Essay: A View of Modern Punk Rock

 Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2023
Updated from Jersey Beat, 2005
Images from the Internet unless indicated

A View of Modern Punk Rock

This was first published in another form from my column in Jersey Beat fanzine (digital version) in 2005, which is no longer available. I have updated it and added new text.

Ramones (pic by Robert Barry Francos)

As a gross generalization, there are two ways to look at music: forward and backward. In the modern punk’s vision, bands and fans imagine themselves doing the former more than the latter. They often deride the First Wave pre-1975 (or so) music as hippie and too structured. Well, as someone pointed out to me, more time has passed since the Sex Pistols broke up (1978) than from the beginning of rock’n’roll (for argument’s sake, let us say 1955) until that point. We all use what we grew up with as a point of reference for what we see in the future. It is easy to look back and say anything pre-Ramones, or even pre-hardcore, is worthless. Okay, but if you were there when the Ramones started in ’74, you had rock’n’roll – not punk – to use as your starting point.

Eddie and the Hot Rods (photo by Robert Barry Francos)

The Ramones used surf and pop as their foundation and gave that a twist, giving the British punks something newer to build upon (Malcolm McLaren learned it here from the likes of Richard Hell and disastrously managing the New York Dolls, and then returned to England to help create the Sex Pistols), and then the hardcore scene combined the First Wave New York and Second Wave London scenes to create the Third Wave. One of the first US hardcore fanzines by the late Paul Decolator was even named Third Wave. Each Wave brought something different into the mix.

As I discussed with a former fanzine editor, some of us who are old enough to remember pre-Ramones seem to find it somewhat easier to see other kinds of music as possibilities. Many of those early ‘70s punks came from the harder sounds of glam and metal (e.g., John Lydon singing along to Alice Cooper’s “Eighteen” as his audition for the Pistols), and I came from listening to folk, both traditional and modern. My punk sensibilities are a bit different than most I know, for that reason.

Dead Boys (photo by Robert Barry Francos)

I have often posited that folk music (e.g., Dylan, Ochs) of the ‘60s is the same in spirit of those of the punk era: protest music that just became more electrified, simplified, faster, and louder. But the themes are often the same (tell me “Positively 4th Street” is not punk). That is why so many members of punk groups started doing solo singer-songwriter styles as they aged and their bands dissipated.

Husker Du (photo by Robert  Barry Francos)

The up-and-coming punks have bands like the Ramones, the Pistols, Black Flag, and arguably Nirvana to use as their history, but we did not. There was no punk. There were bands like the Velvet Underground, the MC5, and the Stooges, but in a time when FM radio was basically album rock (such as Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Yes and CSNY), the odds of even finding out about VU and the like was slim. Unless you knew someone who was hip enough to turn you on to that stuff (in my case, it was Bernie Kugel, the first record collector I had met and a fine musician in his own right).

Richard Hell (photo by Robert  Barry Francos)

But mostly we who were rebelling had very few alternatives. I mean, if you wanted to be really radical, you could listen to Bowie (of whom I was never a fan), or the Count V (who did “Psychotic Reaction” in the mid-‘60s, before just about anyone knew about maniacal fuzz). Hell, even the Rolling Stones were looked on as scary. Once the ‘70s started, I almost stopped listening to broadcast music because there was such a dearth of anything out of the mainstream. I was fortunate enough to see Slade during the early ‘70s though, who showed me what was possible, but even they were arena rock, just as loud and hard as can be (the opening band, that I found tedious, was Aerosmith).

Johnny Thunders/Heartbreakers (photo by Robert Barry Francos)

To sum up: from the opening of CBGB as an alternative music venue in 1974 to now is nearly 50 years. If one was to flip that from the time before CBGB, which would be the Roaring Twenties, when Jazz and Swing were considered radical. When punk started, there was only a 20-year history of rock’n’roll to build on, as opposed to the 50-years of the present punk sound. You can poo-poo early rock’n’roll as being too standard (aka boring), but considering the shift of what the Ramones (and the like) listened to with what they ended up bringing, was far more radical than just about anything going on today. How much of what you are listening to now is fundamentally different than the bands of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s? Or even the Blink-182s of the ‘90s? You better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone…

DVD Review: Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-90)

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2015
Images from the Internet

Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-90)

Written and directed by Scott Crawford
New Rose Films / MVD Visual
102 minutes, 2014 / 2015
www.SaladDaysDC.com
www.faceboom.com/SaladDaysDC
www.mvdvisual.com

There were so many important Third Wave scenes when the hardcore explosion grew into fruition, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Phoenix, and so on. There is no doubt, however, that the standing of the Washington, DC base is among the strongest. Two names tend to rise to the top, Henry Rollins, and especially Ian MacKaye, both of whom are represented here.

Of course, the opening shot is of Ian MacKaye talking. Without meaning this as any form of sarcasm or complaint, is there anyone in the punk scene who is represented on indie documentaries about the genre as much as Ian? After all, he was the one who started the whole Straight-Edge movement (though he did not invent the symbol of the X on the hand) that became somewhat of a preachy religion to some. And the fact that he’s this present so many decades later just proves how much he has injected into the movement.

