Young Poor & Angry Press

One of the most popular questions asked amongst young boys and girls; “What do you look for in a ‘significant other’?” Is it the coon tails dyed to symmetrical perfection in a young lady’s extensions? Is it the positioning of the sock in your beau’s size 0 skinny jeans from Forever 21? The way 15 facial piercings glint in the summer sun? Maybe it’s the sweet smell and sight of an oversized Aquanet can ravaging teased hair? There are hundreds of reasons for wanting to date within your “scene”. So grab a pair of safety scissors and trim down those side bangs, because there are a few things you’ll want to be on the lookout for in order to pick your ideal scene mate.

Let’s start with the boys of the scene… what you’re going to want to do first and foremost is open a new tab from myspace and go to google. Search for a list of phobias or diseases and pick the most obnoxious word possible, and add it to your myspace name. You could also image search some siq grindcore bands you’ve never heard of and take their banners to post on your profile. Extra points if you can’t read the flashing font! Now that you sound as brutal as they come, you’ve got to look the part. Don’t worry about having to come up with something creative.. you’re an individual and it couldn’t be anything but original. Ask mummy for a few dollars and head over to the dollar store for a pack of those fun scissors with the funky shaped edges. Cut your hair to where it either falls over one eye, or unevenly manages to cover both but, no matter which you choose, you have to be sure that the back of your hair is shorter and thinner. This will make it easier to spread the pomade you’re going to have to steal from your little sister, and you can always add extensions to cover the hack job later. It’s totally manly. If you’ve got a comfortable fitting pair of briefs, I suggest you put those on so it’ll support the doubled socks you’ve got to fit in there. Pseudo buldge > moose knuckle. Now, lay on your back at the edge of your racecar bed and squeeze that feminine arse into those 0’s! Slip on your Norma Jean tee, fix your hair up, and ask mum to borrow the car. You’ve got yourself a myspace date! Oh, don’t forget your argyle socks and slip-ons!

Now, ladies! Copying Kat Von D’s style isn’t going to get Bradley Bronchitis to notice you. It’s 2009, you’ve got to take a step back, girlfran! Ask your older brother/sister to take you to the nearest thrift store and pick out the brightest pair of  jeans you can find and a few t-shirts with vertical stripes or print you’d find on an infant’s onesie. Don’t be sad that you couldn’t find any pegged pants – DIY is all the rage. When you get home, immediately cut the collar off of all your shirts so that the sleeves hang from your bony little shoulders. Get the password to acess the interwebs and find the easiest tutorial to peg your jeans, but be sure to take them in a few sizes more than necessary. You want them to strangle your Ethiopian hips, not hug them!

Top off your new chic outfit with a pair of brightly coloured knock-off kicks, and you’re ready to move to hair and makeup. Don’t worry if your mother made you get that $5 butch cut at Great Clips. You should’ve already been to Sally’s to pick up bleach, six different dyes, and your extensions. Now grab your battery powered boom box covered in a million band stickers you picked up from @warped09, and crank dat Spill Canvas!

First, you’ll want to cut your extensions into small sections. Put the glue on the part that looks like it goes on your scalp, and slap it on. Doesn’t matter where it goes or what it looks like, there’s no way you could look trashy even if yo tracks is showin’! Now mix up the pink, blue, black, green, purple, and orange dye all together… it’ll make a brilliant colour that everyone will love. First destroy your scalp by bleaching out your hair (preferably 3-4 times to get that albino-white shade) and the last few pieces of the extentions. Grab the dye brush and go crazy! Create stripes over those coarse pieces of hair that belong to a horse that you and PETA fought so hard to protect. After you’ve washed all of the dye out in the bathroom sink, don’t bother cleaning up the mess (that’s what mummy is for) and go straight to the computer. Locate Bradley’s screen name, the one with all the xXxXx’s in it and tell him that you’re ready for him to come and pick you up. Pray that he knows how to get the child safety off of the lighter you stole out of your parent’s bedroom because you’re dying for a Camel Wide. Take your time applying your neon green, pink and white eye shadow, because we all know how reliable MapQuest REALLY is. When mum shouts that “some girl” is outside to pick you up, slap on some bright red lipstick, grab your zebra print tote bag and get out there!

