There have been a slew of books attempting to capture both the punk and hardcorecultures these last couple of years. I instantly become suspicious ofthem if they don’t mention a specific man and a specific fanzine: Al Quint andSuburban Voice. As good or bad as those books are, they are mere toothpicks ofmusical memories compared the mighty, volumetric speaker-cone of loud, fast,obnoxious music that Suburban Voice continues to be. This is very important.When I mention Al Quint, I’m talking about a guy in the present tense who has afirm grasp of the past, and who’s been along for the ride for twenty yearsstraight: Suburban Voice first came out as Suburban Punk in 1982. What excitesme most is that it continues to rule. The forty-fifth <strong>issue</strong> was just released, whichincludes a balls-out, no-crap hardcore compilation.There are several elements that make Al Quint fucking stellar. Although he’spast forty and he’s literally reviewed over 10,000 records, he’s as enthusiasticas a fourteen-year-old when he talks about music. But he damn well knowswhat he’s talking about. To back him up is quite possibly the cleanest and mostorganized record collection I’ve seen (which I am currently unhealthily coveting).To put icing on the cake, Al himself lives up to his legacy of being fair, humane,down-to-earth, non-dogmatic and easy going. I say we clone a few more AlQuints. The world – the punk world especially – would be a better place.Sean and I hooked up with Al in his home in suburban Boston and interviewedhim in comfy chairs. Then we went out for pizza.Interview by Todd and Sean
Sean: What’s wrong with mainstream rockjournalism?Al: They’re all a bunch of bandwagon jumpers.Somebody picks a trendy band du jour and theyall follow along like sheep. I’ll give you givetwo recent examples. One’s At the Drive-In.The other is the Strokes. I think ATDI are actuallya decent band. I think the Strokes are anokay band, but everybody’s drooling overthem, talking about this great, groundbreaking,fresh band. These are people that don’t go andcheck out things that much, I get a funny feeling.I think mainstream rock journalists, a lot ofthem, are lazy. They expect everything to cometo them.Sean: Have you ever encountered mainstreamrock journalists? Have you ever been on apanel?Sean: Keeping in line with corporate music, in1990 you interviewed Soundgarden’s KimThayil.Al: [laughs]Sean: During the whole interview, he’s talkingabout money. It was a really funny thing: howmany units he could sell on a major label; all ofthese things. Did that bother you when youwere doing the interview?Al: God, I haven’t looked at that interview inyears. You’ve done your homework. I like this.Okay, first of all, late ‘80s / early ‘90s,Suburban Voice, the grunge years. I have noexplanation for that.Sean: I’m not criticizing you for interviewingSoundgarden.Al: No, it’s okay. I liked Soundgarden at thetime. I don’t even know if I was thinking aboutTodd: Have you ever been to CMJ?Al: Yeah. I used to go to those things all thetime from ‘89 to ‘93. In fact, I was on a panel.I think it was the New Music Seminar, ‘92. Iworked in retail for twelve years and I wasasked to be on this panel to discuss the future ofmetal from a retail perspective. I guess at thatpoint in my life, I was a little more interested ina career in the music biz. I soon realized that Ididn’t want to do that, but, sure, I’ve encountereda lot of mainstream rock journalists andI’ve found a lot of them to be insufferable twitswho don’t know what the hell they’re talkingabout. Occasionally, you do find people whoknow their stuff.Todd: Who?Al: I don’t know if this guy’s mainstream ornot, but Brett Milano, who writes for TheBoston Phoenix. I think he knows what he’stalking about. On a national level, even thoughI don’t always necessarily agree with him,Dave Marsh (co-founder of Creem), I thinksometimes knows what he’s talking about, butaside from that, I don’t have too high an opinionof mainstream rock writers. I’ll tell you alittle story. I went to South By Southwest onetime. This was around ‘90. I played in the“media” softball tournament. The captain of theteam was Chris Mars from Billboard Magazine.I said to Chris that most mainstream rock journalismis regurgitated press releases. He kind ofscoffed at that. It didn’t give me a really strongimpression of him. And I know he came upthrough the LA punk scene, so I want to knowwhat happened.Todd: Who?Al: Chris Mars, I guess, was involved in late‘70s. He went to shows. He wrote about it. Nowhe’s the editor of Billboard, which is prettymuch the establishment. The epitome of corporatemusic.it. I was really nervous about doing that interviewbecause it was a “big rock act.” He actuallyturned out to be a pretty cool guy. He toldme that he’d heard of my zine. I got the impressionthat they’d come up through the punkscene, and this is what they were doing now. Atthat time, I guess all the talk about money didn’tbother me that much. Maybe I was in a differentmindset at that point. I think it took me alittle longer to realize how lame the whole corporaterock world is. I interviewed LivingColor around that time, too, which is a bigembarrassment, but… you know.Todd: Is there any interview that you wanted tostop half way through because the people wereeither so lame, offensive, or such pricks?Al: Twice. Off the top of my head – DieKreuzen, who I interviewed in ‘83-’84 – and Inever ran the interview because they were givingme one-word answers. Just not into it.Maybe my questions sucked.Todd: Is that after their Cows and Beer 7”?Al: Yeah. It was after the first album came out.The first time they played Boston. I saw them afew times after, and Danny, the singer, turnedout to be a pretty nice guy, but I was just takenaback. The other time was when I was doing aphone interview with Tad Doyle from the bandTad. He sounded like he was half awake ortotally out of it, and he didn’t respond well tomy questions. I did the interview and talked totheir publicist and said, “This interview sucksass and I’m not going to run it.” She quicklyhooked up another interview with one of theother guys in the band and that went a lot better.It’s actually one of the reasons I really don’tdo phone interviews with bands anymore:because half the time they don’t come out well.It lacks the spontaneity. I think it’s easier tointerview bands when you’re dealing with themface-to-face. 45
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