The second person to talk is Henry Rollins. Henry, one might say, left his band SOA and joined one that was arguably bigger than Fugazi ever became, namely Black Flag. Flag had an influence on the world, but MacKaye was definitely – and rightly so – king of his kingdom, the land known as DC. Whereas Black Flag spread a sound, MacKaye spread a philosophy.

The growth of DC hardcore was nothing less than ferocious, with Little Ronnie Reagan right there, in a town mixed with rich government overlords and extreme poverty. This split personality was a societal PTSD with a beltway around it. Generally speaking, you could get depressed or you could get angry. Punk in that town went down the road towards the latter, with Doc Martins and spiked hair.

It’s no secret that the home base for Third Wave in DC is the 9:30 Club. Every town had it, be it CBGB, the Rat, or the Mabuhay Garden. In DC, it was the womb that launched a hundred bands that would have a ripple effect on every other club in every other town, even the older, more established ones.

The film is broken up into segments, each of which covers a topic or two. This is extremely well handled, as are the interviews. Yes, talking heads, but even when it’s the same person discussing her or her view, sometimes you can tell it was done over time as you can see them in different settings. Mixing in with this is some of the best hardcore photos I’ve seen, mostly in crisp black and white, and music clips that ranged from clear to pre-camcorder fuzzy, of bands and fans in action.

Let’s talk about some of the guest interviewees. There are the likes of Thurston Moore (known for Sonic Youth, but before then he was in the Coachmen, and I do believe that FFanzeen was the first ‘zine ever to publish anything about Moore; but I brag and digress…), Fred Armisen (the actor/comedian from Chicago was also in the band Trenchmouth), J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. , Tim Kerr (Big Boys, from Austin), and arguably the almost as omnipresent Dave Grohl, who was in the early DC scene and in the local band Scream. For once his stories didn’t sound like Whocares to me. And what, no Keith Morris, who is also usually on these types of documentaries?

Punk scenes that last long enough seem to follow a similar trajectory. A group of people start playing at a bar or a new space and an insular crowd with camaraderie forms. Everyone knows each other, bands respect each other (even with some rivalry), and everyone gets picked on by the local jocks and cops. Time passes and the scene starts to get popular, and the very jocks that were doing the jumping are now doing the moshing, and being violent inside the club. People get fed up and stop coming. The scene disintegrates. On some level, that fits DC as well, even though it splintered in the early 1990s, rather than disappeared.

The scene starts with the likes of the surf-inspired Insect Surfers (saw them play Hurrahs), the pop-rock Tru Fax and the Insaniacs (both these bands not mentioned in the DVD) and the garage-laced Slickee Boys (I saw them play twice at CBGBs and was a fan), and becomes the balls out Bad Brains. The BB left early on in 1980 to move to NYC, but they were adults by then. So the kids start forming their own bands, like Gray Matter (their drummer, Dante Ferrando, was amazing), Iron Cross and especially Teen Idles, began to rise.

The latter, with Ian MacKaye, didn’t last long, but they were the first to release a DIY single in the area. After they broke up, MacKaye formed the more iconic Minor Youth. It was here he started the record company that would define the scene, Dischord Records. Soon touring bands from DC would find gigs on just the strength of having a Dischord release.

This is the first section of the film. Another part discusses the violence coming from outside the close-knit group, from Georgetown College boys in Mustangs who would gang up on punkers. Henry Rollins tells a great story of how a group of punks used Alec MacKaye (Ian’s younger brother) for bait to catch the guys who were doing the beating to return the favor. They needed to take actions into their own hands due to a police force ambivalent to their needs. This would be mirrored in a later section on how moshing turned into performed behavior independent of music (I’ve seen this too, where the music playing was not as important as the stage diving; it could have been Andy Williams and gotten the same action), which turned into violence as the pit became the eye of the storm of the elbows and knees of skinheads and “Drunk Punks.” This led to gay bashing. Some started DIY self-promoted shows to limit this vehemence. MacKaye, again wisely, says he realized that the music they were playing and its subject matter are partially to blame because, as he put it, “Violence begets violence.” This led to his forming the less ferocious yet equally energetic (and nationally popular) Fugazi.

You really can’t discuss the DC scene without detailing the whole Straight Edge movement started by Ian, with the black “X” on the hands. While this is a quasi-zealous group, it did have at least two important results: it lead to the All Ages shows, which opened up a whole new, younger fan market, and (b) created a backlash that sometimes broke the scene into two defiant schisms, and bands would fall on either side; e.g., Black Market Baby came out as anti-SE, calling their counter-movement Bent Edge. The legacy of that lives on: when I wrote a blog on how I imbibe just a tiny bit and called the piece “OnBeing Straight Edge, Kinda Sorta,” l had some interesting responses blasting me for not being all in; this was in 2008.

While even the director of this film, Scott Crawford, becomes part of the story as he discusses his own introduction to the scene at age 12, and also fanzines, including his own Metrozine. There is a short, interesting segment on Go-Go, a black music scene that was incorporated into the punk catalog, much as earlier British punk celebrated reggae. As MacKaye succinctly puts it, you would find punks at Go-Go shows, but no Go-Go fans at punk shows.

