textfiles/music/bullshit.txt

MIKE BULLSHIT INTERVIEW
From Jersey Beat #39

by Jim Testa                                           
     At   a  small  building  near  the  corner  of 
Rivington  Street  and Clinton,  in a part  of  the 
Lower East Side where shopping is a way of life and 
the  first  language  you're  likely  to  hear   is 
Spanish,  New  York  hardcore is getting  a  second 
chance.                          
     When  CBGB  cancelled its long-running  Sunday 
hardcore matinees in November,  1989,  for a lot of 
kids it meant the end of an era and the only chance 
they had to see their favorite kind of  music.  But 
within  a few weeks,  there were shows again.  This 
time on Saturday afternoons.  And this  time,  they 
weren't being run by a club, but by the people from 
the  hardcore  scene,  for the kids in the hardcore 
scene. And the man behind them was Mike Bullshit.
     As editor of Bullshit Monthly and lead  singer 
of  SFA and more currently GO!,  Mike Bullshit  has 
been a presence on the NY hardcore scene for years. 
He  is a prepossessing kind of guy,  standing  over 
six  foot  tall  with  a scowl  that  would  freeze 
Frankenstein in his tracks - quite a contrast  from 
the serious,  committed, peaceful person inside. If 
anybody  can  say  anything about  where  New  York 
hardcore is and where it's going in the 90's,  it's 
Mike Bullshit.  So we asked him.  The interview was 
conducted  on  December 29 at ABC No  Rio.  Present 
were Jim Testa,  Mike Bullshit,  and Gavin from the 
band  Absolution,  who works the shows as  security 
person.

Q: Let's start with the shows at ABC No Rio.

Mike: BSM Presents. They're $3-$5, they're three to 
four hardcore bands.  No racist or sexist or  anti-
gay bands.  We started doing them a couple of weeks 
ago (in December, '89), I hope to be doing them for 
a  while.  It's a cool club,  there are no bouncers 
besides Gavin.

Gavin:  I'm  not  a bouncer,  I just write  on  the 
walls.

Q:  Did  you start the shows in response  to   CBGB 
cancelling their matinees?
   
Mike:  I'm  sort  of happy that CB's stopped  doing 
them. 'Cos CB's actually gave you a scene and said, 
Here is your scene,  and enjoy it but just don't do 
this,  this,  this,  or  this.  And  after  awhile, 
everyone  just took it for granted.  And  when  you 
take  it for granted,  no one is going to work  for 
the scene, nothing's going to happen, and basically 
it all turned into shit. So we're trying to make it 
not  shit.   Not make it,  but work with people  to 
make  it better,  to have a decent  scene.  Because 
there  is  no scene now...  We're at the point  now 
where  there are New York bands who will  not  play 
New  York because there's so much violence.  That's 
silly, that's ridiculous. 

Q:  Plus  there are so many bands from  around  the 
country who won't come to New York, because it's so 
hard  to get a gig or because of the reputation for 
fights at shows.

Mike: Well, Philly's worse. At shows in Philly, KKK 
show up and stuff.  Here's there's a little  clique 
with  chips on their shoulders who like to show  up 
and start fights. It's just not cool.

Q:  I  see  you have Gavin and Tim  (Boiling  Point 
Fanzine)  helping  you,  so  there  is  sort  of  a 
coalition working on this.

Mike:  It  started  out  as just me,  I  was  doing 
everything - security,  booking,  working the door. 
It  just got to be too much.  Gavin's  helping  me, 
making  sure  there's no fights.  He's not  working 
"security," he just makes sure there are no fights. 
Tim's going to be setting up a record table,  where 
we'll sell hardcore 7" ep's for  $3.  Buy them from 
bands for $1.75 or $2 and sell them cheaply, unlike 
some record stores..

Q: ...where they're $4.29 or more.

Mike:  Yeah.  Most record stores in NY will buy 100 
copies,  save 50 copies to sell for $20 in a  year, 
and put the rest out...maybe. And that's not really 
cool. We want to give hardcore back to the kids. So 
Tim's  getting in touch with the record labels  and 
hopefully  that  will  take place  here  too.  It's 
coming  along slowly but it's coming  along  pretty 
good, I think.
   
Q:  In the last year or so,  the whole scene seemed 
to  get  so  fragments.  You had these  big  labels 
starting up like Hawker and In-Effect drawing bands 
out  of the scene,  you had the  straightedge  kids 
breaking  away into their own clique,  and now  you 
have  bands like Warzone and Token Entry who  write 
press   releases  saying  they  don't  want  to  be 
considered "hardcore" anymore.

