Punk in North Korea?

11 05 2012

The public radio program The World on Boston’s WGBH (Charged!) had this very interesting report the other day about Ri Seong-Woong, “North Korea’s most famous punk rock star.” While Ri Seong-Woong, and any form of punk rock in North Korea, does not actually exist, the extent to which the purveyors of this “hoax” went is impressive, as is the music itself.

But could there be some inkling of truth, or potential truth, to the idea of punk in North Korea? Luk Haas, our intrepid explorer of the world’s most hidden corners of punk and rock ‘n’ roll writes, “It is true that in North Korea, in the springtime, on days off young people gather in parks with alcohol and acoustic guitars for picnics. They love singing together, all the North Korean patriotic propaganda hits, and some are quite tuneful, like ‘We Will Meet Again’(about reunification of Korea). But nobody would dare singing anything remotely punk or even rock.”

Still, we have Ri Seong-Woong, as interpreted here by South Korea’s 악어들 (The Alligators)…

Find out more about this “project” here and here.


May 11th, 2012 by Paul


RIP Kindred McCune, aka Stinkweed

26 04 2012

By Dan Lactose

Kindred McCune, aka Stinkweed Malone, has left our planet. Took the warp triple-six Doom Ryde straight through our galaxy. Stinkweed was best known to punx, thrashers, vandals and dank smokers as a founding member of the pioneering Redwood City, CA, political grindcore unit, Plutocracy. He was also a founding member and leader of the long running Redwood City hip hop group Shed Dwellaz. Stinkweed was born in San Francisco and grew up on Army Street. He told me he first witnessed punk rock at the legendary Farm. Bands were playing, punks were thrashing and he was breakdancing. “I won’t conform to the norm so I perform in the orange,” he wrote. Plutocracy took grindcore in directions no one else had attempted, blending Black Panther speeches with blast beats and MC Pooh. It took a certain type of person to “get” it. Kindred and Thomas’ twin guitars had a unique and abstract sound.

At the time, I lived in Redwood City, was in a crappy punk band, made zines and bounght Earache records at Tower. I met Thomas at school, he tells me he plays in a band called Plutocracy, gives me the Progress demo and I’m blown away. I became a huge fan of everything these guys did from that point forward. When Plutocracy broke up, No Le$$ twisted wigs back even further! Electric Jungle Violence slid Sabbath style jams into grind riffs while obscure samples popped in and out. The live shows were drunken and dangerous. Stinkweed started the West Bay Koalition and dubbed himself El Presidente. He was constantly creating. He was in so many bands: Agents of Satan, Go Like This, Kalmex & The Riff Merchants, Bullshit Excuse, Shadow People, Apeshit, United Sicko Foundation, Torture Unit, the list goes on.

Plutocracy

There was a six hour radio show on KZSU called the West Bay Radio Station Hostage Situation in which he was in every band. I was honored to be a part of the Shed Dwellaz with him. I told him I could DJ and he got me a sampler so I could make beats. Together we recorded hundreds of songs on 4-track. I learned so much about how to create music both from him and with him. He taught me to be myself and not worry about what others would think. If you liked what you were doing, then do it. He hated “kritiks.” And COPS. Fuck, he hated cops.

From the way he strung his guitar strings backwards to his shower cap and pajama stage attire, Stinkweed did it his way. He didn’t have a computer or go on message boards or give a shit about what anyone else thought was cool, he was on his own trip. Whether he was writing a riff or a sixteen or texting bandmates to schedule a jam, his mind was constantly on music. The guy was the most original person I’ve ever met in my life. Larger than life, LOUDER than life. If you ever hung out with him, you walked away with a story. Right before his death he was working on new material with Agents of Satan. He was recording raps and talking about starting a new West Bay Doom Ryderz band. He planned to release a compilation next year and was trying to compile all of the tracks for it. He was working with Pelon from Immortal Fate on the release of a 1992 live session of Plutocracy and Immortal fate on KZSU. The world will be a lot different without his demonic harmonics. Launch a hog leg and puff tuff for Mr. Stinkweed.

