Jason Traeger (R) with Boston's Billy Ruane (RIP) in 1998

My attempts at writing an introduction to Jason Traeger’s blog have so far proven fruitless. The man’s writing really speaks for itself. On his blog you will find wonderful tales and artifacts from the past, anecdotes of discovering punk in the far outskirts of Seattle in the early ’80s, growing up in the scene in Washington state and San Diego, CA, and his journey through other places and music scenes as well. But this is not some random old coot’s boring nostalgia trip. In fact, you get a stern admonishment in that regard from the very beginning:

I’m the last one to cast a misty-eyed glance back at the “good old days.” In my experience the people who take this angle are usually the ones who weren’t there. Whatever mistakes, false starts and missed opportunities I’ve had the pleasure of having, I was wherever I was for better or worse.

This blog is not meant to romanticize any choices I made or any particular era. It’s simply a place where I share stories and take stock of where I’ve been as a way to figure out where I might want to go next. I’ll celebrate some people along the way, some of them you’ll know or know of, others will be new to you. I’m glad to have known every one of them.

Jason Traeger’s list of credentials is possibly too long to present here, but you might recognize his artwork in many of Maximum Rocknroll magazine’s scene report headers, and the cover to the BCT comp LP We Can Do Whatever We Want. He did the classic ’80s fanzine Leading Edge with Martin Sprouse and has performed music as a solo artist for many years now.

Almost all of Jason’s stories I would describe as “heartwarming.” What else could you say about your mom being cool enough to go see the Circle Jerks and the Fartz with you, and even sporting  Motörhead t-shirt for the occasion so as not to look too much like a mom? Or this, my favorite one: a Certificate of Patience made and signed by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson of Minor Threat for waiting for his mail order copy of the first pressing of Out of Step to arrive. Of course I couldn’t go without mentioning his post about MRR‘s role in connecting the punk scene and how it helped hook him up with his lifelong best friend.

You can enjoy all of this and more at jasonotraeger.tumblr.com.

Hey, look at that — I wrote an introduction to Jason Traeger’s blog!

Bosque at Blackhole, April 4, 2009. (photo by Milo from Chicago)

Kakistokcracy at Blackhole, April 4, 2009. (photo by Milo from Chicago)

Protestant at Blackhole, April 4, 2009. (photo by Milo from Chicago)

Fall of Efrafa at Blackhole, April 4, 2009. (photo by Milo from Chicago)

Send your tour photos, bands that have come through your town, the best of your local bands, etc. to: photoblog {at} maximumrocknroll(.)com. Include your name, a link to your website (or flickr, Facebook, or whatever), and the band (or subject), date and location of each photo. Just send your best photos — edit tightly. Three to seven photos is plenty, and it’s best to send pictures of different bands. Please do not send watermarked photos. Please make your photos 72 dpi and about 600–800 pixels at the longest side. Not everything sent in will be posted, and a response is not guaranteed, but we do appreciate all of your contributions. Feel free to submit more than once. Thanks!

THIS WEEK: Part two of CONQUEST FOR DEATH’s trip “Around the World” with MRR Radio. On this show we visit the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, South Africa and China. Conquest For Death has toured all over the world and now they are bringing you music from some of the countries they have played in. And don’t forget to go back and listen to part one from a few weeks ago! Many nations, one underground.

Intro song:
CONQUEST FOR DEATH – Mga Agwat

Devon of Conquest For Death (photo by Rafael Yaekashi)

CFD plays Philippines
ISTUKAS OVER DISNEYLAND – Fairy Tale in the Philippines.
CHOKE COCOI – Beauty
G.I. AND THE IDIOTS – Damn You People
KILL RATIO – Blessed Be the Wardead

CFD plays Indonesia
COMPLETE NGEHE – No Future For Politic
STRAIGHT ANSWER - Hantam Prasangka Buruk
EMPATBELAS – Minority Suffering
GRAVE DANCERS – Head Bang Mosh Stage Dive & Circle Pit

CFD plays Singapore
RECOVER – Realize Recognize
AUM – Compiled Fragment
DISTRUST – Alcocider Punk

CFD plays Malaysia
SARJAN HASSAN – Did You Know
APPARATUS – Hardcore Horror
KAROSHI – On Their Knees
CARBURETOR DUNG – Aku Buku & Auku

CFD plays Japan
COSMIC NEUROSE – Image Damn
ELEKIDZ – New Waver
CHARM – Shikami

CFD plays South Africa
TKDM – Scum City
SOLITARY CONFINEMENT – We Live in a War
SLEEPING & THE POPES – The New South Africa
WARSPIKE – Terrorist Attack

Outro song:
SMOKETOWN – Sexy Party (China)

But could there be some inkling of truth, or potential truth, to the idea of punk in North Korea? Luk Haas, our intrepid explorer of the world’s most hidden corners of punk and rock ‘n’ roll writes, “It is true that in North Korea, in the springtime, on days off young people gather in parks with alcohol and acoustic guitars for picnics. They love singing together, all the North Korean patriotic propaganda hits, and some are quite tuneful, like ‘We Will Meet Again’(about reunification of Korea). But nobody would dare singing anything remotely punk or even rock.”

Still, we have Ri Seong-Woong, as interpreted here by South Korea’s 악어들 (The Alligators)…

Find out more about this “project” here and here.

