"Rock Experts": Get Fucked!

30 years after the "invention" of punk, the mainstream is further off the mark than ever. Contrary to popular opinion, The Clash and The Damned and the Vibrators(and whoever), were painfully mediocore rock bands who had a few decent songs that we in the right place at the right time. You want to understand more about punk than Greil Marcus can teach you in 300 pages? Watch and learn.




Original? No
Proficient? No
Punk? Doye!

A day in the life...

I work delivering drugs to nursing homes and since most of the people there are out of their fucking minds, it's high time I start chronicling some of my daily life (blah!). At least once a week I'm going to blab about something that happens. If you are offended by this, you must be more insecure than I thought.

Whenever I pass people I always give them a smile and a nod, and occasionally they'll ask me to help them. If it's something like pushing their wheelchair 3 feet, of course I'll do it. If they're asking me "when Donna is coming" or "change my diaper", of course I can't help them. I'm the fucking delivery guy.

Yesterday some 90 year old woman flags me down as I'm walking and I stop and say hey. She keeps asking me to come closer as she's reaching out for me. I'm about a foot and a half away from her at this point and she's bawling at me to come closer. I ask if she wants me to do anything, and she says "I just want to touch you". She's screaming and crying so hard at this point that I can't even understand what she's saying, even though it's a broken record. "I just want to touch you, I just want to touch you". Since I'm not about to let some 90 year old woman cop a feel, I just shrugged my shoulders and went on my way.

It's summer, doye!

Too busy to blog this week... tough shit.

If you wanna come play nighttime basketball, let me know. Don't worry, we suck too.







<---Me

Crimpshrine-Sleep, What's That?

As someone who's not afraid of making snap judgements and being closed minded, I'm often quick to dismiss bands. So every once in a while I'll give such bands a second chance. In doing so I've decided that I still think Killing Time sucks , I still think Poison Idea is okay, but overrated and that I was wrong and Born Against is exceptional. Whatever, you live, you learn. I'd rather admit that I was wrong that be one of the many pretenders who likes "everything".

So with that in mind, last week I went to a friends house to clean house on his record collection. He had a copy of Chrimpshrine "Sleep, What's that?", and seeing as how the asking price was one dollar, I threw it in my pile. Crimpshrine is a band that held in extremely high esteem by alot of people with questionable taste in music. Personally, I dismissed them when I had bought the "Quit Talking Claude" ep out of a used bin 8-9 years ago. The "pop-punk" 90's made me a skeptic of the style, and I remember not even making it through the record. I later traded it to a friend for a can of pop. Again, you learn.

There is something that's refreshing about this record, even though it's close to 20 years old. In an age where the majority of new bands seem more interested in dropping obscure references than writing original songs, this "classic" is fresh. The punk scene is now populated with more "experts" than "fans". Everyone has an MP3 library that puts the MRR library to shame. While ideally it's great that young kids have access to every punk record ever, more often than not you end up with "Svart Framtid is my favorite d-beat band"(and 50 people agreeing). It's not even a thirst for knowledge, it's a mania for superiority.

What's my point? Here's a couple hypothetical interview excerpts.

2007 Punk Band
Q. "What are your influences?"
"Well we have very diverse influences, such as Japanese Burning Spirits hardcore, as well as US Hardcore such as Koro, Deep Wound and Vile. Also a bit of Norwegian Hardcore such as Fader War and Akutt Inneggelse"

Hypothetical Crimpshrine Interview
Q. "What are your influences?"
"I don't know, the Ramones?"

And that's how it should be. A bunch of friends getting together to start a "punk band", not trying to meld as many obscure references as possible. Listening to Crimpshrine, there is a sense of urgency, but you can still see the smiles on their faces. Sure, some of the politics expressed in the lyrics are juvenile, and 20 years of people using late-80s Bay Area punk as a "how-to-live" manual have soured me on the enthusiasm expressed. However the idealism is so infectious that even the cynical old fart I've become gets caught up in it. "Maybe I'll feel Different tomorrow".

Somewhere my 17 year old self is shooting himself in the face.

Fucked Up Show Review

Each aspect of the show is to be described in 10 words or less. Save us both some time. If you really need to, insert some fancy(yet essentially meaningless or redundant) adjectives every 3 words.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, or trying to agitate. I'm just being honest. Save it for the Get-Along-Gang.

