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Yankees Suck: The back story
By adamg on Tue, 09/01/2015 - 9:37pm
Grantland has the amazing story of the "drug-addled, beer-guzzling hardcore punks who made the most popular T-shirts in Boston history."
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Comments
I started reading this and
I started reading this and the intro was so completely insane that I decided to save the rest for a time when I can really savor it.
I knew some of this
From their book "Babylon by Bus." I completely recommend the book. It is well written, and the subject was fascinating too.
Like the commenter above, I need time to read this article.
The moral of the story
If you're going to sell drugs, don't do it in your (expletive) house. Genius move, guy.
Otherwise, this was a wonderful piece. I always wondered what happened to the "Bukkake Matsui" people. I thought shifting tastes simply drove them out of business. I never knew that it imploded in a cloud of drug use. Bravo, Grantland.
the matsui shirts were
the matsui shirts were actually made by a rival shirt crew also made up of hardcore dudes. that crew ultimately took over the original yankees suck crew's designs when the group folded.
true but..
I was one of these guys (but came later, not mentioned in this story) The rival crew you mentioned was actually a split of this original crew. They started their own separate selling business who could share turf, but the agreement was not duplicate the same shirts. That crew is still there and now has the (legitimate) name of Sully's Tee's. They did those mentioned Matsui shirts, also the "Jeter drinks wine coolers" shirts and the Believe in Boston shirts to name a few.
It's interesting
that the author only touches on the gentrification of the area towards the end, especially vis-a-vis the new Red Sox management. However, this happened right around the time Kenmore Square was transforming from a grungy music epicenter to the home of Eastern Standard, which certainly would have affected them: the patrons of Eastern Standard aren't exactly the type of people who'd have patronized The Rat, either.
As a side note, was this group responsible for all of the Yankees Suck/Jeter Swallows and Jeter Sucks A-Rod shirts? Because I definitely went to some Mets games at Shea, and those shirts were quite plentiful there around the same time period.
I'll offer one exception:
I was a longtime Rat habitué, currently a fan of Eastern Standard (and Island Creek Oyster Bar and The Hawthorne).
I would like to think
that good taste in music and food are not mutually exclusive. And you probably have a couple of more dollars to spend in restaurants these days.
Not the only one
I was going to say the same about some of my friends. Plenty of people who were punk kids 20 years ago like a good dinner out today.
For that matter, liking punk rock and liking good food don't seem that contradictory.
Wow
reading that is like a having a brick slammed into your face.
On a side note, where are these fine, upstanding middle class,college educated guys now? End the 'War on Drugs', and bring an end to the hypocrisy. I bet they're doing just fine, which is not true for many others less fortunate.
The artcle ends with your Animal House moments
One of them's a car dealer.
Geez
It's hard to determine which profession is scummier. Cars salesmen or drug dealer.
I still need a medium
I still need a medium "Clemens is a Bag of Shit" shirt if anybody's holding.
I can't believe JSH threw
I can't believe JSH threw away boxes of those at the end of the season. I would've worn that shirt at my wedding.
"A tougher, faster evolution
"A tougher, faster evolution of punk, hardcore had flourished in Washington, D.C., and New York in the ’80s and ’90s, and was now peaking in Boston."
The author needs to do some damn research if he thinks Boston hardcore wasn't "flourishing" here in the 80s and 90s, and peaked in the 2000s. I'm sure bands like SSD and Jerry's Kids would disagree.
Couldn't agree more.
I think that there is a an argument to be made that Boston dwarfed even New York in the 80's.
Completely agree. We were
Completely agree. We were known for playing faster and harder than anyone else. People knew when it was Boston hardcore. New York hardcore is just hardcore from New York.
And DYS, and any of the other bands on the This is Boston
Not LA comp.
But there was a whole resurgence in the late 90s with bands like Tree, Sam Black Church, etc.
Anyone remember that dude Fat Pat, who would bowl into kids while their back was turned at shows?
getting all nostalgic
I lived in mission hill in 2000 and this brings back memories. When I found out that I slept with one of these guys girlfriends I was a bit worried...