So Sujal and I were watching The Daily Show, a rerun, and it was about the election season midpoint. Basically, it was a clip show. Anyway, they had a clip of Michael Graves a former and temporary member of the punk band The Misfits being interviewed on his views about politics. When I went online after I watched the show — holy crap! I cannot believe the conservative sites I found written by PFR’s. Brendan Kelly was also interviewed on this Daily Show, and he talked about how punk and conservative do not mix. There seems to be quite the punk political battle: There’s this website PunkVoter.com that is a liberal site. I just cannot get over the quantity of this discussion online:
On Johnny Ramone’s conservativeviews
In part it shocks me, but actually, I clearly recall my younger days of being in similar arguments. I guess there has always been a hyper conservative faction to punk, namely skinheads, some straight edge. I recall a band from Canada, The Forgotten Rebels. They used to play in Buffalo a lot when I was in high school. I used to go see them, but the singer was such an ass. And they really did have this hyper conservative slant to their music — in talking about immigration, the line: “Let’s bomb the boats and feed their flesh to the fish.
Hoo-boy. It amazes me, too, that hyper-conservatism is a faction of the punk culture, yet I guess it is mainly about extremism.
September 10th, 2004 at 12:13 am
I had a hockey coach whose favorite phrase was GFD… so PFR was just logical…
September 10th, 2004 at 12:37 am
not sure if this is relevant to the discussion above, but i just came across this in an email about what’s showing at the Angelika Film Center in New York:
END OF THE CENTURY: The Story of the Ramones
“Amazing. A seismic snapshot of the early days of Punk.” - Owen Gleiberman,
Entertainment Weekly
This incredible documentary comes to us thirty years since a little band
from Queens hit New York City’s music scene. The Ramones, a popular quartet
of unlikely rock stars, took the world by storm as they traveled across the
globe, maintaining a rigorous touring schedule for twenty-two years.
Tracing the history of the band, from its unlikely origins, through its
star-crossed career, bitter demise and the sad fates of Joey and Dee Dee,
End of Century is a vibrant, candid document of one of the most influential
groups in the history of rock. (Not Rated; 120 min)
Fri 9/10 - Thur 9/16: 11:05am, 1:35pm, 4:20pm, 7:30pm, 10:15pm
Add’l 12:15am show Fri - Sat
September 10th, 2004 at 1:22 pm
OOOOh — thanks for the info, Payal. I’d love to go see it this weekend, but I have so much going on this weekend. Not only have I just begun one of my most grueling weeks ever at this new school, but I am also reading my poetry (and other pieces) on Sunday at Smith. Since I’ve had no time to prepare for it, I need to spend Saturday picking out what I am going to read…. Yipes.
Continuing with the thread, I obviously think punk culture is facinating — and having heard the Ramones live once (pretty late in their career — it was in 1989, I believe), boy did they suck live! I love their stuff — so long as it has been through an editing session. Now the Sugar Cubes live…. there’s a different story. I was thinking I say them together — but I didn’t. I saw the Ramones on an “Escape From New York” tour with some other CBGB’s folks: Debbie Harry and the Tom Tom club (former Talking Heads, I believe). It may have been 1990. That Sugar Cubes Show was awesome — they played with Depeche Mode and PIL. Johnny Rotten puts on a pretty damn good show. At least, he did in ‘89. I’m feeling old….