Can someone explain 2009 punk to me?
I always assumed I had a vague handle on it - coming directly out of it three decades ago and being down with some of its most righteous fury through the early 80s - but this weekend, a kindly soul in Perth made me a present of a CD by Western Australian band Extortion. First he asked me whether I still listened to punk/hardcore (which was assuming an interesting amount of knowledge and taste on my part, but was a fair question nonetheless). The man was wearing a Tenniscoats T-shirt, and had directed a W Aus film called Three Hams In A Can wherein a whole lot of nothing happens to a vaguely laptop electronic noise band very slowly so... well, I'm not sure what I thought. But, the dude bought it for me - from Planet Video (of course) - so I gave Degenerate a listen this afternoon.
And I abruptly realised that I don't have a handle on 2009 punk/hardcore at all. Energy, fury, passion, aggression, alienation... all of these are familiar concepts to me, all of these I can relate to, even as a father of two. But the music might well have been written in an alien language, codified and following such rigid boundaries as to not exist at all. It was more like witnessing an array of advanced PhD philosophy/maths students (you know, the ones caught up in string theory) madly thrashing in thermal heat. This isn't meant to be a negative or positive comment, or even a particularly incisive one... just a comment. I'm flummoxed. I know folk who listen to this music - and it's made me think that what I thought I knew about them, I don't.
So I ask. Please. Can someone explain this to me?
(And I don't think having this post automatically linked to the "Pitchfork 500 Mosh Pit" is going to do it either - mainly cos I suspect their definitions of punk will be as outmoded as mine.)
ReplyDeleteNone of what I'm about to write is directed at any specific band.
ReplyDeleteIn attempting to create what these bands consider to be 'punk' where are they supposed to begin and what hope do they have of ever succeeding in creating proper music? Poor sods.
The market of punk, heck - music as a whole, is so severely saturated that there is a kind of grim Darwinian race for the prize that eschews any ideological basis or free expression but rather they simply fight for attention amongst a sea of voices in the void and are perhaps obliged to adhere to a formulaic pop approach to write their tunes because it's the safe alternative to, god forbid, challenging anything or anyone in our largely spoon-fed nanny society.
Or maybe they lack individuality or originality or stick to a formula because music/stardom across the board are devalued in that any Joe or Jill Twonk can get themselves on television thanks to the machinations of Mr Simon Cowell and company. A hell of a lot of music gets downloaded en masse for free over the internet too. The combined efforts of the above and games like Guitar Hero mean that fame is a lottery with little recompense save for the luckiest few and literally anyone can play guitar. The mystique and worth of music is gone to them.
These bands are unable to access an absolute true representation of the punk genre, lost as it is to them in the mire of time; and whilst I would prescribe compulsory study of books like Simon Reynolds' 'Rip It Up And Start Again' it's so far left off the National Curriculum. Without any idea of the causes driving the genre they are playing, they are a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy ad infinitum. And the toner's low on the copier right now.
Anton Ehrenzweig said something about children displaying chaotic expression in their paintings and general processes. This playful creative chaos is shaken out of people - the uniformity of every high street in the land is linear with the decline of every other individualistic aspect of modern life. Everything is safe and well. That's maybe why punk doesn't sound like punk.
If I've been confrontational, contradictory, didn't make sense or was just whining it's because I went off on a rant there. I guess I must give a damn about it... :-)
(From Facebook)
ReplyDeleteAndrew Hitchcock at 10:47pm July 13
I felt sort of like this when I saw Dean Dirge, the two support acts were two brighton Hardcore bands,they looked and sounded like Prince William and Harry. If you havent already check out chalet chalet by David Copperfuck a boisterous fem gem of a punk band.
Extortion sound like they fall under the bracket of 'Powerviolence'. See 'The Horror' (with no 's' on the end) for a fine example of UK Powerviolence or bands like Charles Bronson, Spazz and Capitalist Casualties (http://www.last.fm/tag/powerviolence).
ReplyDeleteThis hyperspeed assault has a lot in common with Black Thrash bands like Bestial Mockery who flaunt nihilism to the point of hating life! Chainsaw weilding lunacy!
"if you can't dig me, you can't dig nothin'!"
ReplyDeletemy favorite surrealist event this year was when I was accidentally double-booked at a local dive bar as a solo act with a bunch of young hardcore bands... and the bar dovetailed both shows into one.
Hardcore band #1 singer incredulates to me at the bar, "why on earth would they book YOU with punk show???" to which I totally laugh at him (not with him)). Then, as they play their set, all their fans are vagely bouncing in front of the stage. They want to mosh but simply can't bring themselves to go that far.. so I dive my matronly ass into thick of them and FORCE the issue.
After hardcore band #1, it's my turn. So I go up to do my set, starting with a very slow undistorted version of an ancient Bad Religion song... "Only Gonna Die (from our own arrogance)"... which I dedicate to the first band.
meanwhile Rozz Rezabek shows up to see my set, driving his crazy-ass painted 80s Volvo w/ "Punk Legend" stenciled across the door... and some drunken youth sees that and challenges him with "WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY KNOW ABOUT PUNK?" so of course he replies "WHERE WERE YOU IN 1977?"
It was some funny stuff and I was drinking whiskey so I, and all the OLD PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT PUNK, left after my set and before it got ugly...
Not all those kids were arrogant meatheads, though, and I know that deep down a some of them probably wished they coulda been there back in the day, and that's probably where some of this comes from: an admiration and respect and desire to recreate that time and feeling... cuz rock n' roll is not really at a high point right now.... if you ask me.
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