Punk's Not Dead...

I love that song:

I can now face the day
On legal speed the American Way



I Heard They Suck Live is such a great name for a live album. Classic. Yeah, the new album is balls-out political--I rather like it a whole lot. A whole, whole lot.

I was a bit worried, too, since Pump Up the Valium wasn't exactly their best. My favorite NOFX albums: Punk in Drublic, White Trash, Two Heebs, and a Bean, and So Long and Thanks for all the Shoes.

I haven't heard of any of these guys. I'll have to see what I can find online.

Oh, hell yes.

I want to conquer the world
Give all the idiots a brand-new religion




Naw. I like 'em all right, but I don't sit around and listen to the Clash all the time.

How long did that take?

G.G. Allin: one of the few punk-related things my husband and I are diametrically opposed on. He loves him, I... don't.

'Cause I lo-o-ove feelin' dirty
And I lo-o-ove feelin' cheap
And I love it when you hurt me
So drive them staples deep

The first time I heard that song, I laughed my ass off--that album is so much fun.

Okay--this post is getting way too damn long, so I'll stop and add in some bands I forgot because I was sleepy.

Sloppy Seconds - oh, the beauty of these guys.
The Descendants - the only show I've ever been to that fulfilled a dream: hearing "Hope" live.
Rancid - up to and including And Out Come the Wolves
Oblivion - a Chicago band that rocks out, but they never made it big. They loved playing in my hometown so much they wrote a song about it.
Funeral Oration
Less than Jake - although I never got into them much further than Losin' Streak. They played my hometown, too, when they were still a garage band. A buddy of mine beat them at Horse, and he got a free CD.
Fifteen - just bad-f*ckin'-ass.
The Swingin' Udders - see above.

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You were a demon and a lawyer? Wow. Insert joke here."

You know what's punk rock? The Sex Pistols charging $40 per ticket for their live shows.

"**** your revolution. Give us your money."

Punk music is the only music I listen to...but most people think punk means dumb idiots with mohawks shouting about the government. It's a mindset, ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends, not a genre. Rap music is more punk than punk music. Avril Lavigne is more punk than NOFX. Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz are the revolution.

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**** the Lakers!

My Favorite Punk:
[IMG]http://drs.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=PUNKY+BREWSTER/v=2/l=IVS/*-http://jeannero.free.fr/dessins-animes/PunkyBrewster.jpg[/IMG]
.... and you're right. She's not dead!

Punk fashion is the biggest thing in the South East of the UK nowadays. In London and other trendy places its the ONLY way to dress. Kind of Kelly Osborne-ish. Most of my friends have wonky hair cuts due to it

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Pumpkins scream in the DEAD of night!

I tried to be a very ironic punk.
It started out with having wonked out hair but wearing work shirts and ties. Then I began to carry a briefcase. And then I cut my hair to something more befitting the rest of my style. And eventually, it just stopped being ironic. Simon and Garfunkel replaced AFI (Who had just signed on to Dreamworks, which is like, selling out, dude!), offending people became impractical, and altogether seemed like too much work, and I had completed the transformation to the upwardly-mobile yuppy I am today.
Steve's got the right attitude though, I think. And sexy is right, Soleil Moon Frye is quite alive and well, starring on Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

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"We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glow-worm."
--Winston Churchill

I get what you're saying, Steve. This is one of the things that irks me about punk as a lifestyle--so many people get into it and feel they have this ideal that they have to live up to. It always seemed to me that being "punk," if you want to define yourself by that word, meant having no boundaries, having no limits: kind of being whatever you wanted to be.

But then, of course, those who call themselves punks want to put those limits on themselves and box themselves into this way of life--to dress a certain way, to play a certain music, etc. It's bizarre. I was talking to a friend of mine who was a "punk"--and all that that implies--about movies, and he cut me off at one point and said, "Oh, I wouldn't know about that. I don't watch any movies made after 1970. Nothing made after then is worth anything."

WHY? Why make these restrictions? Hey, it's his deal. If he wants to cut himself off from things he might enjoy if he just gave it a chance... If he wants to blindly dismiss things that don't fit his idea of what's cool... It goes beyond "being yourself"--it becomes a kind of status symbol. "Oooh, there's the guy who's so hardcore he doesn't watch anything made after 1970..." And why stop there? Why not say, "I don't watch anything made after people began earning money by making films, 'cause that's when they all sold out."