Venue: Collective Cabaret
Fuck it. "Glad to see you go"

1st Band: No Fun
Into their early shows, something got lost along the way.

2nd Band: Search and Destroy
Enjoyable. Doesn't need to play so often.

3rd Band: Under Pressure
Better than at label, but a hollow shell of 2004.

4th Band: Fucked Up
Worst I've seen em, but still a good time.

The Crowd:
I really hate the site of people having fun.

Me:
Wondering where it all went wrong.

After wanting to get it for close to a decade, I finally got a copy of Flipper's second album "Gone Fishin'". This record seems alot harder to find than "Generic"(which was the first record that I bought even though I had the CD, it's been followed by dozens of others). From what I can figure there are 2 reasons for this.

First of all, the sleeve of the record can be cut into stand up figures for each member of the band, and their famous bus. I've gotta guess that a bunch of these got destroyed, and people subsequently threw the LP away(even though I have an old Subterranean order form where you can order the sleeve alone for 50 cents).

Second of all, this record, quite frankly, isn't nearly as good as Generic. I think alot of it has to do with the production. Usually when people complain about the production on punk records, it makes no sense. But here the production is so clean, that it barely sounds like Flipper. Compare the version of "Sacrifice" to the one on MRR "Not so quiet on the Western Front" and it's a joke.
The songs themselves are really fucking great, and the little "arty" bits, which I would usually think are goofy, are totally awesome. "The light, the sound, the rhythm, the noise" is probably the best track, but the version on "Blowin' Chunks", blows it away.


So if you are super into Flipper, I would get this. It's pretty easy to find online, but varies in price quite a bit. I paid around $20, but I've seen it go for over $50, which seems really high. If you are not really that into them, but you kinda like "Generic", I would pass on this.


Now, some one find me a copy of "Public Flipper Ltd".

The Week in Records.

Framtid-Beyond the Ashes
This was impossible to get when it came out and since then has become an ebay big money staple. Since I prefer to be on the other end of the "$100 for a record that came out in the past 5 years" equation, I've been living with downloaded version. I was more than happy to pay $7.50 for this though. One of the 5 best bands going, but you should already have known that. For the hardcore.



Lebenden Toten- Death Culture Deprevation 8"
I could go into a big spiel about how it's stupid to press an 8" because it costs more than an LP, but who cares. After dropping a huge 8 dollars(8 dollars!) I really could care less about all that crap. This band was already one of my favorites, and this is their best record yet. You'll hear a lot of people go "blah, blah, Confuse, blah, Disorder", but this band is totally original to my ear. Get this if you can.





Ebba Gron- Pro-Rock 7"
I had their first 7" (Anti-rock), and played it to death, so I figured I should pick this up. While it's not as good as the first one, on first listen, it's still totally solid. Poppy punk from Sweden in 1978. I know some of their later material is not so hot, but if you get a chance, get their early stuff.



Blitz-All out attack 7"
I had tried to pick this up online a few times but wasn't able to, so I was very happy to get this as a birthday present. Obviously I already had these songs(a couple on 3 different records already), but if you know me, you know why I wanted this. Plus so many pictures of these 4 hunks. One of the best punk records of all time.








Dead Boys-All this and more Lp

This was another birthday present. This is a bit better than the Night of the Living Dead Boys Lp, but I'm not sure how it compares to Twisting on the Devil's Fork Lp(don't have it). I'll probably pick that up and maybe do reviews of all three together and compare. Anyway, this record rules, has all the hits(and more). For some reason I used to not like the Dead Boys, but I was wrong. You might not think that you need "live" albums, but this one is well worth your lunch money.



and then...


I don't know how to rotate it, but here's a poster I just got for my room. High art.































Someone find me this, I'll make it worth your while

"It seems to me you shut out
anything that might confuse
the warped and twisted visions
of the narrow little paths you choose
we're all potential converts in your eyes
I think instead you need to take one step beyond
cause right now you're just standing on my head
I swore a million times I'd never play this game with you
so don't act all offended when I tell you what I think of you
you mouth the party line you learned from all your newfound friends
you tell me that you're feet are on the ground but now you're standing on my head
another gang of whitebred privelaged kids is all I see
I wonder if you really think that all your rules spell anarchy
react and call it revolution you're stuck in the first step
so don't pretend to be my friend
when all you're doing is standing on my head"

Top 10 NYHC SONGS

I'm always making music top 5, 10, 100 lists. Since these are essentially a waste of time, they are tailor-made for a blog. So every once in a while I'll be dropping one of these for all of y'all. Finally your life has meaning.

