Best Band Ever?: Public Image Limited

After the Sex Pistols, there was Public Image Limited. And perhaps I commit Punk heresy here, but while the Sex Pistols were incredible, PIL was even better. Possibly not as influential, but better. Though in true "it's better to burn out than fade away" fashion, PIL did survive long enough to become less urgent and relevant in later years. Never bad, mind you, merely not as amazing a band as they once had been.


PIL was founded by John Lydon (Rotten), ex-Clash guitarist Keith Levene, and bassist Jah Wobble (that lineup is shown above). Within two years PIL started undergoing lineup changes that would continue throughout its existence -- with Lydon being the only constant over the years. While that makes PIL Lydon's band, the sound formed during those first two years laid the groundwork for the original PIL sound that held sway from 1978 to 1986 (when "Album" was released). The first two albums, "First Issue" and "Metal Box" (later rerelased on CD as Second Edition) are uncontested postpunk classics, whose sound (along with Joy Division, another band that will show up in this series) became the metric by which all other postpunk would be measured.


The often reviled "This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get" is for me, however, quite possibly my favorite PIL album. It is the first one I heard in its entirety (I'd heard "Public Image" and "Low Life" at friends' parties, and sought out a recording by the band, which I'd been informed was called PIL), when I was 11 years old, and it made a lasting impression on me with its minimalist, rhythm-driven sound. I played my first cassette copy of this album so much that the tape broke. This album, along with the nearly as excellent "Flowers of Romance", featured Martin Atkins (later of Killing Joke, Ministry, and Pigface) on drums.

"Album" is another favorite of mine, and I played it as constantly as "This Is What You Want..." when it was released. A near total change in sound, "Album" is a sonically dense, anthemic rock album layered atop the traditional PIL foundation of strong rhythms. This Bill Laswell produced album features several luminary players: Steve Vai on guitar, Tony Williams and Ginger Baker on drums, and Ryuichi Sakamoto on keyboards. But despite the sonic density and "noodly" guitar work by Vai, this is clearly still a PIL album, with the last vestiges of the original postpunk sound still poking through here and there (particularly on "Ease"). That all-star lineup lasted one album.

PIL's first five albums are utterly essential (even if Allmusic does give both "This Is What You Want..." and "Album" 2 stars -- B.S. I say, those are both five star albums). Later albums, during the Lu Edmunds (Damned) and John McGeoch (Siouxsie, Magazine) era, "Happy?", "9", and "That What Is Not", are not so essential. These albums are all good, to be sure, but by this time PIL had become so pop / R&B / new wave influenced that not much of the original postpunk sound remained. They lost essentially all of their original fans, and an increasing number of their recent converts, and the hitmaking trailed off. The sense of urgency and relevance faded, and so did PIL. Never officially breaking up, PIL has announced that they will reform in 2009 to play a series of winter shows. Hopefully this will lead to a reunion in the studio, because even at their worst PIL was always among the most interesting bands around.

Best Band Ever?: Front 242

I love too many bands to have a single favorite, but if I had to go through the process of picking a favorite, Front 242 would definitely make the shortlist. They are incredibly underappreciated considering the immense impact they had on subsequent generations of electronic music. For me, their digital artwork is also emblematic of an era, one which really resonates with me emotionally and aesthetically. They're another band that I became immediately and permanently obsessed with when I first heard them, back in my early teens.

"Front By Front" is one of the perfect 80s albums -- essentially flawless, and emblematic of its era. Every song is haunting yet full of rhythmic energy, a sound I closely associate with that Late Cold War era feeling of resignation to a bleak future combined with a pent-up desire to do something about it being funneled into creatvity, movement, and desire.


"Don't Crash" off the excellent "Politics of Pressure" EP is one of my absolute favorite songs, and fills me with nostalgia every time I hear it (it always has, even when I first heard it -- it's just got that nostalgia inducing sound for me, similar to Pink Floyd's "Remember A Day" or Project Pitchfork's "I Live Your Dream"). If you asked me for one song that summed up the feeling of the 1980s completely, "Don't Crash" would certainly be a contender. ("Work 242" is also especially good for getting into a dreamy mood.)


Front242 sounds like Cyberpunk reads (as do Clock DVA, Borghesia, and several other 242 peers). It's music to write software by, and the perfect soundtrack to dystopian dreams in which you're a dark, Deckardian hero fighting through driving rain, human foibles, and the misery of a dying world to try to find a better way. It's the sonic equivalent of a targeting HUD on a black helicopter stalking its prey in the night -- rendered 8bit. Mirrorshades and goggles, armored leather outfits, headsets with dangling wires... this is the proper attire to capture the feeling of Front 242 in an outfit.


Yet Front242 is not soulless machine music. It is cold and bleak, yet at the same time full of energy and desire. Later Front242 is even more layered, creating a fuller sound that is in some ways richer than their earlier work (and in some ways, not as exciting in its stripped-down clarity and evocatively bleak atmosphere).

