THE BERGEN MONITOR
  Bergen Communicty College, Paramus, NJ 07652 
  Friday, October 28, 1977

The Arts

Punk Rock?
  by Annie Deppelt
  The Bergen Monitor

    If you and your friends are tired of going to the same old places and 
listening to the same old bands, why not try something new and different?
Punk rock may be just the thing for you.
    A couple of weekends ago, a few of my friends and I went to Eddie's
Rock Palace on Cedar Lane in Teaneck to see two punk rock groups.  Besides
talking to the two groups, The Victims, and The Misfits, we talked to their
publicity manager, whom we knew only as Freddy.
    Freddy was dressed in faded blue jeans, a black leather jacket and a blue
tee-shirt underneath.  Nothing unusual about that, but around his wrist was a
thick, black leather wristband with four or five rows of silver studs all 
around it.  His shoes were a white type of boot with the toe of the shoe
coming to a point.  He was also wearing the type of gloves that would be worn 
by a member of a motorcyle gang.
     When asked what was punk rock and its purpose, he told us that it was
music that nobody else does, it's original.  He also says that the rock groups
that are knocking punk rock will eventually be playing it in the near future.
Freddy goes on to say that it is simplistic, there's a lot of fun to it, and 
that it's anti-boredom and anti-hippie; it's rock and roll revitalized.  
Freddy told us that basically if you've heard one band, you've heard them all.
     Both bands, The Victims, and The Misfits have been together as groups 
for about a year and a half.  There are four people in each group, and like
in the sixties, they are trying to find themselves.
     The group The Victims told us that they like to play their rock 'n' roll
anywhere, but are mostly limited to play at such places as bars.
     The Misfits had said that they wouldn't mind playing for an audience at
a college, a high school, or even for an audience at a grammar school.
     Ninety-five percent of the music is written by the groups themselves,
but once in a while they will do a piece by another artist, but they will do 
it their own way with their own personal style.
     They are tired of the 1970's, and especially of 1974 with such rock
stars as David Bowie and Elton John, just to name two.
     The two groups try to create an image that punk rock is a fun thing to
do and to listen to, and is very carefree and not self-conscious.  Punk 
rock is a type of release of energies for everyone around them.
     The Misfits commented on the Beatles by saying that they weren't
revolutionary and that the happenings of the times influenced their music.
     The ages of the performers in the groups range from eighteen to 
thirty-two years old.
    The only way to describe this experience is that it is like nothing
else you've seen before, and to believe it, you MUST see it for yourself.