The Dead Kennedys ‘Pull My Strings’

It’s kind of hard for a band to ‘stick it to the man’ these days unless they’re content with playing in workingman’s clubs to Jethro fans for the rest of their lives. You’ll find it hard to sell out; pretty much because, in theses foul two thousands, you’re born sold out. The man, he is everywhere, everything. But let’s not throw ourselves in to the Sarlacc’s pit that is the multinational global hegemony debate, it’ll devour us all. Instead, come with me on a stroll back to 1980 San Francisco, where one of the greatest Hardcore punk bands of all time, The Dead Kennedys, are about to take the stage at the preposterous Bay Area Music Awards.

The Dead Kennedys were part of the youthful US Hardcore scene of the late 70’s/early 80’s, but stood apart from their peers due to their thrash-surf guitar, acerbic wit, Bukowski-drawl and satirical politico-baiting songs. Tracks like ‘California Über Alles’, ‘Kill The Poor’, ‘Holiday in Cambodia’ and my personal childhood favourite ‘Too Drunk To Fuck’ were phenomenal slabs of brutalised sarcasm that would stoke the ire of the Regan Right Wing and attract the blind violence of the ‘Bombs and Jesus’ crowd for the remainder of their days.

But in 1980, the DK’s were still very much embryonic, with one underground hit to their name, the superb ‘California Über Alles’. It was the underground success of this track that brought the band to the attention of the Bay Area Music Awards’ (or Brammies, apparently) organisers, who wanted to include a ‘New Wave’ band on the bill to add some credibility to the show. When the Kennedys got wind of this, they decided that they would write a new song to play in place of the requested ‘California Über Alles’.

So, taking up their instruments in front of an auditorium packed with industry bigwigs, and decked out in white shirts with black ‘S’s embossed on the front in spray paint, they thundered out the intro to ‘California..’, before collapsing the song, swinging black ties from around their backs to create $ signs on their chests, and breaking in to one of the finest guerrilla attacks on the corporate music culture (and The Knack!) ever committed to tape. Luckily, someone was recording this one off performance. Listen below and sing along to the lyrics HERE

Brit Soul Rebels

As we waved goodbye to another year, the first new month of 2010 was dominated by lists and reviews, charts of the year and not-so-bold predictions for the oncoming 12 months. It’s been universally trumpeted that 09 was the year Lady GaGa broke open a coasting international popscene; Beyonce cemented herself as an unparalleled global superstar and Rhianna stepped out from behind Chris Brown’s strong Pimp Hand to become a hybrid of the latter and the former.

But on the UK Top 40, a more organic movement has started to emerge, one that’s unlikely to create any ripples across the pond just yet, but has performed powerfully domestically over the last year. A new wave of black British soul and R’n’B acts for the 21st century, led by a few old hands, have been chewing up the charts on Sunday afternoons, and not before time. Look back over the last 4 years of MOBO Nominations and try to tell me that apart from Dizzee Rascal, that there was anything exciting likely to emerge and capture the hearts and pocket money of a switched on but culturally starved British urban youth populace?

The popular British Music Press’ short-lived fascination with the (equal parts) exciting and terrifying Grime scene in 2003 cut a path for Dizzee Rascal to follow out of an underground and in to the public consciousness. His debut ‘Boy In Da Corner’, which featured just enough big pop promise amongst the bleak, stuttering beats and estate horror stories, took the Mercury Music Prize that September and found itself everywhere from kids bedrooms to the coffee tables of the bourgeoisie. By 2004 the NME had closed its doors on the British Grime scene, with only the Rascal, his mentor Wiley, Kano and Lethal Bizzle managing to escape, but finding themselves out in the wide world of the mainstream, these acts quickly acknowledged that they would need to diversify or die. Pop was the answer to some sort of chart longevity and it was that man Dizzee who really benefitted from a lighter and less aggressive lyrical and musical turnaround. Yeah, Wiley still releases at least one party banger a year (Rolex, Take That), but Kano’s making tunes for the government these days and Bizzle is nowhere to be found.