Donations on behalf of Kindred McCune can be made to: Redwood City Education Foundation, PO Box 3046, Redwood City, CA 94064. RCEF provides music education to all students in Redwood City – grades 2 to 8


April 26th, 2012 by MRR Web Coordinator


Please help out Sarah Kirsch (formerly known as Mike Kirsch)

5 04 2012

Please help a dear friend, Sarah Kirsch, an important figure and driving force in the ’90s Bay Area punk scene and beyond. She continues to be an important part of our community, our culture, our music scene, and many of our lives.

Even if you don’t recognize this name, you probably know Sarah. She has been a huge part of the punk/radical community for decades as Mike Kirsch (Fuel, Sawhorse, Pinhead Gunpowder, John Henry West, Torches To Rome, Bread And Circuits, Please Inform The Captain This Is A Hijack, Baader Brains, Mothercountry Motherfuckers, etc.). She not too long ago came out as a proud trans-woman, and almost immediately was confronted with these terrible health problems.  Money is badly needed.

Details:

Our good friend Sarah Kirsch was diagnosed over summer with Fanconi anemia, a rare genetic disorder that causes leukemia and other cancers. Despite being put through the f’n ringer by chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant and very long hospital stays, Sarah is staying strong and fighting hard, finally out of the hospital and at home with her amazing partner Jess and loving full-time caregivers and friends, Paul and Ilya.



Aside from the unconditional emotional and physical support Sarah has received from her devoted extended family and friends, donations to date have been enormously helpful in lightening the financial burden of this kind of illness. The demand for supplies not covered by insurance is, however, unending and deepening — from food to cleaning supplies to lotion to kleenex to parking at the hospital… and this is to say nothing of larger caregiving expenses.

It is all adding up and multiple life savings have already been depleted. 

If you’re able and would like to contribute in this way, please check out our WePay account below. There is no donation too small, every $ helps.



https://www.wepay.com/donations/sarah

****UPDATE 5/1/12****

From Sarah’s Support Team:

Wow! It’s almost unbelievable how many people have come out of the woodwork to support Sarah. Our heartfelt thanks to MRR for putting the word out more broadly, as well as to each and every one of you who has given to Sarah’s cause. From the largest donations to the smallest, to even those of you who have just been able to send along much needed and appreciated words of support, you truly don’t know how much this means to Sarah, her family and our caregiving team of friends.

We’d also like to extend a huge thank you to Sarah’s parents, who have been supporting us and her in a tremendous way. Parental help is often taken for granted, so we want to make sure everyone knows how invaluable their assistance has been.

Sarah’s situation is gradually improving, but it’s going to remain a difficult road to recovery, and we’re not out of the woods by a long shot (just over half way through the dreaded 100-day home lockdown for starters). She has just started to do things like take a nightly walk outside, and is even spending some time working on record artwork and starting to play a few notes on her synthesizers and guitar.

The best news has been that preliminary blood tests have shown that the transplant has taken 100%, although a more invasive bone marrow biopsy is required to know for certain.

Unfortunately, though, Sarah still has precious little energy (even on good days), and though she wishes she could write or call many of you to express her thanks and talk to you individually at length, the enormity of fully resuming any kind of contact with anyone beyond the people who are here caring for her is still very daunting.

But to everyone who has been showing support in ways large and small, Sarah says (transcribed by us): “Thanks to everyone — old friends and people I don’t even know… It’s inspiring to see how the community can come together to help someone in need. I wish I could contact everyone individually, people that gave financially or not, but being on so many medications makes it really hard to do anything – like even typing an email is so hard. I apologize to people who I haven’t been able to thank and I want them to know that I’m thinking about them and that all their support gives me strength.”

It’s very hard for us to write an update like this and not be able to enthusiastically report that “We’ve reached our goal!” or anywhere near close, but rather TO RENEW OUR APPEAL at the same time as we give thanks. The reality of the situation is that we are still burning through money like it grows on trees.

Despite all the very VERY generous help of friends, family and others, life savings have been depleted or are still dwindling and budgets are being stretched beyond anything we could have imagined.

