GOOD
RIDDANCE
EVEN WITH all the sell-out moth-
erfuckers in the world singing
about getting drunk and getting
laid, there are still a few bands
out there who have something
more to say. With hard and fast
melodious anthems, For God And
Country, the debut LP by Good
Riddance proves that the spirit of
rebellion still survives in punk
rock music today. Vocalist Russ
Rankin explains the story behind
this anarchic Santa Cruz quartet.
-Brian Brannon
What made you get together?
Well, I've been into punk since
like '83, and some friends of mine
started jamming and I wanted to
get in on it, start finding something
else to do with my time, and since
then, it's been just pretty much all I
do, either going to shows or play-
ing shows. Now our band is so busy
that it takes up almost all my time.
And also, I've been skateboarding
since like '81, and I used to always
get Thrasher. They always had a lot
of punk in there, so there always
was like a connection for me with
that-punk and skateboarding.
Why do you think skateboarding
and punk go so well together?
Just because they're both subcul-
tures, they're both really aggres
sive, and they're both frowned on
by mainstream society.
Where does your political slant
come from?
Well, for me, punk's always been
about having a little bit of politics in
it. I feel like I use the music as a
medium to express my opinions,
my ideas, and I don't really know
anything more than anybody else.
I'm just feeling things and putting
ideas out there that some other
people might not have heard. And
especially nowadays, it's kind of
cool to be like the only band on the
block that doesn't have fifteen
songs about girls and beer.
What issues do you feel really
strongly about?
We're definitely a big pro-choice
band. Not as far as being pro-abor-
tion or anything, but just when it
comes down to basic personal free-
doms that are being squeezed out
state by state real quietly. Like
there's states in the country where
abortion's illegal aiready, and I just
think it's an important issue that
doesn't only affect women, I think
in the long run it's going to affect
all of us. And as far as California.
we're totally against Proposition
187 and just things like that, like the
way that the governor, Pete Wilson,
is trying to deal with the problems
of California, just trying to build
mass prisons and put everybody
that looks different in them, blam-
ing all of California's problems on
them. And we also try to support a
lot of groups like Food Not Bombs
We try to put in a word for organi-
zations and causes that we're back-
ing without sounding too preachy
What current political trends do
you see that you don't like?
There's a lot of reactionary con
servatism that's going on that I see
where people don't want to take a
look at America and what's hap-
pening here, so we just put up a
at
façade that everything's great and
get real patriotic and focus our
attention on other countries instead
of looking at our own country and
how we can make it better. With
this country, we have five percent
of the world's population, and we
use forty percent of the world's
resources. That's pretty bad, and
there's a lot of things like that, and
people I talk to don't want to look
America and anything bad about
it. I guess people are just afraid of
change. You can smooth everything
over with patriotism, and it keeps
you from having to look at the real
deal, and I think that's too bad.
Right now with punk getting all
popular, it seems like all these
bands are singing about chicks,
and that's not really what it was
about. Maybe a little bit, but
that's more like pop music.
Yeah, well, we call it risk-free
punk, going that route. But that's
the by-product of the commercial-
ization of punk, and with any luck,
it'll pass, MTV will start playing
something else, and it'll get back to
how it was before. We were a
punk band way before all this hap-
pened, and we'll be a punk band
after that. It sort of benefits us
now because more kids come to
the shows, and we get their money.
but it's weird to see a lot of bands
that you used to respect or really
liked being on MTV now. I can't say
that a band's wrong for doing that
because it's their life, but I'd have
to believe that a punk band that
goes on MTV does the rest of us a
disservice by doing that because it
makes it harder for anyone to take
what we're doing seriously. That's
just my opinion about that.
Explain risk-free punk.
There's just no risk involved in
being punk anymore because
you're just like everybody else.
Practically every band on MTV has
people slam dancing and stage div
ing, it's like I don't even want peo-
ple to slam at our shows anymore.
Slamming was cool when nobody
else did it, and it was scary, and no
one knew what it was. But now it's
just being totally exploited.
SEPULTURA'S
The-
eraldine
FIRST VID COLLECTIONS
SEPULTURA
HARD WORLD CH
SEPULTURA
THIRD WORLD CHAOS
Contains every Sepultura video ever made, some
never before seen! Also includes rare live, and backstage
footage from around the world, all from Sepultura's personal archives.
Mangenca Quis MagCloria Cavalerser Records, Inc.
Iz
ibbers
FONT SOME WERE
BETWEEN THE EARTH
AND MY HOME
Jeaturing
Dragon Lady
82 THAMER