Hello everyone and welcome to Navel Gazing: your look back in the week in Punknews. I'm Brittany Strummer and I'll be your guide through some of the juiciest, most popular and otherwise noteworthy stories from the last seven days. Remember, every Punknews story is built from tips from our wonderful, good-looking readers, so get to submitting. Here's what got the strange, slow and old community talking this week:
- The Fest 13 line up was revealed with the almighty Descendents has the headliner.
- Masked Intruder revealed the details for their new album.
- A Wilhelm Scream announced a tour with some impressive support.
- John Lydon of the Sex Pistols and P.I.L. was announced as the part of King Herrod in musical Jesus Christ Superstar.
- Dave Gregg of D.O.A. and The Real McKenzies passed away.
- The line up for This Is Hardcore 2014
Tonight We're Going To Give It 35%
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Here's your question and answer of the week from the Punknews Formspring:
Q: Everyone is always like "All Pit, No Shit" but honestly, I like a little bit of shit in the pit. What should I do?
A: Oh, I have to disagree. From a literal standpoint, there is nothing worse than shit in the pit. Have you ever been in a circle pit and some dude just drops trow right there and leaves a deuce on the dance floor? It bring the whole procession to a screaming halt. As much as people donât mind sore ribs, black eyes, and torn shirts, doodie on the shoes brings the danger of punk to a whole other level that people just donât want to engage with. GG Allin proves that.
And that brings us to our second issue- metaphorical shit in the pit. Honestly, mosh pits are A LOT of fun. Thereâs something to be said for jumping up and down, bumping around, and pogoing to loud, fast, wild music. In fact, if you think about, Iâd argue that the mosh pit is just the latest incarnation of the tribal dance, which goes back some six thousand years or more- a physical representation of manâs connection to music or perhaps, even more broadly, being alive. Itâs great fun and I think does sort of put you in a mental space that you rarely get into in other situations.
But, where mosh pits often go lame are when there is shit in the pit. At more extreme punk/metal shows, and punk shows in general, there are always dudes (yes, it always dudes) that think the mosh pit is some sort of "toughest man" competition where they whip their arms around in a ridiculous gesticulations that sort of look like pimp-slaps, kick their legs out hitting people, slam elbows into people, and worse of all, do that thing where they run full speed into people just minding their own business and watching the show.
Youâll note than whenever a douchebag does that, he never runs into the BIGGEST guy in the place- he always runs into a smaller dude or even a girl⦠to⦠prove how tough he is?
I think the reason these boneheads do that is because they actually have very little conflict/violence in their life, so they smash into smaller and unassuming people to make themselves feel tough. If youâve even been to a non-punk music club where there are ACTUAL bad dudes, those dudes arenât smashing their elbows into each otherâs faces. Theyâre either spending time with good looking girls or just chilling in the back. Why? Because they have enough violence and donât need to purposefully court a fight for no reason.
So really, these mosh dudes that run into crowds that arenât moshing, or smash elbows out into people minding their own business are really just, quite pathetically, crying out, "See! I AM a real man! I AM!"
Listen, if you want to engage in extreme mosh behavior with slapping, and kicking, and what else, I donât care. Go ahead. But, donât try to mosh into people that are just trying to have a good time. Youâre not macho.
Also, pogo instead. Pogoing rules.
-John G
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The People Must Have Something Good To Read
In the past few weeks we've spoken with a number of bands and artists. Don't miss out on these interviews:
- Christopher Norris (Stk Mtn) as part of our Rad People Who Make Rad Art series
- Dale Nixon of Black Flag
- John Campbell of Lamb of God
- Jake Round of Pure Noise Records
- Divided Heaven
- Have Mercy