Episode Eleven
Yup, it’s more of the same! But also different!
Really, you’re getting off easy…
Let’s be real… I have PROFESSIONAL COLLEAGUES over at the EDUCATION podcast who have been waiting for a danged long time as well…
CAUSE I’M A PROFESSIONAL WITH A JOB NOW WEE-HEE HOO HOO
HO HO
HA
*Clunk*
Uhhh…
According to Dan’s notes, this episode is probably part one of a series on mixed media! Not to be confused with multimedia! Cause that would be a crime against aesthetics…
We’ve got links! You know (?) you wanna click ’em…
Podcasts are not as cool as travelling by jetpack, but a damn sight cooler than getting mauled to death by submariner zombies… #bogmonstermusic
Here’s a playlist if you care to partake!
Dan’s Notes
Mixed Media special
Two books, two movies and a podcast about bands and music and or being in a band (and what folks in bands do when not in bands)
Books:
I’m not holding your coat by Nancy Barile
https://youtu.be/nwN_f74LQFA clip of author talking about teaching and Punk
Originally conceived as the first half of a book on how life lessons learned as a participant in the nascent American hardcore scene made her a better educator, Nancy Barile’s memoir reads like the shaved-heads-and-suburban-circle-pits version of Patti Smith’s Just Kids. Barile details her time booking all ages shows in Philadelphia and later Boston in the late 70’s and early 80’s, at dawn of the DIY touring loop for hardcore punk bands looking to play for all ages crowds outside of the traditional bar scene, when bands like The Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains and Minor Threat were the ones showing to play your local church basement or VFW hall. There are bombings and biker fights and lifelong friendships and lovers met through trying to build something outside of the mainstream music scene of the era. She was inspired to tell her story after a wave of nostalgia for the early 80’s scene seemed to exclude and belittle the women who were involved with things in that era, so she wanted to let the world know that in the words of 7Seconds, it was “Not Just Boys’ Fun”. I love reading about the histories behind different local scenes and Philadelphia seems to have its own “unique” culture in regards to all kinds of music and sports fandoms so it was cool to hear Barile’s stories of the beginners of the hardcore scene there. She also recounts how she met her eventual husband Al through booking shows for his band, Boston’s iconic SS Decontrol, which led to her becoming a member of their infamous “Boston Crew” that travelled around to shows all around the Northeastern US at the time as well. I thought it was really cool look at the beginnings of the more grassroots DIY end of the hardcore punk scene and definitely worth a read.
Mutations: The Many Strange Faces of Hardcore Punk – essays by Sam McPheeters
https://youtu.be/Zyno8vqdjBM Born Against –
My Favorite Housing Project
https://youtu.be/fMwcamFrO0s Men’s Recovery Project – Normal Man
Born Against are one of my favourite punk bands ever, full stop, and their frontman Sam McPheeters’ dark sarcastic lyrics were a big part of that. I even stuck along following his musical career through his more experimental Men’s Recovery Project albums that were as much him trolling his listeners as they were a “band”, and enjoyed his columns for Maximum Rock N Roll and other publications. Somewhere in the 00’s McPheeters fell in with Vice and started working on becoming a “real writer” and publishing a couple of novels before releasing this collection of essays that serve as a brutal dissection of his earlier works as well as expressing his thoughts on a music community he had somewhat grown up/away from and his own place in that community, as well as his thoughts on various artists who were formative to his growth, including a great in-depth profile on the life of Doc Corbin Dart of The Crucifucks. It is an at times brutal autopsy on the author’s involvement in the hardcore scene, taking every possible opportunity to point out statements he would live to regret or instances of any sort of hypocrisy in the lyrics and actions of his previous idealistic phases in life, which in other hands could turn into so much morose navel gazing but all is recounted with the same dark biting humour deployed across his other creative works but directed inward this time. This all comes to a head in one of the last essays in the book, McPheeters’ how he had secretly financed Born Against’s entire career, down to paying bandmates’ rent at times, using a secret trust fund from his family made up of stock in some of the most heinous massive corporations of the era, a veritable who’s who of capitalist evil representing everything the band railed against, and how he could never ever let his compatriots in the New York and Virginia DIY hardcore scenes at the time know this fact because of his band’s “political punk” reputation. I am sure that part of this book’s extreme self-examination may be the author’s attempt to finally distance himself from youthful idealism while running with the irony-poisoned Vice Media set but McPheeters is still a damn fine writer with a dark self-effacing humor and an entertaining style that you should definitely check out if you have any interest in punk and hardcore.
