BOUGHT & SOLD...WE GOT VIOLENT APATHY GOODS FOR SALE HERE IN WBSTYN LAND!!!...You read right pointdexter! We got some EXCLUSIVE goods from those Midwest Hardcore legends VIOLENT APATHY that's only available here on the WBSTYN blog and the shizz is super duper limited, so act now! All this merch is handcrafted love done up by the VA boys themselves for the reunion shows they did over the summer for the WBSTYN/Touch & Go release parties. Anyone who was there will tell ya they blew the peanuts outta mess all the nights they played. Now you can act like you was there takin' in their fun-loving, cataclysmic roar by donning a shirt and/or rockin' their discography CD at your next house shindig! The things we here in WBSTYN land do for you, really...

VIOLENT APATHY T-SHIRT -- Classic logo on a black shirt. Nothing more...nothing less. But wudda statement! Sizes available -- Large/Medium/Small $18 USA/$22 elsewhereVIOLENT APATHY - Discography CD -- Here we have every sonic blat these K-Zoo legends ever did on one handy dandy little disc! Can you believe it? For those who never dipped their wick in the witchy wax of VA, this is a helluva way to start! They started out sounding like 'Land Speed Record' era Huskers before delving into an almost artsy mid-tempo feel that probably would of made them real cool if they were from Chicago rather than K-Zoo. The disc includes -- Entire 1982 demo (later sorta bootlegged by Lost & Found records in the 90's) Two tracks from the classic Master Tape Volume II compilation, their 'Here Today' 7" EP from 1984 as well as a smokin' practice tape from 1983. You need it like air, buddy/buddette! $10 USA/$12 elsewhere

VIOLENT APATHY - '1984' DVD -- This is a pretty amazing artifact. It includes a full set from VA in 1984 that includes wigs and a rousing set closing cover of 'Rock & Roll All Nite' (with Bowser singing!) as well as an interview from the time with VA vocalist Kenny from Cable Access (more wigs!) and a very strange, primitive video of the band lip-syncing their way through the 'Here Today' 7" in front of what looks like a frathouse (No wigs...just some skateboards) A mindblower for sure... $12 USA/$15 elsewhere ***SOLD OUT!!!***

As stated above, the goods are limited in a true 'first come, first serve' stylee. Send payments via PayPal to trettman at hotmail dot com. TANX FOR LOOKIN'!!!

WE KNOW WHAT YOU WANT AFTER THAT LONG WAIT....TODD SWALLA PART TWO!!!

What do you remember about that 1st time Black Flag
played at DooBees when you guys opened?

Pounding the hell out of the New Wavers trying to pogo. We were stage diving off of tables and for the first 10 minutes, it was like a fist fight set to music. Then the New Wave folks finally got the fuck off the dance floor and we had it all to ourselves for the rest of the set. Not really as much fun but still cool, it was fucking Black Flag in your face! I got to play drums during 'Louie Louie' which was my main goal that night!

What do you remember about those first time you guys recorded the stuff that would become the'Sex Drive' single?

It was in my Mom's basement with Tim Story running a 4 track cassette machine. We were done in like an hour and you can tell by the quality of the recording! Police Brutality was of course pulled from our original demo which was done in '79 and was before Hardcore.

When would you say the Hardcore scene in the Midwest really exploded?

1981-82, several Nunzios hardcore shows, Endless Summer show, 1st Black Flag show in Detroit at Bookies. Freezer happaned later.

How did you become friends with Larrissa?

She sent a copy of her fanzine Anonymous to Smegma and we started writing her back and eventually calling each other. She invited us to come up to see L7 open for Bauhaus. She snuck us all in to Bookies and we brought slam dancing to Detroit! It was rad. She was instantly our punk rock den mother! We went to an after hours for the band DNA who had played at another venue. We were given some very harsh attitudes for being so young and into punk, which was of course old hat at this point according to the homosexual Detroit New Wave scene

What do you remember about recording the 'IQ32' 7"? How about the track for the 'Process' comp?

