I usually click on Google News sometime in the morning to make sure I haven't missed anything. That said, lately these days my scans have been fewer and more cursory. The news is too bad, too ugly, too depressing. Even the non-Trump tribulations are items like the fact that 34 years ago today, the space shuttle Challenger exploded.
I do, however, enjoy the modern technology feature of search returns and news feeds being tailored to taste. And as such, I get punk rock news -- of which there is not a ton, mind you. This isn't Kings Road, 1977.
One of today's headlines, though, made me chuckle. To begin with, punk band names are the best. And then there's the unintended, more literal interpretation.
Unfamiliar eyes would be rather horrified. Which is, of course the intent of it all. God love the Circle Jerks. They were even name-checked in a Camper van Beethoven song in 1985.
Some punk and hardcore acts take it a bit far, going full-offensive, but those aren't particularly gheorghey. Even the Dead Kennedys rile some people beyond musical consideration. For now, we asked local DJ Les Coole to check in with his favorite punk rock band names of all time:
- X
- Misfits
- The Clash
- Social Distortion
- Butthole Surfers
- Meat Puppets
- Circle Jerks
- Bad Religion
- The Slits
- The Damned
- Therapy?
- Slightly Stoopid
- The Runaways
- Suicidal Tendencies
- Dirty Rotten Imbeciles
- Buzzcocks
- Germs
- Fugazi (Fouled Up, Got Ambushed, Zipped In)
- Cock Sparrer
- Richard Hell and the Voidoids
- The Cramps
- Random Idiots
- The Stooges
- Scrod Rocket
- Rancid
- Pogue Mahone
- Black Flag
- 999
- Southern Culture on the Skids
- Agent Orange
- Minor Threat
- Pavement
- Ween
- The Skids
- The Ruts
- The Dead Milkmen
- Ramones
- Bad Brains
- GWAR
- [20 bands that start with Anti-...]
- The Boomtown Rats
- Flogging Molly
- The Sex Pistols
- Napalm Death
- Bikini Kill
- Greasetruck
- The All-American Rejects
- Agnostic Front
- Generation X
- The Hives
- Killing Joke
- Hole
- Sham 69
- The Vibrators
- Dead Kennedys
- Beastie Boys
Now more than ever, rebellion seems about right. Anarchy in the GTB.
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20 comments:
My favorite band name of all time is Brutal Juice. You may remember their album Mutilation Makes Identification Difficult. Or you may not.
Buy the CD here: https://www.amazon.com/Mutilation-Makes-Identification-Difficult-Brutal/dp/B000001Y70
A Place to Bury Strangers
2nd day home w the flu. Sick days can be less sucky when you're home, alone, couch and tv to yourself...guilt free to just be a sloth. This second sick day has 4 of our 5 home. Even when she's sick my wife won't sit down. Makes me mental.
Random Idiots are classified as punk? They seem more adult contemporary.
Random Idiots have been rock, hard rock, soft rock, folk, blues, reggae, rap, speed metal, emo, indie, alt-country, adult contemporary, and much more.
They were grunge when grunge still meant grime.
They've been 50's pop, 60's garage, 70's sleaze, 80's cheese, and the voice of a new generation.
They've been lo-fi and slightly mid-fi, but never hi-fi.
They've been warmly accepted and utterly abhorred, mildly amusing and wildly inappropriate.
They've been off the radar for many years at a time, but never truly gone and always just a moment's notice and a trip to the liquor store away from reappearing.
They've been many, many things, ever devolving and always changing for no reason whatsoever.
But they have always, always been punk.
Random Idiots records music located somewhere between low brow and no brow.
A decent read that is a teensy bit related. Punk style writing — not writing about music but rather going against the consensus grain — is on the wane.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/packer-hitchens/605365/
Thanks for that link, Whit. Hitchens was/is a fave. Anyone who writes an obituary of Bob Hope arguing that he was profoundly un-funny, or a book that details why Mother Teresa was a fraud has little use for consensus.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2003/08/bob-hope-wasn-t-funny.html
That Bob Hope piece is brutal.
Hitchens absolutely eviscerated Mos Def on Maher's show many years ago. He threw facts, conviction and condescension at the poor rapper. I think at one time he even said "Do I call you Mos or Mr. Def," which I loved. And I like Mos Def. But He was Les Def by the end of that episode.
There's a lot to debate here:
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2020/01/best-albums-of-the-1990s.html
that's a solid final dozen albums, in my book. but, of course, my musical taste is questionable (as a founding member of random idiots).
random idiots was definitely punk. we started with borrowed/home-made instruments, and we played live in the tinee giant.
In our very first recording session, a fellow band member loudly moved to kick Dave out of the band. Very punk.
Hightower fought for Dave's inclusion. The other guy never played for the Idiots again. Also, the only tune he composed was the worst song ever written, sung, played, recorded or even conceived of, so that worked against him.
Also, Rob was not an Idiot but ruined the only copy of that recording session when he was drunk and tried to play it.
THEN he became a Random Idiot.
Mark's wcsagd car is on BaT. It isn't this one though, this one is for El Reynoldo:
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1978-gmc-cabarello-diablo/
10 in a row for Seton Hall. They may be a 2/3 seed.
hi, gheorghies!
Mr. KQ and I threw more than a few cold ones back last night here in SEVA. Always a great time. I heartily recommend it.
I struggle with Hitchens. His intellect is clearly of the highest level and I respect his strict adherence to his principles. However, while he was a staunch champion of pluralism, his own individualism makes it impossible for him to even consider that there might be another legitimate position. To me, the world is not as binary as he would like us to believe. The sky is not blue just because Chris Hitchens says it is. It’s blue because blue light is scattered more than the other wavelengths and sometimes the sky is gray or red.
I don’t think you can dismiss Mos Def as complete idiot because of one arguably misinformed position. Bill Clinton was not the banana republic dictator Hitchens claimed him to be and Mother Theresa could be more nuanced than the saint some make her to be or the complete fraud CH thinks she is. Even Bob Hope, who I did not find especially funny, was likely funny to some and his USO tours likely meant something to a lot of servicemen and women, especially before they became NBC specials that were more pep rally than entertainment.
In some ways, Hitchens is the perfect example of our current political and discourse. Essentially, there is one correct way to think about things, “my way” and if you don’t agree with me I’ll use the most condescending method to make it clear that I disagree with you. That’s fine when you are debating Bob Hope’s comedic skills, but it’s a shitty way for people to run a country.
Hitchens is like a really smart version of Dave.
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