They're alright but nothing to write home about. You could take just about any Television song or a tune by The Velvets, chop up the guitar parts and drum beats, write some lyrics about: The chick you just dumped or who has just dumped you, Partying, Cool cars and you would have a CD's worth of material for a band like The Strokes. Even though some of these bands aren't really half bad, it's mighty doubtful they're gonna spark any sort of revolution any time soon.
There are still a handful of bands left that are worth their weight in feedback and broken beer bottles but they are far and few in between and disappearing quick.
We still have "The Cramps" who put on a great live show, are fun, flashy, loud and out of control but are just too quirky to ever go beyond cult status. We also have "The Dictators" who are still writing great songs, recording great LP's and put on a hell of a good show live. I saw them in Las Vegas of all places a few years back and they just tore the place up. Unfortunately, The Dictators are still suffering from what kept them from busting out in a big way when they first came out. They are too punk for the Headbanger set, too hard rock for a lot of punks and most folks just don't get their humor. Half of The Ramones are dead, ditto for the N.Y. Dolls so we can forget any sort of re-union or comeback from either of them.
There is talk of a Flamin'Groovies re-union and tour but at this point that's all it is: TALK.
Fred "Sonic" Smith and Rob Tyner are both dead, cancelling out any chance of the MC5 ever coming back except as maybe the MC3, but I really & seriously doubt that. I know Michael Davis, the MC5's bass player and he'd like to do another New Race / Destroy All Monsters type DEETROIT rock thing but logistically says it would be a nightmare.
Article comments
1 - Barry Stoller
Re: "Punk Rock" served us much the same purpose in the 1970's,awakening the beast again from it's overly indulgent/prog rock/mellow folk rock induced slumber.
Whoa - now here's some gospel we might like to reconsider. Anything Rolling Stone et al has been promulgating non-stop for 20 years merits a discriminating look, wouldn't you think?
Lumping 'prog rock' with 'mellow folk rock' is unfair. These forms, clearly at odds with other, only existed at the same time. We might as well pair punk with disco, eh?
Looking back on the 'saviors' of rock music, The Ramones and the Pistols, we see that instead of moving rock back (to simplicity as they are credited with) they moved rock closer to POP. 'Rockaway Beach' and the whole Pistols fashion thing.
Prog, on the other hand, was the real challenge to the ears - more dissonant, more intricate, more cerebral; no dressing up required. It was, in short, less pop, the end of pop, the true 'death disco.' Consider where (Kramer said) the MC5 was heading: 'Skunk' (drum solo, brass) - not 'KOTJ.'
I say to hell with the Rolling Stone punk gospel. Punk was dumber, depoliticized rock, perfect for selling crap. Cobain realized that - and did what his conscience dictated. Dudes like Keith Levine - there's prog; dudes like Johnny Rotten - there's pop.
Jad Fair fukkin' rules!
2 - duane
Yeah, I couldn't agree more with Barry. Why is dumbing down always a bad thing except when it comes to "rock" music. Screw attitude. Let's have some good music. Why is prog rock always called "indulgent," and why is it implied that "indulgent" is bad? I like indulgent movies and indulgent books. People who are indulgent give a shit about their work. Why aren't the whiners and complainers like Cobain et al. not dismissed as being "indulgent?" Just wondering. Feedback appreciated.
3 - HW Saxton Jr.
One day I will seriously have to address
my ambiguity issues.My lumping of "Prog
rock" with mellow folk rock (The Eagles,
Jackson Browne,et al.)was just a bit of
laziness on my own behalf.There was so
much losy shit out in the 1970's that I
should have mentioned as well: Singer/
Songwriter types like Cat Stevens,James
Taylor,Harry Chapin & the rest of their
ilk,Disco and overdone,boring BOOOOOGIE/
Blues nonsense like Foghat and Ten Years
After. Again that was just my laziness.
I chose those genres because I felt they
that they were glaring examples of what
Punk was against.I have nothing against
"progressive" music,it is just that I
I prefer to hear it in Jazz or classical
and not rock 'n' roll.The large part of
rock n roll's charm has always been it's
simplicity.The MC5 were always touting
the virtues of Sun Ra,Pharoah Sanders,
later Coltrane such as "Equinox" which
in part is where the inspiration for a
tune like "Skunk" came from. It is not
so much Punk music that I like(although
I do enjoy a lot of it).It is more what
Punk did by opening up the ears of a lot
of people to the sounds of Rockabilly,
Surf,Ska,Garage Punk,Soul,Reggae & other
music that at the time was going largely
unnoticed and un-appreciated.As for that
awful Rolling Stone magazine:I think it
is a really piss poor excuse for a music
mag.Yes,they have been writing non-stop
stop about punk for the last 20 years or
so.This shows just how clueless they are
and have been for some time,seeing as
how "Punk" peaked creatively about the
same time they picked up on it.After it
was "safe" to like it,you know? Besides,
"Punk" covers quite a wide spectrum of
music some of it being quite progressive
in it's own right. Pere Ubu,Television,
Wall Of Voodoo,Contortions,Minutemen and
many others definitely do not fall into
any categories that remotely resemble
"simple pop" by any means.That said,once
again pardon my ambiguity and thanks for
reading and responding.