Mike:  I'm not going to rag on people for what they 
want to do. SFA is probably going to go on a bigger 
label,  but if I was still in SFA, they wouldn't be 
doing  that...  I  personally would never go  on  a 
major label. I hate to say never because everything 
I've  ever said I'd never do,  I've wound up  doing 
eventually.  I  like staying  independent,  I  like 
doing 7 inches. I don't like doing albums. GO! will 
probably  never  have an  album.  GO!  will  almost 
definitely have another 7" after this one comes out 
in January. We're on Noo Yawk Rehkids, which is our 
own label.  We'll probably be doing a Born Again 7" 
and I'm talking to a couple of other bands. 
     I   like  to  stay  independent.   Stay   with 
grassroots  distribution.  Nothing  against  bigger 
labels,  but  I  don't like the concept  of  making 
money off of music.  I don't think it's positive, I 
don't  think it's something I'd want to be involved 
with.  I want to have complete artistic control,  I 
want  to be there when they print the  covers,  and 
completely be in charge of distribution.  I want to 
see the copies mailed out, I want to see everything 
being  pressed.  And  I don't know if I'd  trust  a 
major label to do that.  I would just want to do it 
myself.  And so far I've done everything myself and 
it's  come  out pretty good.  It  could  have  been 
better.  But it's definitely a learning experience. 
I think if the SFA and GO! records had been done by  
major labels,  I wouldn't have learned as much. And 
I'm sure this next GO!  7" will be much better. And 
the one after that will be better than that one. So 
that's definitely the route I'm taking. 

Q: Let's talk about GO! for a minute. Is the lineup 
on this new 7" the original members?
   
Mike:  Pretty much.  GO!  started as a 3-piece. GO! 
started  when  I  was  hitchhiking  actually  (Mike 
hitchhiked  across  the country one summer)  and  I 
wrote a song that was a Lifesblood ripoff which was 
"It's  Up To You."  I just wrote that on the  road, 
and  I knew SFA (his then-current band) wouldn't do 
that song.  So when I get back in March of  '89,  I 
was  still  undecided if I wanted to rejoin SFA  or 
not.  And in one day, actually, we just came to the 
realization that they wanted to do one thing and  I 
wanted  to do something different.  And I was gonna 
do  a  demo  tape  playing  all  the   instruments, 
actually, and Ronn said, You know, Mike, you really 
can't play drums. So Ronn said he'd play drums, and 
then we got Eric (guitar) pretty quickly.  And then 
we  did one show and got a bass player,  John.  And 
it's steamrolled.  We've done a bunch of shows,  we 
have a bunch of shows booked,  we have a 7"  coming 
out   in  under  a  year,   which  is  pretty  cool 
considering we took off two months.  So it's really 
happening, I really enjoy it.

Q:  You  seem to make a habit of doing things  that 
people  say you can't do in New York.  Like  people 
say,  you can't get booked in NY, you can't put out 
a record on your own anymore...


Mike:  Well,  as  far as getting  shows,  CB's  was 
ridiculous,  because  you  had to go on  a  waiting 
list,  you  had to kiss Connie's ass...  At ABC  No 
Rio,  I  call up bands and say "You wanna play?" Or 
bands come up to me and say, "Gee, Mike, we're just 
starting out, can we get a show?" and I say, "Okay, 
how  about such and such a date." It's a  lot  more 
relaxed.  I'm  trying to keep it to 3 bands instead 
of  4,  just because it's a lot less headaches  for 
me.  I'll  probably start doing four bands as  more 
people  get involved with it.  My  friends  Charlie 
from Just Lies fanzine and Rich from Right 
Trash  fanzine  are helping me out a  bit,  and  my 
roommate  Sam  from Evacuate Records is helping  me 
out a bit. 
   
     As far as the label goes,  Noo Yawk Rehkids is 
basically  a  label that supports the  belief  that 
people  should take pride in their intrinsic  value 
as a human being,  regardless of their race, creed, 
sexual orientation, religion, etc. etc. I am trying 
to put out bands that are not racist.  That are not 
Brooklyn this or Jackson Heights that...  Not "Fuck 
the  immigrants"  or  "Fag bash  this"  or  "Bitch, 
whore,  slut" that.   Bands that take a little more 
time to write their lyrics, take a little more time 
think about what they're saying.  I think that as a 
label  it's  starting to be kind  of  cohesive.  We 
might put out this record by The Manacled, which is 
Rich  and Charlie and a couple  other  people.  And 
Born  Against is definitely,  as far as  lyrically, 
graphically,   idea-wise,  one  of  the  best  put-
together  bands I've ever seen.  If people went out 
and  made  the mistakes - and I've  made  mistakes, 
I've made mistakes plenty of times.  But you do  it 
and learn. Like the early Bullshit Monthlys sucked. 
And after they came out,  I said, I did that wrong, 
and  the next time they came out better.  It's  all 
about  falling  down  and getting up and  doing  it 
better next time. 

