All language subtitles for Punk (2019) - 01x04 - Part 4

[Iggy Pop]:
Previously on Punk...

"Hey, man!" Pow!

They just started calling it hardcore.

"Who could name a band
such a thing?"

"Bang-atta-bang-atta-bang-atta!

Ba-bah! Blap-bang!"

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

What the fuck?

[♪♪♪]

"Man, I think
I love punk rock."

[♪♪♪]

Pow! Pow!

We were like, "Taxi!"

[♪♪♪]

Punk rock was never a career choice.

[chuckles] It just wasn't.

You were in it for the music,

and drinking beer with your friends,

and talking conspiracy theories,
or whatever.

[Jim Lindberg]:
It was never something

where, like, "Oh, if we do
this and this,

then we're going to get signed,

and then we're going to get
the big house, and the cars,

and the chicks."

But we very much wanted
to be in the mainstream.

We wanted to infiltrate the masses,

we wanted to be on MTV,

we wanted to be on the radio.

Well, there's more people
to hear what you have to say,

provided you have anything to say.

But being a rock star was like
a four-letter word, you know?

It was, like,
you got called a rock star,

it could've been, like,

the biggest insult of your entire life.

[Kathleen Hanna]:
But, you know, sometimes

things that are actually
really good go mainstream.

[Ian MacKaye]: My feeling
is that punk was a gift,

and that if you receive the gift,

and you take care of the gift,

and you give it to somebody,

it replicates, and you have another one,

then you can give it
to somebody else, right?

At some point,
some people receive that gift,

and when they polish it,
they think, "Oh, I can sell it,"

but when you sell it, it's fuckin' gone.

[♪♪♪]

[♪♪♪]

The thing about being
in a band in the early '80s

and the mid-'80s is there wasn't...

there was no hope
of ever being successful,

because all that was on MTV
was hair metal,

which is so terrible,

and then these '80s bands

singing stupid songs about dinosaurs,

and dragons, and...

and, uh, how many ways
there are to rock,

and who can you salute for rocking.

So there's no way
we're going to make a living,

which is why so many bands
broke up in the '80s,

and NOFX, luckily, uh...

we're alcoholics, and we like touring,

so we just stayed together,
'cause touring is fun.

What else are you going to do?

I was working a 9-to-5 job
at a media company,

wearing a suit and tie,

and then at night
I would go play these shows,

and, like, hardcore punk shows,

and one time I came in
with a broken nose,

and everyone at the place
thought that I got a nose job.

[Noodles]: I was a janitor

at the high school that we all went to,

and I realized that was a dead-end job,

so I got a job as a...

as a head custodian
at an elementary school,

you know, where I got to wear
a bigger badge,

and make more important decisions.

I was still a janitor

when we did our first two
cross-country tours,

and our first tour of Europe,
really, in support of...

supporting NOFX over there.

[Fat Mike]:
I was about to quit NOFX.

We did our first European tour in 1988.

That's before we got good,

because we were really, really terrible,

so bad that halfway through
our European tour,

we switched slots with the opening band,

and they started headlining.

This is true.

But the last night of our tour,

we played with Fugazi in Amsterdam,

and this girl from the Yeastie Girls

played me Bad Religion
"Suffer."

[♪♪♪]

♪ Did you ever see
the concrete stares ♪

♪ Of every day? ♪

♪ The lunatic, the hypocrite
are all lost in the fray ♪

♪ Can't you see their lives
are just like yours? ♪

♪ An unturned stone
an undiscovered door ♪

♪ Leading to
the gift of hope renewed ♪

♪ Eternity for you ♪

♪ The masses of humanity
have always had to suffer... ♪

"Suffer" changed NOFX.

That's when I remembered,

"Wow, punk rock is so good.

Why are we playing hardcore?

Why are we yelling,

when we could write good songs,
and sing,

and use words that are big?"

And so you have melodic harmonies,

five-dollar words

you end up looking in the dictionary,

saying, you know,
"What the hell did I just hear?"

I mean, I think to this day,

that record stands up

as some of the best lyrics out there,

and it just inspired us,

and all of us got together
and said, you know,

"Let's start a band.

We want to do the same thing
as Bad Religion."

[crowd cheering]

Thank you.
Thank you very much.

[Brett Gurewitz]: I think
the unique thing about "Suffer"

is how melodic it was, and...

"Suffer" sounded really good,

because I had been
a full-time recording engineer.

I had run an indie label.

It's almost like I went to,
you know, music boot camp

and learned every possible aspect.

I must have done
10,000 hours of recording.

I mean, I was eating,
drinking, breathing recording.

If you had a band in L.A.,
I would record you.

For 200 bucks, I'd make you a record,

and I'd make it in 48 hours
and not sleep.

That was my life,

and I always thought
that our first records

sounded crap.

So I thought,

"Well, it'll be fun
to write a new record,

but it would be really fun
to record a new record,

because I can make us
sound good," you know?

