MOG - Robmo's Posts

May Sampler: American Hardcore

Robmo — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:43:23 GMT

This month I am giving my friends a cd of hardcore punk. The genre started with great promise. Lots of diverse bands playing fast loud music, and while it did eventually degenerate into formulaic music , and a social attitude bordering on fascism, there was a point, and I think can still be an argument for, that this was the most American of music forms. This was rock and roll that didn't require a stadium setting, or even a traditional club type venue to happen. This was a genre that was cropping up in every town in the country. There was hardcore in Iowa, Kansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Alaska, Hawaii etc... While this music did thrive in large market cities, it was also popular in small towns. I'm guessing it was also the soundtrack to the teenage years of a number of moggers. The twenty two tracks on this cd only begin to scratch the surface of this fascinating cultural phenomenon, but I think represent some of the best of the genre. All apologies to Youth of Today, Gorilla Biscuits, Cro-Mags and the thousands of other bands that didn't make the cut.

1. The Passenger/ The Lunachicks: A good way to start with a band that conceptually would not be considered hard core today. After the first generation, women didn't really seem to have a palce in the hard core scene. This was an absolutely atrocious concept as the women in The Lunachicks prove with their cover of the classic Iggy Pop song. They sound fast loud and angry.

2. Lexicon Devil/ The Germs: Darby Crash and company in what conceptually was probably the most entertaining of the Los Angeles punk bands. Loud, sloppy, and fast.

3. Gimme Gimme Gimme/ Black Flag: An angry rant about fear of loss of control, at least in respect to substances. The desperate teetotaler message would eventually spread to the straight edge nazis, but at least at this point there were songs like TV Party to offset the heaviness.

4. 21st Century Boy/ Bad Religion: Shitty song by a second tier band. It illustrates a formulaic approach to punk that has proven to be commercially viable.

5. This Ain't No Picnic/ Minutemen: Clocking in at under two minutes, this is a song that the current hardcore enthusiast probably would not consider hardcore. It doesn't follow the game plan or meet the standard, but damn if it doesn't rock.

6. What's Going On/ Husker Du: Off of the first punk double album, Zen Arcade, this song needs high volume. I find it interesting that this band had two homosexual members, was very popular, and thrived in a scene that was often intolerant, while at the same time very homo erotic.

7. Banned in DC/ Bad Brains: Louder and faster than any of their brethren, this band epitomized hard core. This song illustrates one of the dilemmas of the hard core underground sound, that there was no place to play.

8. White and Lazy/ The Replacements: Leave it to this pack of Minneapolis alcoholics to satirize hard core more effectively than anyone else. No they weren't a hard core band, but for one song they certainly sounded like one.

9. Erase/ The Inquisition: Representing my local scene are The Inquisition. Lots of call and response vocals and retarded political stances abound. I believe the lead singer, Thomas Barnett, is now in Strike Anywhere.

10. The Deadly Rhythm/ Refused: Granted not an American band, but a band that took the good elements of hard core and expanded upon them. Nice jazz interludes.

11. I Love Livin' In The City/ Fear: The comic darlings of the Decline of Western Civilization with their classic slice of raunch and depravity.

12. I'm Not A Loser/ Descendents: A second wave band that featured a talented drummer, and moved the subject matter to suburban teen angst.

13. Homo-Sexual/ The Angry Samoans: Prime example of homophobia in the punk world, but done in a funny way.

14. You Drive Me Ape/ The Dickies: The only band out of the initial Los Angeles scene to sign to a major, which caused nothing but scorn and disdain for them. A rather unfortunate outcome for them because other bands certainly would have signed with a major for the money, but as soon as Sid Vicious died all labels lost interest in punk. The Dickies simply had the bad luck of signing at the right/wrong time.

15. Group Sex/ The Circle Jerks: Keith Morris left Black Flag to form a band that had more of party attitude than some of the depressing dark subjects that Black Flag explored, basically more T.V. Party less Depression. The Circle Jerks fulfilled that attitude as shown here in a song that is just a reading of a swinger ad in the personals.

16. Frat Cars/ The Big Boys: The forgotten punk heroes of Austin Texas, The Big Boys discovered the Butthole Surfers and pioneered the funk punk that would eventually become The Red Hot Chili Peppers sound. Here is a nice attack on frat boys.

17. In My Eyes/ Minor Threat: Fascism enters the picture as Ian MacKaye and company tell you how to live your life. I have no problem with people holding certain beliefs and living certain lifestyles, but I would rather be allowed to make my own decisions without being ostracized from a scene. MacKaye has always claimed that it's about making choices, but for his crew it isn't. It is you are with me or against me.

18. Captain Anarchy/ Anti-Flag: Nearly thirty years since it's creation hard core continues to exist nearly unchanged.

19. Scuffle Town/ Avail: More hometown, Richmond Virginia, representation, Avail was the best band on the Richmond scene when I was going to a lot of hard core shows.

20. We Are The One/ The Avengers: This band actually opened up for The Sex Pistols for the infamous last show. The Avengers broke up shortly after that.