Q: Do you think there's more tolerance in the scene 
now, or less, than, say, five years ago?

Mike:  I think five years ago people were a  little 
more together. I think as far as "unity," there was 
more unity, because you'd  have skins and punks and 
hardcores  and rastas and the little kids at shows. 
And  there  wouldn't be as many  fights  at  shows. 
There  was more cameraderie.  I don't think  people 
were  dressing  up as much and had chips  on  their 
shoulders  as  much.   I wouldn't call  it  "Unity" 
unity,  but I think people knew each other more. It 
didn't  matter as much what borough you were  from. 
There are a lot of cool people now.  And there were 
a  lot  of cool people then.  It's really just  two 
different  times,  and  I don't want  to  dwell  on 
either one.

Q:  Have  the ABC No Rio shows been pretty cool  so 
far?

Mike:  Yes.  So  far  we haven't had  a  fight.  We 
haven't  had  too many hassles at  the  door.  Door 
prices  have been $2 to $4.  All the bands  that've 
played have been cool - Citizens Arrest, Yuppicide, 
Buyout Society, Raw Shock, SFA, Go!. 
   
Q:  You're  really  dealing with the bands  at  the 
bottom level of the ladder.  When you start booking 
bands  from  the bigger labels who  are  more  well 
known,  won't  that  necessarily  start  drawing  a 
different  crowd,  kids who aren't really into  the 
scene  so much as hanging out at big shows?  That's 
where the fights seem to start.

Mike: I'm starting to deal with some of those band. 
Uppercut  is  playing   soon.   Outburst,   Maximum 
Penalty.  There  are some bands I won't deal  with. 
There  are  some bands that really fucked me up  in 
the past. Basically we're at the point now where we 
have 30 steady people every week.  I'd like to  get 
to  the  point  where we have 50-60  people  steady 
every week.  I'm trying to get the word out, trying 
to get the people who will come every week and  not 
be assholes.

Q: How's Bullshit Monthly going?

Mike:  Bullshit  Monthly is doing fine.  #22 should  
be out late January. It'll be a quarter, it'll be 8 
pages.

Q: How can you sell a fanzine for 25 cents?

Mike: (Runs down printing costs) Basically it costs 
me 20 cents to print one.  And I get promo  albums. 
So  if I spend $20 but I get 4 or 5 albums,  I  can 
deal with it. I'm not in this to make money.

Q:  Doing  the fanzine should complement having the 
club.

Mike: Pretty much. I can advertise the shows in the 
fanzine and sell the zine at shows.  If people come 
down  and read the zine,  it's all right.  If  they 
don't  want  to come  down,  it's  all  right.  I'm 
offering  a  matinee in New York where  there's  no 
fights,  where  there's cool people,  where there's 
good bands for very little money. If people want to 
take advantage of that, cool.

Q:  Have  you ever had any problems with  the  Post 
Office   over  using  the  name  Mike  Bullshit  or 
Bullshit Monthly?

Mike: I get so much mail addressed to Mike Bullshit 
or Bullshit Monthly,  you have no idea.  It's a lot 
of fun.  I love the Post Office. It's great. I send 
out  so much mail,  I get so  much  mail.  Bullshit 
Monthly gets letters to that name from all over the 
world  and all over the country and I've never  had 
any trouble.

Q:  I  recently  sent a videotape to a pen  pal  in 
Chile,  and  it was intercepted by this  "Committee 
For  Political  Correctness" and they  watched  the 
whole  video  to  make sure there  wasn't  anything 
political on it before they'd release it to him.

Mike:  That's scary.  I think living in the  United 
States  basically makes you ignorant of stuff  like 
that,  and  it gives you a big head because you can 
do anything you want,  and it pretty much keeps you 
from realizing what censorship is.

Q:  The last Bullshit Monthly had this thing  about  
being "gay owned and operated."

Mike: That's been coming up a lot. People have been 
saying, it's a hardcore magazine, it has nothing to 
do with sexual orientation, why even bother putting 
that   in?   And   it's   because   everything   is 
heterosexual.  You  open a newspaper or a  magazine 
and  it's heterosexual,  you just don't realize it. 
Sexual    orientation    should   be    the    most 
inconsquential  thing  in your  entire  life.  With 
everything going on in the world,  like hunger, and 
homelessness,  and wars,  it's the dumbest thing to 
even  talk  about.  And I wish I lived in  a  world 
where I didn't have to talk about it and it  didn't 
matter.  But  as  long as I live in a  world  where 
people  are persecuted,  where people are killed or 
beaten  up or people are put in jail for  the  fact 
that they're gay, then yes, I'll stand here and say 
I'm  gay  and have no problem with it at  all.  And 
I'll wear the "Silence=Death" button as a  memorial 
to the thousands killed in the concentration camps, 
to  the thousands who are persecuted in the  United 
States, and to the millions of people who wish they 
could  wear  that button and  can't,  because  they 
would  lose their jobs,  lose their families,  lose 
their  homes,   and  lose  everything...If  there's 
injustice out there, I'm going to fight against it, 
and if I have to put myself on the line for it,  it 
really doesn't bother me in the least.
   
