Visions

Whilst convalescing after another operation my mind has been relatively inactive er... thanks painkillerz!  I did however manage to watch some stuff in a very passive/pleaz distract me kind of way. I started watching the drama Hell On Wheels which I was hoping would be half as good as Deadwood. The period detail in the sets and costumes is incredible so it was a bit of a shame that they couldn't pay the same attention to the script. I finally had to stop watching it as they were using modern terms and language that were just too jarring. With Deadwood as the benchmark for any kind of ye olde American type of show there is a lot to live up to and Hell On Wheels just didn't cut it.

I watched The Art Of Punk-Black Flag-Art & Music which is a mini 22 minute documentary on Raymond Pettibon the logo and artwork illustrator for Black Flag the LA punk band.  It turns out his simple yet effective Black Flag logo is now the most popular tattoo design in America. Pettibon is a character and his hatred towards certain members of the band definitely endears him to viewers who may think Black Flag's music is a little naff ie. me for the most part. This is a totally recommended untold story of popular culture. There are apparently two more to come in this series, one on The Dead Kennedy's and the other on Crass. I look forward to those.

Raymond Pettibon was so punk he hated Black Flag

eggheads

Barry enjoys Adolescent Sex

CJ used to be my favourite egghead. Man of many great shirts. He admitted though the other day that he doesn't listen to or buy music thus becoming the villain egghead. Some of the other dudes know their stuff though. Pat got a question about Black Flag the other night and Barry answered correctly a question on Japan and even named an LP Adolescent Sex as one his particular favourites. There was even a question about who was the lead singer/songwriter/guitarist behind The Mighty Wah! & Wah! Heat. The answer of Pete Wylie however was not forthcoming. Once a question was asked "What Beatles LP is actually called The Beatles?" The challengers were given 3 choices of which they replied Sgt. Pepper & not you know, the right answer. There's obviously a music freak in the question research department. It definitely keeps me watching to see what weird music question is next and leaves me slightly disappointed when the music category does not appear in an episode.

Pat gets the Hardcore questions.

This parallels Gilmore Girls which I used to watch. The writers must have been big music fans and in the end I think I was just watching to see what kind of music esoterica they could smuggle into such a mainstream show. Slint once got a mention and I thought wow how are they gonna top that? One of the main 2 characters was named Lorelei. This would always put me in mind of the great Cocteau Twins track from the classic Treasure LP.  Surely she was named after that.

The Zoo Is Cool

Couch Flambeau

The Zoo Is Cool

Great stuff from Nowheresville USA in 1985. Pretty unique I guess and a little bit funny. Saw this on the interweb about 5 years ago when I'd never heard of em.  Like J Mascis's  funny dork of a cousin  who was into MX80.

Peter Shapiro and Philip Brophy contribute to this months Wire. Shapiro does a primer on US Hardcore. It's one of those scenes that's got a lot of naffness and Shapiro isn't shy in pointing that out. It's the stuff with a bit of wit that really stands out. I mean Black Flag embody the scenes good/bad qualities. On the same record they would have something funny in a trashy yob rock stylee like TV Party then a woefully whingey track like Depression or Damaged II. Shapiro is one of my favourite music writers of all time but I have to pull him up on one sentence where he claims Husker Du didn't "devolve into emo's woe is me whining." Hmmm.... I'm not so sure about that. No Angry Samoans in the feature either, were they a little too homophobic? Not hardcore enough?

That previously mentioned Nuts & Co. LP from France in 1982 has been getting a fair airing around these parts. Kangourou is a lost treasure of post-punk. Young Marble Giants minimalism crossed with The Residents warp factor and you're about half way. Towards the end it goes into an almost communal demented exotica zone that you wouldn't have expected at the start. This record has had me going back to post-punk and experimental stuff like the label M Squared's a Selection and the Innocent Label compilation New music 1978/79 which have definite parallels as well as Der Plan's Geri Reig, Minny Pops' Drastic Measures, Drastic Movement,  2+2=5's Into The Future and Duck Stab & Eskimo by The Residents.

Black Flag T-Shirts

Hey Adults 40+ wearing your Black Flag T-Shirts!
Ya think that makes you look cool or a bit naff?

This is dedicated to my sister's flat in Bondi

She could do with some of these!

Did you know cockroaches fly?

I'm glad I live in Melbourne.

Kim Salmon
The Cockroach

Well what did you expect?