Trenchmouth, really great band. Here's a photo of them in 1979 playing the Valley Green projects. It was an incredible, unusual experience. We ran a cord through the window and plugged the PA and amps into that and played right in the courtyard. It was an incredible experience. It was just local kids.

Ian MacKaye

More Quotes by Ian MacKaye
Categorized in : Kids Band Valleys
More Quotes From Ian MacKaye

An unlocked door means that, occasionally, you might get a devil come in, but a locked door means you have thousands of angels just walk by.

Ian MacKaye
angel doors mean

Skateboarding is not a hobby. And it is not a sport. Skateboarding is a way of learning how to redefine the world around you. For most people, when they saw a swimming pool, they thought, ‘Let's take a swim.' But I thought, ‘Let's ride it.' When they saw the curb or a street, they would think about driving on it. I would think about the texture. I slowly developed the ability to look at the world through totally different means.

Ian MacKaye
swimming sports mean
If You Want To Rebel Against Society, Don’t Dull The Blade by Ian MacKaye

If You Want To Rebel Against Society, Don’t Dull The Blade

Ian MacKaye
rebel want dull

I think that people are constantly thinking about capturing things that they're not actually present for the moment they're trying to capture. I'm quite sure of this. I think it's insane how many pictures have to be taken these days. We have to realize there's a level of documentation that's just chatter, it's noise, and beyond that, people who are truly documenting are going to have to find a way to puncture that.

Ian MacKaye
taken people thinking

I never imagine myself as anything. I've never had a goal or any future vision at all. I just do what's in front of me.

Ian MacKaye
imagine vision goal

Every song I ever wrote, I wrote to be heard. So, if I was given a choice that 50 years from now I could either have a dollar or knowing that some kid was listening to my song, I'd go with the kid listening to my song.

Ian MacKaye
song kids years

People ask me: ‘What is punk? How do you define punk?' Here's how I define punk: It's a free space. It could be called jazz. It could be called hip-hop. It could be called blues, or rock, or beat. It could be called techno. It's just a new idea. For me, it was punk rock. That was my entrance to this idea of the new ideas being able to be presented in an environment that wasn't being dictated by a profit motive.

Ian MacKaye
rocks space ideas

That's a Roman concept where the government can do anything, as long as you give the people "bread and circuses." And I'd say this culture right now is similar, as long as people have money, fun, and food, our government can do heinous, heinous things.

Ian MacKaye
government fun thinking

I think that the idea of straight edge, the song that I wrote, and the way people have related it it, there's some people who have abused it, they've allowed their fundamentalism to interfere with the real message, which in my mind, was that people should be allowed to live their lives the way they want to.

Ian MacKaye
real song thinking

Truth is, right now two bombs could drop out of the sky and blow up this house and whatever building you're in and just obliterate Dischord and Pitchfork. And there'll be some people crying, there'll be some slow singing, but for 99% of the world, it won't even affect the fly on their soup. Most of the world never have, or ever will hear of me, Fugazi, or Pitchfork. Right now, someone just got killed in Ukraine. Do you feel any different?

Ian MacKaye
blow house people

Part of the way the work world works is not so much creating a separation between your work and your free time, but creating the illusion of a separation between your work and your free time. Every day is the weekend for me, which means I'm always busy.

Ian MacKaye
creating weekend mean

We play loud electric guitar music, and we'd hope that that doesn't mean you have to act like an asshole.

Ian MacKaye
guitar-music play mean

Music is a language and different people who come along are each using that language to do something different, but all coming at it in a similar vein inasmuch as it's always community based and for the most part nonprofit. Most bands don't ever come within a mile of profit - clearly these people are not playing music to make money.

Ian MacKaye
playing-music community people

It's so interesting that humanity has to be defined by emotional strife or something. I don't buy into that.

Ian MacKaye
emotional humanity interesting
To me, music is no joke and it's not for sale. by Ian MacKaye

To me, music is no joke and it's not for sale.

Ian MacKaye
jokes music-is
The American underground punk scene, though, is a story worth rem... by Ian MacKaye

The American underground punk scene, though, is a story worth remembering.

Ian MacKaye
punk stories remember

I don't think it's an ethical or moral issue, or even that people are stupid, but I do feel like as a culture things are out of balance, perverted, and inverted. Things that are ridiculous are worshipped, and things that are important are ridiculed. I think that's something worth thinking about.

Ian MacKaye
issues stupid thinking
I just have work to do; I just do it. by Ian MacKaye

I just have work to do; I just do it.

Ian MacKaye
just-do-it

American business at this point is really about developing an idea, making it profitable, selling it while it's profitable and then getting out or diversifying. It's just about sucking everything up. My idea was: Enjoy baking, sell your bread, people like it, sell more. Keep the bakery going because you're making good food and people are happy.

Ian MacKaye
bakeries people ideas

There are many things that people do happily that I can't imagine why they would do it... But I have to say that even though I am critical or judgmental of society at large, I'm not critical of people individually. We are who we are.

Ian MacKaye
judgmental who-we-are people