Hard News: Friday Music: More Finding
87 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 3 4 Newer→ Last
-
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
The long goodbye...
...he moved to Brighton UK after Quays and hasn't been heard of since...
Thanks for that Simon, great gumshoeing...
-
Simon Grigg, in reply to
The gift Punk Rock gave the world was that it killed Disco
Wot Russell said, plus punk didn't kill disco.
What killed disco was overkill, countless bandwagon jumpers coupled with a good old fashioned wave of racism in the United States where punk wasn't even a glimmer in the mainstream.
Effectively Saturday Night Fever and Grease killed disco and handed the US radio market back to the pomp rockers.
Punk, on the other hand, absorbed much of it and became post-punk, no-wave etc. And then of course disco (the real stuff, not the Andy Gibb/Barbra Streisand variety) gave us hip hop, house and techno.... and the future.
-
DexterX, in reply to
Dear Simon and Dearest Russell,
Ahem –if the Johnny Rotten,Sex Pistols brand is marketed as Punk being rebellion against bloated rockers (at a time in his life whilst he stays up for several days listening to Foreigner taking speed) and it gets bought as such then that is cool for people who buy it. Punk is much more than that.
Speaking for myself, in relation to my life in NZ, Punk’s gift to me and my immediate peer group was the timely death of Disco.
Example - In the Mid 1970s we went to a dance in Palmerston North and all these people (kids) got up in lines and did the Hustle or whatever the Saturday Night Fever bollocks was. We had to go outside it was disturbing to others and me. Lines of people all doing the same moves. My thoughts then, there and now - brain-dead mass conformity, hadn't the mind control machines of the fascists been defeated in WWII?
Living in Auckland - before the advent of Punk - disco was everywhere you went and there were no or scant live venues. The renascence of live music in my viewfinder through what I saw at local halls, pubs and small gritty inner city cafes was bought about by the advent of Punk Rock and the flourishing of local bands.
People in their reminisce of “Punk” get misty eyed looking at it through a Clash, Sex Pistols eyeglass – it was much wider than just them – examples of the music that turned me on Talking Heads, The Only Ones, The Members, The Undertones, Devo, Graham Parker and the Rumour, The Ruts. Muddy Waters, The Stones, The Clash – great songs, great bands, great live acts and great players - a lot of "The" going down.
In Pop Music History punk advent was a brief flourish – a door that opened and all these people ran through it - and then all those 1980s Synth pop dominated haircut bands evolved and life was made hard for guitar bands once more. It was however more than that to me.
In the British Punk Doco I like how Mick Jones makes a point of saying he speaks of what it “it” was for “him” and what "he" was watning to do and not anyone else. His point is my point.
To all those people hanging out in the upper circle of the Mandalay Ballroom wanting to be down the front doing the hustle - stiff shit ya know:.
-
Kumara Republic, in reply to
What killed disco was overkill, countless bandwagon jumpers coupled with a good old fashioned wave of racism in the United States where punk wasn’t even a glimmer in the mainstream.
Namely this...
Also agree on 70s music collapsing under its own weight.
-
Hebe,
Speaking for myself only, punk was about saying up yours to old people and finding it ridiculously easy to annoy my parents ( a miniskirt, platic sandals and a pair of pink socks sent the old man incandescent). then you could go to the Gladstone (underage naturally) and watch Toy Love bellow in the corner. It was fun.
-
Simon Grigg, in reply to
In the British Punk Doco I like how Mick Jones makes a point of saying he speaks of what it “it” was for “him” and what "he" was watning to do and not anyone else. His point is my point.
If any band embraced disco it was The Clash. Same with Talking Heads...
The renascence of live music in my viewfinder through what I saw at local halls, pubs and small gritty inner city cafes was bought about by the advent of Punk Rock and the flourishing of local bands.