That new direction took me a bit of getting used to when "05:22:09:12 Off" and "06:21:03:11 Up Evil" came out, mainly because of the band's lineup change and unfortunate embrace of the Techno aesthetic in their live shows, but these (and the later "Pulse") are absolutely a continuation of the Front242 sound and unequivocably are true Front242 albums -- all but one of which is excellent (the one is the unlistenably bad remix album "Mut@ge Mix@ge"). I now listen to those newer albums almost as much as the older ones.


Machine music has taken many different directions over the years, but the Front242 sound will always be among the most compelling. If you have never heard Front242, consider it your duty to "Catch The Men" and rectify this aesthetic deficiency immediately.

Best Band Ever?: Big Black

Time to blog again at least a wee bit about things other than working out and filmmaking.

So I'm starting a new thread for myself called "Best Band Ever?" in which I'll blog a bit about what certain bands mean to me. I don't really like writing reviews, so it'll just be thoughts about why I think a certain band is great.



Big Black only existed for five years, and they wrote and released only about 70 unique tracks in that time, but their impact on music history is immense. They are one of those bands that are utterly revered by musicians and music critics, even if they never achieved massive success with the general public. This popularity among musicians means their influence on later music is quite extensive. And frontman Steve Albini went on to produce tracks for just about every hip-yet-still-musically-interesting band ever.

The first time I ever heard Big Black I was about 12 years old, and the track was Steelworker. It was slow and sparse, yet still heavy. Simple, yet compelling. And vicious. It told a story. A simple one. But not a pretty one. Big Black's lyrics read like Noir poetry. Drawn from newspaper headlines and the band's own school of hard knocks experiences, their tracks chronicle the dark corners of American society, and pull no punches. They seemed to be angry about everything my teenage self was angry about, and their intense statement of this fact resonated deeply.

The music doesn't pull punches either. Big Black's music is heavy and loud, with a simple, driving rhythm and a layer of chaos on top. Big Black sounds like a cross between a bar fight and a cheap hotel room with a bare light dangling from a swinging cord. To this day, they are one of my absolute favorite bands.

Big Black decided to break up at their height of their popularity and musical development, so that they could go out on a high. I suppose this worked, because none of the successor bands (Arsenal, Rapeman, or Shellac), as good as they are, ever came close to the sheer awesomeness of Big Black. But I still wonder what amazingness might have been on offer had they kept going as a coherent unit. I played the LP of Big Black's final album, Songs About Fucking, over and over again so many times that I physically wore out the record and had to replace it.


Big Black are also responsible for one of the rare records I want most: the original Bulldozer EP with the acid-etched steel jacket and (paper) poster. That sounds amazing. I wish more recordings came in such insane packaging.

There are many awesome punk/postpunk/whatever bands in the world, but few compare to Big Black. Reunions often lead to new material that's far inferior to the older work, but if there's one band that really ought to at least give it a go -- it's Big Black.

The Land Of Rape And Honey

I'm listening to Ministry's "The Land of Rape and Honey" right now, and for some reason I am reminded of hearing the album for the first time as a fifteen year old and thinking: "I didn't know anything this amazingly awesome existed in our musical universe." Between 1988 and now, I've probably listened to this album (or at least parts of it) well over a thousand times.

Even twenty years later, it still sounds fresh, its impact undiminished by years of subsequent "industrial" and "nu-metal" stuff that's come along in the years since.

If you've never heard it, you're in for quite a treat if you seek it out and listen to it now. And if you haven't given it a spin "in years," I highly recommend that you put it on right away and remember that once upon a time, what was called "industrial" music was angry and innovative (and like punk of yore, covered a lot of disparate musical ground, not just one single sound -- in the case of contemporary "industrial," it's four-on-the-floor dance beats for "dark ravers" and all else has disappeared or been reclassified).

As A Clifford, I Proudly Live In The Past

I found out this evening that a few months ago Tom Ellard called quits on his awesome, pioneering, and long running electronic / industrial band Severed Heads. While Ellard continues to do video projects and other work under his own name, the demise of Severed Heads ends 28 years of audio experimentation ranging from weird sound collage to peculiar pop music. Like Andrew Eldritch's rejection of Sisters of Mercy's classification as a Goth band, Ellard never really did quite cotton to the Industrial genre he helped create. Yet, even with the jump to more dancey synthpop on "Bad Mood Guy," he never could quite ditch the rivethead fanbase. And even the more recent work still maintained that wonderful Severed Heads penchant for weirdness. If you've never heard Severed Heads, that's a shame. I feel sorry for you.


Though TE exhibits a somewhat ambivalent attitude towards much of his early work, having bought my first Severed Heads album when I was 13, I forever remain a huge fan. The classic releases "Come Visit The Big Bigot" and "Clifford Darling, Please Don't Live In The Past" are still among my favorite albums, and Severed Heads is a band whose work I always return to. My hope is that at some point in the future, like so many other bands, Severed Heads will have a reunion. Perhaps Tom Ellard will have a reunion with himself, or maybe he'll dig up some combination of Richard Fielding, Garry Bradbury, Paul Deering, Stephen Jones and/or Andrew Wright and have a proper reunion. Who knows, maybe they could tour as the opener for yet another reincarnation of Pink Floyd?

