Some of you might know Ken from his podcast Glambone but he started rock’n’roll activism at a very young age and later became a musician. Ken has just released “Rock’n’Roll Will Only Break Your Heart”, a great book in which he gives us a lot of details about his various adventures, his personal life and his passion for rock’n’roll.
When did you get the idea of writing your book and how much time did it take?
Ever since being a teenager, the idea of writing an autobiography is something I imagined I would do one day. I just thought I’d be in a different position telling my story, but sometimes the perfect picture of how you think your life would be isn’t always how it adds up. When the pandemic hit in early 2020, that’s when I started reflecting and writing the book. It was a two-year process.
You started being involved at a very young age being the editor of a Sunset Strip publication. Can you tell us more about it?
Yes. In my teens I started a music magazine from my bedroom. A fanzine, basically. After the first couple of issues, record companies began calling to buy advertisements in the publication, full page ads to promote their new releases. Once that started to happen, we were able to upgrade the design and printing quality. So with doing that, it became a prominent paper on the Los Angeles streets and eventually distributed in other music cities around the globe.
How were the musicians’ reactions when seeing that you were so young? Any anecdotes to share with us?
Mostly surprised, but they thought it was cool. I remember before the family uprooted to Los Angeles, I had an interview with the band Dirty Looks that Atlantic Records set up for me to meet them at a night club in Las Vegas they were playing at. Keep in mind, Vegas has a strict age limit of being 21 years or older. Well, the club owner saw me with my tape recorder interviewing the drummer outside the venue, and he says to me, as long as your dad is here with you, you can come inside and watch the show from the sound board, just don’t go anywhere near the bar ! So, there I was at 14 years old getting into my first night club to watch a rock n roll band. It was great !
Then you started playing in bands. Can you tell us about them?
Yeah, two years later I had my first band with my high school buddy Ashley Hamilton. We’re great friends to this day. We basically ditched school one day to go to Guitar Center on Sunset Blvd. That’s the first time we played guitar for each other, and said right there let’s form a band. Funny enough, one of the record companies that gave us recording time to make demos was Atlantic Records. It was a thrill to have been in their office interviewing bands, and then soon thereafter playing our demo in the CEO’s office. Stylistically we were all over the place, a bit of pop, hard rock, ballads, and hip-hop. You hear some bands say that the record companies didn’t know what to do with them, well, that was us, we were trying to find ourselves and which direction to go in. After that, I pursued it on my own, and later on a project with my ex-wife which was called This Episode.
At times, it seems like the book is a story written for a TV series, there are so many ingredients for it, like your different travels (London, Paris, New York…), your bad luck as a musician and heartbreak stories….
Thanks, yeah, it’s quite a visual read and certainly could be adapted for the screen.
The book comes out with a 16 song CD companion in which we can hear a big Britpop influence. Was it your favourite 90s style after the 80s glam metal wave?
Definitely. In America, the 90s obviously was about the Seattle sound. It wasn’t my thing. For me, all the great new music was happening in the UK.
Suede, Pulp, My Life Story, Elastica, David Devant & His Spirit Wife, Oasis. It was fantastic.
Can you tell us about the recording of these songs and the people involved?
It’s a compilation from over the years, various sessions and projects. The majority of it was recorded and produced by Rick Parker. One of the more recent songs is a co-write I did with Michael Lockwood. A lot of guest musicians are on it who’ve played with artists like Beck, Madonna and others.
I first got to know you because of your Glambone podcast. Can you tell us a bit about it, how you started it, etc.?
The first Glambone podcast debuted in late 2008. All I knew about podcasts back then was that it was like an underground way of having a radio show. There weren’t many at that time like there is today. I was living in Nashville then, and in between playing the writer-rounds which songwriters do, I had extra time on my hands. All the tapes of bands from my Rockstar Magazine days were in boxes, and instead of keeping it boxed up, I thought a podcast would be a great way to share this stuff with people.
You’ve never thought about starting an online magazine?
Well, I simultaneously had the Glambone blog up as well. But no, who needs an online magazine from me when you got Veglam ?!
Without spoiling the book too much, did you get your rights back for your song that was “stolen”?
I always had the rights to my song. Even though mine was infringed upon, I could still use it as I pleased. But in terms of royalties from the stolen version, no, I only received compensation from a settlement for it.
Music business has changed a lot. Do you think that things are easier for self-produced artists/bands nowadays?
Yes and no. It’s expensive to solely do on your own. If you’re talking about touring costs, promotion, manufacturing vinyl and merch, this is all out-of-pocket expenses if you don’t have support from another company helping you out and lifting some of the financial burden. In terms of recording and releasing music online, sure, anyone can do that.
Do you still own any demos from the Sunset Strip days? Which bands should have made it but haven’t according to you?
Some stuff, although, each time I move around it gets less and less. I’ve gotten rid of so much. The bands that should’ve made it, Tomorrow’s Child, Rattlesnake Shake, Pharoah from the east coast. Honestly, many of the bands that had records out should’ve made it, Lions & Ghosts, Candy, The Zeros, Dear Mr. President, Vain.
You’ve spent a lot of time in France. Any French bands or artists you like?
Serge Gainsbourg, Raphael, Les Rita Mitsouko, Carla Bruni. Everytime I go back I discover something great there.
You lived in Nashville. It seems like many rockers from California are moving there. Do you think that it’s only a money issue?
Not just from California anymore, musicians from everywhere have been moving there. I don’t think it’s only a money concern, because prices and cost of living in Nashville has certainly gone up since the time I lived there. Not as high as L.A, but it’s climbing. I think for industry it continues to be a place where creativity is alive and well, and that’s a big part of the appeal. I’ll tell you though, if they’re not moving to Nashville, many of the L.A. people are moving to Las Vegas.
Which place would you choose if you could live anywhere you’ve been?
It’s a toss up between Paris and New York. Unless I fall in love with a Swedish girl, then I’m moving to Stockholm !
Looking back at all these musical adventures. Would you change anything if you could?
If I had a voice in my head back at the beginning of 2002 telling me to stay in Vegas just a little while longer, I think I would like to have listened to it, being that the city spawned a few successful bands after I left. But the voices took me somewhere else instead. Luck of the draw.
One of the people Hands on the money And your feet on the ground Shouting out loud From the top of the steeple Counting the flock while Collecting their pounds All you thieving wheeler dealers In the healing zone Giving me fever fever fever fever Down to my bones
I pray And nothing happens Jesus It’s all in my mind You say Stop looking for answers And reasons They’re all in your mind All in you mind
Covered in flies And smothered in lava I can’t scratch my itches With these pumice stone hands I dream of my days As a desert farmer Living my life On the fat of the sand All you thieving wheeler dealers In the healing zone Giving me fever fever fever fever Down to my bones
I pray And nothing happens Jesus It’s all in my mind You say Stop looking for answers And reasons They’re all in your mind All in your mind
Stuck in a world Losing its way and wonder I wonder what happened To the world we knew Splitting the atom And feeling its thunder Could never ever make me Feel the way you do You give me fever fever fever fever Down to my bones Fever fever fever fever In the healing zone
I pray And nothing happens Jesus It’s all in my mind You say Stop looking for answers And reasons They’re all in your mind All in your mind” (-Echo & The Bunnymen)
“It won’t be long until you do exactly what they want you to…” (-Martin Gore)
“the dream had to end, the wish never came true…” (-Robert Smith)
“I’ve been looking so long at these pictures of you That I almost believe that they’re real I’ve been living so long with my pictures of you That I almost believe that the pictures
Are all I can feel” (-Robert Smith)
“I will always love you, I will always love you…” (-Robert Smith)
My youngest kid turns 15 in a couple of days, he’s almost as big as me. In some ways, he is more innocent than I was, and more dangerous in others. I feel for his struggle in this confused society of late stage capitalist narcissism and power tripping control freakery where people are born into this weird I-Phone bondage, and raised in a hierarchy worshipping surveillancetech propagandaverse, to only care about TikTok fame and merchandise branding, paid for prestige, and dirty hot tub access. You know it’s getting colder, when sourfaced people like me are willingly wearing hoodies and ugly sweaters and shit. I never was a hoodie person, I guess I associate them with Emos, Hot Topics, Pink 182’s. It’s cold out there, so stay properly garbed and vitamin’d up, my brothers and sisters and friends of the revolution. You know the evil Davos profiteers of death and disaster capitalists love it when the poor people keep dropping dead “suddenly”, I’m doing lots of grotty blue collar grunting nowadays so I’m even wearing a second layer of thermal under the jeans and leather. While working at the new place we’re moving to yesterday, I heard somebody yelling and kinda made my way over near the front to watch a split minded old beardo with a dog, he looked to be a traveler maybe, he was screaming obscenities at himself like troubled and mentally unwell people often do, immediately reminding me of this dude named Lester from another town faraway, who used to stalk the boulevards hollering jibberish day and night-one of the only things I liked about my Birkenstock clad Cheech N Chong lookalike, rich, potsmoking, gentrification hipster gropey boss at the booj restaurant I worked at was that’s he’d sometimes feed the geezer a big bowl of these deep fried red potatoes he made. So yeah we are moving to the part of town where the exiles and the outcasts gravitate, which concerns me as a primary protector of wife and child, it’s gonna be a security issue, having this old fence down, so I hope the snobby and pretentious, materialistic landlord keeps their word to help us get a fence up before the real cold hits. Ahh, so much work, moving, just stressful as hell, and realizing all my little routines are even gonna change. All my neighbors over there are super rich with horses and cows, or super poor with pitbulls and goats, but everybody has a fence, to keepout the walking in circles crazies and the walking stick shufflers like me and the old gray geezer who see each other twice a day on our own many restless streetwalking cheetah pacings. I used to think the high metal fences were for uptights, now I’m thinkin’ we’re gonna need one of those, too. Ya see the speed freaks walking down the street flailing their arms about wildly and can’t help but feel a little bit grateful it aint you, even if you’re bored as shit, the speed freaks look whackadoo as all hell. Why does autumn always bring back the memories, the ghosts, and these gripping, dark depressions? I dunno, something to do with school, maybe? Months of Sundays is how it always is, here in the slow moving deadcrawl ghost town, but once the sky goes chalkboard white and your fingers get numb, and every storefront is closed, ya know, it makes it like maximum meloncholy. I’ve been saying my band is now known as the Loneliness, just me and a Panasonic tape recorder right now, sometimes the wife will play a few songs with me. Sometimes, I’ll fuck around with the little Casio. I think it’ll look good on a t shirt: THE LONELINESS. MAXIMUM TORCH & TWANG. Antisiocial glamrachists, burntout recluse, elderly goth, cowpunks seeks guitar, bass, and drums. Dandy Highwaymen. Gypsy caravans, frontporch fiddle, washboard punk, hobo jungle getdown bonfires.
“Why Can’t We Be Ourselves, Like We Were Yesterday?” (-New Order)
LIVING A LIFE THAT I CAN”T LEAVE BEHIND
I was always into Elvis, the Monkees and the Beatles, Acidhead Dave at the old hippie record store got me into Morrison, Iggy, Bowie. By the time I turned 13 and was about to meet the one that got away, my first big new wave crush, I was discovering all the early MTV shit like U2, the Furs, the Police and the Cure. I guess it was something in that song, “New Year’s Day” that made me really wanna convene an original rock group and yell some protest lyrics from the mountain top. I always thought I was born to make records, but somehow, in the corporate rock, Foo Fighter media-monopoly era, that became a privilege for the ruling class. Now, I walk these sad streets full of wet leaves and mud puddles, I try to figure out a way to do it all myself, I have bad feelings in my mind towards all these people who were captured or programmed by the dominant culture fictions, who judge me so severely cause I ain’t got no inheritance or property or diploma or fancy airbandb with a hot tub and the obligatory mosaic tile and Buddha statue meditation gardens-all the winebox divorcees and power trip gender worshippers complaining about men and money and how some broke male needs to pay for the sins of the patriarchy. “Why isn’t he working? Here is the shovel, tell him to get busy-he can get started in the back.” All those gender studies elites in agreement that the inferior serfs need to get busy laboring, those males need to work harder. “Why aren’t they working? If you have time to lean, you have time to clean. Retail is detail. What do you mean, you are in a monogamous relationship and have to call home to tell some man you are going to be late, so he does not worry about you? I could NEVER be accountable to some…some…MALE!” It’s a badshit world, this winner takes all slavery capitalism. OF COURSE I want to retreat back to the eighties when all us new wave kids could share space, express our hearts freely, smoke and drank wine in the graveyard, singing Cure and Prince and Depeche Mode lyrics back n forth to one another, and did not have to sweat all that bullshit competition college brainwash bullshit programming. One of my old teenage girlfriends married a punk and they live on a houseboat, have pet possums, party with traveler punks and never got old, they stayed outside of society this whole time. I’m happy for them. She was real cool when we were young. She’s in her fifties now and I don’t see her bitching that her husband is not rich enough. I think that’s great that they found each other and never got hung up on ratrace materialism.
I WILL BE WITH YOU AGAIN
It’s gonna be a long day here. My wife’s father is scheduled for a scary surgery tomorrow and my son turns fifteen in two days and is absolutely obsessed with the idea of adopting a pet monkey because he sees all these people making money on youtube from exotic pet ownership and he’s lonely, has sortof given up on finding peers in this no hope town where all the other kids he went to school with are totally capitalist programmed into wanting Guuci and Prada clothing, the boys all want to be drug dealing gang members, Cobra Kai asskickin’, gun wrangling ninja toughguys, and the vaping they/them TIKTOK girls all want to have those online hooker only fans pinup smut pages. He wants to make friends with the animals, and I can sortof get it, even though I’m not much of an animal person myself, at this point. I’m kinda back to one of those phases where I can’t seem to really connect with very many people in real life, at all, and I only seem to find any solace or relief when I drink and listen to old music. Just like ya know when we were thirteen and fourteen and our only imaginary friends were those new wave singers from England-Morrissey, Dave Gahan, Ian Curtis and Robert Smith.
“Time to vote the Dr. Strangeloves out, from both the warmongering parties. And start negotiating with Russia like our lives depend on it. Which they do.” (-Dr. Jill Stein)
“You aren’t resisting anything. You were invited to the White House because you spread propaganda on social media to prop up the blue corporate party.” (-Ryan Knight)
BLUE NO MATTER WHOS DON’T EVEN DEFEND THEIR OWN VALUES, WHAT SUCKERS THE GENDER WARRIORS ARE. NOT TRUMP IS NOT A PLATFORM.
“Democrats could’ve fought to codify #RoeVWade into federal law at any point over the past half century. They currently hold a majority & could fight RIGHT NOW to codify Roe. But they won’t fight. Instead they will use this SCOTUS decision to fearmonger & fundraise for midterms.” (Ryan Knight)
“Former defense secretary & CIA director Leon Panetta cites intelligence analysts who believe the probability of nuclear weapons use in Ukraine has risen from 1-5% at the start of the war to 20-25% today.” (-David Sacks)
MODERN ENGLISH
The band that really made the most gorgeous and immortal song of my teenage years are still around and of course I still love ’em like crazy and you probably do, too. Who cares if they’re one hit wonders, they are wonders among one hit wonders.
“U.S.-NATO interference is the primary reason why peace is impossible between Russia and Ukraine, not Putin.” (-Danny Haiphong)
“A literal, Hitler-admiring Nazi founded the NAFO propaganda operation (which is publicly supported by the US government to wage information war on Russia)” (-Ben Norton)
“If you got a favorite writer, artist or musician tell them with your dollars.” (-Dan Denton)
“All wars are wars among thieves who are too cowardly to fight and who therefore induce the young manhood of the whole world to do the fighting for them.” – Emma Goldman
“No no you don’t understand, if we weren’t being told constantly by the media that this proxy war needs our full support and censoring the voices who dispute this and using giant troll armies to swarm and silence anyone who questions this, we might fall victim to propaganda.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
“Progressives voting to fund the Ukraine proxy war while staying silent on Biden’s rejection of diplomacy are not just fueling a dangerous crisis. They’re also enabling a Russiagate propaganda campaign that has been used to directly sabotage them, as Bernie learned in 2020.” (-Aaron Mate’)
“None of the “progressive” democrats voted against votes to fund NATO proxy war. It is about time they get called out for the class collaborators that they are.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
“War is big business. And nobody exports more missiles, bombs, & arms than the U.S. Remember this next time you believe U.S. politicians when it comes to matters of war. Empires that make trillions of dollars off war will always make peace seem “radical.”