Dunno - I wasn't there.... :)
Mostly I think you're confusing the aftermath of the embrace by the mainstream of the commercialisation of the black/gay dance movement that is more correctly called disco with its original form as above.
The movement was in its own way as fiercely radical as anything punk through at us in its pre-77, pre-Sat Night Fever phase. And the influence of the original disco pioneers is still as strong today as it was when they were inventing the future in the mid 70s.
We had to go outside it was disturbing to others and me. Lines of people all doing the same moves. My thoughts then, there and now - brain-dead mass conformity
TBH that sounds like the Auckland punk scene after about late 1978.
-
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
That indefinable something...
Talking Heads, The Only Ones, The Members, The Undertones, Devo, Graham Parker and the Rumour...
Hang on, weren't they all 'New Wave'? That was the bin I always found them in at the record stores...
: - ) -
yeech: through at us ==> threw at us
-
test
-
Hebe, in reply to
Hang on, weren't they all 'New Wave'?
An insult like that would get you in trouble in 1978.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
Hang on, weren’t they all ‘New Wave’?
An insult like that would get you in trouble in 1978.
Kinda true for some, though. Graham Parker was an old pub rocker and the Only Ones weren't really punk. No one in a punk band could play that lead break.
-
Simon Grigg, in reply to
No one in a punk band could play that lead break.
No one in a British punk band could.....
-
And:
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
I'm watching it on my iPad!
-
well that worked then didn't it :)
-
Modeselektor, from Vimeo:
-
That was so weird I can't tell how well the player works. Let's try a Holy Ghost! clip:
-
Oh good.
-
Sacha, in reply to
damn fine
-
Kumara Republic, in reply to
Looks like the sequence is out of order...
-
DexterX, in reply to
If any band embraced disco it was The Clash. Same with Talking Heads...
The clash and talking heads embracing the disco age is just heresy and just plain wrong to say so IMHO.
What The Clash and Talking Heads and lots of others sourced, was more funk, latin, reggae and manifestly more rhythmically complex and much wider in scope sonically than just the straight four on the floor, quavering high hat with prominent (octive) bass lines - of disco.
To others - I mention those bands as BANDS that I got a buzz out of - it is interesting that Talking Heads first gig, as a fast heavy outfit, was opening for the Ramones in 1975 - The Only Ones are associated with the Punk Period.
But this talk is mostly guys focused on Cock Rock - so take this:
without further debate the gift of ISIS. -
Simon Grigg, in reply to
The clash and talking heads embracing the disco age is just heresy and just plain wrong to say so IMHO.
The bassline from Radio Clash was pure disco with a direct line back to the great Philly bassists like Ronnie Baker.
Train In Vain was about as Disco as a 7" could get, and then we have Sandinista, almost a disco album in its spawl, full of tracks like The Magnificent Seven and The Call Up both in a classic indie disco stylee.
Once In A Lifetime was a massive New York club record in the discos, as were the Tom Tom Club releases - all those were made for and targeted at a disco crowd. And they worked because the people that made them listened to, understood and liked the music.
funk, latin, reggae and manifestly more rhythmically complex and much wider in scope sonically than just the straight four on the floor, quavering high hat with prominent (octive) bass lines.
You've just successfully defined disco. Thank you. How does The O'Jays For The Love Of Money fit your description? And yet that's a foundation disco recording.
The stuff coming out on labels like Prelude, West End, Philadelphia International, TK, Atlantic and Salsoul blended all those genres - that's what it was. It was funk filtered through Latin and gay New York/Philly to which dub reggae production techniques were added.
You seem to have narrowly defined 'disco' by what Top 40 radio played. That wasn't ever it.
-
is theaudience punk or disco?
-
Sacha, in reply to
talking heads embracing the disco age
what kind of clubs do you think they were hanging out in?
-
At this point, my favourite ever music documentary seems highly relevant.
Once Upon A Time In New York: The Birth Of Hip Hop, Disco & Punk
Post your response…
This topic is closed.