Punk's not dicks: Viv Albertine unerases the women

There's a punk exhibition at the British Library right now. You might think it perhaps curious that an anti-establishment movement is being celebrated by the establishment, but the process of assimilation has ensured that a familiar narrative has been smoothed over the spikes of punk.

Not least that women have been dropped from the narrative. Viv Albertine - at the library for an event to mark the exhibition - wasn't having that...

At her talk last night @viv_albertine was so incensed at the exhibition signage's female erasure she amended it 👌👏 pic.twitter.com/x0LD2uem7F

— Gareth Ware (@musicismyradar) July 15, 2016

Update: it turns out it wasn't Viv who did it:

@laurasnapes actually she didn't: a young woman came up to us and announced she'd done it

— Jon Savage (@JonSavage1966) July 16, 2016

Update: it turns out it was Viv who did it:

@JonSavage1966 @laurasnapes - I did do it

— Viv Albertine (@viv_albertine) July 16, 2016

So, erm, hope that's clear.

Punkobit: Brandon Carlisle

Brandon Carlisle, drummer with Teenage Bottlerocket, has died.

His twin and co-Bottlerocket Ray Carlisle announced on Facebook:

With a heavy heart I regret to inform everyone that my twin brother Brandon Carlisle didn't make it. This is the saddest day of my life. I'm having a difficult time accepting the reality of all of this. We lost Brandon. I don't even know what to write. I feel so sad. I'm going to come up with something better to say when I'm more collected. I will let everyone know when and where the funeral will be. The amount of support Brandon has gotten during the last 72 hours has been crazy! Thank you to everyone for the kind words and prayers for my brother and for my family. So many good vibes were sent our way and it really helped all of us through everything. I can't stop crying.

Brandon had been found in a coma by his roommate on Tuesday; a crowdsourced medical bills page had been established.

Teenage Bottlerocket formed in Laramie, Wyoming in 2001. Ray recalled the band's early days in an interview with Vanyaland earlier this year:

My brother Brandon and I were in a band called Homeless Wonders and we started out sort of sounding like Screeching Weasel, then we got into ska music so we were writing songs that sounded like Less Than Jake and Slapstick and when the band broke up we were doing something in the veil of Fugazi and At The Drive-In. We sort of saw the scene follow that and we got mixed up as far as writing music was concerned because we were mixed up thinking that showing off how good you were at your instrument and using words in your lyrics that people didn’t understand. A lot of things started to be prevalent in the scene and we thought it was OK to that too.

When we started Teenage Bottlerocket, we were just like “Screw that, we’re gonna wear leather jackets, we’re putting our Chuck Taylors back on and we’re writing songs that are meaningful to us and it’s gonna sound like this.” We stuck to a three chord format and since it was a new band at the time we knew we had the opportunity to sound like whatever the hell we wanted to sound like. Especially in Colorado and Wyoming, we came out in a time where people we like “Oh my god, you guys sound like that, what’s this?”. The older people like Chad Price in All and our friends in The Nobodys down in Colorado Springs, they all paid attention right away. They were all like “Holy crap, we really love this new 7″, this new band you have is sensational.” A lot of those older guys encouraged us to keep on going and it meant the world to us that people like Chad Price liked our band. Like you said, I think Teenage Bottlerocket came across at a time where whole Ramones three chord thing was done. That kind of helps inspire the songs as well.

The band has released six albums and toured with NOFX and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. They were also part of last year's Warped Tour - something that the earlier version of the band might have raised a surprised eyebrow at.

Brandon had another band, That Guy, for whom he sang.

Misfits (Trademark)

There's an almighty battle between Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only over, erm, who has the rights to licence The Misfits logo to Hot Topic:

Earlier this week, details surfaced from an April lawsuit Danzig filed against the Misfits. Reports say the lawsuit surrounds Misfits merchandising and Danzig's claim that the band's trademark had been registered by Jerry Only behind his back, maliciously preventing merchandisers (like Hot Topic) from doing business with him.

Danzig is seeking a portion of proceeds, which we are now learning from the band, he apparently has no rights to per a 1995 agreement.

Punk's not dead.

It's just spending a lot of time with its lawyers right now.

Turning rebellion into money

Dying Scene have compiled a list of the richest punks. They're using 'punk' in the divider-in-Target-CD-rack sense than any meaningful sense, so Blink 182 come out at the top of the list.

[via Louder Than War]

Punkobit: MJ Drone

Michael Howells, once better known as MJ Drone, has died.