I always thought that
those major-label punk bands

always sounded so great,

and the L.A. hardcore bands

always sounded so shite, you know,

because nobody could afford
to record anything, you know,

but "Suffer" was like a calling card,

and many of the punk bands
that were happening at the time

came to me

because they wanted
that Westbeach sound,

and if they were good,

I would say, "Hey, can I put out
your record on Epitaph?"

And so I signed NOFX,

I signed the Offspring,

I signed Pennywise, I signed Rancid,

and I literally didn't sign
anybody in between.

Those were all the bands I signed,

but at the time,

and a lot of people watching this show

might not realize it,

it was hard to find punk rock...

...but, you know, one time

I was sitting
in my little office at Epitaph

on Santa Monica Boulevard,

and I get a phone call,

and the guy on the other end
says, "Hey, is this Epitaph?

This is Kelly Slater.

I'm a surfer,
and I make videos."

[♪♪♪]

[♪♪♪]

[Lindberg]: I think
the whole skate/surf scene

was something that

a certain brand of individual
got interested in,

and that being,

I guess, a delinquent.

The straight kids played baseball,

and basketball, and football.

The guy who wanted
to jump on his skateboard

and fly down the hill
at death-defying speeds,

or paddle out when the waves were huge,

that's a different brand of individual.

So you're not going to listen
to classical music

or Fleetwood Mac.

You're going to listen to Bad Brains

and some music that's going
to get your blood pumping.

[♪♪♪]

[Gurewitz]: So I started
providing music for free

to the producers
of skate and surf videos.

"All I want you to do

is put on the screen
the name of the song

and the name of the group,"

and, you know,
they'd be skating to NOFX,

or they'd be skating to Rancid, right,

or surfing to Bad Religion,

and suddenly, you know,

it became the thing to listen to
if you were a skate kid.

So punk was really starting to grow,

yet it was still invisible.

On the other hand,

grunge was on everybody's radar.

[♪♪♪]

[Dave Grohl]: Before everything
became so interconnected,

there was such a thing
as regional sound.

There was a D.C. sound,

there was a Boston thing,

there was a New York thing,

and I think

that had to do with
some kind of isolation,

you know, which...

I don't think anything's
isolated anymore,

but, of all places,
Seattle was very isolated.

It was just so fucking far away.

Say you're in a punk rock band,
and you're on tour,

and you've got to get from Minneapolis

to San Francisco,

you're not going to fuckin'
go around the horn

up the Pacific Northwest.

You don't have the money,
you don't have the time,

you know, so you skip it,

and in that, I think
that Seattle wound up

with this beautiful isolation
and independence.

Like, you know,
"We don't need anybody else,"

so they did their own thing.

[♪♪♪]

♪ I need an easy friend ♪

♪ I do, with an ear to lend ♪

♪ I do pick a number too ♪

♪ I do keep a date with you ♪

♪ I'll take advantage
while... ♪

[Grohl]: If you've ever
spent time in Seattle,

you'd understand

why a lot of the music
is really fuckin' dark.

There's a lot of rain,

there's a lot of heroin,

there's a lot of alcoholics,

and so you just stay inside

and fuckin'... play.

I think that Seattle has
a somewhat healthy

and somewhat annoying, um...

disdain for L.A.,

and L.A. fashion,

and L.A. douchebaggery
in general.

[♪♪♪]

For grunge, it was like,
"Okay, enough with this, like,

New Wave band
on a sailing ship, you know,

with hot models all over the place,"

or, you know,
smell-the-glove metal bands

with spandex and makeup
and all that stuff,

whereas up in Seattle, they looked just

very, like, you know,
the gas station attendant,

as so many people complain
about that look, or whatever,

but it was kind of like
what we looked like too,

only we had...
maybe a little...

We had more style.
[chuckling]

[♪♪♪]

But, you know, I would say that

a couple of grunge's greatest legacies,

in my opinion,

is that grunge sort of

made misogyny in rock really uncool.

[♪♪♪]

I also think that the grunge era

had a lot of women playing in bands...

hard rock bands, aggressive bands,

and I hear from young women a lot

that they feel like that was
sort of the golden era

of women in bands...

...but with L7,

I did not want a gender-reference name.

I wanted people to hear us,

and not be able to tell
what sex we were.

You know, like, there was always
attention put on,

as a marketing tool, the gender,

and we didn't want any part of that.

[♪♪♪]

We refused "women in rock"
issues of magazines.

We would decline those interviews.

We wanted to be viewed
as a band in our own right,

without having those
kind of... uh...

You know, 'cause

if they put you
in the "women in rock" issue,

you're not going to get
in the real issue,

but then Riot Grrrl
flipped that on its head

and said, "We don't care
about being in your issue.

We're going to start
our own fanzines."

Hi, we're Bikini Kill.

We're from Washington, D.C.

[applause and cheering]

[♪♪♪]

♪ That girl ♪

♪ Thinks she's the queen
of the neighborhood ♪

♪ She's got
the hottest trike in town ♪

♪ That girl, she holds
her head up so high ♪

♪ I think I wanna be
her best friend, yeah ♪

♪ Rebel girl, rebel girl ♪

♪ Rebel girl, you are
the queen of my world ♪

♪ Rebel girl, rebel girl... ♪

[Kathleen Hanna]: For me,
Riot Grrrl was very selfish...

because I was in a band,

and I was singing lyrics

that were directed at other women,

and the only people
who were at the shows,

mostly, were white guys,

and that wasn't who my music was for.