The Upside Of The Downturn

As the world falls apart around us, or so the newspapers and television pundits claim, perhaps there is some upside to the downturn. My hope is that it will be better art, music and writing.

The 1980s (the late Cold War Era, the Reagan years) brought with them a treasure trove of angry punk rock (which started to rear its wonderfully ugly head in the mid 1970s, during the post-Viet Nam Ford and then Carter years), and literary and cinematic dissections of the "me generation" and the ever-present Cold War. During the Clinton Years, however, anti-establishment culture got co-opted and eliminated by mainstream media. Some of it survived, but its prominence has been nothing like it was in the 70s and 80s.

Maybe now that we're on the brink of economic cataclysm, we'll see not only a less poppy reinvention of punk rock and other 1970s-80s counterculture, but also a return of 1930s era artistic trends as well. The 30s of the Great Depression also brought with them a lot of great culture including: films like Duck Soup, literature by folks such as John Steinbeck, and in the art world, late Surrealism.

Great struggles often lead to great art. While I'm not exactly thrilled about the struggle part, perhaps at least we can enjoy the side benefit of some great art.

Pop Music Is Better In A Foreign Language

I've been listening to a lot of unfamiliar music lately. I can't help but do that periodically, and thus the record and CD collection keeps on growing. I've had the most fun unearthing great old (i.e. 1977-1982) Punk stuff I haven't heard before on sites like Killed By Death, Good Bad Music, and 7 Inch Punk. These sites are a treasure trove of obscure bands like Breakouts, Modern Warfare, Hugh Beaumont Experience, Le Ritz, Frantix, Crap Detectors, The Huns, and a whole slew of other bands, many of which never released anything beyond one or two 7" singles. (And if anyone out there has any Brainbombs stuff you want to part with, let me know immediately. I wish I'd found them when stuff like Burning Hell, Genius & Brutality, and Urge To Kill were still in print.)

I've also been checking out some Hip-Hop, in particular Chamillionaire (I saw the Hip Hop Police / Evening News video while doing some music video research, and it's possibly the best Hip-Hop video I've ever seen, so I was hooked), and anything I can get my hands on by Dangermouse (the genius behind Gnarls Barkley, and the Grey Album -- which in my opinion is the gold standard for mash-up, and one of the best Hip-Hop anythings ever released).

Both genres underscore the fact that popular music often has stupid lyrics because, more so than mainstream rock or pop, there is often enough decent (not always intelligent, but at least clever) writing going on that the unbearably bad stuff really stands out. Hip-Hop suffers from this more than Punk, because it is driven by the lyrics, whereas with Punk it's easy enough to blather incoherently behind a wall of distortion (and often a fine idea, one which Death Metal fortunately takes to its logical conclusion).

Writing pop lyrics isn't easy, though. Many older forms of pop music (what we now call by names such as folk, world music, renaissance song, etc.) were structured around storytelling (most music that wasn't was liturgical or martial or otherwise ceremonial, and generally is classified differently). Since there was no three-minute radio format, songs could be as long or as short as needed to tell the tale, and "concept album" type collections of multiple songs used to tell a single tale were also an option. Even with those relatively liberal format constraints, it's still not easy to write something that is simultaneously engaging, thought provoking, and metrical. Throughout the ages, most pop music has been vapid and dull. Now add the additional constraint of the (roughly) three minute contemporary pop format, and it gets much harder. Fortunately (for them), many pop lyric writers seem to eschew trying very hard.

Further complicating things is genre constraints. Hip-Hop, for example, seems to have a requirement for at least one of the following tracks on every album: "don't mess with me because I'm tough and I'll smack you down," "I had it bad but now I'm rich and/or powerful and those of you who doubted me all suck," "the police are always giving me trouble," and "that woman left me for another guy and now I hate her. " Even an artist like Chamillionaire who has smart tracks like The Morning News and The Evening News is still obligated to make less engaging fare such as Pimp Mode. Punk, also, has its genre obligations, which are actually fairly similar to those of rap: poverty, street violence, run-ins with the police, and bad relationships.

Few if any Punk bands (even mainstream Pop-Punk like Green Day) have ever embraced the "I'm a player" stance of mainstream Hip-Hop, instead sticking steadfastly to rebellious conterculturalism. This, to me, is preferable to the "player" type tracks in Hip-Hop, and part of why I enjoy Punk -- even in English - - quite a bit more than most Hip-Hop. That doesn't mean there aren't silly, boring, or stupid Punk songs (those are legion), but the stylistic mode is different and so when the best of the Punk bands put out so-so tracks, the manner in which they are inferior to their best work is different than with Hip-Hop acts.

