In 1979, John Lydon made an unexpected appearance on the goofy Jukebox Jury television panel show. His fellow panelists included Joan Collins and Elaine Paige!
(The expression on his face, above, sums up perfectly, I feel, what most Brits probably think about Noel Edmonds, the host of Jukebox Jury ....)
Simply brilliant:
“An unlikely friendship between a goody-goody and a bad seed results in havoc at a birthday party.”
Directed by Suzi Yoonessi. Written and produced by Molly Hale. Producers: Lara Everly, Jonako Donley
More information at www.oliveandmocha.com
If I wrote something this good when I was young, I think I’d read it now with real satisfaction:
WHY RIOT ?
BECAUSE us girls crave records and books and fanzines that speak to US that WE feel included in and can understand in our own ways.
BECAUSE we wanna make it easier for girls to see/hear each other’s work so that we can share strategies and criticize-applaud each other
BECAUSE we must take over the means of production in order to create our own moanings.
BECAUSE viewing our work as being connected to our girlfriends-politics-real lives is essential if we are gonna figure out how we are doing impacts, reflects, perpetuates, or DISRUPTS the status quo.
BECAUSE we recognize fantasies of Instant Macho Gun Revolution as impractical lies meant to keep us simply dreaming instead of becoming our dreams AND THUS seek to create revolution in our own lives every single day by envisioning and creating alternatives to the bullshit christian capitalist way of doing things.
BECAUSE we want and need to encourage and be encouraged in the face of all our own insecurities, in the face of beergutboyrock that tells us we can’t play our instruments, in the face of “authorities” who say our bands/zines/etc are the worst in the US and who attribute any validation/success of our work to girl bandwagon hype.
BECAUSE we don’t wanna assimilate to someone else’s (boy) standards of what is or isn’t “good” music or punk rock or “good” writing AND THUS need to create forums where we can recreate, destroy and define our own visions.
BECAUSE we are un willing to falter under claims that we are reactionary “reverse sexists” and not the true punk rock soul crusaders that WE KNOW we really are.
BECAUSE we know that life is much more than physical survival and are patently aware that the punk rock “you can do anything” idea is crucial to the coming angry grrrl rock revolution which seeks to save the psychic and cultural lives of girls and women everywhere, according to their own terms, not ours.
BECAUSE we are interested in creating non-hierarchical ways of being AND making music, friends, and scenes based on communication + understanding, instead of competition + good/bad categorizations.
BECAUSE doing/reading/seeing/hearing cool things that validate and challenge us can help us gain the strength and sense of community that we need in order to figure out how bullshit like racism, able-bodieism, ageism, speciesism, classism, thinism, sexism, anti-semitism and heterosexism figures in our own lives.
BECAUSE we see fostering and supporting girl scenes and girl artists of all kinds as integral to this process.
BECAUSE we hate capitalism in all its forms and see our main goal as sharing information and staying alive, instead of making profits of being cool according to traditional standards.
BECAUSE we are angry at a society that tells us Girl=Dumb, Girl=Bad, Girl=Weak.
BECAUSE we are unwilling to let our real and valid anger be diffused and/or turned against us via the internalization of sexism as witnessed in girl/girl jealousism and self defeating girltype behaviors.
BECAUSE self defeating behaviors (like fucking boys without condoms, drinking to excess, ignoring true soul girlfriends, belittling ourselves and other girls, etc…) would not be so easy if we lived in communities where we felt loved and wanted and valued.
BECAUSE I believe with my whole heart mind body that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and will change the world for real.
Kathleen Hanna’s “The Riot Grrrl Manifesto” was originally published in “Bikini Kill” fanzine issue #2, 1991.
Below, Bikini Kill perform “Suck My Left One” live in a clip from the 1994 UK video zine “Getting Close To Nothing.”
After the jump, a recent Kathleen Hanna interview…
I’m as big a Lou Reed fan as there is, but based on the video below (from the 2009 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame show), I’m not sure a Reed/Metallica collaboration is such a hot idea. I’m keeping fingers crossed that what appears to be a marriage made in hell may end up surprising me.
David Fricke of Rolling Stone magazine has heard the album and wrote:
The record, not yet titled, features 10 songs composed by Reed with significant arrangement contributions by the band that suggest a raging union of his 1973 noir classic, Berlin, and Metallica’s ‘86 crusher, Master of Puppets.
Fricke’s description confuses me. I’m even less clear as to what the album sounds like then I was before reading it.
And Metallica’s James Hetfield doesn’t help:
Lars and I listened to the stuff,” Hetfield says of Reed’s demos, “and it was like, ‘Wow, this is very different.’ It was scary at first, because the music was so open. But then I thought, ‘This could go anywhere.’ “
Knowing the songs were composed by Reed based on Frank Wedekind’s play Lulu, which was written in 1895, puts this into the category of Reed’s work I generally don’t like: the pretentious and forgettable concept album.
