A Bit Of History in Punk / Alternative Music - Or How Much History Can Be Crammed Into The Same Week In Different Years?

This is sort of a "2nd part" to the blog I posted earlier this week. I was going to include these tidbits in the one I wrote on Friday the 19th, but the more I dug into this particular topic, the more I realized just how L-O-N-G that days entry would've been. OK, let's strap ourselves into the 360 Degrees time machine and turn back the clock...

1973 - The New York Dolls are in Paris. Arriving drunk at Orly Airport, Johnny Thunders pukes in the airport lounge after arriving. The press draw a lot of attention to it & Malcolm McLaren (future manager of the Sex Pistols) is taking notes as he joins the band on the trip. He later duplicates the incident (or stunt in this case) with the Pistols for the benefit of the press.

1975 - Patti Smith's debut album "Horses" has begun to leak out of the Arista offices. Although it's slated for release in early December in the US and in January overseas, already the praise-filled reviews are pouring in. Except for one... the magazine Melody Maker literally hates the record; "...precisely what's wrong with rock and roll right now is that there are too many academics pretending to be cretins and too many cretins pretending to be academics. "Horses" is just bad. Period." Whatever...

1976 - The Sex Pistols are invited as last-minute guests to appear on the Bill Grundy TV show "Today". The rock group Queen was the original guest, but canceled. A number of factors contributed to "the night the air turned blue" (actual newspaper headlines the next day). The Pistols were pretty much greased from way too many complimentary drinks offered before the show. Also, the band did not know the show was going out live. Finally, Grundy planned to expose the Pistols (who were about to become a household name / word) as unschooled ruffians with little to no wits about them.

It's now 6:15pm, and everyone is on stage including future punk icon Siouxsie Sioux (who originally was a SP groupie). The interview lasted less than 2 minutes, but the reverberations would last a long time. Within the first 45 seconds, Steve Jones says "fucking" and Johnny Rotten says "shit"... twice. But the real kicker was towards the end of the interview when Siouxsie mentions to Grundy that she always wanted to me him & Grundy offers to "get together with her" after the show. Jones goes on a rant & tells Grundy, "You dirty fucker. What a fucking rotter."

McLaren is worried and furious. He grabs the band, throws them into the limo and makes a quick escape as the TV stations switchboard is literally melting from irate calls. Grundy would be suspended from television for 2 weeks, while the shows producer and director were both fired.

1977 - The Ramones release their 2nd album "Rocket to Russia".

1978 - The Police release their debut album "Outlandos d'Amour".

1979 - The Clash have barely waited a year since the release of their album, "Give 'Em Enough Rope" but they already have slipped out a few hundred copies of their new double album to select shops called "London Calling". The album would be officially released on December 7th in the UK and a month later in the US. The album cover is a black & white live shot of Paul Simonen smashing his bass onstage with pink & green lettering in a direct parody / tribute to Elvis Presley's debut album. Don't believe me... check it out.

1982 - The Beastie Boys release their debut EP "Pollywog Stew" on the NY Indie Rat Cage Records. The eight songs combined total just eleven minutes in length. The line-up consists of Micheal Diamond (aka Mike D) on vocals, John Berry on guitar, and Kate Schellenbach on drums. All three of them were part of a failed band called the Young Aborigines. When Adam Yaunch (aka MCA) joined on bass they dubbed themselves the Beastie Boys. At the time the record is made, all members were between 15 and 17 years old. Shortly afterwards, John & Kate would leave the band and ex-Young And The Restless bassist Adam Horowitz joined. This would be the classic lineup of the BB that would last for two decades.


1983 - A quirky group of four individuals in LA form a band that combines traditional funk with the elements of punk & psychedelic rock as well as jazz fusion. They would go on to win six grammys and sell over 50 million albums in the next 25 years. They call themselves The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

1988 - The stars were without a doubt lined up this year. Three, count 'em three, bands either came together or played their 1st gig together as a band this week 22 years ago. They were Live, Smashing Pumpkins and Sublime.