(-Ryan Knight)
“The Squad & Bernie Sanders have voted in lockstep with GOP and Democratic neocons to funnel billions into the weapons industry and fuel the disastrous Ukraine proxy war — all while Biden openly rejects diplomacy. As we saw this week, anti-war constituents are calling them on it.” (-Aaron Mate’)
“Old-school journalists would do anything to protect a source. New-school journalists will do anything to expose a dissenter. Interestingly, the new ones make the same lofty moral and social claims for their work that the old ones did.” (-Walter Kirn)
“When Democrats are the warmongering party in chief, what exactly is the point of voting for the “lesser evil”? Time to stop taking marching orders from the DNC & start voting for diplomacy not escalation towards nuclear war. Could be now or never.” (-Dr. Jill Stein)
“Progressives voting to fund the Ukraine proxy war while staying silent on Biden’s rejection of diplomacy are not just fueling a dangerous crisis. They’re also enabling a Russiagate propaganda campaign that has been used to directly sabotage them, as Bernie learned in 2020.” (-Aaron Mate’)
“Congratulations Establishment, After finding multiple ways to steal trillions of dollars from the American people over the past few decades, you suckered us into supporting another war and got another few billions from us. I know that Fauci is a liar and Zelensky is a puppet and say it out loud I guess I’m not very popular here. They still have people fighting over Dems vs GOP, when y’all gonna learn? They first had to spend years convincing us that Putin was some kind of evil cartoon villain and next they had to erase 2014 to 2021 to make us believe that this war started on Feb 24th and was totally unprovoked In other words our Gov’t is playing us for suckers again. If you are considered a US ally, you can not be a democracy, behead people in the streets or run an apartheid State and all is fine. The US is running the same playbook in Ukraine as they plan to use in Taiwan and have already used in several countries around the world They’re sacrificing innocent people in these countries to fight wars that they are not willing to fight themselves to maintain their power. Watching the coverage of this war in the United States is really scary It’s bad enough when both sides of the partisan news spins their own narratives to give their side the coverage they want, but how they come together during a war to propagandize us, is truly frightening. You remember when our Gov’t had people so upset about the women in Afghanistan that they wanted us to stay there How often have you heard about them now that our Gov’t is done using them? Did you know our Gov’t stole Afghanistan’s money and now many of those women are starving?” (-Black In The Empire)
“No no you don’t understand, if we weren’t being told constantly by the media that this proxy war needs our full support and censoring the voices who dispute this and using giant troll armies to swarm and silence anyone who questions this, we might fall victim to propaganda.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
“Anarchism is not, as some may suppose, a theory of the future to be realized through divine inspiration. It is a living force in the affairs of our life, constantly creating new conditions.” Emma Goldman
“Democrats have delivered more military spending, more censorship, no healthcare, no living wages, higher inflation, higher gas prices & they couldn’t have done it without their obedient liberal base who will vote for them no matter how many times they stab the people in the back.” (-Ryan Knight)
I LOVE CODE PINK FOR PEACE, ARIEL GOLD, AND MEDEA BENJAMIN AND YOU SHOULD, TOO!
“EARTH TO PROPAGANDIZED AMERICANS: Sending billions of dollars of weapons to a war-zone does NOT bring “peace or democracy.” It escalates the conflict, prolongs the war & makes the weapons manufacturers richer. If you want peace in the world you have to OPPOSE WAR, not fund it.” (-Ryan Knight)
“I feel like we don’t talk enough about how the founder of NAFO was posting actual pro-Hitler Nazi propaganda up until very recently and how this Nazi-founded trolling operation has been amplified and celebrated by liberals, think tanks, government agencies and western news media.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
“When, in the course of human development, existing institutions prove inadequate to the needs of man, when they serve merely to enslave, rob, and oppress mankind, the people have the eternal right to rebel against, and overthrow, these institutions.” ~Emma Goldman
“All that “propaganda” you hear coming from Russia and China is mostly just facts about the US’s war criminality.” (-Danny Haiphong)
“So-called “anTi-eStAbLisHmEnt” Joe Rogan and Tulsi Gabbard praise neocon Ron DeSantis, who: -tried to make boycotting apartheid Israel illegal in Florida -pushes for war on China & Iran -strongly backed the US coup attempts in Venezuela & Nicaragua -loves the blockade of Cuba.” (-Ben Norton)
“How many LatinX enlisted soldiers from your district could become disabled when the criminal $80 billion proxy war you voted to authorize turns hot?” (-Max Blumenthal calling out AOC’s empty justice tweeting and gender fixating rather than fighting for M4All or saying No Wars.)
“Who would have thought that not funding Nazis in Ukraine was too big of a purity test for you guys?” (-Revolt Politic)
“FYI: This is a proxy war provoked by US & Nato, please stop pushing State Dept. talking points cuz it’s prolonging Ukraine’s suffering.” (-Jimmy Dore)
“AOC I defended you when others on the left were criticizing you before you had been in office a year. But I must say you have not lived up to the confidence some had in you to represent an authentic radical politics.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
“Pelosi is the ring leader of congressional stock trading, and today she’s being celebrated as a hero for knowing how to use cell phone to literally save her own life.” (-Waft Don’t Sniff on twitter)
“Thinking “anti-establishment Republicans” are the alternative to “establishment Democrats” is nuts. We need alternatives to both war parties – that’s people-powered parties/candidates that don’t take corporate money.” (-Dr. Jill Stein)
I started getting hassled about my weirdness or outsider otherness in the fourth grade when my mom married a sicko creep and put me in an abusive football school in Ohio. When ranaway to NYC and discovered Gibby Haynes and the Pyramid Club dragqueens and the Fleshtones and the Deadboys and later on took my Lower east Side bohemian, eighties new wave punknroll sensibilities and let me entetain you all night hootennany and drunken soul booze review back to Ohio in my mid twenties, I was again targeted incessantly by the status quo forces of conformity and all those bitter clock punching wallflowers who thought my leopard print pajama clad cowboy, and face tattooed anarchist friends had too much fun and needed to be exiled for the sake of decency and racist sports bar continuity or some shit. I’ll never live like the other half. I was not put here to be a screw or squarehead. “They said I was a freak….I AM a freak…” (-Jesus & Mary Chain) Now, I am almost 53 and would you believe it-gentrification landlord Karens and uncool shitlib airbandb owners are once again wanting to make some bad hoopla about my appearance and class and work ethic and bad habits and means of livelihood. That is madness to me. Fuck off, ratfinks. On a day like today, I just wanna go somewhere and not be hassled if I wanna drink and listen to music. Should not be so hard.
It’s cold as fuck here all of sudden-another weird part of desert life is how it goes from crazy knock ya down high winds, to shook up soda pop monsoons, to insanely hot blistering lays you down heat, to need to double sock and wear ugly wool swaeters fucking willingly, like overnight! Was woke early by needy fucking animals, I’m told I’m obliged to do a lotta bullshit labor and heavy lifting all day today but in the middle of a move, my old lady has to stop the world and go complete a mosaic tile art project for her employer and I’m annoyed by the presence of brown recluse spiders nesting and making babies in our outdoor furniture. Everything kinda sucks right now. I’ve realized the space in the new place I was promised has been cancelled. Everybody I know is being magnetically drawn to some varying faroff quarters. I keep receiving these fuckyou reminders of how nothing is forever, nothing lasts, your loved ones are all going away, there’s no one to call who understands. Everything down here on this planet is a backstab ratrace and then you fucking die alone and some mean bitch says you had it comin’ and they throw your shit in the dump and go on winebox vacations. My wife works for one of those airbandb owning idle heiress garden tub gardening mosaic tile Artistes who do not like males except when they need a man in a tool belt to get on the roof or push a wheel barrel around, as pack mules, worker slaves. I’ve known the rich remodeling heiress types before so I get a bit triggered by them to use a phrase from their trendy gender new age lexicon. I got a teenager watching “Breaking Bad” fantasizing about being a tough guy on the corner, that’s worriesome, he’s been known to put his hands on people. My old lady’s consorting with meanspirited spinster divorcee women who have this idea of “adulthood” being some ownership society plantation serfhood shit where your indentured servants are moving cement blocks in circles while you wear scarves and think about the moon. I’m looking at this back corner of a fucked up packed to the ceiling garage filled with chemicals and home improvement shop tools and a jack hammered cement floor that’s supposed to be my space, and understanding, oh wow, man, this is bleak, some slave quarters shit. This little corner really looks like Julian Assange’s cell at Belmarsh. Spiderwebs, paint thinner cans upon paint thinner cans, pallets stacked six foot high of floor tiles. Big crack in the floor. Your aging menopausal women folks like to talk about how stupid males are for wanting to party or smoke and drink, listen to loud music or drive old cars, “mid-life crisis” they call it, but I don’t believe for one minute there’s anything more sophisticated about wanting to have winebox sewing circles where one complains about the shoddy service of these incompetent servants, how it’s so hard to get good help these days, moaning about having to wake up at four o clock in the afternoon to get some fucking Amazon packages, or devoting all their time and energy to perpetually advising women in couples to break up with their man, so they can play front porch witchy woman on the steps with the tapestries and wicker chairs and overfed cats. Talk about how male should make more money working and not drink alcohol…for wokeness and gender science!
I just wanna fly back to another time, when the music was beautiful and egalitarian, merciful and united us.
“Nothing will come of this cuz she’s lying at the behest of Big Pharma— which is always welcome. The truth gets censored & punished not pro-establishment lies told by willing corporate tools. The vaccines never stopped transmission which is why mandates were immoral.” (-Jimmy Dore)
Gabbard works for psy-op army unit in propaganda but when Hillary Clinton called her a commie traitor and slandered her as a Putin collaborating socialist or whatever it’s just the usual DNC mudslinging. Also the great Dr. Jill Stein. Maddow, CNN, DNC are the New McCaryites.
“As far as I know (there are most likely a few exceptions), in all cases where a mass school shooting has happened, and it was possible to know the medical history of the shooter, the shooter was taking a psychiatric medication that was known for causing these behavioral changes.”
“BREAKING NEWS: Ukrainian President Zelensky demands that food is immediately snatched from the mouths of hungry US and EU children and given to swastika tattooed Azov troops. US Democrats, led by the squad, vote unanimously to grant his request.” (-Garland Nixon)
“Despite Russia’s clear RED lines, the West has been blaming Russia & painting Putin as the villain, saying his intervention was “unprovoked.” But recently NATO admitted that it DID have plans to expand along the eastern flank YEARS ago longer before 2022.” (-Fiorella Isabel)
“I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody’s right to beautiful, radiant things.” (- Emma Goldman)
“The extradition of Julian Assange is not just a threat to his life. It’s a threat to the life of our democracy… An assault not only on freedom of the press, it makes a complete mockery of our judicial system. It’s a microcosm of the crisis of our democracy.” (-Dr. Jill Stein)
By the time I made it out to Hollywood, with a fifties faded blue suitcase full of old lady scarves and purple plastic laceup Lip Service pants and some duct tape together leopard print creepers, the scene was dead, we’d fucked around in Boston at deadend convenience store, food service, and record store jobs and waited too long to make the move, really, we shoulda Gone West circa ’88 with my original crew but we kinda stupidly split up over some jiveass smalltown politics and piss pond popularity chasing, and then the remnants of the original band fractured again in hard luck blue collar street gang Dorchester over a missing bass guitar confiscated by a landlord whose lease we broke and some of us got involved with some negative people. I tagged along with a metal band who split up as soon as they hit the town, cause their main deedly Traci Guns lovin’ guitarist was a total mercenary square who wanted to get rich overnight and continue to enjoy the same upper class lifestyle he was accustomed to via his parents, all the last stage glam metal Colgate commercials in the polka dotted shirts were total mercenaries. I was not that jazzed about any of the zany, goofy, whacky power pop bands that were coming along in the fringes, the only whacky sense of humor groups I kinda liked were Redd Kross and Celebrity Skin. Thelonius Monster were good, but they had a lotta pathos and danger and Jim Morrison unpredictability I could vibe with. One poppier band I kinda liked from the early nineties Hollywood scene was the Fizzy Bangers. I worked briefly with that guy, Brian Waters, who you might know from Flash Express, at Bleecker Bob’s, it was a painful job experience for me and my girlfriend at the time was always livid the loudly belligerent bossman always disappeared on payday, sometimes she would get drunk and kick me out like it was my fault. Eric Skodis was also in the immortal greats, Imperial Drag. They had some good little pop songs, nothing of earth shattering highbrow importance, but you know my former friends who were into zany joke rock like say, Sloppy Seconds and shit have accused me of taking things too dead seriously, particularly, when I am in an acutely painful and prolonged phase of agonizing forced sobriety. Nothing seems that funny to me, though I will still defend all those banned comedians right to not be p.c., I almost never laugh-the Offspring, NOFX, all those lousy boyband parody pop/punk corporate garbage Warped fest geek bands just got on my nerves, but yes, I know they all made a billion for the man selling empty, non threatening, mama’s boy next door approximations of punk in the honky burbs. The Osmonds “Crazy Horses” still rocks harder than Blink 182 or Sum 41. Fizzy Bangers were never as smart or fun as Rev. Norb, but I liked ’em better than any of those post Green Day faux-punk bands that followed. I was on the Fascist Crack, I mean False Book, I mean the CIA spy platform, with Brian Waters for awhile, he’s way more conservative than me, but still a smart and funny human. Those guys still play big rock shows with Blackboard Jungle and shit. I will never understand how anybody can afford to live in L.A. anymore, unless their parent owns all those upscale hotels, or was once on the box of Wheaties or some shit.
If you live in the USA, USA and still think it’s a democracy or that Vanguard owned media is the “free press” or it’s not censorship when online tech monopolies censor truth tellers for the government, you might be a gullible sap. FREE ASSANGE & DANIEL HALE! Man it’s been the worst week I’ve had in years and years. people in my life have been cracking under pressure and unleashing a vicious torrent of animosity aimed at my direction, it’s really adversely impacted the old goth health and wellbeing. Too much stress will kill anybody-even battle hardened old survivors like me and the dropout desperado rebel alliance. Just receiving sad news that Legendary Rockabilly revivalist and crooner style icon, Robert Gordon passed away at 75, at least they are giving a cause of death-acute Myeloid Leukemia as opposed to everybody else who’s croaked these past four years, who only “died suddenly” or “died unexpectedly”. That cat was so cool he even influenced all the other cats like the Polecats, Stray Cats, etc., etc. If you’re anything like me, you think of Link Wray’s guitar sound as the very embodiment of nasty, badass, street soul rocknroll-combined with a vocal presence like Robert Gordon and we’re talking rocknroll’s peak, the zenith, the toppermostest. Best known for his work with Link Wray, Danny Gatton, and Chris Spedding, the fabulous switchblade RG first came to fame in the Tuff Darts-he was like a snarly Jewish Elvis with a perfect set of pipes, he possessed so much effortless punknroll authority, it was like he was almost plucked from the golden era of fifties rebel rock, he had that same it quality as any of the Vincents, Cochrans, Pennimans and Presleys-he even had the Jordanaires step in as his backup singers. I’m watching one of those beach bunny island dating shows right now, I’m not proud, and my son is pestering me to take over my tv and watch the Tiger King, a show I am certain will offend my every protective parent sensibilities, but it’s a whole new world from when I was a teenager and me and my friends were considered the dangerous ones with our oh so supposedly edgy and punishable hair gel and too many spiked belts offenses. Everything the kids are into nowadays seems gruesome and horrifying to me, quite honestly-I feel like they are being programmed by the WEF/Klaus Schwab occult creeps. Great Reset: Britons to Live Off Bug Meat by 2030 to Hit Net-Zero (breitbart.com)In my day, the preachers and teachers and juvie corrections screws were hassling us over Dee Snider and Cyndi Lauper, Boy George and Hanoi Rocks, ya know what I mean? NOW, they PUSH violence and other dehumanizing gross and unhealthy shit on the children prematurely, eating bugs, cults, sexualizing young people age inappropriately. My kids’ newest kick is fixating on exotic pet ownership. This big kid watches 15, 20 hours of monkey videos a day, I can’t even get him to go outside, it’s like monkey mania around here. I need a break. Some grownup time. No rest for the ruined and weary. I’m only on the first episode, but so far I’m charmed by this Joe Exotic guy, kinda suspect he could be right about that lady with the dead millionaire husband who follows him around sabotaging his livelihood while engaging in all the exact same activities. Anyways, all us old rocknroll people will miss the great Robert Gordon. God Bless Robert Gordon & Link Wray.
