And by “punk” I mean…

After close to a year and a half of Punk Rock Mondays, I’ve decided to tinker with the format. First and foremost, quite honestly, I’m running out of punk rock to post. You’ve obviously noted that I try to dredge up some vintage performances, and the well on much of what I know is running dry (and I don’t want to insult your intelligence by posting “vintage” Third Eye Blind from 1999).

But also, I couldn’t possibly fit the 8th Wonder of the World, the Hardest Working Man in Show Business, Mr. Please Please Please Me himself into the old format.

“Out of Sight” and “Maybe the Last Time” from 1966, and holy shit is that man on fire!


With Fred Wesley, Bootsy, and Catfish Collins in the 1971 line-up, “Ain’t It Funky” – to which the answer would be “yes”:


And enjoy the white people as they are forcibly reminded that James Brown has not only licensed them to get funky, he demands it of them! “Sex Machine” and “Get on the Good Foot” from 1976.


So, as Kentucky Fried Chicken morphed into KFC after they started serving the public genetically-modified six breasted chickens, Punk Rock Monday has become PRM, a nod to its venerable past, an embrace of its bionically-enhanced future. More vintage vids, probably not as much actual punk.

You may now commence bitching about how Punk Rock Monday used to be cool.

Punk Rock Monday

Okay... a show of virtual hands. Does anyone not have fond memories associated with the Violent Femmes? For me, the Femmes are one of the few things than can evoke downright nostalgia for my adolescence - the confused nauseau before I asked a girl out on a date, the euphoria of surreptitiously sipping a booze cocktail pilfered out of eight different bottles from someone's parents' liquor cabinet, lazy summer days around the lake, late night drives back from Knoxville chewing Big Red to try to hide the beer smell on our breath. The Femmes were there for all of that, and they still evince the good-natured innocence of a time that can't be recaptured.

"Add It Up"


"Blister In The Sun"


"American Music"

Punk Rock Monday

Have some spoken word from Henry Rollins for your PRM pleasure.

On dating...


On rave and modern rock music...


On the war...

Punk Rock Monday

Hey! Did you know Dave Grohl was in a band before the Foo Fighters? They were even pretty good!

Levity aside, there’s not too much I can add to the encomiums surrounding Nirvana other than I’m surprised at how well there music has stood up over the past 15 years. As I age and continue to listen to them, I’m constantly amazed at how much I’m able to still discover and take from these tunes.

“Negative Creep” (for Dave)


If your feeling adventurous, you should check out the late 80s mullet-version of that tune – still rockin’, but way, way more hair.

“On A Plain”


And finally, a cover of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” not from the Unplugged appearance

Tanned, rested and ready - Punk Rock Monday

For the first PRM of the new year, I opted to go with some Chicago-style power pop from Material Issue. This is one of those "had to be there in the moment" bands, I think. I first stumbled across on a Friday evening sojourn to the Flamingo Bar and Grill (one of the only all-age venues in Knoxville - and one where it was exceptionally easy to get beer) when I was a junior in high school. They were a staple of my pre-college years, but I kind of lost interest upon graduation when I felt that they were "too poppy." Which is a shame, because they wrote really great catchy tunes. Sadly, frontman Jim Ellison took his only life a few years ago. Also, there isn't a lot of live footage of them - they were an exceptional band to go see, especially in a club setting. So here's a few vids from the MTV and a live acoustic performance.

"Valerie Loves Me"


"Diane"


"Next Big Thing"

Punk Rock Monday

The soundtrack to any number of adolescent evenings where I snuck out of the house to join friends, drink liquor pilfered from our parents, and smoke bad weed. The Dead Milkmen were the soundtrack to those good times...

From a 2004 reunion show, "Serrated Edge," "Where the Tarantula Lives," and "Lucky"


The classics "Punk Rock Girl" and "If You Love Somebody, Set Them On Fire"


With that, PRM is going on vacation until the New Year. We can't help it - vacation was applied for, and it's in its contract that we have to grant it. PRM will be spending the holidays in the Bahamas, while the rest of us are stuck pretending to enjoy visiting our relatives. Happy Holidays, PRM, you lousy piece of shit!

Punk Rock Monday

It was a sad day when Mark Sandman keeled over on stage from heart failure. It’s rare that anyone dies doing what they love, in Sandman’s case, playing a show and (probably more to the tragic point) ingesting far too much heroin. Morphine had a sound like no other band I’ve heard, combining the rawness of punk, the coolness of jazz, the flow of the Beats, and that signature two-string slide bass.

“The Saddest Song”


“Honey White”


“Cure For Pain”

A very grrly Punk Rock Monday

We’ve been getting pretty heavily into the grrl punk here at PRM, so I figure why the hell not keep a good thing going with Seattle’s Seven Year Bitch? We’ve got two performances from a Seattle public access television appearance (which reminds me about how great Seattle public access tv is – I’ll have to write about the show where people phoned in their bonghits... on second thought, I just blogged it – there really wasn’t that much more to it...) and one of their, what were those things called? Ah yes, music videos.

“Lorna”


A strangely prescient “No War”


And the video for the very cool “Hip Like Junk”

Punk Rock Monday

Viewed as nothing more than a tarted-up gimmick band when they made their debut in the 1970s, the Runaways paved the way for women to be every bit as sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll as the men. They’re also notable for launching the careers of Joan Jett and Lita Ford (although really, who followed Lita’s career?).