So I had to make sure

that more women came to the shows.

So Riot Grrrl was a zine

that was started in the summer of 1991,

and it was just, like,
this little thing,

and it was, like, kind of
about what it felt like

to be a girl in the punk rock scene

at the time,

and it was a way to communicate,
and also to, like...

You know, you play punk shows,
and the P.A.s are shit.

Like, nobody can understand
what you're saying,

and so we had lyrics in our zines,

and, you know, kind of manifestos

of what we were trying to do,

so when we did play shows,
people could get our zines,

and take it home, and be like,
"Oh, that wasn't a mirage.

That actually was
a feminist band."

I mean, the thing about Bikini Kill was

we actually got shit
from, like, day one.

You know, there were, like,
people in Olympia

who were just, like...

They were so angry at us,
which I didn't understand.

It was, like, "How dare you,

like, speak about this unspeakable stuff

in front of people?"

Even a lot of women
who ended up maybe benefiting

from the feminist ideas
that Riot Grrrl brought out

at first were very upset about it.

Like, I remember Bratmobile,
my friend's band,

guys in the crowd saying stuff,
literally saying stuff like,

"I want to kill that singer.

I want to strangle her."

I remember at that moment

being like, "What we're doing
is really important."

So this fake abortion clinic
came to Olympia, Washington.

They're, like, you know,

a place that says, like,
"Are you pregnant?

Are you in trouble?

Come here,"

and then you go in there,
and they're like,

"Look at these pictures
of dead babies in garbage cans.

You're a murderer.

You can't do this.

You should raise your child,

but we're not going to help you,"

and Tobi Vail, my bandmate,

was dating Kurt,

and we were really...

Me and Kurt were talking about it,

and we're like, "That's messed up.

Like, these young girls
are going to go in there

and get totally fucking guilt-tripped

and not have abortions,"

so we got binoculars and Canadian Club

and went into the woods
across the street,

and then, when there were
no cars coming,

I ran across the street,

and painted with, you know, spray paint,

"Fake Abortion Clinic" on the side,

'cause I wasn't as artistic as he was,

and then we got drunker
and drunker and drunker,

drunker, drunker, drunker,
drunker, drunker, and drunker...

and we ended up back
at Kurt and Dave's apartment,

and when I woke up,

I had written all this shit
on the walls in Sharpie marker,

like, "Kurt is the keeper
of the kennel."

Like, it all started with "Kurt,"

like, "Kurt is this, Kurt is that,"

and so I wrote, like,

"Kurt smells like Teen Spirit,"

which was a deodorant,
an underarm deodorant,

and it's just a funny name,

and then, I guess,

Kurt had this song,

and he didn't know what to call it,

and he decided to call it
"Smells Like Teen Spirit,"

but he didn't know it was a deodorant,

and I didn't tell him.

[♪♪♪]

[♪♪♪]

[singing along]

[♪♪♪]

♪ Load up on guns ♪

♪ Bring your friends ♪

♪ It's fun to lose
and to pretend ♪

♪ She's over-bored... ♪

[Fat Mike]:
Most people remember

the first time they heard Nirvana.

They remember where they were,

and I remember the car I was in

and who I was with when
I first heard "Teen Spirit,"

and it was...

"Fuck, this record is...

finally, America can listen
to good music," you know?

Somebody who could sing, and write,

and sing lyrics that didn't
have to make sense, and...

[groaning]

Such a powerful, yet stripped-down,

and really kind of
a dark song, you know?

It's not about girls and cars, you know?

It's serious.

I was like, "Man,

there's melodic hooks
to this stuff."

It sounds really rough,

but you can hear there's
a great songwriter in there.

Nirvana made it
so the whole world took notice.

When I hear that song,
I just think of my generation.

You know, it's, like,
great fuckin' bass playing,

great guitar playing, beautiful...

I mean, the sound, the sonic sound was,

of that record,

just, like, was revolutionary.

You know, they weren't as fast

as some of the punk bands
that... you know,

most of the punk bands
that I listened to,

but they still had the attitude.

They still had that raw edge
to what they were doing,

even if they weren't quite as up-tempo.

I didn't get the "grunge" title
for them at all.

I might have got it

for some of the other
more metal, slowed-down,

kind of grinding bands,

but I thought Nirvana were a punk band

that just weren't as up-tempo.

Is there anything the same

between your music and New Wave?

I think so.

Like what?

Well, like, you know,

New Wave was just
a progression from punk rock,

and a mutation of punk rock, you know,

and it was more commercial
and more palatable, you know?

It had, you know, punk rock roots,

and it was easier to swallow

for the media

and middle America

and the middle of the world,

and it was just...

You know, that's what I kind of think

about our music.

They had their own
interpretation of punk, I feel.

To me, punk was
a beginning of something.

Life progresses, and music progresses,

and there was a definite need to evolve.

