a ridiculous word, taste di ta t ion, a l l connected to what 8 0 disconnect w h y we are told to love and aspire towards d irec t a l l your energy to established channels? what do they hold for you — ^T*Lt r e n d y a n d t o h e l 1 ™ authoritarian crap l ik e " / i t VOGUR TMTOOurnu ___ A i x e ------- I t i s THE WAY to be arty yet sa acceptable try i t and buy i t i t i s given so easily i t devours and terminates not new nor disturbing nor de ligh tfu l just an old guy lo s t the hard edge interview i s the/ another green paper that"s i t , lo s t the edge altogether extension of warhol some one no longer worthy o f my own sweat why continue the sacr ifice? in worship cash not much In that mound of —- reighs as a god or king of avant fuck gods kings * avant-00000000 — interview e t el oppr®8 ®}^ ,w Sc?"" 1 n g DISNEYS DEAD ^CK BUTHISDREAM LIVES ON but It clings ll»s • l«»°h , n 4 all the samel ■ S W M S M W m r ------- ------------------------- -------------- - -w - I j - — . . .. ------------------------s a c c _________u— _____ i m e NEWWAVEVIOLENT VINYLNEWWAVEVI PUNK EXPLOSION by Joe Carduccie As the music Industry divested itself of all the problem artists {Wildman Fischer, Captain Beef hart, New York Dolls, Iggy Pop, MC5, Dictators, Nico, etc.) it had collected in the late sixties/early seventies and got down to serious megabuck business with marketable brand name product {Led Zeppelin, Rod Stewart, Boston, Who, Dylan), more and more people began looking elsewhere for imagination and individuality in their music. A group of bands from West Germany became surprisingly popular because of this. Though these included Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Can and Amon Duul —bands that allowed the prospect of popularity in the United States to lead them into sell-out via artistic concessions, slick production and embarrassingly bad attempts at English lyrics — they also included Faust, Cluster, Neu, TSS, Uli Trepte and maybe Klaus Schultze —bands that insisted on their artistic vision and either continued to produce distinctive music or died trying. bands began recording in France {Etron Fou le Louglan, Heldon, Lard Free), Finland (Wigwam), Poland (SBB, Test), East Germany (Puhyds) and other places. Most of the records being imported at the time by American distributors were uninteresting remodeled versions of British or American forms but the bands named above were/are actively attempting to articulate something, rather than simply pursuing a well paying job (stardom). Unfortunately these bands were not recognized as an important alternative to the musical status quo by enough people to have effected that status quo. It was left to others to reactivate the Anglo-American music scene — to make the music culturally, politically and personally valid again. Of the active bands in the Anglo world of the seventies that can be considered to have artistic depth {Eno, King Crimson, Henry Cow), only David Bowie can also be considered to have been popular enough to have had wide influence on the by the mid-seventies Bowie, like the establishment bands, had cut touring in the U.K. to one date in London a year. In Britain music is much less the casual interest it is in the U.S. and soon British kids began wondering why they should accept a situation where they must consider themselves lucky to get to London for that one Bowie show, never minding that the show itself takes place in a huge stadium where they would have to take it on trust that that orange haired speck really was Bowie. This situation was soon intolerable and all it took was some real touring by an unknown New York band called the Ramones to remind the kids how it ’s supposed to be done. The music establishment, if they paid any attention at all to them, thought the Ramones were a bad joke. Now, four albums later, some edict has been handed down at Rolling Stone Magazine and the Ramones have been cleared. I t ’s okay to like them. The Rock Establishment still won’t admit, however, that the Ramones were a joke and that they, Rolling Stone and the other reputable rock media were the target of that joke. Think on this. All the old stale forms of western popular music have had their revenge on the rock and roll that replaced them in the fifties and sixties. Barry Manilow is Frank Sinatra in disguise. It really gets convoluted when all this muck insists on calling itself rock music. For when a band comes along that just so happens to be rock and roll incarnate the “ rock” media do not recognize it. Duplicity breeds cynicism and the British bands that formed in the wake of the Ramones were both, at least insofar as their attitudes to the music world they inherited. At the same time, though, they were honestly optimistic and hopeful about the culture they were making. A t last thousands of kids were out creating for themselves instead of lining up to buy the newTed Nugent album. Overnight bands began putting out their own records and the more overtly political made it a point to turn down any offer from “ the Companies.” 24
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