(MANDATORY CREDIT Ebet Roberts/Getty Images) American Rockabilly musicians Link Wray (1929 – 2005) (left) and Robert Gordon (1947 – 2022) pose backstage at My Father’s Place, Roslyn, New York, March 18, 1978. (Photo by Ebet Roberts/Getty Images)
FREE THE TRUTH TELLERS!
“A free press is the critical counterweight to the deadly militarism escalating before our very eyes, as nuclear threats go off the charts. So a big shoutout to all the watchdog journalists who cover #JulianAssange. You are all heroes.”
“The “crime” committed by Julian Assange was letting the people know what our government was doing. His ongoing persecution is a national disgrace. It’s past time for @POTUS to pardon Assange. Please retweet if you agree. #FreeJulianAssange” (-Matt Hoh For Senate)
“Fake news about China is meant to get you to ignore the tens of millions in poverty, hundreds of thousands who are homeless, and the rest of the 90 percent barely getting by paycheck to paycheck right here in the United States.” (-Danny Haiphong)
“The fact that the White House is weighing a national security review of Musk’s Twitter purchase because he’s perceived as having an “increasingly Russia-friendly stance” is an admission that the US government views large social media platforms as its own propaganda services. Love how it goes completely unquestioned that the US government can’t allow the purchase of a social media company if the would-be buyer isn’t deemed sufficiently hostile to US enemies. What does that tell you about Silicon Valley’s role in the US empire?” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
“Fascism is becoming so mainstream in US politics that this Republican state representative from Florida is openly invoking Spain’s fascist dictator Franco, a Hitler ally (The day after he tweeted this, Governor Ron DeSantis personally sent him a friendly happy birthday letter)” (-Ben Norton)
“Turns out the Ukraine proxy war is not about democracy or human rights, it’s about protecting the “international order” that makes US oligarchs rich. Oddly this regime propagandist doesn’t see how the West’s boomerang sanctions are making the working class poorer and angrier.” (-Max Blumenthal)
“A regime that points guns at people for wielding cameras is a regime that sees truth as a threat.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
“Why are we calling for a cancellation of the F-35 program? We primarily stand firmly against the F-35 as a weapon of war. The F-35 is sold to the Israeli Occupation Forces that kill and harm Palestinians daily. The warplane also spells a complete disaster for the environment, using around 1,340 gallons of fuel per hour! The F-35 program is also a complete failure — it’s 9 years behind schedule, riddled with major flaws, and yet continues to receive never-ending investment. Programs that protect people, such as universal healthcare, never see the light of day, while the F-35 program has cost U.S. taxpayers $1.7 trillion
CODEPINK is dedicated to ending the F-35 program. It is a perfect example of unchecked military spending — the money we’ve poured into the F-35 program could be used to forgive student debt. It could be used to fight the climate crisis. It could be used to fund universal healthcare. As the effects of climate change worsen and our communities continue to deal with the effects of overlapping pandemics, we need international solidarity and social resources more than ever. What we DON’T need is the dysfunctional, trillion-dollar military buildup of the F-35 which stokes fear, wastes resources, and destroys lives and the planet.
Towards Peace, Danaka, Ann, Isabella, Farida, Grace, Justina, Jodie, Kelly, Lola, Marcy, Maha, Mark, Medea, Melissa, Michelle, Nancy, Olivia, Paki, Sam, Shea, Samantha, Teddy, Teri, and Tim
“Two of my interviews with @DoubleDownNews have now been removed. The latest video exposed the role of the media in upholding the status quo. Some may find that ironic. I find it deeply disturbing — @tiktok_ukhave serious questions to answer.” (-Jeremy Corbyn)
Man I used to call Mazzy Star “sleepy girl music”. I lived with like, this Royal Trux type of junkie couple at one point in my twenties and they used to kinda scare me because they’d always get high and kinda nod out for hours at a time while listening to dreamy, ethereal Mazzy Star, but lately I’ve been rediscovering Hope Sandoval. I saw her once with the Jesus & Mary Chain. At this point in my life, her whole vibe is hypnotizing, soothes me. Hope’s from east L.A. like my old girlfriend Lisa Baeza. You know I’m a lifelong Jesus & Mary Chain devotee. They put her in special ed classes, just like me and Dekan, who was a genius guitarist when we were kids, but hustled into the military like most all our working class friends with single moms.. I guess Hope was in Opal, I had some cd by them but don’t remember all thatw ell quite honestly, I used to get shit tons of free promos from record companies because I published some popular D.I.Y. fanzines when I was a glammy teenager. “She Hangs Brightly” and “So Tonight That I Might See” are drowsy classics. Sadly, David Roback passed away a couple years ago. It’s cold as fuck where I am and there’s no working heater so we are bundled up and looking forward to moving into this real cool place on the outskirts of town. I wish I had some wine.
“Advocating for PEACE TALKS between Russia and Ukraine and averting a potential nuclear war is a good thing. I can’t believe I even have to say this or that this is somehow a radical position.” (-Ryan Knight)
“AOC, I hope you have heard of Tornado Battalion because you voted to give them billions in weapons.” (-Esha K on Twitter)
“Because the Democratic Party caucus is 100% pro-war, a wing of the GOP is seizing the anti-war mantle. NYT profiles Army veteran candidates “embracing anti-interventionist military and foreign policies” long “associated more with the Democratic left than the mainline GOP.” (-Aaron Mate’)
“I gotta hand it to the war propagandists on Ukraine, it’s truly impressive how they’ve managed to convince everyone that the real “anti-war” position on this issue is the one being promoted by John Bolton, Bill Kristol and Mike Pompeo.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
“Being a black radical in the heart of the empire is mentally draining.” (-Brine Kisslandbrian on Twitter)
“The saddest part about the squad funding nazis, expanding NATO, and voting for weapons for Taiwan is they aren’t even extracting progressive concessions by doing so They are just funding the war machine just for the love of the game.” (-Revolutionary Blackout Network)
Beasts Of Bourbon and Cruel Sea frontman, the mighty Tex Perkins is still alive and well and continuing to release a relentlessly prolific ouvre of total class act, from the heart, bluesy punk and country soul music unlike anything being generated in this warpig country I live in. I know Australiua has some Nato spy centers and shadowy Dick Cheney gulags for disobedients and treats the indigenous people badly, but they also seem a lot freer and cooler and still capable of independent thought than any of the cable tv thought controlled pinkhatted warpigs of neo-conned Murkkka. I hate authoritarian elitists, navel gazing philosophical script knowing college nerds, busybodies, ratfinks, snitches, bureaucrats, self anointed vigilantes, safety patrols, copsuckers, and pentagon propaganda repeaters. Ya ever heard the Dark Clouds or Leftards? USA, USA, USA woulda cancelled and demonetized all those bands for being too extra punk as fuck, not compliant enough with the fauxwoke, upper class, doorbell camera, gated community, Amazon unboxing, Gender Studies bugeater WEF microchop culture. I’m so grateful for Tex and the Beasts Of Bourbon, ya know, their music is always poignant, real, on point, brazen, shameless, and sincere. That’s what I always tried to bring you, myself, you know, before I got lockedout by the bruncher mimosa gentrification boys and their masterminding mansion moms. I miss Spencer and Tony. Most people I know find the Beasts too belligerent and abrasive, but to me they are all about real emotions and that’s why they sacre the Bejesus outta all these chickenshit conformist honky Murkkkans, who only care about becoming complaince officers for tiktok fame, special privilege pay to play VIP room popularity and fucking vicarious identifying with pre vetted, Pompeo selected, fake progressive celebrity pants suit models they used to sell wars, murder, torture and human experimentation to the shrinking middle class Buddha Garden people. I still wanna rocknroll all night and party everyday. God Bless the children of the Beasts.
“Censorship is real. Twitter marks simple observations about the Western media’s own hypocrisy on Nazis in Ukraine as “sensitive content.” (-Danny Haiphong)
“Beware of anybody in a position of power who seems more interested in keeping us fighting over Political Parties than they are in finding out what is the truth and what is a lie. I didn’t support the Libs candidate that mass incarcerated Black people and said I wasn’t Black if I didn’t vote for him and I don’t support Ukrainian Nazis that put white people in front of the line over African students trying to leave You fake Black loving Libs can go to hell. Our Gov’t lied us into an invasion of Iraq, destroyed Libya, lied to us about Afghanistan for 20 years of occupying the country, is still illegally occupying part of Syria and supports a genocide in Yemen and apartheid in Israel Maybe we should STFU about democracy. Remember when they lied and said Saddam had WMD’s, was working with Al-Qaeda, and we invaded Iraq, leading to his murder and close to a million deaths, and when asked about what we did in Iraq, one of our Sec’s of State said the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children was worth it? Nope, sorry it’s after Feb 24th now so we all have to pretend that this never happened. The liberals showed how much they don’t give a shit about Black people again, when they wanted us to shut up about the way Ukrainian Security treated African Students trying to leave.”
(-Black In The Empire)
“Haiti is the first free country in this hemisphere, borne out of a slave revolt. For two centuries, it’s been rewarded for that contribution to humankind with pillage, coups, destabilization, and military occupation from France, US, and their Western junior partners.” (Aaron Mate’)
“The other (rhetorical, of course) question is: How does the US have jurisdiction over Haiti’s internal affairs that it can transport Haitian nationals to the US for trial?” (-J Pierre)
“Now, private equity firms with massive amounts of capital—with black holes’ worth of gravitational pull if you will—are buying single family homes around the US. This “event horizon” means they can siphon off capital from thousands or millions of workers wages nationally.” (-Dr. Thrasher)
“The U.S. is training proxy forces in 9 African countries under the pretext of countering China and Russia, and planning to integrate them into NATO.” (-Dan Cohen)
“People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take.” (-Emma Goldman)
“Zuckerberg owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post. Elon Musk owns Twitter. When multi-billionaires take control of our most vital platforms for communication, it’s not a win for free speech. It’s a win for oligarchy.” (-Robert Reich)
“Last week Biden freed every marijuana prisoner in the US! …Or that’s what our media would have you believe. The truth is Biden pardoned people convicted of federal simple marijuana possession. The number of Americans currently in prison for that is… ZERO. Most people touting Biden’s “bold move” also ignore that he is largely responsible for the ramping up of the insane Drug War, which has made the US the largest prison state in the world. Biden helped CREATE the human rights catastrophe he’s now doing almost nothing to solve. President Biden yet again does less than anyone thought possible while trying to solve the catastrophic problems he himself created for average Americans.” (-Lee Camp)
“We need everyone to tweet out in opposition to the UN invasion of Haiti. #stopUNinvasionofHaiti The UN must stop being a puppet of Western powers. Russia & China if you abstain on this like you did on Libya, you will be called out. The only gang problem the Haitian people have are the Western colonial gangs led by Don Biden & supported by his CIA & pentagon killers. Where is liberal/left on this issue? Most have fallen for racist propaganda of crazed gangs & Black folks unable to govern themselves. This resolution must be vetoed. This invasion is premised on racial tropes. The Haitian people are clear – stay out. Biden had a chance to support democracy when it came into office & choose not to. Your puppet govt is in trouble & now you want to invade?? Why are not more people outraged by the racist, colonialist assumption at play here? Who gives these criminals who hold over 2million people in cages the right to determine they are going to add to that number with people from another nation? The racist audacity is breathtaking.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
“Black people are allowed to have opinions that Liberals don’t like. Did you all know that in one year ‘Nobel Peace Prize’ Obama dropped over 26,000 bombs? That is the equivalent to 3 bombs an hour, every day for a year. One of the worst things that happened over the last few decades was allowing corporations to buy our media. If you want to piss off some Americans, tell the truth about how many innocent women and children our country is responsibe for killing and that it has been done on a bipartisan basis. While the Ukraine war wages on, 500,000 people in Yemen have been killed in the genocide that the US provided the weapons for. I just I thought I’d remind everybody, even knowing that US citizens don’t care about the blood on our country’s hands. ” (-Black In The Empire)
Sunday in the desert as I write this overcaffeinated rantage, cold, gray, depressing, about to get my walking stick and put my boots on and go for one of my last walks by the river in this ole part of town because we are in the process of taking carloads of stuff to the next location. I got a lotta mixed feelings about moving, not sure it’s a good idea for the family for a lotta reasons, but ya know we been in a kinda stagnation here in the deadend trailer, too many predator class creeps and yoga culture two faced monoplist fake shitlibs downtown. I’m apprehensive, anxious, kinda got a bad feeling about everything at this point-it’s like Bad Vibes City everywhere I look, the town’s been taken over by like 25 creepy white millionaires who are painting pyramid-WEF-Masonic-Ukraine-one eyed-NWO shit on the side of all the businesses downtown, they jackedup all the rents in these ruined little houses and delapidated trailers, so you can not really afford to live alone even with a fulltime slave job. I got the blues, the people I used to call when the luck ran out, they’re already dead and gone on to whatever comes after, the ones who remain are all hopelessly brainwashed into NWO lockstep obedience-grown adults talkin’ to me about Taylor Swift, sports, designer clothing, or building their brands-that’s the same shit my teenager’s former classmates are into, ya know? Cobra Kai and fucking video games and showing off their New Stuff on the heavily censored, pro war, imperialist propaganda meta-twitterverse social media platforms and unreality tv. In my town, there’s just one bar, occupied by tourists and those 25 rich yuppies and they charge $9 for a cup of beer and have these hardon hipster Joe College bartender boys breathing on ya who expect a tip. Aint nothin here but meth busts and pitbulls. Rattlesnakes and sad old widowers. It’s all gotten real spooky Twin Peaks. Twilight Zone. Wish me luck, my brothers and sisters and friends of the revolution. Now I got worry and I don’t even know where some of my own kids are at. Can you imagine? It’s like a permanent stabbing. Other former allies are kinda being tempted and turning, might be lured over to the dystopian dark side like all the rest, I don’t know what’s gonna happen next.