Both recorded in Lansing at an old hippies home 8-track studio. His wife was really fat and gross and they both stank. This is extra harsh seeing as though I was a stinky 17 year old punk rocker who never bathed or brushed his teeth. The IQ sessions were just us, Ian, Tesco and Dave. The Process sessions were everyone from all the bands except Toxic Reasons who submitted an existing track. We would all just hang out and skate in the parking lot until your band was called up. I remember it was really hot and of course that made the dirty hippies stink even more! "Plug it into #7 and give me a kiss Gil." Yuck!

What do you remember about going to see Fear play
on SNL?

That whole night was a whirlwind...hanging out in NYC, having to use the password "Ian MacKaye" to get into the NBC studio, lots of free CocaCola!!! Shaving Brannon a mohawk in the green Room...Contrary to what John Joseph may think in his mind, I clearly had the first stage dive of the night. The proof is in the pudding, Just watch the tape. Billy grabbing the pumpkin at the end, Donald Pleasence looking like he was totally terrified. "Negative Approach is gonna fuck you up!"

What do you remember of finding the Freezer Theatre? Who was the first person to find it?

Brannon knew about the Freezer as Static had done a show there at some point early on. We just needed a dump that was indestructible and it was perfect. We built a new 4 foot stage just to cater to the stage divers! The owner Fred was a total acid head paranoid hippie who usually took off with the money by the end of the night.

When shows started going on at the Freezer, is that when HC started picking up steam as far as kids you guys didn't know coming in and all that?

The Freezer created a central meeting point for the whole Michigan/Ohio hardcore scene. The word got out pretty quick that there was an all ages space booking hardcore. New kids would show up at every show culminating in the Minor Threat NA debacle.

Let's talk about the national tours you guys did. Talk about highlights, fave bands you played with, how the Midwest scene was interpreted around the country, etc.

First tour-Bucky Pope goes along to assimilate into our second guitarist, this does not work out. Bucky gets sent home after 3 weeks. Misfits riot in SF. Bob's place with Social D and the Misfits, Mike Ness looks like Doyle! WTF!!!!
2nd tour- Hanging out with Glen E., Alva, Adams, Hackett, and J. Smith. Skating at Paul Revere and Kentner. Stayed at Amery Suicidals house in Venice w/ hot tub!!! Played with Tales of Terror at the Mab. Contrary to the bullshit that Carducci has stated in "American Hardcore", Ginn did invite us to a rehearsal while we were in town and we hung out all day listening to the Biscuits lineup run thru "Damaged" and "My War" material. At some point we were considering going with SST but then rumors of them not paying anyone started to surface. I find it hilarious that Carducci would write us off as Flag "imitators" when he was the person responsible for signing Blast! to SST. Plagiarism has its rewards.

3rd tour-Played Walla Walla, Washington and saw some dude drive a pickup truck over a cliff on the way to Seattle. Played with the Melvins in a cold warehouse and knew it was time to slow down!!!

Megadeth tour- I can't even get into this because most of it was too hilarious on a totally wrong level. Lots of alcohol and drugs and we only had to play for a half hour.

Circle Jerks tour-Started a skinhead riot in Miami Beach. Eric Oblander saved my life! This was when Keith and the rest of the band were sober except for Ernie the road manager. The thing is they still had like 6 cases of beer on their rider and we had like 4 on ours. We had a surplus the whole tour, it was a total beer fest! Dropped acid for the first time at a Fluid concert in Boulder. Played a Hooters' type joint in Orlando and both bands got kicked out of 2 motels during the after hours shenanigans. Its hard to remember some of this stuff, we drank a lot.

When you guys came back from tour, did the HC scene in Detroit seem different?

More kids and lots of stupid people started to creep in. Drugs and more drinking and violence came along. The skinhead thing started and that just tore the scene apart.

Can you remember a specific time at a HC show when you thought 'This isn't for me anymore?'

We were already starting to feel disillusioned by the time we started writing "Conquest". Look at the lyrics to "Count Me Out", Barry is already rejecting the whole thing. "Friend to All" and "Tarnished Words" play on some of the same problems. I remember some huge Misfits show a Henry Ford Community College being really violent and just stupid, no fun at all. When we started our little "scene" we had visions of it becoming this cool huge thing but when it did explode you realized how much more fun it was when it was like just 20 of you.