If you’ve already given what you can (again, THANK YOU!), maybe pass the word to other friends or help organize a fund raiser. Here is the URL to this post, which is an easy link to send around for context: http://maximumrocknroll.com/help-sarah-kirsch/

Benefit shows are already in the works, from the Bay Area to the East Coast to even Amsterdam (last LÄRM gig, May 26th!) and Japan, and multiple people have offered to organize or contribute to auctions of many sorts. So thanks again so much to all of you for taking some initiative or just sending good vibes.

LET’S KEEP ON HELPING SARAH MAKE IT THROUGH THIS!!


April 5th, 2012 by MRR Web Coordinator


Bombs for the Hungry

17 03 2012

This just in from the folks at Food Not Bombs…

20120317-132445.jpg

Dear people of good will, we need your support!

More efforts to ban the sharing of meals with the hungry. Many tens of thousands of Americans are struggling to survive yet we are witnessing a disturbing trend, local governments passing laws restricting the sharing of food. Philadelphia and Houston are the two largest cities to recently propose laws restricting private efforts to help the hungry. Philadelphia announced today that it will attempt to stop people from sharing food with the hungry outside in parks. The city of Houston is considering passing their own law against providing meals to the hungry. While local governments are claiming they are seeking to protect the poor from unsafe food they are not able to point to one case where someone was made ill. Many of those depending on these meals will be forced to eat out of the garbage if the city is able to close these meals. Food Not Bombs provides some of the healthiest meals shared with the hungry. The food is often organic and is always low in salt, sugar and fats.

People are also reporting that local police have stopped them from handing out food to the homeless often claiming that it is illegal suggesting that they could be jailed and fined. I was among 24 people arrested in Orlando, Florida in June 2011 for sharing meals to more than 24 people in violation of that cities large group feeding laws. I was held 17 days on my second arrest. I paid a $1,000 fine for my efforts. Many more people may be arrested and fined for helping the hungry and seeking to find long term solutions to America’s poverty.

We have called for an end to all laws restricting acts of compassion. Our campaign starts on Sunday, April 1, 2012 when volunteers are asked to organize celebrations in support of our right to share food. You are encouraged to organize a celebration and share free food to the hungry in your community on April 1st. Please contact your local media about your event. Endorse the global day of action and email the details of your celebration to menu {at} foodnotbombs(.)net

Thank you so much,
Keith McHenry

FOOD IS A RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE – End all efforts to stop people from feeding the hungry.


March 17th, 2012 by MRR Web Coordinator


Save Fresno’s Bel-Tower!

9 02 2012

We thought we’d pass along this letter from Garth Clifton in Fresno, CA, in hopes that you’ll lend some support and spread the world. Up the punx!

Hello, I am writing this letter to bring to the attention of the worldwide DIY community something that has affected everyone in my hometown’s scene immensely. On Friday February 3rd, 2012, the local venue I volunteer at, The Bel-Tower, in Fresno, California, had one of our largest shows on record: a one-dollar show featuring the best up and coming local bands from all over Central California, called Doll Hair Fest. It was part of a series of shows that was started by two brothers who wanted to bring more people into the local scene and was a huge success that everybody in town was talking about. We produced a video interviewing staff, band members, promoters and show goers as part of a fundraising campaign on IndieGoGo to bring attention to our venue and what we have done for the community. This very same night the Fresno PD showed up with three officers. One was specifically assigned by the Fresno PD to monitor, watch, and make it his life to get the Bel-Tower shut down. After finding no alcohol or illegal activity they resorted to shutting down the show because we do not have any permits or a business license.

The week before, we had been contacted by the Fresno Fire Department about getting inspected to bring our building up to code. The same day we received this news a local musician, promoter and friend was killed in a tragic automobile accident in her hometown of Hanford, just south of Fresno. Her name was Ariel Gieseman and she was only 21 years old. We had scheduled a benefit show for her and now that is in jeopardy as well. She was a huge member of our community and loved the Bel-Tower and like all of us it was a second home to her. This tragedy served to bring everyone in the local scene much closer together.