Fast forward to 2009 and The Guardian’s Jude Rogers calls Dizzee Rascal “Britain’s first black male superstar”, following a summer of storming festivals around the UK. I don’t agree on the “superstar” tag, but what Jude Rogers is struggling to get past the plum in her mouth is that Rascal has at last fully embraced pop music to the extent that his Hip-Pop is now safe enough for little girls in their bedrooms and your boss at the office party to dance to; and in no way is this a criticism.

It’s this embracing of pop that’s allowed other black urban artists to break their way in to the mainstream over the last year. Artists like Chipmunk and Tinchy Stryder had serious breakthrough albums in 2009, while producer/performer Taio Cruz continued to show his skills both on and behind the music. These three artists have scored 4 Number 1 singles between them in 09, alongside further Top 10 hits and strong showings for their albums. Rascal himself scooped 2 number 1 singles with the superb ‘Bonkers’ and ‘Holiday’. Add the success of X Factor discoveries JLS (Number 1 album, 2 x Number 1 singles) and Alexandra Burke (Number 1 Album and Number 1 Single) and Leona Lewis (Number 1 Album) and you’ve got a year where young black British R’n’B artists have spent a large portion of ‘09 bothering the big American imports at the summit of the Official UK Top 40.

Of course, the likes of Leona, Burke and JLS have achieved their success off the back of the marketing juggernaut that is the X Factor, but their talents as young black recording artists are undoubtable and regardless of marketing budgets, they have all found themselves at the forefront of a new movement in Black British Pop Music. It’s been a long-time coming.

The Knife:’ Tomorrow in a Year’ Streaming

Sweden’s finest electro-siblings The Knife have wrapped up the recording of their opera ‘Tomorrow in a Year’. The band have been working with Mt. Simms and Planningtorock on the opera, which has been produced for Danish dance crew Hotel Pro Forma. Based on Charles Darwin’s ‘On The Origin of Species’, the recordings are the first new work from The Knife since ‘06’s ‘Silent Shout’ album.

Yeah, I know you all wanted a proper new album from Karin and Olof, me too! But since they’ve been kind enough to stream it for free, let’s give them the respect that they’re due and soak it up. The album is playing below. If you want a hardcopy, it’s out on the 1st of March.

AC/DC: From Maximum Overdrive to Iron Man 2

Photo by Rennie Ellis Photography

Iron Man director John Favreau has announced that he loves AC/DC so much, he’s going to stock the whole of the Iron Man 2 soundtrack with tracks from their back catalogue. Yeah, there’ll also be a score released (by John Debney, for those interested), but the official soundtrack will be made up of 15 classic tracks featuring  ‘Back in Black’, ‘TNT, ‘Let There be Rock’ and ‘Highway to Hell’.

As AC/DC have always resisted issuing a best of album, some desperate journo’s out there are hailing this as their unofficial greatest hits. Those fools must be smoking the rock to think that any AC/DC best of would be issued without ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ sitting in the tracklisting!

Some people think Favreau has lost his marbles, including me. But he’s not the first director to be so hung up on Australia’s greatest export that he’s decided to turn the whole soundtrack to his movie over to them.

Back in ’86, horror scribe Stephen King decided to try his hand at directing one of his own stories. The result was the awesome Maximum Overdrive, starring Emilio Estevez as the leader of a group of average Joe’s trapped in a truckstop cafe by fleet of murderous trucks sent wild by a mysterious green mist that envelopes the Earth for 24 hours.

The film is fantastic, featuring some superb machine vs. human battles including steamrollers, lawnmowers, vending machines and the leader of the fleet that terrorises the diner crew, the Happy Toyz Co. Truck, which has a giant Green Goblin mask fastened to the front grill.

King also hit upon the idea of shoe-horning his favourite band in to the project, with the subsequent soundtrack released as the AC/DC album ‘Who Made Who’.

But looking back, it really seemed to work. Probably because the 80’s was the decade of anything goes, but also because you believe that Stephen King really did want his favourite band to soundtrack his first movie. Favreau bringing them in from nowhere to soundtrack what is likely to become one of the biggest movie franchises’ in years?  There’s a deal been done somewhere alright. While it may line everybody’s pockets, it’s cheapened one of the greatest rock bands in history.

