Matt Walker - Gainesville Punk: A History of Bands & Music

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2016 by Matthew Walker

All rights reserved

Front cover, clockwise from upper left: courtesy of Less Than Jake; photograph by Lindsay Beaumont; photograph by Bryan Wynacht; photograph by Matt Geiger; courtesy of Less Than Jake; courtesy of No Idea Records; photograph by Bryan Wynacht.

First published 2016

e-book edition 2016

ISBN 978.1.62585.297.7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016943510

print edition ISBN 978.1.62619.767.1

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

To Grace and Cameron

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

I went to my first punk show in Gainesville in 1981. The Irritations opened for John Cale. I was eleven years old. The most recent show I caught in Gainesville was probably a few days ago. Always underground, independent, punk.

I dont like big concerts very much. I get off on shows in overlooked spaces: warehouses, peoples living rooms, VFW halls, community centers, art galleries, dive bars. I like music made by people with motivations other than making a buck; music with the kind of aggression, political content, social commentary, anger, strangeness and wit that makes it difficult to market. (This doesnt make me better than anyone. Its just what I like.)

As a result, Ive been involved with Gainesvilles punk scene for more than thirty-five years. And Im qualified to tell you, the story of Gainesville punk is a mess. Like the music, the story of our scene is dynamic, contradictory, fractious, maybe a little frustrating to understand, possibly overwhelming in large doses.

I love what Matt Walker achieves with this book. He untangles a good portion of this mess, teases out the major threads, hews to whats relevant. He tells the story of Gainesville punk in a clear, direct way that mirrors something else I like about punk: it cuts through the bullshit and gets to the point.

And the story Matt tells here is worth knowing. Gainesvilles scene has always been different. Smarter, weirder, a little less violent, a lot more sarcastic. Gainesville bands rep uncool influences. Gainesvilles a sleepy southern college town, built on a swamp. The heat and humidity slow us down. The easy living gives us time to mull things over. Gainesvilles scene has always put a unique spin on national and regional trends or just sidestepped them altogether. Gainesville incubates. Ideas develop and stew and sometimes emerge to no small effect, rippling out to change the way people all over the world listen to and make music.

Gainesville Punk: A History of Bands & Music is going to serve a lot of purposes. Itll give fans insight into the origins and development of their favorite acts. Music history buffs will value the detail it brings to an interesting piece of our broader cultural puzzle. Scene participants from different eras will get context from it, be able to place their time and contributions in a continuum. Itll spur people to seek out and enjoy undervalued music. For some, itll just be a plain good read. For others, itll be a way to understand their legacy, an artistic tradition they inherit.

Its this last group that interests me most. My sincere hope is that someone reading this book gets fed up by it and decides to smash that legacy. That someone rebukes this inheritance in a way that surprises and excites us. Gainesvilles punk scene has produced a lot of very cool things up to this point, and this book is proof. Now show me whats next.

PATRICK HUGHES

Patrick Hughes wrote the essay collection Diary of Indignities for Dark Horse Comics imprint M Press and covered music for Thrasher, JAZZIZ, Art Papers and most Gainesville publications of note. His music writing was first published in No Idea #3.

PREFACE

Thank you for reading this book. When The History Press approached me about the prospect of writing a history of the Gainesville punk scene, I was terrified and excited. I played it cool and gave it some serious consideration for about five seconds before I realized there was no way I could say no. Ive been fascinated by the sprawling, intertwining and prolific Gainesville punk scene for years, first as a fan observing it from my hometown in Georgia and then as an enthusiastic participant once I moved to Gainesville a decade ago. To be able to tackle such a huge task is daunting, humbling and ultimately a great privilege. And if youre reading this book, you probably already know that Gainesvilles punk music scene has a long and rich history stretching back for decades. This book is not meant to be a complete, encyclopedic recounting of every detail of the scenes history. I have approached this book in a way that I hope provides a solid overview of the scene, a look at some of its important developments and how it got to where it is today. To my knowledge, this is the first book written specifically on this topic. I think it would be great if it can be a jumping-off point for other books to be written that zero in on specific eras or bands mentioned hereto really get into the details. (Jon Resh of Spoke did this with his excellent memoir, Amped.)

I dont go into much detail here about the origins or history of punk rock outside of Gainesvillethere are tons of great books that have already covered that ground. I also dont spend much time debating the definition of punk or what does or does not qualify a band to be punk. Its a vast genre, and the bands I tend to focus on here exist somewhere along the continuum. No matter what they sound like, they generally took a DIY approach to their music and were pushing back against something, whether it was social norms, political ideals or just FM rock.

By the way, there are amazing Gainesville punk bands that are not mentioned in this book. Taking on a project like this involves shaping the story into a readable narrative and making some difficult editorial choices. There are places in the book where I could have chosen to highlight a number of different bands, but I ultimately had to choose the ones I thought fit best into this narrative. But pay attention to all the Gainesville punk bands named here, and seek them out if youve never heard them. This town has a lot to offer.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to the many, many Gainesville musicians and music fans who helped to make this book possible. People not only went out of their way to sit down for long interviews or multiple email correspondences but also let me rifle through their personal archives of photos, articles and music and answered many annoying one-question emails or text messages from me. And special thanks to my friends and family for providing valuable feedback, support, guidance or advice along the way: my wife, Grace; my mother, Elsie Walker (who passed away before seeing this book completed but who, I can tell you all, was very excited about it); Kenan Davis; Deepak and Susan Kumar; Jason Fernandez; Amy Feldman; P.J. Fancher; Matt Farrell; Jon Reinertsen; Dave Drobach; and JC Kirwan, to name just a few. A big thanks to Patrick Hughes for contributing the foreword and giving me tons of valuable feedback. And thanks go to the photographers who documented the Gainesville scene thanklessly and shared their photos with me to use in this book. Others who provided crucial resources or assistance along the way include Var Thelin, Matt Sweeting, Don Undeen, Brian Alan Ellis, Michael Holt, Marty Williams, Deb Fetzer, Brian Kruger, Marty Jourard (whose book