Lou Reed thinks the album is…
... maybe the best thing done by anyone, ever. It could create another planetary system. I’m not joking, and I’m not being egotistical.
We will soon find out on Halloween, the day the album is released.
Stiff Little Fingers played a rousing set at Emo’s in Austin tonight. Founding member Jake Burns, with support from SLF veterans Ian McCallum and Steve Grantley and newcomer Mark DeRosa, brought a fist full of revolution rock to Texas at a time when the Lone Star state could use some punk insurrection
Their performance tonight reminded me of their significant place in punk rock history and I was jazzed by their commitment to keeping the energy alive. There aren’t too many punk bands from the late 70s who are still taking it to the streets.
Thanks to Jim McCabe.
I knew that eventually some wonderful human being would scan every issue of the old Rock Scene magazine and post them on the Internet and now the very lovely Ryan Richardson—the man who generously shared his collection of Star magazines with the world—has done just that.
Rock Scene was a mid-70s to early 80s black and white picture magazine edited by prominent rock writer Lisa Robinson (later of Vanity Fair) and her husband Richard Robinson (who produced Lou Reed’s first solo record and the Flamin’ Groovies’ Teenage Head). They were a well-known power couple in New York rock circles and had easy access to any and every rocker they wanted to meet. Rock Scene was where you could read about superstar acts like Rod Stewart, Alice Cooper, David Bowie, Queen and Elton John, as well as cult acts like Mumps, Lou Reed, the Ramones, Cherry Vanilla, The New York Dolls, Patti Smith, Richard Hell, Blondie, The Dictators, Suicide, Talking Heads, Iggy, Kim Fowley, the Dead Boys, Willy DeVille, John Cale, etc.
Rock Scene was all about the backstage and party scene and it was very “insider,” even featuring articles about rock journalists (Nick Kent, Lester Bangs, Charles Shaar Murray) and well-known groupies like Sable Starr, Bebe Buell and Cyndria Foxe. The contributing photographers included the legendary Bob Gruen, Leee Black Childers, Danny Fields, Roberta Bayley, Stephanie Chernikowski and Richard Creamer. Wayne County even had an advice column called “Ask Wayne”!
I first started reading Rock Scene with the March 1976 issue (above) when I was a ten-year-old and I bought every issue for years. I think from that very first issue I read, Rock Scene helped me define the identity I wanted to have and the life I wanted to lead. Growing up reading Rock Scene instilled in me a desire to want to move to New York and to meet these people. I never aspired to having a real job, I just wanted to hang out at Max’s Kansas City and do drugs with all the cool weirdos I read about in Rock Scene. (Of course Max’s was long gone before I got there…)
Ryan has scanned in every page of 54 issues of Rock Scene published from 1973 through 1982. He’s done rock snobs the world over a tremendous favor.
Visit Rock Scenester.com
Thank you William Meehan!
Nick Cave and The Cavemen filmed live at London’s Electric Ballroom in April 1984 for Spanish TV.
Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, Blixa Bargeld, Barry Adamson and Hugo Race.
22 minutes of shambolic apocalyptic rock from the masters of mayhem.
The little black bar that pops up briefly at the bottom of the video is there to block out some distracting, inaccurate and unnecessary English to Spanish subtitles.
So you want to be a rock & roll star
Well listen now to what I say
Get yourself an electric guitar
And take some time and learn how to play
Via Zombies En El Ghetto.
A strange and totally riveting performance by Lou Reed of “Walk On The Wild Side” at the Olympia Theater in Paris on September 17, 1973.
This clip is not new to Youtube but this version has by far the best sound… and even then it leaves a lot to be desired.
Looking like a junkie mime or proto-type for The Crow, Reed jerks off the mic and lackadaisically swivels his hips like a Times Square hooker while appearing completely in his own world. At the top of the song, Reed could be imagining himself sitting on a street corner on Long Island as a young kid, bobbing his head to “Walk On The Wild Side’s” doo-wop vibe.
Lou had a certain battered beauty at this point in his life. Transformer had been released a year prior to this show and Lou was experiencing phenomenal success in Europe. Never completely comfortable on stage, lacking the slickness of Bowie or manic energy of Iggy, Reed was compellingly awkward in many of his live performances. Without The Velvet Underground to bounce off, he seemed almost frightened at times.
Circle Jerks on late night TV show Rock Palace in 1985.
Founding members Keith Morris (in Michael Jackson drag) and Greg Hetson are joined by Chuck Biscuits on drums and Earl Liberty on bass.