Make sure to compliment Bradley Bronchitis on his newest display pic, because the angle suggested that he’s really upset about his life. Now that the two of you are together, you should probably turn Hollywood Undead up so your shitty stereo drowns out the boring conversation that you two will later make into MySpace bulletins. Ugh! FINALLY you’re at the venue! You’re going to want to take a few minutes in the car because Ashton Apostrophe’s chonies will be soaked due to all of the tattooed band members unloading stuff into the back door. After you’re both cooled off and you’ve got  X’s on the backs of your hands, you might as well just stay outside until the only breakdown you heard on MTV from the headlining band finally comes. Help Ashton with her child safety lighter and watch her chain smoke while you ridicule her, when really? You can’t wait to get home and wash those X’s off so you can smoke on the side yard where your parents can’t see you.

You know they’re about to play the song you really wanted to dance to, so take that bandana out of your back pocket, tie it around the lower half of your face, and get in that pit! Punch your date in the face and scream “NO CLIT IN THE PIT” and proceed to shuffle around like you’ve got Parkinsons. Don’t worry about hitting anyone, you’ll just get praise from David DenialTM when you tell him on AIM later. But hey, you have no time to waste after the show. It’s time to get in the car and take your date to a remote area, like a nearby cemetery, and get your mack on.  Don’t worry about getting your snakebites caught on hers.. the way you tongue at each other violently will eventually break them loose. Now have her look away so you can quickly unzip, pull the socks out, and be one step closer to having one of the biggest myspace celebs paint your manhood Revlon red.

After you part ways, you’re going to want to post the picture with the most comments of your significant other on your profile. The rest of your relationship will be based on keystrokes – strict cyber sex - because we know how much it hurts Ashton Apostrophe’s feelings that Bradley Bronchitis’ hair looks way better than hers. Send lots of cute comments to each other, like pictures of weirdos with a romantic sunset making hearts together with their hands.

Don’t worry if he breaks up with you through a really long and drawn out message. He really did love you for those six textual nights. Just post really suggestive bulletins about some arse that broke your heart then move directly to the “Browse” tab. Gotta keep it consistent girlfriend. Bradley is already at third base with Kelly Kataklyzm.

Happy dating, ballbags.

Music, like everything else in life, is an ever-evolving, ever-progressing animal. It must be this way in order to survive as an art form, otherwise it grows stagnant and dies. It’s always moving forward (and sometimes backwards) into new and different places, constantly adapting to an ever-changing world. Music affects a culture as much as the culture affects the music, and this – amongst many other factors – is why you have trends. Right now in terms of the aggressive underground side of things, deathcore is all the rage. Suicide Silence, Bring Me The Horizon, Whitechapel, and Winds of Plague are just a few of the more popular examples. A few years ago, it was melodic metalcore that was big with bands like Atreyu and Avenged Sevenfold. Before that, faster, more punk-oriented hardcore had made a comeback and bands like American Nightmare and Bane were ruling the underground circuit while nu-metal had became the biggest thing since grunge to hit the mainstream. The point is, every form of music has it’s day in the sun, popularity-wise, and what’s “hip” is always changing. Over the past few years we’ve seen a huge resurgence in the popularity of extreme, aggressive music, with the whole New Wave of American Heavy Metal movement as well as the rise in popularity of metalcore and deathcore. With this comes a lot of exciting, unique and talented artists that are pushing the boundaries of what you would call hardcore and metal, as well as a considerably higher amount of horrific, soulless drivel that makes more discerning music-lovers such as myself cringe and long for the “good ol’ days.”

