After three decades plus of chest thumping, slogan shouting, and all around dead horse beating, it can be easy to allow a disenchantment with hardcore to come crawling around the periphery of one's taste in such things. No matter how fresh or engaging some band's take on the style might be at its inception, without fail, legions of lesser bands will swoop in like a particularly voracious murder of crows to drag away its heart and viscera, rendering what once had been vivacious little more than hollow, rotting carrion.
But for the dozens, hundreds even, of parroters of half-hearted sentiment and half-baked aesthetics, there occasionally arise those who can inject into the style an energy, an intensity, and a personality that set them apart from the legions of imitators content to copy band x (their demo era only) or band y (before they started writing slow bullshit). Coke Bust is one such band. It may seem easy to pick out the subgenres from which they draw – powerviolence speed, old Boston hardcore rawness, early youth crew-style toughness – but such analysis fails to capture the spirit of what they create. Confined, the band's newest full-length (as much as any nine-minute album could bear that designation), acts as the purest distillation of Coke Bust's aesthetic to date, a spirited blast comprised of equal parts disenchantment and engagement that runs circles around most bands attempting anything comparable. I managed to get a few questions in with singer Nicktape about the band's history and approach.
Confined seems very streamlined and devoid of any filler. How much material ended up being written versus what was included on the album?
We wanted to take a real selective approach with the new album. There was a longer song that was supposed to go on the album that we even ended up recording, but we cut it at the last minute because it didn't flow right. There were a lot of riffs and song ideas that got shot down in the writing process. The end product is a record that we're all stoked on. This has been a common question that we've been asked, but it makes sense when your 12" is nine minutes long!
It also seems to have an internal cohesion, with the whole album flowing together more cohesively than on previous releases. Was the songwriting/arranging process different than in the past?
The process was not much different, but I do believe that we have done this enough times to figure out what we like and what works well for us in terms of arrangements and flow. We definitely wanted the record to feel like a continuous release, rather than being a cluster of songs.
Coke Bust shares members with quite a few other bands. Does this make it difficult to operate?
I wouldn't say that it makes it difficult to operate, as long as everyone in the family of bands works together to stay organized and logistical in our planning. Ultimately I think that everyone in Coke Bust prioritizes and makes sacrifices for the band, so there aren't really any serious issues. Sometimes we have to keep our tours limited to three weeks as opposed to five because someone has to do something else with another one of their bands, but nobody's crying and we all work together.
Do these other bands influence what Coke Bust creates?
I think that playing music with other people and experiencing different styles creates an undeniable influence. Red Death, the new band that I play bass in, has a different songwriting process than Coke Bust and it's given me a few ideas for Coke Bust songs that I want to propose to the group, so definitely. For example, Chris' involvement in his old band, Magrudergrind, really perfected his super-fast style of playing (I think, at least), so I would definitely say this is true.
Looking at the lyrics from your past few albums compared to Confined, there seems to have been a bit of a shift in the tone and direction. Whereas your older songs tended to be directed towards a “you,” the majority of the material on Confined addresses an “I” or a “we.” Was this shift a conscious decision?
To be honest I haven't really noticed until now, or made a conscious shift! The M.O. behind writing the lyrics has remained the same since the beginning of the band. I've always used Coke Bust as a voice and a means to release bottled-up frustrations and energy. Sometimes this is political, sometimes it's personal, sometimes it relates to society as a whole, and sometimes it relates to specific people in my life. I think it's interesting, looking back at my own lyrics from when I was 19 (I am 27 now), that my problems at the time were so different. I cared way more about "scene issues" and things like that at the time. I feel like I have more problems and more "real-world" frustrations than I did as a teenager, so perhaps that's the reason for the changing lyrics.
In other interviews I notice you've denied being a specifically political band, yet many of the songs deal with topics that are generally considered pretty explicitly political. What makes you refrain from applying that tag?
The difference between Coke Bust and a self-proclaimed "political" band is the motivation behind writing the lyrics. I don't set out to change people's minds or to explicitly promote ideas. The sole intention of all the lyrics that I write are to get things off my chest that I hold inside. I absolutely have my own personal political views, and I think they come out with the lyrics, so people can probably get a feel for where I'm coming from. But the difference is the motivation behind why I'm screaming what I am. If people can relate to my lyrics, or if they feel motivated by them, that's very cool. I have to be honest, though, and the reason I write these songs is more for me to vent my frustrations than anything else.