When the Necros started to move along from playing HC to a more 'Rock' style, how was it taken by the HC crowd?

The super punkers hated it but I think most of our more open minded crowd went along with us. Skaters and what not... There was some point when we were right in the middle. We had new songs like "Power" and "Black Water" that still had a gnarly hardcore vibe but were slightly slower and arranged better. I remember opening for the Circle Jerks in Denver on that last tour and the punkers just sat there and did not even clap for our whole set. They did not like the Jerks much better.

What eventually made the Necros break up?

It was time, no special reason. I don't think I would have like being in Big Chief or GISS. I wanted to get more primal than either of those outfits. My first band after wards was Solid Gold Hellnamed after the Scientists' tune. This was way before the Auckie band of the same name. We were pre-grunge for the most part. After that was Foil which was kind of a Sonic Youth/ Jesus Lizard thing with a chick screaming. Then I joined the Hyenas.

Photo by LilyKily

FOR THOSE THAT ARE SOUND & FURY BOUND... ...If you are attending the Sound & Fury festival this weekend in Santa Barbara, California, be sure to stop by the Revelation Records table. They will have copies of the book for sale as well as these shirts which were made exclusivly by Revelation. Check it out...

AN INTERVIEW WITH DAN KUBINSKI OF DIE KREUZEN (SIMPLE AS THAT...) When I was first conducting interviews for the book, I was getting in touch with everyone and anyone I could who I thought was a part of the Midwest Hardcore scene in the early 80's. Dan Kubinski from Die Kreuzen was one of the first people I got in touch with. Sadly, the interview was never used for any part of the book. Just so it didn't go to waste, I figured I'd post it here on the blog. Sure, Die Kreuzen wern't from Detroit, they's was from Wisconsin...but fuck it...they are one of the most underappreciated bands to come out of the early 80's U.S underground and if you don't agree with me, please go make sweet love to the nearest electrical socket at this very moment. From the brutality of their early output to the demented Psychedelia of 'October Days' and 'Century Days' (a truly beautiful record) these guys were the Champgane of suds. Thanks to Dan for taking the time to answer these question. Interview conducted in early Jan. of '09.

WBSTYN – How did you get turned onto Punk Rock?

Dan Kubinski -- I grew up in Rockford, Illinois, a small town with not much going on. I carried an A.M radio with me everywhere when I was very young and I loved music from the get-go. I would save my allowance to buy 7 inch records of the latest Top 40 hits and I had a pretty big collection by the time I was nearing my teen years. Then, sometime in 1977 I started to read about "Punk" music from NYC and Great Britain in Creem magazine and in Trouser Press. At some point - more out of curiousness than anything else - I stole a copy of ‘Never Mind the Bollocks’ from a K-Mart type department store. Don’t ask me how I stole it as I still don’t know how I got away with it but damn, if I wasn’t completely blown away by the music! It was music that for the first time seemed to speak directly at me. It was real, tangible stuff... not all "Rock Starred” out like Boston, Kansas and Journey, which most of my peers were listening to. From there, I started to find other stuff going back to the New York Dolls, Stooges, Sparks and finding the Ramones and The Damned. I just kinda did an about face and I was purely interested in the "Punk" style of music.

WBSTYN – How did you move on and find out about Punk stuff that wasn’t on major labels?

DK – We were lucky enough to have a store called Apple Tree Records in Rockford. They carried a ton of indie stuff as well as major label junk. They also had many imports. I remember hearing the first X record in there and being blown away by the guitar sound on that record. I bought my first Damned singles there and when the first Public Image record came out, I got it there.

WBSTYN – Give me the skinny on The Stellas, the pre-Die Kreuzen unit…

DK – The Stellas came from the ashes of my first band. At the time, we were unaware of anything else going on in the Midwest. It wasn’t until we moved to Wisconsin that we started to do more gigging both in town and out of town that we discovered bands like Husker Du or The Effigies. The Necros opened for the Dead Kennedys which led us to their 7 inches and then from there, we discovered other bands on Touch & Go like The Fix and so on.

WBSTYN – What was the music scene like at the time in Wisconsin?