Which brings me to the title of the post. I am a big fan of pop music (including Punk, Hip-Hop, Metal, etc.) in languages that I don't understand. This allows the vocals to just become another textural element in the soundscape, and though I can't understand the words, the emotional tone of the vocalist still rings through. That is often the most compelling part of pop vocals, anyway. Instrumentals are also enjoyable, but the human voice is an instrument itself with many interesting sonic possibilities. Songs in foreign languages maintain the different layering, both emotionally and texturally, which sets vocal music apart from instrumentals -- yet at the same time, I don't get jolted out of a song by inane lyrics.

So, if you're in a band, and you have the ability to sing in any language other than English -- for my sake, please do.

Up The Punx

I've been on a mini-hiatus from Industrial, Goth, Electro and Metal to get back to my punk and postpunk roots. Here's a pile of what I've had on heavy rotation lately:

Poison Idea
Fucked Up
Career Suicide
The Restarts
A.F.I.
The Casualties
The Locust
Das Oath
Ampere
Dezerter
Riistetyt
Mindless Self Indulgence
The Business
The Distillers
Subhumans / Citizen Fish
The Skulls
Adolescents
Gogol Bordello
The World/Inferno Friendship Society
Pixies / Frank Black
The Prids (the best post-punk band around)
The Faint
Defunct Finnish shredders Hiljainen Kevaet
Defunct New York art punks False Prophets
Defunct SoCal staples The Dils
Defunct Seattlites The Gits / Dancing French Liberals of '48
Obscure (and possibly defunct) Japanese punx The Abnormals
And, of course, the late, great post-punk legends Joy Division

Fucked Up

A few days ago I saw one of my favorite punk bands, Toronto's Fucked Up. Aside from FU's third guitarist, the twelve-year-old-looking Ben Cook, making me feel about a hundred years old, the show was non-stop awesomeness (actually, to be honest, it was once-delayed, once-stopped awesomeness -- delayed by the late arrival of vocalist Damien Abraham, and stopped by a triple guitar string blowout two songs in).

The raw energy level displayed by FU harkens back to earlier days of punk, before Green Day and their ilk made punk into a subgenre of radio pop. People moshed. The Hemlock is a tiny venue (the bar area is at least ten times the size of the live music room). You can drink beer from a glass bottle there. It was sort-of like CBGBs back in the day, only cleaner. Much like many a show at CBGBs, the openers were an odd choice. Strange Boys and Crystal Antlers, with their blues, funk and classic rock inspired brands of punk, were really not the best fit for tour mates, but they were decent enough to sit through.

If you enjoy punk, and haven't heard Fucked Up, you really ought to (and also drummer Jonah Falco's other band, Career Suicide). FU is often compared to Portland greats Poison Idea, and the comparison is definitely apt, especially when talking about their live sets. But, mainly in their recordings, FU also throw in a bit of downtempo, Fugazi-esque material as well. Not downtempo as in redundant, verse-chorus-verse pop punk, but more sophisticated intros, bridges and breaks that add interesting layers on top of what is otherwise an all-out sonic assault.

Since NY, LA and SF have nearly completely succumbed to the all-hip-hop, all-the-time wave of the present, now is the time for unassuming Toronto, Canada to reign over the world of punk. If you haven't checked out FU and their peers in the Toronto punk scene, pogo on over to your nearest record shop and rediscover punk as it was meant to be.

The Greighties

I love the 1980s.


Not ironically, either.


To me, the 1980s were full of all sorts of great things. Video games, D&D, great music, awesome movies, and all manner of pop culture phenomena. Though full of personal trials and tribulations (my father died, and I became a teenager, in the 1980s), I still look back on the 80s with fondness. Lofted multi-colored hair, too much oddly colored make-up, leg warmers over colored tights, and the layered look still turn me on. I was forged in the fires of the 1980s -- the fake-fur-lined, lopsided-haired, candy-colored fires, that is.


People with any sense whatsoever consider the 1980s to be the pinnacle of pop music. Synthpop, New Wave, Punk, Industrial, Goth, Glam Metal, and Rap were all ascendant in the 1980s. It was a glorious mess of new sounds, new looks, and new technology in music. Many of my absolute favorite bands -- Kraftwerk, Front 242, Ministry, Big Black / Rapeman / Shellac, Foetus, Skinny Puppy, Public Image Limited, Joy Division / New Order, Laibach, Einstuerzende Neubauten, Cabaret Voltaire, Devo, Severed Heads, Frontline Assembly, KMFDM, Depeche Mode, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Swans, Sonic Youth, Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, Subhumans, False Prophets, Misfits, Black Flag, The Adicts, Adolescents, Rudimentary Peni, Youth of Today, Warzone, Les Garcons Bouchers, Public Enemy, Run-DMC, The Beastie Boys, TKK, a;Grumh, Borghesia, Le Syndicat, The Haters, Merzbow, M.B., etc. (the list could go on and on) -- were in their heydays during the 1980s. Nothing about contemporary pop, punk, goth, industrial or hip hop is as compelling as the 1980s and early 90s apex of these genres. In part, it was that the cold war gave the arts more of a sense of urgency, and in part it was that people hadn't yet become so jaded by overexposure to the slick, soulless product of continually expanding global media empires.