Calling your band straight edge is a political move, and we definitely do that. I'm not going to say that I don't care what other people do, because that just isn't true. I wish people wouldn't support the right-wing alcohol and tobacco industries that thrive off of human addiction. I also wish people didn't buy coke, weed, etc. and support a free-market, (black market) anti-human mega-industry with the key players terrorizing their communities. I would be thrilled if a 14-year-old came up to me after a show and said that my band is what motivated him or her to live a life without drugs. For me, again, this result would be secondary to what the primary goal was - to vent my societal frustrations.
I think young people getting together, traveling freely, expressing themselves and sharing radical, non-conformist ideas in an open forum with minimal hierarchy is already a very "political" phenomenon. I read an interview with Ian MacKaye where he said something along those lines and it really clicked with me. As for Coke Bust, I don't want to claim that we're a "political band" because I don't want to constrict my lyrics to one specific type, and I don't want to give people the wrong idea about what our intentions are with the music. Another thing to consider is that what the band is to me and how others perceive it are always going to be two very separate entities. If other people call us a political band with political lyrics, that's totally fine and at the end of the day they aren't wrong. I don't want to state that myself, though.
As a band whose members are straight edge, how do you feel you fit within the spectrum of current straight edge hardcore?
We don't really think about it much, to be honest. I'll always love straight edge hardcore, so it's great to play with other like-minded bands. It seems like in 2013 there are wicked straight edge bands playing all types of hardcore and punk, moreso than ten years ago. I like that. Back in 2007-2008 when Third Party Records was going really strong, I felt like we really belonged to a "scene" with bands like Sick Fix, Blank Stare, Positive Reinforcement, Poison Planet, and Black SS. It seems like those bands have either slowed down or broken up, so I'm not sure if our old niche still exists. Ultimately, I think we don't really fit in with many other bands, but that's okay. We are just four punks who like all different styles of hardcore and punk. We'll play with catchy punk bands, grindcore bands, youth crew bands, metal bands, etc. We aren't snobby elitists that have to play with bands that sound like us. We like having fun with this band, and often times that means playing with all different types of bands.
Having toured extensively and played with a fairly wide cross-section of hardcore and punk bands, is there anything you've seen that's particularly impressive or exciting?
All of it, honestly. What's most exciting and impressive to me is experiencing this enormous network of friends, based on nothing but trust and mutual love for the subculture. Talking to kids in South Africa, sleeping on some dude's floor in Slovakia, working with a Mexican guy to get us across the border, booking US tours for bands from Poland and England, coordinating tours in Brazil with people we have never met in person, and putting thousands of dollars on the line and knowing that they will come through. This enormous community that we are a part of is the most interesting and important thing for me. I want to do everything I can to maintain and strengthen it. My activity in Coke Bust has really changed how I view my place in the world. Borders become blurred and I feel like I'm more part of an international community than a "DC person," an "East Coast guy," or an American. It's awesome. I could go on forever about this.
Is there anything that's been disappointing or that you think could be done better?
I feel that this DIY community relies primarily on trust between punks, but also the level of organization and logistics. I would like to see a stronger American infrastructure to support international bands touring here. It's extremely easy for American bands to successfully tour Europe. There are so many legit, ripping hardcore bands from all across the globe that can't tour America because they don't get proper exposure, promoters aren't as willing to take a chance on a smaller band, etc. I want to change this.
You're one of the organizers of the Damaged City fest. What led to that? Are there any goals that you hold for it that haven't been achieved yet?
Chris, our drummer, and I set that up together. We came up with the idea of doing the fest while we were on tour in Europe playing a few festivals. We saw a lot of things we liked and a few things we didn't. What started as a casual conversation quickly turned into a reality and we booked a fest the way we wanted to see one. Last year's festival turned out even better than we thought it would, so we already accomplished that goal! Next April we want to fine-tune a few things that could have run smoother, but the M.O. remains the same: a Washington, D.C. event with no-bullshit hardcore punk, good vibes, legit bands, that's kept as affordable as possible so anyone can come.
There's a high degree of transparency with what your band does, whether that's the bluntness of the lyrics or the detailed explanatory sections of your website. What has been the motivation behind this?
We aren't really mysterious people individually. We're pretty open by nature so I think it comes out with how we conduct the band. I've always loved reading about bands and learning more about where they're coming from. I find it fascinating to hear the stories behind things. I want that stuff to exist in case anyone wants to read about it. As for my lyrics, I've never been very poetic or anything like that, haha. The lyrics are written almost exactly as the thoughts appear in my mind. I see no reason to process them further, beyond the practical constraints of the music!
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Coke Bust plays at Strange Matter on December 7th with Mercenary, Barge, Unholy Thoughts, and Protestor. Doors open at 9 PM; admission is $8. For more info click here.