Flaming Pablum

Manhattan in Motion

 

Everybody's Talking 'Bout the Stormy Weather...

Y'know, you can only come up with so many posts about snow.

I did a YouTube search a little earlier this evening, looking for a cool, suitable clip of Galaxie 500's "Snowstorm" from their magnificent On Fire album, but came up short (there is a passable live clip of it, but that didn't cut the mustard for me). In any case, whilst scouring around for same, I stumbled upon a couple of live clips of Sonic Youth -- yeah, them again -- plowing through their (kinda) breakout hit, "Teenage Riot." Inspired by same, I sought out a clip of its official music video.

I still vividly remember seeing this clip on MTV for the first time in the living room of the ramshackle off-campus house I lived in during my senior year of college. Bereft of any glossy effects or professional sheen, "Teenage Riot" is basically just a hastily-assembled, suitably anarchic collage of super 8 clips of Sonic Youth performances and road movies, sloppily spliced with loads of footage of other musicians and underground luminaries. While I'd already counted myself as a fan (drawn to the cause by the Bad Moon Rising album three years earlier), I remember being actively thrilled by this video. One has to remember that at the time -- circa 1988 -- one just didn't routinely get to see video of underground bands like Sonic Youth. Even catching blink-and-you'll-miss-'em shots of the Minutemen and Minor Threat in this clip was a tremendous kick.

Twenty-two years (!!!) later, the clip is still an entertaining snippet of the "college rock" history, considering everything that happened in its wake. Ironically, I don't really consider myself that huge a fan of Sonic Youth these days. I lost interest pretty much immediately following the Goo album, and haven't really looked back.

In any case, in watching it again this evening in a quasi-"Where's Waldo" capacity, I managed to spot and name the following cameos: Pussy Galore, Jad Fair, Patti Smith, Redd Kross, Nick Zedd, Pee Wee Herman, Mark E. Smith of The Fall, KISS, Iggy Pop, Harvey Pekar, Black Flag, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Sun Ra, Neil Young, Daniel Johnston, Mike Watt of the Minutemen/fIREHOSE, Joni Mitchell, Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat, William S. Burroughs, Nick Cave of The Birthday Party, Tom Waits, D. Boon of the Minutemen and Blixa Bargeld of Einsturzende Neubauten. Can you spot anyone I missed?

 

Fished In!

 
This is making the rounds today: Max Fish has been granted a temporary stay of execution.

Beneath Brooklyn

Zombified

Okay, here's a weird, roundabout one.

On Friday, while walking to work, I snapped what I considered to be a cool, atmospheric picture of the Empire State building from Madison Square, almost completely obscured by snowfall.

Yesterday, I posted that picture here. In due course, my comrades over at This Isn't Happiness paid me a high compliment by considering said picture worthy of inclusion on their terrific Tumblr.

Shortly after that, evidently J. Yuenger, -- music producer and formerly hirsute guitarist of White Zombie -- must have spotted it there and put it up on his weblog -- which is weird, as I'd only just been listening to White Zombie the other day, inspired by bassist Sean Yseult's new book, "I'm in the Band," which my friend Drew gave me and looks like entirely required reading if you're a fan of the band.

Intrigued, I popped over to J.'s site and found all sorts of cool stuff, not the least of which being a post featuring the isolated guitar track of East Bay Ray from the Dead Kennedys' seminal classic, "Holiday in Cambodia" (not unlike that post of mine from a little while back that featured isolated tracks from the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter"). It makes for fascinating listening.

I followed the link from J.'s page to the source and discovered Studiomultitracks.com, which features a slew of similar finds, not the least of which being the keyboard/vocal track from my beloved Killing Joke's "Requiem." Whatever your taste, however, there's a lot of fascinating stuff to be heard there. Go check it out.

I was going to write a lengthier post about White Zombie who started off as East Village regulars back in the 80's. I used to frequently spot them around Avenue A (their bedraggled ragamuffin aesthetic was hard to miss). They used to play at places like The Pyramid Club and the Lizmar Lounge. Who knew they'd go onto become stadium-fillers? But that's a post for another day.

In any case, check out J.'s blog and enjoy Studiomultitracks. Cheers.

Empire of Snow

 

Pie in the Face

A little while back, you may remember, my friend Tim B (of Stupefaction fame) started a great little communal project called The New York Nobody Sings, a site dedicated to highlighting esoteric songs about New York City. A bunch of NYC bloggers like myself, Tim, EV Grieve and a few others regularly posted whenever we thought of some new track to cite. I put up posts about songs by everyone from The Bee Gees and Missing Foundation to FEAR and Simon & Garfunkel and all stripes in between. The New York Nobody Sings chugged along for a spell until we all sort of collectively ran out of steam. Apart from the odd entry here and there, it's been largely dormant since last spring (although a new one was put one up just the other day, it appears). In any case, Tim keeps threatening to dismantle the blog. I hope he doesn't, but there it is.