TROUSER PRESS & CREEM & MAYBE SOMETIMES AT A FLEA MARKET OR IF YOU GOT YARD SALE LUCKY A BOX OF OLD ROCK SCENES
I sat in history beside this beautiful rich girl way outta my laegue named Paulette-she liked Duran Duran which was exceptional for a suburban rich girl and she told me to get my haircut like Limahl. Who Nick Rhodes had just produced. Instead, I started spiking my hair up like Billy Idol. But that was progress. Prior to that, I just looked like Walso in the “Hot For Teacher” video, ya know? Nerd city, Elvis Costello. When I was a kid in hicktown Midwestern purgatory the old people’s idea of being cool was like, Huey Lewis, okay? The popular blonde preppie kids at my school who weren’t full on mom picks out their clothes, turnedup collar golf shirt preppie with designer jeans and maybe Michael Jordan tennis shoes, wore like white fedoras with black hat bands from Chess King in the mall. Member’s Only jackets. White suitcoats, skinny ties, breakdance shirts with flaps and snaps, penny loafers with no socks like Don Johnson from Miami Vice. The cover of the little entertainment magazine they gave away free at the grocery stores, it was actually probably called “The Entertainer”, it always alternated between like, this mainstream cheesy pop hair band from Toledo called the Affair who my bass player the popular local DJ actually liked and emulated because they had lights and management, and a much cheesier cover band all the thirty something/single people went to see called, wait for it: BMW! They did like really bad covers-think of the very worst songs you ever heard on A.M. radio, “Takin’ Care Of Business” or “ba-ba-ba-baybeh you aint seen nothin’ yet”. “China Grove” by the Doobie Brothers, okay? They thought that shit was like epic cool. They all had gold necklaces, chest hair, mustaches, cheeseball grins, curly hair, Hawaiian shirts UNDERNEATH white suitcoats. What a town. Every two or three months me and my arcade rat BMX bike trail, Iron Maiden and Dio stoner buddies and me might get somebody’s mom-Cheryl or Enid, to drive us all the way out to the nearby town’s hippie record store. Some guy’s dad had owned a Tool & Dye factory, left him with an inheritance which he promptly squandered on a record label that signed ancient studio musician fiddle players and bizarre psychedelic prog bands from Germany. He had a bunch of oversized paisley velvet hippie era clothing tailor made, and he spent the rest of the loot on a record store in the middle of cornfields near a high school and a fire department in the middle of fucking nowhere, but it still became a tristate destination record store mostly because he hired a really exceptionally cool, soft spoken hippie blues and garage punk enthusiast named Dave A., that’s the guy who got me into the Stooges and the Doors when I was 11 or `12 and still stuck on the Monkees and Wings. That store was just like an old garage sale, it was the leftovers, the pickedover remanants of all the trends that had long expired-from Pet Rocks to Disco Duck. Blacklite posters and used porno mags. Lots of faded old Trouser Press magazines, but that’s where us greasy kids could learn about the sixties and seventies, pre MTV, pre Etsy, pre cellphones, pre internet. This was the Walkman and Pac Man era-Def Leppard and Duran Duran, okay? So being much older than me, like my parents age, Dave A. was a product of another time, you know that old Bob Seger lyric, “I’ll sit and listn to ’em by myself”? That was Dave A.-he’d get off work, and maybe buy a stack of frozen tv dinners from Clyde Evans grocery store, some Old Gold brand cigarettes, he’d buy several bottles of malt liquor, and fortified wine, climb the stairs to our shoebox one bedroom, key his way inside and take off his coat, and before he even got his shoes off, the record needle would be playing Canned Heat or “Electric Mud”. He could sit through both sides of a Devo or Pere Ubu album, he was a more patient man than me. He loved Elvis Costello, considered him like the biting new wave Dylan. He got me a job at that record store when I was about 17, and a blonde chick named Dawn would drive me to work out there cause I do not drive. He moved in to my purple apartment when he got evicted from his family home after his parents and beloved dog all died. He had a friend who was also into old blues records and they’d share joints and talk for hours about old blues dudes I’d never heard of. When he had hard liquor, he’d play some George Thorogood and the Destroyers, who I ended up liking, or Blue Cheer or the MC5. He loved acid, we tripped together all the time. I knew some girls who liked Cinderella and Ratt and Bon Jovi, they all hungout at a shithole biker/redneck heavy metal dive called the Wayside even though they were way underage, they had long legs, stonewashed jean jackets with little buttons on ’em that said Poison or Bon Jovi, big hair, and leather miniskirts and all the older dudes with Transmaros and mullets and rising sun muscle shirts would take turns taking them home and having their way with them, some of ’em did not even have their braces off yet-I was still a bit shy, and in love with a chick who liked the Smiths and Depeche Mode. I was trying to look like Phil Oakey from the Human League, or any of the eighties new wave baby Bowies. I had bad glasses, so sometimes, I’d try going around without them, and only end up like looking really extra bonus klutzy cause I was dropping shit, blind as a bat, bumping into things, crashing my bicycle in her yard. Finally got contacts and things got better. She liked Howard Jones when he was new, “New Song”, remember that? King “Love & Pride”, U2 “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, “Invisible Sun” by the Police. Did we go to see the “Dream Of The Blue Turtles” together at the Frontier Theater in the American Mall? It feels like we did, but I might be dreaming. Anyways, aside from the “Circus” and “Creem” magazines, you could still but at the grocery store news stand, there was nothing to do in my town, except if you had an older friend who was sixteen and could drive you around. There was a lake where people’s moms took them to swim way out in the rural county near the state park, a rollerskating rink where I got beatup repeatedly by a weightlifter karate dick named Paul M.. Do you remember the bad guys in “Some Kind Of Wonderful” or “Pretty In Pink”? Those were exactly the kinda super privileged, classic car driving, predator bullies I had to fucking reckon with all my life, while school administrators, rightwing coaches, and short sleeved/fat tied-full ashtray on their desk cause everybody still smoked indoors back then juvie authorities provided cover for their gross misconduct and violence and instead came after us working class weirdos, lower class brats, for being too new wave, or in my friends, Dekan and J.R.’s case, too heavy metal. Remember that anthem, “You Can’t Stop Rocknroll”? My rent was about $600 a month I think, maybe less, but I still never had enough to pay the heatbill because I bought beer and cigarettes and bags of burgers and fries from the old fifties burger joint across the street where all the whitehaired old people always insisted on calling me “ma’am” to let me know some more, how they did not like my black hair or leather jacket. Assholes drove by us and always felt compelled to yell, “BOY GEORGE!” or “JOEY RAMONE!”, like it was a bad thing. Man, that place sucked, my only respite was in the music. We could drink some booze or even beer and play those old records and new wave cassette tapes on my broken boombox and lose ourselves in the songs, escape into a sonic oasis where we were safe from abusive stepfathers and popular kid bullies and chainsmoking, sexually frustrated “Cagney & Lacey” wannabe butch tough guy lady probation officers who seemed to get off on intimidating minors, painstakingly solitary confinement and permanent curfew, behavior modifying us into corny country club conformity. They still think of themselves as altruistic, like they really believe they were doing some kind of good and philanthropic service for the community when they locked up teenagers for “chronic dress code violations” and helped cover the sins of the ruling class fortunate son football players, grandsons of local judges, grandsons of steel magnates and cheese factory owners-the son of the downtown bar owner-they all had total impunity-arsonists, cat killers, bully sadists. The meddlesome country club moms were all like these bedridden Stepford Wives, running their own kid’s lives by telephone, some of ’em were swingers. They all watched shit like “Dallas” and “Dynasty” and “Lifestyles Of The Rich & Famous” and later on, “Melrose Place”. Lady golfers. Catalog shoppers. Secret pillheads. Swimming pool loungers, bon bon eaters. I knew what Prince meant when he said, “you don’t have to watch Dynasty to have an attitude”. I always had a stack of old magazines wherever I went, and a notebook. The local badguy from the Karate Kid, before the reboots, when he was just an evil bully and not a misunderstood middle aged loser still stuck in his glory days nostalgia, the local judo hotshot, he loved to elbow me when I was going up the stairs, knock my Pegasus Trapper Keeper outta my hands so all my shit would splay out all over the hall and I’d be getting stepped on by other jocks as I scurried to pick it all up, future song lyrics, band logo sketches and pinups of Adam Ant, Billy Idol, Boy George, Nina Hagen; or some blonde mulleted quarterback senior I rode the bus with might grab my notebook outta my hand and loudly read my sentimental prose about that new wave chick I told you about in a really cruel and mocking voice for all the laughing kids in the study hall. He’s still that hometown popular asshole. Still rules the school, is still big man on campus in that town. Unreal, ya know? I never knew my dad really but when I was 13 he sent me a package with Martin Crenshaw, Elvis Costello, Psychedelic Furs, Cyndi Lauper, Tears For Fears, and Elvis Costello records. I’m thankful to be outta that town where so many of my boyhood friends were killed, bullied into suicide, or pushed into military service or imprisoned in jails or the factory or just tortured forever on nonstop probation. I always related to that Rose Tattoo song, “Scarred For Life”. I still feel that way, exactly. “Kenny Silvers The Boy Who Disappeared”.
“Do you remember the new romantics? Do you remember the stars from mars? Do you remember promises, promises, I aint broken none of ours…Do you remember, hey remember…” (-The Naked Flames)
Not all of my influences are glam or new wave. Cats like John Trudell, Stokely Carmichael, Ralph Nader, Malcolm X, and Fred Hampton had a big impact on me, too. Joe Strummer. Abbie Hoffman. I wish I did not have to teach everybody I meet about the Beats, Phil Ochs, the radical yippie tradition, the proto-punks, the Diggers, the American Indian Movement, the Up Against The Wall Motherfuckers, the Brown Berets and Black and White Panthers, but you know, it’s kinda like become part of my job, by default, I guess. All Power To The People, brothers and sisters and friends of the revolution. ABBIE HOFFMAN, PRESENTE!
SHE’S SO UNUSUAL
Oh man, 1983 was a crazy year for me, escaped Baptist school in Southern Kentucky and fell in love, discovered the joys of eyeliner and thrift store shopping, pierced both ears and got my first tattoo. My holy trinity back then was Prince, Billy idol and Cyndi Lauper, now I was into Duran Duran, Adam & The Ants, and Van Halen as well, but the big 3 were IT! Not that many people make a debut album as good as Cyndi’s which is like one of those perfect, near lawless, timeless masterpieces that stays with you all your life. I started buggin’ my metalhead guitar deedlers to help me work out a heavy arrangement of “Money Changes Everything” way back before I found out it was a cover. I just love that song so much and in the video, ya know, Cyndi’s band look alot like the Revolution while she goes flying around in a motherfucking trash can like a magical cross between Peter Pan, Mary Poppins, David Lee Roth, and Oscar the Grouch. I went to see her at King’s Island with my gangsta O.G. friend Sean and some son of a bitch Ohio Buckeye fratboy piece of shit threw his shoe at poor Cyndi and hit her in the face with it while she sang “Time After Time” and I straightup cried right there in front of my gangsta friend and while Sean does not believe in tears, I think he knew me so well, he almost begrudgingly understood. Sean and I knew each other since the fourth grade when we got paddled for fighting on the playground-me and Turaj versus Sean and Dwayne, you can’t make this shit up. We had our first beers together probably, our first cigarettes, playing hooky, committing late night acts of vandalism, stealing beer brazenly outta suburban country club people’s garages which was risky business back then, our friend Danny who killed himself after fighting that shameful bullshit first gulf war based on lies, he got beat up pretty badly by Todd K.’s dad while attempting to steal something outta their garage, maybe beer, maybe bicycles, i was not there. I just know the old man roughed up Danny pretty good which was no easy feat back then. Danny went to the Catholic school cause he lived with his mom and marine stepdad but he beat the fuck out of a big fuckin linebacker dude named John L. who was a big wall of meat football player at my high school who disapproved of my dangling skeleton earrings and second hand little old man shoes and smoking jackets and salmon fedora and ridiculous four or five concho belts, d’ya feel me? MTV was a huge deal for me, I’d go to a kid named Erni F.’s after school to watch MTV and they had a number you could call to make requests and you know, being 12 or 13 or whatver I thought I was gonna get to talk to Martha Quinn, but no such luck. That would not happen til I ranaway to NYC in 1984 and I met her and Stiv Bators on Saint Mark’s Place in the village where I used to loiter round for hours talking to a goth chick named Lisa Genre (RIP) who was teaching me about like, Skin N Bones, Angels In Vain, Lords Of The New Church and the Divinyls. Madonna was cool in “Desperately Seeking Susan” when they dressed her up like a downtown Village Girl, but you know she never had no heart, really. Not like Cyndi Lauper. Cyndi was a real girl, Madonna was just like a ruthlessly ambitious disco tramp with exceptionally nice looks. I never did like material girls. Cyndi was a junk shop goddess. I love, love, love her. If I was rich, you know, I’d probably own one of those Cyndi Lauper dolls we’ve seen online. I was a sucker for her whole thing, man. The Rock & Wrestling Connection with Rowdy roddy Piper and Captain Lou Albanao, her videos, I was a Goonie, myself, ya know? So I will always love Cyndi, I’ll go to my grave still singing along with Cyndi. I feel so sorry for kids who’ve grown up you know with the Orwellian Monopoly Media and all that fake fucking awful bullshit muzak that aint got no heart, all those even worse than McDonna garbage pop sluts, ugh, just awful. If you wanna show me a good time, make sure there’s something involving Billy Idol, Prince, and Cyndi Lauper. And maybe New Order. Or Duran. The Jesus & Mary Chain. And booze. And makeup. Big Country. The Alarm. The Smiths. Dream Academy. The Cure. You know. Old new wave. George Michael, Michael Jackson, Inxs. Throw in some Zapp…”Diver Down”…”I love you more than I did when you were mine…”
“Assange’s life and the life of our democracy are hanging in the balance, in this case that is destroying press freedom & judicial integrity. Doctors4Assange implores Home Secretary Braverman & Attorney General Garland to release the most consequential publisher of our time now. It is a travesty that a publisher is languishing in Britain’s most notorious high security prison, when he shouldn’t have been imprisoned in the first place. The precarious condition of Mr. Assange’s physical & psychological health underscores the need for his immediate release. Given his chronic lung condition, Mr. Assange may be at increased risk of serious illness resulting from Covid infection. In addition, his mental health is placed at further risk by the solitary confinement he’s been forced to endure since his positive Covid test.Confirming these concerns, Mr. Assange has already experienced a mini-stroke, which occurred on the first day of his extradition hearing in the UK High Court. Compounding these health injustices, Mr. Assange was reported to have tested positive for Covid-19 last week. These abuses have been grinding down Mr. Assange’s mental & physical health for over a decade, generating risk not only of suicide, but also of physical illness like cardiovascular disease, known to increase under conditions of psychological stress.” (-Dr. Jill Stein)
“The only gang problem the Haitian people have are the Western colonial gangs led by Don Biden & supported by his CIA & pentagon killers. Where is liberal/left on this issue? Most have fallen for racist propaganda of crazed gangs & Black folks unable to govern themselves. We need everyone to tweet out in opposition to the UN invasion of Haiti. #stopUNinvasionofHaiti The UN must stop being a puppet of Western powers. Russia & China if you abstain on this like you did on Libya, you will be called out. This resolution must be vetoed. This invasion is premised on racial tropes. The Haitian people are clear – stay out. Biden had a chance to support democracy when it came into office & choose not to. Your puppet govt is in trouble & now you want to invade??” (-Ajamau Baraka)
“Our Gov’t and their owners realize they are losing control of the world which makes them more dangerous than ever.” (-Black In The Empire)
JOHN 5
Man I never was a big White Zombie fan after maybe their first two records but I remember living on Rivington Street in the 80’s and seeing Ena Kostabi all the time when he was in the band cause he hung around with my older female roommates Lisa and Minkie. I discovered John 5 via his work with David Lee Roth, ya know and I like how he always plays what is right for the song rather than just deedling all the time for no reason. I think a couple other flash lead guys-Steve Stevens and Billy Tsounis also have that taseteful elegance, like they can Steve Vai and Eddie Van Halen all over the place til doomsday but they play to illustrate, show you pictures, I kinda love that. All my favorite guitarists-Mick Ronson, James Honeyman-Scott, Derwood, James Calvin Wilsey, Jimmy James, they all played with nuance and soul and not just weedle weedle weedle for no reason which is a turnoff to me, part of why I don’t really like much heavy metal wankage. John 5 though, yeah, I think he’s cool-defo not a Marilyn Manson fan by any long stretch even in the Dope Show heyday or when Alistarr from the Ultras had the Dali Gaggers with ex Spooky Kid Gidget Gein, they were just never my cuppa fake Alice Cooper. I was my own fake Alice Cooper! But man I wish I could find a competent rocknroll guitar player to join my deadend desert ghost town, elderly goth, antisocial glamarchist, and Maximum Torch& Twang punk band, THE LONELINESS influences include: Tex & The Horseheads, Chris Isaak, Marty Robbins, The Beasts Of Bourbon, Comatones, Generation X and Lords Of The New Church. Recordings, touring, video, live and in person at your next protest/riot! Meanwhile, word on the hairmetal podcasts has it John 5 will be replacing poor old Mick Mars in the Crue. 5 seems like the perfect fit, if Mick is no longer up for the arduous tours. The Crue seem like such irredeemable dickheads, but 5 survived Brian Warner and company, so I’m sure he’ll make out alrite.