Up first, TOP 10 NEW YORK HARDCORE SONGS.

I know I'm being extremely liberal with "New York", but so be it. I know I'm being extremely conservative with "Hardcore". That's because I know what I'm talking about. Sorry, no mega obscurities here either. As much as you might want to pat yourself on the back because you know who Our Gang or No Thanks is, you can't fuck with the classics.

10. Warzone-Crazy but Not Insane
If every Warzone song sounded like this they would be worthy off about half the praise that they get.

9. Reagan Youth - New Aryans
Word is that this record was originally supposed to have come out on Crass Records, but they ditched at the last minute. Compare this to anything that they put out around that time(1984) and see if they it was a good idea.

















8. Raw Deal-Wall of Hate
I chose the Raw Deal version over the Killing Time, because this is a list of Hardcore songs, not shitty metal songs.







7.Urban Waste- Public Opinion
Perfect


6. Youth of Today- Stabbed in the Back
As much as 1000 shitty bands have tried, you really can't ruin this.

5.Cro-Mags -Show You No Mercy
Fucking great, but people can get over it.

4. Born Against-Mary and Child
To be honest it really took me a long time to get into this band. I was wrong.





3. Citizen's Arrest-Serve and Protect
Word has it that they are doing a reunion. That sucks. They are still my favorite band.















2.Life's Blood-Not for the Weak
Duh.










1. Agnostic Front-Discriminate Me
Funny how this band wrote this song about not being able to find a job because of how you look, and then went on record "Public Assistance". Outside of a few of the racist lines, I actually agree with the lyrics to Public Assistance to an extent, however the irony is not lost. That aside, this kills.



If you disagree with some of my choices, good for you. Maybe there is something happening in there after all. Hope this was as boring to read as it was to write.

Wild Weekend

Tops and Plops for this weekend.

+hilarity on the radio saturday morning, including me saying that the Bro-Core Nation is most definitely a gang.
+spending a lot of money at the comic store on, for a lack of a better term, art books. "And we become what we hate..."
+Getting a bunch of rad records from ebay
+Spending time with friends
+Show on Friday was pretty good
+Skipping a weak sauce poker party
+work gathering not being crappy at all
+the Boiler

-the Boiler (he totally owes me $12 cuz I babysat him for 4 hours)
-too hot, fuck summer
-not working
-didn't spend enough time with my records
-people who drink

Records Records Records

Dinosaur Jr.-Bug
I had a tape of this when I was in 9th grade but hadn't heard it in forever. But since I started living with indie-rock Rich he had it on the computer and I had to get it. Freak Scene is god.

Hermit Prose-Down Beats Sect
I basically buy everything that I can on Crust War so this was a no brainer, totally heavy, crushing, yadda yadda. Plus all those stupid 2003 boston straightedge bands wish they could think of a name as dumb as hermit prose.

Germ Attack-Canadian Concentration Camp
Pretty cool 7", really straight forward hardcore punk, maybe a more generic Varukers (uh....). Some of the lyrics were dumb, such as the patronizing song about "Woman's Liberation". Worth getting for sure still though.

Dead Boys-3rd Generation nation
a re-mix of the 2nd Dead Boys album, a little bit better than the original, rougher. I basically got this because Lex was able to get a discount. Ain't it fun still rules and the Stones cover still sucks.

Awakening-reissue/unreleased
I had the Final Feast 7" and have loved it for years, so i figured I'd get this. Pretty killer shit. A chunkier BDI maybe?, whatever this kills. The unreleased stuff is also up to par.

Vulpess -pic disk
Got this quite a while ago but still wanted to waste your time on it. Probably the best reissue of the past few years. Spanish 70s girl punk that blows away all the retro shit, and most of the big names from the original era(the Damned). For punks.


Cococoma-new single on Goner
Probably my favorite band of the new wave of garage punk. keeps up to the standard on their Shit Sandwich single. Worth your time for sure.

I can't figure out how to log into my old blog so here's the new one...


wow.