The attitudes and styles of the people who are into music likewise evolve and progress along with the music, and this is what brings me to my point. Kids nowadays are very ignorant of the roots of the music they love and support so dearly, and are quite spoiled when it comes to how they are exposed to and able to digest music. I first started getting into punk and metal in 1996, and was exposed to my first few hardcore bands in 97 although at the time to me they just sounded like punk and metal and I was unaware that there was an actual hardcore “scene.” It wasn’t until August of 1999 that I attended my first hardcore show. A band called Execution Style, several members of which went on to play in notable bands like Terror, First Blood and Alcatraz, and a band called Grange 15 played at this ice cream shop in Santa Rosa, CA, my hometown. Along with them played a couple of nu metal bands including a rapcore group called Third Degree, members of which went on to play in a hardcore band called S.E.E.D. that I will probably write about in depth at some point, as they had a huge impact on me as a person through their music, message and friendship. It wasn’t a very big show, but it was my first glimpse into the crazy world of the hardcore scene and a pivotal moment in my life as a music lover. “These people are like…spin-kicking, and they look like they’re fighting invisible ninjas!?! WTF?! Oh shit that guy just got his tooth knocked out! Holy shit this is crazy!” It was a pretty eye-opening experience, and left me thirsting for more. What was this insanity I had stumbled upon? Why do they mosh like that? What’s with everyone wearing jerseys and windbreakers? Hatebreed is a hardcore band? I thought they were just a metal band with punk-sounding parts! Weird!

As I got more and more into the scene and got exposed to more bands, I developed an unquenchable desire for MORE and I longed to learn as much as possible about every facet of this exciting subculture. This brings me back to the fact that kids nowadays are very ignorant to the history of hardcore and metal. They don’t know their roots, and furthermore, most don’t have that unending desire for knowledge that I had. I recently read an interview with Born of Osiris and they didn’t know who Danzig was. More importantly, they didn’t care who he was and saw nothing wrong with their lack of knowledge on someone who has been very influential on the metal, punk and hardcore scenes.

Mind you, with the exception of The Misfits, I’m not a fan of anything Glenn Danzig has done, but what bothered me was the attitude these kids had towards not knowing their roots. They straight up said “we don’t care about that old shit!” This is an attitude I’ve seen shared by a large number of newer kids, and I feel that it directly contributes to underground aggressive music nowadays essentially being a massive sea of shit, punctuated by the occasional gem here and there. Bands like Suicide Silence and the like obviously listen to Cannibal Corpse and Slayer, but then you have the hundreds of bands that rip off Suicide Silence and I bet you the majority of those kids have never listened to a single Cannibal Corpse song. I bet most of them haven’t even heard of Morbid Angel or Suffocation, and most probably wouldn’t give any of the aforementioned bands a chance. All they care about is their breakdowns and their two steps, and would rather post the “Top 10 Br00tal Keyboard Breakdowns Of All Time” on Youtube than actually take the time to look beyond what’s easily accessible and well-marketed.

At the same time, I guess I can’t really blame it solely on the kids. Music has changed drastically over the past few years, and the scene has become over saturated with more bands than you could possibly ever hope to keep track of. Wanna get into a new band? It’s just a mouse-click away on Myspace or LastFM! Getting bored of that new Oceano album? Just peep their top friends, there’s plenty of other like-sounding bands for you to get into on there! Bands get signed off how many friends and plays they have on Myspace alone. This is a far cry from when I first started getting into hardcore and metal music, when there was no Myspace, no music blogs, and Napster had marked the beginning of the “download age” and was causing all sorts of controversy. I resorted to scouring the thank you lists in CD liner notes, word of mouth, and hoping and assuming that a band on a certain label would be good, even if I hadn’t heard them before. The used section for punk and metal in in various Bay Area music stores were my personal music heavens, and I got into shitloads of new bands that way.

