I looked at the 40+ punks in this film and couldn’t help feel that they were more than a bit sad. They appeared desperate to hold onto their long-gone youth, seemingly oblivious to how old and pathetic they will look to many of the much younger kids in that scene. Punks either die; grow up and move on, occasionally visiting again to remind them of their youth; or stay forever trapped there either because they have fashioned a career in the music for themselves or they are too atrophied and unfit for work in the wider world after years of being in the punk scene.
Why do I have a feeling that this article/review written about Susan Dynner’s new documentary entitled “Punk’s Not Dead” is probably more interesting (read: more willing to call a spade a spade in regards to the subject matter) than its filmed counterpart.
At any rate, the article (in the old punk spirit) is a very good read, in that it highlights many rarely mentioned issues that have come about decades after the original punk movement.
One in particular, that most are aware of, is in regards to how “punk” has now become co-opted by the establishment it originally sought to dismantle. Pie-n-the-sky social ideas aside, the subject that I have found to be most affecting in regards to my own personal life is in how, as Daryl Palumbo from Glassjaw eloquently states, “The surfer/punk kids are now the cool kids. They’re the ones picking on and making fun of the Guidos [jocks], etc.”
It’s difficult because music today, regardless of genre, has become so image conscious. Bottom line, regardless of how well acquainted you are with the bands in that scene, if you don’t look the look, you don’t belong. It probably is the most grave thing to have happened to the underground music scenes. I do think however that the more progressive bands that do exist, even though the underground scene may have served as a fertile incubator during their youthful days, now today stand purely for the originality of both themselves and their music.
The irony here is that, at the end of the day, the bands today who are most “punk” or “hardcore” are the bands who look anything but. They are the normal guys like you and me who just enjoy creating some “awesomely sick” music. They don’t have crazy hairstyles or makeup, not because they’re trying to make a statement, but because they just want to live out their lives with a modicum of normalcy and happiness.
Whereas “punk” originally might have been used as a vehicle towards anti-socialism and dysfunction, today, at it most pure, it can bring a wide variety of people together and promote positive social change by promoting the empowerment of the “I” in individual.
“PUNK’S NOT DEAD”: FROM CHEMICAL ABUSE TO MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE by Graham Rae
Punk’s Not Dead (Official Movie Website)
형님 finally got around to updating his website layout. He’s still working on it but check it out anyway since it’s pretty funny, and if you haven’t seen his awesome graphic artwork, you need to go there immediately. Just click on the graphic down there to the left that says “Tigerworks.”
Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta get back to my Korean studies so I can hopefully work with him and his band in the near future.
I’ll update this space as I come across more track previews and videos. Enjoy!!!
1. Black Fish Swim M/V (Korean Version)
2. Black Fish Swim / Juicy Crasher / Leaving Wonderland (WMA Audio)
3. Masquerade Party + Lyrics (WMA Audio)
4. Jasmine (Shockwave Audio) *My current favorite
5. Galaxy (WMA Audio)
Filed under: Prog Grind Metal
Xenosapien by Cephalic Carnage
1. Endless cycle of violence
2. DIVINATION & VOLITION
3. MOLTING
4. TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL
5. VAPORIZED
6. HEPTARCHY (IN THE U.K.)
7. G.OBAL O.VERHAUL D.EVICE
8. LET THEM HATE SO LONG AS THEY FEAR
9. THE OMEGA POINT
10. MEGACOSM OF THE AQUAPHOBICS
11. OV VICISSITUDE
There is something just damn enjoyable about this album. I wish I could wax poetic about it’s artistic conceits, of that it indeed has many, but at the end of the day this an extremely technical, yet well composed release from the long-haired patrons of all things hash.
I believe one reviewer brought up Psyopus in reference to this release, which is more than just slightly apt. It is rare to find within the throngs of tech-metal releases these days a band that dares to live so high up the fret board. It seems that even the more death-oriented bands have chosen to craft their songs around a more “hardcore”-centric structure, where the predominant driving force is in power chugs and poly-rhythmic grooves.
Cephalic Carnage have always been an “anomoly” in that while their songs are, thankfully, not straightforward, balls-to-the-walls double kick marathons throughout an album’s entirety, they still revel in creating twisted harmonies as the basis for their songs.
Their past albums have always been mixed affairs with me, where either they leaned too heavily on mind-splitting chord acrobatics or opting to focus on a singular crushing wall of thrash. Again, thankfully, they have finally managed to bring together the immense technicality and song-writing abilities that they have fluidly shown throughout past releases to deliver one the most mind blowing albums of 2007.
The best thing this album has going for it is it’s pacing. The maturity present on this release is staggering for this sort of music. These are individuals who clearly understand music on a fundamental level although they are creating songs that mostly will only by “listened to” (in the loosest sense of the word) by angst-ridden teenagers.
What can I say? Everything here works. The jazz saxophone reprieves. The cacophony of screams that is the hidden track. There is just too much meat on these to be picked apart and consumed in one sitting. How Cephalic Carnage managed to push the envelope of rock brutality while cramming in the amount of beautifully disharmonious chord motifs that they did boggles one’s mind.
The “Doobie” brothers have never been one to make great artistic statements with their music, but this is closest to the true “spirit” of jazz and rock musicianship that one will ever find. Enjoy the ride . . . just make sure to rinse and repeat aftwards.