Don’t agree? Check out the album cover.

41st & Central: The So-Cal Black Panthers Let It All Out

41st & Central, a two part documentary series, follows the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party from its glorious Black Power beginnings through to its tragic demise. Despite the Party’s formation of free medical clinics and a successful breakfast program for children, the L.A. chapter was also known as the most violent Black political group in the United States. 41st & Central explores The Black Panther ethos, its conflict with the L.A.P.D. and the US Organization as well as the events that shaped the complicated and often contradictory legacy of the L.A. Panthers.

41st & Central contains interviews with former Black Panther Party members along with archival footage detailing the history of racism in Los Angeles, including the Watt’s uprising from the perspective of the participants who “engaged with the L.A.P.D.” 41st & Central is the most in-depth study ever of L.A. Chapter founder Alpretice “Bunchy Carter”, with the Party’s formation told by the original surviving members and an eyewitness account of Bunchy and John Huggins murder at U.C.L.A. in 1968. The film includes exclusive interviews with Black Panther Party leaders Geronimo Ji Jagga and Elaine Brown about their membership in the L.A. Chapter and the U.C.L.A. murders. Also featured are L.A. Panthers members Ericka Huggins, Roland & Ronald Freeman, Wayne Pharr, Jeffrey Everett, Long John Washington, Muhammad Mubarak, former L.A.P.D. Chief Bernard Parks, US Organization member Wesley Kabaila, U.C.L.A. Professor Scot Brown, and many others.

Under The Great White Northern Lights: White Stripes doc for Glasgow Film Fest

For those of you in the UK, you’ve got the chance to see the White Stripes’ tour documentary ‘Under The Great White Northern Lights’ on the big screen at the Glasgow Film Festival on the 22^nd and 23^rd of February at the Glasgow Film Theatre. You can get tickets HERE. 

The film follows the duo as they toured to every province and territory in Canada, playing sets in clubs, busses, parks, warehouses and even a fishing boat at one point. If you’d rather watch it from the comfort of your living room, you can do it in style by getting your hands on the limited edition The Under Great White Northern Lights box set which includes a DVD of the film itself, a DVD of White Stripes 10th anniversary show, a 16-track White Stripes live album recorded during the Canadian trek on both 180 gram vinyl and CD, a live 7", a 208-page book with photos from the tour by Autumn de Wilde (and a foreword by Jim Jarmusch), and a silk screen print. It’s a pretty sweet package, check it out at whitestripes.com 
 

“I wanted to play baseball!” Kareem Abdul-Jabba

NBA Rookie of the Year.

“When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. That's a terrible burden.”

17,440 NBA Rebounds

“My mother had to send me to the movies with my birth certificate, so that I wouldn't have to pay the extra fifty cents that the adults had to pay.”

19 All-Star Selections.

“I can do something else besides stuff a ball through a hoop. My biggest resource is my mind.”

Six Time NBA Champion

“I'm not going to disappear.”

15,837 field goals made. NBA Record.

“I expect more people from China and Asia to end up in the NBA.”

38,387 points. NBA Record.

“I think I did very well against everyone who tried to defend me.”

Six Time Most Valuable Player.

“I think black Americans expect too much from individual black Americans in terms of changing the status quo.”

47,446 minutes played. NBA Record.

“The game has basically not changed since I ended my career.”

Valleys of Neptune: New Jimi Hendrix Album on the Way

Fans of the Fender burner rejoice; this March will see an album of new Hendrix material released on Sony. ‘Valleys of Neptune’, the follow-up to 1968’s ‘Electric Ladyland’, features 12 unreleased Jimi songs recorded in New York and London in ’69, unheard arrangements of ‘Stone Free’ and ‘Fire’, as well as covers of Elmore James’ ‘Bleeding Heart’ and Cream’s ‘Sunshine of your Love’. You can pre-order it here at Jimi-Hendrix.com. 

Sony are also planning to reissue ‘Are You Experienced?’, ‘Axis: Bold is Love’, ‘Electric Ladyland’‘First Rays of the New Rising Sun’ and , which will all include Bob Smeaton directed documentaries on a Bonus DVD. When? 8th of March!