DK – There were tons of bands playing out; most of them we loathed. We thought of ourselves as Punk Rockers, and there really didn’t seem to be any ‘true’ Punk Rock bands playing out by our standards. Some of the bands were more arty or Avant Garde that we liked around there were the Oil Tasters, The Amadots and The Prosecutors, who later turned into Drivin’ ‘N’ Cryin’. We felt shunned by the music scene though. We were taken as little kids that were still into the Sex Pistols and The Stooges. People felt we should ‘move on’. I would regularly insult the audience when we would open for other local bands. People truly hated us, but some really liked us as well.

WBSTYN – How did you eventually find out about the stuff coming out of L.A?

DK – The first records I heard from L.A were X, The Germs, Geza X and the soundtrack for ‘The Decline of Western Civilization’. That ‘Decline…’ soundtrack had so much fucking power to it; it blew my mind to bits! That’s when we decided to start taking this Punk thing a little more seriously.

WBSTYN – What were some of the first Hardcore bands to come through your area?

DK – DOA was the first band I remember seeing. Fucking killer band! Black Flag was next and we opened for them. There was a very dark and violent feeling to that show…like the world was going to end…and we LOVED it!

WBSTYN – When did you make the connection with the Touch & Go crew?

DK – We were lucky enough to play on the same bill as the original Necros here in Milwaukee. I remember Barry and Corey being blown away by us. Tesco I first met at Corey Rusks’ wedding.

WBSTYN – What was it like meeting those guys for the first time?

DK – Corey was very friendly and wanted to talk about music. He was real into Sisters of Mercy and Savage Republic when I first met him. I had a couple of those records, so we hit it off right away. Tesco was this seven foot tall somewhat jock type dude that we never figured would be Tesco when we first met him. He was very nice to us and had a string of jokes that seemed to go forever. A very funny and friendly guy.

WBSTYN – How did you become aware of what was going on in D.C?

DK – Somewhere I bought the first Minor Threat 7” and we all loved the sound they had. The double vocal track had a ferocious effect and I love it so much I still use it to this day! When we read that Minor Threat were going to tour the country, I simply called them up (Their number was in the back of Maximum Rock ‘N’ Roll) and set up a show for them here, but it fell through for one reason or another.

WBSTYN – Talk about that first U.S tour you guys did

DK – Our first tour was magical! We played living room parties in Kansas City, we did San Antonio, Austin and Houston with our soon to be great friends, The Offenders from Austin. At the San Antonio show, I was smoking some weed with a skinny, long haired kid who introduced himself as Gibby. Of course, later on Gibby would have his world famous band, Butthole Surfers. We played The Vex in LA with the original Social Distortion. The bouncers at this gig had guns! We found it all very scary. There’s a video of this gig floating around and I saw it awhile back. We all look like we’re twelve years old! We drove to San Francisco and stayed there for a month or two and did many gigs at the Mabuhay, On Broadway and Tool & Die. We played with Crucifix, Dead Kennedys, Articles of Faith and many more. We were very poor and stayed on the floor of our friends Mike and Quey, who later put out the ‘Loud 3 D’ book.

WBSTYN – Was there a certain point where you felt disenchanted with the Hardcore thing?

DK – Yes. It would have been on the tours following our first U.S. one. We were playing different sounding stuff. We thought we were being ‘Punk’ by trying out new things. These changes and experiments were unacceptable to the Hardcore kids. All they wanted was the first LP and nothing else. By that point, we really didn’t care what people thought of us and started to do whatever we wanted musically, which to me was truly ‘Punk. These kids just seemed stuck in a rut and they didn’t want to see their way out of it. We felt like Punk had abandoned us, but in actuality, the whole movement just turned stale and we had nothing in common with it anymore.

WBSTYN – Anything you wanna bring up that we didn’t in the interview?

DK – Just be yourself…be creative…push the envelope. Don’t be afraid of art or music that is different or new as it is those things that bring about creativity. Be unique in your life!

MAIL ORDER MADNESS! -- (AKA -- PIMPIN' THE PAST ONE ITEM AT A TIME) We've been hearing rumblings here and there that some of you can't find WBSTYN at your local book or record store. To circumvent this problem, you can order the book straight from us (OK...me...the author) along with some other pretty great stuff we've whipped up that was only supposed to be sold at the book release parties. Mail order is first come, first serve and once it's gone, it's gone and all that crap. Let's take a look at this stuff, shall we?

