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Barely Human: GIVE PHILISTINISM A CHANCE Zine + CS

Barely Human: GIVE PHILISTINISM A CHANCE Zine + CS

Barely Human

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GIVE PHILISTINISM A CHANCE circles this idea via four bands of the 1980s post-punk period: FLIPPER, NO TREND, URINALS and THE CRUCIFUCKS. Each are more or less uncategorisable, being labelled, loathed or misunderstood with tags from hardcore to anti-hardcore, punk to anti-punk, and at some points (as the electric eels were described, bands who “didn’t fit in with the bands who didn’t fit in”) even considered ‘art’ bands. So it feels to me like something is missing here…and as a rabid fan of music that exists solely by virtue of their wanting to be something other than what they end up resembling (anti-anti-anti-antagonism,) I feel like the rumoured existence of a philistine grouping is one missing piece of the puzzle. These bands were defiant anti-hardcore acts who formed to either oppose the speed and violence of the genre, or to oppose contemporaneous trends entirely. A nihilistic bent joins them thematically (“life is the only thing worth living for” - FLIPPER / “you breed like rats and you are no better” - NO TREND), and it’s hard to resist stories like the CRUCIFUCKS touring on the US hardcore circuit with hardcore bands and agitating audiences with critiques about “the pointless spectacle that hardcore is today,” or the URINALS forming with the motivation of entering a punk parody band into a dorm room talent show in 1978. So this zine enables me to scratch an itch, while (let’s be honest) getting to listen to and make tapes about four of my favourite bands.!!!! - Barely Human