At that time,

there was really not
a lot of rock on the radio.

In fact, radio at that time

was very similar
to what's happening today...

Lightweight pop, and folk,

and sort of synth pop, and dance rock

was sort of the stuff
that was on the radio,

and everyone was wondering

if guitars would ever get
on the radio again.

Nirvana "Nevermind" gets on the radio

with "Smells Like Teen Spirit,"

and suddenly all the radio stations

are looking for the next big hit
that's got some guitars.

I really looked at
that period as like, like...

like, when the Chili Peppers
started touring in 1983,

and all through the '80s, you know,

just playing anywhere, everywhere.

So many bands we played with,

they're all playing this club circuit

that was kind of forged
by, like, Black Flag

and those early punk bands.

When Nirvana made it,

it felt like, wow, like...

you know, and they're playing
arenas and stuff.

This is that scene
finally getting its due

in a big way.

It couldn't be underground
anymore after that,

because then it was like

the record companies wanted to sign

every possible band
that might be like that,

and then, finally, it explodes
into this massive thing

in the early '90s.

Well, the band started in 1987

in a small coastal town, in Aberdeen,

of Aberdeen, Washington,

and we were just jamming in this shack,

and moved out of town.

Started playing gigs in Seattle,

made a tape,

Sub Pop heard it, and...

the rest just keeps snowballing.

[♪♪♪]

[Kim Thayil]:
Nirvana's success,

it didn't come out of the blue.

It came out of the blue
if you were a record executive.

If you were an A&R guy,
Nirvana came out of the blue.

They seemed to miss

that another demographic
had established itself

behind the scene, away from them,

by collecting fanzines,
exchanging cassettes,

and going to each other's shows.

It was all off the radar,

it wasn't Record Industry
Association of America-approved,

you know, or acknowledged.

There were small labels

that were accounting for
millions and millions of dollars

of record sales,

so it was all waiting to happen.

That market was there.

It was just being ignored.

[Grohl]: We were
as surprised as anyone else

that that album got so big.

For me personally,

my life goal was just
to be able to buy food

from playing music.

We wanted to be great,

and we wanted people
to love what we did,

but that was a whole other...

That was...

What happened with that album
was just a whole other thing.

But we thought,

if there's an appreciation
for this thing that we do,

maybe people will appreciate the bands

that made us do what we do,

being able to see a band
like the Bad Brains,

or being able to be in a band

without playing like Eddie Van Halen

or Beethoven,

and the raw, passionate,
human emotion and connection

of just sweating and bleeding,
and screaming onstage,

but also, you know,

we had this network
of friends and family

within that music scene

to be able to kind of, like,
help us walk through

this fucking insane thing
that just happened.

[Fat Mike]: Nirvana,

they really did change everything.

They gave us all careers.

It was super exciting.

Even though we weren't part
of that scene,

we had a wave of people
liking alternative music.

[Noodles]:
When Nirvana broke,

and "Nevermind" came out
and that took off,

I mean, that just changed
the face of music completely.

A lot of punk bands

and friends of ours in punk bands

were thinking about, "Okay,

we've got to be
a little bit more grungy now,

because this is going,"

and I was like, "The whole game's over.

Let's just do what we do
and see what happens now,

because it's a different world."

The first single we did,

we released it ourselves.

I think Maximum RocknRoll
hated the single,

but we got a review that
we were pretty pleased with

in Flip Side, where they called us

"a tinny little punk band
from Orange County."

You know, we'll take it.

Signing with Epitaph
was a big deal for us,

and we were stoked
to be working with Brett.

I mean, that's the guy
from Bad Religion.

Those guys were huge, you know, we...

in the punk scene.

I mean, you know,
they weren't huge, you know,

in music.

[laughing]

[Gurewitz]:
I had never had any luck

sending anything to the radio, really.

15 years earlier,

Rodney on the ROQ played us at midnight,

but, you know, other than that,

it was just strictly college radio

and specialty shows,

but I sent the Offspring's
"Come Out and Play"

to KROQ...

♪ You gotta
keep 'em separated ♪

[♪♪♪]

[Gurewitz]: ...and they
put it on the radio,

and the phones lit up
and didn't stop lighting up.

[♪♪♪]

[Lindberg]: We went on tour
with the Offspring one time,

they said, "Jim,
you want to drive with us?

I want you to play
a bit of our new record."

I sat in there and laid down,

and they gave me a Walkman...

♪ They like
the latest fashion ♪

♪ They're like
a spreading disease... ♪

[Lindberg]:
...and I couldn't believe it,

and I came back to Fletcher
the next day, and I said,

"The new Offspring album
is going to sell millions,"

and he's all,
"Pfft, dude, you're high."

He was all, "Talk to me
when they sell 50,000,

like we did," you know.

♪ They're gonna bash it up
bash it up ♪

♪ Bash it up, bash it up ♪

♪ Hey! ♪

♪ Man, you talkin'
back to me? ♪

♪ Take him out ♪

Those records started selling so fast,

I couldn't press them fast enough.

I couldn't believe it.

I mean, nobody could believe it.

