Panda and the Bakersfield progressive punk movement revealed - By N.L. Belardes

I had been writing to Bakersfield band, Loser Life recently after they posted on my site, “Go to a real punk show: But don't write us good reviews, because then people would think we sound like Throatshot or some other bootleg band.”

My first reaction was to laugh at the arrogance and silliness of such a statement. Here we have Bakersfield musicians who believe their music is more ‘real’ than another band’s music.

Why?

I dug further and found the statement reflects a group of punk bands who are all friends: the Pine, Lord Galvar, Loser Life, The Hips, The Black Jerks, Saboteur, the Neon Nazis, etc., and the record store which is their ground zero, Going Underground Records. Such bands form part of a local punk movement who consider their music more honest to the realm of punk than let’s say more mainstream sounds like, The Filthies. And they claim to be more honest to a realm of musical expression than a band like Throatshot, who they called a ‘bootleg band’.

What is a bootleg band?

Perhaps to Panda from Loser life, merely bands who seek commercialism. Guys like Panda go by different names, tour around the country, or while in Bakersfield, perform at houses or at Munoz gym and consider themselves progressive punks. Panda, who recently egged me on to attend their shows and write about them, claimed Loser Life does not want to be a part of any mainstream compilation, podcast, etc.

I think Panda and I agreed to disagree, but we had a good online conversation nonetheless.

Trying to get me riled, Panda accused me of being some big fan of Jerry’s Pizza and the Jerry’s Pizza bubble. I don’t think the Jerry’s Pizza crowd would agree with that statement. And I don’t think Panda really believed his own statement. He just wanted to get under my skin and I played along. He should know I barely feel welcome in Jerry’s Pizza’s front door. As I mentioned in a recent blog comment: “The Kerouac of Kmart looks at me out of the corner of his eye…”

And for good reason. I came down hard on Nate Berg and Jerry’s Pizza, being informed by some within Panda’s circle about Berg’s wrongdoings, which I stood against. For the record, the Kerouac of Kmart and Berg are best of friends. Berg has since gotten in trouble and reformed his ways. So he says. So I give Berg the benefit of the doubt. Though he still peers at me out of the corner of one eye too.

In the end, though I am likely distrusted, I have been shown appreciation by Berg for my dastardly writings, which gave him some good PR in the Bakersfield music scene.

So why the harsh words from Panda? To get me to go to a show? To display that there is music schisms in Bakersfield. Perhaps. Yes, really there are local music schisms. Bakersfield has pockets of various punks and punk bands who don’t speak to each other, who are rivals, or who just exist and operate in what seems like distant universes. And that doesn’t just include punk bands. Just the other day Matt Munoz said, “There are areas we stay out of and other bands stay out of.” It’s kind of like territories.


Loser Life at undisclosed location
Image by unknown photographer

I don’t think you would see Mento Buru perform at Munoz Gym. Except maybe back at their inception—nearly 20 years ago. I think back in the days of Bam Bams, bands would have loved another venue no matter if it were performing in a boxing rink like many hardcore punk bands do over at Munoz Gym.

But there is crossover, and people like me try to cover shows from various segments of Bakersfield music.

Personally, I just look at local hardcore punk music as another form of expression from artists who believe in what they’re doing. I enjoy the hard progressive punk sounds of a band like Loser Life and the Neon Nazis, but definitely don’t think their brand of punk is any more valid than the 28s, The Filthies, Dirty Spanglish, or Lost Ocean. It’s just different genres within a genre the mainstream now rubs noses with. Kind of like Chicano Literature is another form of literary genre within literature.

Is one form more valid than another? No.

But some artists don’t believe other forms of art are as valid as their own. And so guys like Panda speak out, seem arrogant, but really want to get across that they’re confident they are part of an important movement to their genre. And that’s what I respect: people can’t deny the progressive punk movement exists.

All artists should want to be important to their genre. And that includes a band like Throatshot who creates a different style of music for an audience with different tastes.

But then there’s a guy like Matt Munoz. Sure, his band Mento Buru would likely not perform at Munoz Gym these days, but I bet Matt would go see Loser Life perform. Some people forget that Matt was a punk back in the day like Jeremy from local Bakersfield band, Active Ingrediants. They both just dress a little different now. No need to spike the hair. And a lot of local punks don’t have the rugged leather punk look.

