Read your newest album review. Bad Brains rule.
Probably the coolest band on the planet from '80-'82.
Truly ahead of their time in writting hardcore songs
which established hardcore as a genre in itself, and
not just "punk played faster"(punk, of course, in the
late 70s just being rock played faster). I see early
hardcore broken up into two different waves; first
wave, '77-'82 (Middle Class, Germs, BF, Minor Threat,
Big Boys, Negative Approach, etc.) and 2nd wave being
'83-'88 (DRI, Bl'ast!, Larm, Septic Death, Poison
Idea, Infest, etc.). The 2nd wave was where hc, like
I said, really began to be hardcore, and the groups
operated within and progressed the medium beyond just
the realm of punk. I mean, you can listen to a cut
off the first Ramones album, and listen to 'Out Of
Vogue', or 'Nervous Breakdown' and see the connection,
but when you spin a Ramones cut next to, say, Siege,
or Septic Death, the chasm kinda grows wider. Now,
there were pre-'83 hardcore cuts which the same could
be said for (say, Negative Approach's 'Pressure', or
Heartattack's 'God Is Dead', or maybe even Beastie
Boys 'Race Riot', songs which were really pushing punk
beyond the "school of '77" concept, and clearly
creating something FAR severed from anything you could
call "new wave"), yet it really wasn't 'til the 2nd
wave which hardcore really came into its' own, and
starting having a sort of inner-working logic. That
being said, I feel Bad Brains were THE most
progressive hardcore band of that first wave, and were
writting songs which, like I said, weren't just
"faster punk" but were really HARDCORE. Listen the
the breakdown on 'Supertouch/Shitfit'; you're not
gonna hear that on a goddamn Middle Class record, and
really wouldn't hear it anywhere til' damn near 5
years later (or technically, 5 years earlier on your
Sabbath albums, but that's another story all
together). I think their first proper album (the s/t
one was more like a demo session, or something, and
wasn't released on vinyl 'til the 90s), "Rock For
Light", released in '83 was sort of the battle cry for
the 2nd wave of hardcore. Shit, man, you GOTTA check
that album out! Some folks say it was overproduced
(by Ric Ocasek of all people, who oddly enough also
did Johnathan Richman's "I'm So Confused" in the late
90s with oddly enough featured Darryl Jennifer from
the Bad Brains on bass...Odd...), but the songwritting
is just SO fucking RIGHT ON! 'Coptic Times'? 'Right
Brigade'? Fucking PERFECT songs. Fuckin GREAT solos
too. The reggae stuff on the ROIR album's better (my
pet peeve is cleanly produced dub), but you'll be
asking yourself "why must the rich man (why?) keep on
hoarding all the money" regardless.

I'm working on my next article for you. Shit, man,
you need to put me on like, some sorta' deadline for
that shit. Like, the 15th of every month, or
something, otherwise you make disparaging comments
about BOC, or Gary Glitter on your website, 'causing
me to need to write some rediculous diatribe (such as
this one) which'll take me a goddamn hour to write in
rubuttle, and then just respond "dude, I was just
kidding, "Touch Me" is a stone cold classic!". Keep
in mind everything I've just (ever?) written might
make no sense to you at all. The bottom line, though,
is that I'm writting a new goddamn article which'll
fuck up your days.

Oh yeah, and it's all about ebay Germany!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2537286028&category=7784&rd=1

(yeah, they're originals)

response:

--- Derek Erdman <derekerdman@ameritech.net> wrote:
> Fuck. Can I post this message on my site? Cause it's
> good reading. How long
> does it take you to write these things? Do you type
> fast?
>

you have full permission to put anything you get from
me on your webpage. It's a worthy cause to contribute
to. I love that shit. Uh, that e-mail didn't take
long at all. It all depends on how "inspired" (as gay
as that sounds) I am, and if it's am or pm (i write
best on the am, usually 3-4 in the morning). I type
fast enough to keep up an AIM conversation with Chris
Painter, if that means anything to you. I took a
typing class in highschool, and I swear to god it was
the best goddamn thing that happened to me during that
4 years, except for maybe getting an upsidedown cross
with the word "EDGE" (as in straight) underneath it in
my friend's bedroom when I was 17. My "real"
"articles", like the Blink 182 one can take fucking
weeks, especially if I'm not really "feeling" it,
y'know? Like, if I'm in more of a painting, or
songwritting, or working out zone, than a music
writting zone it's like pulling teeth, but you sorta
gotta force your way through the "dry spots", like I'm
in right now if you wanna get any good at whatever
you're doing. There are also times when all I wanna
do is write about stoopid fookin' records and I gotta
force myself to write lyrics, or paint, or go to the
gym.