That was the first
punk rock hit in America,

and the next record to cross over

was "Dookie," by Green Day.

[♪♪♪]

[Armstrong]: Me and Mike Dirnt,
we grew up together.

We've known each other since we were 10,

and we kind of started
playing music together

when we were about 12, 13 years old,

and playing, like, hard rock
and heavy metal,

just, like, having fun.

Gilman Street

was our punk rock
all-ages non-profit club

in the Bay Area.

That's what really got me hooked.

There was, like, three bands

that were sort of house bands
at Gilman Street.

One was Operation Ivy, one was Isocracy,

and the other one was, um...

Crimpshrine, and we loved
all those bands.

Like, those were our heroes.

When I went to this place,

you'd see no violence,
no racism, no sexism,

no homophobia,
kind of attitude towards it,

I think it was just really important

on my growth as a human being,
personally,

and to this day, the club's still around

because it's still based
in those... those values.

[♪♪♪]

You, right there, that guy...

That guy, right there.

Does everything sound even out?

Great!

[♪♪♪]

Grab the lights!

Come on in, everybody,
if anybody's out there...

[Armstrong]:
When Green Day first started,

we were called "Sweet Children,"

and we couldn't get a gig,
we couldn't...

That was... the hardest part

about when you're starting in a band,

just trying to get a fucking gig

is the hardest thing in the world.

It sucks.

I remember, it was like torture.

♪ Here we go again,
infatuation ♪

♪ Touches me ♪

♪ Just when I thought
that it would end... ♪

[Lindberg]:
They opened for us.

No one was paying attention.

I was telling people, like,

"Wow, those guys are really good.

Did you hear that band?

Like, they're amazing."

Laser-sharp harmonies
and catchy hooks...

[♪♪♪]

♪ ...But to find that
it's not different at all ♪

[Fat Mike]: I used to see them
playing backyard parties

in Oakland,

and they drove to Minneapolis
once to play a show,

from Oakland, and then drove back.

All the bands that really made it,

they put in their years.

[♪♪♪]

♪ Oh yeah ♪

[crowd cheering]

[song ends]

[Armstrong]:
We were growing faster

than our label was able
to get us out there,

so it was hard,

because, like,
how political the Bay Area is.

It was...

For us to sign to a major was...

it was like blasphemy.

[Gurewitz]:
Green Day were touring

in a bookmobile at the time.

It's something the public
school system would use

to bring books to schools,
like a mobile library...

and they were on tour with us,

opening for us
on the Recipe for Hate tour.

They had just finished
recording "Dookie."

Every day, you know,

Jerry Finn would FedEx them some CDs,

and they'd be listening
to the mix in progress

of "Dookie"

in the bookmobile.

[Armstrong]:
We took control of, like,

the way it was going to sound,

and the artwork was a big deal,

and having Bay Area artists work on it.

I just went deep into my soul,

and just tried to make the best record,

and do it with all the heart

that I could fuckin' put into it.

There was a pressure
to make something that we loved.

♪ Do you have the time ♪

♪ To listen to me whine ♪

♪ About nothing and everything
all at once ♪

♪ I am one of those
melodramatic fools... ♪

[Marky Ramone]:
My opinion, great songs,

very Ramones-influenced,

but again,

the minute you hear them,
you know it's Green Day.

That's important.

♪ Sometimes
I give myself the creeps ♪

♪ Sometimes my mind
plays tricks on me ♪

♪ It all keeps adding up ♪

♪ I think I'm cracking up... ♪

Good drummer.

♪ ...Am I just paranoid ♪

♪ Or am I just stoned? ♪

[♪♪♪]

♪ I went to a shrink ♪

♪ To analyze my dreams ♪

♪ She says it's lack of sex
that's bringing me down ♪

[Lindberg]:
It's the total package.

It sounds like the Beatles

with a little more distortion

and a little more angst.

[♪♪♪]

[Jesse Malin]: Green Day
did something on a level

where they were able
to reach a lot of people

and still be a real band,
still have something to say.

[♪♪♪]

[Armstrong]: I think
there's a constant theme

throughout all my songs

is, like, anxiety
and feeling a bit... lost,

but loving it.

[♪♪♪]

Let's hear it for Green Day!

[crowd cheering]

And the winner of the
California Music Award is...

Green Day.

Oh, my god, look at these guys.

I love it!

Green Day sold 10 million
records of "Dookie,"

where Nirvana had only sold
three million,

and...

it wasn't just them,
but I think they led the way.

Green Day led the way.

The music industry is a fickle thing,

and, you know, they were looking for

"what is the next best thing?"

Grunge had been around
for about two years now.

What is the next best thing,

and "Dookie" was it,
and we were it, you know.

That Offspring record that I sold,

it sold 11 million records
around the world.

Every record on the label
started blowing up.

Epitaph suddenly was a force of nature,

and that was the year punk broke.

By '95, we were doing
$10 million in sales.

Everyone was making a living,
bands were buying houses,

and it was just weird.

You just put out records,
and everyone's buying them.

That was great.

[Noodles]: Things started
taking off really quickly.

