around 86, i found sod's speak english cassette on my school bus
when i was in fifth grade. since the school bus would run diff't
shifts, picking up kids from all over manhattan and shit, i was
lucky enough to jab myself in the ass with said cassette. i put it
into my shitty ge walkman and pussy whipped came on. i was hooked on
the sound. everybody in ym age group was into rap, so i asked this
8th grader who my mom told me to stay away from about sod. he
explained crossover, and i didn't really understand, so he made me a
mixed tape with the ramones, bad brains, x, minor threat, the mob,
dri, and a bunch of other crap that to this day is probably best
left forgotten. he even told me that the bestie boys were punk, and
that licensed to ill was nothing like what they sounded like before.
licensed to ill was the flavor of the month, and i preached to
people that they were just fucking with them, but everyone was
loving fight for your right and not listening to the impressionable
fifth grader. whatever. bri made me a couple of more tapes and
graduated from my school by the end of my fifth grade year. from
then on, i would just listen to anything i could get my hands on -
some stuff bought, other stuff stolen - so my range of punk became
very wide. sick of it all and burn were my first real introductions
to what i consider nyhc, and i got to see them both at the ritz in
1990, although my first show was a cop shoot cop, jesus lizard set
at cb's a year earlier. never really had friends who listened to
what i listened to, so i just made my own way.