Blood for Blood, Death Before Dishonor, 454 Big Block, etc.
Did they have some superfag scene I’ve never heard of?
I was referring to the B9 “tortured artist” scene of the 00s- Converge and all that. Lots of lyrics about feelings, being sad bc a bish broke ur heart, etc.
the unbridled irony of this post is that the author has a chris isaak tattoo.
that is a major appresh btw. wicked game is my shit.
liek if u creid bc ur 4evr blue
Chris Isaak is seriously one of the most ALPHA yet non-douchey dudes u will ever meet, and I will WK him to the ends of the erf.
Undertow kicked out their first singer for swinging on Moz’s nuts. FACT.
I just shat out a golden baby covered in nootella. FACT!
PROPS
whoops on double comment but props on the minor threat lyric thing in the beginign i liked ie
I’m definitely becoming a 50s haicut sporting hardcore fggt, but thing is, hot smashable indie bishes are totally into the look… feelsconfusingman :/
Hey, we gotta keep the STDs spinning. Do what feels right, but in b4 that, do bishes no matter how you feel.
This post is incorrect without the inclusion of Brett Detar’s oil-slick pomp during his stint in emo-ing up Zao around ’97-98. Then all the xian hxc kids got into it, which, as you know, blows the hell up.
Pure Brett Pomp: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2361/2556363945_004f0643fd.jpg
Fair point, although please note that all of this predated Zao by about 5 years (and was probably their inspiration to fag it up in the first place)
is there a connection between emo, emo phillips, and spock rock
The missing link to build the Boston connection is a band called The Trouble. The singer, Gibby, has a huge MOZ stomach rocker. Dude is the ultimate scene jumper. Whatever. That doesn’t bother me, but it is kind of amusing. When I saw a reunion show in Boston a year and a half ago everyone was waiting to see what seen Gibby would be repping this time. It was “bike messenger scumbag” chic. They put out one amazing album, Nobody Laughs Anymore, on GMM in the 90s when they were a “skinhead” band.
Check ‘em out, either for the sweet tunes or the image lulz.
Disclaimer: I’m not from Boston, but I have friends up there and visit on ocassion.
I take 15 pills to send me to sleep and 15 pills to shake me awake
thank you so much for finally addressing this issue mr D
The scene was always “FGGT” you should read this: http://www.out.com/entertainment/music/2012/04/12/history-queer-core-gay-punk-GB-JONES
and rethink things. I know you’re trying to be funny but this piece is really sad and the fact that it’s in print is even more unfortunate.
This post is totally about homosexuals, not kids experimenting with different alternative personas
What do you define as an alternative persona? Does using a pen name qualify? Regardless this is an excellent article and might open your eyes. It’s well sourced and well done, your blog entry / zine article isn’t even accurate. These bands weren’t the first wave of HC kids who liked the Smiths, they were the first wave you were exposed to. Big difference. Take care
Good luck with your taking comedy blogs very seriously goals for 2012
Comedy blogs should be funny not offensive. Even Todd Jones commented on your poor choice of language. It’s just sad that you don’t take what you do seriously, if you did you might actually be funny/good. Oh well.
THE Todd Jones? WOW!
#nohomorrissey is my new favorite hashtag of all time. Even better than using #nopomo when making T.S. Eliot jokes.