Manipulation at the Mouse Trap, April 14, 2012. (photo by Jimmy Farabi)

Culo at the Moustrap, April 14, 2012. (photo by Jimmy Farabi)

Raw Nerve at the Mousetrap, April 14, 2012. (photo by Jimmy Farabi)

Merchandise at the Mousetrap, April 25, 2012. (photo by Jimmy Farabi)

Vile Gash at the Mousetrap, April 14, 2012. (photo by Jimmy Farabi)

Sickoids at Crown Tap, April 26, 2012. (photo by Jimmy Farabi)

Send your tour photos, bands that have come through your town, the best of your local bands, etc. to: photoblog {at} maximumrocknroll(.)com. Include your name, a link to your website (or flickr, Facebook, or whatever), and the band (or subject), date and location of each photo. Just send your best photos — edit tightly. Three to seven photos is plenty, and it’s best to send pictures of different bands. Please do not send watermarked photos. Please make your photos 72 dpi and about 600–800 pixels at the longest side. Not everything sent in will be posted, and a response is not guaranteed, but we do appreciate all of your contributions. Feel free to submit more than once. Thanks!

THIS WEEK: The BLOODTYPES take over Hal’s show and tell him what’s what!

Intro song:
THE BLOODTYPES – Anti-Social Media

Bloodtypes

Jesse B – My Favourite Ditties
STIPHNOYDS – Radiation
CAPTAIN 9′s AND THE KNICKERBOCKER TRIO – I Ain’t Takin’ No Bath
LOLI AND THE CHONES – I’ve Gotta Gun
BIG BALLS AND THE GREAT WHITE IDIOT – Gonna Be a Rat

I.V. Frehley – Recent Loves
THE TRIGGERS – No Bullshit
THE STAINS – Zombie Rock
THE MUMMIES – Just One More Dance
THE SAINTS – Know Your Product

Matt O Dermic – Bloody Cuts
DEAD MOON – It’s OK
THE BRIEFS – Poor and Weird
FUGAZI – Ex-Spectator
DILLINGER FOUR – Shotgun Confessional

Schneck Tourniquet – Northwest To France
THE SPITS – Tonight
WIPERS – Romeo
FRUSTRATION – No Trouble
OPERATION S – Operation Suicide
EPOXIES – Molded Plastic

Outro song:
THE CUSTOM KICKS – Douche Bag

Also, we are happy to announce and to welcome you all to the very first month that MRR can officially say that we are completely independently distributed! Come celebrate with us by keeping us alive and supporting independence.

Buy issue #349 of MRR here:

You can also order by mail: send $4 in the US/$5 Canada/$7 Mexico/$10 worldwide to: MRR • PO Box 460760 • San Francisco, CA 94146 • USA …or just SUBSCRIBE!

Still available: MRR #348 • May 2012 issue…

SEEIN RED is dead, UK legends DISORDER, Italy’s NEGAZIONE, ANTIMOB and ACID BABY JESUS from Greece, Finland’s LEBAKKO, Heather of WAX IDOLS and Lorna of DA, Brazil’s DEFY, SF’s CRIMSON SCARLET, LEPROSY from Australia, SoCal’s NASA SPACE UNIVERSE, APACHE DROPOUT, and the Konton Crasher label.

Buy issue #348 here:

In the honor of our new Athenian coordinator, Lydia Athanasopoulou, and my upcoming trip to Greece, I chose to feature this criminally underrated Greek punk masterpiece. GULAG, from the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, started playing in the mid ’80s. On this platter the band charms us with its distinctly crafted guitar and vocal-driven melodies, which really are unmatched by anything, in my opinion. In the Showyard is such a dynamic album – non-formulaic, with a wide range of tempos and moods. It’s melodic, sometimes aggressive, sometimes dark, sometimes eloquent, but never boring or predictable. There’s something for everyone here, seriously. Gulag is a truly unique sounding band.

GULAG – Εθισμός (Addiction)
GULAG – Απολογία (Apology)
GULAG – Κοινωνική Στοργή (Social Affection)
GULAG – Χρώματα Θαμπά (Lustreless Colours)
GULAG – Νομάδες (Nomads)

The songs are sung in Greek, but the insert of this LP includes English translations. The lyrics seem to be honest and thoughtful and even poetic at times. It makes me wonder how much meaning is lost through the translation.

I do not know much more about the band, but I do know they also released:

Είσοδος Κινδύνου 0° C LP (Lazy Dog Records, 1987)
Big Talk 7” (Wreck-age Records, 1989)
Η Άλλη Πλευρά/Άλλες 8 Χαμένες Ώρες 7” (Lazy Dog Records, 1994)
Πάτα Γερά LP (Lazy Dog Records, 1996)

While searching for more info on Greek punk I ran across Punk.gr and discovered a great video of them playing in Athens this past march, and it seems they still have their magic!

Whenever you come across these old TV news clips about punk/new wave on the interwebs you can always expect them to be ridiculously ill-informed and sensationalistic. While this one doesn’t paint a complete and 100% accurate picture of what was going on at the time (and who can say anyone has ever painted that picture?) it gives a surprisingly respectful and well-researched account of the state of the scene — at least the part was accessible to the general public at the time.* Considering the audience for this was Middle America 1979, the music actually seems pretty radical. Hopefully, it turned a bunch of kids on to something beyond their cloistered little worlds. As it says, “There’s always something going on you don’t know about”…

*MRR is anti-corporate rock and always has been. But we know that punk rock as it exists today owes a great deal to its forebears, many of whom were on major labels, so we’ll deal with it.