From their legendary Japanese tour with original lead singer Cherie Currie, a rockin’ cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Rock and Roll”


From 1977, “Wasted”


“School Days”

Punk Rock Monday

I’ve often thought that the perfect prop for a Reverend Horton Heat show would be a giant pool filled with Jack Daniels in which could be performed Southern Baptist-style full body immersion baptisms. I’d be born-again at every freakin’ show! Enjoy the good reverend’s shred-tastic guitar!

“It’s Martini Time!”


“Galaxie 500”


“Folsom Prison Blues”

(A late) Punk Rock Monday

You didn't have to be ugly (a la Joey, Deedee, Tommy and Johnny) to come out of the downtown punk scene in the late 70s and early 80s. In fact, you could be a downright hot punk rocker. So in honor of punk rock women and in remembrance of a time when MTV actually played music... ah, who the hell am I kidding. I'm showing you the Go-Gos because I want to see Jane Wiedlin rock the guitar. Because she's hot.

Bonus PRM fun fact: ms. wobs used to have an apartment in the East Village and lived in the unit above the Go-Gos original drummer. When we were staying there for a month in 2004, shortly after l'il wobs was born, said drummer listened to the same bad techno song, over and over and over...

"We Got the Beat" from 1981


"Our Lips Are Sealed" from 1990


And from 2001, a cover of "I Wanna Be Sedated"

Punk Rock Monday

Because who doesn’t love Sebadoh on a Monday morning?

“Jealous of Jesus”


“Gimme Indie Rock”


“Soul and Fire”

Punk Rock Monday

Back in the 1920s, ragtime musicians boomed from dancehall to dancehall, singing bawdy tunes about plentiful booze, good cocaine, and loose, loose women. Before there was punk, the ragtime troubadours were punk as fuck. Flashing forward some eighty years, the Inkwell Rhythm Makers were my favorite band in Eugene (apologies to certain regular readers). It was always a joy to come upon them busking some street corner – at the Market, on 13th by the University, wherever. I hope you enjoy their old-timey punk sensibilities as much as I.

“You Ain’t Talkin’ to Me”


“Talking to Myself”


“Sindereller” (I particularly like the old-timey processing of the video here – nice touch!)


“Working at the Peanut Stand”

You, me, and a bucket full of Punk Rock Monday

Captain Beefheart is the musical bridge between Zappa and the Minutemen. Fast and bulbous, man!

"She's Too Much for My Mirror" and "Human Gets Me Blues" from Belgium (the Europeans always "got" the Captain way more than those of us on this side of the pond) in 1969:


"Hot Head" from 1980:


"Safe as Milk," also from '80:

Hey! It's the Punk Rock Monday!

What better way to start off October than with some giants of the 80s Twin Cities Scene, the Replacements? Famous for performing exceedingly, obnoxiously drunk, I managed to find some excellent archival footage of the ‘Mats performing at Minneapolis’s famed 7th Street club in 1981. While later recordings would expand the range of their sonic palette, these clips feature them when they were almost hardcore.

“Goddamn Job” and “Junior’s Got a Gun”


“Kids Don’t Follow”


And a souped up cover of the Beatles’ “Slow Down”

Punk Rock Monday

This is two weeks running that lex has inspired a PRM, this time with a reminder at his place about how totally and completely awesome the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion are. I’ve heard kicked around “best live band ever,” and from my own experiences seeing them in Tampa in the mid-90s, those claims have merit. The blues are certainly a reference point for these guys, but don’t let the name fool you. The Blues Explosion is punk as fuck.

“Wail” from 1996


“High Gear” and “Talk About the Blues”


And I don’t usually post videos, but since this song is so badass, I’ll make an exception: “Afro”

Punk Rock Monday

I have to thank pattyjoe for introducing me to the Walkmen when he floated me a copy of A Hundred Miles Off. Had it been released ten years earlier it would've been the soundtrack to my mid-20s, combining the intensity and rawness of punk, a strong sense of dynamics (the Pixies come immediately to mind as a comparison in this regards), but with a woozy ambiance that perfectly encapsulates one thousand nights in a dive bar.

"Wake Up" and "Rue the Day"


"Lost in Boston"


And lastly, "North Pole"

Punk Rock Monday

Sorry, dr, but (shockingly) the Manhattan, KS scene isn't well-represented on the YouTube. So instead, we'll dip back into some old school punk. The Damned are often overshadowed by the Sex Pistols and the Clash, but they rightfully belong in the vanguard of the British punk movement. And it's hard to find a stage name more punk rock than Rat Scabies.

"Neat, neat, neat"


From 1979, "Smash It Up" and "I Just Can't Be Happy Today"


And a promotional video for the first domestic UK punk single, "New Rose"

Punk Rock Labor Day

Well, time to clean up the mess after last week...

The late 80s/early 90s was the age of the scene, with music scouts scouring the country to find the next [Seattle, Athens, etc.]. As I'm sure ash would tell us, Chapel Hill, NC was on the cusp of being the "next big thing," but never actually cleared the hurdle set up by record executives. Which is a crying shame, because a ton of great bands were part of that particular scene, chief among them Superchunk.

From 1992, "Precision Auto"


"Water Wings" circa 2000


And a certified Labor Day classic, "Slack Motherfucker"

Punk, Rock Monday!

Behold the comma, so humble in stature, yet whose awesome power is released simply by virtue of its insertion into the title, allowing me to post the most un-punk clip ever to be unleashed upon this venerable institution!

You may use the ensuing thread to discuss the punk-ituity of this action.