Where's The Bands And Artists F'ing Things Up?

[8bitagent]

IanEye: I still shiver when I think back to the 1990-1991 pop music era. Too sexy for my cant touch this ice ice vogue baby, cuz she drives me crazy.
I still feel a deep magic about the 80's. And looking back I feel even the most cheesecake pop of the late 70's and early 80's was pretty good.

[vince]

I remember seeing Consolidated back in '91, and while they were a product of their time, I couldn't help but think they were preaching to the converted.
My new theory is the possiblity that film makers had taken up the 'make-people-think' flag for pop/rock music in the late '90/ mid 2000's!
I follow Terantino, Smith, Gilliam, & Junet now, the same way I used to follow my favorite rock bands.
The advances in technology in the film industry kind of parallels the way the 'new-wave' of my youth took to new synths, and recording techniques.
Cinema from around the world reminds me of how my 'new-wave' radio station used to cover music from around the world with out batting an eye!

So, that's my theory......

[Joe Hillshoist]

Does anyone here listen to Killing Joke? I'm kind of shocked nobody brought up Jaz Coleman yet.

I spent hours listening to Killing Joke yesterday. I used to take heroic doses of mushrooms and do rituals to invoke Azathoth with Killing Joke as the soundtrack.

I can see tomorrow,

Feel the Pandemonium.

[Joe Hillshoist]

One of my top 10 (if not top 5) FAVE albums of all time:

Extremities, Dirt & Various Repressed Emotions (1990)

When a friend turned me on to it (them) around 1992 I was really blown away - even more so perhaps because I convinced myself somehow that the album had been released in 1980.

Does anyone here listen to Killing Joke? I'm kind of shocked nobody brought up Jaz Coleman yet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaz_Coleman

Sing with me now.




Money is not our God.






I'll stop doing that now.

[Joe Hillshoist]

I was afraid the ghastly horror art David Bowie describes in the cd booklet to his avant garde 1995 "1. Outside" album hasn't come to pass. GG Allen, the films of Nick Zedd and Kenneth Anger, Leigh Bowery...all passe now. In the early to mid 90's I remember soaking up everything from RE:search books, underground zines, william s burroughs, genesis p orridge and psychic tv, and all sorts of strange artsy fartsy shit. So much of it feels like it got assimilated into a Lady Gaga video or some tv commercial.

Dude it did. That stuff was so cutting edge it shaped our culture and will for decades to come - if we have a culture then. Burroughs did a Nike ad right about the time Bill Hicks was saying that doing such a thing would get you removed from the artistic pantheon forever. Maybe Bill had a point, maybe he wasn't assassinated. Maye he saw the future and made himself die to avoid selling out. Decided when he wanted to step off the ride - after he made his point.

[Joe Hillshoist]

BTW In case you didn't know Jaz was or is the official composer of the EU or something.

Yet he still gives interviews like this:

Killing Joke make an emphatic return this autumn with new album Absolute Dissent. Jaz Coleman guides Rob Haynes through the LP, discussing the apocalypse, geopolitics, population, societal control and why "random acts of kindness" are the only things that matter. Plus an exclusive stream of new track 'Endgame'

....

Lyrically it was inspired by my eldest daughter who turned me on to the work of Jean Ziegler. She goes to these G8 demonstrations, and showed me what was going on with groups like Black Blood, very militant kinds of people. I'm more concerned with food supply. Yes, there must be change. But staples are going up so fast. Food prices are predicted to go up 40% in the next couple of years. People's wages are being slashed. Where is it leading to? You don't have to be Einstein to work it out. It mustn't be allowed to get to that. What is required is a sweeping green communism.

TQ: Do you feel you need Killing Joke as a vehicle to express all this?

