The Gallows – Trash Talk – at The Warehouse – Aberdeen, UK – November 29, 2009

Trash Talk from California, USA are one of the most intense bands I have seen, their full on full pace show is very hardcore. Straight from the off the singer is in the crowd, making people dance, shoving them about, spilling their drinks. Meanwhile the rest of the band are on stage playing like men possessed but also throwing water at the crowd. The drummer threw a stick at the crowd allegedly hurting a young girl.


Frank Carter lead singer from the headline act the Gallows was in the wings watching them and even he became a casualty when one of the guitarists slid into his ribs making him wince in pain.

This must be one of the most manic gigs I have been to… the band came on to a massive roar and they went straight into a belting rendition of “Leeches”. Frank soon decided to dive into the crowd and was quickly followed by Laurent and Stephen, complete with their guitars and microphone stands.

So we had three mini circle pits going.  Frank had made his way to the sound desk and was standing well above the crowd belting out various songs getting the punters to join in often. He stage dived into the crowd who carried him whilst singing “In the Belly of a Shark”. Frank was all over the place, hanging from the ceiling and climbing pillars. The other two were still playing even though they were being jostled by the crowd, and finally all made their way back to the stage. When “London is the Reason” was played they changed the lyrics to “Scotland is the Reason” which obviously the crowd went wild for.

I noticed at one point that one punter had climbed up to the roof and had damaged a sprinkler which started to leak a bit. I wondered if security would put a stop to the gig because of this. Thankfully they didn’t and the band finished up with Trash Talk (the support band) taking to the stage together. They all sang “Nervous Breakdown” which was a superb ending to a mental and great fun gig.
 

 

-Dod M.-
Big Wheel Overseas Correspondent

 

More photos of the event can be seen HERE

 
                                          Go HERE to see all the latest show reviews

 

 

 

Music play list for the week ending November 29, 2009

Top 25  - In no particular order -

Middle Class - What We Do
Fake Boys - Logical Ape
America's Hardcore - America's Hardcore
Word For Word - Defend Manchester
Bouncing Souls - Manthem
Vanilla Muffins - No Punk Rock In My Car
Undertones - Jimmy Jimmy
Chain Of Strength - True Til Death
Operation Ivy - The Crowd
Modern Lovers - Roadrunner
Rat Byte - Fuck the Cops
Oldschool 101 - 315
John Lennon - Imagine
The Inoculators - Moped
Reel Big Fish - Take On Me
Agent Orange - Mr. Moto
The Scarred - Low Life
Subhumans - Religious Wars
JFA - Bouncer
Street Dogs - Tobys Got a Drinking Problem
No Doubt - Sometimes
Black Flag - Loose Nut
R.E.M. - It’s The End Of The World As We Know It
Gogol Bordello - Immigrant Punk
Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

The above list are some of the top played songs amongst our staff this week.

Get the albums that these songs are on HERE

Message of the week:
It takes two to make an accident.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

 

Dirty Secrets of Black Friday Doorbusters – That is if you have any money to spend

If there are any of you that even have any money, there are some things to watch out for on Friday.

Here's a Black Friday reality check: Of the hordes of pre-dawn shoppers who line up for hours outside stores on the day after Thanksgiving, most will not bag the best bargains that appear in merchants' circulars.

Look at the fine print that appears next to an advertised "doorbuster deal" at the bottom of the page in this year's circulars. Read all about it here >>>

Cyber Narcissists and Psychopaths

The Internet is an extension of the real-life Narcissistic Pathological Space but without its risks, injuries, and disappointments. In the virtual universe of the Web, the narcissist vanishes and reappears with ease, often adopting a myriad aliases and nicknames. He (or she) can thus fend off criticism, abuse, disagreement, and disapproval effectively and in real time – and, simultaneously, preserve the precarious balance of his infantile personality. Narcissists are, therefore, prone to Internet addiction. Read more here >>>

We all heard the terms "psychopath" or "sociopath". These are the old or colloquial names for a patient with the Antisocial Personality Disorder (AsPD). It is hard to distinguish narcissists from psychopaths. The latter may simply be a less inhibited and less grandiose form of the former. Some scholars have suggested the existence of a hybrid "psychopathic narcissist", or "narcissistic psychopath". Read more here so you can quickly identify them >>>

Living At The Movies

Since its inception Punk rock has shared a mutually exploiting relationship with the media. While the media has latched onto the sensational aspects of Punk rock in order to freak out nervous parents and to increase their audience. Meanwhile Punk rockers have used the media's hunger for a story for various purposes, whether it be just to fuck with some straight laced reporters or just to get some free promotion. Some of the most interesting products of this strange relationship have been movies dealing with Punk music or Punk rockers. These films run a full gamut from full on Punksploitation movies to attempts at making well thought out documentaries about Punk rock and the philosophies that go along with the Punk movement.

