Dichotomy...

Oh, I also wanted to mention, thought it occured some time ago, that the PunkROCKS.net experiment finally reached its conclusion. Kevin shut the site down after 6 years of operation. It's hard to believe that a hair-brained idea to get free stuff from labels, hatched during lunch one day on the steps at Woodson, turned into what it did. From it's crappy inception as a frames-based abomination hosted by Andy's servers, to the PHP/SQL behemoth it became, the mountains of free (and mostly terrible) cds that it produced, and the stints on Warped Tour, I don't think anyone could have predicted the success that a couple of kids with a love of music could have. Of course it's sad to see it go, even though I haven't worked on the site on over two years. But to see something you helped raise from nothing finally collapse certainly carries with it a bit of melancholy. In any case, punkrocks.net changed my life. It opened my eyes and ears to all kinds of music I would never have known existed. It opened doors for me to so many concerts that I can scarecely remember tham all. How many other 25 year olds can put "Warped Tour Stage Manager" on their resume and mean it? It gave me some of the best moments of my life, hanging out with bands and friends, interviewing people I never thought I'd meet, being remembered by big name guys for just saying hello one time. I'm trying not to get all mushy here, but let's face it, that's hard to do. When Greg Graffin remembers you by name, when Stretch Armstrong plays your stage, when during your first month at college you get to interview No Use, when Fat Mike tells you to just call him Mike, when you get to party personally with Andrew WK, when you show up at a club and you're not on the guest list, but everyone working there knows you and lets you in for free anyway, it's pretty damned amazing. It certainly had its share of low points too, but those seem somehow less important. So ends the great punk rock swindle. I'd like to thanks everyone who believed in us and helped us along the way, the labels, the bands, the fans, our readers, my friends who boycotted the site after I left, anyone who ever told someone about us, gave us a place to sleep, or took us seriously. Sorry to everyone who sent me good music that I never reviewed. But through it all, my only real regret is that we were never able to convince enough people of how much Drive Thru sucks.

Posted by Rev. Adam on Sunday, June 11, 2006 at 1:05 PM | Permalink