So if you’re old enough to remember there was a time that any band with any sort of DIY ethic could put out a run of 100 demos. No internet. No email. Just collect the beer money set-up the mic, make some artwork and then just start duping tapes. The distribution network was slow and conducted via snail mail and shows. Tommy Southern AKA devil dick has another blog playing tribute to said lost demos (his other mp3 blog is pretty killer too) who just never could release a proper LP. With all his posting he writes about all the bullshit that went along with the punk/hardcore and thrash scene of the day. Much like a modern day reality show except there were no damn producers or videos cameras. Just bored suburban kids living without a care in the world other than their scene. If you have been digging around looking for for Hogan’s Heroes, Lethal Aggression< Social decay go no further than to the demo tapes blog. He’s on a mission from Satan.
New Jersey has been producing great music for some time. In fact we will grandstand here and say all the fools who move to newborklyn or la to “make it” or be entertained are retards. Stuyvesant is all parts equipped with punk veterans and can keep the attention of any special needs kids who needs to be spoon fed their music. Sometimes sounding like the west coast and other times packing that NJ edge makes Stuyvesant’s latest tasty album release on Manual Phono unlike the acquired taste of a Fishmilk shake. I kid them because I think I’ve known a couple of them for more than 10 years (Yikes! we’re fuckin old) so it is hard to be an ass and be constructive at the same time so I can only tell it like it is my brothers. So lets start with Linden Callings artwork shall we? I love it, nobody takes the time anymore to make stuff look cool, as if were handled with care, in particular if you are comic book fan the Boy Howdy tv illustration is killer(which you can get from their site stuyvesantrock.com i think). The lyrics here won’t win a Pulitzer but if there were a rock lyrics award Ralph Malanga (formerly of Footstone) would be in the running for story telling and fitting large amounts of syllables in 3 minute pop-punk marvels that don’t need to studio pro-tool polish most bands hide behind these days. Plus,there are only three chords required to rock and this records proves the point. Their music shows their fan dome for the likes of Social D, Ted Leo, Mats and the Decendents ,etc,etc, blah, blah. Hats off to some of the song names but these are the stand-out tracks: “Liars Poker”, “Tape Hiss”, “forgotten two” and “Salieri”. Enjoy.
It is very easy to put Joe Strummer up there in the top 10 most influential list of Rock History. Julian Temple’s movie The Future is Unwritten, really captures Strummer’s enigma and beginings from a hippy squater, to his punk, to world traveler. The one thing that lasted, besides the band is his Punk Icon status up there with the like of Che, the Man in Black, Elvis, John Lennon and dare i say Bono. Temple uses a campfire for all the people in his past to talk about him and people he influenced or knew (Flea, Johnny Depp), which was one of Strummer’s things near the end of his life where he was inspired to put the Mescaleros together and perform. Bono’s sentiment said it best “…there is no reason why The Clash are still not a band today, they were victims of some classic mistakes”, he and the Edge obviously learned. One of the reasons I love The Clash still today was completely illustrated in the movie in the way they completely embraced all kinds of music(disco, Rega, Rap, etc) and also how relevant his words are still today even with their mega hit that put them on the global map and ironically destroyed them in the end.
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