Rock N Roll High School is the first Punk movie really worth mentioning and to this day it might be the best out of all of them. Originally film makers planned on calling this movie Disco High School, but apparently it suddenly dawned on them that Punk rock was way cooler than disco music and Saturday Night Fever had already been made. Rock N Roll High School is the story of Riff Randall, a high school chick who is rightfully obsessed with the Ramones and rock music in general. The role is perfectly played by the ever so drool worthy P.J. Soles and that in itself is enough to watch the movie. Overall its a campy throw back to 1960's rock movies with a modern twist. Riff Randall's arch nemesis is her high school's principal, Mrs. Togart who has declared war on rock n roll. Togart's character is hammed up when she performs ridiculous experiments on lab mice which involve exposing them to rock music at loud decibels. There is some incredible live footage of the Ramones playing live and if you look closely you'll catch Germs vocalist, Darby Crash pogoing in front of the stage. Of course the best part of the movie is when the Ramones save the day and help Riff Randall blow up her high school.

With British Punks always being just a little behind their American counterparts it took until 1980 for the Sex Pistols to release their own movie which came in the form of The Great Rock N Roll Swindle. While the music was obviously great and some of the music video type footage was kind of cool, as a whole Swindle comes of as self absorbed propaganda and the humor for the most part just isn't very funny. The gross out factor is fairly high, particularly in the scene where Malcolm McLaren is in a bath tub full of foggy water. This scene does manage to prove to the world that just because you're involved in the Sex Pistols legacy doesn't mean that your own pistol is much to speak of. A less biased version of the Pistols story is told in The Filth and the Fury, which unlike Swindle features Johnny Rotten in the cast.

In early 1981 director Penelope Speeris released The Decline Of Western Civilization, a documentary on Los Angeles' budding hardcore Punk scene. While this film often tends to show Punks at their worst, making racist comments and generally mostly coming off as complete knuckleheads, it is classic for its amazing concert footage of Black Flag, X, the Circle Jerks, The Germs, Fear, and the Bags. A few punks in the mix do come off as a little more coherent than the rest, particularly Black Flag's Chuck Dukowski and the Darby Crash interview is humorously candid. It's unfortunate that Alice Bag is not interviewed as she always seemed to have something interesting to say. Unfortunately The Decline has never been officially released on D.V.D. but there are consequently plenty of bootlegs floating around.

After The Decline there were a few DIY documentary films that sought out to show Punk rock in a more positive light. Urban Struggle: The Battle Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a somewhat obscure flick that tells the story of Orange County's first club dedicated to Punk rock and how local law enforcement made it a point to make sure the venue was shut down. While it is super short at about forty five minutes in length, the interviews are generally pretty thought provoking and there is some killer footage of TSOL and the Circle Jerks as well as some rare early footage of Rollins singing with Black Flag. Another State of Mind is a much more well known movie and it documents Youth Brigade and Social Distortion's first American tour. Along the way they interview Punks all over the country and eventually meet up with the guys in Minor Threat in Washington DC.

One 1980's movie that takes a much more tongue in cheek look at Punk rock is Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains. The cast features members of the Sex Pistols and The Clash and the plot revolves around two bands- The Looters (a fictional band which had a similar lineup to the Professionals) and the all female Punk group, The Stains. In a way the movie predicts the Riot Grrl movement of the 1990's while also poking fun at Punk sensationalism and the commercialization of subcultures. There is a brief but funny cameo featuring Black Randy and the Metrosquad. While this is a fictionalized story it is a much more legitimate Sex Pistols related movie than Sid and Nancy.

While the mainstream culture became more fascinated with skateboarding in the 1980's the mandatory Hollywood movies about skating followed the trends and no 80's skate flick would be complete without Punks. Thrashin' was a pretty lame movie about a skate Punk gang called the Daggers terrorizing their much more wholesome counterparts. The movie degenerates into a teenage love story but it is actually pretty charming in its B rated cheesiness. Gleaming the Cube, which starred a young Christian Slater was a much cooler skate movie with some serious Cold War era themes. Slater the skater teams up with his skate rat pals to cause terror in the suburbs and eventually to solve a murder mystery after Slater's step brother is murdered. There's all sorts of weird things going on with covert anti Communist operations. There's some excellent skating in the movie performed by Tony Hawk and various other Bones Brigaders.

Of course no list of Punk rock movies would be complete without talking about Repo Man which is a super trippy Sci Fi movie about a Punk rocker who lands a job repossessing cars and somehow gets caught up in a conspiracy involving space aliens. Similarly to Gleaming the Cube it has some weird Cold War era themes and some strange subtle critiques of Reaganomics. It takes watching Repo Man at least three times before it starts to make sense but it ends up being pretty cool in its absolute weirdness. Often times the movie itself is overshadowed by its soundtrack featuring Fear, Black Flag, the Plugz, Iggy Pop, Suicidal, and the Circle Jerks.

As strange as Repo Man can get, it is nothing in comparison to the incredibly obscure Du-beat-eo, which is about a filmmaker attempting to make a documentary about the Runaways. With a local gangster putting serious pressure on him to complete the movie by the next morning, he falls asleep and has a super weird nightmare where he is tortured by El Duce of the Mentors. The cast also features Joan Jett and Derf Scratch of Fear. Du-beat-eo is a lot to take in and it can be pretty overwhelming and surreal, but it is an interesting historic piece in a strange way.

