Flaming Pablum

Wontons with Warhol

I know many of you loyal readers probably think Facebook is a fatuous waste of time, and — honestly — you’re probably correct. That all said, there are some things to be found there that, in my opinion, do make it all worthwhile. If you’re a fan of the type of content you find here on Flaming Pablum, you’d do well to check out a group I’ve cited several times, that being Manhattan Before 1990, a very structured and orderly gaggle of folks fixated with images from NYC’s past. The photos I’ve encountered on same frequently stop me in my tracks. The one below is no exception.

Taken in 1965 by Stephen Shore, “1:35 a.m. at a Chinese Restaurant” finds a leather clad Andy Warhol (seemingly rocking the same black leather jacket he did on this shot) enjoying a meal. Further discussion on the thread revealed the Chinese eatery in question to be 69 Bayard Street.

As the discussion developed, a few of the group members thoughtfully provided images of 69 Bayard today — refreshingly not too different from the image Shore captured in the dead of night all those years ago.

Be sure to check out Manhattan Before 1990! Meanwhile, enjoy THIS....

From Tompkins Square Park to North Hollywood: The Sounds of Surgery

Just a quickie, as I already wrote a sweeping post about the band back in 2007. In a nutshell, Surgery was this amazing band — originally from Hartford, Connecticut — who moved to NY fucking C to play gritty, fuck-you skronk rock ala contemporaries like Helmet, Prong, Unsane, Barkmarket and — wait for it — my beloved Cop Shoot Cop. As I mentioned in that earlier post, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore once compared Surgery’s sound to a cross between Einsturzende Neubauten and Guns ’N’ Roses. Not sure how accurate that was, but it made for good copy.

I first heard Surgery, meanwhile, courtesy of my early 90’s East Village pals Steve McM. and Joanne H. — two rough-hewn hepcats who were on a tireless crusade to get to me to stop listening to the "pussy Anglo goth crap” I was digging at the time and get back into the harder stuff. Through Steve and Joanne, I was introduced to droves of cool new sounds, and routinely dragged to gigs at then-holes-in-the-wall like the Pyramid Club, The Cooler, the Lismar Lounge and a few other likely stops. Originally a rock writer like myself, Steve went onto roadie for SWANS before joining Cop Shoot Cop as their first guitar player, only to later jump ship and become a successful lawyer in Texas. Joanne, meanwhile, briefly played bass for an awesome local band called the Hot Corn Girls (featuring erstwhile members of The Chimpanzees and The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black), before getting married and leaving NYC.

Anyway, I did indeed dig Surgery’s Nationwide, but it wasn’t until Shimmer, their Atlantic Records debut (after being swept up in the major label feeding frenzy in the wake of Nirvana’s Nevermind) that I really locked in, largely thanks to the awesome, NYC-centric video for “Off The A-List."

Tragically, Surgery wouldn’t experience a similar career trajectory as Nirvana, as 29-year-old lead singer Sean McDonnell died from complications from asthma in 1995, leaving behind a distraught band who parted ways out of respect for their fallen leader.

Why am I bothering to bring this all this up now? Well, only because I noticed that someone had uploaded the video for “Off the A-List” back on YouTube after YEARS of inaccessibility. It’s great. Play it now, and then play it again.

Here's a clip from Nationwide...slightly lower-of-budget, but equally NY-centric. Check out the Gas Station in the opening moments...

 

Lastly, here’s a visceral, straight performance clip — possibly filmed at the Pyramid, if I’m not mistaken.

Spandau, and How!

First up, let me just state for the record that I am not — nor have I ever been — a fan of Spandau Ballet. Don’t get me wrong — I have absolutely zero problems with foppish new romantic bands, but in those stakes, Duran Duran beats the Spandaus every damn time. That said, my wife remains an ardent supporter.

In any case, via my pal Tim B’s Stupefaction site, I learned there’s a sprawling documentary on Spandau Ballet in the works (or already completed…see trailer below). Spotting the poster image for same — the Spandaus dressed in typically ridiculous garb while blocking traffic on West 33rd Street in the shadow of Madison Square Garden — I felt an irrepressible urge to replicate it. After ducking and weaving through herds of corpulent Scandiewiegian tourists on the High Line this morning, my kids and I found ourselves in the neighborhood, so we gave it a go. Here are the fruits of our labors. I know this much is true.

 

Here are the details on the flick...

And, honestly, if pressed to name Spandau Ballet's greatest achievement, I'd say this trumps "True"...

Puttin’ on the Blitz: Redux

Loyal readers might remember me waxing rhapsodic here a few times about the fabled Blitz Benefit at CBGB in 1978. I didn’t attend the Blitz Benefit, mind you, as I was all of eleven years old at the time, but being a student of NYC rock lore, its significance isn’t lost on me (beyond my blather, you can read a more official account here, although Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain’s oral history, “Please Kill Me” probably handles it best). It’s the stuff of legend.

In any case, you may remember me sounding off on this old post from 2011 about how cool I thought it was that no one had ever reproduced the Blitz Benefit t-shirt, lovingly designed by Arturo Vega, the visual mastermind behind the Ramones. To this day, you can prize yourself a CBGB t-shirt virtually anywhere, but if you wanted a Blitz Benefit shirt, you either had to have been there, or pay literally thousands of dollars for one on eBay.

Well, scratch that. Via the churlishly named Altamont Records (“Hard to Find Rare T-shirts and Collectibles”), you can now buy yourself a Blitz Benefit t-shirt knockoff (albeit not in its original black, for some reason). No, I’m not buying one for myself. You can even buy a Blitz Benefit baby onesie.

Oh well.

An Open Letter to Recruiters & Staffing Departments

STOP USING 'ROCKSTAR' AS AN ADJECTIVE!

...ala "Seeking a self-starting rockstar web producer" or "Rockstar copy editor wanted." Proper rockstars are loud, rude, entitled, frequently stupid, maladjusted drug-abusers who speak in slurred swears, bite the heads off of small animals, make insanely unreasonable demands, engage in random acts of vandalism and regularly pass out.

THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR!!!