I’m forever a sucker for any historical documentation of the 80s hardcore punk scene, particularly pieces like this that were created under the radar and then lost to the sands of time. YouTube has gloriously resurrected so much of this kind of material, including scores of TV evening news reports, such as this one on the “crazy” new music and fashion fads of the 1980s.

What we have here is a four-minute-long documentary from 1985 on the Austin, Texas punk scene which was produced by Robert Wynne at the University of Texas at Austin School of Communications for his master’s degree.

The short video contains interviews with music critics, students, and Randy “Biscuit” Turner of the legendary Austin punk/funk band, The Big Boys. Turner, widely regarded as a pioneer gay performer in the world of punk rock, sadly passed away in 2005.

The video contains a Big Boys photo montage which is set to their classic track “Fun, Fun Fun” from the twelve inch EP of the same name—unfortunately, the producer of the video didn’t realize (or maybe he did?) that the EP was meant to be played at 45 rpm. The version of “Fun, Fun, Fun” here is clearly being played at 33 rpm, which is either tragic or comic depending on the producer’s intent. 

Also featured here is some rare live footage of The Offenders, whose Endless Struggle makes my short-list for “most underrated albums” of the hardcore era. I wish there was a whole lot more of this footage. 

Perhaps the best part of the whole video is the University of Texas student describing a punk show as “kind of like a ‘romp’ as C.S. Lewis would say.”

This may not be the most valuable document of 80s Austin punk ever created, but it’s a fine four minute time-waster for anyone interested in that scene.
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
LA Punks: A TV News investigation from 1983
Can we just talk about how great The Dicks (the band) were?