“China and Russia haven’t been surrounding the US with military bases, so who is the real aggressor?” (-Black In The Empire)
“These conditions are collectively equivalent to psychological torture, as assessed by the former United Nations Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, and other medical experts in the field. 2/no national security defendant has EVER been acquitted in the Eastern District of Virginia, where Mr. Assange would be tried if extradited to the US.” (-Dr. Jill Stein)
BEEN HAVING TROUBLE EDITING MY COLUMNS IN HOTMAIL
Seems that government spy software you read about in WIRED tech magazine does not like certain words or phrases I use frequently like Julian Assange and Ralph Nader, Dr. Jill Stein, Lee Camp, and Ajamu Baraka. I’m up early this morning, had some dreams I ran into the singer of Ratt at a rock magazine store and told him I empathized with his struggles to fly the Ratt flag since Robin Crosby passed with all those other guys always battling, lawsuits, lineup changes, etc. In the dream, I was buying some Stooges and Doors posters and a couple of like 80’s pinup Van Halen magazines. Wokeup with lotsa worries cause I got an appointment this morning with an older handyman neighbor who is supposed to help me repair a glass window I accidentally broke in a holy shit wasps panic. He wants to try to source glass from an eccentric hoarder neighbor, whereas my idea is let’s save time, get a nice piece of plexiglass cut to size at the local hardware store and silicone it in and call it good. At 7:30, I’m gonna head down to the local grocers by foot to try to purchase a box of donuts for the crew. At one o clock today, we’re supposed to be seeing a different dude with a truck and a dolly and hopefully a ramp who is scheduled to remove a bunch of big appliances and heavy debris from the place we’re moving into. The owner of that place is also a hoarder who has left a shit load of like sheet metal piles, chicken wire, limber, old poles in concrete just laying around, most of which she expects us to just cohabotate with and work around forever. The prime space in the garage is monopolized by a six foot high stack of mosaic floor tiles on pallets and stuff like that, big tubs of paint, multiple kitchen cabinets in this tiny garage that have to be moved to one of her many other storage properties to make room for our stuff and I’ve also got to find a big piece of wood to place over the jackhammered cement flooring in the back of the garage from an abandoned bathroom build project, it’s kind of discouraging the work I got in front of me. High winds also blew down lengthy sections of fence surrounding the perimeter of the property, I’ve never mixed cement before, and it appears to be a serious security issue as the house is an a sketchy neighborhood. Bliss bubble yuppies in cars never notice crime elements in their rental neighborhoods, but I’m over fifty, know drug culture when I see it. There’s definitely a vibe on that street, so ya know, I’m pushing forward with this big overwhelming relocation project but only for my family who’ve totally outgrown the rickety disintegrating unheated desert trailer. I think Stephen Pearcy was in my dream cause I’ve been thinking about my old punk rock girlfriend Steffani who he also dated, and hoping she is happy in life, she was working at a radio station in the midwest last I heard with my catholic school party bro, Tom Staudt, I loved that they knew each other and were both in the music business. THey were both really good friends to me in my teens and early twenties before we all made our escape. We came from a bad town. Toxic sinkhole-crack, racism, sado sports culture, gang violence. Many of our former school friends ended up murdered or killed themselves there. That’s how bad the culture was we grew up in. Preppie motherfuckers from that suburban sports school still act like it was all normal and hunky dory. Ugh. All I can say is even with all my problems, I’m thankful I am not in fucked up fucking Fratboy, Ohio, USA! USA! Fuckshit, man, my old lady’s dada is in the ICU and yeah it’s all the same symptoms as everybody who is fit as a fiddle one day, then starts to have theses “sudden” and “unexpected” health issues after being browbeaten into taking multiple “safe and effective” medications. It’s so fuckedup. We’re praying for the old man, poor guy. He wants to live long enough to see his estranged wife and mother of his four children again. I’m rooting for the old grumpy dude like a motherfucker. We’re listening to Bob Seger in his honor.
“It seems like almost nobody in the US finds it strange that both Parties and both sides of the media establishment always supports every war our Gov’t gets us involved in, even though it always turns out that they were lying to us.” (-Black In The Empire)
MOST PEOPLE ONLY SKIM THE HEADLINES OR SLOGAN OF THE DAY
If it flatters their preferred partisan politicians, they say it is, scientific and facts based, if it makes their preferred partisan politicians look like the sellout fraud corporate whore grifter ruling class scumbags they truly are, and that’s ALL OF ‘EM, they just instinctively filter it out as “fake news” If their team is fucking them over, they don’t even wanna know. They just love their phony baloney “Dynamite Magazine” political/media celebrities so much, they shrug and look the other way when presented with evidence of their brazen corruption. www.opensecrets.org Take the fraud squad for instance, they campaigned on challenging the system as working class outsider candidates, now they’re in there, on the red carpets, they talk about being traumatized by rude protestors, vote for evil bullshit genocidal dangerous wars, and say nothing on behalf of Cuba, Venezuela, or Assange or Hale. The squad are every bit as poisonous to democracy as any hillbilly militia pro cop Maga protestor on the Capital steps, because they provide “educated” middle class property owners, le petit bourgeoise, with the ILLUSION they are being somehow “represented” by these complicit enablers and agents of the murderous super rich who they work for. That aint democracy it’s just late stage grossout monopoly capitalism.
“Bernie told you that Trump was the most dangerous President in history, then told you to vote for Biden who is pushing us towards nuclear war with both Russia and China and he not only isn’t pushing back, but is supporting it.” (-Black In The Empire)
“They lied to you about Vietnam. They lied to you about Iraq & Afghanistan. They lied to you about Syria & Libya. They lied to you about Honduras & Bolivia. They lied to you about Assange & Russiagate. So why the hell would you believe what they’re telling you about Ukraine?” (-Dr. Jill Stein)
AUTUMN MAKES ME WANNA HEAR THE JACOBITES & BOUNTY HUNTERS FOR SOME REASON
Maybe cause I associate my instructions to Dave Kusworth and Nikki Sudden with this golden era from my long gone past and a groovy folk chick named Nici I used to live with in Cambridge, Ma. We had a rent controlled therefore still affordable, big, cold, spacious bohemian second floor apartment in the wet leaves of Kenmore Square back in the early Sub Pop record club nineties. That rad chick loved the Jacobite’s so much, and also Rowland S. Howard and the Waterboys and Bob Dylan and Snatches Of Pink. She kept Nikki Sudden’s guitar string wound up in a little medicine bag she wore around her neck. I sure do miss that good lady, we were both kinda beatniks, though I was probably louder, wilder, more hedonistic, and radical leftist, she taught me about all kinds of music and literature and all about like, the Wobblies and Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and the Zapatistas-all the pro power to the people, anti capitalist, working class tradition of righteous resistance culture defying the swells in the towers, the bossman, the white devils warpig honky death machine. Ahh yes, the beautiful chiming, gloriously cascading raggedy harmonies and scarf wearing bedraggled hypsy prince boozy troubadours inspired us all. Now even Kevin Junio is gone, Epic Soundtracks, Darrel Bath, the whole lot of ’em. If Heaven has a Velvet Basement…I’ve also been grooving to the Boys, that covers album created by the Golden Arm Hiroshi and the Tokyo Rat-The Golden Rat “We Got A Right”, anything Rowland, Nikki/Kusworth related. Soothes me. and a little Mazzy Star.
“Ukraine is not a progressive government. It isn’t fighting for democracy. Ukraine is a pawn and a puppet of the United States and NATO, the two biggest threats to peace and stability in the WORLD.” (-Danny Haiphong)
“Joe Biden is a war criminal who is currently slowly killing the worlds most effective journalist at exposing U.S. war crimes. We’re no better than the butchers of Saudi Arabia who chopped up Washpo journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Now back to starting Nuclear War.” (-Jimmy Dore)
“You are correct. US Regime is worse than Saudi butchers. They are more honest” (-Winston Smith Ministry Of Truth on twitter)
“Keep up the pressure. Call on all left forces to oppose foreign intervention. Smash concept of “humanitarian intervention” as the white supremacist, imperialist tool that it is.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
“This scoop deserves wide attention. The fact that UK operatives plotted an attack on a major Russian bridge, with no apparent concern for civilian casualties, underscores the critical NATO role in the Ukraine proxy war, and its dangers for the world.” (-Aaron Mate’)
“Remember when Albright went on TV and said killing 500,000 Iraqi chidren was worth it and when she died all everybody here could talk about was her being the 1st woman Sec of State? When you call people you hate in other countries war criminals, remember what country we live in.” (-Black In The Empire)
“Russia gave asylum to Edward Snowden. The United States wants him dead, and has suppressed countless whistleblowers including Julian Assange. But Russia is the enemy? PLEASE.” (-Danny Haiphong)
“I learned a lot from this war, like car bombing a civilian is ok if your team does it.” (-Black In The Empire)
“Seems the Russians are striking parts of Ukraine’s energy grid after the Crimea bridge attack. The Americans & Israelis would have already destroyed the power grid from day 1. Weird how none of the Western press called it terrorism when they did it to Iraq, Yugoslavia, Lebanon. When Iraq was being pounded by bombs, aka “Shock and Awe”, they broadcast it live on TV for war porn. Israel’s Dahiya doctrine, specifically targets civilian infrastructure, named after the Dahyia neighborhood in Beirut which they leveled. Where was the sympathy for them? Western press and politicians have no issue with this kind of warfare. This is the example and model they showed and established across the world. Now they are appalled all of a sudden? ndia, China, Pakistan, Iran, and most countries around the world still maintain ties with Russia, not bc they necessarily condone the war, but bc they understand NATO’s expansionist, aggressive, and provocative nature, spanning decades.” (-Richard Medhurst)
“If Alex Jones owes one billion for lying about Sandy Hook, then how much does the US government owe for lying about its endless wars? A trillion? Many trillions?” (-Danny Haiphong)
“Right-wing democrat party & their phony “progressives” should be embarrassed that it takes more extreme right-wing republicans to question interests of U.S. working class in Ukrainian proxy war with Russia. But, of course, they are not. In fact they are calling for more war.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
(RIP) ” “Stand for your truth. I remain Sacheen Littlefeather.”
“Threw my ballot in the trash yesterday for the very first time. Felt great. Fuck your system.” (-John Dissed)
“Julian Assange, who has a chronic lung condition and suffered a stroke last year, has just tested positive for covid in Belmarsh prison.” (-Lowkey)
“We have to generate opposition to the imperialist invasion being planned for Haiti with full support from liberal/left forces in the U.S. and Europe. We salute the authentic left in the U.S. that stands with Haiti & anti-colonial struggles throughout our region.The United Nations continues to abdicate its role as a protector of peace by its alignment with the interests of Western colonialism. The people of Haiti are not calling for “help.” It’s the illegitimate government calling for protection from the people.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
“Please note that one of the US media’s most valorized National Security Experts has no problem publicly accusing me of being a “Russian agent,” with zero evidence whatsoever — because there is none — and then he’ll turn around and complain about the scourge of “disinformation” (-Michael Tracey)
“Here is cold hard evidence British intelligence officers have been plotting since April to orchestrate a terror attack destroying the Kerch Bridge with the help of Ukrainian special forces. We even managed to speak with the author of this war crimes blueprint.” (-Max Blumenthal)
“Somebody wants you Someone out there Somebody needs you Somebody cares Somebody loves you Someone somewhere But if nobody’s there
Here they come again Whispers in my head Same old sad refrain Wished I’d never said What I said… yeah Take me to the top I need more not less And don’t ever tell me when to stop
Here comes tomorrow And yesterday’s news Empty and hollow Broken and bruised No one to follow, nothing to lose
And only you can choose” (-Echo & The Bunnymen)
IF SHITLIBS & RIGHTWINGERS AREN’T CALLING YOU A RUSSIAN BOT YOU AIN’T DOING IT RIGHT!
When a beloved family member is in medical crisis and the understaffed hospital regularly cancels their appointments to talk about hardcore medication changes on the day of, it is really frustrating. It was imperative he be seen today, but nope-fuck you, tough shit, peasants. Something must have happened at the country club. It’s always something to do with golf, ya know? I’ve witnessed firsthand, at least, four(!!!!) really egregious malpractice/medical negligence incidents that went unpunished, not counting the dear friends who “died suddenly” after being browbeaten into taking unstudied medications, and our family doctor, who had a stroke and is partially paralyzed, after taking an unstudied medication. Turns out even our newer doctor, fourth doctor in four years, is now leaving the podunk hospital, where fuckedup protocols saw many elders die needlessly a couple years ago. Most people in my country slavishly worship rich people like gods. So doctors are seen as a special class of V.I.P. can do no wrongs, in the eyes of the mad herd. I don’t see ’em like that. First off, the “do no harm” oath has been thrown away to push big pharma mandates and government medicines. Then, there’s all the kickbacks they get from big pharma reps, who come and lobby their offices everyday with special luncheons for all their employees, kickbacks, cash and bribes. Johnson & Johnson, bayer/Monsanto and Pfizer should not run the whole world. The fake progressive politicians like empty justice tweeter AOC just dropped healthcare for all, and decided that having wars with like, super powers, was more fun and profitable, for their donor class weapons manufacturing honchos, and the surveillance tech/propaganda overlords. Fuckedup thing is how we can’t go back to the eighties with Prince and Apollonia and Andy Warhol interviewing Duran and Debbie Harry, ya know? No matter how my poor heart yearns for Bow Wow Wow and the Fleshtones and Flesh For Lulu and old Van Halen, there aint no turning back, ya know like in the Bauhaus song, “Who Killed Mister moonlight”? ! It’s a fucked up cryin’ shame too many have been reconditioned to think wrong is right and censorship is peachy. I can’t help the tv believers or metaverse obeyers, or Redscare Rachel Maddow disciples, or wealth worshippers, best I can do is try to avoid them, to minimize my interactions with them.