It seems like it has been one thing after another these past couple of weeks and we have no idea what the future holds. But we have been doing everything we can do to save our home. The venue is on the corner of Belmont Ave and Weber Ave in the southern part of Fresno. This area has been neglected for decades. Around the corner from us is a hotel where child prostitution, drugs, murder and all sorts of illegal and horrific activities have taken place for years and the police have instead turned their attention to a place that has done a positive thing for the community and been a safe place for at-risk youth in our community to go and have a place to express themselves and enjoy the best in local live music. We have hosted touring bands from all corners of the earth and these bands have had nothing but amazing things to say about us and what we do. We are entirely run by members of the local scene and have been in business since October of 2010 without a problem. What started out as a glorified party house that was filled with drugs, alcohol and destruction has grown and changed to become a safe place for everybody to go and watch their favorite bands, touring and local. Since it opened its doors, the Bel Tower has been a catalyst for revitalization of the Belmont area, which politicians have attempted to do with the entire southern part of town for years through attempting to bring in corporate investment and big box stores and other projects which have always been funded by big money and have always failed. Our small hole-in-the-wall punk rock club has done more for this city than millions of dollars that have been wasted on shitty projects that never get off the ground and only serve to line the pockets of the developers who run the city council. The Bel-Tower, along with the two other DIY venues in Fresno, Chinatown Youth Center and CAFE Info Shop have been offering great things for the youth of the southern half of Fresno which has been neglected, mistreated, and in general tormented by the police, city government and big business. We are helping to bring back a forgotten part of our city and you can see it in the streets, you can hear it in the voices of the owners of the surrounding local business owners. The entire town was against us, ask somebody on the street about the Bel-Tower and the response is usually “oh you cant drink there why would anybody want to play there?” or “yeah I’ve heard of that place, its a hole in the wall in a seedy part of town.” Yet nobody who actually goes there ever has a complaint. When they actually see what we are doing here they can see it in the spirits of everybody involved that this is truly a special place. There is a distinct “Bel Tower culture” that permeates every aspect of everybody who spends their time there. There is truly a distinct “Bel Tower sound” that comes through in all of the bands that call this place their home. We love our venue with all our hearts and it is the only place that keeps most of us sober, off the streets or just plain keeps us sane. For me personally it is literally one of the only things keeping me alive and has turned my life around in ways I cannot explain.

We are in danger of losing this place forever and lack the funds and support to become compliant with the city on our own. We have cancelled or moved all of our upcoming shows until further notice and are holding benefit shows at the other DIY venues in Fresno which have shown us considerable support. We have been circulating an online petition for everybody to sign and within one day we got over 350 signatures. Pretty impressive for a venue that holds maximum of 150 people. The petition can be found at: http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/savebeltowerfresno I am urging all MRR readers to go sign it for us, and if anybody has anything they can do to help us, be it sending us new zines for our zine library, cash donations, legal advice, connections to anybody who could help us, or just in general kind words of moral support and encouragement it would be greatly appreciated. The video we have produced can be seen above. We urge everyone who has access to the internet to please share this with everybody you know. We feel like it is truly us against the world. We are in a forgotten part of town in a forgotten region of California that has suffered greater from the economic downturn than any other region in the United States. The Bel Tower is truly all some of us have to call our own. We are reaching out to anybody who can hear our voice.

We at the Bel-Tower say “Bury me on Belmont & Weber,” and we mean that. If this place dies, we die with it. We are fighting this until the last man. Even if they take us out in handcuffs we will return. We just need as much help as we can get and personally, I would like to show to the people of Fresno, who culturally are predisposed to defeatism and being easily discouraged, that we are loved and respected by the DIY punk community worldwide.


