Tag: punk rock

The Saga of Punkin’ Donuts

~ cafebedouin

“When Punkin’ Donuts was at its peak in the mid- to late 1980s, Lakeview had a rough reputation. “It was still kind of hairy,” says Dwayne Thomas, a Cabrini-Green native. “People were like, ‘Ooh, that area is kind of crazy.’ It was, like, gangbangers, drug dealers, hookers, transgender people. It was a huge melting pot.” In the punk crowd around Belmont and Clark, antiracist skinheads rolled deep. “That was our area—we felt normal in that area,” Dwayne says. “People in my neighborhood didn’t dress like that and didn’t listen to that type of music. I saw people who dressed and believed in the same things I believed in—they had the same type of convictions. We fought the same kind of causes.”

-Leor Galil, “The saga of Punkin’ Donuts.” The Chicago Reader. April 8, 2020

An interesting exploration of how one strange thing can transform a neighborhood.

The McKenzie Tapes

~ cafebedouin

“The McKenzie Tapes is a collection of live audio recordings from some of New York City-area most prominent music venues of the 1980s and 1990s.

—https://www.themckenzietapes.com/

Live recordings of Sonic Youth, Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, Redd Cross, Mudhoney, Wire, Sun Ra, Palace Brothers, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, The Feelies, T Model Ford, The Godfathers, Pixies, etc.

Black Skinhead

~ cafebedouin

“The skinhead subculture was originally tied to working-class youths in London, England in the 1960s. Considered the first wave, this iteration of the movement was an offshoot of another youth subculture called mod. Skinheads were categorized as such because of their close-cropped or bald heads, but their fashion was inspired by mod as well as the Jamaican rude boy subculture.”

—Elijah C. Watson. “Black Skinhead: Vic Mensa And The Distortion Of The Skinhead Subculture.” okayplayer.com. June 12, 2018.

Never heard about skinheads originally coming out of mod and rude boy subcultures and how it was commoditized to promote a fascist ideology. But, I find it interesting that the same tactics are in play with the attempt to create “Proud Boys” in the United States.