Movies:
We Are The Best
https://youtu.be/Xtd5A9hnjaU Trailer
https://youtu.be/Xek8RWxLjys movie clip
Technically a comic book movie, this Swedish language indie drama from 2013 directed by Lukas Moodysson is based on the autobiographical graphic novel Never Goodnight by artist and writer Coco Moodysson about finding refuge in punk rock during a time in the 80’s when it was definitely not considered a cool or popular thing anymore, and it is probably my favourite fictional depiction of trying to start a band when you have absolutely no clue what you are doing. Bobo and her friend Klara take solace in the anger and self-expression of punk to the derision of their classmates at school, and decide to start a band to spite the shitty metal bros monopolizing the practice space at their local youth arts center. They recruit another social outcast from their school who happens to be a skilled guitarist and navigate the awkwardness of their teen years while trying to knock together their first song “Hate The Sport” and show those heshers from their youth center that they can be a real band too. One of the things I love about this movie is how accurately it captures the feeling of just banging on an instrument when you have no sweet clue what you are doing but loving every second. The raw simplicity of punk at its core makes learning by doing a much more accessible possibility than in some other genres of musical expression and it is a key component of the film’s story and one that I really enjoy. Unlike more bombastic Hollywood fare it’s a great little portrait of a time in one’s life where the music always gives you a place to go (to borrow a turn of phrase from Rancid).
Ladies And Gentlemen The Fabulous Stains
https://youtu.be/06kCwPpyjCk Trailer
https://youtu.be/lgwFGfKENk8 “Join The Professionals”
Directed by former music producer Lou Adler and written by Nancy Dowd of “Slapshot!” fame (with English visual artist/activist Caroline Coon acting as unofficial “punk consultant” during the making of the film) , this 1983 drama about the rise and fall of the cult of personality around a teen punk idol named Caroline “Third Degree” Burns (played by Diane Lane) and her band The Stains was one of those pieces of media that seemed lost for the first couple of decades after its release due to testing horribly with focus groups initially and being buried in studio vaults save for ultra rare late night cable airings, until the late 90’s when super-fans lobbied for an official home video release whose art and bonus features were cobbled together from material from the personal collections of dedicated fans over the years. Also, the song “Join The Professionals” that features throughout the movie is a certified 77-style punk banger played by members of The Sex Pistols and The Clash who also act in the film. It’s not a perfect movie by any means, with a tacked-on ending that tries to lighten the mood after test audiences found the original conclusion to be too much of a bummer, and the ugly fact that Nancy Dowd removed her name from the credits due to abuse and mistreatment by crew members on set during production. That being said, it’s still a ragged rocker of a drama that is worth a watch and pretty easy to rent via VOD, and is beloved by folks like the members of Bikini Kill due to its portrayal of an outspoken all girl punk band. Definitely worth checking out.
Podcast:
Killed By Desk
https://youtu.be/AiinI5Wb4iQ podcast trailer
https://youtu.be/PXIL7H0oR2g clip with Chris Shary, artist for The Descendents and others
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/killed-by-desk/id1526888280 feed for all episodes on Apple Podcasts
One of my favorite books of all time is Studs Terkel’s Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, a 1974 collection of interviews with people in a variety of walks of life talking about what they do to pay their bills, and this podcast that ran from 2020 to 2022 takes that premise and applies it to musicians and artists associated with the punk scene and what they do to get by in an artistic community that does not necessarily lead to financial stability based on compensation for their art alone. From city councilors to pastry chefs, library technicians to boxing statisticians, the career paths that members of iconic punk and hardcore bands have taken outside of their artistic pursuits are discussed at length and act as a bit of a counterpoint to some of my other picks for this show’s examination of their creators’ formative years in punk. Even though new episodes ceased in April 2022, their two years worth of weekly installments are worth going back to listen to for sure.