4 - Barry Stoller
Another comment.
You state 'Punk... open[ed] up the ears of a lot of people to the sounds of Rockabilly, Surf,Ska,Garage Punk,Soul,Reggae & other music that at the time was going largely unnoticed and un-appreciated.' Intuitively you seem to acknowledge that rock grows when it absorbs other influences. But earlier you state 'I have nothing against "progressive" music,it is just that I I prefer to hear it in Jazz or classical and not rock 'n' roll.' Dig the contradiction.
Again: any music requiring a dress code probably is pop.
5 - Eric Olsen
I am forced to restate my boring litany once again: in any kind of art there are different styles that appeal to different elements of the body and brain. They key, it seems to me, is to get as close to the source as possible in whatever stream you are following. I like all different kinds of music for different reasons. Being human, I appreciate some styles more deeply than others because I value those particular receptors more, or some such thing.
Each style has "weaknesses" that can be ridiculed if you happen to not like that style. I like most styles so I don't worry about that part: I try to compare like with like and determine worth that way.
Comparing Rush to the Ramones is essentially pointless and unfair to each. I love Cat Stevens, the MC5, Television, Coltrane, and Blondie - I'm cool like that.
6 - Barry Stoller
And... I forgot to say... anyone who likes the MC5 should definitely check out prime Bloodrock!
7 - Chris Wilson
I think the more one listens to music, the more they are likely to appreciate different forms and explore new styles. I used to hate jazz, but was listening to Cab Calloway this morn on the way to work. I used to hate Cat Stevens, but now consider him to be one of the great songwriters from that period. Hell, I even bought a Melanie CD the other day! But when I used to sit in my college dorm, X, The Ramones, The Misfits, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Youth Brigade, The Gun Club and Minor Threat blasted from my very, very cheap stereo. I still listen to those old LPs now and then, but my tastes are not the same.....
Since the beginning of time, people have been belly aching that "Rock is Dead." Have you heard The White Stripes, The Donnas or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs? Good stuff there. Just saw Type O Negative live about a month ago and that was a great, rockin' show. Just last weekend saw a blues band at a nearby dive - old gentleman, gray hair and baggy suits, pounding the keys and slapping a stand up base. For me, at that moment, nothing was dead. Music was alive and kicking. You just got to look - and stop your belly aching for Christ sakes......
8 - Eric Olsen
Chris I liked everything you had to say until the end. I don't think HW was belly aching - he was talking about a specific kind of music with a specific feel, and that HAS been mostly missign for a long time, at least with new bands - it's a thought-provoking critique, not just complaining, I think.
9 - David
I got the X reference, 1st of all. I love X more than ever.
I'm not really interested in entering the debate, mainly because for reason I can't get my teeth into debates about music. I'm just curious about which prog bands people think are the best. I only know the big stars, and my general problem is that 1) it's kitschy, and not in an amusing way, and 2) it's bombastic rather than passionate 3) the musicianship of the bands seems to begin and end with physical dexterity, in contrast to the best fusion, which manages to pull off a lot of what prog bands are trying, but with much more sophistication. I do like Crimson a lot, though, and I'd bet that there are other groups I'd enjoy if I knew about them.
10 - David
ps If I could only have 1 X CD (come to think of it, I do have only 1 X CD, no actually 2, but they came together, see...), it would be that X Anthology that came out a few years back. Astonishing stuff, which pretty consistently blows away the album versions, I think. The critical response mystified me, as it does so often.
11 - Mike
Just wanted to echo what a lot of people are saying, in that there is good stuff in almost any genre, just as there is redundant, uninspired stuff. Same with decades. There was good stuff in the seventies, and there is good stuff now. Life's too short to focus on the bad. Let the masses listen to what they are told to. There's still good stuff for the rest of us.
BTW, funny to read this now, as I've just recently "discovered" The Stooges after being a fan of Iggy's later stuff. I have the first album and Raw Power. I'm going to rush right out and get either Skull Ring or Funhouse.
12 - Barry Stoller
Great prog - neither kitschy nor bombastic - must include Passage (autumn '72) by Bloodrock (in their second lineup) [contained on their Triptych CD, 2000]. How pretentious can a Texan prog band be?