But that's the thing. Mairosu mentioned a "punk rock pedigree," and it's a shame that people get sucked into that mindset. Don't be ashamed of liking things that you like, and don't think that you have anything to prove to anyone else--that you have to like such-and-such and not like such-and-such so that you can be pure and cool. I may razz my friends about liking bands, movies, etc., that I think are lame, but I don't tell them they're stupid or uncool because they like 'em.

And remember: it's just as dumb not to like something just because everyone likes it as it is to like something just because everyone likes it. Like what you like, enjoy what you enjoy. Don't be embarrassed. Be you, whatever that may be.

That's why, to me, punk is music. It's a certain type of music that I enjoy. DIY and f*ck-'em-all is fine, but I don't need to live my life in a green mohawk and combat boots just so I can show the world that I believe in something, or that I am different--or just so I can be a "punk."

Okay. That's my lil' rant--feel free to castigate at will.

Granted, this depends on your definition of "punk," and it can mean just about anything to anyone...

...but I have to know the reasoning behind this statement, Steve.

Avril is punk because she knows that you know she's a dumbass, and she doesn't care. She gets wild, she dresses 'punk rock' but acts dumber than Britney, and she's all over the TV. And anyone who says her music isn't catchy is a ********* dirty liar. That's punk to me.

NOFX's music sounds exactly the same as every other band to ever come out of California, with the exception of the 2 good ones (Guns & Roses and Sublime.) California has to be the most useless of all the states, I can't think of anything there that's worth savoring. Hopefully it'll drift into the ocean and become its own country soon.

That's a pretty interesting viewpoint of her. Still can't stand her, though. I guess I never really dug the punk image to begin with.

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You're not hopeless...

Okay, then. Just curious.

I hope you're not being serious. Although I suspect you are.

...with King Ah-nuld to guide them into the future.

Avril being punk rock? Jeez.. Steve, just because she gives you a boner doesn't mean she's punk rock. She's a kid who wants to be a rockstar, what's so punk rock with that? She is pop just like Britney and Britney is just as punk as Avril.

Something being punk to me means primarily that you do exactly what you want to do not buying in to any other culture or subculture. Check out the documentary The Filth and the Fury about Sex Pistols and listen to what Johnny Rotten has to say about this. Some rap music is "punk" (I rather not use that phrase at all, really) but I wouldn't say that any rap music played on MTV is the least "punk". What the **** is so punk about 50 Cent??

What I like about Sex Pistols and what makes them the ultimate punk band to me is the fact that they didn't have this thought out explicit political image. They were true working class heroes and said "sod it" to all that ****. The fact that they even had the word "anarchist" in their song Anarchy In the UK was simply because it was the only word Rotten could think of that rhymed with "antichrist". Hell, guitarist Steve Jones didn't even know who the english prime minister was at the time! (Yeah, I saw The Filth and the Fury yesterday ). The music of Sex Pistols is timeless. You don't have to be a left wing punker to appreciate their music. They were the Nirvana of their time.

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The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".

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They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

Avril is stupid and she doesn't care if you know it. That's punk to me. This girl acts like a complete dumbass, but somehow managed to be accepted to Yale.

He was kicked out of high school at 15 for selling crack, was shot 9 times, stabbed 3 times, has a prior sheet that's about the length of the bible...that's all real. What makes 50 punk, though, is the difference between his mixtape songs and his album songs. See, that album, Get Rich or Die Trying, was made for white suburban kids. Period. He makes songs like 21 Questions and P.I.M.P. to get rich, & he admits it. He saves his real **** for the heads who actually listen to hip hop, that's why if you listen to any of the Green Lantern mixtapes, G-Unit compilations, Kay Slay tapes, etc you hear a completely different artist.

It's Dictionary time!