The more interesting and intersecting segments to me dealt with social issues, including Misogyny (the “boys club,” dismissed by one dude as “we were young”) toward the female musicians who explain what it was like. Also there was the political and social upheaval as DC became the “murder capital of the U.S.” and the mayor, Marion Berry [d. 2014] was caught on camera smoking crack (sound familiar, Toronto? DC beat you to it!). One of the results of this, in 1985, was the formation of Mark Anderson’s Positive Force organization, that booked shows and held fundraisers for various causes (poverty, end animal cruelty, etc.). They were (and are, after three decades) a bit preachy, but a definite positive influence in the region. There is a documentary about / by them called Positive Force: More Than a Witness – 30 Years of Punk Politics in Action.

The extras include 14 “Extended Interviews” (aka deleted scenes), and 10 full live song performances (each averaging around two minutes) from the likes of Fugazi, Government Issue, Gray Matter, and Marginal Man (acknowledged as the first Emocore band, coined by Brian Baker of Dag Nasty), and others.

Representing the scene is more than thirty people interviewed, including musicians, photographers, fans (titled “Scenesters,” I term I often use), fanzine editors, and organizers. It’s an excellent oral history of the period. Mix in all the stills and films, plus some interesting graphics, it’s well-edited together and gives a well-rounded view of what was going on during the 1980s in the Capitol’s punk capitol.

 

Chinas Comidas: An Inside Look – Rock’n’Roll in Washington State [1980]

Text by Mark Wheaton / FFanzeen fanzine, 1980
Introduction © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2015
Images from the Internet

This self-interview was originally printed in FFanzeen, issue #4, dated May/June 1980, page 21. It was written by Mark Wheaton, the keyboard player of the Seattle-based band Chinas Comidas.

Part of what makes this article of added importance is what would explode in Seattle a decade after this article, because the focus on the city tends to start in the early 1990s, but this plainly shows that punk was not something that began with Nirvana, or even Mother Love Bone, or any other grunge band. It was alive and well for quite a period before “punk broke.”

Chinas Comidas, whose name is Mexican slang for “Chinese Food,” moved to Los Angeles in 1980, as stated at the end of this article, and then broke up soon after. – RBF, 2015

Let’s be upfront here: It’s true I’m a member of Chinas Comidas. But I’m also a fan of Chinas Comidas, and have been long before I joined the band. The current line-up includes: Chinas [aka Cynthia Genser – rbf, 2015], vocals; Rich Riggins, guitar; Brock [Wheaton, Mark’s brother – rbf, 2015], drums; Dag Midtskog, bass; and myself, keyboards. We’ve been together, as such, for a little over a year. Chinas Comidas actually started around 1976 and has gone through several personnel and style changes since then. The content and intent has been refined, but basically has remained the same.

Originally, Chinas herself would sing with a loose-knit group, who also backed Barry Minkler, known as Red Dress. This Chinas-Red Dress band existed on and off through 1977. Brock joined the band in the Spring of 1977, originally as a last minute fill-in. By 1978, Chinas Comidas and Red Dress had become two separate groups. Chinas Comidas started to take a “rock” direction. I began to do the sound for Chinas Comidas in 1978. At the end of that Summer, the band began to establish a local reputation and had even ventured to San Francisco’s Mabuhay Gardens. The group disbanded and re-organized that Fall. It was during this time that the first EP was recorded. Rich played guitar and overdubbed the bass part, and a keyboard player came in and did those parts. At the end of the session, we decided that I should play the keyboards; so I got a piano and synthesizer and began to learn how to play.

Dag was, at this time, in a band called Violent World. Violent World included Electra-Blue, an amazing person who had previously been in Seattle’s only true heavy metal group. Mondo Band. Violent World was much more punk. Unfortunately, the band fell apart and I asked Dag to come to an audition. I was working at a used record store and Dag worked across the street at a florist shop. After a few rehearsals, we had developed a very tight, rocking sound.

Our first gig was New Year’s Eve, December 31, 1978. Actually, it was 3:00 AM, January 1, 1979. It was an intense, frantic show. Following that debut at what was to become less than a year later The Showbox Theatre (a New Wave showcase), we played at a Country tavern called The Rainbow. We opened for the Ramones. This was followed by a show with Red Dress at a new performance place called WashingtonHall, one of those echo chambers where nothing can really be done to get a good sound. It was like the first show where we really felt like a band. A local critic saw fit to review the show and he blasted us mercilessly. He even confused us with Red Dress, whom he hadn’t even seen. Our local supporters returned the blast with a flood of irate letters and even some editorial comments in other rival papers.

As yet, Chinas Comidas had not really played for the younger, punk crowd, most of who thought we were some kind of folk-group or something.

We recorded our second record, which was also our first with the current line-up. While we were waiting for the test pressing to come back, we did a show with the Dils and D.O.A. It was very well attended and as the punk crowd then found out, we weren’t a folk act.

Shortly after the Dils show, we went to New York. We arrived with no gigs and very little money, ending up three weeks later having played at Hurrah’s and Tier3, and in Philadelphia with the Dead Kennedys. We also recorded two new songs at Soundmixer, on Broadway. It was a quick session, but we got “Sweeter Than Ever” and “Criminal Cop” finished, the later sung by Rich.

