Friday Selecter

Off my BACK!

(I loved this record so much! Like when I was 12. I had heard Misfits, Sex Pistols, Clash, Cramps, Dead Kennedys, the Exploited, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Ramones(you could buy all that shit at the mall) already and then I got my hands on this. It was so inaccessible unless you were ready to hear it. You can find a ton of radio friendly, softer stuff on all the “punk” records. My mom liked some of the Dead Kennedys stuff I was playing in the car…But this. Ha. Repulsive to everyone not into straight edge hardcore. So positive!)

Here’s A DK show from 85-Whats going on a comedy, spoken word/ performance art piece with some punk background music. It’s really theatrical. I love the Dead Kennedys, but its something else. (I think this is the show that Jello smashed the kid’s bootleg DK records at, so think about that-Before he did his monologue thing he was smashing some zitty punk’s records. This most be the Frankenchrist tour. They got sued to shit for that record, by the Shriners or whoever was on the cover. You know thinking back about his spoken word stuff so much of it is about record sales and being accepted by mainstream music media. All the PMRC stuff was really killing sales. He’s a businessman for sure. This also may be the same tour where Porcell knocked the cigarette out of East Bay Ray’s hand at the Anthrax. So I’m sure the whole band was bumming on the east coast hardcore scene. Hey dudes-you can’t control your audience. Thinking about the lyric content from Bedtime for Democracy this tour must have killed them.)

A little more:

(There was a really gross art fetishization of Black Flag in some circles in the 2000’s. Raymond Pettibon had a high post art show in SOHO once or twice and the vultures swarmed. A lot of people (messengers too) decided Black Flag was their favorite band ever and got corny tattoos. You could see the waves of influence spread. ((Art crowd–>bar crowd–>skateboard crowd–>street wear crowd–>bike crowd–>every loser in the world that likes TV Party.))

(I think this is the show that really started the trend wave.)

I mean nothing against Black Flag. The first Black Flag record I got was “Who’s got the 101/2?” which is full of Henry Rollins doing weird sex talk while Greg Ginn jams. It was over my head for sure, but I listened to it on a walkman while skating a parking block over and over again.

I bought Everything Went Black and Damaged a year or two later and got it, but it was to late.

Hardcore music is about what’s going on that day, I couldn’t give a fuck about Black Flag in 1990. Henry Rollins was a dude that lived in New Hope hung out with Ween and did spoken word readings at City Gardens. Like ok. That’s cool, but I’m trying to stage dive and buy a zine.

New Black Flag bars tattoo is like Grateful Dead bears or something.

The same thing with the Ramones.

I’m talking to some art school girl from Sweden in a bar in 2000 and she’s like “Yeah I love the Ramones they are so cool. Punk rock is awesome yah?”

Like that book Please Kill Me came out and everyone decided to be up on it.

And I wanted to be like “Yo, that shit sucks. Wake up. Bunch of fucking fossil art hippies. who fucking cares about that dumb shit.”

But I didn’t, I was just like “Oh yeah, the Ramones, right on. Gabba Gabba Hey.”

Please Kill Me cleared the way for people to get over Television and get into Black Flag.

I hate the Ramones.

I mean I hate Ramones fans. I mean not if your 60 years old now. That’s cool, I guess. I mean like anyone who decided the Ramones was their favorite band after 1981 and especially after 2000.

This kid in high school did a report on the Ramones for the remedial writing class I was in. “The Ramones are the best band ever…” followed by 5 minutes of slowly read words about “Blitzkreig Bop.” It was not crucial at all.

I waited on Joey Ramone and his mom a couple times right before he died. He was cool. He couldn’t say “kukicha” tea. He was like “kookimba, koojugie, you know the tea”. He was really into health food though-Which I thought was cool.

I was a waiter at Angelica Kitchen for a second after I quit Calvary.

This is what I think of original punk rock:

Richard Hell tried to rollerblade into the take-out section at Angelica Kitchen and busted his ass.

My man Spencer from San Diego ran into the restaurant side and was like “Richard Hell just busted his ass on rollerblades!” and we all laughed a lot.

I crept around the corner and peaked. He was holding onto the counter on the side, breathing heavy. Hint, he does not look like he did in the 70’s.

I’ve been wanting to talk about that place for a while. I’ll get to it.

Oh one other thing about Henry Rollins. Around the time of the spoken words is when Rollins Band is getting together. Ray 2Day or someone has a “Rollins Band Lifetime” coffee mug on the inside of the disengage 7″ so I thought it was on the approved list. I bought “Lifetime” and was a little confused. Millions of people were into it and not confused. But they were like jock idiots. I swear.

So all these Rollins Band shows feature Henry Rollins punching some grunge/metal/janes addiction fan in the face. I think that was part of the appeal. Like you’re going to see Rollins Band at a club and you know Henry is going to punch some hessian dude crowd surfing in the face. Maybe a couple times a night. So there’s that aspect of your entertainment. Oh and in the pit it was just murder, because everyone had something to prove. Like “I saw Black Flag” or “I’m going to kill every trendy motherfucker in here” So the new crowd was just there to get beat up by the hardcore/skinhead crowd. I think a lot of the Lollapalooza overflow that started drifting in thought getting beat up at a show was cool. You know jump into the pit with a flannel tied around your waste, red hot chili peppers t-shirt, shorts, and doc marten boots and start shoving people, two seconds later you’re kicked in the head falling on the floor. Early 90’s are weird. yah? )

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