JC: I don't feel the need for anything. The only thing that's important is random acts of kindness, loving life and I guess spending time with people and being concerned with other people's problems other than your own. I had a big transformation when I went to India to take Raven's ashes as it came to me in a vision. I had this very strange experience when we played in Japan. All the Japanese ladies kept sitting in the lobby of our hotel. This woman was there for three days and we were told that she was a priestess. Then she said to me "Paul wants you to take his ashes and do a fire ritual at the hill you're going to". I'd already planned to go to India on a pilgrimage. Raven's got a monument erected to him three hours outside Tokyo, and we went there, then I went to India and took Raven's ashes with me just to help him cross the river, and I'm glad to say he's on the other side and pouring out the drinks as we speak, waiting for us to come through. I'd expect any friend to do the same. I believe very much in Professor Christopher Knight's ideas of that human activity must be governed by our ancestral spirits. This really touches in to the 'Raven King'.

http://thequietus.com/articles/04796-ja ... te-dissent

This guy is an authentic out there nut. I love him, the world would be a poorer place without him and everyone involved with that mad, yet uber sane band.

[Joe Hillshoist]

Oh there is the Drones.





But still all this horror
Has made a trench out of my soul
I'm gonna have to fall in love with a blind girl
So she will not see the shame that I know

[crikkett]

the latest adolescent posturing that passes for high art these days...

(Hirst's "canvas" is 23-year-old Londoner, Shauna Taylor).

Just popping in long enough to reassure folk that the subject in this particular work of adolescent posturing isn't actually an adolescent.

[jam.fuse]

One more from the good old daze when publicly stating 'I am into punk rock' would typically provoke expressions of outrage and the risk of a possible beating.



We can live our own lives; fuck authority!
What is wrong we'll decide; fuck authority!
You need not to fight; fuck authority!
Stand up for your rights; fuck authority!
Officials give us too much shit
No longer can I deal with it
They try and push and shove me around
They try and knock me to the ground
They tell me how to act and what not to wear
They say be polite and do not swear
Fuck authority!
Do it just your own way; fuck authority!
Don't listen to what they say; fuck authority!
What gives them the right; fuck authority!
This is America, man; fuck authority!
Life is laughing in my face
I am sick of the human race
Getting knocked all about
Makes me wanna scream and shout
Don't we live in the land of the free
Give me death or liberty
Fuck authority!!!
This is America, man; fuck authority!
We can live our own lives; fuck authority!
Stand up for your rights; Fuck authority!
Fuck authority Now!

[jam.fuse]

Burroughs did a Nike ad right about the time Bill Hicks was saying that doing such a thing would get you removed from the artistic pantheon forever.

Iggy Pop pimped out his signature anthem 'Search and Destroy' to Nike, and his biggest hit 'Lust for Life' to Royal Caribbean, as well as appearing on some car insurance add a couple years back I just discovered. The Ramones leased their signature 'Blitzkrieg Bop' riff to Budweiser. Lou Reed and Devo both appeared on Honda TV spots, London Calling by the Clash was sampled on a spot hawking luxury automobiles. The commercialism of Iggy I find the most depressing – of all rock stars he seems, or seemed, to stand the most for some kind of uncompromisingly outlaw sort of integrity, although he did once sing 'we don't believe in anything/we don't stand for nuthin'' so I guess he can't be accused of hypocrisy.

Anyway all of the above mentioned artists seem to have retained their residency in the 'artistic pantheon' though such shenanigans do take them down a peg in my estimation. Neil Young comes to mind as someone who has never tainted himself in such a fashion. Also Sonic Youth seems to have maintained underground credibility when they could have easily traded it in for a higher income bracket. "This is Thurston Moore for blah blah blah corporation" you're never gonna hear. Then again one never knows.

[IanEye]

I still feel a deep magic about the 80's.

*****

Myth, Memory & the Politics of Pop


I've been drifting on the sea of heartbreak
tryin' to get myself ashore
for so long - for so long

listenin' to the strangest stories
wondering where it all went wrong
for so long - for so long

*


and the secrets that we shared
the mountains that we moved
caught like a wildfire out of control
'til there was nothing left to burn and nothing left to prove

*


our life together - is so precious together
we have grown - we have grown



it's time to spread our wings and fly
don't let another day go by
my love
it'll be just like starting over

*


there's a Party goin' on right here
a celebration to last throughout the years
so bring your good times - and your laughter too
we gonna celebrate your party with you

*


don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge
i'm trying not to lose my head
uh huh ha ha ha ha ha

it's like a jungle sometimes
it makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