Returning to Seattle, we finally released “Snaps” b/w “For the Rich,” and played a few club gigs around town, including a performance at the And/or Art Gallery with Red Dress.  

In late October, Chinas Comidas ventured south to L.A., where we played with the Germs, at the Hong Kong on Halloween. We stayed in L.A. four weeks, played the Hong Kong three times and the Whiskey once.

Upon returning to Seattle, we played a gig with L.A. performance artist Johanna Went at the Roscoe Louis Gallery. Chinas went to New York for a short visit and in her absence we did a gig without her as an Exquisite Corpse (our label) artist, opening for Ultravox, at the 800 seat Showbox Theatre.

In February, we returned to L.A. for an extended visit.

The Music Scene in Washington State According to Mark:

• 1973-75: Tomata (Screamers); Whizz Kids
• 1976: Chinas Comidas; Fruitland Famine Band; Meyce; Mondo Bando; Red Dress; Telepaths; Tupperwares; Uncle Cookie
• 1977: Jim Basnight; Chinas Comidas; Feelings; Fruitland Famine Band; Knobs; Lewd; Mondo Bando; Red Dress; Telepaths; Uncle Cookie
• 1978: Chinas Comidas, Cheaters; The Enemy; Features; Feelings; The Girls; Henry Boy; Lewd; Loud Ties; Moberleys; The Radios; Red Dress; Telepaths; Violent World
• 1979: Blackouts; Cheaters; Chinas Comidas; Citizen Sane; The Cowboys; The Debbies; The Enemy; Frazz; The Girls; Heaters; Jitters; Lewd; Little Koreas; Macs Band; Mad Shadows; Moberleys; Red Dress; Shivers; The Spell; Student Nurse.

Local Records:

• Uncle Cookie: “Hamburger” b/w “Kidnapped,” “Little Orange Babies” – 45
• Jim Basnight: “Live in the Sun” b/w “She Got Fucked,” “Precedent” – 45
• Telepaths: “Frozen Darling” b/w “I Must Perform,” “Telepaths” – EP
• Chinas Comidas: “Peasant/Slave,” “Lover/Lover” b/w “”Disease,” “Snake in the Sun” – EP
• Clone: “Jacuzzi Fluzzi” b/w “Afterthought,” “Run Right Through You” – 45
• Ian Fisher (Cowboys): “Girls Like That” b/w “Riot” – 45
• Pink Chunk: “Louie, Louie” b/w “Kitchen Cantata” – 45
• Accident: “Kill the BeeGees” b/w “True Detective,” “Nothrees” – 45
• The Enemy: “I Need An Enemy” b/w “Want Me,” “King Tut.” – 45
• The Lewd: “Kill Yourself” b/w “Trash Can Baby,” “Pay or Die” – 45
• Student Nurse: “Lies” b/w “Snow,” “Disco Dog” - 45
• Snots: “So Long to the ‘60s,” “New York Loveletter” b/w “It’s Later Than You Think,” “Edge City” – EP
• Feelings: Destroy Destruction – LP
• Chinas Comidas: “Snaps” b/w “For the Rich” – 45
• Chinas Comidas – “Peasant/Slave” b/w “Lover/Lover” – 45

Upcoming releases threatened: Blackouts; Moberleys; Jitters

Of course, this overview ignores or forgets numerous commercial Tavern groups, country rock, etc.; many have records available either locally or nationally.

 

DVD Documentary Review: Positive Force: More than a Witness

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2015
Images from the Internet

Positive Force: More Than a Witness – 30 Years of Punk Politics in Action

Directed by Robin Bell
We Are Family DC
69 minutes, 2014
www.morethanawitness.com
www.positiveforcedc.org
www.wearefamilydc.org      
www.mvdvisual.com

As with any other kind of music, there are not only different styles of punk, but reasons for existence. Everyone knows the populist cars, girls, surfin’, beer attitude that was especially prevalent in the First Wave, the anarchy in the [fill in the blank] anti-politics of Second Wave and the anything goes of the Third Wave [quick nod here to Jersey fanzine publisher Paul Decolator, RIP, 2002] hardcore scene.

However, in each one of these, there was also an undercurrent of political activism that did not get as much mass media attention, as the mainstream focused on the anti- rather than the pro-. Remember Joy Ryder (d. 2015)/Avis Davis Band in the 1980 film No Nukes? Probably not, as the film focused more on the big money makers like Springsteen and Carly Simon/James Taylor.

There were other bands from around the world whose focus was political, such as Crass, D.O.A., the Dead Kennedys (to some extent), and just about anything associated with Ian MacKaye.  Though the one person who is the thread that runs through everything is Mark Anderson, who helped found the organization, and is still it’s voice and face after all these years.

Positive Force is a Washington DC-based punk activist collective (there’s a word to make the Republicans shiver under the covers) initiated in 1985 as a reaction to Ronnie Reagan’s (and others’) destructive pattern of 1% government that would continue until this day as the Re-PIG-licans (a term used by Long Island, NY activist and punk rocker Jimi LaLumia) take over both of the US’s Houses after years of obstructionism and blaming.   But I digress…

Early on, this documentary shows its hand by quoting Karl Marx. No, no, no, I’m not saying I’m pro- or anti-Communism, as I believe that most forms of government have positive and negative aspects depending on the actions of the leaders and/or number of constituents involved. For Positive Force, being a relatively small organization with big ambitions and ideals, communal-think is beneficial for them. Along with other DC organizations and bands, they produced a large amount of material that questioned the government, took action against poverty and animal cruelty, and made awareness of world issues more prevalent.

