With The Quickness: Dope Hookers & Pavement: The Real & Imagined History of Detroit Hardcore Director & Producer Otto Buj (Detroit Playlist)

Dope, Hookers & Pavement: The Real & Imagined History of Detroit Hardcore (@detroithardcoremovie) is a documentary film directed and produced by Otto Buj. We were fortunate enough to get a press screener, but this is definitely something we would pay $8.00 on our own dime/time to watch. It's one Hell of a documentary about a scene that we (and, likely, most people) had absolutely no idea ever even existed. However, it's easy to see how much of a lasting influence this Detroit scene had on the eventual progression of Punk/Hardcore as a whole. Dope Hookers & Pavement chronicles the rise and fall of a Detroit scene that was only active from about 1981-82. Bands featured prominently within the film include The Necros, Negative Approach, The Meatmen, Bored Youth, The Fix, L-Seven, Violent Apathy, Minor Threat, and The Misfits, along with Touch & Go Records Punk 'zine.


Dope Hookers & Pavement boasts in-depth interviews with a who's-who of Hardcore luminaries, household names, unknowns, and scene affiliates including, most notably, Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat,) Tesco "Big TV" Vee.(The Meatmen,) John Brannon (Negative Approach,) Robert Michaels, Otto's brother Denis Buj, Fred Freezer, Steve Miller, Todd Swalla, and Joey "Sh*thead" Keithley (D.O.A.) It's truly a great story and we don't want to give too much away... you should just pay up $8.00, free up 113 minutes of your time, and thoroughly enjoy. As a bit of a taster/starter kit, we had director and producer Otto Buj curate a 34-song playlist boasting "a sampler of early Detroit Hardcore ALONG with the bands that were a big influence on them." Below you'll find the aforementioned playlist Otto assembled and the official film synopsis, as well as an episode of Dope, Hookers & Pavement for LAFFS out-takes/bloopers series. Dope Hookers & Pavement: The Real & Imagined History of Detroit Hardcore can be purchased and is now exclusively available to view at the film's own website. Now, go "ASK A PUNK" and get on outta here, ya' good for nothin' Punk!

Dope, Hookers & Pavement is a lively and unfiltered account of the early days of the Detroit Hardcore Punk scene, circa 1981-82, in the notorious Cass Corridor, arguably one of the worst neighbourhoods in the city, at the time. It took a small, seriously committed throng of White, suburban teens and skater kids to get down there and make that scene happen—but not without first doing a few one-off gigs in Detroit's "gay bars" and a critical stint at The Coronation Tavern in Windsor, Ontario before converging on The Corridor for their now-mythical residency at the ramshackle Freezer Theatre.

Featuring over 70 in-depth interviews—including John Brannon (Negative Approach,) Tesco Vee (Meatmen, Touch & Go,) Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Dischord Records,) pro skater Bill Danforth, scene kids, and members of The Necros, The Fix, Violent Apathy, and Bored Youth—and never-before-seen Super8 footage of The Freezer, Dope, Hookers & Pavement is both hilarious and reflective and an overdue record of a nearly-invisible, but magic little moment in the long history of Detroit Rock "N" Roll. Produced and directed by Otto Buj.