We'd been a band for
almost 10 years at that point,

and we knew, "Okay,
this is changing."

I had to think about
quitting my job as a janitor.

[chuckling]

[♪♪♪]

[Kevin Lyman]: Around 1994,

I was still working
320 nights a year in the clubs,

working everywhere in the venues,

and I started to see
the music scene change,

because in the early punk days,

when I was working
in the clubs in the punk scene,

the bands would stay at your house.

We would all support it.

It was quite a community,

and as there was interest
kind of in that post-grunge era,

the major agents, major managers,

people were getting involved.

It wasn't really an organic growth.

It was all of a sudden,

these bands were out
on their first tours,

and they were coming through the clubs,

and they weren't building
the relationships

that I saw in the punk days.

Say a few words.

Hi, Mom.

This is what I do for a living.

I went to college
for five years to do this shit.

I love rock and roll.

I'd do it forever.

One of the aspects that
I thought about the Warped Tour

was getting some of these bands

that were all playing in the clubs

and building them together

and trying to build
a community together,

so that was one concept.

Two, skateboarding and punk
were natural in California...

[crowd cheering]

[Lyman]: ...and I said,
"This whole lifestyle

that we lead in Southern California

is going to come to a head,"

because someone had just mentioned

that they were going
to start the X Games,

and I said, "You know what?

Why don't we go produce
our own music tour

before we're just working
for someone else doing it?"

[♪♪♪]

No one knew what the Warped Tour was

that first year.

It was very unsuccessful,

and I really didn't think

we were going to get a second year,

but then Pennywise signed up,

and then I hung out
with Fat Mike from NOFX,

and when they signed up,

they kind of lend that punk rock
credibility to it

that second year.

I think it was
well worth the money, huh,

all these bands?

Give it up for the Warped Tour!

Lollapalooza sucks.

[Lindberg]: The Warped Tour
was just, like,

absolutely a summer camp

for miscreants and delinquents.

...two, three, four!

[♪♪♪]

[Ness]: You know,
we can fill a parking lot,

put a stage
and a traveling P.A.,

and some slop for food,

and, you know,
it was a great opportunity

to play in front of
large groups of people

in every city,

a lot of places we had never been yet.

♪ Talking about
the Moron Brothers ♪

♪ Tattooed fingers
tattooed toes ♪

[Lindberg]: It's hot as fuck,

stadium parking lots,

no atmosphere whatsoever,
hardcore, asphalt...

We're all playing incredibly fast.

The crowd is just, like,
a swirling mass of humanity.

And boy, does it stink out there,

and not only that,

my balls are sticking
to my legs like crazy, man.

[Fat Mike]: Man, I got
to tour with Joan Jett

on the Warped Tour.

We used to park our buses
next to each other

and have a blow-up pool,

and you only have to play
a half-hour set...

Genius.

[song ends]

Thanks.

I can't hear my vocals.

Hey, did you guys see that snot,

like, coming out of my nose
the whole time?

[Fat Mike]:
But the Warped Tour,

it really made punk available
to 12-to 14-year-olds

all over the country.

[Lyman]:
Punk was, you know...

"Fuck corporate America"
was on every skateboard,

that's what everyone said.

My idea was to go get
some of their money

to help bring some of this music
to a larger audience.

We never made money on tickets.

I wouldn't have been able
to do it without their support,

and it didn't work for some acts.

There was two things that Green Day said

they would never do in life...

play the Warped Tour
and watch "Titanic."

So that first day that
they played the Warped Tour,

I taped a copy of the "Titanic"
to their tour bus

and said, "Now you can say
you've done both."

You've got to love
playing on the Warped Tour,

because it's always great bands,
including yourselves,

and the kids just eat it up.

Oh, it's great, you know?

I mean, it's like, NOFX is a great band.

MxPx is a great band, you know,

One Man Army, Flogging Molly.

I mean, bands like that

have always been around
for years, you know,

and it's just nobody
knows about it, you know?

Punk has been, like,

one of the best-kept secrets
in the world,

and we sort of went around

and blabbed to everybody about it, so...

[laughter]

[♪♪♪]

[Lyman]:
Tony Alva one time came up

and head-butted me at a venue,

at a club one night.

He head-butted me,
hit me in the side of the head,

and he goes, "You fuckin'
ruined punk rock,"

um...

and this is where
that branding and sellout

can kind of come into play
or whatever, you know...

you know, people always go,
"Oh, you sold out punk rock,"

and I'm like, "No,

I figured out how to bring it
to more people, actually,

because I thought it was
so important to me."

You know, people need to be heard.

I think this whole, you know...

sometimes money,

we get told that we're sellouts,
or, you know...

because we figured out

how to make a living
with something we love?

There's always going to be
the 10% of the hardcore

that hate you for
no matter what you do in life,

but 90% appreciated that...

and they were okay with it
kind of being brought up.

[Gurewitz]: I got
my fair share of criticism

for "selling out punk,"

and it was surprising to people

to see an Offspring record
in a chain store.

