When the punk rock thought police ruled the scene© Kenneth Salerno
In September 1984, the widely read punk zine
Maximum Rocknroll published its review of
Victim in Pain, the debut album by a New York City band called Agnostic Front.
"I'm approaching this band with caution," it warned. "Unfortunately, much of the narrow-mindedness, fanatical nationalism, and violence that has destroyed the New York punk scene seems to have revolved around Agnostic Front."
The author of that review was the publication's founder and editor, Tim Yohannan, a 40-something ex-Yippie who thought punk music should march in lockstep with left-wing politics. As Ray Farrell, a punk veteran who once worked at the independent record label SST (run by Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn), told Steven Blush, author of
American Hardcore: A Tribal History, "there was an ideological development at
Maximum RockNRoll, making everything move towards a Socialist bent."
Comment: A fascinating insight into the barren, bleak landscape of the Israeli mind.