As for this documentary, there are a lot of big names giving talking heads testimony, including among many, MacKaye (Minor Threat / Fugazi), Henry Rollins (Dead Kennedys), Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill), the ubiquitous Dave Grohl (Scream / Nirvana / Foo Fighters), Jenny Toomey (Simple Machines), and members of other bands including 7 Seconds. Lots of topics are covered, such as (listed on the DVD cover): “homelessness, hunger, racism, corporate globalization, sexism, homophobia, war, gentrification, ageing, and animal / earth liberation.”  The problem with this kind of thing is that left-leaning (which includes me) activists tend to be, well, kinda boring. 

The reason for this is the same / flip problem with Middle American conservatism: seeing issues through “isms” and code words (my friend and punker Tony SQNS would call this PC), or slogans. “1-2-3-4 / “We don’t want [pick a topic] any more” is all well and good – and necessary – but it becomes underwhelming in its simplicity. The earnestness of those involved here makes their causes almost a religion. For example, those of us old enough remember when Ian MacKaye’s Strait-Edge became a synergic thing unto itself that had followers demeaning those who have the odd and rare drinks (like me) as if they were raging alcoholics (e.g., I once wrote a blog about this called “On Being Straight-Edge, Kinda Sorta,” and the response I received was as follows [errors included]: these is only one level to straight edge. you are or you arnt. no gray area. I think its cool that you arnt a junky, but you arnt straight edge. These is no closes with straight edge. If you are close to being completely sober, why not take it to the next step and commit?). The point is the zealousness of activism can both raise awareness and bully it closed.

I admire people who can find a focus that is important enough to them to give themselves to it. There is someone close to FFanzeen who works with the charity God’s Love We Deliver,  and promotes the foundation, but doesn’t beat anyone’s head over it. Hell, I’ve marched in a number of protests for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, to rally against the raising of tuition at CUNY schools, and even participated in one of the Yusef Hawkins marches in my Bensonhurst neighborhood. Point is, there is commitment and there is commitment. Believing in a cause can be constructive, but if it reaches a certain level of shrill, well, it’s no better than the NRA. Left wing nutjobs are as annoying as right wing nutjobs. I offer PETA as an example.

That being posited, I think this documentary is important, because it needs to be said that not all punk is nihilistic, and that there is a strong level of many wanting to improve, as well. The question I have is what is the percentage of people represented here who came to punk through political activism, and how many found activism through punk rock (both of which are suggested by the end)? That would make an interesting documentary in itself. Kathleen Hana does broach the subject when discussing the origins of the Riot Grrrl movement (e.g., Bikini Kill, Babes in Toyland, and perhaps Hole), which I consider much more interesting than the male-based alternative bands in Seattle at the time (Soundgarden, Nirvana, etc.).

About halfway through the documentary, the tone of focus changes from the formation of the political / activism movement to a more music / activism direction, which is additionally interesting. Starting with the Riot Grrrl, as I mentioned, what is discussed is the corporatization of punk starting with the Seattle scene (Fourth Wave, if you want to label Alternative as Punk). Positive Force co-founder Mark Andersen correctly discusses how before Nirvana, Rolling Stone magazine had no interest in punk, and Henry Rollins posits that punk music was good and eventually the corporate music entities would become more involved as the interest (money) started to flow.

There is a lot of good clips of music by many interesting bands, such as Bikini Kill (doing a rare live version of “Girl Soldier”), 7 Seconds, Fugazi, and others. A longer version of these performances totaling 34 minutes is included along with three (30-minutes each, on average) short doucmentaries included as extras, films between 1991 and 2014. The first is “Wake Up! A Profile of Positive Force,” another one-sided stroke-fest. “Green Hair, Grey Hair” is a bit more interesting as we follow the We Are Family organization, founded with a donation by Good Charlotte (also from DC), which focuses on destitute elderly African-Americans displaced by gentrification, and how Positive Force punkers help deliver food and company to them (similar to the aforementioned God’s Love We Deliver, FYI).

The last film is called “Punks Votes, Riots,” which deals with the Punk Vote movement that was started by Fat Mike of NoFX to get rid of George Bush in favor of whomever was running against him, and the riots that followed the benefits. This is the best of the three, and explains how the movement caused a rift within Postiive Force. My only issue with this one is the maaaaany jump cuts, and the lack of identification of the speakers, some obvious like Jello Biafra and Ian MacKay, others not so much for those outside of DC. Of course, the live music is the best part, hands down.

Of course, I realize that this documentary was produced by the very group that is being discussed, so there is not going to be critical thinking about its mission as much as self-back slapping, as it is a self-promotion tool. His makes it sound preachy, and a lot like those late night Christian Feed the Children infomercials. That to me is the core of the problem here, and what makes it less interesting, even though the topic being discussed is incredibly important. And yet, if you are interested in activism, this is a worthy manifesto to check out.

