May 10, 2013
if you grew up in a doldrums suburban town like i did, then you may know what it’s like to be starved for cool music and cool shows. one of my anthems as a teen was “p.s. the scene is dead” by the ataris:
do you know what it’s like
to live somewhere that sucks
and everyone tries to bring you down.
no place for you to go
and see a punk rock show.
you spend your whole life trying to get out.
back then, i discovered most of my music through message boards, label newsletters, alternative press magazine and word-of-mouth. but that was only good for collecting names. getting a listen was a different story. if you were lucky enough, you could borrow the album from a friend. but more often than not, you had no choice but to purchase the CD to get the full listen.
visiting a record store seems a novelty experience for me and many others today, but back then it was as routine as going to church (i also come from a town where everyone goes to church).
still, i feel like i had to dig pretty hard to find the good indie albums and shell out upwards of $18 at the go-to indie record store (holla disc exchange!) nothing can replace the satisfactory feeling of taking a chance on a diamond in the rough uncovered after hours at the record store, but for those who didn’t have the time and energy, interpunk.com was a godsend. i hopped over to take a peek today and was delighted to see that it hasn’t changed one bit! (for web design junkies - interpunk still uses the same outdated table-based HTML layout as it did over ten years ago!)
here is a larger version of the 2002 version if you’d like to reminisce. for the 2013 version just visit the site!
interpunk was one-stop access to all the latest releases in punk, hardcore, emo and indie. i only became familiar with “p.s. the scene is dead” because i’d taken a chance and purchased the entire ataris discography off interpunk.
they also had buttons and tees! it was nice because cool bands rarely came through our town so we had to travel to larger neighboring cities to see bands and pick up merch - a rather difficult feat for suburban teens with curfews, lots of homework and part-time jobs that paid $5.50 per hour. with interpunk, we could at least acquire buttons and tees to show our love for our favorite bands.
a hometown friend of mine remembers, ”I once ordered a bunch of buttons to put on my messenger bag. Fugazi. Pedro the Lion. The Smiths. Stuff like that. I was then made fun of when I put them on my bag…but I didn’t care. I was all about the indie flare…You could look like you could afford to see all kinds of bands. Which I guess I understand people making fun of it, now. But then, I felt really cool.”
thank you interpunk for being there for us. thank you for still being there. thank you for not changing. you rule.
—GRACE