I distinctly remember rummaging through the used section in Amoeba Records in San Francisco and coming across an album by a band called Bird of Ill Omen. The unique name caught my eye and I noticed that they were signed to Eulogy Records. At the time, Eulogy had a pretty-kick ass roster, so I figured they might be worth listening to and bought the album and sure enough, the band was badass! Coalesce, Arsis, Lifetime and Strife were other examples of bands I got into in this fashion. After giving these bands a listen, I’d peep their thank you lists for ideas on other new bands to check out. Then there was networking with friends and acquaintances that I had met through going to shows and constantly discussing different bands. “Oh bro, you gotta hear this band Poison the Well! They’re fucking crazy! They got like metal parts and breakdowns, but still have like a hardcore vibe, but they got some emo singing parts!” I remember the first time I saw Poison the Well was at Gilman shortly after they had put out “The Opposite of December.” By attending this show I got into two bands that I had previously been unaware of – Unearth and Sworn Enemy, both of which were still fairly new at that point. All of this led to a very rewarding and interesting musical experience for me, both as a music lover and as a musician.

In the years since then, the hardcore scene has changed a whole lot. Bands and kids come and go like the wind. As a subculture, hardcore has grown considerably in size and popularity. Bands like Terror sell 30,000 plus copies in the U.S. of their respective new album like it’s nothing. The usual Bay Area hardcore show back in 00-02 would have anywhere from 40-200 people at it depending on the band and the venue. Now you’ll see 100-400 people easily, and bigger metalcore bands like Bleeding Through and Emmure sell out decent-sized venues that hold 600 kids. With this massive growth in the hardcore and metal population comes a comparable growth in the amount of bands that are out there. Back then through my various means, I could easily get into a few new bands every couple of weeks.

Now I can spend 30 minutes on Myspace and get into 30 new bands easily. Granted 29 of them will suck balls, but what does that matter? The point is, the internet has completely changed the way people get into and digest music, and in my eyes has made the musical experience far less personal and exciting. As with anything, with bad invariably comes good, and I think that overall the internet and the ease it lends to getting into music has been a blessing for the underground. It’s also made the musical climate a lot more competitive and because there’s so many bands it makes it a lot harder to stand out, which means bands have to work extra hard and really try and push the envelope if they want to get noticed.

Also, in a way, it’s still hard to get into music – GOOD music, that is. Like I said earlier, for every 30 bands maybe 1 is actually decent or good, and every great once in awhile you’ll come across something truly special. This is a great thing for discerning music fans like me who enjoy music with substance, style and soul, rather than the mindless nonsense that’s heavily marketed by most labels, because in a way there still is the search – that hunger – for something meaningful musically, and when such a thing is found, it’s a truly exciting moment.

The overall point I’m trying to make here is best surmised by the following Ignite lyrics: “Know your history!” Becoming acquainted with who and what inspired your favorite artists and bands can only enrich your own musical experience, and I believe that if more people took this kind of approach it would in turn greatly improve the depth and quality of of a scene that has overall become ridden with blandness and mediocrity.

While it is undeniable that America has by far the best, and most technologically advanced health care system in the World, no one challenges the need for reform. On both sides of the political spectrum politicians and pundits acknowledge that the status quo cannot stand. On the one hand we have the Democratic Party going away from their roots, trying to get a “public option” through congress instead of the usual attempts at imposing a single payer system. On the other, we have the Republican Party, not really coming out with a viable, popular solution to the problem. A few Republicans have come out with good solid reform plans, but no one in the party is paying any attention, because they are too focused on stopping the

Democrat’s plan, rather than presenting their own to the American people. The current Democratic proposal of a “public option” which has been endorsed by the President sounds great from a podium. The Democrat’s propaganda machine tells people what they want to hear, and frankly it sounds great. The problem lies in what they don’t say. The biggest problem with a “public option” is that it will make it impossible for private insurance companies to compete. Whether individuals purchase their own insurance, or whether it is employer provided, individuals will slowly be forced into this “public option”, giving the government a de-facto monopoly over the health insurance industry, therefore controlling healthcare in this country. When an entity is created to compete, it takes on the risk to fail. As we have found out with Social Security, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, the government does not allow its entities to fail. So if this program goes bankrupt, or runs out of voluntary contributors, it will result in consequent tax increases on a major sector of the population, thus creating a program much like Social Security, which would never survive were it not for forced contribution.

