Tag: punk music

4,102 words

Like a dog to its vomit, a junkie to his stash, or an inveterate gambler to table or race-track, I went back. I was determined to write no more about obscure English rock bands, believing that I had covered the territory to my satisfaction and, one hopes, that of the reader. Having covered Killing Joke, Joy Division, Thin Lizzy (not strictly English, granted), Queen (not exactly obscure), Sex Pistols (ditto), The Fall, The Pogues (definitely not English), Morrissey, The Auteurs, Ultravox!, Ian Dury, Wild Billy Childish, and The Slits, I thought it a job done. (more…)

1,503 words

Cram as much pleasure as you can into your life and rail against the pain that you have to suffer as a result.
-Shane MacGowan.

Stay on the other side of the road
Because you can never tell.
We’ve the thirst of a gang of devils,
We’re the boys from the County Hell.
-The Pogues, Boys from the County Hell (more…)

3,037 words

The word “sleaze” has a strange history which has left it with a number of meanings. In the UK, it has become associated with political corruption, and has recently been brought back into service as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer continues to let down our old school by accepting inappropriate gifts and services from some very shady political wheelers and dealers. (more…)

2,136 words

Albertine was one of those who took on too much in order to remain perpetually dissatisfied with herself. — Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past

We were trying to write great pop songs, but ended up creating something new by accident. — Viv Albertine, Clothes, Boys, Music (more…)

43 words / 12:50

Jim Goad has produced a short film to accompany his latest essay, “The Punk Rock Roots of Punching Nazis,” on how punk went from toying with Nazi imagery to becoming intensely anti-fascist — and becoming a lot less interesting in the process. (more…)

1,946 words / 12:43

Blacks make up nearly a third of United States postal workers, and I don’t care if someone tries to punch me for suspecting that this is one of the main reasons our postal service is going to hell.

I make part of my living by selling my books through the mail, and skyrocketing postal prices combined with plummeting postal service means that no matter how meticulously I package the books I send out — they’re lovingly cocooned in a bubble envelope that is cradled inside a rigid cardboard mailer — sometimes they wind up damaged, anyway. (more…)

The Clash at the 1983 US Festival.

2,812 words

On Memorial Day weekend, 1983, The Clash held their final concert. It was a meaningful one aside from that, given that it was part of a four-day festival in San Bernardino, California that featured some of the most popular music acts in the world at the time. The Clash headlined what was called New Wave Day on Saturday, May 28, and played to perhaps 100,000 people in the stifling heat. (more…)

785 words / 2:13:09

Jason Kessler and American Krogan were host Nick Jeelvy‘s guests on the latest broadcast of The Writers’ Bloc, where they had a panel discussion on the Carny Question in Right-wing politics, and it is now available for download and online listening. (more…)

2,917 words

Simon Reynolds
Rip It Up and Start Again: Post-Punk 1978-84
London: Faber, 2005

In January 1978 British band XTC released their debut album. Punk rock in the United Kingdom had passed its zenith but there were many such acts, clearly not punk but propelled to the forefront of the music scene by the effects punk had had on commercial music. (more…)

2,656 words

Right-wing music: Is there such a thing? Dissident rock, anyone? I imagine our enemies picture us sitting around all day thumbing through our well-read copies of Mein Kampf and listening to Wagner, Joy Division, and the “Horst Wessel” song — sort of Reich ‘n’ roll. But, as with the rest of culture, I have found that people on the Right tend to listen to music they instinctively enjoy, rather than what their ideological commissars tell them they may listen to. (more…)

1,257 words

Crisis was an English punk-rock band formed in 1977 in Surrey. Their initial lineup consisted of Insect Robin the Cleaner, Phrazer, and the most famous two who didn’t have absurd nicknames: Douglas Pearce and Tony Wakeford. Crisis was explicitly a Leftist band, appearing at various Rock Against Racism concerts and collaborating with artists and organizers from the Anti-Nazi League. (more…)

Throbbing Gristle. From left: Sleazy, Genesis, Cosey, and Chris.

3,071 words

Visual artist, composer, singer, DJ, and general architect of chaos Genesis P-Orridge passed away on March 14, 2020. The Dissident Right shares a surprising amount of common ground with the counterculture icon — and owes some of its aesthetics and methods to them [1] as well.

Born February 22nd, 1950 in Manchester, Neil Andrew Megson adopted the name Genesis P-Orridge — a woo-ish corruption of the word “porridge” — while living in London. (more…)

Leftover Crack, live in Cologne, 2006.

1,207 words

“You cannot edit strength and beauty out of life.” — Bronze Age Pervert

Punk music is often connected with left-wing anarchism. In connection with this philosophy, it ostensibly rejects traditional aesthetics and order, but in reality, practically everyone still prefers harmony over chaos, and this is reflected in the music. (more…)