Since the late 1970s, a burgeoning sonic rebellion has echoed beyond the fringes of Malaysian mainstream society. On the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, groups of Malay youth sporting Mohawk hairstyles and Doc Martens would gather every weekend at the Kuala Terengganu central bus station. Here, they’d trade their coveted cassettes, fanzines, and clothing accessories. These punk enthusiasts would then hitch rides on long-distance buses to the capital, Kuala Lumpur, or neighboring Singapore, embarking on pilgrimages to city record stores in search of punk and new wave music tapes and albums. Fueled by Malaysia’s economic boom in the late 1970s and 1980s, an increasing number of young individuals gravitated towards the capital, Kuala Lumpur. Simultaneously, the global Islamic revival movement of the late 1970s gradually fractured Malaysian society into secular and conservative factions. On one side, rapid urban modernization and capitalist expansion surged forward; on the other, a comprehensive rise of Malay nationalism and Islamism unfolded. The intersection of these powerful forces brewed a turbulent undercurrent of the times. Caught within this intricate web of circumstances, young Malaysians found in music subcultures a vital source of spiritual sustenance and solace. This is a journey through time and the raw energy of punk noise, guided by firsthand witness Joe Kidd, as we delve into the nuanced history of Malaysia’s punk and underground music scene.
Revered as the “Godfather of Punk” within the Malaysian underground music circuit, Joe Kidd is not only an early participant in the Malaysian punk movement but also a pivotal figure in its documentation and progression.His seminal fanzine AEDES, his influential record labels Sonic Asylum Records and A.G.E., and his insightful music column “Blasting Concept” in The Sun newspaper all played crucial roles in shaping and chronicling the evolution of Malaysian underground music. His personal experiences and long-term observations will illuminate how Malaysian punk music responded to the prevailing social climate, forging its own distinct voice and community outside the mainstream. This is a narrative woven from the whispers of the punk community, the defiant shouts of the DIY ethos, and the yearning to create one’s own sound beyond the established order.
About Joe Kidd
Joe Kidd is an independent cultural historian and archivist focused on music-based youth subcultures in Southeast Asia. As a pioneer of Malaysia’s punk movement, he has been a central figure in the underground scene since the late 1970s. In 1987, he published AEDES, Malaysia’s first widely distributed punk zine. In the 1990s, he founded Sonic Asylum Records and Alternative Garage Entertainment (AGE). From 1994, he wrote the influential column “Blasting Concept” for The Sun, shaping the music tastes of a generation. In the 2000s, Joe established The Ricecooker blog and later opened The Ricecooker Shop, a hub for independent music and DIY culture in the region. In 2013, he received the Asian Public Intellectuals Fellowship, conducting punk research in Manila, Jakarta, and Tokyo, and presented “The History of Southeast Asian Punk” in Hiroshima in 2014. He is currently writing a book on the subject while running The Ricecooker Archives, a personal project he describes as a “Southeast Asian Rock’n’Roll Treasury.” Splitting his time between Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu, Sabah (North Borneo), Joe continues to play guitar for one of Malaysia’s longest-running punk bands, Carburetor Dung (aka DUNG).