Unfortunately, that's all the time I have for today to hit the blog. Until next time, keep listening!

Peace out,
Dave

Patti Smith, Punk Invades LA, Tons Of New Albums, Playing Defense & The Kingsmen

We'll dispense with any well-thought out introductions & get right to the blog. It's been a hectic two weeks, so we have a lot of ground to cover. First off, I'd like to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving! As our way of saying "Thanks" for all those who read the blogs, listen to 360 Degrees of Alternative, as well as send along great comments & suggestions - we've added over 25 new groups / artists & added more songs in one week than we have in any similar time period over the past 6 months. The music spans the decades and truly screams "diversity". Be sure to check it out!

The first tidbit I'd like to pass along is a little off the beaten track as it has to do with books, not music. However, the author is very well known in the alternative music circles. It is none other than Patti Smith. I found out this week that her book (memoir actually) called "Just Kids", which details her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the 60's & 70's, won the 2010 National Book Award in the nonfiction category. The book has received rave reviews since it's release back in January. Congrats Patty!

We've been noting quite a few (that's an understatement) bands that have new releases coming out between now & the Spring of 2011. Rather than go into a long diatribe about other new stuff I've read about, here's a short list of bands. This is in addition to the ones I've already commented about in previous blogs. Note to self - it's going to be a busy Spring...
- Smashing Pumpkins
- Blink 182
- Patrick Stump (former Fall Out Boy frontman)
- The Strokes
- Say Hi
- White Stripes
- Jane's Addiction
- Red Hot Chili Peppers
- REM
- and quite a few more! Details as they come in!

The part of "Playing Defense" in the title also ties in with the Artist of the Week feature. It seems every once in a while, we get an email from someone who asks why we play certain songs. Most seem to concern the music from the 60's. I can see the argument (weak as it is) that these songs just "don't rock hard enough" to be on the station. Sorry people, that's not the point nor a criteria. ALL the songs 360 Degrees features that are garage rock songs & groups from that era were a major influence on punk & alternative music. Remember, you can't appreciate the present unless you respect the past.

Case in point, our Artist of the Week feature is on The Kingsmen. Some of you are saying "who?" while others are saying "what are you nuts?". Hardly. Let's delve into some history.

Yes, the band is pretty much known for their very popular cover of Richard Berry's "Louie Louie". In my humble opinion, this song is pretty much the starting point of garage rock and the foundations of punk and alternative music.

Now, before you start sending me tons of hate mail, check it out. As far as the starting point, the song was released in late fall of 1963. To my knowledge, there are no other songs that were released earlier and can be classified as garage rock. Yes, there were loud & fast rockabilly songs that date back to the 50's, but they are missing one big key factor - "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen had all the ingredients of a classic garage rock / punk song.

We'll even leave out the fact that the song was (and still is) very popular. The 1st key ingredient - the audio was rough & sounded borderline horrible... even by early 60's standards. The music (especially the bass) was distorted. Quality production was obviously not high on the list.
The 2nd - No one could understand the lyrics! They were, in fact, innocuous, but Jack Ely's baffling enunciation permitted teenage fans and concerned parents alike to imagine the most scandalous obscenities.
The 3rd - The song was banned (by now, can you see similarities between this & the Sex Pistols?). The band attracted nationwide attention when the song was banned by the governor of Indiana, Matthew E. Welsh, and even attracted the attention of the FBI because of the alleged indecent lyrics in the song. All this hoopla only made the song more popular.
The 4th - the song has been covered by countless alternative & punk bands throughout the years and many artists list this song as a major influence in regards to "getting started in music". To me, The Kingsmen were the originators of proving, "if we can do it, so can you!"

Lastly - don't worry I didn't forget - the part about Punk invading LA. The following photo essay was published on Spin magazine's website this week. It's only contains 14 pictures, but it's a excellent look back into the heyday of mid-70's to 1980 punk out on the left coast. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Here's the link for "Beautiful & Damned".

That's it for this entry. But don't worry - there's another entry coming very soon. Until then, keep listening!

