NO HIPPIES photo by Zephyr Pavey
“A penis squirts and I am doomed to a life on earth” – Wollongong folk saying.
I started writing for Distort while I was in my early 20’s, squatting in the attic of a mansion in Rozelle, Sydney. It was a time fuelled by suspicion and despair. I’d spent my teenage years in Wollongong recovering from communist childhood, writing miserable poetry and attempting to rewrite and live in Knut Hamsun’s Hunger. Malnourished and sleep deprived in an attic – little to show for my life, but a great deal of time to ruminate on what little I had or was…
The attic was an A frame setup. I could stand in the middle of the room with my head touching the apex. Either side would recede on a severe angle, so most of the time spent in the room was hunched over, or crawling about on the floor like cockroach. One side of the room was a bare mattress, pillow and a sleeping bag. Between the mattress and the wall was a meat tenderiser my friend proposed would make for good defence if anyone attempted to squat my squat. The other side of the room was a knot of clothes in a backpack, a stack of books (many Russians, Henry Miller), a portable record player, and a handful of hardcore records. This was most of what I owned and I had no real attachment to any of it... I would crawl around this room like cockroach and read Dostoevsky and flip these records over and over... police man would come by occasionally and knock on the doors and windows… the wealthy neighbours were not happy with a squat on their street. This cockroach existence afforded plenty of time to write. My notebooks were filled with demented scrawling about apocalyptic hardcore, suicide cults and lone wolf terrorists. These notes would become the lyrics for Straightjacket Nation and early issues of Distort.
PHOTO: CHRISTIAN DEATH SHIRT BY ZEPHYR PAVEY. MODEL DX, ABOUT 30-40KGS AGO.
Intro / Slam: What is Cult Hardcore?
1
CULT HARDCORE mean: no hippies.
Punk is reaction to and rejection of hippies.
Hardcore is reaction to and rejection of punk.
Cult hardcore is a reaction to and rejection of HARDCORE.
There’s a DIY pxnk band called Desperate Bicycles – they had this quote in their record about how pxnk was easy and fun and you should go and do it, go make a record or mag or put on a show.
Cult HC mean: it is not easy, it is no fun… but you go and do it.
For what? Do for what? If you obsessed, if you possessed, if you channel divine spirits, if you maniac, yours is not to question why. You do and die.
You do and you YDI.
2
The focus in early issues of Distort was CULT HARDCORE, alongside the relentless assault of Straightjacket Nation. I used “cult hardcore” to differentiate our band from the cute and friendly Christian vegan cupcake DIY unicorn scene / tattooed funboy messageboard star wars figurine herdcore scene.
3
KVLT HC was probably borrowed from Poison Idea, who referred to themselves as a cult band.
Do you know this Poison Idea music? Top shelf, music born from alcohol, speed, nihilism and obesity… can you think of another band that could cook at high standard with such ingredients? Ingredients of abnegation? Ingredients of self-indulgence, self destruction? Poison Idea are a monstrous negation of attempts to describe hardcore as socially aware, morally righteous, self help, church.