Suburbia was Penelope Spheeris' Punk rock movie after The Decline and it tells a somewhat fictional story of Punks living in a squat in the Suburbs of L.A. While the movie was filmed in Downey it seems to be partially based on the Orange County Punk scene and also Punk houses in L.A. like the Skinhead Manor. This movie is full of more sensationalism and overall shows punks as a pretty nasty bunch. The better parts of the story focus on the importance of friendship and also the fucked up environments that lead kids into situations where they feel the need to run away from home. There are certainly parts of Suburbia where T.R.- the movie's central punk rock gang, come off as pretty bad ass rather than just scummy. Despite some of its downfalls Suburbia is essential Punk rock viewing and has awesome footage of TSOL, the Vandals, and D.I.. Later Spheeris made a Hollywood style comedy called Dudes about New York Punks (played by Flea and cohorts) taking a cross country trip and meanwhile battling with rednecks (one of whom being played by Lee Ving).

For most of the 1990's Punk was regarded mostly as a cultural footnote and there weren't too many Punk related movies. However with the mainstream success of Rancid, Green Day, and the Offspring some nostalgia for 1980's Punk rock was generated and out of such nostalgia came SLC Punk which was sort of to punk rock as American Graffiti was to 1960's rock n roll and car culture. That is it was a mainstream Hollywood take on an underground culture of the past (or so the filmmakers seemed to believe). SLC Punk is sort of a coming of age dramedy about Punks in Salt Lake City railing against their stagnant and conservative surroundings. It is undoubtedly cheesy as all hell but on some levels it does talk about the tensions between punks and mainstream society in a somewhat humorous manner.

Like Suburbia, The Edge of Quarrel features Punks playing Punks rather than actors playing Punks and to say that this isn't obvious would be a lie. EOQ is about dueling gangs of Punks and straight edge kids in Seattle. It gets to be pretty silly and melodramatic but the good intentions are there. The cast includes members of the Murder City Devils who also play live along Trial.

More recently movies like American Hardcore and What We Do Is Secret have been released. American Hardcore is a documentary about American Punk rock in the early 1980's. Many of the interviews are amazing and some of the footage of bands is also pretty great. There are some problems with a movie that is meant to be sold to a Punk rock demographic but also claims that Punk is dead. However overall the movie is entertaining and thought provoking. What We Do Is Secret is a biopic about Darby Crash and the Germs. It is clear that this movie took several years to make as the acting improves significantly throughout the movie as well as the pace. It tells an important story and by the end of the movie it's actually pretty emotionally engaging.

While there are plenty of Punk related movies that this article doesn't mention, hopefully most of the most notable ones have been covered along with some more obscure titles. Watching these movies can be a lot of fun and usually this is done most enjoyably with a large group of friends who like throwing popcorn at the T.V.
 

 

-Ditch-
Asst. Editor

 

 
 

 

Let Them Know: Story of Youth Brigade & BYO Records

This package is definitely a lot to take in- two L.P.'s, one CD, one DVD, and a one hundred page book. The goal is to tell the story of BYO Records and Youth Brigade extensively in a multimedia fashion and the folks at BYO really deliver here. The CD and records play the same program- thirty one track of various bands covering songs from the BYO catalog. Some of the highlights include Bouncing Souls covering "Young Til I Die," Old Man Markley doing a tuneful version of Youth Brigade's "We're In," the members of the Marvelous Darlings playing Youth Youth Youth's "Domination" and 7 Seconds covering "Sink With California" in an uber posi fashion.

The DVD is an incredible documentary featuring interviews with the Stern brothers, Ian MacKaye, The Bouncing Souls, Fat Mike, and scores of other Punk rock celebrities. It tells the story of BYO's trials and tribulations in a way that is both inspiring and hilarious. (A more extensive review can be found HERE) The companion coffee table book follows the story of the film with chapters by Jack Grisham of T.S.O.L., Tony Cadena of the Adolescents, and members of the Angelic Upstarts, Circle Jerks, NOFX, Bouncing Souls, and Bad Religion. If stories about legendary Punk rock shows and putting out legendary records along with fighting cops, sticking it to The Man, and generally causing Punk rock havoc appeals to you then this book is essential.

As a whole "Let Them Know" is an incredible volume that tells an extraordinary story about punks rising above negativity and taking charge of their own surroundings. As far as presenting a complete package goes it's hard to imagine how anyone else could create something more extensive. With the holidays coming up this would be a great gift for any loved one who has an interest in the history of American Punk.

Let Them Know – Movie Website: letthemknowthemovie.com

This coffee table book with compilation CD and a DVD of the movie is something you will want to have in your collection. You can buy Let Them Know: Story of Youth Brigade & BYO Records HERE

 

 

 

 

 

-Ditch-
Big Wheel Online Magazine

 

                                           Go HERE to see all the latest record reviews reviews

 

 

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