“Perhaps the greatest reason I am still committed to sXe is an unfailing belief that sXe is more than music, that it can be a force of change. I believe in the power of sXe as a bridge to social change, as an opportunity to create a more just and sustainable world.”
—Ross Haenfler, professor of sociology at the University of Mississippi, author of Straight Edge: Clean-Living Youth, Hardcore Punk, and Social Change
“An ‘ecstatic sobriety’ which combats the dreariness of one and the bleariness of the other—false pleasure and false discretion alike--is analogous to the anarchism that confronts both the false freedom offered by capitalism and the false community offered by communism.”
—CrimethInc. Ex-Workers’ Collective
Gabriel Kuhn (born in Innsbruck, Austria, 1972) lives as an independent author and translator in Stockholm, Sweden. He received a PhD in philosophy from the University of Innsbruck in 1996. His publications with PM Press include Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy (2010; 2020); Sober Living for the Revolution: Hardcore Punk, Straight Edge, and Radical Politics (2010); Gustav Landauer: Revolution and Other Writings (2010); Erich Mühsam: Liberating Society from the State and Other Writings (2011); Soccer vs. the State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics (2011; 2018), All Power to the Councils! A Documentary History of the German Revolution of 1918–1919 (2012), Turning Money into Rebellion (2014); Playing as if the World Mattered: An Illustrated History of Activism in Sports (2015); and Antifascism, Sports, Sobriety: Forging a Militant Working-Class Culture (2017).
Bands
Minor Threat
Interview with Ian MacKaye
ManLiftingBanner
Interview with Michiel Bakker, Olav van den Berg, and Paul van den Berg
Refused
Interview with Dennis Lyxzén The Shape of Punk to Come
Point of No Return
Bending to Stay Straight Interview with Frederico Freitas
New Winds
Interview with Bruno "Break" Teixeira
Minor Threat
Interview with Ian MacKaye
Ian MacKaye was a founding member of the early 1980s Washington, DC, punk hardcore bands Teen Idles (1979/80) and Minor Threat (1980-83). He was one of the most important influences on the development of the US hardcore punk underground, and — albeit unwillingly — the instigator of the worldwide straight edge movement. The Minor Threat songs "Straight Edge," "In My Eyes," and "Out Of Step" remain the most referenced songs in straight edge communities. Ian continued his musical career with the bands Embrace (1985/86), Fugazi (1987 to present), and The Evens (2001 to present). He co-founded Dischord Records in 1980 and still runs the label out of "Dischord House" in Washington, DC.
Discography:
Minor Threat, 1981, Dischord Records (EP)
In My Eyes, 1981, Dischord Records (EP)
Out of Step, 1983, Dischord Records
Salad Days, 1985, Dischord Records (EP)
Live, 1988, Dischord Records (DVD)
Complete Discography, 1989, Dischord Records
First Demo Tape, 2001, Dischord Records
Since you asked me about this the last time we spoke: I checked on how many white guys in their thirties and forties we have in the book. Its about twelve out of twenty.
Thats not so bad. I mean, its not that you are doing anything wrong. Its just that there exists a certain kind of people who put a claim on history; and this seems to be a particularly acute pathology amongst aging white dudes. Its like history should somehow be their province. I find this really disturbing. Mostly because Im a white guy and Im forty-six and a lot of people ask me about history, and I just dont want to be another one of them dudes, cause I dont claim history. Thats also why I dont read a lot of punk histories, because, having been there, I started to understand how people who write histories — or about histories — ultimately tend to shape them into manageable narratives, and in doing so they pervert or distort the reality. And since I was there, itd be difficult for me to read these books without going, "That just did not happen that way!"
Well, this book doesnt focus so much on history, I suppose. I think its mostly about gathering peoples thoughts on all sorts of issues. I mean, sure, Ill ask people about history too, and Ill probably ask you a couple of questions about DC in the 80s, but I mean, you can dodge those if you dont want to talk about it ... (Image 1.1)
Oh, I dont mind talking about it. Its just that I think of it more in terms of being somebody whos experienced something and is willing to share these experiences. The problem is that within our culture — and when I say our culture, I specifically mean American culture, but I think it extends to Western culture in general — there is a celebrity factor that makes people who are in the public eye appear to be all-important as opposed to those who just do their work and stay on point. There is the classic moment when people say, "Yes, and then punk, or hardcore, or straight edge, or whatever, died." But it always died when they left the picture or when their band split up. It seems that they are talking about an energy that was contained within them — whereas I see an energy that is a constant ever-flowing river. And this river has always been there, and it always will be there. And what this river ultimately stands for is the free space in which unconventional, unorthodox, contesting, and radical ideas can be presented.
When I first approached you concerning this project I sent an email saying that I wanted to talk about the "political dimensions of straight edge." You said that this set off alarm bells for you. Why was that?
I mainly said that because I was born and raised in Washington, DC, and people obviously associate me with the town and its politics. When you wrote that, I felt that you were perhaps trying to appeal to what you might have thought was my political leaning — like you would say, "Look I dont want to ask you about straight edge, I want to know more about the political stuff because you are from Washington, DC." And so I was like, whoa, I dont know what the political dimension would be in that case? I think a lot of people assume that because I live in Washington Im really caught up in the kind of politicking in a way, because the White House is here, or the Congress.
However, what I really learned from living in a city in which you have an industry like the government was that the way to navigate these institutions is to never engage with them, and to work on the margins instead; to always work around them. There was a saying amongst the young punks here about how if you went to public schools in Washington, DC, you learned two basic things: one, how to wait in line; and two, never ask for permission because the answer is always no. So the thing to do was: just do it, dont ask for permission! At some point the authorities would come along and say, "You cant do that!" but then you just said, "Oh, I didnt know." If you had asked them, they would have just said no right away. Mainly because of the bureaucracy and the sludge of the administration. They just didnt want to do any extra work.
This played a really big part in the development of the punk scene: we didnt ask, we didnt get permission, we didnt get licenses, we didnt get copyrights, we didnt get trademarks, we didnt fill out any forms, we didnt get lawyers ... We just rented rooms and put on shows, and we never formalized anything with the government whatsoever. We just put on these shows that were completely illegal, but nobody cared, because, essentially, you didnt give them the opportunity to care.
But taking that initiative without asking for permission is a political statement, right?
There is no doubt about that. See, email is a very stupid form of communication and I balked when the word "political" appeared. I dont know you, Im not sitting with you, I cant understand you, I dont hear the tone of what you are saying. The word "political" is just a difficult word. Many people ask me whether Fugazi is a political band, or Minor Threat ... Well, of course! Every band is political. Everything is political. Every action is political. But I think there are plenty of people who consider themselves political activists and who do not believe that these bands are political because they dont do this or they dont do that; like, they dont go to this particular protest, or they dont sign this particular petition, or on their liner notes they dont list this particular organization.
It just depends on what ones relationship with the word "politics" is. I know that in this country — at least during the last decade, but I would say probably during the last twenty or...