Revolution Summer is best known as the moment Washington D.C. centered political activism and personal expression in hardcore. But it was also an era when bands reclaimed the punk joy in being weird.
I always saw the Revolution Summer stuff as what you get when - like with Revelation and bands like Sense Field and Texas - people who've been playing hardcore are ready to paint with some different colors. Maybe they've gotten better at their instruments, maybe they just want to try something new, but it's a growth process. I never really clicked with Beefeater or Fidelity Jones, but Shudder To Think's "Ten Spot" has a very, very special place in my heart.
Mark Andersen of Positive Force D.C. was a great resource and person to work with, my eyes were opened a bit wider by him and other wondrous folks involved back then. I stopped dancing like a jerk and ruining fun at shows and started donating my time at shelters for those less fortunate.
I’m a huge fan of the documentary “salad days” about the d.c. scene directed by Scott Crawford. What really stood out for me in this documentary was the different perspectives people had about Positive force. Some people said positive force “constrained” the scene and that is when politics took precedence over the music. I think Andy Rapoport from Kingface had a funny comment about positive force: “I didn’t know why we had to go back to the 1960s and be a movement for something for good causes. Yeah am a bad punker.” I’m not from dc but do you think these dissenting voices have any validity?
For me, I think the umbrella is big enough for a variety of expressions. Where we fail in punk and hardcore is where we demand an "either/or" when we could just as easily have a "both/and." Celebrating the fact that we are not a monolith is my favorite kind of hardcore!
I think that Positive Force, Girls Up Front and other groups in my D.C. upbringing were key to waking up sis boys like myself... without PC thoughts and action at that time (or now), alternative music would be in a worse place IMO.
I always saw the Revolution Summer stuff as what you get when - like with Revelation and bands like Sense Field and Texas - people who've been playing hardcore are ready to paint with some different colors. Maybe they've gotten better at their instruments, maybe they just want to try something new, but it's a growth process. I never really clicked with Beefeater or Fidelity Jones, but Shudder To Think's "Ten Spot" has a very, very special place in my heart.
Mark Andersen of Positive Force D.C. was a great resource and person to work with, my eyes were opened a bit wider by him and other wondrous folks involved back then. I stopped dancing like a jerk and ruining fun at shows and started donating my time at shelters for those less fortunate.
I’m a huge fan of the documentary “salad days” about the d.c. scene directed by Scott Crawford. What really stood out for me in this documentary was the different perspectives people had about Positive force. Some people said positive force “constrained” the scene and that is when politics took precedence over the music. I think Andy Rapoport from Kingface had a funny comment about positive force: “I didn’t know why we had to go back to the 1960s and be a movement for something for good causes. Yeah am a bad punker.” I’m not from dc but do you think these dissenting voices have any validity?
For me, I think the umbrella is big enough for a variety of expressions. Where we fail in punk and hardcore is where we demand an "either/or" when we could just as easily have a "both/and." Celebrating the fact that we are not a monolith is my favorite kind of hardcore!
I think that Positive Force, Girls Up Front and other groups in my D.C. upbringing were key to waking up sis boys like myself... without PC thoughts and action at that time (or now), alternative music would be in a worse place IMO.