While I personally
considered it a victory,

I was, you know, I loved punk rock,

and I wanted to bring it to the masses,

there were elements of the punk scene

that they wanted to keep it
to themselves,

and were a little more elitist about it,

and said, "Hey,
you're selling out our scene.

We don't wanna see
punk records in chain stores."

I would much rather see punk
becoming popular

than automatic rifles,

or religion,

or any other thing that nobody
seems to be worried about.

[Noodles]: I mean,
as soon as "Smash" was out,

immediately we started
getting a backlash

from some people
in the punk rock community.

It was really kind of...
kind of funny to me.

We'd been a band for 10 years,

and these kids had been into it
for a couple years.

The punky colors

hadn't even started
running down their face,

and they're protesting us
out front of our clubs,

and calling us sellouts,
at small venues too.

This was the very first tour.

So that was kind of laughable, you know?

I just kind of thought
these kids were being elitist,

and, like, "Punk rock
is not for everybody.

It's only for us,"

and I kind of thought,
I've always thought

the more people that heard this stuff,

the more people would love it, you know?

So I didn't get that.

The truth is, Offspring's
from Huntington Beach.

We're from Hermosa Beach,

where a band called Black Flag
came from.

[crowd cheering]

Yeah, now we're going to play
a little Black Flag tune

for you right now.

[cheering]

[Lindberg]: We didn't want
to be seen as sellouts,

you know?

That was the ultimate insult,

and we immediately got
really defensive about that.

For a while there,

people started getting major deals,

and getting the big money,

and it became a little dicey, of, like,

who's going to stay true to the label,

and we wanted to be that band.

We were never going
to give up on our label,

and we were going to be loyal
no matter what,

and anyone who did that was on the outs,

and in hindsight, it was just lame,

and it, you know,
wasn't really right for us

to come down on the bands that...

that, you know, signed
a major deal or whatever.

People are going to do what they want.

[Sparks]:
People called us sellouts

for signing to Slash Records.

Listen, we wanted
to infiltrate suburbia,

and reach out, you know,

be on TV so those kids really isolated

and alienated in the suburbs

would see possibly some freaks on MTV

that they could relate to,

which would hopefully be us.

The only time punk rock lost its way

is when any good, powerful,
potent art loses its way.

It's when they let
the money people come in,

and I think there was a period

where a lot of good bands
got whisked up,

up to the, you know,
up into business class,

and suddenly the bands are good actors

because they have to be
in front of a camera,

and the fans went,
"Who are you, man?"

like, and "What's this album?

What's this crap?"

"Well, we brought in
this producer, like..."

[scoffing] "He doesn't know
who you are."

And that's the biggest thing, man,

because, like, we are, like,
some of, like,

we're really true to playing music,

and writing music is, you know,

we've been doing it all of our lives,

and so, you know,
and so much money, and...

you, like, begin to think,

"What the fuck am I,

just a fuckin' puppet
to these people?" you know,

it's like, you know,

you get treated like
you're on display, you know?

It's like you're like
a mannequin in a store window--

"This is our product," you know?

Green Day didn't sell out.

None of those bands did.

They're playing their style of music,

and it finally got popular.

There was no selling out.

Selling out's when you change your style

to play music that people might like.

[Ness]:
In one aspect, it's like,

well, there's more people
to hear what you have to say.

The other side of that

is that when something cool
becomes popular,

it can become uncool.

[Homme]: I always felt bad
for Green Day or Nirvana,

because you could see
that they're wearing it.

"Is it something I did?"

Yeah, it's... I mean...

Yeah, everyone likes it.

It's so good, everyone likes it.

Sorry about that.

That's part of the rules

of when punk rock
got into rules like that.

"You're free to do what you want
inside this box."

That's not free to do anything.

If you're in a situation

where the marketplace

or the industry is calling the shots,

it no longer grows.

It doesn't evolve, because people stop.

There's an orthodoxy,

but for me, like,
I think punk is the free space.

It's an area in which
new ideas can be presented

without having to follow...

profit only,

because it was never about the business.

It was just about...

It was about the music.

[Armstrong]: I don't know,
I mean, I was just...

Music was just kind of
something that I did.

It's like I never think of what I do

as a brand for anything.

Like, I just try to make great records

and, like, write songs
with all my heart,

and that's the only thing
that I can go by.

Now, the way that people
consume, you know...

if it's good, it should be popular.

That's what NOFX always did.

We didn't try to be on the radio,

or play music that people would like.

We play music that we like,

and people like that.

A lot of people like it,

and then, uh, yeah,
the Internet happened.

It's always been legal

to share music with your friends.

What Napster does, via the Internet,

is to give you 50 million friends.

Not surprisingly,
the industry didn't like it.

They were worried music fans
would stop buying CDs.

They argued their copyright
was being infringed.

[man]:
Napster has built a business

on the basis of taking
what someone else owns

and making it available.

Well, the Internet, you know, uh,

ruined the CD industry.

We saw it coming,
and I just tried to ignore it.

I knew it was going
to screw up everything,

but, you know... [sighs]
you can't fight it.

You can't get upset.

Well, for me, I mean,

I'm pretty Internet illiterate,

so at first it just really confused me.

