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What Ian MacKaye Meant To Say…

Today's blog post is by Paul ABof - enjoy!

Before writing today’s blog I seriously considered all my options. What do I love? What kind of positive message could I send to the, er, legions (!) of ABoF blog readers?

Ultimately I thought, “fuck it”, who am I kidding? I don’t like an awful lot (apart from our brilliant roster of course!), and therefore, I am going to use this platform to bitch and moan my way into a bad mood!

I guess I have been involved in music directly or otherwise since I was around 18 or 19. I really do love working in music and the creativity that comes with being involved in it. This, however, doesn’t mean that I like the cliques and scenes that evolve around it.

Perhaps this is due to being an only child or a bit of a loner. I never involved myself in music to feel a sense of identity that comes with looking, thinking and talking the same as a bunch of other people. What I always enjoyed about music was the ability it gives any one person to be an individual. It allows independent thought. It allows an individual to stamp their personality on a song, gig, podcast, blog or review.

This is a beautiful thing.

When I think back to where it all started in Glasgow I realise that, even as a youngster, I didn’t really attach myself to any ‘scene’. Although I grew up with members of Biffy Clyro and Aereogramme, we didn’t really do the whole Sleazy’s / 13 Note Café thing. These were the regular haunts of the ‘cool’, and wannabes of all things music.

This may well be due to having a penchant for the ‘good stuff’ and our love of late night TV and Heinz microwaveable chocolate cake! We were all into alternative music and by a young age were more likely to listen to The Red House Painters rather than going out to find a collection of ‘like-minded’ individuals.

You see opinions become rather distorted once a group of people gather in direct opposition to another group they are trying to mark themselves out from. Alternative culture develops due to a feeling of being different from the rest. Having a separate opinion or view on life to that of mainstream culture. This, I am very much on board with.

However, it becomes quite ironic when a group of people who decide to bond together due to their individuality, end up all looking and thinking the same. If being different means having a suspicion of others, or a holier than thou attitude, then thanks but no thanks.

I have never needed the verification of others to feel validated in what turns me on, how I dress or what I listen to. In fact this couldn’t be further from what my interpretation of alternative culture is meant to be about.

Invariably people will start to make up their own rules anyway – under the guise of someone else’s ideals. These people are like the Fundamentalist Christians of the alternative world. Instead of ‘what God meant to say…’ they have replaced this with ‘what Ian MacKaye meant to say…’. They use the likes of Ian MacKaye or Steve Albini as examples of what they are all about, whilst conveniently missing out aspects of their career, to make a now redundant point.

For the record I love Ian MacKaye and Fugazi and have huge respect for Steve Albini. These individuals have indeed been torchbearers for anyone into alternative music and culture.



I was inspired to take up photography, for example, when I first saw Glen E. Friedman’s photos of the hardcore scene in the 80's. It’s a good thing to be inspired by others, and use these people as a gauge in your future endeavours. Bill Hicks was another of my heroes. What he said and thought was truly exceptional, inspirational and enlightening.

What these great people would not want, however, is some guy in a club using them as a reference on why anyone who doesn’t think the same as them is a ‘sell out’.

What I don’t want is someone telling me why everyone is sucking Satan’s cock and complaining about the "big bad corporations", while working for a huge company by day, checking their Facebook account at lunch time or wearing converse, or playing a Fender guitar. Apart from being downright hypocritical, it comes across as conceited and belittling. Unless we are all going to live in the woods and use natural materials as collateral, then we’re all slaves to ‘the man’ to a certain extent.

Furthermore, don’t forget that the great Bill Hicks was about to do a Channel 4 show before his sad departure form this earth. Ian MacKaye owns a record label and is every bit as much a businessman as he is a musician. Steve Albini will record most bands who are willing to pay him to produce their record.

Sonic Youth and Shellac played the Hammersmith Apollo(5039 standing capacity aka the HMV Apollo) last New Years Eve at a cool £40 per ticket. If they were donating their hard earned cash to some unnamed charity, then I haven’t heard about it yet.

Hypocrisy is alive and well apparently.

At the end of the day, if we as one, knock our heads together and pull in the same direction, the world would be a much better place. Those who judge others for the career choices they make, or for playing a gig with a band they deem unacceptable should look long and hard in the mirror. They have become just as bad as those they are fighting against.

It’s fitting that it was John Peel Day yesterday as this is a man who had a diverse and open view on music. There are many cool bands he discovered and who went on to do Peel Sessions, but not everyone of them were as diverse as Melt Banana. Indeed, Cornershop and Chumbawamba made the cut. Perhaps to the ‘thought police’ this makes him a sell out. I wouldn’t be at all surprised…

If we were all truly freethinking - in mind, body and soul - maybe there wouldn’t be a need for a line to be drawn in the sand, or misplaced views being foisted on others, so distorted and altered from the truth merely to suit one’s agenda.

Just live. Be true to yourself, and don’t worry about what the next guy is doing.

There is enough shit in the world without us all adding to it.

As Bill Hicks said, “It’s just a ride.”

So enjoy the journey…