PEOPLE TALK ABOUT L E S S GOVERMENT THE , LEAST GOVERMENT IS A ten ■a , o c ^ l e 'o r, INO GOVERMENT [NORULES NO RULERS DESPO SE OF THE SY S TEN THAT YOU ^ t l , P AY FOR BI T PAYS ITSE LF 1ST THE STATE GRO w s DAILY AND STRANGLE s u s ALL IN ITS RED T APE PUNKEXPLOSIONIN >LENTPUNKEXPLOS NEWWAVEVIOLENT There are now perhaps a thousand Carl Perkins, Matchbox), the conINSTRUCTION (translated) energy wasted will of course depend bands in both the U.K. and U.S. tinental bands {Etron Fou, Magma), “ . . . Throw away your brains, on what the eighties bring. If they alternative scenes. (There are at as well as the wide variety of sound Throw away your hearts, are as lifeless as the seventies, it least ten in the Portland area.) and attitude within the new punk Throw away everything could be. But considering that the This many bands of course do not music (from Pere Ubu to the Dils That makes men out of you. current tax cuts mean that neither all play what is commonly called to John Cooper-Clarke to DNA to Be changed into swine. will the underclass have its condipunk. “ Punk” as a term is only the Screamers to Wire and on and Be changed into swine . . . ” tion bought off any longer by the useful now as a general name for on). The sarcasm reminds one of you- state, nor the upper middle class the new alternative music whether This active subculture provides know-who. creative types have their CETA it be electronic {Human League, the perfect audience for an album The extent of this new punk rock money to play around with — add the Normal), avant rock {Pere Ubu, like the Plastic People of the Uniculture is easy to ignore in this the prospect that the draft will Chrome, Metal Urbain), or rock verse's now available out of France. country due to how constricted the be reinstituted due to population and roll. Punk has created the milieu This band has not been together normal channels of art dispersion drop and the need for “ better” wherein these bands are apprecifor years due to the Czech govern(radio, magazines, television, the material for our next adventure, ated. ment’s curious habit of throwing record industry) have become. So and one can see that the same old The punk explosion is the medium the band members into prison. One unless one was never out of touch contradictions are lying just below that brings together the various member has recently had his senwith the largely ignored links bethe surface. The civilized nations of alternate musics that had been tence doubled to eighteen months. tween the sixties’ alternative culthe world are still intent on feeding developing in secluded corners of And since Dubcek, the band and ture and the current one, or hapupon their young. the music world. In addition punk others of the cultural opposition pened to move in circles that includAnd when it comes to music that reawakens people to the important have, of course, had gigs cancelled ed the nearest local outlet for it inspires people to challenge what music of the past. So someone in and broken up by police, etc., etc. (assuming there was one), one could is, it ’s not Dylan or the Stones touch with the cultural opposition quite easily be oblivious to the New or Jefferson Airplane any more. today is likely to listen to and The Plastic People album was reWave Punk phenomenon as an opAnd it sure as hell ain’t Boston draw upon many sources: reggae leased by a political group in France tion. Many continue to believe that or Heart. Open ears and an open and dub music out of Jamaica and once tapes had been smuggled out punk has more to do with spit and mind will tell you, i t ’s Metal Urbain London’s ghettos, reissued albums of Czechoslovakia. Aside from some vomit than freedom of action, which or the Dils or Crisis or Alternative of sixties’ punk and psychedelia hippie excess (Czechoslovakia’s last is too bad. No doubt the local scene TV or Siouxsie and the Banshees {pled Crayola, the Ramains, 13th major rock infusion from the West could use that person’s participaor the Clash or Public Image Ltd Floor Elevators), reactivated and came in the late sixties), their attion. or X-Ray Spex or Stiff Little new rockabilly bands (Ray Campi, titude is strictly of today: Whether all this activity is just Fingers . . . -X25
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