13 - Pat Fish
Well now, you say that the Strokes are hardly the sort of thing to go sparking revolutions, and by comparison with the MC5 or the Stooges, I do understand why you say that.
And yet...over in foggy old England the story is a little different.
By the summer of 2001, the Strokes were already common knowledge in the UK, lauded ferociously in our music press and celebrated enthusiastically in our "proper" broadsheet newspapers. Everybody seemed to have their first album. I was a touch surprised, then, to discover that none of my West Coast hepster friends had even so much as heard of them. Still, one's seen this happen many times before; bands who can't get arrested on their home turf, but who by happy accident find success in some odd overseas market.
Like many pople of a certain age, I enjoyed the Strokes as a sort of quaint comedy-New York-punk-tribute type affair, admired their neck and wondered vaguely how it had come to pass that this odd collection of youths had become so very keen on - and good at - playing a kind of music that their dads might have enjoyed 25 years before.
What I was NOT prepared for was the "New Rock Revolution".
The first time I saw this phrase seriously deployed in print (in the NME, inevitably) I laughed till I stopped. This, I felt, was UK music press hysteria at its finest, naked atop a massive orange-painted elephant and shrieking like a mad nun in a Ken Russell picture. And yet, here we are a couple of years down the street and where, oh where is the comforting thud of cider-crazed youths playing idiot techno until six in the morning?
The truth is that suddenly everybody under the age of 25 has gone nuts for electric guitars. After years of total domination by the "dance" music crowd, once again The Kids Just Wanna Rock. Noise, simplicity, attitude, real drums...suddenly it's everywhere. (Sure, an awful lot of it is tripe, but then wasn't that the case in '77 too?)
It's a very strange thing, but this all appears to have started with that gang of fops called The Strokes.
Now, I know that this isn't a Proper Revolution, like 1776 or Lenin or something. But then, for all their Sten Guns in Knightsbridge swagger, even the mighty Clash couldn't pull off one of those babies. And I was there when the Castro/Guevara-esque alliance of Billy Bragg and Paul Weller somehow failed to lead us to Socialism in the 1987 general election. (Fecking Thatcher again, since you ask.)
But I have to say it: over on this small island and purely in terms of musical trends, those naughty Strokes really have sparked a small revolution.
14 - HW Saxton Jr.
Pat,that is great to hear,truly.I wish it was so on this side of the pond.You Brits have always had
a much better appreciation of American Music than
most Yanks do.It took the Stones, Animals & other
UK hipsters to turn most US teens on to the sounds
of Chicago Blues,Soul Music,R & B and The Clash &
The Pistols to spread the gospel of Reggae and the
proto punk noise of The N.Y.Dolls,Modern Lovers &
Stooges respectively.I wish that The Strokes would
have that same sort of an impact here.They have to
a small degree perhaps but nothing on the level of
what it sounds like is happening in the UK.Thanks
for reading,I'm glad you got something out of this
article.
15 - Eric Olsen
excellent discussion - I like the Strokes very much but am still not convinced they are IT
16 - Kyle Beilke
Has anyone hear any of The Darkness? I believe in a thing called love is an amazing song. There stuff is so fun to listen to. I don't think any one band can take credit for this mini-revolution. Maybe in a couple more years things could get more clear in that respect. Hopefully, because that means the new rock will have taken hold, if people are still talking about the Strokes, etc.
17 - Katey Rice
Rock n roll rocks. Anyone who thinks other-wise hasn't heard some of the greats (both classic and modern). To people who say its just 'pointless noise', so it your ranting. It's a good time. Ska, Punk, Indie, Southern, Modern, Hippie, Classic, Hard rock...the list goes on. I just think people are looking way to into it. Just relax and take it for what it is, MUSIC... if you dont like it, turn the dial on your radio, nobody is forcing you to listen to it.
18 - matt d.
I think this discussion inspired the song, Disgrace, by the indie band, Jets to Brazil (Blake Sharzenback of Jawbreaker). Will The Last Great American Rock N Roll Band Please Stand and Wave the Flag sounds like something they would be interested in, the last stanza in the song reads... Mercy pick up you guitar, we'll need a lot of heros for this war,"will the last band please bring the flag, 'cuz noone's rockin this boat and some kids here say they want to dance***** Do a search for the complete song, I think the message is that it is the responsbility of all those that cherish this amazing aspect of our american culture to take the stage by storm and keep it ablaze after the great bands have run thier course. Visual art is what brings me to this dicussion. My current work deals with the concept of rock n roll as a sovergin entity that defyies all reckoning. I am exploring possible themes for this flag in my paintings and am anxious to see any established model for this theme. Please post comments on any possible themes for the flag of rock n roll, established or otherwise.