What is "punk"....c'mon tasty...you should know this......

[jn.preciousroy]

My post was too long so I have to double post!  That's crazy!

Anyway, I'll leave you with this: the following was posted by Kris Roe of the the Ataris on their website in the FAQ after they "sold out" to Columbia records.  I added the bold and italics, the rest is straight from him.


Why did you guys sign to Columbia Records?

Since our contract with Kung fu was completed this year we have had talks with many labels both indie and majors. The main goal we want to achieve as the ataris is to be a band that will forever exist completely for our fans, our way of achieving that goal is by doing all of the following things... writing our fans back, running our own website and posting and replying on it ourselves, opening a record store so we could do special shows occasionally and when you are in our town you can actually come by and say hi, going out before and after we play every night and taking the time to meet as many of you as we can, making and controlling our own merchandise 100%, inviting fans every night to get onstage and play a song with us, always playing low priced/ all-ages/ general admission shows, all of this we will always continue to do no matter what label we are on cause this is who we are and no one can change that and that is 100% straight from the heart. Our main factor in choosing who would be our new home was that we want as many people to have access to our band as possible, whether you want to face it or not punk rock music has never been an elitist art form, look at the bands who started punk music such as the clash, the ramones... etc. do you think it made them any less true to what they were that they were all on major labels?

The bottom line is that we chose Columbia over everyone else we talked to for no other reason than this, we want to continue to grow as a band and this for us we feel at this time is the next gradiual step for us as the ataris, everyone at columbia completely understand how we have operated our band and how we want to continue to operate our band and have no intention on destroying or changing anything that we have built, they actually encouraged us to continue putting out 7 inches and other special releases on kung fu while we're on their label, one final note to clear up...

our signing to columbia had absolutely 100% nothing to do with marco leaving or with money, We made plenty of money on an indie. No matter what we know that our real fans know that we are true in our words and will always grow with us as a band, to everyone else, we understand what it is like to call something your own and not want new people to discover it but there comes a time where you have to realize that it's only rock and roll. (answered by Kris on 2001/08/07)

[Ghei]

im a punk, i got a chain wallet

[Mr.Mellow]

Hah, didn't mean to offend you so much, but it was just a joke. Now, as for selling out, I think people don't have the correct definition of selling out. Selling out is changing your image, sound, or ideas so you can sell more records. Musicians who call other musicians are generally just jealous. People who ramble on about bands selling out are generally morons . Now, I'm not calling anyone here a moron, don't take it that way. I was talking to a fella the other day who was calling Blink 182 sell-outs. Then I asked him what his favorite band is, and he said NoFX. Now I'm not a big fan of Blink 182, infact I hate them, but that's just dumb. NoFX started their own record label, bullied smaller labels out of the market, and kicked musicians from the label who didn't have that particular sound. This, in my opinion, is selling out. Most punks around here think that any punk band that gets famous has sold out. These are the morons(in my opinion, please don't hurt me). Anyhoo, just my 2 cents, and my opinion, don't flame me too much.

[kami]

Who the hell cares about the definition of selling out, either you like the music and you listen to it, or you don't like the music and you don't listen to it, it's that easy... Selling out is no reason to like or hate a band/an artist.

[Mr.Mellow]

I never said it mattered or not. I was just kinda annoyed at how some people think that any popular band has "sold out".

[Agent Wallabie]

   I'm sorry youre all getting WAY into this, being punk, I hate to say it, is all in the soul, eve how corny that sounds. I know kids who dress with a leather jacket and ripped pans who are punk, and guys who dress like their going to a country club who are no more or less punk, Black, Euro, Asian, White American, Spanish, etc. It's all a state of mind. I don't like to think of myself as "punk", you cant really diffine the term. I don't like to use labels, and try an free myself from them at all times. "Punk" is a label. That's all it is.

   Wallie~

[jn.blackhand lost pw]

true, true, roy.

the ataris by the way, are now with columbia. and the three songs that are definately going to be on the next album, so long astoria, are not only really good, but they're actually not about girls. yay for growing up.

[jn.preciousroy]

Punk is not a style of dress.  Punk is not a state of mind.  Nor is it an attitude, the bands you listen to, the haircut you get, or an attribute you give to a person or place.

What is punk, then?

It's a genre of music, a classification, nothing more.  

I quoted myself (and how narcissistic is that!) in response to agt. wallabie.  Wallbie, try all you want to "free yourself" from labels, but it's impossible.  It's a lofty idea, sure, but you're fooling yourself.  You cannot define yourself because it's not your place.  You are defined by what others think of you, because if there were no others, there would be nothing to which you would be classified against, nor would there be reason to  either classify yourself or escape classification altogether.

And blackhand's right about The Ataris' new album, it's gonna be awsome.  they've gone a litle emo, which will piss people off, but fuck people, they don't know what they're talking about.

[tasty]

the ataris suxxor.

[Agent Wallabie]

   Maybe ur right Roy, maybe ur not, who knows.