The Drones had originally been a pub rock act Rockslide, and seem to be the only Manchester punk band whose foundation isn't directly credited to the appearance of the Sex Pistols in the city. They'd reformated as a punk act shortly after Howells had joined the band.

They landed a spot on a Stranglers tour after Jean Jacques Brunel spotted them; a tour with Slaughter And The Dogs also saw them on the undercard, much to Drone's chagrin. At the time, the Drones had sold thousands of records, and had been led to believe it was going to be a co-headlining tour; the posters, though, made it clear Slaughter were top dogs.

It's fair to say that The Drones weren't drawn to punk by the political strand of the movement; when BBC Two documentary strand Brass Tacks spoke to the band and asked them to do something "punkish" for the camera, bassist Red Arse Whisper took the opportunity to get his arse out and fart.

They'd released a track, Rollercoaster, in their original incarnation; their first Drones release was on their own label. The Temptations Of A White Collar Worker was produced by Paul Morley - then, not-quite-an-NME-writer. It sold well enough to attract the attention of Valer Records, for whom they recorded a further ep and an album.

Here's where it started to fall apart; the band - apparently irked by Morley's interest in early Joy Division incarnation Stiff Kitten, the band and mentor went their separate ways.

The band signed with Fabulous, an Island Records imprint, but split before anything releasable was recorded.

There was a reunion in 1999, which did generate at long last, a second, final album.

Mike Drone continued to play - here's a performance from 2006:



MJ Drone died January 10th; there are no further details.

Indonesia "protects" the punks

Aceh police are currently having a crackdown on punks. How bad is it?

Listen to Gustav Leo, police spokesperson, explaining how they're just helping:

Mr Leo stressed that no-one had been charged with any crime, and there were no plans to do so.

They have now been taken to a remedial school in the Seulawah Hills, about 60km (37 miles) away from the provincial capital Banda Aceh.

"They will undergo a re-education so their morals will match those of other Acehnese people," says Mr Leo.[...]
"We didn't arrest them, they haven't committed any criminal offence," he says.

"They are Aceh's own children - we are doing this for their own good. Their future could be at risk. We are re-educating them so they don't shame their parents."

So, happily admitting they've broken no law, and will not be given a trial, the police are carting off punks for enforced behavioural change.

Here's the contact details for the Indonesian Embassy in London:

Indonesian Embassy
38 Grosvenor Square
London W1K 2HW

Tel. (020) 7499 7661
Fax. (020)7491 4993

email: kbri@btconnect.com

If you're in America, you can speak directly to the Indonesian ambassador through a webform.

You might want to tell them that it's the police, not punks, who need their attitude changed.

[Thanks to Laura Brown]

Bjork: It's just like punk

Bjork's Biophila - partly released via apps rather than just on a CD - is like punk. It must be, she says so:

"For 10 years I'd just been listening to people moan on about how the internet was killing music. And I was like, 'Hang on, technology is not the enemy of music.

"Maybe it's because we've let businessmen set up the model of how we distribute music. If artists would get involved... that's why I've been comparing this project to punk. Obviously not literally the songs, but it's kind of like when I was 16.

"When we wanted to put out an album, we put out an album. And made the poster ourselves."

Yes, it's just like the DIY movement. If you ignore it being released in the US on Universal's Polydor imprint, or being distributed in the UK by part of EMI; and if punk meant having to get your music approved by the richest company in the world in order to gain access to the app store. Exactly like punk.

Punk preservation society

A tweet from @TheMichaelMoran with a link to something in the iTunes store:

Nevermind the Dovecotes - The Punk Collection (National Trust Music)

Yes, that's a National Trust collection of punk singles. Not just the cartoon punks like The Sex Pistols, either. There's GBH, and Discharge, and even Bingo Master's Break Out.

Perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised - 1970s UK punk long since moved from being a snarl in the face of the establishment to being a part of the tourist industry. Matt Belgrano postcards and those kids on Westminster Bridge who dress up like they're part of a Clash re-enactment society for the delight of holidaymakers with cameras were merely the first signs, and perhaps the surprise is that it's taken so long for the National Trust to catch up.

It surely can only be a matter of months before you're invited to Washington Old Hall for a summer evening of gobbing and warm lager.

After all, the Trust has already embraced Dennis The Menace wholeheartedly, and he's always been a bigger threat to the men in suits than ever John Lydon managed to be.

