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25 Years of Off-The-Wall Moments in AP History (Click here!)


“I actually advocate stealing my record, if possible. I don't give a fuck. What happens—regardless if [listeners] paid for it or not—is they're happy with it, they will follow you and they will tell people about it. If we do give a shit about anyone, it's that kind of fan.”

AL JOURGENSEN, the founder of the widely influential electro-metal outfit Ministry, had some serious boulders in his skivvies to make that statement while being on a major label's payroll. Having said it to AP in 1988 (AP 13)—way before the creation of the Internet or Napster—makes him full-on O.G. Some of the dinosaur AP staffers are still waiting for Kanye to sample him…


“Would I be doing this if it didn't make me any money? I don't think I would. I guess my experience in this band can be best summed up as good thing happens; turns into a bad thing; becomes successful; perpetuates.”

We can only imagine what kind of plans PAT WILSON (2nd from left) has for the cash he'll make on Weezer's impending Memories Tour. In Weezer's first AP cover (AP 102, January 1997), the ranks of America's beloved pocket-protector-pop outfit were riddled with equal parts contempt, ennui and control freak mandates. Of course, Pinkerton went on to be a cornerstone for modern emo, and today Weezer are enjoying a renaissance of sorts, releasing four records in the last three years. Most bands' arms are too short to wear their sweaters.


“'Oh, this place isn't supposed to be for me? I'm taking over. I'm walking in. I'm clogging up your toilets, running up your phone bill, breaking your stereo, drinking your coffee, sleeping with your woman.' I don't even care about selling records—I'm just into glory.”

HENRY ROLLINS was the hardass croupier dealing this card in AP 74 (September 1994). These days, we're fairly certain the hardcore icon finds AP hardly more than insignificant. Still, Hot Animal Machine is still pretty feckin' great, decades after the fact. And he's totally spot-on: Since nobody's selling records in the 21st century, glory is all that's left. “Get some, go again,” indeed…


“A lot of punk purists—the kids that go to Warped Tour wearing Dead Kennedys shirts and giving the finger to bands like the Starting Line? Well, they're like 15 and they got their shirt at Hot Topic.”

New Found Glory's CHAD GILBERT stepped up to represent for his buddies in the Starting Line during that band's cover story in AP 183 (October 2003). When little-league haters grow up to accomplish as much as Gilbert has in the past decade, they might be taken seriously to call 'em like they see 'em…


“Anyone who is a punk rocker is not gonna point their finger at someone else and tell them they're not punk. 'Cause when you're a real punk rocker, you don't care what anyone else thinks.”

When asked in his band's AP 172 cover story (November 2002) about how much of Good Charlotte's universe is spent dealing with haters, JOEL MADDEN summed it up succinctly. In the same story, he tweaks his dateless detractors even further by saying that accruing a large female fanbase is “a good problem to have.”


“The reason a lot of bands are disposable is because they're leeching off their peers. The bands we play with don't influence us and that's not because we don't like them-it's because they're still
playing.

Oh, if only Patrick Stump only knew how many bands abandoned their jobs bagging groceries and inventorying light bulbs at Lowe's after hearing Take This To Your Grave for the first time. The FALL OUT BOY frontman made his case in AP 193, the band's first AP cover.


“Gone are the punk days of yore where it's just some angry idiot with a safety pin through his nose! Today we're talking about hyper-intelligent people that are really goal-oriented, that don't necessarily need to fit into any kind of molds-even the molds that punk rock predicates.”

As the unwitting poster-boy for America's then-nascent emo movement, Chris Carrabba-aka DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL-was willing to give the scene a Nobel Prize for originality in AP 168. And when you consider the myriad of personalities active in this melting pot we deem “punk,” he was most certainly correct.


Who described punk rock as “people coming together and doing their own thing when they don't like anything else. You can bitch and complain, but unless you're doing anything about it, then
shut up.”

Billie Joe Armstrong offered this kernel of punk-rock truth to AP readers in our first GREEN DAY cover (AP 143). Given the amount of micro-labels and fashion start-ups happening now, a few people have taken his advice to heart-even if it seems the rest of the world continues to hide behind screen names.


“The stuff people are going crazy over in hardcore sounds like one Slayer part played over and over again. And the stuff they're calling pop-punk and emo, I don't understand at all. It's like the hair metal of the '80s.”

The above comment wasn't made by some hipper-than-shit, record-reviewing wiseguy on AP's payroll. It came from the mouth of Dr. Dan Yemin, the founder of New Jersey veteran pop-punks Lifetime and Kid Dynamite, as well as forward-thinking hardcore unit Paint It Black. Talking to Tristan Staddon in May 2006 (AP 214), Yemin credited musicians and producers in the indie hip-hop scene for “doing way more to challenge the parameters of their genre than anybody in punk and hardcore is doing.” Considering the miles this man has walked in the name of punk, well, most of us are far too small to mosh with this scene god.


“People like to think of themselves wanting something new, but the fact is that they don't and they're not willing to experiment.” What musician dropped this dime, plain and simple in AP 57 (April 1993)?

It was a trick question: It wasn't a musician at all. It was DAVE KENDALL, the expatriate Briton who created MTV's flagship alternative rock program, 120 Minutes, back in 1986. In those days, he got inundated with requests for more R.E.M. and Tears For Fears videos than Black Flag clips. After creating and hosting 120 Minutes, Kendall went on to produce shows for TechTV, the Travel Channel, Animal Planet and Britain's Channel 4. He now works with non-governmental organizations in Northern Thailand and hosts Party 360 on SiriusXM's First Wave channel. alt


Who once told an AP writer that if he ever had kids, he'd beat them because “they will probably deserve it?

Ten years ago, AP scribe Todd Myers Lowe asked, when it came time to raise a family of his own, if Tom Delonge of Blink-182 was going to beat his kids. “I think my kids will probably deserve it,” replied the guitarist, obviously trying to one-up his bandmates for shock value in AP's first Blink cover in March 2000. “I'd like to do it beforehand–in the morning–'cause I won't have time during the day. And when [the kid] goes to the bathroom in his pants, I'll rub his face in it. 'Bad, bad monkey!'”



What Washington, D.C., punk band profiled in AP 15 was having a crisis of conscience by–check this out–signing to a reggae label for their next record?

L-R: Pete Stahl, Franz Stahl, Skeeter Thompson, Kent Stax

After releasing several records on pioneering indie label Dischord, Washington, D.C. hardcore institution, SCREAM, signed with the reggae label, Ras, for the release of their fourth album, No More Censorship. “Being on a reggae label, people are going to expect reggae,” Scream drummer Dave Grohl told AP in 1989. “We don't know whether to give people what they expect. I wouldn't say that Dischord held us back; [the label] really gave Scream a big push. [Ras have] never worked with an underground, hardcore-whatever, alternative rock 'n' roll circuit, so they're experimenting with us.

“I think that if we broke into the commercial market, we'd turn everything sideways,” Grohl continued. “At least we'd try. That's why I don't think we'd break into it-because we'd be threatening change.”

Of course, Grohl finally did break into “the commercial market,” but not in his role replacing drummer Kent Stax in Scream. On Dec. 20, 2009, the band–Stax, frontman Pete Stahl, his guitarist brother Franz, bassist Skeeter Thompson and newly recruited guitarist Clint Walsh (Gnarls Barkley, Jack Off Jill)–reunited at the D.C. venue the Black Cat. alt

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