Anyone wondering what Ian Mckaye, lead-singer of Minor Threat/Guitar player for Fugazi/Founder of Dischord Records, has been up to lately; look no further. The Evens are a punk rock-ish duo, formed of Ian on Baritone guitar and Amy Farina (The Warmers) on drums. They play a unique brand of acoustic punk the DC way. The Baritone guitar is a real show stealer and the drumming is the best i have ever heard coming from a lady. The songs are sung by both and are charged with socio-political commentary that never comes out as preachy. They've released two albums on Dischord which are both excellent and played a number of shows 'round the globe. Give em a go.
"Swell Maps were a British experimental rock group of the 1970s from Birmingham, that foreshadowed the birth of post-punk."
"Influenced by the disparate likes of T-rex and the German progressive outfit Can, they created a new soundscape that would be heavily mined by others in the post-punk era. Despite existing in various forms since 1972, Swell Maps only really came together as a musical entity after the birth of British punk rock."
They squeezed out only two former studio albums and some singles/b-sides, but their influence is unmistakable. After breakin' up, members formed part of Crime and the City Solution, and the Television Personalities.
FUCK The Strokes. There. I said it. *PHEW* I feel so much better now.
"The band's proponents saw them as the epitome of a pure, unbridled enthusiasm for rock & roll, the ultimate expression of punk's dictum that rock should be accessible to anyone who wanted to pick up an instrument and play."
"Detractors found them gratingly noisy, borderline unlistenable, and too self-conscious and willful about their naïveté. That naïveté extended to their lyrical outlook too, not just their technical abilities; when they weren't singing about horror movies or tabloid headlines, most of their songs were about girls, veering between innocent longing and wounded sexual frustration."
"Their primary influences were clearly the minimalism of the Velvet Underground and the innocence of Jonathan Richman, with some Iggy Pop angst at times."[AMG]
"Entrevista a Campo-Formio Por: Lorraine Rodríguez Pagán
"... Música corrosiva con sonido crudo, pero refrescante ..." Eso es precisamente lo que los integrantes de Campo-Formio quieren transmitir a través de sus composiciones musicales, y a mi entender, cumplen su propósito. Esta banda, que aunque es poco el tiempo que lleva presentándose, contagia con mucha energía y comunica una presencia escenénica que muy pocas agrupaciones musicales de hoy tienen." ...
These fuckers are stirring shit up, play close attention.
One of my favorites. This album takes me back to other times.
"What does a band do when they're trying to follow-up a masterpiece? Release another masterpiece, of course. That's exactly what the Meat Puppets did with 1985's Up on the Sun. Issued one year after Meat Puppets II, the songwriting had become more focused, the performances were tighter, and Curt Kirkwood's vocals had progressed from a high-pitched warbling to a soothing monotone. Up on the Sun catches the Arizona trio in a relaxed mood, for the most part; the tunes aren't wound up as tightly as its predecessor, with the album-opening title track, the instrumental "Seal Whales," and "Hot Pink" being fine examples." [AMG] Suns to lift up in between They told some stories like you've never seen
"Only one of the Screaming Females is female, and she generally sings as much as she screams. But truth-in-advertising standards generally don't apply to punk bands, so these discrepancies haven't slowed the trio on the road to underground popularity. The star of the band is guitarist Marissa Paternoster; aside from being the designated screaming female, she pulls out the stops on scorching guitar solos in nearly every song. She's not afraid to get down and toy with her effects pedals, at times making a cacophonous clatter a la Sonic Youth, but ultimately her trick is straight-up guitar-hero stuff. The Females' rhythm section consists of bassist Mike Rickenbacker and drummer Jarrett Dougherty, holding down danceable post-punk beats behind songs that range from blues-derived to nearly disco-like, echoing The Slits in their more dub-influenced days." -ANDY MULKERIN
FUCKING AMAZING ALBUM! This band just fucking rocks. Deniz Tek's guitar work really inspired and influenced me as a guitarist. Get this NOW!