Oh...and ‘Live at Woodstock’ is also coming to Blue-ray. Go and spread the joy.

End of the World Cinema: Six String Samurai

Oh boy, in these grim times of global financial breakdown, international terrorism, imminent climate disaster and Jimmy Carr, you’d think that the toupee supporting Goldbergenstein’s running Hollywood would be sending some goodtime flicks the way of honest old Joe Schmoe, something to lighten the mood a little, to take the edge of the impending doom.

Well, apart from a slew of distressing remakes (Karate Kid, Teenwolf, Nightmare On Elm Street), Tinsletown has decided to hop aboard the zeitgeist by stuffing it’s bucks into a series of ‘End of the World’ movies to keep those smiles upside down well into the New Year. ‘2012’ is out now, borrowing all the old ideas and FX from the likes of ‘The Day After Tomorrow, ‘Armageddon’ and ‘Deep Impact’, while Denzel Washington’s ‘Book of Eli’ and the big screen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer winning ‘The Road’ bring the joys of post apocalyptic struggle to your attention. I’ve seen the latter and it’s no chucklefest!

Well, if it’s got to be doom and gloom, please let me offer you an alternative ‘Life after the Bomb’ movie, one with swords, guitars, Ruski-surf-rock and a story so out there that it’ll have you sweating like a Geordie in a spelling contest. Ladies and Gentlemen.....Six String Samurai!

In 1957, the Russian’s dropped several nukes on the good old USA, turning the landscape into a scorched and inhospitable desert. With the government wiped out, the leadership of the fractured nation was placed on the shoulders of Elvis, who would fly the flag for what was left of America from his desert throne at ‘Lost Vegas’.

A couple of decades later and a mysterious Disc Jockey sends a message over the airways; The King is dead! A challenge is issued for musicians to fight their way to Lost Vegas and claim the throne of the King. Among those making the deadly journey is our hero for 90 minutes, Buddy (yep, Holly). Buddy is equal parts guitar virtuoso and deadly samurai, who hides his razorsharp katana sword behind his beloved Gibson E S 335, battling scumbags and scavengers, a Russian Surf Band (The Red Elvises), a murderous bowling team and what seems to be Death, done up as Slash, on his way to claiming the throne.

Ok ok, its shit. But at least somebody out there is using their imagination and, at the very least, it’s worth a few cheap laughs. Here’s the trailer. I apologise in advance.

Result: David Lynch 64 Hollywood 0.

A belated Happy Birthday to one of the most twisted visionaries ever to pick up a camera, David Lynch, who turned 64 on the 20^th of January.  Go and buy ‘Mulholland Drive’ right now and stay away from the alley behind Winkies!!

It Just Takes Two

I was at a Bob Dylan show the other day, watching the mean old sonofabitch ruin his back catalogue in the usual blurt and mumble style that any review of the last 10 years would have let you know about in advance. It was expected, and as I didn’t exactly fork out the 45 bones for entry, I guess I couldn’t complain too much (though I did).

Apart from his heinous vocal delivery, the other thing that stuck in my craw was the musicians that he had surrounded himself with. In the same way that Jools Holland joins his guests and ruins their vibe with his soulless, glossy, unbearably ‘on the ball’ piano plonkin’, Zimmerman’s boys were just too slick to stick! With no character to their playing, the beautiful eccentricities of old Bobby’s raw classics were sanded, varnished, polished and placed in history’s cabinet next to Stevie Wonder’s talent and Iggy Pop’s soul.

As the house lights went up and Dylan’s hardcore fans jostled with the truth, I found myself comparing his band of hired guns to some of the scuzziest club bands that have fired me full of electricity each time I’ve dropped a needle on their wax or wrestled at the front of one of their shows. If a band of 6 over proficient musicians, with an envious catalogue of songs to choose from, can fail so miserably, how can a ramshackle 2 piece band like Death From Above 1979 blow your mind with 2 instruments and 10 songs to choose from?

Because less is more, punk’s not dead and all your heroes are pricks!! So, in tribute to those great bands in vans, trawling the toilet circuit and putting the legends to shame, I give you my Top 5 Favourite 2 Piece Bands!

