straight edge hardcore bands

[Empty Pockets]

oh totally -- part of my idea that people should be free to do what they want means that i've definitely gotten down to many straight edge bands in the past...but they have to be truly special (unlike, say, xCasey Jonesx) for me to give a flying ****.

Unfortunately, if I like a straight edge band, i have a hard time talking to them after the show and tellin 'em i liked the music...i've seen friends get stabbed by sXe dudes for having a beer at their show, and i really don't wanna put myself in that position.

[crusty philtrum]

.....i've seen friends get stabbed by sXe dudes for having a beer at their show, ............

Hmmm, so these straight edge bands are gonna have some problems playing in bars then by the sounds of it ? Where do they gig .... in church ? I'm trying to imagine how a bar could make any money with a straight edge band bringing in their type of crowd.

It's kinda strange that people would want to make a big point about *not* doing something and even turn it into a kinda cult. For example, I don't kill people, and i suspect that everyone on the forum doesn't kill people also. Therefore, should we form a sect called 'non-killers' or something, take the high moral ground and expect people to take notice of us for that reason ?

For many years, i've always been a little suspicious of those people who seem a little 'holier than thou' ...it's admirable at first, but so often i've seen it unravel and underneath the 'wholesomeness' often lurks much worse traits than any of the regular folk with a few bad habits that they rail against.

[Kac]

I doubt I'm the only one... Has anyone else here been in a straight edge hardcore band?

[Diocletian]

I don't understand this. It's bad to drink a beer, but it's good to stab someone?
What's morally right about that?
Is this like a religion without any religion, where people will be converted whether they like it or not?

[tone4days]

Straight edge music is not positive and it's not enlightened and it's certainly not intelligent.

Straight edge is a club AGAINST something, which is negative. It's a bunch of people getting together and saying "Some people do this for fun, but WE don't, which makes US BETTER!" This creates division, separation, and an 'us vs. them' mentality that is truly unnecessary in an already divided society like ours.

The fact that so many straight edge kids add violence to the equation, like all the straight edge hardcore songs about beating up / stabbing / killing / setting fire to people who smoke weed or drink just makes it even MORE negative. "Oh those guys like to toss back a six pack and burn a bat quietly in their apartment after a day at work -- LET'S GO ****IN STAB THOSE MOTHER****ERS AND BURN THE PLACE DOWN YEAH STRAIGHT EDGE!!"

It would be like a movement of people who started bands that sing about never playing team sports or board games, then want to act like that makes them better people somehow. Like if i wrote a song about how morally superior I am for not owning a PS3 or ever subscribing to Xbox Live, or that everybody who's ever watched Cartoon Network isn't worth my time because they're inferior.

It's hating something that brings a lot of people a small amount of pleasure and trying to feel 'superior' because of that. Must be why so many straight edgers are also vegan.

Am I an advocate of recreational drug use? No. I drink beers every now and then and I have dread locks so I'm definitely not "clean" but I don't think i'm a better person than people who DON'T party like I do. I think people should be free to do what they want, how they want, without having to be singled-out and without having to fit into some stupid chant-along gang mentality like most sXe'rs seem to try to do.

If you don't need to drink or do drugs to feel good and party, then don't. Nobody is gonna care if you do or not. But that doesn't mean you NEED to claim "straight edge!" and fit in with the straight edge kids and listen to their boring chuggachugga hardcore to do it. That kind of black or white, all or nothing extremism is unhealthy and honestly just ignorant.

But the few "breaking edge" parties I've been to have been a LOT of fun. Nothing like seeing a 25-year-old man with three X's tattooed on his neck falling down a flight of stairs because he's half way through his third Mike's Lemonade EVER.

and once again, EP makes me believe that we all need to be a little more like EP

[DankStar]

I doubt I'm the only one... Has anyone else here been in a straight edge hardcore band?

I had the edge in the past, and ended up on a straight edge compilation album put out by a HC label during that time period.

[CaughtLikeFire]

I doubt I'm the only one... Has anyone else here been in a straight edge hardcore band?

do you mean a band that writes songs about sXe? or just a hardcore band with sXe members . . . I was in the latter in college.

[Empty Pockets]

hah the other guitarist in Frowny Face claimed straight edge but would secretly smoke joints with the bassist before practice. caught 'em one night at the beach and could not stop laughing.

[Sludgenutz]

As a geezer, I never understood straightedge. I'm not against it. I just can't listen to agressive music and actually look at people in-focus all night long.

I never got into Minor Threat.

Be straight edge, if it rocks your socks. Just remember, tomorrow morning your life will likely be just as screwed up as everyone else's.

[TimmyPage]

EP makes some great points. I don't have any straight edge friends, and its not because I have anything against straight edge people in general, but all of those that I have met that consider themselves 'sXe' are dicks. They are the direct embodiment of the 'holier than thou' mentioned before, defining themselves entirely by a lifestyle choice, pushing it on people.

On the other hand, I know one person who listens to hardcore music, doesn't smoke or drink, even dresses like the straight edge guys seem to, and doesn't give a crap whether other people do or not. He's even mentioned that he thinks the current straight edge scene is to angry to convey the proper message.

