VICIOUS CIRCLE

A PUNK ROCK PIONEER IN THE ’70S, PAUL MAHERN EXPLAINS WHY THE GENRE HAS SUCH STAYING POWER. ____

by Kyle Long

The Zero Boys cast a large shadow over the history of punk music in Indianapolis. The group’s 1982 debut Vicious Circle is celebrated by punk fans worldwide. Music from Vicious Circle has been covered by Metallica and The Hives, and the album has been cited as a formative influence on ’90s punk band Green Day.

The Zero Boys are widely acknowledged to be the most important Indianapolis punk band, but the group’s vocalist Paul Mahern says they never managed to attract a large audience in their hometown. Mahern was just a teenager when the group formed in the late ’70s.

There were only two Indianapolis venues that regularly featured punk rock in the late ’70s, according to Mahern. “There was Crazy Al’s at 54th and College, and a place Downtown near St. Elmo’s called The Third Base,” Mahern says. “You had to be 21 to get into places like that, but I had a pretty bad fake I.D. when I was 16.”

Beyond his work in punk rock, Mahern is a highly regarded producer, recording projects for a wide range of artists, from Lily & Madeleine to John Mellencamp. Mahern also teaches the History of Punk Rock at Indiana University. NOTE caught up with Mahern to get his thoughts on the development of punk music and its enduring appeal in Indianapolis.

NOTE is a classical music magazine, so I want to ask you about the relationship between punk and minimalism. At the time the punk scene was developing in New York during the 1970s, the minimalist movement in classical music was in full swing. Do you see a connection between the minimalism of punk bands like the Ramones and the minimalism of composers like Philip Glass?

Paul: Absolutely. Punk was created from the same energy that was driving those minimalist composers. There was a need for space to think and to exist. Minimalism leaves space for everyone to exist and experience their own version of what’s going on.

At that time, in the ’70s everything was getting overblown, and capitalism seemed to be crumbling. New York was crumbling. There had been this whole buildup from the ’50s and ’60s promoting this excessive lifestyle. You know, ‘bigger is better, bigger cars, more canned foods!’ The artists retreated and said, ‘We need less, not more.’

Punk rock is often a highly politicized form of expression. You were engaging in social commentary with the songs you wrote for the Zero Boys. Do you view political expression as an important aspect of punk?

Paul: I’ve always seen punk through the lens of acceptance. There are obviously instances when this is not happening, but punk is mostly infused with a left-leaning, more liberal message. That can be really varied from mildly liberal to a band like Crass that promoted true anarchism. Punk rock to me was always about tribalism, being in a tribe of people that I was like on some level.

Why has punk rock continued to speak to new generations of listeners?

Paul: Because it’s exciting, it’s real and it’s honest. We can draw all these lines and say, ‘This is when rock and roll became punk, and this is when punk became hardcore.’ It’s all just a continuation of the same tribal energy. It’s beating on rocks and dancing around the fire, blended with the cynical philosophy of Diogenes. Teenagers love that. ■