WHY BE SOMETHING THAT YOU'RE NOT - Detroit Hardcore '79 - '85 By Tony Rettman -- $15 ppd in USA (Potenial buyers from other countries, please get in touch for shipping rates)

256 pages of Midwest madness covering Negative Approach, Necros, Meatmen, Violent Apathy and more. Intro by Tesco Vee and tons of flyers and photos. In it's three week existence, this book has gotten props from high brows and low lifes across the world. Find out why. ALL BOOKS ORDERED DIRECT FROM THE BLOG WILL BE SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR!(Whatever that's worth to ya...)

'Finally, the real story is told!' -- John Brannon

WBSTYN FUN PACK! - $10 PPD in USA (Potential buyers from other countries, please get in touch for shipping rates)

The WBSTYN fun pack includes all three re-prints of BURP! Fanzine, a 'zine from the early 80's put together by John Brannon and Todd Swalla (drummer for Necros) under assumed names. As expected, it's zany as hell fun with show reviews, Midwest scene reports, many pictures of Brian Hylands' ass and the usual worship of the 4 Skins (With Hodges of course!)Also thrown in there is a print of a Davo Schiech shot. If you don't know, Davo was the guy who shot the photos on the Negative Approach 7" and he took some classic shots back then. There's 4 prints to choose from (see above) BUT YOU ONLY GET ONE IN THE FUN PACK! The fun pack is stuffed in a polybag,stamped and numbered and limited to 100. Buy now or pay later! SHIRTS!!! - $12.00 ppd Please specify size!!!(Potential buyers from other countries,please get in touch for shipping rates)

You got it! Two (count 'em, TWO!) designs and we think they look sweet as shizz.

First off, we got this classic Freezer Theatre flyer on a ice grey shirt. Pretty spiffy, no? On the right sleeve, we put the title of the book ala Wishingwell Records stylee.

The second design is the flyer for the Process of Elimination tour show in Boston on a black shirt with the WBSTYN title on the sleeve as well. Check it...

If you have any interest in purchasing some of this stuff, please get in touch via Facebook or send an e-mail message to -- WBSTYN at gmail dot com before sending money via PayPal or anything like that.Hope to hear from ya soon.

JUST SO YOU MUTHA BITCHES KNOW...WBSTYN is busy as a Japanese beaver getting our shit together for the Cleveland book release party next Friday. You don't know how psyched we are that our first one is gonna be in the home of the Pagans, Confront and Ubu. We're gonna have the obligatory books to sell, but we're also going to have some other special crap available. We will have the WBSTYN FUN PACK as well. The WBSTYN FUN PACK CONTAINS --

A) Three exact reprints of Burp! Fanzine, the publication done by John Brannon and Todd Swalla in the early 80's. These things were touched up and printed off the original layouts and they look friggin' awesome. We are some pretty big nerdlingers here at WBSTYN and we had never seen a copy of this thing EVER IN OUR LIVES. If you have...well, you're obviously cooler than us. Props to you! Nonetheless, all the three issues of this gem are in there.

B) A print of a Davo Striech shot from the early 80's Detroit scene. We have split itup into four seperate images from the Freezer Theatre. These things looks great!

There will be only 100 of these things done up! You can get all this Midwest HC history for $10 in person. Considering the issues of Burp are pretty rare, we think it's a steal. If you'd like to reserve a Fun Pack for Clevo, get in touch at wbstyn@gmail.com and we'll work it out.

We'll also have shirts for sale of classic Midwest flyers. More on them as we get 'em...
...And will you look at this swell flyer they done up for the Kalamazoo book release show! We're beyond stoked Violent Apathy got together for this one. You won't be able to miss WBSTYN author Tony Rettman at this show. He'll be the overweight baldy poo-pooing his drawers and clearing the pit during their set. He'll also be DJ'ing somewhere in there (hopefully without a load in his pants) and 'sighning' books 'til the Two Hearted Ale runs out. Should be a helluva time!

