SMASH in the Sunday Source

my friend and neighbor daisy is in the post
there is a piece in the sunday source about SMASH RECORDS
a record store that is far more than a record store

punk's not dead
american hardcore was more my era

I was never punk... punk was in 1977
in '77 I was ten years old
I was just a kid in grade school

and well... the DC 1981 thing... I was too young for that too
so when I was dying my hair and wearing boots in the mid eighties people would ask if I was punk
I would often tell them that I was "post punk"

my teen existence was more layered than just one identity
I took pride in being all trends... I took pride in being no trend
and of course... I was lost and confused as any kid in their teens tends to be

I was not just hanging with kids listening to music
I was running indoor track and captain of the varsity coed volleyball team
no I was not skilled enough to make the varsity soccer team so I played in an adult league in downtown silver spring
a silver spring that is very different than the hipster silver spring of today
that was a cultural experience
many blog entries could cover playing soccer with a Greek soccer team in an adult jamacian soccer league as a skinny teen age boy

music was very important in my teen years
not just punk... not just dc hardcore
all sorts of music
there were also high school dances and going to clubs with a fake id downtown
we wore thrift shop close and we got our creepers from shelley's of london
we would get up and dance at the mod shows
not sure if we believed that you could buy the fashion that we were looking for in a mall
but how would I know... as I did not do my shopping in the mall
there was mall culture... but not in my world

there was commander salamander in georgetown... but it would have been an embarrassment to be seen going in to commander salamander
smash started off as a record store called spotlight records in the air rights building in bethesda and then moved downtown
it was a hard place to figure out
the owner bobby was cool... he had records you could not find anywhere else
this was an age before the Internet
but I was still torn by the notion of buying punk in a store
this was decated before hot topics... a place i have yet to encounter

oddly enough I saw Johnny Walker aka HOBO at the Montgomery County Fair last night
Johnny did the graffiti art on the exterior of SMASH
during my high school years there was also the birth of break dancing and graffiti art
johnny was tagging as HOBO then... later became ULTRA
georgetown was an odd gathering place
we would walk the streets like cattle being led to slaughter
no real purpose
just people watching
punk kids hung at the roy rogers
punk people drank at the exorcist stairs
more kids hung out under the canal under the bridge
some of us skated the brick quarter pipes down by the canal
mainly we just milled about
on the night of punk shows people went to the shows... many people went to just hang out in front of the shows

(listening to Government Issue Joy Ride to aid in the memory recall)

okay
the kids are dressed
the music has them pretty amped!
more on this later