[lookout123]

i'm sure there are some bruce, but i've spent 17 years of my life involved in the punk/hardcore scene to varying degrees. i can tell you that in my experience most of the bands just want to make music and hopefully make enough money to break even. they write songs about things that are happening in their lives or they feel are relevant - just like most musicians. the bands that are after the money are rarely ever accepted in the scene that theoretically spawned them.

as big and established (and overhyped and cheesy IMO) as Tooth and Nail records is now, i remember when brandon put out his first album. the only goal was to get some decent production values into underground christian music. it was great. for the first 8 years or so it was just a lot of fun with most of the bands knowing each other and that type of thing. Now he makes a bunch of money and has a lot of corny bands on the roster, but other labels have spawned that still keep the legitimate underground scene alive.