Bonus video from DVD:

 

DVD Review: I’m Now: The Story of Mudhoney

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2014
Images from the Internet

I’m Now: The Story of Mudhoney

Produced and directed by Ryan Short & Adam Paase
King of Hearts Productions
102 minutes, 2012
www.mudhoneymove.com
www.mudhoneyonline.com    
www.mvdvisual.com

Let me say it now, and get the shock over with. Grunge. There. Grunge. Oops, again.

Are Mudhoney grunge? Well, depends on who you talk to, of course. For example, Mudhoney vocalist Mark Arm was in a Seattle band in the late ‘80s called Green River (still have my copy, with the insert and press release, I may add). They arguably started the sound. In Seattle, anyway. Like punk in New York, everyone was denying they were punk left and right during the time, but love to be included in that scene now.

In my opinion, grunge is actually older than that, dating back to a bunch of SST-era bands. I mean, Dinosaur Jr. was grunge, along with a bunch of other longhair groups that tend to get clustered into the hardcore genus due to the time and the label, but those longhair bands were into experimental and heavy guitar sounds that many previous punk groups had turned its back upon.

No, grunge did not begin and end with neither Seattle nor Nirvana. I still get bugged when I hear that Nevermind caused the “year that punk broke.” I like the band, but they were not punk, any more than the Beatles were rock’n’roll on Sgt. Pepper’s. It was something else. But before Nirvana, who absorbed so much of the Seattle energy and press, followed by Pearl Jam, there was and is Mudhoney. This is not fair.

I don’t know if it’s accurate to say there would be no Nirvana (the movement, not just the band) if Mudhoney weren’t who and what they were, but they were a definite force that shaped and honed for what Seattle would become known.

This documentary tells their story with the full participation of all members of the band, past and present, which is hardly surprising since they produced the thing. But this is not just a fluff, vanity piece. There is actually some depth to the thing. Sure, with the rare exception about a brief mention about drug abuse, they seem to just get along like fleas on a dog, the doc does show some of their downs and bad choices, as well as how they have lucked out on more than one occasion.

Perhaps it is because they were the ones who made the thing that they were able to get some heavy hitters to talk about the group, such as (in part) Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Kim Thayil (fellow grungites Soundgarden), Tad Doyle (TAD), and Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam; Eddie Vedder only appears in a live clip of an MC5 cover of “Kick Out the Jams”). No one from the Foo Fighters, however, I noticed. Is this a case of what is not said is saying something? There is also a clip of Nirvana, and there is a definite slam against Courtney Love’s causing them to get kicked off Reprise, but none of the women-led Seattle bands are represented. In fact, the only adult females you see are Kim Gordon and Megan Jasper, of the Sub Pop label.

As much as this is Mudhoney’s history, it is also, in part, a story of their label, Sub Pop. The label’s creators, Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Peneman, are also heard from here, I should add. Sub Pop, whose first single-band release was by Green River, came close to folding before Mudhoney took them on the road to some success. Of course, Nirvana helped, but it was Mudhoney that put them on the map. There were other important Sub Pop releases, such as by Babes in Toyland and Elliot Smith, but the focus here is of course and rightfully so on Mudhoney.

There is a bit of unspoken irony in the story of Sub Pop in that many bands they introduced didn’t fit into their Indie World (Mary Lou Lord reference there), and went on to major labels – including Mudhoney – and had a hard time reconciling their indie independence with the big boys’ “formulas for success.” With the knighthood of Nirvana, Sub Pop, too, joined with Warner Music Group, where they were hard pressed by the new management.

The documentary presents the present and past members of Mudhoney as engaging, relaxed, independent in band direction (showing chutzpah to the big studios by doing it on their own and pocketing large sums of recording funds), and being relatively sober of mind if not body (there is an awful lot of booze consumption shown).

But hey, this is their party and they can present any frontage they want, and this one is quite a fun and funny face. Even as a band I don’t follow, the way Mudhoney are represented here shows quite a bit of honesty, including calling some of their own albums as not up to snuff, and blaming mostly themselves (and Courtney) for their occasionally sloppy work; they also justly take credit for their rightful place in grungeworld.

Mixed in with the band and guests interviews, there are also film clips from third-party sources such as old b-films (including the Russ Meyer one from which the band takes its name), live performances and interviews (MTV, for example). The film covers much from the beginning, through their rise, signing with the majors, a slump leaving the majors, and re-signing with Sub Pop (where Mark Arm now works in the distribution area), then back to touring when they want(/need).

The two extras are a music video for the song “I’m Now,” and a 13-minute short called “Fresh Socks,” which features behind-the-scene clips of interviews, travelogue, backstage and onstage antics from a recent tour in Europe, Japan and Brazil. One stop in Belgium is especially telling, as they mock a stoic and distracting Kurt-wannabe in the audience.

If you’re into the whole Seattle scene – well, the male end of it as there is no mention of the riot grrrl aspect at all – I can wholeheartedly recommend this. If you’re more like me and are casual at best, it’s still a well-crafted document/press release that is enjoyable all the way through.

