Gig Flyer City
It won’t win any awards for complexity. But it’s a great gig advert. Borgo Po, Torino. August, 2011.
Archived entries for Punk
History @ a Standstill
I first moved to London in January 1977. I was ten years old at the time. Though I was very cognizant of the differences between Israel and the UK, there was also a lot of continuity. My father had married an Israeli, and all of their local friends, or so it seemed, were Israelis too.
One of the first signs we lived somewhere else was the advent of punk. Not just the music, but the celebrity of the Sex Pistols. They were omnipresent, as much at the center of everyone’s attention as they were on radio and TV. Cribbed from the band’s legendary “God Save the Queen”, ‘No future’ became inseparable from how I thought about England.
Not that I had anything to base such connections on. I was too young. However, when my parents split in the spring of ’79, and my dad and I headed for Milan, I often thought that the term was prophetic, as though it were an advance hint that England was never going to work out for us.
Portobello Road, London, early December.
Fragments of The Clash, Part II
If you look closely, the Hasid is wearing creepers. 5 Euros, Boxhagener Platz market, Berlin.
Note the Guns of Brixton quote, lower left hand corner. Squat wall, Friedrichshain, Berlin.
Click here for part one.
Fragments of The Clash
Still a member of the opposition. The door of our neighborhood squat. Milan, early December.
Berlin comparisons are warranted. Visually, the district is on fire. San Lorenzo, Rome, 12/28.
Rage Against the Washing Machine
You can always count on Vance Galloway for a memorable photo. From Sonic Youth’s Sensational Fix exhibit, which ended a three month run in Saint-Nazaire, France, on September 7th.
Israeli Punk
The best band names are frequently found in hotel bathrooms. Mitzpeh Ramon, Sukkot, 2006.
No Need For Translation
Our neighborhood Christian resource center. In Spanish, "Llamada Final" means "Final Call."
A block south, local proponents of secularism let their their feelings about religion be known.
Noise Annoys
When I first heard San Antonio’s Fearless Iranians from Hell, I thought they were terrible. Just another thrash band, with predictably bad metal leanings. But, twenty years later, the project’s singularity is painfully obvious.
Faux-Middle Eastern hardcore, featuring the bass playing of an ex-member of the Butthole Surfers on the late, great Boner label, I played this hilarious 1986 EP back to back this morning with Muslimgauze, and it made a whole lot more sense.
While I’d argue that the concept is definitely stronger than the execution, one of the great things about punk has always been that as a form of critique, given the right context, sometimes a good idea is all that’s really required.
Blast From the Past
It’s finally out, and boy does it look good. Strolling through the Haight yesterday, Jennifer and I stumbled upon the brand new edition of the Punk Planet interview collection, We Owe You Nothing, at the appropriately DiY, volunteer-staffed Bound Together Books.
Featuring several new interviews conducted between 2001 and 2007, We Owe You contains six pieces I acquired for PP back in the day, including interviews with Steve Albini, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, Negativland, Team Dresch’s Jody Bleyle, Outpunk’s Matt Wobensmith and Black Flag.
Toronto’s Eye Weekly reviewed the collection on the 9th, together with former Punk Planet Associate Publisher Anne Elizabeth Moore‘s excellent Unmarketable. Putting Anne’s book in the mix not only was smart. It also explains why PP remains essential to understanding the zeitgeist.
On the Radio
Wednesday at noon, former Political Asylum singer and AK Press founder Ramsey Kanaan will be hosting an hour-long discussion about the political legacy of The Clash on Against the Grain, courtesy of Pacifica flagship station KPFA, 94.1 FM in the SF Bay Area, and everywhere else, online.
Ramsey’s guests include yours truly and Craig O’Hara, the author of The Philosophy of Punk: More Than Noise, a new edition of which is scheduled to drop in the new year. If you’re interested in the band, in punk, or in how music and politics collide, we pretty much cover it all.