Peace out,
Dave

New Feature: Artist of the Week, Plus More Tidbits On R.E.M. & Other New Releases

Since we just finished with nationwide elections on Tuesday, we at 360 Degrees, have "elected" to add a new feature here on the blog called "Artist of the Week". I toyed with the concept of doing it more frequently than that, but I feel that if I did, it would lack substance and accuracy. So, after some brief music news, we'll get to our 1st feature.

Since R.E.M. released the info that they're new album called Collapse Into Now is pretty much done & will be out within the next few months, more interesting tidbits seem to be streaming out. The latest news is, according to Mike Mills, there is a more "expansive" sound than on 2008's Accelerate (whose lyrics were fairly political and inspired by such) and will feature some special guests - including Eddie Vedder and Patti Smith.

Love him or hate him, Marilyn Manson's new release (his 8th) is in the works & this time the band is going punk. Twiggy Ramirez, aka Jeordie White, who was Manson's longtime guitarist, and rejoined the band in 2008, after a 7 year hiatus, spoke about their upcoming release while backstage at a benefit gig for Dimebag Darrell in Los Angeles. "It's kind of like a little more of a punk rock Mechanical Animals", which was released back in 1998. Ramirez added that the album was "almost done" and would probably be out at some point next year.

A friend of mine asked me a few months ago, "Whatever happened to Evanscence?" Well, it seems we now have some answers. My friend was right to ask that particular question - Evanscence's last release was in 2006. Apparently, since that time, the band had been plagued by in-fighting and lineup changes, with - get this - original members John LeCompy, Rocky Gray, and Ben Moody all leaving... that's 60% of the band, people. However, lead singer Amy Lee is getting back on track with a new lineup (only drummer Will Hunt stayed on) and is set to release an album later this fall, (date is unknown at this time), with U2 and Rolling Stones producer Steve Lillywhite at the helm.

Lastly, before we check out the Artist of the Week section, let's check out some cool alternative & punk history -
- During this week back in 1974, Chrissie Hynde just left Ohio band Jack Rabbit & took a short trip to Tuscon Arizona to see a friend with the hopes of forming another band, but was mortified that "everyone there listened to country & western music". After a week of that living hell, (her words) she flew to Paris to accept the offer to sing in a group called The Frenchies. The name of the band sucked, but they did open for The Flaming Groovies.
- This week back in 1976, The Dammed released their first 7" single a mere 5 months after their live debut at the Nashville. It is produced by Nick Lowe on Stiff Records. It features "New Rose" with a cover of the Beatles song "Help" as the B-side. The group wanted the single released on or very close to Halloween, but distribution problems hold things up for a week. Amazingly, Stiff sells over 5,000 copies through mail order in a short time, then label United Artists decides to take on distribution efforts.

After I had the concept of "Artist of the Week" planted in my head, I struggled with the idea of who to feature. I finally came to the conclusion to do a bit on Iggy Pop. It was actually a toss-up between him and the Velvet Underground, since they were both true influences & innovators. I flipped a coin & Iggy won. Now there's crucial decision making in action!

Iggy was not only an innovator, but he was also very authentic. He has influenced countless bands, musicians, and rock music itself. Ironically, he struggled with the idea of being a singer or "front-man" for a band, because as he put it once, "Even though I liked the idea and loved to sing, I sucked at it. I mean I REALLY sucked". This was one reason why he first played drums for different high school bands and eventually playing bass for The Prime Movers. No singing, just rhythm section.

It wasn't until he moved to Chicago in 1967 where two things happened. The first, was where he was at a friends party and heard the Velvet Underground's debut album. At first he really didn't care for it, but then got excited by the mere fact that Lou Reed, in Iggy's opinion, couldn't sing! This gave him hope. The second was seeing rock acts like The Doors, MC5, and The Sonics. From the lack of musical talent of the VU, to the stage antics of Jim Morrison and the MC5, Iggy formed the Stooges.

