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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 27, 1994)
day • October 27, 1994 Aggiclife The Battalion • Page 3 ages of teenage angst return to music anksgiviijij the same r_. he Brazotfj] B le nt aroijj 'thegronri (Jeremy Keddi© ty onrea!;.*® ATTAL10N t makes li: ,_ — the year of the punk. Yes, the hard core elements of music are resurfacing on the mu- :ene again. But the “no future” enage angst of ’70s punk bands ex Pistols and the Velvet Under- edrilledtby 1UIK ' have turned into mainstream -ninhak' currerL t bands such as sen Day and Offspring, duledd PP' n m agazine has characterized ion did-l • lyear as “the year punk broke.” luccess of the “new” punk bands |brought the style of music back the underground scene into the stream. Ireen Day’s album “Dookie” reached $ Billboard album charts, [the videos for “Longview” and iket Case” hit maximum rotation TV. Touring on Lollapalooza and Spirit i s : jjpot °n Woodstock ‘94 hasn’t hurt ei- er, a senior punk influence has equaled suc- h Leslietki r or Offspring as well. Hailing from inity toslm'l^ 6 County. Calif., the band has hit jlnum with their album “Smash” 'omeouta: ^ ,; heir song “Come Out and Play.” if Bonfire J lutDr. Leslie C. Gay Jr., an assis- THE RE^UR^EN^E OF ■ Hll IlSii Mri" ^ ^ WkJm, mzL ^ ^ u ? Spirit,'ti [professor of philosophy and hu- |ities, has researched the punk ement of the ’70s and said he be- s today’s punk bands are not a sec- , or if it (sj .here willte John Barr said tie k 'ore raidrJji al years d 11 outtatd ► Y S6f» $ s M a E. S O' f ' l r iew! tairsi changed , life, dw, fren f!l ;y w )od. la mm A : / ** * " J Velvet Underground was an influential punk band. ond wave of the movement, but do rep resent some of the elements of the movement. “It is difficult to place a single defin ition on punk rock music, but the cen trality of the movement forms around a do-it-yourself attitude,” he said. Gay, who teaches Issues in Rock Music, said the American version of punk rock started in the ’70s as a rejec tion of mainstream rock. He said orga nizers of the movement felt that the su perstars of mainstream rock did not share the same lifestyles as their audi ences, and therefore could not identify with each other. In the November issue of Spin, writer Jonathon Gold said “Punk rock has al ways been around; it’s just that they fi nally figured out how to sell it . . . Cynics suggest that with Nirvana gone and Pearl Jam not making videos, the music-industry feed tube’needs some thing hip to sell, es pecially something that seems so resis tant to being sold at all.”. Gay said the im age of punk allowed a connection be tween the band and the audience. “Punk rock musi cians didn’t dress up f in fancy clothes, and didn’t make dis tinctions between themselves and the audience,” he said. The do-it-yourself attitude was also present in the music of punk bands, Gay said. He said members of punk bands during the ’70s did not require virtuosic music ability. “Musical expression in punk music is not limited to those who have years of formal training,” he said. Rob Tizard, an employee of Ma rooned Records and a senior geography major, agreed with Gay that punk rock music is not exactly a style of music, but rather the ideology behind it. “Punk rock music is the idea of being a totally independent band that does pretty much what it wants,” he said. He said punk rock music often deals with topics that are not mainstream, and are generally not commercially successful. He said the lyrics often t-il 1 . •..jfefite.. The Sex Pistols’ 1977 classic punk album. speak of anti-establishment ideas. In addition, he said punk rock music has brought the revival of independent la bels in record stores. “Punk seems to encompass under ground music that people don’t like,” he said. He said punk music comes to the public view in sporadic waves, and when it does he thinks of the music as pop rather than punk. Last year, Tizard booked Green Day at the Stafford Opera House and said about 80 people showed up. He said if he were to book them again, the tickets would sell out easily. “Now that it’s in the public eye, I don’t know if you can really call it punk,” Tizard said. “I see true punk bands as not really trying to make money out of it.” Gay said the punk movement of the ’70s isn’t coming back be cause it has essentially passed away. He said he did not think many bands would describe themselves as punk, but rather punk-influenced. Adreon Henry, the lead singer of Knee Gas Kit, who was referred to as a local punk rock band by Tizard, answered the phone at his skate shop. The Factory. “Ihink,” he said. “I guess we’re punk. We’ve been dorking around for a few years.” Henry said before forming Knee Gas Kit, the members were friends and decided to