ALEX JONES IS AN INSIDE JOB
I always thought rightwing blowhard loudmouth propagandist and vitamins and survivalist seeds and dried food huckster, Alex Jones, was a bit TOO quacky, like he was a false flag, intentionally orchestrated by the deep state to make anyone who ever accuses the government or big business or the globalist military machine of lying all look crazy. People have been heavily propagandized all our lives shit like X Files and Men In Black and all those copaganda primetime tv shows to think the alphabet gangs and intellience operatives are good guys defending democracy, that the propaganda press is the free press and that whistle blower dissident journalists are commie badguys especially since 9/11. Co called critical thinkers parroting that Hillary nosense about how her fix is in corporate media tells the truth (HA! HA!HA!) but indie media is “fake news”. Alex Jones always seems to think that EVERY shooting is made for tv crisis actors, and false flags, to manufacture consent for gun grabs and tyranny, you know, just because there are almost always some provable ties to military training, or employment with secret security companies-that network of regime change private armies organized by Dick Cheney that helped overthrow Iraq, Libya, and stole one third of Syria, or the “lone nut” high school shooters who all seem to have parents in the spy agencies, shit like that. The guy who killed all those people at the gay nightclub had been a mercenary contractor for sone of those secret proxy armies. Bush cousin, John Hinckley is free and off probation. So yeah bigmouth gun nut Alex Jones barks like a junkyard dog which appeals to redneck gun nuts who miss being yelled at by their drill instructor or highschool football coach. I warned everyone on the Left, FOR YEARS though, that everytime they cheered blindly like idiots cause some rightwing militia son of a bitch was being censored and silenced by known propagandists and evil techlords, I kept telling you they would come for the left, next. And they did, censoring everyone from Glen Ford (RIP) and Mike Gravel (RIP) to Lee Camp and Jimmy Dore and Cahppelle the comedians, Joe Rogan, Robert F. Kennedy Jr for blowing the whistle on Gates and Fauchi corruption, Naomi Wolf, David Swanson, Ray McGovern, Cindy Sheehan, Ariel Gold, Medea Benjamin, Col. Ann Wright, Katie Halper, Matt Taibbi, they killed Michael Hastings, slandered Oliver Stone, censored all the 9/11 families for truth outta Spike Lee’s film, offed Seth Rich, are in the process of slow killing Julian Assange. Edward Snowden had to flee the country after telling the truth about the NSA recording all our communications under Bush/Obama. Aaron Schwartz and Sandra Bland were suicided. Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate’, Fiorella Isabel and Richard Medhurst, George Galloway, John Pilger, Nilz Meltzer, everybody on the left, the real left-the pro human rights, anti war free speech left is being silenced so rich shitlibs can talk about the new religion of Gender some more. They just ballsout bought Cenk and the Young Turks off-a Hillary Clinton megadonor just gave em twenty million so all they do is trash talk and character assainate real genuine peace advocates and human rights advocates and free speech defenders. From Ralph Nader and water protector Winona LaDuke to DOCTOR Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka from the Black Alliance For Peace. If there’s no such thing as false flags, why’s the government still so hopped up about the Capital Hill protests or infowars Alex Jones? If Alex Jones is wrong, if he’s just making up crackpot hysterical lies to sell dried beans and ammunition to Maga rubes, why is the government so hellbent on making an example of him? If he’s just some Texas lunatic screaming about the Georgia Guidestones and Building Number 7, and none of his ideas have merit, why haven’t they just dismissed him? I woke up too early this morning after a hard day’s work yesterday, I’m kinda sore but hopefully losing some of that twenty five pounds I gained during the store closings and travel restrictions of the Covid Clampdowns. I got a shit ton of work to do today-up too early with all the worries. If anymore of my relations pass, I will be pressured to revisit one of those awful places I used to live, and that is the last thing I’d wanna do. I don’t even wanna be buried there myself. One of my oldest friends who I knew since I was 12-ish, he had a stroke about five years ago, and then two heart attacks, the locals he helped become successful just shrugged and abandoned the poor motherfucker but were all too eager to sell off his sacred record collection for the widow after he died alone in a fucking hospice on Christmas. I just wanna get my remaining belongings and immediate family transitioned into this new place and grow some vegatables and hide from the world. All my kids have been provided with invitations and directions on how to get there. I just kinda gave up on everybody else, at least the people who say they joined the adult world, which apparently just means leaving motherfuckers behind. Photoshopping our shared past and exaggerating their own contributions to their come lately wives who don’t know how anything really went down. it’s all a big fuckin put on. With collections and vacation homes inherited from conservative inlaws. The prestige and property nuts, man they just love their wars and lies and jails and property, don’t they? Control of the cahnnel changer-cooking channel or shows about flipping properties and mansions on Sunset, yeah? I can’t stand no motherfuckers no more. They all lost the motherfuckin COOL. Ya know? “Just makes me wanna cry…”
“US weapons have killed journalists in Palestine. US weapons have killed journalists in Belgrade. US weapons have killed journalists in Donbass. The US doesn’t believe in free speech. It’s at war with it.” (-Danny Haiphong)
So, I contacted Easy Action and Beggar’s Arkive about sending me some promo swag for review, and/or a copy of that Thee Hypnotics box I wrote liner notes for, but never heard back from either label. It aint nothing like the old days, even if it’s always 1983 in my elderly goth new wave heart. Being a forgotten frontman/elusive and desirable, esoteric and untouchable, semi-legendary, uncredited songwriter/sleazy underground music journalist/basement show D.I.Y. underground antisocial glamarchist/ power to the people activist/primary caregiver to a kid severly impacted by Autism, in a vicious and senselessly cruel age, it can all be like a real tough hustle in this rich get richer economy, where all the narcissistic greedheads feel like they should fucking have and hoard every tiny last resource. I’m in the midst of relocating from one disintegrating 53 year old hovel to another built in 1940 and these impossible to please idle heiress landlords never wanna update their properties, not even with a coat of paint or new carpet, ya know? It’s just always, how do we gouge the tenants for more moolah and security deposits. I’m even getting the business about natural wear and tear that I should not be held responsible for, like when the shingles blew off the roof in highwinds and desert monsoons. Not my fault, man. I do have to repair some tiles on the floor my kid tore up with his chair and replace a window in the garage I broke while impulsively and stupidly trying to kill wasps. It’s autumn, got cold overnight here-kid woke me up at 4 in the morning. I’m melancholy as hell. I hate the Joker’s Wild uncertainty and instability of having to rely on delusional bliss bubble, got mine, shit hoarder landlords, they got all the power and I got almost none. I wanna drink cause it’s about all that calms my frayed and shattered PTSD nerves, but I have too much work and responsibility in front of me right now, and I have to set an upright example for my teenage kid. So this early morning’s drug of choice is some vintage Peter Murphy, which always soothes my traumatized crazy mind and yearning heart. I been into Bauhaus-Tones On tail-Love & rockets and Peter Murphy since I dunno probably 83 or 84. I don’t think popular music ever got better than that whole era-Echo, Smiths, Flesh, Lords. I probably told you this story before but it was the night of that famous Butthole Surferss at Danceteria show where they all got naked and caught everything on fire. I was tripping on acid with my older friends Morgan a video editing semi famous DJ, Robbie a soap opera actor who later became drummer in superstar actor’s band and about five in the morning, when all the older dudes retreated to their bedrooms with their leather bag designing Polish model girlfriends, I was left there looking out these gigantic eleventh floor windows overlooking some Dickensian city scape sunrise. I think Martha Quinn still lived like a block away on Saint Mark’s Place back then. They had like the best stereo equipment and headphones in the world back then-state of the art. I discovered Love & Rockets “7th Dream Of Teenage Heaven” there and would never be quite the same. Also: Joy Division and Fra Lippo Lippi. Thank you, lads. Probably three or four years later when I was 17 and 18, “Love Hysteria” and “Deep” were the soundtracks to a romantic love affair I had with a superbrained, enigmatic, goth goddess named Steffani who I kinda stole from Skinny Puppy’s keyboard player. She was really something. I still feel related to her. Another stunningly voluptuous girlfriend who used to sneak me into her parent’s basement when it snowed out and I had nowhere to go cause I was living on malt liqor in an unheated garage and hiding out from the fucking truant officer, was also a cool goth from California named Heather-real fox actually, but she went away and joined the fucking army. How sad is that? I wish ’em all the best. I love ’em all, all the original graveyard kids I grew up with.
A beautiful blonde bombshell named Aymee from the deepest honky suburbs of a terrible, murderous hellhole, rightwing toxic death town called Lima, Ohio got me into the Smiths. My life started when I met her.
SOMETIMES I EVEN WEEP
I knew that chick in the tight hiphugger bellbottoms, Kim from Strawberries when I lived in Boston, and she was in that band the Bristols that the Smithereens wrote their best song about. Smithereens were underrated. I was sad when Pat D. died, I had met him once on a solo tour of his, he was playing at a really shitty divebar and I knew there was no dressing room and his crowd was gonna be lame cause that town sucks so bad so I invited him to come hangout at my second floor apartment less than a block away from Fatcats, the junk bar, but I’d been going through some hardtimes after a painful breakup with a Plate Hurling Songstress Who Can’t Be Named. I had a badly broken heart and I could not stop drinking back then, I was in pain, and had a bar called the Galley where I drank for free right down the street, so I’m sure I smelled like a distillery, and seemed crazy as fuck to Pat DeNizio but I really sincerely dig his singing and songwriting-him and his NJ pop combo the Smithereens were real standouts in the late 80’s 120 Minutes era and they left a remarkably credible little library of songs for us that still resonate here today.
“Do people recognize how far to the right U.S. society is today?” (-Ajamu Baraka)
“A friendly reminder that the Western media paid attention to Ukrainian Nazis such as Azov before they became increasingly useful in NATO’s proxy war against Russia.” (-Danny Haiphong)
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If I remember correctly, and it’s been awhile and I used to drink some, the Brian Jonestown Massacre story as portrayed in that movie “DIG” had it that Anton Newcombe was the Cobain kid with the hardknock life who came from poverty with an absent father but somehow got discovered by Greg Shaw from Bomp! Records who also invested heavily in the Frank Secich/Stiv Bators projects. His many collaborators complained about his becoming adept at filing the copyright paperwork first and spongeing up all the credit for songs they helped co write, I saw summa their onstage fracas and fisticuffs in Ohio way back in the day. Ohio, as I’ve said before was the world’s worst imaginable high school during the grunge years when every squarehead, heavily perspiring nerd, preppie asskisser, and cocksure richkid with a pocket full of cocaine made believe they were also tortured Cobains, or decadent Liam Gallaghers, for like three years and since there wasn’t nothin’ real happening at all, their fourth rate Beatles-Alice In Chains-Cramps-Or-Oasis imitations made ’em all famous for five minutes in frathouse land when the Man was killing the rocknroll underground circa 95 or so. Yeah so Anton and crew, as media savvy NME and Melody Maker bigshot coverstars could always show up in Ohio and have a whole lotta sucky music scenesters kiss their asses and supply ’em with whatever drugs were around, which was probably less than you’d think. I’m pretty sure that guy Matt Hollywood was still in the band back then, Joel Gion was dead cool, of course. I remember liking Jeffrey Davies who I had a meal and some drinks with with at a scuzzy, mice infested Mexican pub I regrettably had to work at, he was bright, insightful, good humored, and in on the out crowd vibe even while basking in the celebrity of the mainstream bandwagon dreampop lovebuzz. He said he wanted to start a band called Ugly Things. I did like they guy and usually I’m not down with urban hipsters. We dated chciks in the same kinda circle. One of the BJM founding members, Travis is father to my two middle kid’s first cousin, small world, right? They had some good songs, in spite of their whole celebrity cult god Manson affectation, obnoxious ego trip or whatever that was that they did back then. They were admittedly way, way, way better than any of their midwestern suckass impersonator/wannabe acolytes, at least they wrote songs, these other fuckers just got some thrift store high school prom tuxedo jackets and thought that was all they had to do. I see why so many clueless wannabe hipsters copied their style and groveled at their Gandhi sandaled feet and threw flowers wherever they went. It was like that time when George Harrison visited Haight Ashbury-people would follow them around the sticky bars like seriously worshipful disciples with the beggar bowls and the whole bit. I was never that turned on by the Dandy Warhols-they had that illuminati iconic photographer making their videos that were supposed to be dis tracks against Anton Newcombe, but like their best songs were brazen ripoffs, always kinda felt like the main appeal of that band was the cute topless keyboard player. I can’t stand the gentrification hipster scene-White Stripes-Sleater Kinney-Potlandia or the Strokes, all that 90210/Silverlake/Brooklyn/SF urban hipster chic shit gets on my nerves-rich people buying second hand seventies and eighties retro kitsch, doing drugs and pretending they are poor. Pulp nailed the mimosa brunchers with their song, “Common People”. I lived that song ya know, I really did. Anyways, here we are in autumn of 2022, and everything sucks, so I’ve been digging back into the Massacre catalog, they have some good stuff if you like poppy psychedelia with a hedonistic bent, which obviously, I do. Talented bunch.
FIRST WATCH, STAY THE COURSE, MAN THE POSTS, CARRY THE TORCH & HOIST THE BLACK FLAG FOR FREEDOM.
You would think at least some of the people I gave years of my life to, or grew up with, you know-AT LEAST, all of ’em in the punk rock t shirts who were all quoting the Replacements and REM in letters I still have in my footlockers, all those people, would still halfassed stand for something, I mean, besides, ya know, popularity, convenience, and personal comfort, but nope. I wrote a song about the day Eddie Van Halen died and how sad it was I had no one left to call who’d share my overwhelmingly profound sense of loss. The Red Hot Chili Peppers apparently did the same thing-they are fortunate to have each other, even if they kinda just keep doing the same shit over and over-they are well compensated for their goofy rapping and have millions of fratboy fans. I can’t find nobody with soul to work with no more, they all died or fuckedoff to gentrification wonderlands. People scoff at the notion of truth and soul. If it’s not some kindof product upgrade, vacation cruise, or Latest Thing Trending, they don’t care to know. History is happening now and it is beyond hurtful and horrifying to see so many past associates and former loved ones always on the wrong motherfucking side of it, just following the followers, plugged into the tiktok machines, obeying wealth blindly. I see that Culture Club got some shows scheduled in the States minus Jon Moss, no big surprise he and the rest no longer see eye to eye, ya know he was who George wrote alot of those songs about, back in the day, so now there is acrimony and greed and lawsuits, I’m sure they were both holy terrors in their own way, I’m just thankful for the music they co created. I drew so much inspiration from Boy George back when it was definitely not socially accepted for boys to wear makeup in this country. I loved all that eighties new wave from Marc Almond to Duran Duran. Adam Ant, Culture Club, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Prince, Billy Idol. People at the mall used to scream “Boy George!” at me, about six months ago, some teenage boy said some shit just like that at the Dollar Store out here in the no man’s lands. “Look! It’s a rockstar!” Nothing’s changed, ya know? The dummies never like the pink glasses or purple scarves. I’m still me, maybe a little bit sadder, and usually a little less makeup than in the old times, but otherwise, 100%. It’s shocking how fast life seems to be going by now. People’s moms are dying, my old friends-many are already passed. I wish I could find the others out there somewhere who are not too greed is good hypno-bamboozled to still rock like motherfuckers, where are they now? I write these columns I suppose because I am appalled by the gullible rubes and hoodwinked worshippers of authority that seem to surround me now, and I keep trying to like, spark the careless memory of the long lost lads or find their proper replacements. Ya know? Where did they go? I wanna know.
BLUE MAGA, RED MAGA, HUNTER BIDEN, JARED KUSHNER. IT’S ALL THE SAME THING.
Pig-media keeps everybody in a kind of meta-prison, a see no evil hypnospell…all about pink wigs consumerism and remodeling and surgical enhancements and updating self identifying descriptions unless it’s time to start wars or coup another socialist democracy or they wanna keep everybody bitching about red versus blue rather than rich versus poor-then, they tropt out their all purpose boogeyman fear propaganda-is it Bin ladin or black teenagers in hoodies buying Snapple iced tea, or some guy selling tax free cigarettes on the corner stoop, or Trump voters gathering at the capital because they don’t believe the Cheneys are virtuous defenders of election integrity, or Russia, it’s always a boogeymean coming to steal your freedom fries and student loan debt, the real story is we’re all captive to these totally fictitious narratives that only ever benefit the one percent oligarchs at the top.
One of those bleak and cold autumn days when I’ve already gone stomping through all the mud puddles and there’s really just nothing to do but continue slow steady packing of belongings in preparation for the big relocation. My old lady’s at Wal Mart buying groceries for the week which is always depressing as hell cause everything’s jackedup to three or four times what it should be and my fellow Murkkkans are so propagandized that whenever Wall Street rip us off, they just instinctively “Blame Russia”. It’s old and stupid. Tiresome. Under Bush, it was “Blame Muslims”-ya know? What was it under Obama? “Blame Isis”? Under Trump, “Blame China”? I wrote a couple postcards today to people from school, White Pages street addresses I found online, kinda doubt they’re current but sending ’em out just in case. Most all the people I’d love to check in with are AWOL/MIA, dead already, or just plain zombified ratrace emotionally unavailable, incapable of civility or sincerity. Like talking to a commercial…some side effects might include death and dysentery…blah blah blah. Next day, I had dreams about some faraway loved ones-some dead, some alive. That was peculiar-they were all together in the dream. My grandfather’s brother-people like that. My teenager had some kinda drama with his mama in the middle of the night last night-woke me up, has a doctor’s appointment today. Another one of my kids has cut ties not only with her papa for unknown reasons but also her mother’s entire side of the family, she seems like she might be in peril or crisis so prayers for her safety and wellbeing are appreciated. I keep reaching out to no avail, it is worrying. Julian Assange has covid-those evil fuckers are gonna probably get away with their slow kill plans. Imagine what Mike Pompeo, Hillary Clinton, and Bill Gates are doing right this minute, while Assange is being tortured and slowly killed in Belmarsh prison, for embarrassing the imperial oligarchs and their deep state secret police.
“Imagine going to his class and knowing you not only know more & are smarter than this guy but that you’d have to swallow massive CIA/NATO propaganda to pass the class. I’d drop out. This is the problem with US college education. It’s EXPENSIVE propaganda.” (-Fiorella Isabel)
“Would it be too much to ask if, on the world’s most dangerous issue, progressive Democrats who have voted for every proxy war bill so far can rise to the level of Donald J. Trump, and also “demand the immediate negotiation of a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine”? (-Aaron Mate’)
“It is infuriatingly easy for mindless automatons to parrot Empire propaganda then pat themselves on the back for their faux patriotism. Intellectual cowards.” (-DeepFake Dissident)
“Julian Assange is a journalist who told the uncomfortable truth all around the world of what happened in Iraq, what happened in Afghanistan, what happened in Syria, Libya, environmental destruction, the power and interface of big business and arms companies with governments. That truth made a lot of very powerful people very uncomfortable so the U.S. has tried to charge him under the Espionage Act.
If we believe in free speech, if we believe in independent, democratic journalism, then Julian Assange should be freed from Belmarsh and not removed to the United States. Today we’ve shown the levels of public support for Julian by having this huge human chain all around Parliament despite the obvious transport difficulties today because of the rail strike. Internationally there is huge support for Julian Assange. … So my message to journalists around the world is, take up your chosen profession to take on a responsibility to tell the truth without fear nor favor. Tell the truth about Julian and say to the British government, refuse the extradition.” (-Jeremy Corbyn)
“The real Cancel Culture crisis is imperialist institutions cancelling Palestinians for daring to exist and refusing to be colonized.” (-Ben Norton)
“The Biden administration this week purchased $290 million worth of Nplate, a radiation sickness drug — with serious side effects — developed by drugmaker Amgen in partnership with several government agencies, including the NIAID, headed by Dr. Fauci.” (-Robert F. Kennedy Jr.)