We might be slow in updating here in the next few weeks as we get overloaded with book obligations. But man...check out what we've gave you in the past five months! Great shizz! We'll try to throw more interviews and stuff up here when we have time. For now, thanks for all the support and interest. Now go to RevHQ and buy a friggin' book!!!

UPDATES? OH...WE GOT UPDATES!!!

Geeze louise, has it been a past couple of weeks here at WBSTYN HQ! We sold the hell outta the first batch of books we got at the NA show in Asbury Park on June 18th. Then, we find out Amazon is sold out of the book before it's official release (which is this Tuesday, 7/6) And now...NOW...we got some great friggin' events planned around the book that just came together in the past few days. In the words of Pappy Brannon, '...Check it out, man...'

ON AUGUST 28, THE DUDES OF CHRONIC YOUTH PRESENT A WBSTYN/'TOUCH & GO FANZINE - THE BOOK' DUAL RELEASE BLOW-OUT! WITH --

NEGATIVE APPROACH

TESCO VEES HATE POLICE

PISSED JEANS

MIND ERASER

HELLMOUTH

NEW LOWS

DJ's FOR THE NIGHT WILL INCLUDE -- TONY RETTMAN, COOCH PAINKILLER, CG WARRIOR AND MANY, MANY MORE!

VEE AND RETTMAN WILL BE THERE SIGNING BOOKS TOO!

ALL HAPPENIN' AT -- SANTOS PARTY HOUSE/96 LAFAYETTE/NEW YORK, NY

SHOW STARTS AT 4 PM

$16 ADAVANCE/$18 DAY OF SHOW

BEFORE THE SHOW, HEAD OVER TO GENERATION RECORDS AT 1 PM THAT DAY FOR AN IN-STORE APPEARANCE BY TESCO VEES HATE POLICE. TONY AND TESCO WILL BE ON HAND TO SIGN BOOKS AS WELL

GENERATION RECORDS/210 THOMPSON ST/NEW YORK, NY/10012

-------

THEN...WE GOT THIS GOING ON TOO...

AUGUST 24TH AT 7 PM AT POWERHOUSE ARENA IN DUMBO, BROOKLYN --

TONY RETTMAN (AUTHOR OF WBSTYN) & IAN CHRISTIE (PUBLISHER OF 'TOUCH & GO FANZINE - THE BOOK') WILL LEAD A 'DISCUSSION' (EW! ER!) ON BOTH BOOKS AS WELL AS SHOW RARE FOOTAGE OF DETROIT HARDCORE SHOWS FROM THE EARLY 80'S. THERE MIGHT EVEN BE A SPECIAL GUEST...BUT THEY HAVEN'T CONFIRMED YET! IAN & TONY WILL ALSO BE ON DIANES' KAMIKAZEE FUN MACHINE SHOW ON WFMU THAT AFTERNOON AS WELL...SO IT'S GONNA BE A JAM PACKED DAY!

AND DON'T YOU BASTARDOS FORGET ABOUT THE FIRST WBSTYN/TOUCH & GO BOOK RELEASE BLOWOUT ON JULY 16TH IN CLEVELAND, OHIO AT THE MUCH ESTEEMED NOW THATS CLASS. TESCO VEES HATE POLICE, WHITE FLAG, HELLMOUTH, McSHITZ & ANTISEPTIC.SHIT STARTS AT 9 PM. BEFORE THE GIG, TESCO AND TONY WILL BE SIGNING BOOKS AT VISIBLE VOICE BOOKS AT 7 PM.

NOW THATS CLASS/11213 DETROIT AVE/CLEVELAND, OHIO

VISIBLE VOICE BOOKS/1023 KENILWORTH/CLEVELAND, OHIO

WBSTYN WILL NOT BE ATTENDING THE CHICAGO GIG THE NEXT DAY DUE TO UNCERTAINTY ON WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON THERE. SORRY...BUT APPARENTLY MEMBERS OF THE MENTORS WILL BE THERE...SO YOU KNOW YOU'LL BE IN CLASSY COMPANY.

PLEASE CONSULT FACEBOOK FOR MORE INFO AND WHATNOT.

HAPPY 4TH AMERIKKKA!