Embed and breakfast man: Castration Squad

Having mentioned them in that last post, it's a delight to discover that there's some pieces of Castration Squad on YouTube. Let's have a quick dip, yes?

You can read about the genesis of the band on Alice Bag's website.

The footage all appears to come from a live performance at LA's Waves theatre in 1980. This first track, A Date With Jack, is the result of Tiffany Kennedy's obsession with JFK:


More to come in the next few minutes
No Mercy For The Dead
Ex-Girlfriend

Bookmarks - Internet stuff: Alice Bag

As part of WFMU's Women Of Punk week, they've spoken to Castration Squad and The Bag's Alice Velasquez. That's Alice Bag as was:

NAmag: Seeing as this is part of our "Women in Punk" week, what do you think the legacy of female artists from the first wave of punk is in 2011?

AV: You're having Women in Punk week? I think you need 52 of those!

The legacy of punk is not determined by gender. Any legacy that punk has left behind is as much due to women's contributions as it is to men's. The DIY ethic, the challenge to the status quo, the confidence to pick up an instrument, a paintbrush, a camera or any other tool that you have not been trained to use and to discover your power for yourself without feeling intimidated are all part of having a punk attitude. I see punk attitude in the women of Saudi Arabia who recently got in the driver’s seat of their cars to challenge that country’s restriction on women driving. I see the legacy of punk in hacker groups like Anonymous who target corrupt governments and corporations. The legacy of punk is not in its musical style, it’s having the audacity to actively participate in shaping our world.

Gordon in the morning: Coldplay go punk

Look, everybody! It wasn't the fridge making that strange dirging noise all night, it was the return of Coldplay. Gordon is delighted by their re-emergence.

It's exciting, isn't it?

Last year Chris Martin [...] hinted the band were ready to show their rebellious side.

Ooh, rebellion, eh? Well, with the Arab Spring and the global austerity blanket, there's plenty of anger and revolution to channel. So what's the comeback single about, then?

The band revealed artwork for their upcoming single Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall yesterday

Every Teardrop Is... A Waterfall, you say? I imagine Cameron is gathering COBRA around him as we speak.

But hang about - we might be being a bit unfair, because while the music is the same, sappy, Young Fotherington-Thomas In Love, there's a new image. Right, Gordon?

[There are] shots of their brave new look.

A brave new look?

Wow, Chris Martin is wearing a denim jacket, like he's really not going to take any shit when he returns a packet of screws to B&Q. And someone's turned up wearing a jerkin.

Gordon, in what way is this "brave"?

[F]rontman Chris is sporting a new slicked back barnet - paying homage to CLASH rocker JOE STRUMMER.

Possibly Joe Strummer. Possibly whoever was batting seventh for Essex in the summer of 1958.

It's definitely going to get the Coldplay fans talking - and probably the Zoolander fashion crowd too.

It will get people talking - "I thought C&A had closed years ago", for example - but it's touching that Smart thinks that people interested in fashion are going to be that surprised by middle-aged men wearing clothes that try to recapture someone else's youth. Badly.

There's spray paint too, you'll have noticed. And only seven years after Starsailor did a Banksy-themed video.

Smart digs out a quote from Chris Martin last year where he warned that he wasn't going to "play it safe" any more. Gordon seems convinced that this is what Martin has done:

Sounds like a real punk ethos. Joe Strummer would have been proud.

Would he? Would he really?

[I]t could make for an interesting summer ahead if Coldplay are about to embrace the punk spirit.

He'll be telling us he's given up eating Fairtrade bananas next.

Their single is called Unicorns Are Pretty But Don't Touch The Sharp Horn, Gordon. They've not embraced the punk spirit, they've just hired a new stylist, and passed it off to gullible journalists as some sort of edgy new direction.

I suppose, to be fair, Malcolm McLaren would probably be grudgingly respectful.

Vacation, Vacation, Amplification: Stay NoFX

Heading to Vegas? Want to stay a while? Worried that your planned trip isn't hardcore?

Why not stay at the Punk House, Fat Mike from NoFX's vacation home for hire?

If holiday cottages don't actually sound punk to you, it is self-catering so there's a DIY vibe to the whole place.

No, no, it really is punk. Look at the accommodation:

Master suite with a full bath
Couples bedroom
Third bedroom with 6 punk beds

It's got punk beds! Which might just be a bunk bed with the first letter turned upside down, but that's punk, right?

What better than hiring this place, and letting rip...

