I hate the end of summer. Tomorrow is the first day of autumn. I enjoy autumn. I don�t like the end of summer though. Apparently, something bad is supposed to happen in Boston tomorrow. A gentleman I work with is playing a gig in Downtown Crossing in the daytime and yesterday said to me �I guess I meet my fate on Saturday� sort of half jokingly. That would sort of suck if it was true though. I guess being light hearted and cynical about rumors of more attacks, etc. Is the best way to deal. I�m certainly not going to hide out in the house as I�m doing right now. Last night I had a good night, after work I went shopping again. Two nights in a row. Wednesday was the clothing night, last night was the recreational night. I came home with two CD�s, and an interview inside my brain between Vincent Gallo and Perry Farrell. I like Vincent Gallo. He�s a strange cat. I didn�t realize he had such strong opinions about music and the like. He sounded like me�They were talking about judging people by their music collections. I can understand that to a point. If anything, music for me has made a lot of good things happen.

Being introduced to rock music by my dad, who worked in the music industry, was a cool way to grow up, and I�m glad I got to meet some of the folks I did meet when I was a little boy, even if they seem lame in retrospect. I tend to doubt I�d get myself laid if I started bragging I met Captain and Teneille when I was young. But getting to brag that I was there for the recording of Kiss Alive II at the LA Forum, and that I saw Joe Jackson on the I�m the Man tour (anyone who isn�t up to speed on Joe Jackson, and you are a fan of punk rock, or 80�s music, or good music in general, should pick up Joe�s first two albums [which have just been reissued with a few bonus tracks] Look Sharp!, and I�m the Man�and if you can find Beat Crazy on CD pick it up, I have it on vinyl, it�s been out of print on CD for a while now, and I kick myself that I never bought the import version that I kept seeing for 20 bucks, this one is a good record too though. The first two though, are great records. ).

In junior high school I was lost in the world of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest records (not that this is a bad place to be) and discovering girls, cigarettes, and pot. This guy Joe Feldman and I hung around with somehow got connected to this guy who was selling pot. His name was Pete, and he was a punk rocker. I started buying the stuff from him, and became friends with him. From then on, I got into this whole hardcore scene in Boston (this was in 1983) and everywhere else. I sold all of my heavy metal records (and then bought them all again years later of course) and started getting into this music. I think this pretty much closed my mind of other music, and eventually opened it back up. Nowadays, I think I am more open to listen to different things than I was back then, but I guess more strange things. I don�t think it�s music snobbish of me, and I think all of my friends who are music geeks like me, but you get to the point where you just say �I�ve heard that before�. Everything sounds the same and you need to search out more shit.

I doubt I would know the people I know now if it weren�t for music. I guess the path from punk rock led me to whatever I�m doing now.

Without further ado, the 10 most important punk rock/hardcore records to me:

1) Minor Threat/Out of Step � Probably the record that hooked me. This is, and should be the most important hardcore record to anyone that was in the scene, or is now. Ian MacKaye has been a role model for a ton of people, and still remains one of the most honest, humble people ever. I got to meet him once briefly, and he was all you would think he would be. To the average Joe, this would be like meeting John Lennon in a way�.although Ian would most likely disagree with a bold statement like that.

2) SSD/The Kids Will Have Their Say � The best Boston Hardcore album ever�and my cousin was the guitar player, which makes them even cooler. : ) Quite possibly �invented� the straight edge movement along with Minor Threat.

3) Dead Kennedy�s/Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables � One of the strangest sounding bands ever when you get right down to it. I think listening to DK�s records pushed me even further to the left politically.

4) Adolescents/Adolescents � The Offspring would even agree with me on this.

5) GBH/City Baby Attacked By Rats � These guys also had a unique sound as well, sort of metal, with a heavy Stooges influence as well. This was their best record I think.

6) Crass/The Feeding of the 5000 � The best thing about this record from 1978 is that they were singing �Punk is Dead� in 1978. Taking jabs at the Clash as well as the Sex Pistols. These guys made Rage Against the Machine sound like Skrewdriver, these guys were also early vegans, and apparently anarchists of the truest form, living on a farm somewhere.

7) Soulside/get the CD complete discography � one of the other million best bands to come out of DC, these guys are amazing musically, and lyrically. I listened to this a lot when I was taking train rides across the country, and it was the perfect soundtrack. Evoking a strange, almost surreal atmosphere every time I here them, this is the perfect soundtrack to the life of post punk romantic neurotic. Okay, that�s a pretty lame term I know. The band, minus the singer, is now known as Girls against Boys

8) Scream/Still Screaming � This should actually be the number one album. You should go buy this right now. Dave Grohl was in this band for a little while, not on this album though.

9) The Meatmen/We�re the Meatmen and You Suck � This record has a good amount to do with why my sense of humor is what it is now. Songs like �Crippled Children Suck�, �French People Suck�, �Tooling For Anus�, �One Down, Three to Go�(about the Beatles), and a strange obsession with the band Abba, make the Meatmen one of the best bands to ever play punk rock music. In the mostly humorless world of punk rock, these guys were a breath of fresh tongue in cheek air. These guys weren�t afraid to joke about anything, and now I�m not either. Why did the lesbian cross the street? To suck my dick.

10) Black Flag/My War � The next tattoo I get is going to be the cover of this record. My first experiences with angst took place with this record.

Now I feel like I want to be a teenager again. No thanks. I�m too busy killing innocent people on the side of the road : )

before & after