A bit of a rip from the movie, but since I've been into punk rock a bunch lately, I thought I'd post some thoughts and some links to a few rare but incredible punk tunes by SLC groups. While judging the rock category for the Utah Arts Festival, I noticed that many groups sounded accomplished, reasonably listenable, and occasionally notable; however, nothing really impressed me. "So what" was my continuing comment for all the groups. Something was just missing. Then I heard an entry from group of teenagers singing something about "forgot to take my medication", and suddenly I knew I had found the group that cut through all the bullshit and put something on the rock and roll table.
They basically played punk rock. They weren't particularly accomplished, but their songs were intense and related directly to their experience. The essence of rock and roll. All the way back to rockabilly... simple, direct, hard, fast, forget any complicated crap. Drill to the heart of the matter. That's why I was attracted to the punk groups of the 70's (and I was one of the first to play punk on the radio during my KUER-FM days as god's gift to radio). Once I'd made the connection between rockabilly, garage, and punk, things made sense. Rock loses it's significance once it strays from the simple and basic. If you can't say what you feel with just two chords and few words, there's nothing to say. And it can't be pleasant... Teenage angst. That's the essence of rock and roll.
Punk endures, I think because it always connects to basic emotions (and certainly doesn't require all the talent in the world). Just scream it out... people will get it.
Back in the late nineties, I was connected to a couple local punk groups. The first, the Classic Assholes, didn't play that much, never got a CD out, but I do have the master tapes from their studio effort. Planned for the CD was a cleaned up live cut... perhaps one of the top ten punk tunes ever done... Big Truck.
The Classic Assholes evolved into a more politically anarchistic group: Nu Speak. Again, no CD but the studio master tapes exist. Here's an example: Anti-DisChaos Youth.
Back in the late 70's, the Atheists played during the American Atheists convention in town. I've posted previously on this group. Their performance that night finished with their theme song: There is No God, There's Only Noise.
Some day maybe the full recorded repertoire of these bands will become available. Stay tuned. In the meantime, punk lives!
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3 comments:
Hey. Have these tapes you've got of The Atheists and Nu Speak, etc. ever been released? What would you need to make this happen? Would you like any help in releasing these?
The problem is getting permission from the musicians. I'd love to put this stuff on Bandcamp, and maybe I will someday just to get it done, but I'd like support from the group members first.
That makes sense. Thanks for the response. I hope you get it figured out. It'd be cool to see.
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