February 9th, 2012 by MRR Web Coordinator


R.I.P. Brendon Annesely of Negative Guest List zine

3 02 2012

It’s with great sadness that I relay that Brendon Annesely, friend to many of us, and the prolific and twisted voice behind Negative Guest List zine and records, and the band Meat Thump left this plane yesterday. I started typing “left us” but, there could be nothing further from the truth. He was only twenty-two years old, but the mark he has left on our underground DIY culture and on those of us he shared his life with is immense.
They broke the fuckin’ mould.
—Kevin Failure


February 3rd, 2012 by Mariam


One year since the KUSF 90.3fm radio shutdown

18 01 2012

KUSF logo by Gary LaRochelle

January 18, 2012 is one year since the shutdown of San Francisco’s college & community radio station KUSF. At 10 am that morning KUSF’s program director, representatives from the University of San Francisco and armed campus police interrupted DJ Schmeejay while on the air, asked him to leave the studio and turned off the transmitter. It is a horrible silence.

The final five minutes of KUSF

Without knowing what transpired at KUSF, I showed up to do my show at 11:15am (show starts at noon). As I am locking up my bicycle, I am met by fellow DJ and USF student Michelle who can’t even get the words out. USF has sold the station and everyone is getting kicked out. She is followed by Janet and Tresa of the show Love Letters Live who confirm it. Campus police gather in the foyer of USF’s Phelan Hall and I will never enter the station again.

Over the next days, more than a few people would point out to me that no one listens to radio these days. Who  cares? Fortunately these naysayers are a minority. I am reminded of when I was just getting in to punk in 1979, the older kids would tell me that no one listens to that shit any more, punk is dead and all that. I just blew them off because I liked what I was hearing and whether it was dead or not would be determined by me. A similar thing happened in the late ’80s when CDs started to take over. I still buy vinyl to this day. Why should my attitude toward radio’s importance or lack of it be any different? Plus the fact that a corporation would pay $3.75 million dollars for a low-power college radio station makes the situation a bit more intriguing.

As the details of the deal emerge it becomes clearer that a very shady exchange is going on. Media conglomerate Entercom is at the center. As the owner’s of KDFC San Francisco’s classical radio station, they sell that station to a University of Southern California non-profit Classical Public Radio Network. Entercom begins to simulcast KUFX a San Jose classic rock station in San Francisco at KDFC’s 102.1fm. KDFC begins broadcasting on KUSF’s 90.3fm. However KDFC’s programming continues to originate from Entercom’s studios. KUSF’s eclectic programming is silenced. The very thin line between public and corporate interests becomes almost invisible.

90.3 belongs to San Francisco

The former DJs and radio producers under the group Friends of KUSF have petitioned the FCC to deny the sale of 90.3fm. The FCC has begun some unprecedented inquiries into the deal. A year later the sale of KUSF still has not been approved by the FCC. As a comparison it took the FCC almost two years to approve the sale of NBC Universal to Comcast which strangely was approved the day after KUSF was shut down. More importantly USF still has not set up the on-line radio station they promised would be replacing terrestrial KUSF. While waiting for the FCC’s decision, the outed volunteers with the help of New Jersey radio station WFMU have set up KUSF In Exile to continue broadcasting the station’s unique music and cultural programs which include shows in twelve different languages.

To mark the anniversary there is a KUSF Protest at Entercom, 201 3rd St at Howard in SF on Wednesday, January 18 at 10am – the hour the station was shut down.


January 18th, 2012 by Carolyn


Video of the Week: Trailer for The Outhouse The Film 1985–1997

3 01 2012

When I was about to move to Kansas in the late ’90s everyone would ask me, “Are you moving to Lawrence? You can go to shows at the Outhouse!” Sadly, I was not moving to Lawrence, but to Wichita. And even more sadly, by the time I got there the Outhouse had closed down… I heard mixed reviews on whether or not I had missed much. Some said the venue had declined a lot in its final years, and some said I had missed the greatest place to ever see a punk show. Now, finally, I — and the world — will get a chance to see what the Outhouse was really like in the upcoming documentary The Outhouse The Film 1985–1997. The trailer is self explanatory so go ahead and click “play” already…

This film is a work in progress, and if you want to see this project come to fruition there are a few things you can do to help. Donate money at their Kickstarter page and get some killer swag. If you happen to live in California and have your own Outhouse stories and experiences to share, filmmaker Brad Norman will be conducting interviews in L.A. Jan. 17th-21st and in S.F./Oakland Jan. 22nd-25th. You can contact him through the Outhouse The Film website. (The website itself is worthy of being our Website of the Week with its amazing — and growing — flyer and photo collection from throughout the Outhouse’s lifespan.) And of course, like anyone with their shit together these days they’ve got a Facebook page and a YouTube channel… We can’t wait to see the finished product!