Recently the guitarist of Loser Life wrote about punk fashion:


It features hair cropped to a fuzz and dyed startling, unnatural colors: often very pale yellow, sometimes red, green, orange or lavender. Faces are powdered pasty white, with sooty eyes and heavy lipstick. In clothing, red, black and white are the favorite colors. Punks wear black leather jackets and jeans decorated with metal studs and superfluous zippers; T-shirts printed with vulgar words and violent and/or pornographic pictures -- often images of rape and murder. Artificially torn and soiled clothing, held together with outsize safety pins, exposed areas of pale, unhealthy flesh, which are often bruised and scratched. One favorite accessory is the dog or bicycle chain, which might be pulled tight around the neck or used to fasten one leg to the other. Punk chicks might also wear this costume, or they might vary it with hot pants, side-slit skirts, tight angora sweaters and spike-heeled sandals; their boyfriends favor heavy "shit-kicker" boots.

This is what real life punks usually wear.

I asked Panda to define the punk movement he is a part of and which bands in Bakersfield make up such a movement. I had been calling it ‘purist punk’ up until his letter. He corrected me...

It's hard to define a punk movement. It's really just a bunch of young adults and kids who don't fall victim to the fashion culture the media portrays punk/emo/hardcore to be. Not trying to jump on festivals like Ozzfest, Warped Tour, and other corporate get-togethers that exploit the innocence and true rebellion of punk, these bands play music and invest in something that only generates an intrinsic feeling that can only be created within. Making money is completely irrelevant. Making gas money from one place to the other is all that really matters.

Also, what is going on in Bakersfield isn't going on anywhere else in the United States or the world. A nostalgic, collection of 70's, 80s, and 90's punk is being re-innovated by a handful of bands. For instance, in “Maximum Rock and Roll”, Hips got top 10 bands of the year. This international magazine has carried punk culture on their shoulders for almost two decades. To be extolled by such a credited magazine is very rewarding and complementary. This is only a start though.

Bands like The Pine, which has traveled all over the world, released handful of LPs, and has a huge international following, ironically they only have a local fan base of 10-15 people. Other bands like Neon Nazis, Black Jerks, Loser Life, Lord Galvar, etc. have released 7"s, demos, and tapes and continue to build the movement from the ground up.

Calling it a "purist punk" seems a little irrelevant. It's just punk rock progressing. Even though it seems a little contradicting to call the movement PROGRESSIVE PUNK because the bands are using the same formulas past musicians used 10,20,30 years ago, it's the best word for it. This has been the case since the beginning of music, but the bands from Bakersfield punk scene seem to do it right.

The Blackboard always shows off DOWNTOWN RECORDS and Gigantic, but for some reason always misses the most active record store in the community: Going Underground Records. Ronald has been pressing vinyl for almost 2 years now, has been putting on shows for almost 10 years and has kept the scene alive by sacrificing a lavish lifestyle for the profession that he loves: selling punk records to 13-year-old kids who are fascinated with alternative lifestyles. Such kids realize there is more to music then the spoon-fed crap that society eats.

It's not that this movement needs attention or the bands are upset about the lack of a local fan base, because that's not the case at all. In fact, when 10 kids come to a show, it's exciting. It's better to have 10 kids who believe and live this lifestyle, than 50-60 kids who used to play football and want to imitate everything Davey Havok does. But this movement is definitely worth watching because it's just begun. And a whole new bar has been raised for progressive punk bands to come.

I dig Panda. He makes fun of bimbos on myspace in a revealing display of skin, and talks punk history in the making with an attitude-filled excitement for both music and people.

I’ve been listening to progressive punk bands like the Hips, Neon Nazis and Black Jerks for a while now, whether in music handed to me, at shows, or on myspace.com (I have been listening to the Hips almost everyday for more than a year). And I can definitely say that such music is punk pure to its hardcore guitar strings; and that's something progressively Bakersfield punk, and history in the making…

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Tuesday, July 11, 2006. You can leave your response.