Sanjuro

Even the idea that punk isn't technical isn't entirely true. Take bands like Agent Orange, Saccharine Trust, Bad Brains, or Fear... and in the post era, Jesus Lizard, Naked Raygun, and Fugazi. They are all "Punk" bands (not '77, of course) that exhibit elevated technique and, above all, great originality. My cousin is a huge idiot; he has the intelligence of an ant fused with a fucking magnifying glass, but he plays at the conservatory. Is that worthy of attention? No, he’s simply a brainless robot that has been taught academically to do one thing. For me, "doing Gp" is an animalistic instinct where you lose the coordinates of your own background; for me, doing Gp is Psychic Powerless by Butthole Surfers, not the sterile application of academic teaching... And anyway, technical punk, and I'm not referring to the usual washed-up pistols, is abundant...

Well, look at all the bands that have created clones upon clones in every genre; I don’t adhere to the theorem PROG = MENTAL SHIT, TECHNICAL, SHOW-OFF. I like Gong, King Crimson, Caravan, Rush, Soft Machine... And honestly, I find it more interesting as a genre compared to Punk, which I have replaced and dethroned over time in favor of Hardcore (Fear, Bad Brains, Dwarves, Black Flag, etc.). Punk doesn’t resonate with me, and I don’t believe playing four chords is punk now; I find the true punk spirit in many stripped-down singer-songwriter works, in the rawest psychedelia, in post-hardcore, but... NOT in punk, which has now become a consolidated and accepted genre by the masses. Punk died very early, when it was channeled and harnessed in the collective imagination, becoming just a trend, an image, anti-music. For me, playing punk means playing something so intimate and authentic that it reveals itself; paradoxically, Gong in their visionary madness is more punk than the constructed Pistols.

Name: Sanjuro | Date: 26/7/2006 | Vote: 34 | Vote for the Album: 567

Yes, but punk wasn't simply the 4-chord revival of today. Mc5, Stooges, and New York Dolls were avant-garde and experimental music; nobody had ever played so violently (maybe excluding blueeee that cheeer and a few other garage bands). So, if the two chords seem worn out now, they weren't before. And we can apply this reasoning to every genre—why isn't Dream's prog considered old? And dark wave? And hard rock? And stoner that’s almost 20 years old (Melvins Docet)? Only punk is cliché? NO! And anyway, if there are 10,000 bands that play 4 chords, there are another 10,000 pretentious, inconsistent scholars. So the issue isn't punk or prog; the issue is the lack of ideas...

Puntinicazz don’t understand a puntini.

Great overlooked psychedelic classic...excellent review. Next time though, Tollani, you need to surprise me and not stick to this excellent and perpetual way of writing of yours ^^

Russolo may have been technically superb, but in every one of his sound artifacts, NO INSTRUMENT IS PLAYED; he records and interacts exclusively with noises. Sirens, machinery, and so on. So he threw academic technique (as per the Futurist handbook) down the toilet, and Marinetti did the same; his famous radio works feature NO piano, strings, or similar instruments. What matters to me is communicativity; I appreciate both the minimalism of Cohen and the ultra-articulated prog of the Gong. And the singer of Volta is quite bland; everything is very nice, but it gets tedious. Anyway, I've read the comment about the repetitiveness of punk and I agree, but you're also forgetting factors like time (think minimalism, 4 chords interspersed with silence full of meaning), and then the singing, effects, and other variants can add detail to a piece composed of just a few chords. I, too, find those Nirvanian 3-minute songs made with a template a bit annoying right now; do you play, man?

Children play 4 chords, but there are also children who play 120 in 4 seconds, proudly showing off on the borders of idiocy, and there are children who think of just one musical school. The one that sees as perspectives the little academic technique of 4 chords vs. the learned one of 120 in two nanoseconds. Dear Cazz, there are even more: just think of Half Japanese, theorists of do-it-yourself music, the only requirement to join the band: never having played before. Total ignorance of the academy, so as not to have mental structures regarding scales, chords, and so on. The music of La Monte Young, stationary and anti-Western, fluctuating is another way of conceiving music not in terms of "Knowing how to play or not, making many chords or not." Another case is Pratella, Russolo, and Marinetti, theorists of non-instrumental noise, or some peculiarities of ambient music. Ultimately, the child is the one who sees the only possible opposition as 4 chords vs. many, which are not necessarily bad or good in either case, in my opinion. A review that sucks like all your others, bie bie. Decent record: and I was shouting miracle for Jesus Lizard, Pere Ubu, and Butthole Surfers... how stupid I was, the revolution was here instead.

I didn't understand the parallel between the '70s rock and this jazz work. However, you forgot to mention the New Wave in the musical evolution. Bands like the Pop Group, Devo, Pere Ubu, Suicide, and Wire were truly the lifeblood of that era, unlike the slightly fake and basic urgency of the Pistols. Also, proto rock like Mc5-NYD is much better. And I can't stand dark waveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee:P anyway, nice review!!

I play electric bass, classical guitar, jaw harp (control rules), and then I use a plectrum to modify natural sounds taken from everywhere. My ideal band looks like this: a drummer who spans from jazz to grindcore, intuitive, vibrant, and intelligent. A bassist infatuated with psychedelia, intricate grooves with the heaviness of Lizard-Rapeman if possible, a guitarist specialized in dissonances, evocative arpeggios, noise imprint, and even core. A singer in the vein of Pere Ubu-Lizard-Surfers-Beefheart, in short, vocal constrictions galore, filled with theatrical prose. Then the crucial piece is a person on the plectrum, blasting modified, reverberated, shredded sounds. In short, psychedelic noise-core infatuated with post-rock singer-songwriter and avant-garde :P ehheheheheh