day • October 27, 1994
Aggiclife
The Battalion • Page 3
ages of teenage angst return to music
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— 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
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[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
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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
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â– 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-
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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