21. Nausea/ X: The cream of the Los Angeles sound with a great song about hangovers.

22. Moon Over Marin/ Dead Kennedys: This is my wife's favorite song by the DKs, and I have to agree it's pretty damn good. A melodic guitar opening and then the lyrics about ecological apocalyspe. Great stuff

April Sampler: Riot Moms and Other Angry Women

Robmo — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 04:07:23 GMT

This month the cd that I give out to my friends focuses on women in rock, but more importantly I wanted to compile a collection of songs from women who transcended the normal preconceptions of women in popular music. These are people who instead of the conventional norm of subservient delicate lady like flowers, you find artists who are confident and more than willing to examine the power of their gender and at the same time confront the opposite gender. These are people who are also not only fearless about their sexuality, but also fearless about redefining that sexuality.

1. Oh Bondage Up Yours, X-Ray Spex: Ari Up as a teenage fashion designer and malcontent, not only breaks many a taboo by singing about bondage, but also manages to satirize Malcolm McClaren's SEX store in one three minute frenzy.

2. Typical Girls, The Slits: The biggest of the all girl punk groups to come out of England, The Slits mixture of amateurism, feminism, and a deep love of reggae manifests itself here.

3. Fairytale in the Supermarket, The Raincoats: More experimental than the previous bands on this sampler, The Raincoats managed to provide striking lyricism without flaunting their sexuality. On this, their first single, the sound is primitive but unconventional and interesting.

4. I Drink, L7: The grunge bands that rose from the Seattle scene paid lip service to feminism and sexual equality, but L7 was really the only band from that scene that was willing to rock as hard as the boys. I remember seeing them open up for The Beastie Boys in the early 90's and just completely blowing them off the stage. Here is a great example of their ability to take macho ideals, in this case the ability to hold ones liquor, and throw it back in the face of their male counterparts.

5. Land:Horses/Land of a Thousand Dances, Patti Smith: The first lady of punk on her first album mixing the dance party classic of Land of a Thousand Dances with a tale of homosexual male rape. I'm sure that this version of Land made a lot of the fans of the original nervous and uncomfortable.

6. Chelsea Girls, Nico: Nico, the model/singer who seduced a who's who of rock and roll, Lou Reed, John Cale, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Iggy Pop please all stand up. Here on her first solo record and backed by various members of the Velvets, she croons a chilling tale of drug abuse and uncaring excess that was day to day living at the Chelsea.

7. Lady Scarface, Lydia Lunch: A founder of no wave band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Lunch tries to move away from the abrasive sound of her band into more of a big band style for this tale of seduction and one man stand where the woman is clearly in control.

8. The Ballad of Lucy Jordan, Marianne Faithful: Best known as Mick Jagger's girlfriend during the 60's and as a wasted junkie in the 70's, this album, Broken English, allowed Faithful to reemerge as a serious artist who didn't happen to be dating a prominent rockstar. There are more shocking elements of this album than Ballad of Lucy Jordan, but the Kraftwerkian arrangement and the musing about a 37 woman contemplating suicide is brilliant and striking.

9. Sisters O Sisters, Yoko Ono with Le Tigre: Kathleen Hanna, founder of ultra feminist Bikini Kill, with experimental artist Yoko Ono combining into a call for feminist uprising, great stuff.

10. Dig Me Out, Sleater-Kinney: Oregon trio who rock harder than most boys.

11. Hong Kong Garden, Siouxsie and The Banshees: The most striking woman musician to come out of the London punk scene, this great early single hinted at what was to come, as Siouxsie metamorphasized from punk to goth to artist.

12. Fujiyama Mama, Wanda Jackson: 50's rockabilly/country singer, who honestly rocked harder than most of the boys. In this case she sings a song that shows her toughness and readiness to party while at best being insensitive and at worst racist.

13. Folk Song, Bongwater: A brilliant song about Pretty Woman, sucking and shopping and sucking and shopping.

14. Mesmerizing, Liz Phair: From Exile in Guyville, this was a song that not only made clear her desire to be a star while also couching this stardom in being a woman.

15. Fuck The Pain Away, Peaches: Like a Harvard educated Lil Kim, Peaches takes her sexuality to pornographic extremes in order to make people face the perceived discrepancies between the sexes.

16. Cherry Bomb, Runaways: A group of teenage girls rocking like their male counterparts and also proclaiming their sexual prowess in the same manner, was shocking in the 1970s and still is today. Good for them.

17. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues, Nina Simone: Sounded like a man, sang about racial and sexual injustice, here Simone croons this down on your luck tale in a much more chilling way than Dylan ever could.

The Malakas part 2

Robmo — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 22:19:38 GMT

Here is more of that Malakas show

The Malakas Live At The Crowbar

Robmo — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:59:19 GMT

Here is a ten minute clip of my old friends The Malakas playing in 1999 in San Diego. Good rude drug and booze fueled rock and roll. Dumb like the Ramones not like Pois

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R.I.P. Cranny