No we're not celebrating any anniversary in regards to a Fleetwood Mac album... relax! It seems not a whole heck of a lot has been going on in the past week, alternative music wise, except for a cake-load of rumors. Here's just a few;
- Billy Corgan was rumored to have been writing a new Smashing Pumpkins album a few months back. Well, turns out he's just starting to write it... now. Gonna have to wait a while more Pumpkin Heads.
- This year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is fast approaching (happens on April 18), and as per usual, speculation and rumors are flying about possible reunions and collaborations among inductees and presenters. One such hopeful collaboration? Dave Grohl and Rush.
- Kings of Leon are promising a "youthful" new album this September. What the heck does that mean?- Also last week, we gave a glimpse of the 2013 Lollapalooza lineup. Rumor now has it that Nine Inch Nails & The Cure will also be there. The source? A "leaked" poster of the event.
- Fall Out Boy will no longer be writing ridiculously long song titles... rumor has it.
- Last but not least, we can state that this one is NOT a rumor! As of 3 days ago, our long national nightmare is over. In an interview with a Los Angeles radio station, Chris Brown said he and Rihanna are no longer together. Thank God.
Continuing onward is our “History of Punk and Alternative
Music” portion, where we welcome you to part 2. Last week we touched on
influences from the 50’s as well as the powerful shift in teenage culture and
rebellion. It basically takes us up to around 1962. By this time, rock n’ roll
has taken America by storm. Across the pond over in England, this has not gone
unnoticed; it’s just been quashed quite a bit... actually a lot. Seems the U.K.
is not quite ready for all this wild rebellion. This is painfully evident in
radio and television programming. Any “rock” star has been toned down so much,
that the music & performance is drastically pale by comparison to what the
U.S. had, in an effort not to upset the older status quo. Even worse, most
local clubs still barred rock music.
This is
especially frustrating for the musicians themselves. However, there was a boom
happening in Hamburg Germany of all places. Numerous bands made the trek to
this crucible proving ground where rock, mod, and progressive music was
welcomed with open arms. In fact, things got pretty wild - groups were required
to play loud, fast and raw, hour after hour, obviously using stimulants to
maintain the pace. Many bands saw members who thought they couldn’t sing take
the mike when the lead vocalists lungs gave out. The sound took on a mania that
would become a crucial factor in the coming assault on the U.S. in a few years.
Fast forward
those few years to 1964 and this is where things get really dicey. Garage rock,
which is a direct predecessor to punk, was big time in the Pacific Northwest,
and was starting to gain a foot hold nationwide, although that wouldn’t fully
happen until 1965. However, a group called The Kingsmen held the #2 spot on the
charts at the end of 1963 going into 1964 with their classic “Louie Louie”. Basically
a pop infused blues riff three chord song that reeked of scandal. The song was
even banned in Boston for a time. Why? Because too many people couldn’t fully
understand the lyrics and some thought some were perverted in nature. There’s
another concept; Scandal can come from fear of what you don’t understand.
Adding to this mix was the fact that the song was raw, distorted, and that the
musicians were not all that talented.
By late 1964, the
Beatles had just hit America thus starting the British Invasion. But we would
be getting ahead of ourselves. Also at this time, in New York City, The Fugs
were born in a bar called The Dom. It was the downstairs portion of The
Electric Circus, which was a popular night club on the East side. Founded by
Tuli Kepferberg and Ed Sanders, they managed to gather other like-minded
musicians (if you could call them that) and release their first album on the
jazz oriented ESP label before the summer of 1965. Due to their satire nature
or general disrespect for just about everything (you can decide), one can assume correctly without much thought
that the album did not sell well… at all.
There were two
other factors that came together during the summer of ‘65. Lou Reed had already
written future Velvet Underground classics like “Heroin” and “Waiting for the
Man” when he met John Cale at a party. Lou played some of his tunes to John on
an acoustic guitar. John hated folk music, but was drawn to Reed’s
urban-realist style lyrics. They started rehearsing and also played at The Dom
by the end of 1965.
The 2nd
major factor was The Who. I’m not going to go into a long history here, but
when first arriving in America in 1965, they had a healthy dose of attitude,
aggression, and a sound of fury. Get passed their first hit of “I Can’t
Explain” and delve into “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere” and you’ll see
what I mean. Pete Townsend drove that point home in 1965 when he wrote, “My
personal motivation on stage is simple. It consists of a hate of every kind of
pop music and a hate of everything our
group has done - I don’t see any career ahead”. If this doesn’t sound like
a mindset of punk and alternative in general, then what does?
Yes, there will
be other factors contributing to this fire throughout 1965 - The Animals, The
Yard birds, (yes the Y-birds; they stampeded everything & blew it away.
They were so good, bands a decade later were still imitating them), surf rock
as well as the one-hit wonders of The Trashmen with “Surfin’ Bird”; in
my humble opinion, the closest thing we’d have to true punk rock for a decade.
Until next time - peace out.