form a band to have fun. They each decided to get in struments and started jam- Billie Joe of Green Day ming together. Since, they have appeared at Northgate Cafe and the Stafford Opera House. Henry said they perform cover songs they consider fun, including the theme song from the “Golden Girls.” Aside from cover songs Henry said their origi nals include personal experiences which are not necessarily pop. He said the fact that the band just came together and messed around in a garage possesses a slight punk image. He said that true punk bands maintain the same image on stage. “There’s a certain amount of energy that punk bands have, that people like George Strait don’t have,” he said. Sonic Youth’s 1990 album “Goo 7ae Kwon Do Club kicking up the competition ditor rdilor liter itor taAnfl iley Moore. : I M ikepr# aha )oree n rsonj""” :lizabel |,|w sity 11 Te*av the sity" 1 ccs a 1 " 1 number ,TheB' 1, f 1 irtisW fa i. to 5 p- 111 ' I Constance Parten ■Battalion ost people over 18 can remember the original 1970s version of the television program “Kung Fu,” featuring David rradine fighting his way in and out of every Isode. For many Americans, this was their pt exposure to the martial arts. [Since then, karate, judo, aikido and tae kwon 'have become popular forms of self defense fitness. Everyone from small children to the |erly can be seen practicing stances, kicks and punches all around the world. In fact, tae kwon do is the second-most widely participated sport in the world, right behind soccer. Tae kwon do may not be quite that popular at Texas A&M, but it is popular enough to have a club. And it has attracted enough talent to rank the Texas A&M Tae Kwon Do Club ninth at the National Collegiate Tae Kwon Do Champi onships this year. Matt Banasik, a senior electrical engineering major and president and founder of the Texas A&M Tae Kwon Do Club, started training in tae kwon do almost 10 years ago. Banasik, a sec- -'•’’sssir I & ' : fi!S 1 I -Jid.lVM -iv Blake Griggs / The Battalion fitt Banasik (center) explains the rules of sparring to Juan Carballo (left). ond-degree black belt, trained in Houston while in junior high and high school, and wanted to con tinue his training when he came to A&M. But when he arrived, he found con tinuing his training here was almost impossible. “There wasn’t a tae kwon do program here that did Olympic style training,” Banasik said. “So I decided I would just get one started myself.” In the fall of 1993, Ba nasik did just that. Since then, the club has almost doubled in size, and has a membership of more than 40 people. Banasik said the difference between the club’s version of tae kwon do and the other forms of tae kwon do is found pri marily at the competitive level. “The kicks and stuff are the same,” Banasik said. “The competitions are just different.” The Olympic-style tae kwon do the club offers is the only type recog nized by the Olympic committee. Competitions using this form of tae kwon do don’t allow at tacks below the belt or on the back. There is no break in the action as in other forms of tae kwon do, and the points are continually tallied throughout the match. This semester, a team composed of 11 club members competed in the 19th National Colle giate Championships at Iowa State University. Club Treasurer Camilla Sullivan said the com petition was incredible and she is looking for ward to the U.S. Open in February. Sullivan, a sophomore biomedical science major and first- degree black belt, said the team’s primary goal is to continue competing in preparation for the Olympic tryouts in 1996. “The U.S. Open is an international competi tion held in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center,” Sullivan said. “This should give us a good feel for what the Olympics would be like.” Blake Griggs / The Battalion Matt Banasik, a second-degree black belt, demonstrates a tae kwon do move. Sullivan was also a competitor at the Nation al Collegiate Championships and won a bronze medal. “We brought home 11 medals from the cham pionships,” Sullivan said. “One girl on our team won two gold medals.” Sullivan said competitors are paired in com petitions by weight, sex and rank. Rank refers to the degree of expertise the competitor has. For example, white belts (beginners) only com pete with other white belts, and fourth-degree black belts only compete with fourth-degree black belts. “We took 11 people to nationals,” Sullivan said. “Five black belts and six colored belts. Everyone did really well. Our coach, Magdy At- tia, was very pleased.” Attia said the team’s performance at nation als was excellent, and the team is very serious about competitions. “We have a very talented team here,” Attia said. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we have some Olympic competitors from A&M in ’96.” BaMi