When the government seeks to promote competition by entering into a private market, it creates a competing entity with the unfair advantage of being subsidized by the tax-payer. This unfair financial advantage over the competition would make it extremely hard for the private sector to compete. Furthermore, the “public option” will not be able to survive on its own premiums, as the President claims, at least not while they keep the “hardship” clause in the program. This is going to create a system in which the non-contributor receives the same service as the “voluntary” contributor, which would cause any smart “voluntary” contributor to stop contributing. Another problem with trusting the “public option” in this case, is that many Democrats still claim that this is the first step in the path to a single payer system the likes of the England’s pathetically underfunded single payer system. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ-6ebku3_E)

The proponents of this “public option” announced that “the hospitals” have agreed to certain conditions, and claimed that this will save the government $150 billion, by having “the hospitals” take on this financial commitment. First does anyone think that these hospitals are going to take a financial loss? They cannot go to their shareholders and tell them that they are going to help the government and that for a while; they are going to give up $155 billion in profits. These hospitals will either raise their rates on the private policy holders, or they are going to make cuts, either on staff, or by rationing services. Now, does anyone really think that this money will actually be saved? When the government claims that it will save money, it really means that it will transfer it somewhere else. Whether they use it to increase Pell Grants, or increase funding to protect national parks, this money will not be saved, it will be transferred, from one federal department, to another. If the government were really saving that money, it would use it for the only purpose that the government should use any saved money: Pay down the sky rocketing national debt or decreasing the ever increasing budget deficit.

A conservative proposal would spark more competition in the market by allowing individuals to purchase their health insurance across state lines, thus breaking up state insurance monopolies, not by bringing in big brother as a player/coach in the insurance game. The government has never sparked competition, nor been successful, in any of its ventures into the private sector; just take a look at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. If social security became voluntary, and therefore a competitor in the retirement securities market, social security would die, instantly, because every contributor would opt out. Another way to help reform the healthcare system would be to enact tort reform. Today doctors pay anywhere from $4,000 to $55,000 a year for malpractice insurance, and if you think that reducing this cost would not reduce the cost of healthcare, well, you need to study economics. Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) came out with his own Health care proposal which accomplishes all the goals that Democrats and Republicans agree must be accomplished and get’s the government back in the right track towards financial discipline. (http://demint.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=0db98529-0230-3564-0e4b-fe84bdb1971b).

So I ask the question, why is this plan not good enough for the President? Does it not grant enough control to the government? Does it put too much responsibility in the hands of the individual? The difference between Conservatives and Liberals on this issue is not the endgame. The great difference is the role of government in the endgame. It would be so simple to give the American individual more choice in healthcare without getting the government in the middle of it. It is so easy to reform the system and bring cost down. Why would we create yet another colossal and arcane federal social program, when there are three already out there that do not work, we cannot pay for, and are in dire need of reform?
There are many ways to reform the system. The real question is, how can the system be reformed in a way that is compatible with the American ideals of freedom and choice? A public option might give the illusion that it is simply adding one more choice to a market that needs more competition. However, what the market needs is not a choice that will cripple all the others, but an aggressive de-regulation effort in the part of the federal government, which will enable the already over-regulated healthcare industry to again become concerned with the needs of the consumer, and not the financially arduous trial lawyer mafia, or the subsidizing of Medicare, Medicaid, and millions of illegal immigrants.

My name is T.J. Green. I’ve been a Christian my whole life and now I’m a full time youth pastor in Sylvan Lake, AB Canada. I made a deliberate choice to follow the straight edge life style when I was 15 years old, when I went to my first punk show.

At the age of 27 I still stick to the principals of that lifestyle. I’ve toured in hardcore/metal core bands around Canada, and have been putting on all ages for about 10 years now. I’ve worked with bands like Comeback Kid, Bane, Shai Halud, and Outbreak. I’ve found being a Christian and being in the hardcore scene has sometimes faced its contradictions. This is my attempt to answer the question of those who are too religious to accept people who look different. Why has the church been stuck on the outward appearance, when the scriptures clearly state, “God looks at the heart of man not the outward appearance” Sam 16:7 Read the rest of this entry »