"Early Australian punk band Radio Birdman formed in 1974 and began recording in 1976 when the single ”Burn My Eye” was released. They took their name from a misheard lyric in Stooges song, ”1970”. (The actual line is “Radio burnin’”) Their first LP, Radios Appear, showed diverse influences, including Detroit bands of the late 1960s, such as The MC5 and The Stooges. The album was totally ignored by commercial radio but was championed by Sydney station 2JJ (Double Jay) and became sufficiently successful in Australia to lead to a contract with Sire Records (US label, home of The Ramones), who released a different version of Radios Appear internationally. It took three years to record a follow-up, Living Eyes, and by then, the Australian punk scene had diversified and the band broke up before the LP was released.
The band’s lyrics reference US-born guitarist/main songwriter Deniz Tek’s home state of Michigan, with lyrics from tracks such as “Murder City Nights” referring to Woodward Avenue in Detroit:
“Cruising down Woodward gotta find me some action/Looking for a lover with a power reaction.”
Many of their other songs, such as “Hand Of Law” & “Descent Into The Maelstrom” deal in apocalyptic images of war and violence, but these are more than balanced by the lighter pop culture references of tunes such as “Aloha Steve & Danno”, an ode to the TV show Hawaii 5-0."
I discovered this band in 2002 and have been enjoying and recommending it to all my friends ever since. It's only fair I share it with all of you as well. Unfortunately, I sold my copy of this CD along with a bunch of other fine h/c punk and punk classics when I found myself in need of some money. Hopefully I'll get the original LP again some day.
"Rudimentary Peni (1980 - present) emerged from the anarcho-punk scene in the UK in the early eighties as one of the most novel and recognizable acts of the era.
Lead singer/guitarist Nick Blinko is notorious for his witty macabre lyrics and dark pen-and-ink artwork, prominently featured on all of Rudimentary Peni’s albums. Blinko is also rumored to have written the band’s Pope Adrian 37th Psychristiatric album whilst resident in a psychiatric hospital, having suffered from mental illness most of his life, as such, the subject matter of the album relates to the delusions Nick was experiencing at the time, particularly the idea that he was said Pope. Nick’s subject matter has been influenced by the work of H.P. Lovecraft who he had studied after having delusions of the macabre element of life and hereafter. Bassist Grant Matthews has also written a number of songs for the band, though his lyrics primarily focus on sociopolitical themes. The band also features drummer Jon Greville.
Very few photos exist of the band, as their albums feature Blinko’s drawings, but artist and record label owner Pushead published a few photos of the band in an early edition of his magazine.
The band had early connections with Crass, and released their Farce EP on Crass Records. Though they stopped performing in the 1980s after bassist Grant Matthews was diagnosed with cancer, they continue to record and release material today, though they rarely give interviews."
Long before jay-z, The Damned spat out this lil gem of an album. Anyone not familiar with these mongrels, The Damned rose from the cesspool of early UK punk rock. One of the best and most persistant of the bunch. They burst out with the first ever (UK) punk rock single "new rose" and shit just hasn't been the same since. They're charectarized by a hokey goth influence which never overshadows their raw rock and roll energy. This is one of my all-time favorite bands, and this is The Black Album, one of their most overlooked and really my favorite, after that would have to come Machine Gun Ettiquette. Here we have some of their better known singles including "wait for the blackout" & "history of the world" one of their catchier tunes. If I ever were to make a top ten list of fav songs ever, which i hesitate to do, "Curtain Call" the apt-titled closer would be on the top of the list, a 17 minute mammoth of a track. Enjoy.
The legendary ROIR cassette, remastered with bonus tracks.
A pounding reminder of industrial dance music's early beginnings. They produced a unique obsessively American electronic music of enormous energy and enduring influence - throbbing sequencers and "Morrisonesque" vocals: Awesome. -Trouser Press Record Guide