*


day after day it reappears
night after night my heartbeat
shows the fear
ghosts appear and fade away

*


stuck on you
i've got this feeling down deep in my soul
that I just can't lose
guess I'm on my way
needed a friend
and the way I feel now I guess I'll be with you 'til the end


*


don't make me feel any colder
time is like a clock in my heart

but you and me
we know we've got
nothing but time

*


as I watched it on TV somehow it really bothered me
drank in all the bars in town for an extended foreign policy
pick up the pieces

*


o' beautiful, for spacious skies
but now those skies are threatening
they're beating plowshares into swords
for this tired old man that we elected king

armchair warriors often fail
and we've been poisoned by these fairy tales
the lawyers clean up small details
since daddy had to lie

*


ain't got no place to lay your head,
somebody came and took your bed
don't worry - be happy

the landlord say your rent is late,
he may have to litigate
don't worry - be happy

*


maybe together we can get somewhere
any place is better
startin' from zero got nothin' to lose
maybe we'll make somethin'
me myself I've got nothin' to prove

*


sample a look back - you look and find
nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check
don't worry - be happy
was a # 1 jam
damn if I say it you can slap me right here


*****

[justdrew]

fyi...

Los Angeles Times February 16, 1980

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Wave_music#Reception_in_the_United_States

In the summer of 1977 both TIME and Newsweek magazines wrote favorable lead stories on the "punk/new wave" movement. Acts associated with the movement received little or no radio airplay or music industry support. Small scenes developed in major cities. Continuing into the next year, public support remained limited to select elements of the artistic, bohemian and intellectual population, as arena rock and disco dominated the charts.

[barracuda]

IanEye, that was awesome. Thanks for helping me to re-live the gloryhole of the 1980s.

Iggy Pop pimped out his signature anthem 'Search and Destroy' to Nike, and his biggest hit 'Lust for Life' to Royal Caribbean, as well as appearing on some car insurance add a couple years back I just discovered. The Ramones leased their signature 'Blitzkrieg Bop' riff to Budweiser. Lou Reed and Devo both appeared on Honda TV spots, London Calling by the Clash was sampled on a spot hawking luxury automobiles. The commercialism of Iggy I find the most depressing – of all rock stars he seems, or seemed, to stand the most for some kind of uncompromisingly outlaw sort of integrity, although he did once sing 'we don't believe in anything/we don't stand for nuthin'' so I guess he can't be accused of hypocrisy.

Iggy's position, as I recall, is that his music has been distributed more widely by the vehicle of commercials than it ever was in any other venue, and seeing as how a huge reason for making music in the first place was to have people hear it, he had no reservations about it. I don't find it hypocritical in the slightest - he still wears the bruises of his authenticity. I'd like to see the entire commercial culture punk-rocketized.

[jam.fuse]

IanEye, that was awesome. Thanks for helping me to re-live the gloryhole of the 1980s.

Iggy Pop pimped out his signature anthem 'Search and Destroy' to Nike, and his biggest hit 'Lust for Life' to Royal Caribbean, as well as appearing on some car insurance add a couple years back I just discovered. The Ramones leased their signature 'Blitzkrieg Bop' riff to Budweiser. Lou Reed and Devo both appeared on Honda TV spots, London Calling by the Clash was sampled on a spot hawking luxury automobiles. The commercialism of Iggy I find the most depressing – of all rock stars he seems, or seemed, to stand the most for some kind of uncompromisingly outlaw sort of integrity, although he did once sing 'we don't believe in anything/we don't stand for nuthin'' so I guess he can't be accused of hypocrisy.

Iggy's position, as I recall, is that his music has been distributed more widely by the vehicle of commercials than it ever was in any other venue, and seeing as how a huge reason for making music in the first place was to have people hear it, he had no reservations about it. I don't find it hypocritical in the slightest - he still wears the bruises of his authenticity. I'd like to see the entire commercial culture punk-rocketized.

Really? Hypothetically if I ever heard something like '... and now Jello Biafra for Exxon' I would have to label that as hypocrisy. Might make a good subject for a sketch comedy piece though. Grey area though I concede.

[justdrew]

"I hear the radio is finally going to play new music..."