I have quite fond memories of even the most commercial New Wave pop music of the day -- Blondie, Cyndi Lauper, The Cars, Human League, O.M.D., A Flock Of Seagulls, The Eurythmics, Yaz, etc. -- even the one-hit wonders like Animotion, Wang Chung, and A-ha were enjoyable. Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson -- three of the biggest names in pop music of the 20th century -- were all defined by their 1980s music, all of which at least dabbled with New Wave (Madonna emerged entirely from that movement). The 1980s were the last hurrah for pop music before, in the 1990s, the major labels consumed the last vestiges of punk and new wave (the "alternative and college" labels) and all music became product. It was also a time when the suits were confused about the market, and a lot of strange music came out of even the majors that wouldn't have at any other time. It was as chaotic as the 1960s, but it smelled a little better, and it wasn't as monocultural (there was more going on that was weird than just the Hippies, so there was more diversity of odd music). I'm far from the only person who conisders the 1980s to be the most active, creative time in the history of popular music.


While the 1970s are often remembered as a great era of film, the 1980s get downplayed. This does the decade a huge disservice. A number of my all-time favorite films are films of the 1980s. Some of the greats of the era include The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, Amadeus, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tootsie, Raging Bull, Platoon, E.T., and the incomparable Blade Runner (which I happen to think should be #3 on the AFI top 100 list, after Citizen Kane and Lawrence of Arabia -- yes, above Casablanca and The Godfather, in my opinion). But there are many other classics that don't necessarily make the film snob lists.

Sci-fi and Horror were booming in the 80s. The Empire Strikes Back, in my opinion the best of the six films (so far) in the Star Wars franchise, came out in 1980, and 1982's The Wrath of Khan is the most unequivocably enjoyable of the many Star Trek films. But John Carpenter's 80s output alone is enough to enshrine the decade: Escape From New York, The Thing, Big Trouble In Little China, and They Live are all true classics of their era. As is the Davids' output, Cronenberg with Scanners, Videodrome, The Dead Zone, The Fly and Dead Ringers, and Lynch with The Elephant Man, Dune and Blue Velvet. James Cameron's fabulous, franchise-building classics Aliens and The Terminator are true 80s gems, as is Paul Verhoeven's inspired Robocop. W.D. Richter's peculiar The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai is a wonderful bit of craziness that is often overlooked or underrated, as is Tron, a famous film that seems quaint to some because of its graphics and primitive computing technology, but which was not equalled in terms of a unique vision of a digital future until the first Matrix film. Halloween sequels were in full-swing (most sucked, though), but George Romero's Day of the Dead follow-up to 78's Dawn of the Dead, and the first Friday the 13th, are the 80s stand-outs for the three big horror franchises. And Japanese mindbenders Akira (animated) and Tetsuo: The Iron Man (live action) remain alongside Eraserhead as some of the most original, bizarre films of all time.

Punk broke into film in the 80s, as well. Alex Cox made the two most important punk films of all time during the 80s: Sid & Nancy and Repo Man, and even Penelope Spheeris' lesser punk fare The Decline of Western Civilization and Suburbia are still worth a viewing. Postpunk auteur Jim Jarmusch emerged in the 80s, with Permanent Vacation, Coffee and Cigarettes, Mystery Train, and the pure genius of Down By Law, as did Gus Van Sant, with Mala Noche and Drugstore Cowboy.


Meanwhile, John Hughes was busy reinventing the teen comedy genre, steering it away from Gidget-type dreck and creating classics like The Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Savage Steve Holland kicked in with Better Off Dead and One Crazy Summer, and Cameron Crowe with Fast Times At Ridgemont High and Say Anything. Teen Angst films of the 80s included such classics as River's Edge, The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, Tex, and the underrated The Legend of Billie Jean.


Even some of Hughes' mainstream 80s comedies, like Vacation, Planes, Trains & Automobiles and Uncle Buck, are genius. Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder had a career defining moment with Stir Crazy, while Caddyshack and The Blues Brothers created new stars. Eddie Murphy was actually funny in films like 48 Hrs., Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, and Coming To America, and the mockumentary was born with the hilarious This Is Spinal Tap -- but the real comic gems of the 80s come in the form of three of the best comedies of all time: Airplane!, Ghostbusters and The Princess Bride (in my opinion, a strong contender for best comedy of all time).


Genre-redifining action films, in particular Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, and The Road Warrior (which got more attention than its predecessor, 79's Mad Max) also appeared in the 80s. Across the Pacific, John Woo was making equally important action films like A Better Tomorrow and The Killer. Tim Burton's first Batman film brought postmodern comics to cinema, replacing the feel-good camp of the Christopher Reeves Superman films (Superman II being another good 80s film) with darker, somewhat more character-driven fare.