Main Entry: punk rock
Function: noun
Date: 1971
: rock music marked by extreme and often deliberately offensive expressions of alienation and social discontent

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Main Entry: punk
Function: noun
Date: 1596
1 : archaic : PROSTITUTE
2 : NONSENSE, FOOLISHNESS
3 a : a young inexperienced person : BEGINNER, NOVICE; especially : a young man b : a usually petty gangster, hoodlum, or ruffian c : a youth used as a homosexual partner
4 a : PUNK ROCK b : a punk rock musician c : one who affects punk styles

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Main Entry: punk
Function: adjective
Date: 1896
1 : very poor : INFERIOR <played a punk game>
2 : being in poor health <said that she was feeling punk>
3 a : of or relating to punk rock b : relating to or being a style (as of dress or hair) inspired by punk rock

Kong feels that there is no good reason to bother trying to define punk as a attitude/mindset/lifestyle etc. "Punk" isn't black and white like vegetarianism or celebacy, and it never will be. If you try to define it you will most likely come up with a definition that is only going to be agreed upon by you, and maybe a few of your buddies. Defining punk as a musical genre is as easy as defining any other genre, but as soon as you get into some elitist culture definition you end up with the same problem that Christians have.

What's the problem that Christians have?

Kong has met many Christians who have their own personal view on what it takes to be a Christian. Usually this view entails that they are a "True Christian" and the majority of these other people running around believing that Jesus is their savior aren't really "True Christians" because of "____" (insert some particle of a definition that they made up themselves). "Punks" do this same thing, and Kong used to (but he grew out of it).

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Kong's Reviews:
Stuck On You
Bad Santa

Maybe you should have told that to Malcolm Mclaren shortly after he designed them, or French political theorist Guy Debord when he and Malcolm were hanging out. They succeeded because they were an image. They were punk rock Backstreet Boys.

The Sex Pistols were catchy, John Lydon is hilarious, Malcolm Mclaren was one of the most brilliant managers of all time, and the band really accounts for little else. Hell, Sid could hardly even play the bass.

Yeah, before I had even heard one note of 50's music I knew all about his crime record and his "battle wounds". And that is what is selling the music too. To me the music is always the most important thing and 50 Cent doesn't sound good in my ears, no matter what he has done or where he comes from. There are other rap artists I think are a lot more talented and that sound a lot better too.

This is kind of off topic really. I agree, 50 Cent is probably more real (but more punk?) than most of the other **** played on MTV. Maybe it's just me being annoyed by the fact that he is selling records because of his crime sheet rather than because of what his music sounds like.

Well, Sid... I couldn't care less about that poser. (No offense, just speaking from a musical point of veiw). However, you are right about the other things you stated on why they were great. But you still don't find that quasi-intellectual political garbage in Sex Pistols that a lot of punk bands think is the essence of punk rock music. And I find that very relieving. And also, even if they weren't masters of their instruments, they could play rock'n'roll in a great way and Rotten was a excellent singer/front man. If you listen to old live recordings it sounds great. That is certainly not the case with a lot of punk bands who sound like ****. If you got the talent you don't have to be Jimi Hendrix to make it sound good. But if you don't have any talent it will sound like **** no matter how you turn it. Sex Pistols was loaded with talent.

Dunno if I agree with this--they may have had talent, but their music didn't exactly get better with more time/more experience, which is one of the marks of true talent, it seems to me.

I do agree with much of what Herod said, but will add this. The main reason the Sex Pistols are important as the first(?) successful punk band is because they paved the way for other (better) bands. For that, I thank them. But I don't think they are necessarily musical icons to be venerated.

Please tell me which ones these are--all the live stuff I've heard from the Pistols sounds fairly sh*tty.

[quote=Mary Loquacious]Dunno if I agree with this--they may have had talent, but their music didn't exactly get better with more time/more experience, which is one of the marks of true talent, it seems to me.

Eh... For how long did the band exist? Like a year and a half? They only made one record for god's sake.

Oh, I haven't heard any live bootlegs, only seen live footage, and it rocked.

And for the sake of God, one was enough.

He he.. sure. But how can they improve if they didn't make any more records?? All I meant was that the reason to why they are still considered to be one of the most important bands in the history of rock must mean that they had a considerable amount of talent compared to some of the other flavour of the months that are totally forgotten today. I still hear God Save the Queen and other Sex Pistols tracks when I go out on clubs. No record survives 26 years if those responsible for it were nothing but image.

Kong had a musical theory instructor who had gotten the gig of tabulating the Sex Pistols's songs by ear (Kong guesses for copywrite purposes) because they couldn't read or write music.

Okay, so that wasn't really pertinent, but whatever.