In any case, one of the many entries I logged on TNYNS was this little slice about an old favorite song of mine that still resonates with me, despite its myriad dated references. I'm not sure I'll get to re-purpose all the posts I put up before TNYNS goes away, but we'll see. Please enjoy:

I first heard of The Pop-O-Pies in the summer of 1984 during a bike trip through Massachusetts, staying at a succession of slug-laden camp sites and dreary youth hostels. One of the guides was this hirsute stoner named Mike who, upon learning that I was a big fan of hardcore bands like MDC and the Circle Jerks, asked if I'd ever heard of this strange San Francisco punk band renowned for doing idiotic cover versions of the Grateful Dead's "Truckin'." This being an era long before the dawn of the iPod, Mike proceeded to regale me with warbley a cappella renditions of Pop-O-Pies songs like "The Catholics Are Attacking" and "Fascists Eat Donuts." Suffice to say, my curiosity was piqued.

When I got back to the city, I immediately set out to find the Pop-O-Pies on vinyl. In very short order, I tracked down a copy of their 1983 debut, The White EP (featuring the above songs as well as two needless versions of "Truckin'") at long-since-departed 99 Records on Bleecker Street. Not so much a proper band as a loose collective of musicians rotating around one Joe "Pie" Callahan, the Pop-O-Pies fleetingly counted future members of Faith No More, Mr. Bungle and Dead Kennedys in its ranks. Later that same year, The Pop-O-Pies' second slab of vinyl, Joe's Second Record was released on San Francisco hardcore label, Subterranean Records. Along with yet another rendition of "Truckin'" and some truly dubious forays into rap, Joe included a quick little ditty called "I Love New York," sort of San Francisco's answer to The Randoms' "Let's Get Rid of New York." Though the Pop-O-Pies were Bay Area to the bone, the song's lyrical insights totally captured the New York experience. Here they are in full: 

You work your ass off around the clock
Just to pay for a place to live.
You think you might have a real good time
If you had some time to give

The people treat you ugly
and they act like royal snot
They think it's chic to be a geek,
and get taken for everything they've got.

New York, New York

I pay extra for those piss-stench halls
$10 for a six of Bud
Blow a hundred at CBGB's,
just to check out the local crud.

I hate those hipster idiots
that cop junk in the heroin parks
and all those idle wealthy brats
that hang out on St. Marks. 

New York, New York, New York

OK, I'm a hardcore punk from NYU
And I can tell you first hand about
the politically oppressed working class peoples of the world

1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 

 

Lost landmarks like CBGBs notwithstanding, I'd say the sentiments expressed herein still ring true today. Incidentally, you can find out more about the history of the mighty Pop-O-Pies on their official website.

It's Ba-a-a-a-a-ck!!!!

Yep. It's snowing again, although expectations aren't quite as dire for this amount. It's also probably smart to remember that this is what normally happens in winter, so let's all keep our hair on, shall we? This too shall pass. 

As proof of same, here's a tasteful little clip of the blizzard of 2003 as it buried Astor Place (with music supplied by Sigur Ros). Enjoy & bundle up!

Snowstalgia

It's probably a little too early to get all nostalgic about the great Boxing Day blizzard of 2010 (especially considering what a roiling pain in the rump it ended up being for all parties concerned). That said, when the snow was falling, it was actually kinda lovely and fun. I took a few pics of it, but photographer Shawn Hoke snapped some lovely black n' white shots of it as well that are well worth checking out (that's one of his above). Make sure to avail yourself to the rest of his work too.

Sick Of It All's Manhattan

I spotted the below clip over on This Ain't The Summer of Love and felt compelled to share it here. Herewith NYC's own burly, shouty and very easily agitated Sick Of It All with "Potential for a Fall" from 2000. As I mentioned over on this post only a few weeks back, Sick Of It All were never my favorites in the NYHC ranks, although they inarguably had their strengths and supporters (including, oddly enough, Angelina Jolie, who sports a tattoo of the band's dragon logo). The high-concept clip below, however, finds our boys engaging in some characteristically violent behavior in and around some local Manhattan environs, notably Tompkins Square Park, the East Village, the Meat Packing District and -- somewhat inexplicably towards the end of the clip -- the northeast corner of West 20th Street and 10th Avenue.

Even if Sick Of It All's brand of high-volume assault isn't your particular cup o' concrete, you still might enjoy this visual stroll through neighborhoods that have --in many instances --  since become unrecognizable to their incarnations presented here. Incidentally, the wall the gents get slapped around in front at the end was taken down not too long back. It now looks like this.

Anyway, enjoy. And, obviously, watch your back.