In Japan Miyazaki was helping bring anime to the world at large with beautiful films like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Castle In The Sky, My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service. However, I feel the most brilliant Japanese animated film of all time also came out in the 80s: Takahata's bittersweet drama, Grave of the Fireflies. And on TV, the Robotech / Macross saga brought the Japanese space-soap-opera to a generation of Americans. It remains one of the best animated TV series of all time, with much more sophisticated writing than the more popular Transformers, which also spawned its first feature film in the 80s.


Role playing gaming also came into its own in the 80s. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson's Dungeons and Dragons (most gamers actually played Advanced Dungeons and Dragons -- the two systems are not fully compatible) was the most well known, but there were many other great 80s RPGs. Twilight 2000 was the best WWIII game ever made, and sci-fi titles Cyberpunk and Shadowrun helped break the Cyberpunk and Steampunk genres as legitimate subcategories of Sci-Fi amongst the nerderati (neither system was perfect, so some gamers like the two groups I played with in high school and college just merged the two games despite their being from different publishers and having very different systems). The true Steampunk game, Space 1889, was fun but not sufficiently popular. Traveller / 2300 AD was the best of the Sci-Fi systems (although lamented by some as too complex, its skills system redefined gaming rules, and I say for the better), and had many fun modules. The hilarious Paranoia Sci-Fi parody is hands-down the best humorous RPG, and though Teenagers From Outer Space was a close second, both are overshadowed by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (a good game, but the other two are much better). Strategy / board games whose worlds led to hybridization with role playing (often borrowing or creating a new system to fill in the gaps) included SJG's Car Wars and FASA's Battletech. RPG playing really helped hone my writing and storytelling skills, and led me to become a better writer, game developer, and storyteller in general. The social aspect of RPG playing is something I dearly miss. Video gaming is just not the same, even LAN parties, because human-machine, and not human-human, interaction is the core element of the gaming equation. Also, video games rarely allow the players to truly influence the design and outcome of the narrative adventure. Still, video games were a key part of my 80s childhood.

August 1982 changed the world forever. Few moments in popular history can compare with the release of the Commodore 64, which began a 12-year run unequalled in the history of computing. The machine racked-up over 30 million sold, and did at least as much to bring video games into the mainstream as the Atari 2600 (which also sold about 30 million units, but since you couldn't program it, did not do nearly as much to create a new generation of game developers). During this time, games were the brainchildren of dedicated gamers, not marketing teams. The market hadn't solidified into four genres (sports, fps, rpg and rts) with each running off one or two popular gaming engines. Since computing in general was just breaking big, games still had much more variety. While the graphics and sound were primitive, in some cases the gameplay has yet to be surpassed.

Fun, unusual games abounded in the 80s. Crush Crumble and Chomp, Mail Order Monsters and Rampage were great monster games, a dead genre. Geopolitique 1990 was a political strategy game, another dead genre. Pirates was a fun tall ship game, another dead genre. Racing Destruction Set let you create your own cars and tracks and destroy them, which is far more fun than driving around some pre-built world. Qix, Bubble Bobble, Dig Dug, Lode Runner, Warriors of Zypar, Archon, Archon II, Marble Madness, Night Shift, Pinball Construction Set, and Hovver Bovver (a lawnmowing game!) were all odd, but fun (puzzle, maze and action hybrids mostly). Simple, odd, but fun is just barely coming back with the likes of Geometry Wars (really an updated Asteroids more than an OBF). Karateka and Bruce Lee paved the way for the likes of Street Fighter which broke-big the once-popular martial arts genre, and Donkey Kong and Jumpman invented the platformer. Beachhead and Beachhead II were very primitive, but fun, predecessors to the likes of Battlefield 2. Zeppelin, a combined side-top scroller, seems simple but is one of the most fun games ever, and other great shooters/scrollers abounded, like Killerwatt and Defender. Tron was one of the best of the multiple technique games.


But, on the C64, what put things over the top was adventure (and related) games. Not all was swords and sorcery with C64 adventure and strategy gaming, such as great space strategy games like the Psi-5 Trading Company, M.U.L.E., Argos Expedition, Galactic Empire, Andromeda Conquest, Reach for the Stars, Starflight, and Impeirum Galacticum. (Now all we have is Starcraft sequels, but fortunately also emerging franchises like Galactic Civilizations / Sins of a Solar Empire, Ferion and Horizon). And some of the best games had no graphics at all, those being the classic Infocom text adventures like the Zork trilogy, Enchanter trilogy, Plantefall and Stationfall, A Mind Forever Voyaging, Deadline, Starcross, Suspended, Infidel, Wishbringer, Suspect, Jourey, Leather Goddesses of Phobos, and the still popular Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.