It is not a place to throw a big party or play really loud music. Bands will not be playing there.

Hey! What sort of place is this punk house anyway? Where abouts is it?

Location: Cul-de-sac

A cul-de-sac? What kind of punks live in a cul-de-sac?

Gordon in the morning: Punk springs a surprise

There's a decent bit of writing under the Bizarre banner this morning, with David Hepworth turning up to offer a Punks Got Old piece following the death of Poly Styrene:

A devotee of the Hare Krishna movement, she was still giving interviews to promote her new album, Generation Indigo, from her hospice bed.

It seems barely possible that such vibrant young spirits should succumb to an illness like that.

It seems doubly odd that we should remember Marianne Elliott by the comic book name she gave herself in those mad times.

That's the great melancholy truth of pop fame. It begins as a lark. It ends up as a life sentence.

Alan McGee also write about Poly:

Poly wasn't a conventional kind of sexy woman but she was still very sexy.

He does mention her other achievements, but he does choose to end his eulogy for one of his heroes by mentioning how sexy she was.

Elsewhere, it's business as usual as a photo of David Beckham with a cheerleader in the foreground inspires Gordon to write a piece which appears to not be bothered that it's unlikely that Beckham was actually looking at the woman who appears to be in front of him.

UPDATE: Thanks to the person in the comments who pointed out that McGee's piece went on beyond the 'sexy' comments, so in fairness to Alan: apologies for assuming you ended your bit with those words.

The actual ending is:

She helped to get rid of the w*****s.

And this bit:

Poly paved the way for people including Madonna and Lady GaGa.

You wonder if they would have even existed without Poly and Ari Up from The Slits, who died last year.

Hmm. Would there have been a Madonna without Poly and Ari? Yes, probably. Would there have been a Lady GaGa? Er, yes.

Punkobit: Poly Styrene

I'd hoped this morning that it might have been crossed wires or an internet wrong.

But no: Poly Styrene, Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, died yesterday.

There's a lot of love for her on the internet right now.

Adam Sweeting in The Guardian:

Poly Styrene's album Generation Indigo, a witty, fresh and surprisingly commercial batch of songs, earned rave reviews when it was released last month. "I just channel my songs like a medium," she said of the new material. "If my friends like them, then I'm quite happy that they're good songs." She had planned to take the new songs on tour.

To the last, she remained committed to her original punk aesthetic. "Punk attitude lives on," she said, "because of the spirit of its fearlessness to try to change things for the better."

Kathleen Hanna:

Poly lit the way for me as a female singer who wanted to sing about ideas. She taught me, by example, that fame was less the goal than something to back away from when it started to invade your core. Her lyrics influenced EVERYONE I KNOW WHO MAKES MUSIC.

Billy Bragg, talking to BBC News:

"Punk without Poly Styrene and the X-Ray Spex wouldn't have been the same."

Glen Matlock, talking to 6Music:

"She wouldn't kow-tow to even what the punk fashions should be, I think that's what that song is about.

"I did see her not that long ago so it's sad. Again, somebody from the punk rock scene has died far too young and it's a loss."

Boy George on Twitter:

"I was a fan of Poly before I got to know her, she was a Krishna follower too, oh bless you Polly you will be missed! Legend!"

James McMahon, on the NME Newsblog:

But to simply describe Marianne Joan Elliott-Said as a punk is to imprison her memory within perimeters – it doesn’t allow the full story to be told. Poly Styrene’s music was thrillingly, achingly human, containing sentiments and emotions vital within any era, not just in Xeroxed, safety pin pierced snapshots of yore.

David Quantick on Twitter:

I am enormously sad about the death of Poly Styrene, who was one of the smartiest, funniest, and prescient songwriters ever.

Amanda Palmer on Twitter:

OH BONDAGE UP YOURS!!! R.I.P. Poly Styrene. important voice in punk rock lady awesomeness.

Aggressively, produly self-made; smart, funny and punk in ways that people don't always realise punk should be. She's a terrible loss to the world, but has at least left some remarkable work behind her:

John Lydon didn't like being called a punk

In a bid to try and come up with something new to say as he pushes the same old stories, John Lydon has decided he doesn't like being called a punk:

Speaking at the launch of his book 'Mr Rotten's Scrapbook', he told BANG Showbiz: "I never liked the moniker punk, it was given to us by Caroline Coon (journalist and artist), who called me the King of Punk, but when I found out what the world meant, like, somebody's bottom boy in an American prison, I was none too thrilled with the concept."