DVD Review: “Pearl Jam: Under Review”

Text © Robert Barry Francos/FFanzeen, 2010
Images from the Internet

Pearl Jam: Under Review
Directed by Alan Westbrook
Narrated by Thomas Arnold
Sexy Intellectual, 2010
90 minutes, USD $19.95
Chromedreams.co.uk.com
MVDvisual.com

To tell the truth, grunge never did much for me. Yeah, I’ve liked bits here and there, but as a movement it just sounded like rehashed navel-gazing soft metal rock (nascent emo?). To me, the real balls of the 1990s Seattle music scene was with the women, like Babes in Toyland and Bikini Kill. But they were given a different name, Riot Grrrls, so they were historically segregated (even if the term came from them).

That being said, I was looking forward to watching this British documentary. Pearl Jam’s been around for 20 years and I’ve never followed them, so I wanted to learn what was going on. And I sorta found out.

What I mean by “sorta” is I have a bunch of issues with the talking head experts (no women, even though they did much of the writing about the local scene in fanzines back then) picked for this particular video. Usually director Alan Westbrook does a great job, but here he chose mostly mainstream music writers from around the country, contributors to - and editors of - publications such as Rolling Stone, Spin, and The Village Voice; there is a local Seattle writer that has published some grunge-based books, and all of them seem to be knowledgeable, but they are incredible sycophantic to the band and don’t just dabble in hyperbole, but immerse in it. Some quotes I pulled include: “[Pearl Jam are] holding the torch for good old rock’n’roll,” “There is probably no band in America more respected by fans and by other musicians, certainly,” and “Pearl Jam is one of the most important bands of the last two decades in American Music.” Really?

A bunch of Seattle bands are mentioned, such as Nirvana (duh), Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and Mother Love Bone. Again, no women, not even Hole. Anyway, after the death of Mother Love Bone’s lead singer Andy Wood via OD on the cusp of their album being released (talk about bad timing, eh wot?), the band splintered and then took on some new members. With Eddie Vedder moving up from So. Cal to become lead vox, they transformed, after another name change, into Pearl Jam. Vedder himself is interviewed about the band in a couple of clips shown from 1996.

Ignoring local labels like the groundbreaking SubPop (not being critical about that; I have no problem with a band signing to a major), they broke nationally with their first album, Ten. As big as their first release was, their second, Vs. was even larger, selling over a million copies the first week (breaking a record). This was their first (and wise) association with producer Brendan O’Brien, who made their sound rougher, much to the glee of the critics on this film.

One area addressed on Under Review is the supposed feud between Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and Vedder, and it’s pretty much trashed (Kurt started it by calling Pearl Jam “careerists”), with the blame going to the media who was looking to start a fight between the only major bands from the same town.

Their third release, Vitalogy is described by one critic here as better than the Who. Nah, don’t buy it. The Who were four incredible lead musicians; with Pearl Jam, and this is actually something I had a problem with in this documentary, pretty much all the viewer hears about is Eddie Vedder. The moody Vedder did this; the introspective Vedder wrote that. This is Pearl Jam, not Eddie Vedder’s Pearl Jam. I was interested in hearing about the band as a whole, not the 99.9% devoted to its lead singer and songwriter. I couldn’t tell you one person who was in the band, as each is usually mentioned by name once in the 90 minutes once they form as PJ.

The seclusion for their noble tout at the windmill called Ticketmaster is a key part of the center of the study, and rightfully so. I was so rooting for PJ on this, but even at the time I was not convinced it was going to succeed. If more bands would have stood by and taken the same stance, possibly, but no single band, no matter how big, could have stopped the money-grabbing monster that is TM, who set the model for all other ticket scam-artists – I mean sellers (and government officials, such as the dubious Mayor of New York, Mike "Buy the Election" Bloomburg, made ticket-scalping fees legal).

All the "official" Pearl Jam albums are covered in some detail (including comments by two of their studio engineers), but what interested me was their 120+ “bootleg” releases of every show on a particular tour, which was a brilliant idea; unfortunately, it is only lightly talked about here. This was a groundbreaking concept, and I wanted to learn about how it came about and how successful it actually was, but other than mentioning it happened in a passing moment, that was it for this DVD.

Now Pearl Jam have their own label (Monkeywrench) on which they released their last album, Backspacer. There are a bunch of side projects the band members have been working on, like Vedder’s solo Into the Wild, but not much is talked about there.

Twenty years after their first album, they are the only “grunge” band still around from that place at that time, and still selling out showplaces. Great for them, truly. What I came away with from this documentary is less than I was hoping, and it is certainly less critical than most of this British series (even with the albums that those here say were not as powerful as the earlier ones, such as No Code).

If you’re a fan of the band, well, there’s much to get off on, including a lot of live performance clips and some from their early videos (before they stopped making them, apparently), and detailed descriptions of Vedder’s role in society and to his followers, but I found it a little hollow, and a bit disingenuous due to the glorification of Vedder-er-er-er (supposed to sound like an echo).

The extras are slim, being the contributor bios and an only fair-quality audio interview with Vedder and drummer Matt Cameron (who does most of the talking, natch) while they were on tour in Berlin in 2009.

Well, one thing this documentary did do is inspire me to go to a video sharing site and check out some of their music. That's something.


BONUS VIDEO:


UNRELATED BONUS VIDEO:

Mary Lou Lord: Who is Mary Lou Lord?