The big daddies of adventure and strategy games were once Origin Systems, Inc., Sierra On-Line, and Strategic Simulations, Inc. (who I had the pleasure to work for briefly during the period of acquisitions that led to the imprint's unfortunate demise). Richard Garriott and OSI dedicated most of the 80s to the Ultima series, perhaps the greatest adventure game series of all time. Ogre, Autoduel and Omega also managed to come out during the 80s and redefine their own genres. Ken and Roberta Williams' Sierra had the very popular Kings' Quest and Leisure Suit Larry franchises. Lucasfilm Games, considered by many to be most directly competitive with Sierra, squeezed out Maniac Mansion and Zak Mccracken and the Alien Mindbenders, both good fun. However, SSI was really a force to be reckoned with once. SSI produced both great adventure games like Phantasie, Wizard's Crown, Questron, Pool of Radiance, and several official AD&D games, as well as classic turn-based strategy games like Kampfgruppe, Germany 1985, Mech Brigade, Roadwar, Gettysburg, and Storm Across Europe. Electronic Arts, still under Trip Hawkins and not yet considered greedy industry villains, chimed in with Seven Cities of Gold and the brilliant, genre redefining, franchise-spawning The Bard's Tale. Really, there are too many good games from this era to list them all. Maybe someday I'll try, but let this abbreviated list suffice for now.


The first comic book done on a computer also came out in the 80s: Saenz and Gillis' Shatter, a well done cyberpunk story that was steeped in the emerging digital culture. But that wasn't the most exciting thing going on in comics in the 80s. Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's The Killing Joke brought back Batman as a conflicted vigilante. Moore's The Watchmen and Art Spiegelman's Maus turned once lowly comics into genuine literature. And in 89, Neil Gaiman's seminal The Sandman arrived on the scene.

Philip K. Dick's last novels also came out in the 80s: Radio Free Albemuth, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, The Divine Invasion, and the brilliant VALIS, as did Stanislaw Lem's Fiasco. William Gibson burst onto the scene with his best works: Burning Chrome, Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive. Salman Rushdie published Midnight's Children and the fatwa-inspiring Satanic Verses, Gabriel García Márquez published the brilliant Love in the Time of Cholera, Milan Kundera published The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Gore Vidal published Empire, J.G. Ballard published The Empire of the Sun, and Don DeLillo broke out with White Noise (and Rudy Rucker arrived on the fiction scene with White Light).


I am a child of the 1980s. I was 6 going into 1980, so most of my formative years were spent absorbing the wonders of the 1980s. Computers and science, video games, music, movies, art, and books were my whole life. There are great films, music, games, art and books of the 90s and beyond, but the debt they owe to the 80s is often overlooked, downplayed, or scoffed-at. Before people laugh at the 80s, they ought to look at the impact of the 80s on today's culture. New Wave fashion (the most canonically derided element of the 80s) looks a lot like contemporary hip hop fashion. Both synth-and-sampler laden genres like hip hop and future pop, and guitar-laden ones like Modern Rock, owe at least as huge a debt to the 80s as to the 70s and 90s. This often forgotten, or mocked, decade really produced some of the best popular culture of all time.

Dick Dale in Hospital

Everyone wish master surf guitarist Dick Dale the best of luck as he is currently in the hospital for cancer surgery. Dale has inspired many people with his music, from surfers to punks and many genres in-between. He helped define the surf rock sound, and his high speed, aggressive guitar work definitely helped lay the groundwork for both metal and punk (you can especially hear it in punk where, unlike metal and hardcore, there is enough treble presence that the surf influence is really up-front).

One time I saw Dale play was at a SIGGRAPH in Orlando, FL (I'm pretty sure it was in 1994, at a Bruce & Carmi party at Disney-MGM studios theme park). That concert, at which I was in the front row of a small audience, was one of the best musical experiences of my life -- I still regularly tell people about it even now, 14 years later. I was impressed that even for a small audience, he gave so much and put so much energy into the performance. Whenever I feel like slacking off on something, thinking about how seriously Dale took that small, private party concert is one thing that helps motivate me. He was also genial, pausing after the show to allow us to thank him for a great show, and to give us guitar picks and set lists.

So here's hoping that the King of Surf Guitar has an uneventful surgery and a quick, complete recovery and is back in action before too long.

See The Prids, Buy Their Albums

Friday night I saw the band that has now become the band I've seen more times than any other, Portland's The Prids. It was, as usual, an excellent show. If you consider yourself anything of a post punk fan, and you've never seen The Prids perform live, you should be ashamed. They are one of the best live bands around, not because of any spectacular on stage antics, but simply by virtue of musicianship, stage presence, and honest (post) punk energy.

If you've never heard The Prids, their sound is centered around the juxtaposition of angry energy (nearly hardcore drumming, punk guitar and bass lines) with slower, more emotional elements (synth pads, poppier/gothier guitar and bass lines). But I'm not talking emo, screamo, emocore or any of that sort of nonsense. No, The Prids are a real post punk band influenced by real post punk pioneers like The Smiths, Joy Division, The Cure, The Chameleons, etc. This puts them roughly in the same genre as Interpol, She Wants Revenge, The Lovemakers, The Faint, Arcade Fire, and the whole Retro Post Punk scene.

