Friday, March 2, 2007

THE SEX PISTOLS - FROM BAD TO WORSE


"....AH YES.. NOW I GET IT... OH WOW.. IS THAT WHAT THIS SONG IS ALL ABOUT?"

This was written by Sid Vicious -- supposedly. I saw the lyrics scribbed on some notebook paper. The controversey continues if he was this gentle articulate person capable of broadening political thought -- or a cartoon version of the Hulk. Maybe he was a little of both but this song does border on the verge of being brilliant.

This performance was taken in San Francisco at the Winterland Ballroom. Johnny Rotten had the flu when they shot this concert which is hard to believe that he could carry on. He also had to sleep on the bus with Sid in the cold. Malcom, Paul Cook and Steve Jones got to sleep in a hotel and fly around in a jet. This brought on the end of the band as Rotten grew more jealous and furious. Eventually he was rumored to have been fired from the group.....

I was surprised to see this entire concert existed on bootleg video. Prior to its release the word on the street was that this entire show never happend. Rotten supposedly only sang one song and then stormed off. This was not the case at all. In fact, he was supposed to have said, "Did you ever get the feeling you were being CHEATED?" and then stammering off..... but this never occured.... at least in that way.

Hell did break loose however when the band abruptly ended. There was a european leg for this tour too supposedly in Holland that was never fulfilled. This entire thing lost its edge in America. Nobody really followed UK politics to the extent of the Cambridge Rapist. But it made for great drama. I liked the Tshirts by Vivianne Westwood from the SEX shop. It was bastardized Warhol taken to the max. Some of these shirts were never printed in books. When I saw them I was somewhat shocked and I thought I had seen everything. They were pretty vile. They went over the limit for what I thought was shocking.... seriously. The reprints you get in America are very wimpy and watered down. They only tell half of the story.

This song told about what a horrible thing it is to present the war torn streets of europe as a travel destination. It does it in a roundabout way in under three minutes. In a lot of ways I respect what they tried to do here. This song was never topped in its grotesqueness as they fizzled out quick after it was released. The version i liked better was when Rotten was kicked out. They fronted RONNIE BIGGS.. aka. THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY. I liked that version better because it was incredibly silly and ridiculous as this 56 year old geezer accepted punk rock and this old German Kraut Nazi yelled SCHNELL through the end of the song.....

Sid was definately a looming figure in that scene but I believe he was far from brilliant. I prefered Sue Catwoman and Linda Ashby instead. I think they were phenomenal to look at and were completely original characters.
Cantu writes for the FASCUBE network, and is the creator of www.1seomichigan.com

THE SEX PISTOLS - BELSEN WAS A GAS - last show 1978

DAVID BOWIE - 1972 SOUNDS BETTER NOW THAN THEN !

WHAT IS THIS CURIOUS SOUND?

This song comes on at the tail end of THE LIFE AQUATIC with Bill Murray and in some ways was the only good moment in the entire film..... that and the old man playing it on stage with an accoustic guitar and warbling in French.. or... Spanish? That is, he was singing the QUEEN BITCH song...... as the credits rolled by somewhat unsympathetically.

Again, I was lost in translation as one of my favorite comedians took a radical wide turn into ..... bizarreville. Whether or not you dig the latest films by Murray is beside the point.


This song is incredible for what it does. Its deceptively simple. I like it a lot better than the Ziggy Stardust tunes..... there is a lot of weight behind these guitar chords. The lyrics try to stretch the boundaries and push their meaning and limits. You can go back to it and not wince in embarrasment. Something i think the fans of New Kids on the Block and Britney Spears have a bit of a problem with as of late, (Britney was sent to a mental ward as of this week).

Any sort of embarrasment one feels from transforming oneself to a self contstructed freak is ... ones own choice. Strange by nature. And.... estranged... from sanity is not necessarily a bad thing after all. The other choices in this world are somewhat questionable at best. I'd rather be artistic and follow the near sighted edge of what passes for curious than give in and like what everyone else likes just so I can exist in the moment. If you recall THE MEMBRANES were very unapologetically politically insincere and incorrect but damn me if they weren't a fun band to listen to. Most of us don't remember them. But between those rare gems and my Screaming Brocolli records I was in a rare element.