“”If maintaining public support for a proxy war requires nonstop PR spin, aggressive propaganda from the mainstream news media, banning of Russian media, and giant troll information ops amplified by think tanks and government agencies, it probably shouldn’t have public support.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
“Here’s a novel idea. Hold the bipartisan warmongers – pushing weapons not diplomacy – accountable, before they get us all killed. Support peace candidates in the midterms.” (-Dr. Jill Stein)
“Censorship is real. Twitter marks simple observations about the Western media’s own hypocrisy on Nazis in Ukraine as “sensitive content.” (-Danny Haiphong)
I remember my older guitar player used to play Throbbing Gristle vinyl whenever he felt like getting under normal suburbanite people’s skin. Or Lou’s Metal Machine Music.
Yeah now that trans-this and pan-fluid-they/them that have become almost mandatory rather than just consensual, Genesis and Jaye’s movie seems almost pedestrian, nudity’s so common now, it’s kindof lost all the inflammatory power it had back in the eighties. Getting underage kids to say shocking things is pretty normalized to in the New Gates Order or whatever it’s branded as this week. Nazi fetishism and Crowley magic, too. Corporate media is making every cartoon character gay or bi now, every fictional hero, and the Hunger Games-Squid Game-Tech-Elites-Robocop-Dystopia is relentlessly promoted by the mainstream juggernaut now, so it’s a much different trip entirely, remembering how radical those after hours performance spots in Alphabet City were in the eighties, when a little eyeliner was considered so unforgivably outlandish and taboo. Jaye, like me, fled to Alphabet City when she was also 14 to get away from the dummy eighties monoculture. Alphabet City in those days was like a war zone, really-post apocalyptic, but it was also affordable and the vanguard of underground film, fashion, punk and hiphop was all cross polinating and happening at once down there. Everything from Wigstock to Nick Zedd films, Haring, Basquiat, paisley revival and hardcore crossover was all happening back then in the Lower East Side. Poor people can no longer even afford to fucking visit what was once known as the melting pot. I’ve been personally inspired by the in the moment, impromptu, improvisational and experimental music Genesis and Co. have been doing since I first discovered that “Godstar” 12 inch way back in my teens. Thirwell, Cabaret Voltaire, the Swans, Einsturdende Neubachten, Birthday Party, Ministry were all a big part of our eighties underground electronic, proto industrial, post punk and new wave scene. Nowadays, everything’s a sample or a sound collage. Even the Brion Gysin and William Burroughs cut up technique has become kindof ubiquitous in pop culture these past few decades. If you know me, you probably are well aware my only real ambition in life was to write songs, make records, and tour with a weird little band of my own, which kinda never came to pass when all the other punks died, went straight, or turned pro. I tended to gravitate more towards the dreamier Pink Floyd/Doors/Velvets influenced side of what psychic TV did as opposed to the noisier and more abrasive. Ya know one of my old metalhead friends always called me “the Flower Power Popster” because I like melodic pop music and am pretty leftist/anti authoritarian/pro freedom/anti war, anti fascism, anti tyranny. Like I said, now some of the Psychic TV ideas have been so normalized by the Gates Reset-Hulu-Netflix programming, where controlled big 5 corporate monopoly media almost seems to want to force hormones and surgeries on every kid, I’m less enthusiastic about them than I once was-the monarch programming and one eyed occultic creepy worship of the predator class cultish super rich has become kinda ho hum ubiquitous now and many concepts that might have been revolutionary back in the eighties, seem to have been hi jacked, co opted, weaponized by authoritarian billionaires in the 2020’s, I’m about freedom, not conformity or forced identification with any program, having said that, I think their love story was very, very romantic, this movie is a vital document, and I like a lot of his music and art in spite of the bits that I find objectionable nowadays when kids are being forced to become hypersexualized and gender aware way too soon. I don’t think the bug eating they are pushing in California schools is that groovy, either. Everything to do with wars and drugs and the environment seems to be bullshit lies that we are forcefed in the propaganda platforms and new media which has also been taken over by the deep state spooks. Always some darkening agenda at play. Strange how tame Psychic Tv are now in the context of todays faux woke deep state bizarro world, where up is down and down is up. They used to be like, outrageously profane.
Autumn melancholy has been a recurring theme of my song lyrics since I wa a kid-maybe something to do with my friends who died in autumn, maybe something to do with “back to school”, I just wanna crawl into a bottle, or old songs, or under blankets, and hibernate now. Call it full flight from reality like the 12 steppers do, or retreating from the new world order bullshit propaganda, I just want less and less involvement in your capitalist ratrace rigged sham, phony baloney elections, controlled media, industry captured regulatory agencies, gentrification police state where one is required to present as sufficiently soccer mom middle class or is subject to stop and frisk enhanced interrogation airport gropings and identity-profiled shakedowns, or garbage fuckedup weaponized pig media induced pro war culture of death. Even our own lifelong punkroll and post-punk new romantic super heroes like Duran Duran and Billy Idol and the Pretenders are forced to collaborate with illuminati muppets like Miley Cyrus and are used to promote bullshit proxy wars in the Ukraine for empire and western oil company-big-pharma-surveillance tech hegemony. Damn shame, cause summa these people still write great fucking songs.
“I never thought I’d ever get to meet another rebel like you” (-Billy Idol)
BIRDLAND
A crazy neighbor hates animals, even the birds. When I first came to the desert, I was shocked by how loud the wildlife got at night here, and the mornings were a symphony of birds, but then, the dickhead developers showed up with their bulldozers to build condos, tear down the wildlife habitat, and pressure city hall into changing the traditional desert Southwest, unconforming cowboy, cactus and rock and cow skull culture, to please sensibilities of gentrification Karens and shit. I’m trying to relocate to a nearby town further away from the fauxwoke hipster tourist trap district. Everything’s a ripoff now in the post Covid Gates-Reset Economy, even motherfuckin Happy Meals are like $13. Rent is outrageous, gas, groceries, heat. Dumbfuck Murkkkans love being gouged and exploited as long as they are assigned a bad guy boogeyman to blame all the sins of the ruling class on, and some pretty saviors who talk all sugary on the red carpet at the creepy Eyes Wide Shit Ball to play the good guys. The face and the heel, just like wrestling. They all went to Klaus Schwab’s Training School For Futuristic-Fascists.
Lotta my ex peers like being in the center of all the ratrace competitive hustle and bustle, I wanna be able to access civilization every once in awhile to buy survival essentials, but I’ve come to really need those wide open spaces that commercial country cowgirls sang about. Moments free from media blare and pro war propaganda and divide and conquer police state copaganda.
I’m alone, bored, sober, a little bitter, anxious, and resentful in the dead dull desert, it is raining so I can’t really even go on one of my twice daily restless walks to take pictures of cactuses and clouds without getting drenched-looks like the river has risen onto the nearby roads which means that old garage is leaking water onto my last few semi-salvaged belongings. I’m gonna dial my long estranged kid’s digits today and find out hopefully how they’re doing. Mostly taking care of a very restless and bored teenager with Autism. Sometimes, I get random emails from former associates with mental illness dramas, I try to steer them gently back into music and being creative. I, myself, aint really been writing much of note for a long time. I already said it with more poetic light a long time ago in all those songs that were rippedoff or just underrecorded and long forgotten in those gray storage tubs in the leaky garage. I wish I could find some people to make new music with-my wife is too busy most of the time. Old friends are either too soldout square, Amazon shopper, tv believing, nine to five robotic to play real anarchy guitar anymore or just so completely and utterly antisocial and alienated from society they have no ability to provide for themselves in any meaningful way whatsoever and I can’t carry those folks. So no music is being recorded or performed, but it’s all in my head for however much longer I can last here in this phantom zone on this weird planet in this impossibly dark age. My kid had on his usual loud blaring youtube shit last night while I watched the Stones in Hyde Park and my old lady noticed I watched with the sound turned down and asked me if I wanted her to turn the volume up, I love watching Lisa Fischer and Bernard having so much fun dancing together, I told her i can hear the songs in my head. One album I been playing in my own skull lately is that fabulous BIRDLAND record. It took me awhile to get used to their unique sound but I ended up digging it thoroughly, although my heavy metal friends back in Boston memorably dismissed them as “those Nick Rhodes pussies”, hell, I LIKE Nick Rhodes. I even like Andy Warhol…and Kajagoogoo, too. So yeah, some Birdland for ya on this melancholy morning. Formed in 1988 by singer Robert Vincent and his guitar playing brother, Lee, they started out as a more glammy, nearly grebo outfit called Zodiac Motel. “Hollow Heart”, “Paradise”, “Sleep With Me”, “Everybody Needs Somebody”, “Beat Me Like A Star” and a crazy ramshackle cover of Patti Smith’s most famous, now taboo and forbidden contraband, retro outlaw anthem that’ll get you cancelled among the twitterverse navel studies P.C. gender worshipping Klaus Schwab programmed safespacers. Signed to Lazy records during the grunge years, for five minutes, they adorned the cover of every fan mag in the UK, and they looked to be another Duran Duran pinup band from Birmingham, but they crashed and burned, instead. I always had problems getting four musicians agreeing to all wear long trousers and leather jackets, no shorts or mustaches, while these guys had a whole fucking concept goin’. I wrote about Birdland, Hello Disaster, and Nancy Boy in the sad last days of my shitty Kinkos stapled fanzines. Then, I foolishly took a record store job working for a real conservative, bullying, dickhead, rightwing prick and it all started spiraling downward, after that. He gave me just tons of shit everyday because it drove him nuts I had some girlfriends even though I was not a college educated business owner-he was always accusing me of being on drugs and or shoplifting. He brutally slammed a homeless guy onto the sidewalk. I really intensely disliked the dude-my female co workers were all telling they felt pressured by him for sexual favors, he was a real typical midwestern jerkoff but in the midwest, everybody is totally 100% okeydokey with any bad behavior, as long as the unscrupulous aggressor is a business/property owner. Or son of a business owner. They all still have highfive podcasts where they Skype on and on about how they were all rich and popular during that whole grunge/alternative/Lollapalooza/Woodstock 99 nightmare. I could not really stand Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Hootie, Nirvana, or Stone Temple Pilots, let alone their fucking jock college town smug, private school richboy imitators, heroin or no heroin.
I thought it was pretty rad they decided to go for perfect Brian Jones hair and snazzy threads halfway between the spandex Poison era and the carwash flannel and ripped jeans of grunge. Definitely maybe doing their own thing.
This is a proxy war that simply could not happen if it wasn’t backed to the hilt by the most powerful government on earth. And before anyone objects, yes, this is indisputably a proxy war. If it isn’t a proxy war when you’re sending billions of dollars of weapons to be used by CIA-trained fighters aided by US military intelligence and US special forces and CIA operatives on the ground, then there has never been a proxy war. That’s why US officials and the mass media have been openly calling it a proxy war.
None of this would be happening if this proxy war was as just and righteous as its proponents are pretending. If your proxy war demands nonstop perception management at maximum aggression to manufacture public consent for it, your proxy war is probably immoral and bad. If maintaining public support for a proxy war requires nonstop PR spin, aggressive propaganda from the mainstream news media, banning of Russian media, and giant troll information ops amplified by think tanks and government agencies, it probably shouldn’t have public support.
If you need to aggressively psychologically manipulate a population to get them to support your agenda, censor their speech, and disrupt their online discourse with astroturf trolling ops, it’s because you know your agenda is not something they’d choose to support on their own. If you need to manipulate people into supporting something, it’s because it’s not worthy of their support, and you know it.
If people really understood how much is being risked in escalating this proxy war, and at what extraordinary cost, and to no benefit to the common citizen, Washington would be a steaming pile of rubble right now. Nothing could protect our rulers from the rage of the citizenry if they really understood that their bank accounts are being plundered and their lives risked solely to advance the geostrategic goals of a few corrupt imperialists.
They work to manufacture our consent because they know we wouldn’t give it to them of our own volition. It’s about as despicable a subversion of democracy as you could possibly come up with.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
“The psychopathology of white supremacist mind is unable to grasp why the Saudis wouldn’t serve white power by allowing G-7 to act as a cartel to manipulate oil market to target Russia. Unlike the Germans, the Saudis understand the game & know its Russia today & them tomorrow.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
Now the place I’m moving into when the renovations are finished has no closets so I gotta accompany my wife to buy a clothing rack from somebody on Craig’s List. I left a message on my kid’s answering machine, but probably will not hear back from the kid. I’ll be honest, between you and me, it gives me the blues, something fierce. Hard not to wanna checkout for a little while every once and gain. I had some cigarettes and vodka stashed awhile back in my secret hideout but it got confiscated during my last drinky-drunk intervention episode. I am not any good at being sober-I hate it, in fact, it feels like punishment-feeling all the feelings, minus the hope or pleasure or respite from the big fear. It’s raining today-puddles everywhere. The good part of not drinking is when I’m not drinking, I don’t call old friends saying things like “let’s get the band back together”. Gotta go to the long vacant old house we are moving into after the appliances get installed to await a delivery of a stove-I hope to God the delivery driver brings a dolly cause I have none and can’t push a stove through puddles way back into a house a good long ways from the street. Everything is stressful in Gropey Biden’s covid/war economy. Me and the kid are binge watching some “Bob’s Burgers” this morning, both of us nervous about waking up the mama. She’s not a morning person but we gotta be at the new place by 11. I keep thinking about how sad it is that all those college radio REM/U2/Natalie Merchant motherfuckers from the eighties now support big pharma/censorship/deep state spook agencies/proxy wars/torture and drones and a fascist police state unconditionally cause pig media told them it was all for science and diversity and feminism and LGBT pro nouns. You can’t call ’em sellouts if they had no principles to begin with. “How long-how long must we sing this song? Tonight, we can be as one-tonight-tonight-tonight-tonight.” I aint even interested in Bono’s fucking book-talk about a sellout. Obama said he did not wanna end up like MLK-what is Bono’s excuse??? Elvis, what happened???!!!
VIVE LE ROCK
I frequently say the only bad parts about desert ghost town dwelling are lack of access to good food or international print news stands cause I do so miss reading “Vive Le Rock” magazine from the UK something terrible! CAN I GET A WITNESS? | Vive Le Rock Magazine
“It is absolutely unimaginable for a Bernie or one of the Squad or any of those phony “progressives” to deliver a speech like this in the U.S. Congress. Hell, you won’t even find many leftists willing to take a stand against U.S. & Western war policies in Ukraine or anywhere else.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
“Sifting through employment databases, it turns out that the BBC has, on more than one occasion, hired NATO psychological operations (i.e. propaganda) officers to work as journalists in their ranks.” (-Alan MacLeod)
“First the terrorist attacks on Nord Stream, now the truck bombing of the Crimea bridge. NATO’s puppet Ukraine will go to any lengths to escalate its proxy war on Russia, including the destruction of civilian infrastructure – a verifiable war crime.” (-Danny Haiphong)
I might not always agree with their political views, but everything I’ve ever done in the way of music, art, broadcasting, performance or all night, alright rocknroll get down is always influenced in some way by the ageless and heroic FLESHTONES!
“We can’t collectively get to the real enemy of humanity because white folks are unable to purge themselves of white supremacist ideological and cultural assumptions. And because of that they remain susceptible to the racist propaganda that is setting up another invasion of Haiti.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
“The US descent into WWIII is not simply a foreign policy matter. Martin Luther King Jr said the bombs dropped abroad explode at home. Last week, Detroit police shot a Black man *38* times, killing him. That’s an act of war. And it happens nearly every day.” (-Danny Haiphong)
“The white supremacist arrogance & myopia of the Western colonial world & its vassal states is such that they don’t seem to understand or care how their positions & policies have exposed the divergent worldviews & interests between it & the rest of humanity.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
“The Intercept buried this story’s actual scoop: that “clandestine American operations inside Ukraine are now far more extensive than they were early in the war,” with “a much larger presence of both CIA and U.S. special operations personnel” now than in February.” (-Aaron Mate’)
“BREAKING: Apple violated labor laws in an attempt to squash a NYC union, according to the NLRB. Apple interrogated union leaders, forced workers to attend anti-union speeches and restricted union literature. Apple has been accused of union-busting by workers across the country.” (-More Perfect Union on twitter)
“Today Zelensky asked NATO for a preemptive strike against Russia. That’s nuclear war. Do you still support Zelensky?” (-Kim Dotcom)
“The psychopathology of white supremacist mind is unable to grasp why the Saudis wouldn’t serve white power by allowing G-7 to act as a cartel to manipulate oil market to target Russia. Unlike the Germans, the Saudis understand the game & know its Russia today & them tomorrow.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
“What is really funny here is that neoliberal democrats have done more over last two decades to destroy the U.S. more than any other force, including Trump & GOP.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
“But we all know that a free and open Iran, with its resources and young population, would be the worst nightmare to Saudi Arabia and Israel as it’d become a regional superpower within a decade. That’s the problem. That’s why hardliners need to stay in power-to keep Iran isolated.” (-Amir Amini)
“Reading Naomi Wolf’s book now. Excellent analysis of where we’ve been and where it’s going. Devastating read. As she says we are now in a post humane world.” (-Nina Murden)
“Protests against NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine and its boomerang sanctions are spreading across Germany. My friend Rami sent me these videos and images from one such demonstration this month in Leipzig. Manifestos distributed at the Leipzig protest called for an end to military aid to the Ukraine proxy war, rejected racism and austerity, demanded freedom for Julian Assange, and opposed Covid vaccine mandates” (-Max Blumenthal)
I’m having trouble figuring out what keywords are triggering the spy software the government uses in our private emails now that is marking this column as spam. Are you not allowed to type the name Roger Waters?