The thing is, The Prids predate the next oldest of this current wave of post post punk / newer wave bands by at least two years -- and they are at least as good as the best of their competitors (and much better than the average of them). This is no weekend garage band. David Frederickson and Mistina Kieth, the songwriting core of the band, have been at this nonstop for over a decade -- since before The Prids were formally a band. The Prids work hard, tour often, and with two albums and three EPs, put out material as fast as the small labels they've so far attracted can afford it. All this comes through in the maturity, consistency, and originality of their work. I befriended The Prids when they were first touring (in support of their Duracraft CD EP), and from an already strong start they've only gotten better.

I can think of no underappreciated band more deserving of widespread attention than The Prids. This band deserves to be big. Their sound and aesthetic meshes perfectly with both generations of post punk, they are relentless hard workers, and their live shows are awesome even on a shoestring budget. If you've never heard The Prids, I recommend checking them out immediately -- and if they're playing in your area, definitely treat yourself to seeing them rock out a smaller local venue while you still can. (Other worthy, but lesser known, bands in this genre are Green Circles, Veil Veil Vanish and Red Voice Choir, all bands that have opened for The Prids).

A Must See Film: Young@Heart

I just saw a preview screening at work of a documentary called "Young @ Heart." Titled after the chorus of the same name, this film perfectly personifies the catchphrase of "Down By Law," the one uttered over and over by Roberto: "It is a sad and beautiful world."

The Young @ Heart chorus is comprised entirely of people over 73 years of age, but focuses on singing contemporary (often quite contemporary) music. Taking a six week rehearsal period as its back drop, the film tells the story of the chorus through the lives of several chorus members and the observations of their Director, Bob Cilman. There is a bit of talk about how music performance is good for keeping people active, challenging their minds and bodies, ad so on -- but this isn't a music therapy promotional piece. This is a beautiful film about wonderful people making inspiring (and yes, amusing) music. You will immediately get drawn into the stories of these extraordinary people, and only the stone hearted can leave the theater not caring about them.




Director Stephen Walker does a great job of keeping things honest, with very little vamping for the camera by the participants, or "knowing" asides by the filmmakers. At first blush, I expected the film to be hip and ironic -- perhaps even sarcastic. After all, what about the elderly singing Sonic Youth and The Ramones isn't some kind of trendy, retro-kitsch parody ripe for a moment of cynical embrace by the legions of cool -- only to be discarded during the next moment's fad? Well, the film gives you that answer in copious quantities. This is a film about people, not pop culture, and it is quite an emotional ride. I don't want to give away too much because you absolutely must see this film. If the story of the Young @ Heart choir doesn't empower you to say, without a hint of irony: "I laughed, I cried, I danced in the aisles" -- well, then, you probably should just adjust your horn-rimmed glasses and calmly, aloofly hurry back to the oxygen bar next door so you won't miss your live-blogging gossip about Project Runway session (soulless freak).



Young @ Heart opens April 9th in limited, phased roll-out release. If it comes to your area, see it. If not, see it on DVD. And if the Young @ Heart choir comes to your area sprint, don't run, to get ticket before they nearly instantly sell out (as they are sure to do).

Gogol Bordello World Strike

Gogol Bordello at San Francisco's Warfield last night (03/13/08) was an excellent show, despite the Warfield's bad sound (terrible mixing being a San Francisco live venue staple). My lovely wife and I both enjoyed the show immensely. Unrelenting energy burst forth from this Eugene Hutz fronted, nine piece band for nearly two hours as they played through what seemed like the entire Super Taranta album, and then some. It's not every day that a punk band is anchored by violin and accordion, but violinist Sergey Ryabtsev and accordionist Yury Lemeshev do an amazing job of bringing both punk energy and traditional sounds into the Gogol Bordello Mix (and both have great stage presence, even in the shadow of the unrelentingly frenetic Hutz).

Gogol Bordello

Gogol Bordello are one of my favorite bands, and are the leading ethnic-punk fusion band, thanks to Hutz' stardom from the film Everything Is Illuminated, and the band's subsequent "adoption" by Madonna as her latest pet project. While openers Skindred were decent enough, it would have been much more exciting had a kindred band such as World/Inferno Friendship Society (a long-running accordion-punk act who also deserve recognition), Slavic Soul Party, Leningrad, Yat-Kha, or Balkan Beat Box been along for the tour.

Gogol Bordello lifted from their seats nearly an entire Warfield crowd of punks, hipsters, hippies, goths, ren-faire acolytes, middle aged music nerds, and the occasional actual Roma. There was definitely more dancing (and less stupidity) at this show than at your average Warfield/Fillmore show. Songs like Start Wearing Purple, Supertheory of Supereverything, Zina-Marina, 60 Revolutions, Sally, Not A Crime, I Would Never Want To Be Young Again, and Harem in Tuscany got the crowd hopping. While I wish the show had been an hour longer so they could play more of their older stuff such as Immigrant Punk, Avenue B, Dogs Were Barking, Underdog World Strike, Strange Uncles From Abroad, Voi-La Intruder, Letter To Mother, and Passport, the songs they did play were all excellent and there were enough of my other favorites that I certainly didn't leave feeling disappointed. All in all a great show, and I hope to see Gogol Bordello in San Francisco again some time soon.