Photos from the Internet

This is the fourth part of a series of articles or interviews that have been published before in magazines that no longer exist. This one was originally published in Oculus Magazine, April/May 1997; an update follows.

Mary Lou Lord: Who is Mary Lou Lord?

Calling Mary Lou Lord at an ungodly hour on a Saturday morning, she was very gracious, even after only a couple hours of sleep. It seems that some strangers had followed her car the night before; then someone called her at 3 a.m. from his cell phone after tracking her number and address from her license plate. After the call, she was up, nervously trying to train Mona, her Pomeranian, “to sound like a German Shepard.” She pondered both puzzled and angrily, “He didn’t even know me!”

After two releases on Seattle’s Kill Rock Stars label (Mary Lou Lords and Martian Saints!), who Mary Lou Lord “is” is about the be upped on the music scene since her recent signing with Work Records. “I got a car and have more time to myself, but nothing feels different – though I feel inspired that this can happen. To be believed in is incredible to me!” And despite a potentially lucrative deal, both spiritually and financially, you can still find her singing in the train stations of Boston for money.

Mary Lou Lord, 1995
Performing in the subways is a very key part of who “is” Mary Lou Lord. She has been doing it for nine years, five days a week, seven hours a day, with approximately 10,000 people hearing her per hour, by her own estimates. Starting off knowing only one song – hoping the train would come quickly – she was forced to then learn two songs. Even at that stage, what kept her apart from most subway musicians was the quality of the songs she covered. Not going for the usual Beatles, To-10, etc., that one hears constantly (“I don’t know ‘American Pie’”), Mary Lou chose more obscure numbers, by the likes of The Bevis Frond, Daniel Johnston, and Jimmy Bruno, as well as “Joni (Mitchell), Nick (Lowe), Neil (Young), and Bob (Dylan),” as she states in one of her own compositions, “His Indie World.” She gained a more eclectic following, even for a subway crowd. People who would stop to talk were music lovers who recognized the tunes. “The difference was I was playing decent songs. They’d say, ‘I know what you’re doing, and it’s a good thing,’ even though I sucked.”

Starting out listening mostly to folk and “progressive” music, Mary Lou realized at some point that she had missed the whole punk movement. By listening to more modern DIY and punk, she realized their connection to folk (“three chords, a little rebellion, a little bit of politics”). From there she kept tracing other bands’ influences until she came to a roots music in itself – rockabilly. What impressed her were the songs. “Fuckin’ good songs rule,” she exclaimed, and then continued, “If it starts out being a song, it will continue being a song.” Turning her back on the electronics of the Progressive rock sound, she acknowledged the burning question, “Where’s the song beneath that sound that will last 20 years?”

Martian Saints!, 1997
The song is, in part, the reason she has covered some relatively underground artists while singing in the underground, as well as having covers-laden releases (for Mary Lou Lords, in total, thirteen songs, of which four are originals). “Others deserve to be heard,” Mary Lou posited. “A song can only have life if it’s listened to.” By listening to her records and then seeking out the originals, as she has done (and still does), a listener could potentially “help me help them.”

After meeting and befriending Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill (also on Kill Rock Stars) at The Rat in Boston, Mary Lou headed out to Olympia, Washington, a few years ago, landing a job at the Smithfield Coffee Shop. From there, it was just a mater of time before she was signed on her own merits. On Mary Lou’s first, self-titled Kill Rock Stars release, all but one of the cuts are “a girl and her guitar,” with simple production values, presenting her as most have heard her in the subways. The exception is the opening cut, “Lights Are Changing,” presented with a full band and friend Juliana Hatfield (an “oddball, weirdo, cool chick”).

Got No Shadow, 1998
After a well documented (elsewhere) friendship and feud later (to which she wisely refers, “Who gives a flying fuck?”) Mary Lou found herself back on the east coast.

Her second release, Martian Saints!, is more heavily produced and, consequently, Mary Lou is not totally satisfied with it. Describing it as “too slick” and suffering from “theremin-overload” (“except for my cut, ‘Salem ‘76’”), she expresses, as an example, the Peter Laughner cover of “Cinderella Backstreet” as “too foofy, not gutsy.” She promises the next release, on which she is working, will “make up for it.”

Live: City Sounds, 2001
Her list of associates has been and is pretty astounding, including members of bands as diverse as Helium, the Presidents of the United States, and co-label member Elliott Smith (referred complementarily by Mary Lou as “The absolute shit! He’s fragile in my eyes, and I want to protect him.”). As she heads toward recording her next album, Mary Lou is also happy with her friend and new collaborator, Nick Saloman, of the Bevis Frond, who also joined her on some of the cuts from Martian Saints! Apparently, she had found people who know who is Mary Lou Lord.

Baby Blue, 2004
NOW:
Sad to say, Mona passed away this year (pictures can be seen at MML's Website, listed below). Meanwhile, Mary Lou Lord continues recording and performing/touring, but has never broken past the college radio / indie cult artist stage. While it may not mean riches for her, her audience is a more select, and appreciative group. She still champions Elliott Smith, who committed suicide. Whether she still sings in the subway I don’t know, but it would not surprise me. I keep hoping to run into her down there.

www.myspace.com/maryloulord