|
This response will be a bit all over the place, but then again we're talking about punk rock which has never really defined anything all that specific despite what many will say. Just throwing thoughts at random out there so read with that in mind. Totally typing this out as thoughts spring to mind on the issue:
Difficult, considering all the waves + directions punk has taken since it's origins. If we're talking that first wave (mid to late 70's), then I'm going with US. Straight ahead fun/sometimes silly/next to always trashy rock n roll vs. the (typically....) more fashion oriented (usually) psuedo-political vibes going on across the ocean. Sure US punks were fashionable, too...but feels to me as if the music has aged a little better as I've aged, which I'm sure says something about the music itself. I'll listen to the Voidoids/Ramones/Dead Boys/Heartbreakers/etc any day over the Pistols/Clash/Damned.....that said, I absolutely love Slits, Crass (more as an artsy weirdo thing than a political voice).
Opinions change as we age, and reevaluating some of that material is interesting. I enjoy the Pistols from a distance, books and photos more than the actual music which just sounds a little tooooo adolescent for where I'm at at this stage of my life (as do the vast majority of their peers). Sometimes images on a postcard are more fun than the actual music.
I'd rather hear songs about trannies and prostitutes and drugs and girls and fun than songs about what's wrong with the system or how I should live my life. More than either, songs consisting of lyrical nonsense. I'd rather the music speak more than the actual words.
Fuck the Exploited and all that "UK '82" shit. Boring. If punk means (better yet..."meant") anything ever to me it was a freedom/no-rules-do-it-yr-own-way concept. In the same way, the vast majority of early to mid 80's US (and I'm sorry, "hardcore" to me will always be as American as baseball or whatever) hardcore does little to nothing for me even if I like a few of the bands that lead up to that movement (Black Flag, Bad Brains) and a few others that happened loosely as a result (No Trend, Flipper, Stick Men w/ Ray Guns, early Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid, Big Black, Meat Puppets). Fuck Minor Threat. Ian Mackaye was and still (mostly...) is a total self righteous bore. Again, I don't dig preachiness or songs written around lyrics. Youth Brigade, boring. I'm might be an asshole but it damned sure isn't because I drink or smoke cigarettes.
Post-punk:
Joy Division were and still are awesome. I've dug them since I was probably 16 + their music sounds better to me than it did back then. The Fall are hella cool. Smiths are total shit. The Cure usually sucks, too.
Sonic Youth are still my absolute most favorite band of all time (imagine that! But yeah, I still think the Stooges kick total fucking ass and come in at a close second). Nirvana are still cool to me.
But really, fuck punk rock. Fuck labels. Put on some khakis and a v-neck sweater and read books and boggle the minds of those often leather clad idiots when they discover you know more about their own "labels" than they do. that's punk rock to me. Miles Davis is punk rock to me. Pere Ubu is punk rock as fuck to me, Stooges, Dolls, Iggy (come on, fucker used to roll around is glass now he rolls around in cash, pretty punk if ya ask me), Coltrane, Sun Ra, Prurient, Merzbow....none of which claim punk rock but are considerably more punk rock than those that think the label really serves any purpose in 2011.
Who cares.
US punk....this entire nonsensical response just to say that. yeah.
__________________
Team Thurston!
|