This is one of those rare things that is simultaneously cute as hell and punk as fuck. Not much needs to be said about it, as not much is said in it. Just watch and enjoy… And it’s okay to giggle and clap your hands like I did while watching it…
The “star” of this video, Victor, does a blog at estante18.blogspot.com, and there’s another cool zine-related video on there.
TVM Numero Trois. Does this count as part of the fest? Are you bothered? Okay, technically a pre-fest gig, this late night exposé at Chain Drive marked our initiation into that inimitable live hardpunk music gigger experience native to Austin, quite outside of the whole Fest deal.
We learnt that in the case of WOMEN IN PRISON, this can often involve large amounts of beer, spit, and glitter. Formerly of a hundred other bands, these gallant stallions of the Texan undergrowth proved conclusively that this is no locals only outing, and their record out right now on Hozac echoes this point. Driving, writhing rage-a-thon hardcore tunes good for fightin’ round the world to. Vaaska and The Altars also played. Sweet.
Women in Prison, Live at Chain Drive, (1st June 2011)
The DVD of the documentary From the Back of the Room has just been released and it looks amazing. Check out the trailer below and this interview with the filmmaker, which appeared in MRR #308 • Jan ’09 (available on our Back Issues page)
Amy Oden (a.k.a KC, a.k.a kc/dc) is, among many other things, a filmmaker from Washington, DC. In 2004, she produced the documentary After the Salad Days, which took a look at the state of hardcore in DC and Maryland at the time, and spent two years traveling the US and a bit of Canada interviewing women about their experiences in punk culture for her new documentary From the Back of the Room. By day, she works as a producer and editor for MHz Networks, a non-profit TV station based in Northern Virginia, and she also had a few things to say about her thoughts on the future of media.
—Intro and interview by Dan Goetz
MRR: First, talk a bit about yourself and your background in punk and film, and perhaps when the two started intermingling.
KC: I started going to shows my sophomore year of high school. At first I was going to more indie shows, and then started gradually getting into more subgenres of punk and figuring out where my musical taste fit in the grand scheme of things. Simultaneously, I was blessed with the fact that my high school offered some media literacy classes, which I think in hindsight are really important and should be required in general for high school students, because it was really beneficial in allowing me to see the way that popular culture exploits people. I was learning these things at school and at the same time getting into these subversive styles of music, so that’s around the time my consciousness really started to expand as far as far as wanting to live outside of the dominant culture. I started getting really interested in video production around that time and since then have become more immersed in both things. It’s sort of like these weird two halves of my identity and they’ve developed independently as well as intermingling with one another. Today, I have the fortunate ability to work in a non-profit media outlet, so I don’t feel like a total corporate whore, and have gained a real level of comfort and understanding as far as DIY culture and my participation in it and my hopes for the direction that it goes in.
MRR: How has your feminism interacted with all of this? I know that one of your interests in particular in regards to feminism is Media Studies
KC: Yeah, for sure. That also goes back to when I was a sophomore in high school. One of the first books I really started getting into was We the Media, which is an anthology of different articles by really progressive media critics, and one of the articles was by a woman named Jean Kilbourne, and she writes a lot about young women being affected by the media, specifically in terms of alcohol and tobacco advertising. The things that she was writing and the images that she was talking about really opened my eyes to lots and lots of different things and that’s when I started thinking about women’s oppression as a general thing. She also made a film called Killing Us Softly, which is this intense montage of how detrimental advertisements are, which for me was pretty profound. But at any rate, these things started in my life at the same point, and through reading lots of stuff, talking to lots of people, and going to school, my sense of feminism developed, as did my sense of what I could do in the larger context of historical feminist thought and my understanding of how things are going in the feminist movement. It’s like these things—feminism, media studies, and DIY—have always been tied together for me because of my interests.
MRR: Can you connect that point in your life to how After the Salad Days came to be? Was that your first big role in taking on production work in a film? Read the rest of this entry »
In the spirit of summertime, here’s a little fodder for creative inspiration. Glen E Friedman, celebrated skate/punk/hip hop photographer, lays down the ill science in this 1998 documentary. Sure, he gets a little bit cynical, thinking that all the great rebellions in music and culture are over with, but he still has a lot of right-on shit to say, and there’s no doubting that the images and music are dope. It’s totally worth 20 minutes of your time…
What have our old buddies Daigo Oliva and Mateus Mondini of Fodido e Xerocado zine from Brazil been up to lately, you ask? A lot! In addition to continuing to take exciting photos of punx and punk bands, they’ve been doing a bit o’ street art (wheat-pasting big photos on walls), one of them (Mateus) opened a record store, and now they’re making a video zine… Goddamn, dudes, slow down!