Lightning Bolt

The first time I saw Lightning Bolt, my skeleton almost collapsed. Dig this! Two guys, Bass and Drums, The Bass has two banjo strings, is set to a standard cello tuning and played through a bevy of overdrive and pitch shifters. The drummer/singer, wears a bastardized Mexican wrestler’s mask with the microphone from an old telephone stitched in to the mask and stuffed into his mouth. They sneaked to the back of the hall as the support band was finishing their last song, set up their kit and PA on the floor behind the audience and within 5 seconds of the support act finishing, were blasting their semi improvised noise fury at 11, as wild eyed kids crashed over the kit, getting their fingers smashed on the floor tom and their minds blown out of their assholes!

Black Diamond Heavies

Rolling steady and bug eyed out of Nashville, Tennessee, with bourbon on the breath, fire in the blood and gospel in their hearts, Black Diamond Heavies play the devils music like angels high on junk and sorrow. Standing shoulder to shoulder, Vocalist and Organist John Wesley Myers and drummer Van Campbell walk the land playing the kind of southern fried fury blues that shakes the room and turns your girl into a slut.

Zombi

Coming over like Jan Hammer on a bad acid trip, Zombi hail from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and trade in some seriously intense space prog. I caught them supporting metal behemoths Isis a few years back and was blown away by the stirring intensity of their eerie space rock compositions. Their album ‘Surface to Air’ is one of the finest (only) instrumental prog-rock mini albums I’ve ever stolen.

Blood Red Shoes

Post punk rockers with some superior stoner riffs and the kind of Boy/Girl chemistry that make The White Stripes look like Ike and Tina after a long night of domestic ruttin! Sharing vocals between them, these Brightoners are a serious road machine! You could probably turn around now and they’d be playing a show behind you.

Two Gallants

Rough and tender alt-blues from San Francisco, Two Gallants write rasping murder ballads for those bored of the Bad Seeds. Hoarse vocals, thundering drums and a drifter mentality, these guys have written a stone cold anthem in their one chart scraper ‘Steady Rolling’. If you do a search on youtube, you’ll see an interesting clip of Texan cop breaking up one of their shows and tasering the drummer and some fans. You can’t pay for that kind of fun!!

Sometimes They Come Back: Mickey Rourke

“I wasn't in the 90’s, I was sitting on the bench”

“I didn't have a childhood, really, because I worked my whole life and . . . other reasons. So when I had some success, I went ballistic. That was my childhood, and the party kept going on. I didn't get off my motorcycle for 10 years.”

“Actors should shut up about politics, because they tend to be ill-informed finger-pointers who just cozy up to some flavour-of-the-month liberal, you know?”

“You get desensitized to pain and for three and a half years I developed these symptoms of brain damage - you forget what you did the night before. You have to get out when the doctors tell you to, otherwise you're on queer street for the rest of your life. One doctor said to me before a big fight, ‘our neurological report doesn't look too good’ I was like four fights away from a big, big fight and he said, ‘Mickey, how much are they paying you? Look at your tests - you won't be able to count the money’.”

“You know the song, ‘I Fought the Law and the Law Won’? Well, I fought the system and it kicked the living shit out of me!”

“I always thought I'd accomplish something special. Like robbing a bank.”

“Stallone, when I was flat broke and I could hardly pay for a bowl of spaghetti in a restaurant, gave me a couple of weeks on ‘Get Carter’, and that paid my fuckin' rent for eight months.”

“I called up a guy who used to hang with me and asked where I might get me some construction work. He brushed me off and said he didn't have time for my shit.”

“I was bouncing at a transvestite nightclub... and back then all the transvestites were on this shit called Angel Dust, so you'd hit them over the head with a baseball bat but they'd keep on coming.”

“I lost the house, the wife, the credibility, the entourage. I lost my soul. I was alone ... I'm sort of OK with it now, but the first time I'm in there, pushing a fucking cart, getting my supper. I used to go to the 24-hour place in gay town, so no one would recognize me. The only thing I could afford was a shrink, so that's where my money went. Three times a week for the first two years. The year after that, twice a week and now I'm down to once a week. I've only missed two appointments in six years.”