I was like, "Wow,
people are getting music

at the, you know,

it's at the tip
of their fingers."

I mean, back in the day,
we used to trade tapes,

and we used to, you know,

sell our shit, like,
out of the back of our van.

[Noodles]:
"Pretty Fly for a White Guy"

was reportedly

one of the most illegally
downloaded songs of all time.

One of the funnest things
we did, though, actually,

this was even before,
I think, "Americana,"

or maybe around the time,

maybe it was right after "Americana,"

was we bootlegged Napster T-shirts

and offered them for sale
on our website,

and they sent us
a "cease and desist" letter.

I really think if anything
killed punk rock or music,

it was the Internet.

It took away everything visceral

and tangible about the music.

[Fat Mike]: So now,

when Fat Records puts out a record,

we sell 10%
of what we sold 10 years ago.

You know, we profit a little.

We make lots of vinyl.

Bands are stoked,

and the really interesting thing is

what happened to punk rock
because of the Internet

is bands realized they couldn't
make a living anymore

by touring or putting out records,

and they realized why
they started in the first place

is because they love
to make music and to do this.

People like to say that punk rock died

or punk rock's dead,

but you know what?

You're just not going
to the right places.

As soon as somebody decides
what punk is,

people who are really punk
just duck under,

or go around,

and say, "Okay, have fun with your punk.

We're going to be punk
over here."

[Rollins]: So when people say
music sucks now,

I wouldn't say,
"No, you suck now."

I would just say, "No,
you're looking over there.

Look over here."

"Ah, hey."

[Hanna]: Punk will die
if it doesn't change.

If it just becomes a documentary

where all us old farts
are, like, fuckin' talking

about shit that happened

a hundred thousand million years ago,

you know, that's not punk.

It's what kids are doing right now.

[singing in English and Japanese]

[♪♪♪]

[Armstrong]: Nowadays, I think
with a lot of young bands,

music has become
almost genre-fluid, you know.

Like, kids are able to, like,

take elements of, like, hip-hop,

and take elements of punk, and grunge,

and electronic music,

and to kind of turn that

into sort of this weird melting pot,

I think is, like, fuckin' awesome.

[♪♪♪]

♪ Street power! ♪

♪ No time for the weak
I'm just tryna survive ♪

♪ Street power! ♪

[♪♪♪]

[Lindberg]:
I think a lot of that

has to do with the political context

of what's going on,

and we've always seen
in times of upheaval,

really great,
confrontational music come out.

It's a bit like Batman.

Like, "When the time is right
and you need me most,

I will be there," you know,

because it is a youth...

it's that youth expression of outrage,

and there's a lot to be outraged at.

♪ Are you entertained? ♪

[♪♪♪]

[Sylvain Sylvain]:
And, you know,

we had to do what we had to do then,

and I think

you guys have to do
what you have to do now.

So it all comes around
full circle, you know,

but I think it's more relevant than ever

in today's times.

[♪♪♪]

[Darryl Jenifer]: Your music
could sound harsh,

but stick with love, positivity, unity,

all the good things in life,

and make that the basis of your music,

and then you're gonna be fine.

Sounds like hippie shit, but...

I'm buying that more

than fuckin' being negative about it,

you know what I mean?

The world has been

in much worse places than it is now.

Much, much, much worse.

We're gonna get through this,

and I believe that right now, there's...

people are gonna respond creatively.

[Wayne Kramer]:
Music, by itself,

I don't believe
can actually create a change,

but it certainly has a role to play

in motivating people,
in organizing people,

and focusing people
on things that matter.

Where if you have something to say,

and you can join forces
with other people,

and if you can feel each other's energy,

you can create bigger change.

You know, we're going
to support each other

and do this.

We're in this small thing together

against the world.

Just write the song,
or go out and play it,

if that's what you're feeling right now.

Who cares if it's got a chorus or not?

You're going out and speaking the truth.

We didn't know
how to write fucking songs.

We didn't know there was keys.

We didn't know any of that shit.

That's a lot of what has allowed punk

to keep being reborn over the years.

There's always gonna be some little punk

saying to him or herself,

"I could do that."

"I'm gonna pick up a guitar.

I don't care
if I can't sing, can't play.

I'm gonna do that."

Make your own damn label.

Who cares about someone's damn opinion?

Press the thing up, let's go.

That's what punk rock means to me.

Let's determine our outcome.

Let's form the future.

Make up your own fuckin' mind, you know?

Don't listen to anyone.

Don't listen to the media.

Don't listen to the Internet.

Especially do not listen
to this fuckin' government.

Someone has to tell people
what's going on,

paint what we see,

and paint what we think
other people should see,

and that's up to the artists.

I've learned that telling the truth

is a very good way of life,

and if the rest of the world
can understand

that different points of view
make you better,

not worse,

then we have a universe worth living in.

So that's punk.

That to me is punk rock.

That is punk, absolutely.
That is punk.

That, to me, is punk.

You know, that's...

that's punk.

That's punk.

That's not jazz. That's punk.

[♪♪♪]

[♪♪♪]