Of all the variants of punk rock, hardcore always gave the impression of having the most blue collar flavor to its anti-authoritarian vibes. Pulled from the 1982-1989 issues of the infamous punk fanzine Maximum Rocknroll, Hardcore Architecture examines how true that impression is. Cross-referencing the addresses of mostly long-extinct hardcore and punk bands with modern Google Street View snapshots, the site offers a tantalizing—if incomplete and muddied by the progress of time—snapshot of the homes, neighborhoods, and early apartments of these struggling bands. Depending on how much of a scene-head you were, many of these bands will be totally foreign, although the site is worth it alone for the names and snippets of old reviews (Reviewer “Jel” is Jello Biafra, for instance). And then there’s the occasional band that broke through, like The Dead Milkmen (above) or Urge Overkill, the latter of which tossed a tape at the ’zine some time in 1984.
Urge Overkill
The address given for their “Portion Controlled” cassette in Evanston, IL 60201. Source: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, issue no. 15, July, 1984. Street view date: Aug., 2011. Sample quote from the review: “There are two lengthy songs (including a cover of the Zombies’ “She’s Not There”) with funky rhythms, post-punk vocals, and instrumental overlays; the final track (”Lympdiccus”) is a rockabillyish thang with similar “cold wave” vocals.” (TY)
The ongoing musical archeology project is brainchild of Marc Fisher and Public Collectors, and is dedicated to the “documentation of the music underground, before the internet.”