Bonus recent listens:
https://youtu.be/MkidDh1FKNg So Violento – Elegia Moderna
https://youtu.be/fLkpVG1Djes Militarie Gun – Very High
https://youtu.be/vuLQhr9Y5eo Scowl – Shot Down
What kinds of music does this man hear?? #bogmonstermusic
Matt’s Notes
OK! So! In addition to standing by whatever I said in the podcast vis-à-vis my cell phone while sitting on the staircase on the other side of the country about to leave for this side of the country…
I will have to say that never have a book and a soundtrack and a movie all landed for me quite as well-timed and quite as profoundly… and I will admit to being one of a slew of young dopes who tried for maybe a few weeks or months to ape Irvine Welsh’s wild novels and short stories before sensibly abandoning such efforts for such choices as… overseas English teaching… selling shoes… selling shoes to overseas English teachers… the list really could go on!
So thanks! Iggy… and Irvine… and Danny… and all these brits and that guy who became Obi Wan… and uh shit… there’s been numerous sequels and prequels! And some of those books are pretty worthwhile! And I still haven’t watched the filmed sequel. But it’s probably rad! Back when I was burning divorce dollars with vinyl, I spent a goodish amount on an orange 2-LP copy of the soundtrack… and every time I throw it on… Euro and Brit pop weirdness that brings some semblance of the time back, but ultimately it is too Euro and it is too far back in time…
Anyhow! Respect!
There’s no way I can escape this post without adding to the glut of U2 content both on this podcast and elsewhere.
It’s fanciful, fake, and just self-aware enough to not be utter tripe. And for my money which is woefully little they had a great run of records: at least three that changed pop music and every song on it is good. Maybe five. But probably two and a half. Which is much more than most bands get!
They’re playing the giant Dome thingy in Vegas? A residency? There’s been nothing about it in all the places I’ve looked which are none.
And just man. Sinead. Two legends, one song, both gone…
And… while we’re at it… I really dig the Goo Goo Dolls version of this…
And I should shout out the excellent books I’ve recently enjoyed and been enjoying about His Purpleness by Minneapolis rock scribes Jim Walsh and Neal Karlen…
Slag the Goo’s as much as you like but their first five records range from fire to not bad. They have more quality songs than most bands of their stature and/or genre if you want to start being childish about it…
This brings me back, man…
It all brings me back cause at this point it’s really about getting old.
Oldness is alright I suppose.
OK! Speaking of oldness, I know we talked about Green Room on the podcast!
This may be one of my favorite films in which music features as part of the plot without it being a musical.
There’s a lot of carnage in this film. More than you might expect from this trailer! And it is Mr. Stewart’s finest indie performance that I can think of… like maybe the ONLY indie film with him that I can think of, come to think of it…
I will also recommend After School Radio. The hosts all seem to be friends with Hoppus. Hoppus is regrettably somebody you’d never want to punch. He’s nauseatingly likeable, like many songs by his band. And it’s legit! It doesn’t seem affected! The panelists, including Hoppus, all seem like nice privileged people in the music or at least the entertainment industry somehow… occupying seats close to Hoppus and so one assumes traveling in a similar orbit when not on the podcast…
They’re all really likeable, actually! Regrettably unpunchable!
And the conversation with Tommy is wide-ranging, mutually respectful, mutually engaged… and it was all quite good such that I could probably handle listening to another episode… potentially… like, Lucero put out a new album this year…
OK… and here’s two songs by different artists about the same book by recently deceased American Genius Cormac McCarthy!
And, speaking of which, here’s one for the road… get it… a post-apocalyptic father and son survival tale really rings with me this summer, I’ve got to be honest.
Thanks as ever for joining us! We will hopefully be back on some semblance of a normal schedule from now on!
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Filed under: Uncategorized - @ July 28, 2023 1:44 am
