GO! just has to be the textbook definition of a hardcore band name. Unbroken, Poison Idea, Urban Waste, or Sick Of It All ain't too bad either when it comes to band names, but GO! always have had a very special place in my punk rock heart: fucking shit up, but always remaining a firecracker of positivity, sarcasm, and smartness. They recently got back together, released two new 7"s, and eventually Mike Bullshit and me ended up exchanging a few e-mails...
GO! has only been a band for 3 years originally, then you broke up, got back together 15 years later, and broke up again. What happened in the meantime? And does this mean you will play reunion shows in 2023 again?Oh, it's been even weirder than that. We were actually only together like a year and a half, then did the US tour in 1990, came back, recorded Why Suffer?, played our second "last show" (the first was in January 1990), and then I went to go hitchhike around the country, settling in Texas, while Aaron went to university. We then did the Euro tour in 1991, came back and recorded There Is No Man, and then I think broke up again.Then we did some shows in mid 1992, then again in mid 1994. We were then totally out of touch until late 2005, when I contacted Aaron and we decided to make music again. We did some shows in mid 2006 and recorded Re-active, and the some shows in California in 2007 and recorded What We Build Together. And then we broke up again in January 2008, but... you never know. To be more specific, in 2006 and 2007 we were together for a total of 9 days, played 8 shows and recorded 2 EPs.
Despite being from NY and playing hardcore, GO! never seemed to be down with the NYHC scene... no, scratch this. I would say GO! was more punk than the bands that played CBGBs matinees, right? In retrospect, I guess it was more ABC-No-Rio and Born Against than let's say Agnostic Front, would that be a good analogy?
Well, we never were a tough guy band, but lots of bands weren't - y'know, Bad Trip, Life's Blood, SFA (which I was in earlier), Underdog, Gorilla Biscuits, Krakdown - good bands, not macho assholes. And then yeah, Born Against and Citizens Arrest and Rorschach came along and we were happily in that ABC thing. But I always thought of us as 100% hardcore. Punk and hardcore were very seperate things in NYC back then. Lots of "drunk punks" and "squatter punks", and we weren't quite in that scene. But we never played CBGBs either, and the Anthrax in CT never wanted us for some reason. But we played with Krakdown, SOIA, Uppercut, and Burn, [and] our first show was with Absolution and some others, an animal rights benefit at the Pyramid - thankfully the only show where I played bass and sang. Absolution were astounding to watch. But then again, I went to just about every hardcore matinee at CBGB's in 1985 and 1986, give or take, and on and off through 1989. I loved CB's! And I saw Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, Murphy's Law and such, easily 8-10 times each. They were awesome shows. But I was [just] this little 16 year old geek doing my fanzine, Bullshit Monthly.
From an outsider's perspective, I always thought that not only the New York hardcore and punk scenes were quite separated, but also the CB/ABC scenes. GO! always had a very strong anti-violence stance, anti-racist, pro-gay, all things that were not, well... "popular" among the likes of Cro-Mags or Warzone. Was it widely known that you are gay? How and when did you come out?I actually came out very publicly: on the inside cover of Bullshit Monthly #21 it said, "Proud to be gay-owned and operated." So, it was out there really quickly, maybe towards the end of '89. I remem-ber at the first GO! show mentioned above dedicating [the song] 'Section 28' to "my gay friends." Ouch. But that's where I was at that point in time. I guess maybe at this point it was both CB's and ABC happening, plus the Reconstruction Records store. Maybe the big SxE shows at the Pyramid weren't really going on anymore. I had actually missed that whole part of the scene, although I loved Straight Ahead and some others. There's a Straight Ahead video from 1988 on YouTube and you can see me - I come in maybe half-way. I've got my beard, which is unfortunate. Anyway, by 1989, I had been in the scene on and off for like 5 years and everyone knew me through the fanzine, so it really wasn't much of a problem. If people didn't talk to me or whatever, it didn't really bother me. And no one ever kicked my ass or anything. In that way I was probably the best person to come out, since I wasn't as much at risk. GO! never played at CB's, and I wasn't out when I played there with SFA - but at some point after I had been gone from SFA and came back, there was a show scheduled with the Bad Brains and I think we all decided better that I didn't do it and leave the band, which really was for the best. We probably didn't play too many shows with absolute bonehead bands. And I certainly wasn't out in 1985-86 in the pit at Cro-Mags and AF shows. I was just this skinny dweeb.
How and why and did GO! break up? I only know you released an (ego.) 7" afterwards, but I always had the impression it was pretty much under the radar, and all of a sudden you seemed to have disappeared from "the scene", only to turn up again in some hippie community, with Bullshit Monthly one sheeters full of Abba and La Bouche reviews...