“The old me wasn't accountable or responsible for anything. There were no rules, and I didn't fear any consequences or repercussions of any kind. I don't want to go back to that dark place because this is my last chance, and I'm not going to get another.”

“Who do I share the good things happening to me with? My dogs, I guess.”

“It's like when I buy a horse. I don't want a thick neck and short legs.”

“I'll never be mellow, OK? I'd rather be dead than mellow. You might as well take me out the back and shoot me in the back of the head before I'm going to be mellow.”

“The first act of my life was crazy, but I've learned from it. If you've got the guts and the desire and the talent, the first time around is easy. The second time around, it's murder. How many guys make it round the second bend?”

Get Well Soon Clarence Clemons!!

Clarence Clemons, saxophonist with The E Street Band is currently recovering following a back operation to correct a long standing problem. Get Well Soon Big Man!

Weezer: The 8 Bit Album

If you’re a regular reader, you may remember that we previously published a piece on Chiptune music HERE, or more correctly ‘Chip Music’ as some Needle Nose decided to let us know. If not, here’s the dillio. Chip Music is a genre where super-geeks bang out very sweet music on a succession of obsolete 8-Bit games consoles. Think Gameboy’s and Nes’, that kinda old school boxy stuff. It’s really cool, very heartwarming and predominantly without pretention.

Anyway, chip music net label Pterodactyl Squad (a bunch of super swell guys who specialise in releasing free video game inspired music) have produced a compilation where Chiptuners like Bit Shifter, Seal of Quality, Unicorn Dream Attack and Arcadecoma have covered an albums worth of tunes by ultimate geek garage rockers Weezer.

If you’re fan of the band, like me, you’ll absolutely shit bricks. It’s awesome! Awesome and Free! You can download it now as a whole or by individual tracks. If you’re going for a taster before committing, I recommend ‘The World Has Turned and Left Me Here’ or ‘Holiday’. Perhaps, if this is aurally pleasing to you, you may explore the rest of the Pterodactyl Squad free back catalogue?
DO IT HERE!

Gimme Danger Little Stranger

As I drown in a sea of auto-tune, coiffed teen idols and singing Scottish grannies, I long for the decapitation of dolls and bats, the splatter of fake blood and bloated greasy snakes writhing around the torso of a bedevilled, painted malcontent. I wanna see the tabloids scream “who will save our children”; I want oppressive parents with whiskey breath tearing posters from children’s walls, state condemnation, religious opposition, moral indignation. Book burning, record smashing, placard waving fervour; the News cries murder and the mothers cry for the unborn. I want the leather to shine, the eyes to dart, the ribs, the hips, hair as black as sorrow. The guitars in flames, glass under the skin and the hot blood on the cold truth.

Crash through the barriers, choke on the gas and stare in to the bonfires. March in the streets, swarm for the exits, pray to your Gods.

Shock me alive once more!

Sreamin’ Jay Hawkins

"You hear me? I put a spell on you, Because you’re mine."

Screaming Lord Sutch

"When he walks down the streets, To every girl he meets, he says, is your name Mary Blood?
Uaaaaaaah!"

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown

“Fire, I'll take you to burn,
Fire, I'll take you to learn,
Fire, I'll take you to bed!”

Alice Cooper

“School's out for summer, school's out forever, schools been blown to pieces”

The Stooges

“Honey gotta strike me blind, Somebody gotta save my soul. Baby penetrates my mind!”

KISS

“She wears her satins like a lady, she gets her way just like a child.
You take her home and she says: ‘maybe, baby’.
She takes you down, and drives you wild!”

Ozzy Osbourne

“In the fields the bodies burning, as the war machine keeps turning.
Death and hatred to mankind, poisoning their brainwashed minds. Oh Lord Yeah!”

Marilyn Manson

“I'm not a slave to a god that doesn't exist and I'm not a slave to a world that doesn't give a shit”

Slipknot

“You can't see California without Marlon Brando's eyes!”

Lady GaGa

“I want your ugly, I want your disease, I want your everything as long as it’s free. I want your love.”