Hey let’s throw a benefit show, and bands would drive all over the place and all the money would go towards the cause with no benefit to themselves. Shawn: “In this type of music if you find a good cause people are altruistic. That is the nature of punk - the giving, the inclusion. Black Flag might have been a bad ass punk band, but what lives on is as much the music as lead singer Henry Rollins very vocal and highly visible advocacy of all things concerning human rights. Shawn: “Everyone has to find their access point, but once you do you’re accepted.” The fact is that because punk by design pushes the envelope, punk was on the forefront of causes that today, years later, are mainstream: from veganism to confronting racial injustice to sexual liberation. To those in the punk orbit, the entire scene is accepting and inclusive. In fact the exact opposite is true.ĪN INCREDIBLY ACCEPTING SCENE AND LONG ON THE FOREFRONT OF ISSUES Maybe the misunderstanding comes from how loud it is, its recognition and acknowledgement, and embrace, of social disaffection and marginalization, maybe the fact that it is very DIY, loud, short, cheaply made music performed in small venues with often packed high energy crowds, tattoos, leather, studs, maybe because of all of its elements it can be off-putting, hard to access. But listen for a moment, listen to the musicality there is no shortage of rock solid bands that emerged from the punk scene, from X’s side gig the Knitters to the Gogo’s, the Blasters and Alejandro Escovedo, and Fall Out Boy – super, talented bands, many still active today. There is a rap against punk rock music, that it is just noise. Punk Rock is perhaps one of the most misunderstood of musical genres. This is what I’ve been looking for all this time.” A drab and dated one story bowling alley with a neon bowling pin sign over the front door - squat, dumpy, and nightly hosting some of the best punk bands in the country: The Mekons, AFI, Less than Jake, Alkaline Trio, Los Crudoes, Blue Meanies, Screeching Weasel - this music, making its impact, a door to people finding themselves and their tribe. The Fireside Bowl in Chicago in the late 1990’s was one of the most important punk rock venues in the country. THE FIRESIDE BOWL - ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PUNK VENUES ![]() This punk scene a world away from Shawn having grown up in the farmland and horse farms of Mokena, Illinois, no home address, just a location: the intersection of Southwest Highway and Route 6 (179th and Rte. Both labels were a direct product of Shawn having finally found himself, his place, his people in the punk music scene of the 1990’s Chicago. ![]() The first iteration a Philly label, named Spook City Records after Shawn’s favorite Misfits’ song. SOCIAL JUSTICE AND THE BEST RECORDS IN HARDCORE TODAYĪnother City Records, a Chicago based hard core punk label (where punk meets metal) is a product of Shawn Hopman’s imagination, and is fundamentally committed to producing music founded on positives – a label committed to putting out “the best damn records in hardcore today,” while dedicated to actively fighting social injustices and supporting positive change-makers in his artists’ communities.Īnother City is the second punk label owned and operated by Shawn Hopman. We can produce beauty, fairness and equity, civility and promise, if we choose to. The clothes we wear, the places we live, the things we enjoy and the problems we suffer, from climate change to tankers racked-up in the Suez Canal, and from the music enjoyed at your most favorite concert to the best meal you ever had, what exists is a product of man’s imagination, for better or worse.
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