One year after they're live debut, they signed with Elektra Records & released their debut album which was ironically produced by John Cale of the Velvet's. Unfortunately, the bands first few albums sold poorly, even with constant touring & Iggy's wild stage antics. He was the first performer in rock history to what's now called stage diving, or diving off stage, into the audience, and have the audience pass the person around using their hands that are over their heads. Sound familiar? Another term for this is called moshing... only 25+ years earlier!

Through out the 70's and 80's, David Bowie would be totally instrumental to Iggy's career by keeping it as well as Iggy afloat. Iggy's drug problems have been well documented and it wasn't until the 1985 release "Blah, Blah, Blah" and "Brick By Brick" in 1990, that he finally enjoyed success in record sales as well as on the rock charts. From that point forward, Iggy was able to rid himself of his drug habits and has continued on a successful path in both music and movies, including entrance into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame in early 2010.

We'll wrap things up some interesting bits of Iggy trivia;
- Iggy has appeared on TV shows ranging from the Dinah Shore Variety Hour in the late 70's to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
- His talents have been used in video games. From the DJ on 97.7 Liberty Rock Radio in Grand Theft Auto IV as well as appearing as a character in the video game Lego Rock Band to sing his song The Passenger and also lent his voice for the in game tutorial.
- Apparently, Iggy called Moe Howard (Moe of the Three Stooges fame) back in the late 60's to see if it was alright to call his band "The Stooges," to which Howard responded by merely saying "I don't care what they call themselves, as long as they're not the Three Stooges!" and hung up the phone!

Until next time, keep listening.
Peace out,
Dave

Garbage; New Not Recycled, Taking Back Sunday, Spring 2011 - What's Up With That, and More!

Every year this is one thing that I don't like to admit. It's fall. I mean, it's REALLY fall. The days are getting shorter by leaps & bounds, daylight savings time is in less than a week & it finally dipped below 30 degrees as of last night (in my neck of the woods). By admitting this, it brings forward one simple thought... winter is definitely on its way. To me, that's a bummer. However, there is a silver lining to all this. It seems many groups & individuals turn towards putting out new material between now and the spring.

Case in point - I read a blurb today that 90's rockers Garbage are reuniting for their first album in five years. Singer Shirley Manson revealed to the Herald Scotland, "We've recorded quite a lot but it's difficult to quantify…We're just winging it right now." Garbage are also planning to hit the road for a tour next year although no dates or venues have been released.

Another case in point - back in early summer & seemingly out of nowhere, Long Island rockers Taking Back Sunday patched up old wounds and reformed their classic lineup, with estranged guitarist John Nolan and bassist Shaun Cooper joining the band for the first time in seven years. After returning to the stage over the summer, the band has headed into the studio to complete a new album, due for an early 2011 release. As for a title, the band's leaning toward... Taking Back Sunday. "We haven't had [a self-titled album], and going back to the original lineup, it seems appropriate. But who knows by the end of the recording process."

Third case in point - And maybe someone who's really into astrology can help me out with this. Like, are all the planets due to line up in the Spring of 2011? There are more bands than I can count that have lined up releases for the upcoming season. Throwing their hat into the mix, Death Cab for Cutie are wrapping up their seventh full-length album for release in spring 2011, (see what I mean) although, according to the band, this release will not be a "guitar oriented album" like their chart-topping 2008 release, Narrow Stairs.


Ok - let's depart from the "new release" avenue & take a brief turn down "And You Thought YOUR Halloween Costumes Were Scary" street. Over this past weekend, there was a music festival named the Voodoo Experience. Now, this was staged in New Orleans... home of Mardi Gras... on Halloween weekend. Might folks costume? What do you think?
This simple fact did not pass unnoticed by the men of MGMT. They performed on stage as characters from Scooby-Doo. Singer Andrew VanWyngarden sported a long orange wig and pink tights as the foxy Daphne; Keyboardist Ben Goldwasser was the brainy Velma; Guitarist James Richardson donned a full-body Scooby-Doo get-up. Check it out...


That's about all the time I have for the blog today. I think with that picture, that is enough. Until next time, keep listening!

Peace out,
Dave