So you read the title of this column and you said - ‘What the hell is Punk Month?’ Let me try to explain it simply: in
Aaron Cometbus’ novella-zine,
Double Duce, he has this idea to have a month where he and his friends get back into the practice of being punks. This entails things like dancing at shows, hanging out on streetcorners, shaving their heads, and listening to all their records. You know, punk stuff. In February 2009, I decided to have a Punk Month, myself, because I needed to break the work-bar-cry myself to sleep routine I’d fallen into, and because I needed to remember why I fell in love with punk in the first place. It worked so well that every year since then, I’ve had a Punk Month.
I do it as a way to get myself out of any rut I may have fallen into. I do it so I have an excuse to work on all the projects I want to work on, and have all the adventures I want to have, and if I have to lose sleep to get it all done, I can say: “Screw sleep! You can sleep when Punk Month’s over!” I do it so if I’m feeling sorry for myself, I can summon the Undying Spirit of Punk Rock and say to myself: “Get over it and do something rad, or I’ll kick your ass.” Sometimes it winds up lasting more than a month. It doesn’t have an official start date, since it’s a made-up thing, but I always start it around the end of January or beginning of February, cos this is the time of year when I need something like this: a cure for the winter blues, a way to shake myself up.
I know, it’s totally silly - but if we can’t create our own silly traditions in this life, then what’s the point in living?
How does this column relate to it? Consider this a mix of anthems for Punk Month. Songs that make me feel furious, wild, young, and alive.
Check out
Mix Tapes from the Midwest: The Podcastto hear a bunch of tracks that didn’t make it into the column, and stay tuned for my next column/podcast, which will be all about Wisconsin punk rock.
And when Punk Month’s over, I’ll start writing about other kinds of music again. Maybe.
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