Outhouse crowd (photo by Noah Fleischman)

.


January 3rd, 2012 by Paul


64 Indonesian Punks Detained and “Re-educated”

14 12 2011

MRR.com is currently working on getting a report from closer to the scene. In the meantime, please sign this petition to have the punx released, and read the story from Australia’s ABC News here:

Indonesian sharia police are “morally rehabilitating” more than 60 young punk rock fans in Aceh province on Sumatra island, saying the youths are tarnishing the province’s image.

Punks arrested, shaven, "washed" and given a lecture by the pigs. They are still being detained. (Photograph: Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP/Getty Images)

Since being arrested at a punk rock concert in the provincial capital Banda Aceh on Saturday night, 59 male and five female punk rock fans have been forced to have their hair cut, bathe in a lake, change clothes and pray.

“We feared that the Islamic sharia law implemented in this province will be tainted by their activities,” Banda Aceh deputy mayor Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal, who ordered the arrests, said.

“We hope that by sending them to rehabilitation they will eventually repent.”

Hundreds of Indonesian punk fans came from around the country to attend the concert, organised to raise money for orphans.

Police stormed the venue and arrested fans sporting mohawks, tattoos, tight jeans and chains, who were on Tuesday taken to a nearby town to undergo a 10-day moral rehabilitation camp run by police.

A girl cried as women in headscarves cut her long unruly hair into a short bob, and some of the men groaned as their heads were shaved.

“Why did they arrest us? They haven’t given us any reason,” said Fauzal, 20.

“We didn’t steal anything, we weren’t bothering anyone. It’s our right to go to a concert.”

A 22-year-old man from Medan city who did not want to be named said he feared he would lose his job for staying at the camp for 10 days.

“I’ve just started with a bank in Medan. I don’t even know what to tell them because I don’t know why I’ve been arrested.”

Police said the objective was to deter the youths from “deviant” behaviour.

“They never showered, they lived on the street, never performed religious prayers,” said Aceh police chief Iskandar Hasan.

“We need to fix them so they will behave properly and morally. They need harsh treatment to change their mental behaviour.”

A local rights activist, Evi Narti Zain, said the arrests breached human rights.

“What the police have done is totally bizarre. Being a punk is just a lifestyle. They exist all over the world and they don’t break any rules or harm other people,” she said.

Mr Hasan denied the accusation, claiming the rehabilitation program was merely an “orientation into normal Indonesian society”.

Aceh, on the northern-most tip of Sumatra island, adopted partial sharia law in 2001 as part of a special autonomy package aimed at quelling separatist sentiment.

Only Muslims can be charged under sharia law, although the non-Muslim community is expected to follow some laws out of respect.

Nearly 90 per cent of Indonesia’s 240 million people are Muslims, but the vast majority practise a moderate form of Islam.


December 14th, 2011 by Paul


Occupy the ports!

11 12 2011

“There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.”
~ Mario Savio, 1964

As Occupy encampments across the country fall to the aggressive tactics of our militarized police forces, a coordinated effort is underway to disrupt the economic machine that benefits the wealthiest individuals and corporations at the expense of the vast majority of the people of this planet. The ports of the West Coast are a huge source of profits for these modern day robber barons, who have closed our factories and outsourced our jobs, who poison our oceans and rivers, who exploit our brothers and sisters in their insatiable quest for profit.

In solidarity with the Longshore Workers and truck drivers and their struggles against companies like Goldman Sachs and EGT, we call on the people of the 99% to join us in this historic day of action. From San Diego to Los Angeles to Portland to Anchorage, we will show the economic overlords and financial vultures the true scope of our combined power. Together we are unstoppable.

www.occupytheports.com


December 11th, 2011 by MRR Web Coordinator