BEING IS MORE EFFECTIVE THAN HAVING
Ya know how I know? The always ungrateful and ungratified greedhead got-mine, (want all yours too) landlords are always hissing their never ending, spiteful complaints, the passive income stream business owners won’t shut up about their money for nothing they try to pass off as bootstraps hard work and virtuous, sweat of their highbrow philanthropy. I wish I could record my songs, I wish people would not give me so much shit when I wanna drink and listen to music-of course I sometimes wish I had a little more surplus to buy books and hats and glasses and cowboy boots, or old new wave cassettes, but really, I have not much desire and certainly almost zero motivation to try to “get rich” like all the people on the hill who trash talk us low wage serfs, mainly cause all those clenching, clawing, shit hoarding, head stepping, back stabbing, turf guarding, status having, plagiaristic phony motherfuckers are scared to death their yesman inner circle entrouge or higher up superiors are gonna find out their poor friend is actually the one generating all their content. People who own recording studios never seem to motherfucking have any new songs to record. A guy in my town has to take his flash car downtown everynight, parks it in front of a hotel, hopes some female tourist sees it. I dunno if that shit really works like some kinda magic love spell. For me, it’s all ephemeral, I always want more booze, more songs, more food, more kicks. The most precious stuff I love the most just ceaselessly eludes me and the ex friends chase me around like Pac Man, feels like I’m forever fleeing from the Hungry Ghosts who just wanna steal all the life and eat all the fruit. Music is what brings me the most joy besides my loved ones. I do like the booze.
STRAY CATS, CRAMPS, CLASH, & EDDIE NICOLS
Stray Cats, Cramps, and The Clash were the early MTV and Creem magazine powered coolest rock bands that me and many other smalltown kids stranded in loathsome midwestern towns could easily connect to because they really had a whole idea, they were retro in a cool as shit way that picked up where all the Death Of Presley and fifties greaser Thunderbirds nostalgia and the Fonz left off, but they had everything, really. Hip songs, fuck school rebel attitudes, exquisite hair, pink creepers and leopard print suit jackets, heartfelt love songs, a standup drummer, standup bassist, amazing guitar player with marvelous pipes, teddy boy pinup looks the chicks could swoon over, blue suede shows and vintage old bowling shirts, unbreakable cobs galore, hot rods, they came as a whole package-even the merch was dynamite. Made us all wanna be in bands. All my little friends and me were total outcasts back then, real primitive untrained hacks just bashing away but that was all we needed really-a belligerent enthusiasm and an idea. I have no idea what all those modern day scene queen posers think they are doing with all their expensive gear and clothing but they do not have any ideas or enthusiastic belligerence, and that’s a shame really, the main reason none of it really rocks that much at all. I know summa those guys who play in those real gentrified nowadays bands-they’re the kinda guys who got old and cheesed out, became inlaw pressured, uncool and uptight so now they like to play that he’s the “good guy” and I’m the “bad guy” game, it’s so corny now, these poor fuckers, it always makes me laugh, that they still need some kinda mirrored shades wearing feather earring boogyman to blame for their youthful indiscretions among their posher than thou in crowd friends. The money havers are such a joke to me. Clinging to it, shaking with fear I’m gonna show up someday and get ’em in trouble somehow with their fancy wife from the upper crust. Hoo Hoo. Can’t take it with ’em. But I get to KEEP my bad reputation. Stray Cats brought all that atomic jet fuel energy, plus dedication, real committed musicianship and whizbang songwriting. That was it for me, they really had it all, and even as I got a little bit older, I remained really invested in Brian Setzer’s solo albums-they really always spoke to me. Part of my whole thing really can easily be traced back to Brian Setzer. If you’ve seen ’em live, you know they rock like motherfuckers. “Runaway Boys” was probably one of the reasons I felt motivated to split that town and quit that town when I was 14 and had more than my fair share of bullshit from the 700 Club antirock church fanatics and the uncool uptight square juvenile corrections professionals. So yeah, if you had any style or flair or rebel spirit and were from some miserable dump where you could seldom find any underground records, at least back then you could still access all that primo eighties mainstream music they were playing on the radio like the Stray Cats,Joan Jett, and The Clash! Me, I loved Van Halen, ZZ Top, J. Geils, the Blues Brothers, Madness, I liked it all! My idea of awesomeness back then was like, checkered Vans, parachute pants, and a knitted see through shirt and some kinda cool leather hat and a spiked bracelet and four spiked belts from like, Merry Go Round in the Indiana mall like those big city teenage street gangs you’d see in “Breakin'” or “Beat It”, or “Beat Street”. I had a big jock friend named Bobby H. (RIP) who liked The Cars, his mom forbade him from socializing with me because all the parents disapproved of my appearance, an awkward mishmash of breakdance hip hop, new romantic, goth, and Jeff Spicoli infused heavy metal. Bobby and Brent W. stole his mom’s fancy sports car, painted it to look different and then took it outta town on a wild muti Chess King extravagant shopping spree on Bobby H.’s mom’s credit card. They got in big trouble for that shit. I’m glad I was not involved. Me and Dekan did steal some Jim Morrison books and heavy metal magazines from the bookstore in the mall. Years later I got cuffed when Dekan sprayed blue Halloween hairspray in my hair, walking around Value City. We drank and smoked cigarettes, too. Got laid in the cemeatry and on the railroad tracks by the cemetary. “The Bad Kids”!
I remember being in juvenile hall and my grandfather writing a letter to me responding to some Brian Setzer quotes I had sent to him on a postcard!
The establishment tried to kill Elvis/wild rocknroll by making him go away and serve in the military but it will always find a way to come back to life-that’s what Fred Hampton means when he says you can kill the revolutionary, but you can’t kill the revolution. I tried to ignore that stupid swing revival, because I could not stand almost any of the suburban swing types, but then I met this dude Eddie Nichols in a bar and we became friends, instantly. We kept in touch for a couple years and we’d even get together anytime he came through my part of the country back then. He has it. Bigger than movies, bigger than life. He is a bold blue flame. And a righteous hombre. You know I don’t say that about everybody. Eddie Nichols is an exceptional talent, a real star. It’s hard to see him sing without wanting to smoke and drink.
One of the next bands in the early eighties nowheres, Quiet Riot kids lurking around the arcade with Marlboros behind our ear, were able to access, gradually over time, was THE CRAMPS. Man, whenever you’d visit a big city when we were preteens and young teenagers, you’d pick up something related to The Cramps. Postcard, t shirt, vinyl-you’d spend hours gawking at the sleeve art. You could catch ’em live like two hours down the road, too cause they’d come play the bigger college towns. Back then us graveyard kids and Marlboro smokin’ dead end brats in the combat boots and leather jackets knew to stick together. One of my first garage bands used to do “Garbage Man”. Ya know bands like those ghouls had the deep dark cool of authenticity, they weren’t pissin’ around, wasting my time with half hearted bullshit-they left it all on the stage, and showed me how.
“There is an historic crisis in the West of mass anxiety and poverty imposed by unusually stupid people who follow a cult offering war to all and riches to the few. The question is: Is stupidity and its self-destruction the new plague? Please read on: Patrick Lawrence: The West—Technocrats, Incompetents, Ideologues – scheerpost.com” (-John Pilger)
is shameful and sends a chilling message to journalists who want to report accurately on Israel’s occupation of Palestine. This monologue was well-written, well-researched, and an important example of journalistic integrity.” (-CODE PINK)
“The heavy-handed tactics of the U.S./UK in blowing up Nord Stream pipelines has finally stripped away any pretense in Germany that the U.S. is an ally. The problem is that the extreme right will benefit from this new awareness if the left does not take a strong Anti-war position.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
Me and my hard partying drinking buddy Dan C. both got Elvis haircuts one year and strutted around combing our hair with Murray’s pomade all day and at night underneath the streetlamps make believing we were in West Side Story. People seem to understand when I tell ’em I’m really influenced by David Lee Roth and Billy Idol, but they always raise an eyebrow when I start talking about how Chris Isaak‘s gotta be one of my biggest influences because my singing voice is nowhere near angelic, nothing like his golden pipes, and I’m not pretty, but you don’t have to look like Elvis to be influenced by somebody’s songs about heartbreak and despair. “I don’t want no counseling…” About twice a year on a rare drinking night for my honey, we’ll pull out the guitar and she will play my old songs, we still do a few of my slower old ones, like a private latenight Lux N Ivy Revue. All my songs I wrote in the Bastards, the Naked Flames, and the Loneliness were heavily Chris Isaak influenced.
came along about the same time I was discovering stuff via an older friend from the big city, like, X, Gun Club, Chris Isaak, Tex & The Horseheads, Charlie Sexton. I naturally loved all that stuff, but as usualy, being from Maysville Kentucky before getting stuck repeatedly for years in bleak and always thoroughly hellish Ohio where they manufacture the fratboys, somebody has to wear thoes dumb cargo shorts and baseball caps, I guess. Talk about chili and sports at the Beer Barrel pizza. It aint gonna be me, though. Jason & The Scorchers will always have a profound influence on my own deadend desert ghost town elderly goth and “Maximum Torch & Twang” band, The Loneliness, and our spontaneous getdown latenight hoedowns. Looking for a lead guitarist who is a cross between Bryan Gregory and Kid Congo Powers.
“Liberals never really believed in their values. What has always matter is protecting liberal privileges by aligning with the colonial power of the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
UNITED KINGDOM – JANUARY 01: Photo of Phil THORNALLEY and CURE and Lol TOLHURST and Andy ANDERSON and Robert SMITH and Porl THOMPSON; L-R: Phil Thornalley, Porl Thompson, Robert Smith, Andy Anderson, Lol Tolhurst – posed, studio, group shot (Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns)
were the other mainstream punk influenced bands ya know, along with like the Ramones and the Damned that were heavily merchandised enough and got enough college airplay to have made it to our fuckedup little tank plant Ohio town. Cool girls at school liked Prince, Madonna, Duran and Siouxsie. The boys all loved the Mifits-we covered “Skulls” and “Astro Zombies”-our drummer’s sporto older brothers were discovering like Black Flag and the Circle Jerks, TSOL, and Dead Kennedys but they were all still Budweiser swilling conformist jock dicks who mostly hated me and my friends except for two guys who got the pass, but had to do a lot of kissing up for it. By 87 and 88, I was out of detention hall but not off of double secret slippery slope, school to hoozgow pipeline, sticky trap, semi-permanent probation and the authorities were still fucking with me all the time for my Aqua Net and hoop earrings and nosering and rosaries. The boys in our crowd were all starting to like shit like Suicidal Tendencies and even some corny DC/HC. Me and the girls were all still listening to like Prince and Peter Murphy, Billy Idol, Sisters. the Bolshoi, and the Cure. Lots of Duran Duran and New Order. Mary Chain and Roxy Music and back to Inxs and the Furs. I was hanging out with a girl named Jenna, but she was just too popular for me in her hometown of Ft. Wayne. She reminded me of my first great innocent new wave love, it was all about the Cure and shyly holding hands, smoking cigarettes in parking lots, drinking whatever booze we could find and wearing leather jackets.
THE EMPIRE HAS NO CONSCIENCE
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO REAL PUNKNROLL?
It’s true I was also very into like, Van Halen and Cheap Trick, Billy Squire, Rick Springfield, but completely devoted to a lotta sullen new wave beauty like Depeche Mode, Joy Divison/New Order, Jesus & Mary Chain, and Psychedelic Furs. I was really always into the Furs, so when I first fell in love, with a certain Smiths enthusiast from deepest Ken N Barbie Milk N Honey Suburbia ya know, I might have been thirteen or fourteen-I think I was fourteen, she mighta still been thirteen, but we had the perfect and innocent young love, ya know, mostly cause it was soundtracked by the likes of the early Police, Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello, the Church and Echo, Inxs and Duran, Fun Boy Three, Depeche Mode, the Smiths and the Psychedelic Furs. I wrote all my songs about her for years really. Then I ranaway to NYC and got into Joy Division and Bauhaus. Video editing-filmmaking-actor-DJ’s, Robbie Mailhouse and Morgan Reese got me into Fra Lippo Lippi. They took me to see Butthole Surfers at Danceteria, it was wild. I was attracted to the low budget entertainers at the Pyramid Club. John Sex and the Fleshtones and Wendy Wild & The Mad Violets.
“If you needed proof that the political process is utterly rotted, see the American Right trying to defund the SEC, while Democrats are refusing to crack down on lawmakers’ corrupt stock trading.” (-David Sirota)
“The relationship of parasitic colonialism that gave the West the material advantage to run the world. That dominance is coming to an end & they can’t handle it.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
“Putin has just signed the unification treaties turning Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye into Russian territory. Any attack against those regions is now officially an attack against Russia itself. The most dangerous phase in the US proxy war begins and winter is coming.” (-Kim Dotcom)
“Everyone has lost their fucking mind. Propaganda has made madness look like sanity and sanity look like madness, has normalized cheerleading for nuclear world war and abnormalized calls for de-escalation and detente. It’s truly as bat shit insane as anything could possibly be.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
“The Azov Battalion = band of neo-Nazis. The New York Times celebrates Azov with sympathetic puff piece. What does this make the New York Times?” (-Danny Haiphong)
“According to Sec. Blinken, the Nord Stream pipeline bombing “offers tremendous strategic opportunity for the years to come.” Too bad that this tremendous opportunity for DC bureaucrats will come at the expense of everyone else, especially this coming winter.” (-Aaron Mate)
“I am very worried that we are on a path to nuclear war.” “A lot of the world doesn’t like NATO expansion, which they interpret as at the core of this.” –Jeffrey Sachs slams Western media coverage of the war in Ukraine and warns that we are heading towards a global catastrophe.” (retweeted by No Cold War and Dr. Jill Stein on twitter)
We all know that Lester is a man of taste. He is proving it again with this new album featuring 13 songs inspired by 13 titles of genius American filmmaker John Carpenter. Each song is introduced with a movie sample and of course, it’s starting with “Halloween”, Carpenter’s most famous horror movie here turning into a horror punk song MISFITS style. “Christine” is given a 60s rock’n’roll treatment while “Prince Of Darkness” (famous for ALICE COOPER‘s role) offers us some fine punk powerpop flirting with 80s heavy rock. “Vampires” is a good punk rock song à la The BOYS and “Assault Of Precint 13” and “The Thing” both bring the RAMONES to mind. You’ll also hear a LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH touch in the very catchy and 80s flavoured “They Live” and a CARS one in “In The Mouth Of Madness” as well as a FUZZTONES one in “Village Of The Damned.” On the glam punk side, “Big Trouble In Little China” has a bit of a PEPPERMINT CREEPS feel to it in the guitar melody. “Escape From New York” is a catchy hard rock’n’roll punk song, “Ghosts Of Mars” is a killer and epic dark punk tune that could have been on a DAMNED album and “The Fog” puts an end to this album with the spirit of STIV BATORS wandering around. This is a great album full of cinema and music references that shows more variety in its songs than the band’s previous records. Are you looking for a sci-fi/horror punk present for Christmas? This one is definitely for you!/ Laurent C.
Veglam 