Any aspie punks?

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I grew up with the first wave of punk, and was into the American underground/indy scene in the 80's. I played in a few local bands when I was teen, but once I was in college, grunge exploded and pretty much killed punk, IMO. The grunge bands saw themselves as punk, but I saw them as something that evolved out of punk, metal and 80's underground music culture.

I don't think I ever really saw myself as punk. I wasn't inclined to label myself. I saw no need. But other people did see me as punk. I was a pretty bold teenager, and thanks to be an Aspie (although undx'd back then), I did my own thing, which the other kids thought was "punk." I did have weird haircut, crazy clothes, a tons of ear piercings, and a snotty attitude, but hey, I was a teenager.

I used to have quite a collection of punk recordings, but it was all on cassettes and LPs. Over the years, I've lost all of those but a couple Flipper LPs. But no biggie. I don't really need that these days. I have enough on CD, and really, the Clash is the only band that matters, after all. (just an old punk joke--don't get offended!)

I think I woud have been more a Johnny Rotten than a Sid Vicious. I can see Johnny having some Aspie traits, maybe even being on the spectrum. But Sid? Mmm, not sure about that. I wouldn't be surprised if he had something like dyslexia or dyspraxia, but no one who knew Sid would have accused him of having an above average IQ or being very self-possessed like Aspies tend to be. Yeah, he was a misfit and clearly troubled--not an Aspie but perhaps another sort of neuro-misfit that an Aspie wouldn't mind hanging around.

Actually, back then I really disliked the Sex Pistols because they were so iconic--they were what everyone thought of when you said "punk" and I hated the idea that one band could define what punk music was. To me, if you were looking for "leader," that meant you were a "follower," you know what I mean? And I wasn't interested in being a follower. I wanted to be involved with this music as much as I could and being a follower meant you weren't suppose to contribute or actively participate. This was in the 80's--punk and the rest of the 80's hardcore/post-punk/a;ternative rock scene had quite a diversity. It was very egalitarian in a way I have never seen any music scene be since. Anyone could do their thing and no one cared (I mean, even the Go-Go's got away with calling themselves punk when they strated!). No hipsters or trendsters to worry about. You didn't have to listen to the "right" bands or know the "right" people. You just had to show up. It was a very Aspie-friendly kind of scene, looing back on it.

I loved the Clash to Flipper to the Minutemen to Husker Du to New Model Army to the Cro-Mags. I tended to resent indivudal musicians who the fans held up as "definitive" of what that music should be. In the mid-80's I even hated Joe Strummer for acting like he was the only person in the Clash who counted--it wasn't until the mid-90's when he confessed he ruined the Clash and had let his ego get the better of him that I forgave him.

But I eventually grew up and realized I was taking the wrong perspective on this. The people who were really influential in that scene were so because they took chances others didn't, so they deserved respect for that. Looking back on that now, it's kind of funny how uptight I was. For example, I really hated Ian MacKaye. I thought he was this one-note, self-important straight-edge dude who broke up one of my favorite bands then, Rites of Spring, to form Fugazi. LOL. It's silly now, but that was how intense I was then about this music. I have so much respect for Ian today, and I'm love what he and Guy Picciotto Brendan Canty accomplished with Fugazi. But back then, when Rites of Spring dissovled and everyone was saying Ian had poached Brendan to form his new band (which wasn't true, it turned out) I was pretty disgusted with him!

For some given values of punk, yeah, I like the music. F'r'instance:

The Gun Club
X
Les Negresses Vertes
World/Inferno
Billy Bragg
NMA
Rachid Taha
The Levellers
The Dresden Dolls (*ducks* yeah, yeah, I know, what can I say? )
Pogues (in moderation, and specifically excepting that f*****g abomination of a song)
Sleater-Kinney
Gogol Bordello
The Clash
The Stranglers (in moderation)
Penetration (okay, I don't really like them, but they're local and Don't Dictate is cool )
And a bunch of folk-punk, electroclash and so on.

I don't like the Ramones, the Pistols, stuff in that vein and/or anything that's too heavily aggressive or incoherent. I like my songs singable.

Flipper - now that's some good lyrics like "Isn't life a blast, it's like living in the past, I go downtown to do my shopping, and I work in suburbia, and I say hahahahaha hohohohoho..."

As far as I go is being called emo despite having a punk attitude and style. I didn't grow up in the punk era yet I feel nostalgic for it all. I guess being labeled as emo is still a self manifestation, Hardcore through and true.

Not really. What happened was someone 15 years ago lent me a tape, that I copied, with a bunch of songs including two Electric Eels songs including that one, but I never knew who or what it was. Then a week or so ago I found out it was the Electric Eels and that they were from before the punk movement.

I like quite a bit of punk. My favourite punk band are The Wipers.