I have often dreamed of a career naming novelty fireworks. How do you describe one particular sparkler that looks almost identical to all the rest of ‘em, in one snappy title? By use of a great stretch of creativity, of course. I’m sure some of you are familiar with much of the web’s “best of fireworks brand names” collections, including clever titles such as the Psycho X-Girlfriend, Nuclear Sunrise, One Bad Mother-In-Law, The Golden Shower, Uncle Sam’s Answer, Forced Entry, and one for the entire family, the Poopy Puppy.
The latest from this year’s Independence Day collection arrives with one for the nation’s imaginary population of patriotic punks. Produced by a company out of Osage City, Kansas (but made in China, natch), the Rebel Yell novelty firework (obviously) packs much of the same punch as Billy Idol’s hit song of the same name. Its description reads:
Three stage whistle cake will leave you screaming more, more, MORE!
It seems pretty obvious that they thought this logo was meant to represent Billy Idol. While this is not the first novelty firework with this name (another contains Confederate flag imagery because there’s a market for that), it is perhaps the first ever to utilize the explosive logo of first-wave Los Angeles electropunk band, The Screamers. The iconic image, which was designed by artist and cartoonist Gary Panter, is almost too perfect for use on a firework that I’m actually surprised it took someone nearly forty years to rip it off!
There is no word yet how the Rebel Yell firework looks when lit off in the midnight hour. If we are lucky, maybe next year we will see a firework styled after the artwork of The Flesh Eaters’ A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die.
The Screamers perform ‘122 Hours of Fear’ live at Target Video’s San Francisco studio
H/T Punknews
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘Yes that’s right, punk is DEAD’: Crass and other punk AF fidget spinners
Punish or be damned: LA punk legends The Screamers live at the Whisky A Go Go, 1979
The punk rock portraits of the Screamers’ Tomata du Plenty