[Empty Pockets]

EP makes some great points. I don't have any straight edge friends, and its not because I have anything against straight edge people in general, but all of those that I have met that consider themselves 'sXe' are dicks. They are the direct embodiment of the 'holier than thou' mentioned before, defining themselves entirely by a lifestyle choice, pushing it on people.

On the other hand, I know one person who listens to hardcore music, doesn't smoke or drink, even dresses like the straight edge guys seem to, and doesn't give a crap whether other people do or not. He's even mentioned that he thinks the current straight edge scene is to angry to convey the proper message.

yeah...every now and then you come acros somebody who 'gets it.' More of than not you've got a dude with a switchblade and an anger problem out looking for enemies.

[DLT]

Are the Jonas Brothers "Straight Edge Hardcore"?

[Laughing Kookaburra]

I like beer.

Me too.

[Zerberus]

Historically, the only straight edge band I´ve ever really been cool with has been Minor Threat.

MODERN SxEers are for the most part nothing more than idiots that think they´re better than other people because they do or don´t do something. That in and of itself is the very epitome of stupidity.

All they do is create divides and hatred in a social setting that by nature should not be divided or hate it´s own children. But these idiots actually promote it actively in their actions and lyrics. They´re destroying their own scene and making a mockery of both themselves and their ideals in the process.

Beating up a guy you don´t know for drinking beer because you´re SxE is just as morally wrong as... scretch that, even more so than a few black metal idiots burning down a church. Why? Because the idiots in corpsepaint at least weren´t actively trying to injure or kill another person for no reason other than personal desire to do so.

There are some straightedgers like Kac that I get along with just fine, there are even a few that I call friends. Ironically, most of these people distance themselves from the current scene whenever the topic comes up. Coincidence?

It´s the same deal with the vegan idiots that try to firebomb butcher´s shops and stuff... All boils down tho the same bottom line, ironically one that´s very similar to my stance on religious nutjobs and other people that try to push their ways on others:

1. You made a lifestyle choice for yourself. Good, everyone needs a direction.
2. You are happy with that choice. Good, the direction is apparently the right one for you at this time
3. You wish to enlighten other people as to your ways. Good, someone may be truly helped by that.
4. You feel oppressed when not everybody turns to your way immediately. BAD, this is where thigs start to go awry.
5. You start to attempt to force your ways onto those around you, or simply eject them from your life. BAD, you´re starting to become a radical /Fundamentalist /Extremist /Terrorist
6. Having converted or jettisoned all of your acquaintances, you run out of people to oppress, and as a result start going after people you´ve never met before. BAD, you have now crossed the line to Radical /Fundamentalist /Extremist /Terrorist, and you probably won´t be coming back anytime soon.
7. YOU, feeling so sure of yourself, start to commit crimes, first petty like stealing meat / Holy water / Drugs or causing property damage, then more serious like assault on a butcher, manslaughtering a dealer, or kidnapping a priest. VERY BAD. you should be shot on siight.
8. Ultimately, you screw with somebody that isn´t gonna let you take his personal freedoms while cherishing yours so dearly, and you will probably end up dead as a result. Good, becasue It means less dilution of the gene pool for those of us that SHOULD be allowed to procreate..

Unfortunately, most people can´t be satisfied with steps 1-3 like they should be, but prefer to dwell between 4 and 7, with only the rare Supreme Idiot attaining the final goal of point 8. These are usually Skinheads that go into foreign restaurants or left-wing establishments belching Nazi slogans that find tehmselves looking pretty stupid when there isn´t a single bald white guy in the place but insteaed a boatload of people that don´t appreciate oppression....

I have no problems with Straightedge music or philosophy, nor do I have problems with those that understand both.

I DO however have a massive problem with current "Pop sXe" dolts and other mindless trend-whores taking what was once a respected ideal and turning it into complete and utter nonsense. But hey, that´s what Hot Topic and MTV do, isn´t it?

Don´t even get me started on Straightedge vegans that wear doc Martens (or ****kickers in general) and drink a beer every so often....

In parting, to quote the button on my favorite shorts:

Eat Well
Stay Fit
Die anyway

CHeers

[subanots]

dont straight edgers keep themselves from having sex too?

that would explain the rage issues....

and im pretty sure minor threat wasnt a straight edge band, Ian just wrote one song about how he hates drunk *******s and dudes that get chicks preggers and spread stds... (IIRC, of course)

[Laughing Kookaburra]

I didn't realize that Dag Nasty was straight edge. After all, they wrote at least one song about being like a 40 oz beer. Great band, one of my faves from the mid/late 80s.

[Zerberus]

....
and im pretty sure minor threat wasnt a straight edge band, Ian just wrote one song about how he hates drunk *******s and dudes that get chicks preggers and spread stds... (IIRC, of course)

This is correct AFAIK, but somehow MT always gets lumped in with the mass.

Kind of Ironic what consequences a single song can have....

[subanots]

(off topic...)
fugazi is the ****.
thank you.

[Pierre]

Fugazi were brilliant. Love Minor Threat too. I barely listen to lyrics in songs though so the whole straight edge thing is of little matter to me. They're just great bands.

[Zerberus]

I completely forgot about Fugazi, great music to skate to