I GUESS THE BEST PUNK ROCK/rock
n' roll/whatever can do is take the
everyday mess of the world and whip it
and you around, facing the facts and
flinging them away, keeping you sane
and giving you something new to go
on, Slap on Teengenerate's newest Lp
Get Action and keep going! Teangen-
erate is a primal punk posse from the
land of the rising sun that explodes with
the kind of caveman-meets-industrial-
age attitude of the best rock slop of the
last forty years. Like a spiraling whirlpool
of electric shocks sucking you in with
two minute zap after two minute zap.
the hate of all worldly probs and the
love of sheer pogo fun simultaneously
TEENGENERATE
EARTH
CRISIS
88 HER
remind you you're no angel yourself, but right now you just
may be the creator of all you survey. Thirty minutes later, the
needle lifts (laser dims, whatever), you blink to "normalcy,"
and yeah, your parents and your girl/boyfriend and Newt
Gingrich and your math teacher and the bossman and all the
other swill is still around, but now you've got your ally, your
defense, your newly zapped self. You've got Action!
these cats. Their musical inspiration defi-
nitely comes from outside Japan's bor-
ders. There is certainly repression within
their culture: business/sales-oriented
identity, sexism, racism, lots of stupid
television and no place for the kids to
hang out. Sound familiar?
I and fellow muckrakers in the New Bomb Turks have done
two tours with Teengenerate (five weeks in Europe, two
weeks in Japan), and I can shout with assurance that not once
did these Japanese chaps fail to make like a tornado and
mow down each audience with their numerous obscure punk
covers and equally clinging originals. Lead guit guy Akira
"Fifi" Sugiyama can do this deal where he lifts his leg over the
neck of the guitar and keeps strumming and screaming away
in the time-honored tradition of instrument as permanent
body part. Shuichi "Shoe" Hayashi on the skins and Isami
"Sammy" Asakana on bass rumble the tuneage along train
like into your digestive tract. And Isao "Fink" Sugiyama spits
out his broken English growl all over his own six-string chop
fest. The whole deal soaks sweat mainly from past anti-heroes,
the Saints, Pagans, Radio Birdman and Devil Dogs, but flings
its own sweat, bile and other bodily fluid back out as their
very own shower of power.
On the recent tour in Japan, I could only speculate on
where all this fury comes from. After all, you couldn't meet
four mare friendly, humble and absolutely nice fellas than
Sitting at a rest station somewhere
between Osaka and Tokyo, Fifi looked
around and said to me, "I hate this
country. When we go to America, we
can go to many bars and drink cheap
beer and play pinball and just hang
around. That's very great!" Yup, that's
pretty cool. So, I guess what we're
dealing with here is the universal bat
tle against boredom that all life-loving.
status quo-stultified youngins wage
daily everywhere.
About the only complaint Teengen-
erate gets tossed concerns their less-
than pristine recording techniques.
This misses the point that if you were
to plug Teengenerate into Eno's ass,
and their humongous human hellfire.
would still eeek your eardrums. Think
of it as an, ironic display of the apo-
calyptic, destructive power of that
most basic element of the Japanese-
led techno age-electricity Or just
turn the shit way up. -Eric Davidson
CIV
I'VE SEEN CIV from on top of the
ramp, the crowd, backstage, side
stage, on the deck, from the top of
the building. From every angle
they magnifico. Here's why:
They wear brothel creepers.
They do a Buzzcocks cover,
"Sitting 'Round At Home."
Civ, himself, does a mean couple
of dance steps.
•They do poppy sing-alongs.
You can hear the Clash, Minor
Threat and Dag Nastyisms.
Carl plays a mean Gibson SG
that's white.
•They look cool.
•Three of the four have played
together before.
The bass player looks tall and
menacing
They like skateboarders.
They share a Gorilla Biscuit
legacy.
•Civ loves hardcore.
They're from NYC.
They all sport short hair (long hair
is out, people).
Sammy plays drums like a mutha.
They're simple and basic, yet
danceable.
IF EARTH CRISIS ever takes a break from their
constant touring to celebrate the success of
their Destroy the Machines CD, you can bet
they won't be popping champagne corks,
rolling blunts or cracking brewskis. They proba-
bly won't even light up a cigar. Not only are all
of the members of the band vegan vegetarian
straight-edge, the guy that runs their record
label is also. So are all the people in their road
crew, for that matter. Talk about putting your
money where your mouth is. Singer Karl
Buechner talks about having the courage to
live up to your convictions. -Morgan Walker
Talk about being a vegan straight-edge band.
I come from Syracuse, New York, which is
basically a drunk-rock scene. I've lived my
entire lifetime drug and alcohol free, but I was
surrounded by people who felt the exact oppo-
site way. I've been X-ing up since I was sixteen.
When I was eighteen, getting out of high
Civ does mean tattoos (ask
Chaka).
They dig punk-especially
NYC punk.
Civ shaves his head with a Bic
razor everyday.
The drummer has two-tone hair.
Their songs are three minutes
and under.
They're not a pose-unlike most
new bands today.
•They sing about basic, simple
things.
They do a song called, "Set
Your Goals."
school, I formed the concept which is now
Earth Crisis; that is, everyone be vegan
straight-edge and talk about the necessity of
militancy in order to bring earth, animal and
human liberation to the world. I had to weed
through a lot of suckers to get to the people
who share the same beliefs.
You're the first band I know of to put out an
anti-cigarette song "Asphyxiate", and I see
very few smokers at your shows.
In the past few years it's really obvious that
especially the cigarette companies are trying to
target young people. I think they're having a
lot of success-using smiling cartoon animals
and all the gear, turning people into walking
billboards for self-destruction. Besides killing
yourself, cigarettes put others at risk: babies
are born with birth defects, and thousands of
animals die every year trying to find a cure for
the cancer that cigarettes cause. So, it's not
The members have been friends
for ten years.
They didn't just jump on the
bandwagon.
No idiot attitudes.
With a track record like that,
it's no wonder Civ have hit hard
with a vengeance. With a strong
musical palette from which to
choose, the band picked hard-
core because nobody in NYC
was doing it anymore. Civ says,
"Hardcore is what we do best."
So, if you're up for the real thing.
check out Civ now.
-Salba
true when people say, "I'm only hurting
myself." I almost got killed by a drunk driver
once. Alcohol, drugs, cigarettes and promiscu-
ous sex are the essence of destruction-the
destruction of the self, the destruction of the
environment and the destruction of innocent
life. Vegan straight-edge is the essence of com-
passionate, peaceful living.
What about straight-edgers who fall off?
I understand fully why people fall off. What
could be more tempting than to just haze your
mind over and not worry about anything or
struggle against these things that are destroy-
ing the earth? A lot of straight-edge bands
aren't anymore, and it's made it hard for us in
the past few years. When we started out, the
straight-edge scene was kind of dying off, and
everyone said, "Karl from Earth Crisis, let's see
in three years where he's going to be." And
here I am, and here's where I'll be.