Shannon T. Moore (Activator, lead singer)
SPB: How did you “discover” punk rock?
Moore: I discovered punk rock on few different occasions in a few stages of my life. Starting with all of the media hype of the Sex Pistols and all of the times Sid Vicious was in the news. I remember seeing a clip of them doing "Anarchy in the UK" on Young Nation and thinking that shit looked crazy. At the same time there was The Ramones, which I mostly knew because I'm from Rockaway Beach. I had a second grade teacher who used to play that shit all the time. Second was a Record World commercial that was playing "Remote Control" by The Clash. I kept seeing it and the song stuck with me and as I began to save my allowance I bought the album. The first one with Joe, Mick, and Paul Simonon on the cover. It was the first album I ever bought. It was a cassette actually, on CBS records. I started to pay attention to other bands like Gen X and Eater but then hip-hop happened and that diverted my attention for a little while. Third, I came across an article in the Village Voice by Guy Trebay. It was on a band called Bad Brains. There was a hot girl in the picture so I thought she was in the band. Eventually I got up enough money to buy the ROIR cassette. I also realized that the girl wasn't in the band. But 4 black dudes with crazy-ass hair were. I had no idea music could be played that fast and that strong. I didn't realize it was punk at the time because I thought punk was about playing sloppy and having colored hair and shit. It still was, but this was really different. That's when "punk rock" officially entered my life. Lastly, there was the Circle Jerks Group Sex album. It seemed the very opposite of the Bad Brains album. Same fury but one was optimistic about the future through rebellion and the other had NO future. Interesting dynamic on ways to express aggression. It's the moment you realize love and hate might come from the same place. It's something that has stayed with me ever since.
