Forced Exposure #3

Given just how intensely devoted I was to Forced Exposure from the blessed day in 1986 when I bought Forced Exposure #10 at Rockpile Records in Goleta, CA until they wrapped it all up in 1993, I’ve struggled over the years to procure one of the mag’s “hardcore era” issues and hold it in my trembling hands for any longer than a few minutes. These would be FE issues #1-5 from the early 80s, all of which appear to have been somewhat better-distributed than most punk fanzines, yet still really hard to come by, particularly on the US west coast, where I’m from. These issues had been disavowed, more or less, by editor Jimmy Johnson by the time he’d teamed up with Byron Coley and edged more fully into the deeper rock, psych, noise and experimental underground. Back issues of these five were long said in no uncertain terms to be “thankfully out of print”.

Yet I knew that even at age 19 or 20 or whatever he was, Jimmy had superlative taste in ballistic hardcore punk, and he was right at the center of it all in Boston circa 1981-82. That must have been an absolute blast. For me, and likely for you, there were only three truly top-tier regional centers for hardcore punk during these years: the upper Midwest/rust belt (Michigan/Ohio/Wisconsin), Washington DC, and Boston. LA doesn’t count – it was a teeming punk world unto itself, and most of the actual hardcore bands – at least as I define it – from Los Angeles were pretty awful in comparison with the aforementioned. Forced Exposure #3, right in the nerve center in Summer 1982, is a regional hardcore fanzine in the best sense, published by young people for other young people.

And we’re at hardcore’s apex, aren’t we? Right on page three we’ve got the Process of Elimination tour coming to town with The Necros, Meatmen, Negative Approach, McDonald’s (I hope they played “Miniature Golf”) and Boston’s own Gang Green. Another deeply-held hardcore punk opinion of mine: the crazed, mile-a-minute Gang Green tracks on This is Boston Not L.A. are as good, if not better, than contemporaneous releases by Minor Threat, Negative Approach and The Necros. Yeah, that good! Check this out. 

The band were just children at this point, too – true Boston kids with the absolute best Boston slang. Their first answer to “How did you like your trip to DC?” is “Yeah it was wicked good”. They’re pissed about the production of their track on Unsafe at Any Speed; they’re all in high school, belittling the kids in their school who get drunk by going down to the “packy” to buy beer on Fridays. Does that regional slang still exist? Man, I was disappointed last time I was in Boston that everyone I encountered, even cabbies, talked in boring flat American monotones like I do (Though one cabbie told me all about “The Biden crime family” until I commanded him to stop talking). Also, it’s highly ironic that Gang Green were trying on a pseudo-straight edge persona in 1982, considering they’d eventually make their mark with the imbecilic “Alcohol” a few years later and have an album called Older…Budweiser. 

Jimmy has huge excitement for SS Decontrol’s The Kids Will Have Their Say, and I get it. They’d be one of my favorite all-time hardcore bands if not for the vocals. I just can’t get past ‘em, but of course, I never saw them live. Have you seen this short documentary on them? By the time I was contemporaneous with them, they were “SSD” and giving the world lessons on How We Rock. Jimmy also interviews The Necros, and they talk about Black Flag being the Johnny Appleseeds of hardcore in Ohio. Barry Henssler says, “Black Flag just played here, and now the second wave of bands are coming around”. On the other hand, Jimmy’s not a fan of Black Flag’s TV Party 45: “I get the feeling that something is missing here”. You’re damn right, it was Dez Cadena on vocals, recently replaced by Henry Rollins. Other reviews here praise The Ex, The Birthday Party, Venom, Mission of Burma and SPK – pointing to the Forced Exposure we’d see a few issues later.

In other capsule reviews, Deep Wound’s demo has just come in and it’s a barn-burner (it really is). A Boston hardcore band called The C.O.’s are praised, and despite my deep marination in this HC world a bit after the fact, I’ve never heard of them. Some folks online seem to concur that they were blisteringly great during their brief time on the planet. “Ollie” writes in from across the Atlantic with a brief scene report on Finnish hardcore. Ian MacKaye gets taken to task a little for too much on-stage proselytizing at a recent Minor Threat show in Boston. I can only imagine. I got to see The Dead Kennedys near their end, and remember looking for the exits every time Jello started to talk….and talk…..and talk.

And in this issue’s final interview, The F.U.’s sound like fun fellas. They definitely want to make it clear they did not form because of SS Decontrol – “that’s all anybody asks” – and they’re supremely bummed they couldn’t have been Boston’s first hardcore band. I’m old enough to remember MRR having some real problems with their later album My America, which only made me want to check out the Boston bands who were purportedly making a “right wing turn” in 1983. Most of them were turning pretty putrid in a hurry, regardless of politics – this one might be the worst of them all – so Forced Exposure #3 captures the proverbial lighting in a bottle, and let me tell ya, is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.