Punk’s not dead. While some may think otherwise, it’s never been dead. With the rise of “alternative rock” in the 1990s bringing punk rock into the living rooms, resulting in the jock and cheerleader crowd ditching their Springsteen concert shirts and “Big Chill” soundtracks for Nirvana and Green Day albums, many thought the genre had sold out and jumped the shark. An agreeable notion for some fans, but since its popularity explosion there’s also been many a band holding onto their integrity, banging out this hearty form of protest music for reasons other than the dollar.
If you go
WHAT: KNFRMST plays punk and rock
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
WHERE: Gazpacho, 431 East Second Ave.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.reverbnation.com/knfrmst/show.
It’s now an important genre to pass along to younger music fans, with bands like the regional KNFRMST (pronounced “conformist”) writing relevant, new punk rock while also covering classics from the American hardcore canon.
KNFRMST will perform Friday in the day at the La Plata County Fairgrounds for the Four Corners Motorcycle Rally and Saturday at Gazpacho Restaurant in downtown Durango.
The trio – Jack “Jak The Ripper” Hamilton on bass and vocals; “Jer Bones” on guitar; and “Jimmy Kills” on drums – formed a little over a year ago, after Hamilton and drummer Jimmy had spent time playing in other groups.
“We wanted to get back into playing some old punk stuff. Originally, for a few months it was going to be kind of a different set up, with Jimmy drumming, of course, and I originally was going to play guitar. We searched for months and months to find a bass player and couldn’t find someone,” Hamilton said. “Jer decided to step in and said he’d be down to play guitar if I played bass, so we switched up the dynamic and it ended up working pretty well.”
They’re an aggressive power-trio that has done their homework with regards to punk rock from its now 40- to 50-year history. There are hook-heavy originals, nods to the pop in punk sensibilities of the Ramones, and covers that dig into some familiarity via Nirvana or more classic, long broken up but well-remembered bands from various scenes of the early 1980s.
“We do decades worth of different styles of punk. I think the oldest ones we cover is Jimmy picked a Minor Threat song, and I’ve been listening to punk rock since the 1990s era, so we all kind of bring in different styles of stuff of what we want to play,” Hamilton said. “There’s not a whole lot of new punk rock stuff coming up that we cover, it’s just anything good that’s got the right, fun vibe to it. It doesn’t matter when it’s from.”
American punk rock is finally getting some respect outside its once small circles of bands and their fans. Through various documentaries about some of the genre’s early bands to now larger festivals that feature some of those classic bands that are playing to larger audiences made up of longtime fans and their kids, it’s now being looked at as more than just aggressive noise. A band like KNFRMST is creating new songs, while also serving as an educational outlet, turning people onto the classics.
“There’s a lot of stuff we play, bands that we cover that are really good, but don’t get the recognition they should because no one has ever heard of them. So we’re introducing people to these bands,” Hamilton said. “We’ve had multiple occasions where people are thinking that songs we cover are our originals, because they have never heard them. So we say, ‘oh no, it's this band, so check them out, its really good.’ I definitely think that part of this band is letting people know about these other bands that they’ve never heard of.”
KFRMST has more shows this fall, performing in September at Ska Brewing, then in October and November with shows at The Hive.
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