Coon might have called Lydon King Of Punk, but the use of the word "punk" surely derives from Creem magazine from back when Lydon was still in short trousers; by the time McClaren was pushing his boys onto the bandwagon, the connection between prison sex and the word had surely been broken?

Besides, for someone who never liked the word "punk", Lydon is always happy to claim his position in the pantheon. Like in The Times, in 1999:

Lydon's recollections of punk suggests that the Sex Pistols documentary, as yet unscheduled by Channel 4, should make great viewing. "The truth about punk will get out," insists Lydon. "It was not an intellectual movement orchestrated by Malcolm McLaren. We didn't set out to be seen as some great, culturally significant force. If we had an aim, it was to force our own, working-class opinions into the mainstream, which was unheard of in pop music at the time."

If it was all your own, how come you didn't come up with your own name for what you were doing?

Punkobit: John Garrighan

Absolute Punk is reporting the death of John Garrighan.

Garrighan was just 14 when he formed The Berlin Project, a Philadelphia punk outfit which Yahoo Music advises readers - with a straight face - to not confuse with Berlin of Take My Breath Away fame.

Originally a ska-punk band, by their third single The Berlin Project was adjusting to the public taste for gentle emoage. The change worked well for them - they found a slot on a Warped tour and built an audience, but it wasn't until 2003 that Gerrighan found a line-up and a sound that he felt comfortable with. The Things We Say is probably the closest Gerrighan came to capturing his 14 year-old self on record. Whether the effort of getting there proved too much, or this was all that he wanted the band to achieve, the band split in 2005 after the last of the Things promo dates.

Absolute Punk's Jason Tate reports that Gerrighan had recently been working on new material with Derek Woodz.

Against Me: You might want to think about your PR

So, you're a punk band, or at least hope people will believe you are. And a famous person says that you're like, so punk. Sure, you might want to get your PR team to get it out there. (Although if you're so punk, what are you doing with a PR team?)

But think: do you really want to send out emails with this as the subject line?

Leno Calls Against Me! One Of The Best Punk Bands Ever

Jay Leno? Seriously? Jesus, Iggy Pop, maybe. Patti Smith, certainly. The Ghost Of Malcolm McClaren, if you must. Nick Kent or Greil Marcus. Loyd Grossman knows a thing or two.

But Jay Leno is pitching your position in the punk pantheon? That's like having your grandma tell people you're fantastic in bed, surely?

Intro5pect weekend: Sustainable Yield

Not, I'd freely admit, the most visually stimulating contribution we've had for an embed and breakfast weekend, but it's about the lyrics anyway, innit?



[Part of the Intro5pect weekend]

Embed and breakfast man: Intro5pect

Yes, it's a noisy one today. Hailed by Maximum Rock & Roll as a blend of Anti-Flag and Attention Deficit, meet Intro5pect.

Normally, any band which replaces a perfectly serviceable letter with a number would be barred from appearing within a quarter mile of No Rock, but blending shouting, a little bit electronica, punk and politics is enough to win us over.

This track is See The End:



Buy
Self-titled
Self-titled download
Record Profits download

Intro5pect online
Official site
Twitter @intro5pect
Intro5pect MySpace
Intro5pect on Spotify

Some more Intro5pect to come over the weekend
Sustainable Yield
The War At Home live
No More Time
Unknown title live

Punkobit: Sam Davis

Sam Davis - better known as Eric Shark - has died.

Davis was one of the founder members of Deaf School, considered by the Boswell of Liverpool music Paul Du Noyer to be as important as The Beatles, having been the primordial soup from which Mersey music rebuilt itself after having been Beatled to death.

The band could also be seen as a prototype Hear'Say, too - they won a Melody Maker organised contest with a prize of a contract with WEA at the end of it. They were, perhaps a little too far ahead of the loop - they'd formed two years before The Sex Pistols made it to Manchester, which you're meant to believe was the point where punk came to the North West - and never quite turned into household names. The groups dissolved in 1978, with Bette Bright going off to be Bette Bright, Clive Langer heading off to become a super-producer, and Davis opening a shop.

There were to be two revivals - 1988 saw a new album, Second Coming, recording at a live gathering of the originals; A 2006 reunion has led to a series of occasional shows.

Sam Davis was 59; beset with health problems for a long time, he had been on an lung transplant waiting list. He played his last gig with Deaf School, in September, with an oxygen mask close to hand.