This track sends me the sametypes of vibrations. And I rather like it.

cantu writes for the fascube network, 2007

DAVID BOWIE - THE QUEEN BITCH

Thursday, March 1, 2007

THE FALL - attack of the maniacal style busters


"GALAD TO MEETCHA ... !!!!!"
When I first heard this band I fell into a deep state of HATRED. These songs ate away at my sanity. ONce that was disposed of I begged to hear more of it. I became a fan of THE FALL in about... 24 hours. This was partially due to the fact that I couldn't get these bleedin songs out of my head. I kept thinking about them.

Then I became head over heels about them. I scrounged around record stores collecting little bits of this and that. Since this was before the internet boom and online shopping you had to slug yerself down to the record shop and see what was available. Sometimes you'd walk out with nothing at all.

Here is what AOL MUSIC had to say about the band...
Released in December 2002, "The Fall vs. 2003" single ushered in the next great era of the band with Poulou offering a melodic base for Smith's abrasiveness the same way Nagle and Brix had before. Jim Watts discovered he was fired when Smith held a band meeting in a bar in March of 2003 and bought everyone a drink but Watts. Bassist Simon "Dingo" Archer would take his place for a June - July American tour. An early version of the band's next album was leaked to the Internet influencing Smith to re-record and add/drop some tracks. The leak was referenced in the album's new title, The Real New Fall LP Formerly Country On The Click, released in October. A Christmas single, "(We Wish You) A Protein Christmas" appeared in December.
Not bad eh? I figured I'd mix things up a bit and drop in the second to last paragraph. After all you really don't need to hear about another chapter from the year 1977 again do you? (about how the UK shook up music with the punk movement etc. blah blah blah?)
Enjoy this for what it is. Its brilliant and a bit outrageous.

THE FALL - EAT Y'SELF FITTER !

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

MAGIC - NOT OUTDONE BY RECENT CGI !!!!


magic.. MAGIC I SAID.. !!!

1978
Staring Anthony Hopkins and that IRRITATING FATS... that miserable puppet with the evil tendencies.

Oh sure, it may not look like it now but this trailer scared the piss out of me in 1978. I was literally terrified out of my gourd. I was paralyzed in fear. This thing haunted me and took up the entire viewing ratio of my tv screen. It would always ALWAYS come on tv without fail when my mother was out at the store or at pottery class.

I would sit there. .NUMB. too terrified to get up and change the channel. This was before the age of remotes even. We had a Zenith color tv, and to change the channel you had to actually get up off your fat ass and do it manually.

This movie is a hoot. Its worth watching. But honestly, I don't know if it was as frightening as this commercial. Now we are lost in this age of CGI and digital effects and horror films have reached new heights. But they are really overdone to the point where I lose my interest in whats happening in them.
For me, and my money.... this clip is what its all about.
And nothing has come close to it since it came out. There hasn't been anything that has created this level of terror in just 30 seconds. And certainly nothing as memorable for years like this one. IF you ask anyone in America what scared them the most as a child == this clip comes up a lot in conversation.

Seriously.
MAN !

MAGIC - TRAILER 1978

THE KILLERS - HOW DID IT COME TO THIS?

When the Killers first popped their head into the public arena I was interested. I wasn't OVERJOYED but I was interested. I thought Brandon Flowers stumbled and rambled on a bit in his tight suit trying his best to look like Michael J Fox from the tv show Family Ties.... he looked too Republican to be in a rock and roll limelight.

The band that played with the were the Soft Machines. They were dreary in comparison but looked intriguing too. I was glad that this new wave of bands were trying to do something original. We took a wild departure from all these crappy 90's bands that mumbled.. HEYY EYAYYY YEYAYYYY HAYYYYY like a bunch of stoned Navajos.


Man.. that was a crappy time to be listening to music. If it wasnt for the BBC I'd jump off a building. Our radios are not faring much better now with this American Idol nonsense but at least the bands are becoming a bit more listenable.

Hygeine counts too and these boys got it. From what I can tell.


And this band is interesting to listen to musically. I really think that this song wears its heart on its sleeve and the emotion could have actually been milked a little more.... and even extended.

I like this band considerably. They do grow on you.

Cantu writes for the
FASCUBE - Fashion Culture Beauty Network out of Detroit, MI.

THE KILLERS - ALL THESE THINGS THAT I HAVE DONE - UK