GO! broke up so many times some people can boast at having been at 3 or 4 GO! "last shows." But we pretty much broke up as a steady band (for the fourth time, I think) in late 1991, after the European tour and recording There is No Man. Why? We had always planned to. The thought was to play great music before we moved on with our lives, yet split before we started making lousy music, like so many other bands had done. Then I did (ego.) and we did some shows in the summer of 1994, released the Existence compilation in 1995 (which Aaron compiled with Don Fury, and Frank from Epistrophy in Germany put out), but then we were totally out of communication until 2005. At that point I found Aaron's phone number and just gave him a call. We got together for a weekend with our spouses and at some point I suggested writing and performing again. And there we were. Believe it or not, I had no idea that every other band was reuniting as well. That was a complete surprise. (ego.) was kind of a side project that released two 7" EPs, but also played maybe 7 or 8 shows in the NYC and surrounding area, and even did a limited US tour in 1994 with Sticks & Stones. Our car broke down in California somewhere so we stopped. At some point [the] Stick & Stones van caught on fire, so maybe it’s better that we split off from them. And yeah, I lived at East Wind Community in Missouri for almost 3 years. It was great. I loved it, and part of me definitely misses it. I learned so much about people, about life, about business, and computers, also having the opportunity to work in the ranch or on the farm for like an hour a week (or however much I wanted) was very special. How often do you get that chance? I met some very special people (and some real assholes), learned a whole lot about nature and the natural pace of life, and grew up. I went from being a complete vegetarian to eating meat every so often. But only really stupid animals, like cows, sheep, chickens. Never anything intelligent, like pigs. Fuck, what an incredible time in my life. Now with work, the mortgage, my husband, our two dogs and such, I of course couldn't go back to that. But maybe for a visit at some point. And yeah, I did CB for a number of years: Current Bullshit, starting when I lived in Germany and continuing into Missouri and later when I moved to California. It was based more on personal observations of the world around me, less so on music. It made me open my eyes, look around, pay attention to things. What a great mental exercise. And it kept me in touch with many people.
How old are you now? I am asking this because I am 35 myself, and whether or not we like to admit it, hardcore is a youth movement. So how does it feel to be a part of this in 2008? What do your friends, family, peers think about it? Also, since you mentioned your husband, here's something I've been thinking about... when I interviewed Martin Sorrendeguy of Los Crudos and Limp Wrist, he said that the "gay part" of him always felt more attracted to disco and hip hop, and that he found himself struggling to balance the hardcore vs the non-hardcore side of him. I don't think that this has to do anything with sexual pre-ferences, because I share similar experiences...
When all is said and done, what it comes down to for me is music and energy and community - and for that age doesn't matter. There were always at least some people of all ages at shows in the 80's and early 90's, and they were as much a part of the scene as anyone else. I am turning 40 this year, but I still live my life in a way I feel is positive, still love hardcore music, still want to play it and record more. I don't really go to shows much, but that's often a time factor and the fact that I don't know that many people. And there are so many people I'm in communication with now who I knew back in 1990. Labels, distros, fans, zine editors, promoters. They're still around, I'm still around, and then there's always a new crop of kids coming into the scene. It's a good mix. I definitely felt it at ABC-No-Rio when we played there in 2006.
The hardcore and gay thing I can totally relate to. It is the straddling of two very different worlds... I guess another analogy for me is being gay and Jewish. I turned away from Judaism at a very young age because I couldn't reconcile the two (well, and yeah, being an athiest didn't help matters). But when I moved to the Bay Area, I found a synagogue which was about 90% gay and realized I didn't need to choose. Life isn't black or white, one way or the other. People are fluid. Things don't always have to be the same. They can be different. Now a lot of times I'll just say to non-hardcore friends "I'm in a band", and every so often I'll give them the URL to our website or MySpace page and they'll check it out. But I preface it with something like "I know it's probably music you won't like, and that's ok." There's no right or wrong. My parents have every record and every interview and every issue of Bullshit Monthly. They're very supportive. They probably feel better that we're not rehearsing in the basement anymore. They'd be on the second floor and the mirrors would be shaking. Sigh, "back in the day." But again, it's not your age - it's your life, the decisions you make every day.
What are the lyrics for "That rare 7" EP" that were not printed?
It's just a list of names of bands who have produced rare records: Poison Idea, SSD, Germs, Straight Ahead, Youth of Today, and so on. Loved doing that song! It was a lot of fun. So much of that record I would've done a little differently: this a little faster, and that a little slower, and this with background vocals, and that with louder vocals and on and on. Doing Reactive after so many years apart, it has it's strong points and its weak points.
Did anyone notice that the logo still says NYHC, but that the contact address is in San Jose?
Yeah, I do get the occasional question about that. Originally, this all came up because there was another band named GO! who wanted to use the name, but we were first. I said ok, like a complete idiot, since this was a couple of years before we even conceived of getting back together. And I said if we did ever release or rerelease anything we would called ourselves GO! NYHC... And then when we got back together it made sense anyway, even though I think that other band isn't around anymore. Because really, half of us still live in NY, and even so, we're the same band. We're playing the same songs. We have the same attitude, and the same connection to all our friends there. Are we not NYHC anymore? I'd say we still are, and I think we always will be.
100% backed. GO! = NYHC, period. Their two latest records What We Build Together and Reactive (plus other random stuff) are still available from www.designbymike.com/go. The latest news is that GO! will be playing yet another reunion show on October 10th at ABC-No-Rio in NYC with Huasipungo and some other bands.
