Stay Punk

 

This 2025 painting is from an old joke that started on a dry-erase board. Then I drew it up as a t-shirt for the band, Turkish Techno. They never used it because, apparently, one of the members thought it was too close to another shirt I’d recently designed for Rational Anthem. THEIR LOSS. This would’ve sold super well as a t-shirt at punk shows. In any event, since that never happened, I decided to redo it as a painting, thereby finally giving it its due.

Anyone who knows me, knows just how gigantic punk’s presence is in my life. It’s probably more important to me than art. It’s probably more important to me than anything. I’ve been a fan since I was eight years old and I’ve never had much interest in any other type of music. It just resonates with me on a level that can hardly be described. I don’t have to be listening to it all the time but I certainly don’t like to be out in public or in social situations without it. It’s my EMOTIONAL SUPPORT BLANKET. If I’m going out with friends, I like to have a little speaker clipped to my belt loop or (at the very least) one earbud in, so that I can be present but still have the music as well. And when it comes to all those events I do, whether or not I can listen to my music is literally the difference between whether I’m going to have a good time or not. When I’m painting and selling at an event where the organizers have their own music playing so loudly that I can’t hear my own in my tent, it’s real easy for me to very quickly fall into a pretty lousy mood.

I had an experience like that recently. Some boomer cover band was playing Eagles songs outta full stacks all night and I couldn’t have been more miserable. But when I thought “fuck it,” strapped my little speaker to the crossbar of my tent (the one right next to my ear), it transformed my night. I stood up on my barstools, painting the canvas hanging from the roof of my tent, and sang along as loud as I could, looking nuts, but totally inaudible because of how loud that boring band was. And I had a blast and felt great.

And that’s kinda what punk rock means to me (in the most basic sense). Not caring about what else is going on or what other people think and just doing what works for you. There’s more to it of course but that’s the crux.

Forgetting conceptuality for a moment, just in regard to the songs, the punk rock that I love is pretty specific. Sonically, it’s usually kinda grimy, kinda gruff, scrappy, fast, catchy, and upbeat. Lyrically, it’s misery with a smile. “Three to the Beach” by Dear Landlord maybe nails it best. The lyrics of that song convey that the world is fucked, life is fucked, but whatever – we’re gonna do what we can to get by all the same. (Dear Landlord’s Dream Homes is probably the best album ever made, by the way. Go listen to it). If I can excerpt the second verse and chorus of that song…

We’re both sort of right; I don’t have much to show
I’ll die penniless, alone
I’ll do what I like and you’ll do what you know
Never hungry, broke, or cold; that’s the weight of things I suppose
It’s really just the passing of these days that’s gonna leave us all set in our ways
We don’t have to take that lying down
And I’d be lying if I didn’t say, it’s been getting harder to relate
To keep myself from drowning in the crowd
But I still believe that: 
We’re not that hopeless, we’re not as fucked as you think
In short lived moments, we can do anything
The fucking joke is we’re winning when you blink
In short lived moments: lousy with victory

Dear Landlord was the band formed by Zack (singer, guitarist, songwriter) and Brad (drummer, lyricist) of Rivethead when that band broke up. You can read more about Rivethead in my statement for “Stand Up and Say No.” I haven’t read it myself in years, but I imagine it’s a solid companion statement to this one.

Speaking of Zack, he once told me that when he was in the studio, recording with Off With Their Heads (for whom he played guitar for a while), their producer Bill Stevenson (of Descendants and Black Flag) prodded them with the description of their music as “Disney punk with ‘I wanna kill myself’ lyrics.” “Disney punk” isn’t quite accurate since that’d probably be something shinier, glossier, and less rough around the edges (like blink-182) but he got the gist. The punk rock I love is musically happy and lyrically dark. (Although – like in the referenced Dear Landlord song – the lyrics can also be kinda hopeful and, other times, (especially in the songs of another band I absolutely adore, The Brokedowns) darkly funny. I mention this because people ask me about my artistic influences all the time. And none of them are visual artists. It’s all punk rock. And it happened without my even realizing it initially. But my style of painting is very much the visual equivalent of my kinda punk rock. It’s full of bright colors and funny faces – but with grim, funny, depressed, and hopeful text. And that alone makes me very happy: not only how naturally I found and developed my artistic style/voice, but how much it’s very clearly influenced by (and reminiscent of) what I love most in the world.

One last thing. The national/US punk scene was itself a huge part of my life (as a fan, an occasional musician/performer, through Traffic Street Records, and then through tagging along/touring with bands to sell art at punk shows). Since 2015 though, I’m not really comfortable in that world anymore. That falling out had a huge part in the relapse that took me away from art for so many years. All I’ll say about that for now is that the scene is made of people. And people will (often) disappoint. People will let you down. But punk rock never will. No one controls it, no one owns it, and it keeps going no matter what. There’s been as much or more great new punk rock in the last year as any other. And even the songs made by the same people who broke my little punk rock heart – it doesn’t matter. The music exists on its own. 

It’s kinda perfect. It’s kinda the best fucking thing in the world.

And as for staying punk – I couldn’t stop if I wanted to.

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Here are four outstanding songs by the bands I mentioned in this statement:

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The original 2×2-foot “Stay Punk” painting is still available for purchase at the time of this writing.
Contact me if you’d like to change that. I also have 12-inch prints available in the webstore.

As always, thanks for reading. If you want more, check out the blog entry for the 2013 drawing.