If you're fucked, it's alright - it's Saturday night. And you are alive. And you are alright.

Sitting in my rom listening to Buffalo Tom and reading Everett True's fantastic interview with Comet Gain in Plan B. I love reading David Feck's drunkenly soulful musings on pop; both his own and his favourite records. There's something so charmingly idealistic about them; full of some hope and some despair, as Lance Hahn might have had it, and a beautiful sense of idealism about the lost, the damaged and the permanently forgotten. The combination of all of these things is akin to the most tranquil of alocohol-fuelled nostalgia - a general sense of acceptance that these things have passed and nonchalant contentment with the status quo, culminating reflection on how wonderful those things used to be.

And yet there's something about this that's desperately at odds with some of the music that I love. Comet Gain - from what i can perceive - is not just happy to be shambolic, but comfortable with being a relic of a time to which it didn't belong. It's as though they're carrying a torch for the ideals and sounds of their beloved punk; that they believe it died in New York with Sid Vicious in a tragic, but fitting paean to the transience of simple pop music that the movement was supposed to exemplify so perfectly. I cannot and will not believe that. The punk movement is still as alive and relevant today as it ever was.

Ok, I'm not going to offer an explanation as trite as Comet Gain, or any old punks for that matter, have 'just gotten old'. I don't believe age has any bearing on the quality of people's tunes so much as talent, self-belief or a general understanding of how much of your 'art' (for want of a better word) is actually any cop - so equally this should equate to people's understanding of music. Simply: age is not a concern. The only people who give a fuck about age are the naive scenesters and journalists obsessed with the new, the young and the beautiful. These will become jaded themselves with time and yearn for something they can enjoy like they used to. But this does probably not mean that they want to hear new bands that sound like the ones they loved in school - it either means they have lost their enthusiasm for the new, the methods of finding the new are beyond them, or they simply cannot hear the new any more.

This is all bullshit in any case. The new is, and always has been, a false concept in music. The sounds and rhythms have always existed somewhere. Fusing them together does not make new sounds; it juxtaposes old ones. What we mean when we talk about bands or fans getting old is that they have lost the ability to locate that spark of enlightenment that occurs whenever we hear an incredible band or song - the trick is to remember this much.

This brings us neatly back onto punk. There's always someone who wants to tell you that it's over, or they're over it. I say: FUCK OFF. Punk exists regardless of whether it excites or moves you. The UK movement may have quickly descended into idealess farce (and maybe it always was - maybe that was the point), but surely the mainstream was never the place for punk anyway? If the mainstream 'broke' punk, the DIY circuit fixed it. And it's these ideals and the efforts of the hard-working people in the underground who just want to put on fun, affordable and exciting shows for themselves and their friends. If this seems secular, cut-off or unambitious to you, you're missing the point. This scene does not care (and never has) for such outdated notions as fame or success - just fun through good music for people who want to hear it. I'm excluding poseurs and scenesters here, obviously - they're inevitable. But they're the people who'll leave the scene when it gets too uncool for them and get jaded and stop going to shows because they don't care for the music anyway. The promoters putting shifts in to put bands on are secondary only to the musicians themselves in something that's diligent and exciting to be a part of.

In any case, whatever ou think of the music, punk (like early rock'n'roll) has always served as a framework on which to hang other influences. To use some current fashionable examples, do you think that Bloc Party, The Cribs or Arctic Monkeys could possibly exist without underground scenes perpetuating the idea that simple music is a great way to learn how to create something bigger (Hell, Buffalo Tom wouldn't exist without it!)? The continued existence of the punk scene has, even if indirectly, allowed them to exist in the first place. And crucially, DIY punk rock has made me feel more energised, exhilarated, intimate and included than pretty much anything else I've ever done in my life. And long may it contune to do so. Let's also not forget that, when done right, the tunes can be killer.

Anyway - David Feck, you're right to a degree. There is romance and beauty and hope and despair in the forgotten music of the past - but let's not try to kill things to create the romance, shall we? Punk rock is going strong. And with all the excitement it's brought to me, I wouldn't want to live without it.

We're like comets but we're not that bright

Ok, this is my first blog post. Nothing challenging, nothing especially thoughtful - just a brief introduction.

I'm a 26 year old indie rock obsessive, originally from Garston in south Liverpool (currently residing three-and-a-half miles down the road in Wavertree). As a third-generation Everton supporter, I spend a good deal of my life frustrated and dealing with accusations of being a 'bitter Blue'. My good buddy Newt (of whom you are likely to read much, if football becomes the recurring theme of my intentions...) has a stock response to this, which I never tire of hearing: "Fucking right! We've got a lot to be bitter about!" That's not necessarily my opinion, but it never fails to raise a wry smile. Knowing, as I do, that EFC's juggernaut of disappointment shows no sign of slowing down at any time soon, I imagine I'll be returning to this subject quite often.

In any case, this blog isn't intended to be solely about football. It'll be about music - lots of it - and no doubt film, books and comics too. All of which we can return to at a later date. This post is just to get me started - the blog as a whole is for writing practice, and maybe externalising some of the more ridiculous musings that pass through my consciousness during the day. We'll see how that works anyway.

Right. This will serve as a suitable juncture to sign off for the time being... In the meantime, I'm going to continue the 90s emo revival that's been taking place on my stereo of late. Now where's my Jazz June album...?

w x