You can watch more of their videos here, and contact them at fodidoexerocado {at} gmail(.)com
If you’re not from the Bay Area you may or may not remember Marian Anderson. She was the super outrageous and controversial singer of THE INSAINTS in the ’90s. She almost got Gilman shut down for sticking a banana in her vajayjay and other sordid sexual acts when the douchebag ex-drummer of the DKs called the man. She also had a torrid relationship with Tim Yo, who she loved dearly till the end. I just know her as one of my few bestest friends and I loved her dearly. One ex-girlfriend even used to refer to her as my mom. I was in a band with her and lived with her when I moved to Hollywood, taking me in when I had no place to go. Anyway, the movie is fantastic. Along with fellow Marian pal Nick, we drove all night to make the film’s premier at Sundance, resulting in us getting pulled over and detained for two hours while drug sniffin’ dogs were sicked on our ripped apart rental car. She would have loved it. Fuck the pigs! Great and heartfelt interviews with Tim Yo(!), Lint, Daniel from the Insaints, the dude from the Offspring, and love of her life Danielle Bernal, along with all of her friends. Narrated by Henry Rollins!?! I cried my guts out and so will you. A woman who rose from sexual and physical abuse, who wasn’t bitter but loving and protective as hell to those lucky enough to call her their friend. Don’t miss it.
Last Fast Ride plays Saturday June 25th at the Victoria Theater in SF as part of the Frameline Film Festival.
Here’s a befittingly weird-quality video of NYC’s CRAZY SPIRIT at this year’s Chaos in Tejas. Yeah, I know, there’s a million videos available from the fest — why this one? Well, I’ll tell you: 1) You already watched the ones of Youth Of Today, 2) You were too wasted when you were at this show to remember it, and 3) As a caution to others — don’t be like me, kicking yourself for missing them on their current tour with Japan’s SLOWMOTIONS. See them in NorCal and the Northwest this week!
Watch this while you can, folks, cuz a certain guitarist is well-known for putting the kibosh on any Black Flaggery that isn’t making him any money. This is by Dave Markey, who made the legendary (and essential!) Desperate Teenage Lovedolls, and The Slog Movie, which is also worth checking out… once… Here’s his own description of this video:
A road documentary shot from the inside of the last Black Flag tour ever (the 1986 “In My Head” US tour.) Greg Ginn along with Henry Rollins, Cel Revulta, and Anthony Martinez comprise the final line up of the band. Featuring behind the scenes proceedings and live performances from Black Flag, Painted Willie, and Gone (Ginn’s side project, then featuring Sim Cain and Andrew Weiss (later of the Rollins Band) . Filmmaker / musician David Markey was along for the entire trip as the drummer / singer for Painted Willie (with Phil Newman & Vic Makauskas), documenting the six month tour as it happened. Also features roadie Joe (“Planet Joe”) Cole, soundmen Davo Claasen and Dave “Ratman” Levine, and the tour manager who kept it all together, Mitch Bury. A crucial turning point in American underground rock. The end of the line for a trail blazing American band.
Berkeley, CA’s STREET EATERS are probably in their studio practicing or painting/drawing/cutting and pasting art together for a new record as you read this. (Their first full length is being mastered right now!) We, however, are on our computers reading this. Check out this video for a little ditty entitled “Frigid Digits”! It’s from a split with Chico, CA’s Severance Package that was put out by Dead Broke/Dirt Cult/Lost Cat Records/1,000 Million Billion labels. After digesting said audio/visual stimuli, let’s all take a cue from Street Eaters and go create something!
There are some people in our little microcosm of punk rock who manage to transcend genres. They are people who in any other world would be shuffling on everyone’s iTunes, playing on car ads. The likes of Mark Ryan (Marked Men, Mind Spiders), or Jay Reatard — people with an ear for a song, who can’t help but create and always walk a few steps ahead of the rest of us. I would put SOMETHING FIERCE’s Steven Garcia in the same boat. The guy knows how to write a song. His band’s first record was a slap around the chops with buzzsaw guitars, hooks and melodies.
The band’s new LP, Don’t Be So Cruel, moves into totally new waters. More reflective, kinda like a more punk Elvis Costello. Straight away you realize that the commonality between the two is the genius songwriting. Each song stands alone, yet works as part of a whole — the guy knows how to write a cathy song, but also how to make an album. I don’t want to take anything away from bass player Nikki or drummer Andrew because it is they that keep the band locked in. They came from Houston and played a dreary Tuesday night in town and gave it 100%. This a real band, you know? The kind that just wants to play. Hell, has to play. They rehearse, they get it right, and then, no matter who is in the crowd, five people, 500 people, they win them over. They still have a bunch more dates on the tour, so go see them… and if you can’t you can’t do that, pick up the LPs. It ain’t the last you’ve heard of these cats…
4/14 – Redding, CA – Bombay’s
4/15 – Portland, OR – The Saratoga
4/16 – Seattle, WA – Funhouse
4/17 – Vancouver, BC, Canada – Malone’s Bar & Grill
4/18 – Boise, ID – Liquid Lounge
4/20 – Albuquerque, NM – Blackbird Duvette
4/21 – Denton, TX – TBA
4/22 – College Station, TX – Revolution Cafe
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