Q: Do you think you could have come out 5 years ago 
and been in a band and everything?

Mike:  I really wasn't out five years ago.  I  just 
came  out about a year ago.  And it's still a  very 
difficult process and a very individual decision. 

Q: Especially in the hardcore scene.

Mike:  Oh,  yeah. I've heard bands on the stage say 
"Faggot  this" and "faggot that" and talk about gay 
bashing.  And Bad Brains.  Let's talk about the Bad 
Brains.  On  the new GO!  7" there's a song  called 
"Holy Roller." It's not and anti-Rastafarian  song, 
it  could  be about Jews or Catholics or Rastas  or 
Buddhits  or anyone who uses  their religion  as  a 
fulcrum for persecuting a minority because of their 
sexual orientation,  or a gender,  such as women. I 
find  the Bad Brains completely more offensive than 
the  Cro  Mags because the Cro Mags tell  you  that 
they're  street  tough and don't get  in  our  way. 
Fine.  Bad  Brains come out saying "We're  positive 
mental  attitude" and "We talk for the youth,"  and 
they  put  down women and they put down  gays.  And 
It's just ridiculous. 
     People write me and tell me they're sorry  the 
Bad  Brains  have these new beliefs.  But  the  Bad 
Brains have spent the better part of a decade doing 
everything  in their power to completely insult and 
defame gays and lesbians,  and women. And it's just 
ridiculous  that  anyone  still  supports  them.  I 
didn't  speak  up about it until I heard  the  song 
"Don't Blow Bubbles" on the "Quickness" album.  And 
I heard a song basically saying that AIDS is a cure 
for  homosexuality and drug abuse,  and  how  could 
anyone possibly give that a good review? And when I 
see a fanzine giving that a good review, I write to 
and say you should really read lyrics.  If a person 
supports Skrewdriver,  fine, because they can go to 
a  store and see songs like "Nigger Nigger Out  Out 
Out"  and they can decide to either support this or 
not support this.  This is America and you can make 
that choice.  But a band like the Bad Brains, where 
they  disguise  it with this Jah bullshit  and  you 
don't  know  what garbage  you're  buying,  and  by 
supporting   them,   you're  supporting  all   this 
bigoted,  prejudiced  nonsense,  and you don't know 
it,  that  I  think is  wrong.  I  truthfully  have 
nothing  against warning labels.  I'd like to see a 
warning label on that record saying "This record is 
anti-gay."  As long as people don't censor. I'm not 
really a critical person,  but I do consider myself 
a gay activist.
   
Q:  That's great. And it must be especially hard in 
the scene you're in.

Mike:  Yeah, it's hard. But when gay people grow up 
with  no  real  positive  role  models...  I  don't 
consider myself a role model for anyone,  but  just 
being out there and being open and being out of the 
closet is important for gay people in general.  And 
if  there  are just one or two people in the  scene 
who  are  positively influenced by  the  fact  that 
there's  another gay man out there,  the fact  that 
there  might be some physical threat against me  is 
inconsequential.  

Q: Anything else you want to say?

Mike:  A  GO!  7"  should be out by the  middle  of 
January.  The  last  time I was asked if I had  any 
closing comments,  I didn't,  I'm not very good  at 
that.  But one thing I do want to say is, the thing 
is, we're Go! and you're not, but you can be if you 
want to be.

---------------------------------------------------
ABC No Rio is located at 156 Rivington Street, near 
the corner of Clinton Street,  on Manhattan's Lower 
East  Side.  For  directions,  schedules of  shows, 
bookings,  or  information  about GO!  or  Bullshit 
Monthly,  send a SASE to Mike Bullshit,  175  Fifth 
Ave. Apt. 2589, New York NY 10010. Send 50 cents or 
$1 for BULLSHIT MONTHLY, or $3 for a copy of the GO
record.
---------------------------------------------------
Jersey Beat fanzine covers underground music in the 
Greater New York area and is published quarterly.
Available for $2 postpaid from Jim Testa,
151 First Ave. Box A, New York NY 10003 
 
 
 
 
 





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