The News Review:
- LA punks X celebrate turning 31 in style
- Iranian Rap Music Bedevils the Authorities
- Black Ghosts: Mixing horror Star Wars and peyote
- Dead Confederate : NPR Music
- Soul of the Tenderloin
LA punks X celebrate turning 31 in style
Riverfront Times – Mar 12, 2008
Bonebrake pounded like a factory and rolled like a train. Taken together it was a distinctly American vision of punk less a break with the past than an X-ray into its secrets. “It was just four people with four different skills” Cervenka says. “Billy was a rockabilly guy from the ’50s D. had been a drummer since he was a kid John had listened to every kind of music his entire life… I wasn’t sure how to do what I wanted to do and make it special or different. But then I heard John’s songs and thought This is how to do it. In the wide-open atmosphere of the 1977 Los Angeles punk scene before rigid diktats about what was punk and what wasn’t X’s twisted refashioning of American music was the ideal complement to its tales of adult books sex crimes gutter racism and romantic betrayal. Rather than pursue a literal and superficial innovation by turning their backs on the past X used pieces of roots music to build something new. With the 1980 release of its first album the classic Los Angeles X undertook an intensive touring campaign. The band’s brutal schedule would produce hundreds of rapturous shows and some incredible records (1981′s Wild Gift 1982′s Under the Big Black Sun 1983′s More Fun in the New World). It would also eventually drive Zoom out of the band.
Iranian Rap Music Bedevils the Authorities
U.S. News & World Report – Mar 12, 2008
Sporting a tousled black shirt a slick fur jacket and a rumpled and spiky hairstyle the Iranian rapper might well pass for a punk icon. "I devoted my life to rap when I was just 15" says the 27-year-old. "Rap is my god… With the introduction of satellite television in Iran in the early 1990s—also illegal—and the popularity of American artists like 2Pac and Eminem hip-hop music found an explosive following among the Iranian youth. Eventually the young Iranians turned to creating this genre of music in Farsi. Rappers mimic American rap artists in Farsi indulge in obscene lyrics (mostly unprintable American slang) and often use female voices as leads or background voices—all jarring symbols of western decadence in the eyes of Iranian authorities who blame such music for luring the youth away from Islamic culture. Mohammad Dashtgoli a Culture Ministry official was recently quoted in the Iranian press as saying that rap is not inherently objectionable. "But due to the use of obscene words" he said "rap has been categorized as illegal. "Still a variety of rap musicians has emerged in Iran in the past few years.
Black Ghosts: Mixing horror Star Wars and peyote
InTheNews.co.uk – Mar 12, 2008
While Simon’s vocal stylings are the driving force of the Justice vs Simian mega-hit We Are Your Friends – which angered Kanye West when it defeated his Touch the Sky in the best video category in the MTV Europe Music Awards – Theo’s knob-twiddling skills have been powered by influences as diverse as the glamorous electro-pop of Daft Punk to the fear-inducing movies of Hammer Films. Though that’s a family matter?inthenews. uk’s Lewis Bazley talked to the pair following the release of their new… How did the Black Ghosts form?SIMON: We ‘met’ when a mutual friend introduced us on the internet knowing that Theo was looking for a vocalist and I was interested in working on some electronic music. We started sending each other bits of music and ideas and songs quickly started coming together. We only decided it was worth meeting in actual person when we had a bunch of tunes finished!And where did the name come from?SIMON: When we eventually met in person we just chatted about all the music films books art and stuff we are into. We decided that our music should have a name that was part B-movie horror film part psychedelic rock band and part 80s street gang the Black Ghosts fitted the bill and also suited the imagery we wanted to play with. In a musical sense who are your inspirations?SIMON: We have loads of influences I really like psychedelic soul early electronic experimenters analogue disco music some of the new dub-step scene.
Dead Confederate : NPR Music
NPR – Mar 12, 2008
Dead Confederate More at SXSWMarch 12 2008Coming out of a post-punk world that had little tolerance for pop R. has spent 25 years as the bastion of pop music with a weird glimmer in its eye. Hear the legendary rock band perform a full concert at SXSW webcast live on NPR.
Soul of the Tenderloin
SF Weekly – Mar 12, 2008
Subject(s):Hubba Hubba Club and the Hop by Jess ScottPurnell and Bogart share roots in the San Francisco music scene that go beyond club promotion. They’re members of the punk-dance foursome Gravy Train!!! and Bogart has recently launched a solo project Hunx and His Punx. Purnell is also an intrepid dance performer who ran the wildly hilarious gay testimonial zine Fag School. Together the two have helped carve out a fresh scene for San Francisco’s savvy crate-diggers. Bogart and Purnell admit that the general “weirdos” at Aunt Charlie’s have fostered the momentum behind their nights.