THE ENEMY - The Newies

Here are a couple of tracks from THE ENEMY, the first new material from the Coventry 3 piece Agit Pop Punkers since their rather poorly received second album. Has time away seen their light fade? Listening to This Is Real and Gimme The Sign, I’d say….”No” cos it sounds like the fire is still there and hopefully in the fickle world that is the music industry it will burn brightly in 2012. Noel Gallagher may well have said “ Don’t put your life in the hands of a Rock’n’Roll band” but who listens to the grown ups, and if the kids of today are gonna take a band to their hearts and minds then why not let it be The Enemy, as it least they have something to say for and to the kids, and they say it and play it in away that those who grew up during the punk and post punk rock times may well enjoy as well. But hey don’t just take this old fuckers word for it see if the signs are real here! Their new album Streets In The Sky is due out soon.

Sunday Shit!

Great British justice on trial in secret courts. Behind closed doors our freedom is under attack, while across the world people are under attack for wanting their freedom. We the people need to be fighting for both!
The Secret Services secrets will remain secret in an open and shut cases full of lies and failures. These people are as powerful as the politicians in controlling our lives, with their miss information and fabrication of the facts, so when David Cameron announces that Iran are developing nuclear weapons that are caper able of attacking London (I wonder how long they’ll take to reach their target….45minutes maybe) Maaan! that’ll be some Olympic flame if Cameron and his cohorts have got their facts right, if they haven’t it’ll see more of our freedoms burnt at the alter of democracy, where those in power hide the truth from those they serve and those that serve for them. Every dead soldier is more blood on the hands of the past, present and future politicians, their truth is; that this is the price to pay to ensure our freedom and the freedom and democracy of the people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya etc. Illegal wars being fought on a battlefield of lies, inconvenient truths they’d rather we didn’t know about.
Thanks to the internet the truth is out there in posts on Twitter, Facebook, You Tube etc, some may say this is just as distorted as their truth. Well it has been said that in war, the first casualty is the truth, so the reality is that this whole war on terror has been bullshit from start to….wait up it hasn’t finished, and it never will as it’s a great weapon for social control in the so called ‘free world’ of Western Liberal Democracy.
Where people are innocent until proved guilty, then when they are found guilty they can appeal on the grounds of ’human rights’ which in the case of terrorists provides ammunition for the media in their battle for propaganda, and gives our leaders a reason to want to hide the truth into these cases, I mean it wouldn’t look good if it came to light that Britain gained vital information through torture would it, I mean that would make us worse than ’the enemy’ the people our leaders are trying to civilise in their new crusade, which means our freedom and democracy is reduced in order to secure future freedoms in parts of the world that are needed not just as new markets for the Western capitalist industrial military machine, but also to maintain the supply of the oil that powers the machine. And that’s the fuckin’ truth! I rest my case.

VIVE LE ROCK - Smash It Up! (A Compilation)

I'm a bit late posting this, as the latest issue has already hit the news stands, but I’ve been having problems with my CD drive….it’s fucked! But hey ho lets go. Once again those good Vive Le Rock folk have collected a selection of tracks from the old’n’new beyond punk rock’n’roll new wavers. Sandwiched between THE DAMNED and JOE STRUMMER, you’ll find some foot stomping bourbon soaked blues boogie from THE URBAN VOODO MACHINE, there’s THE BREAKDOWNS, who initially remind me of McFly and Busted, which is not good but end up sounding like The Starjets, which is far better. Better still in the power pop punk stakes is ROBBIE CROSS, with his chugging and catchy racket. There’s some ‘Militant Rock’n’Roll' from KING CHEETAH and their spiky cutting post punk guitars. For THE BRAM STOKERS think The Jam and Buzzcocks, and forget The Ordinary Boys. TAURUS TRAKKER are produced by Mick Jones and are reminiscent of both The Clash and Carbon/ Silicon. THE DYNAMITE PUSSY CLUB Get under the groove with their funk soul garage punk. STEVE HOOKER treats us to some Southend Delta Swamp Blues, and THE METEORS give us a blast of their mutant rockabilly which refuses to die. Spain’s ALVA veer towards the metal end of the scale. PUSSYCAT AND THE DIRTY JOHNSONS come from Basingstoke but sound like their from the streets of New York City and LOADED 44 serve up some glorious catch old school female fronted punk rawk. Once again there’s something for every one on this compilation. Smash It Up! Here!!

From the frozen children in Afghanistan to the dead bodies in Syria; the world watches in high definition clarity how can we ignore the suffering when it’s beamed live and direct to our front rooms.
Obama watched Bin Laden’s execution don’t tell me he hasn’t seen the Syrian slaughter. What mixed up morals and values people have. How much longer are we gonna take their hypocrisy and double standards
Western Governments get involved in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya with their democracy and collateral damage, yet with what is going on in Syria they sit back and do nothing , will a dead western journalist blown up while trying to find her shoes see bombs from the air or boots on the ground ? Well that depends if nations are united in defiance against the Syrian slaughter, which they’re not, well most of them are, all except Russia and China, which means no agreement and it seems no one wants to upset Russia or China; the Old Cold Enemies, who have come into the warm with business dealings with countries such as Syria as well as the rest of the world, and does the rest of the world want to upset Russia and China by taking action against their ‘friend’ Syria, especially in the present economic climate who wants to stop doing business with the oligarchs, lets not forget that Russia controls gas supplies to Europe. So no-one does anything they sit back and carry on watching.

Too Late To Delete!

It’s a bit too late to worry about privacy on the internet. How naive people must have been if they thought that personal details would remain personal, in a place were everyone knows everything about everyone, such are the joys of social media and its twitter, twatter! Big business has becomes big brother, watching over peoples spending habits and their lifestyles and then targeting them with personalised pop up adverts while they go about their business on Facebook.
So people don’t come complaining to me in a few years time when they follow your every movement; because you’ve bought into it all with yer GPS Sat Nav App gadgets. You know where you are because they know where, and who you are!

Pour paint stripper on their culture.

It’s good to see that in economic hard times some caring souls have got together and raised £45 million to buy a painting for the nation, perhaps they should have asked the nation if they wanted some piece of shitty artwork. WANKERS!

THE VIBRATORS - WE VIBRATE!

“This 3 speed Automatic Lover is beer-proof and comes in a branded Vibrators coffin case. Possibly the most appropriate band merch since Kiss released a make-up kit, The Vibrators Buzzin Bullet Vibrator is 100% official, 100% punk and 100% satisfying.”

Well Fuck Me!….It even comes in a little box. What ever tickles yer fancy. Available from: Love Honey.

In response to the present euro crisis a German official was recently quoted as saying it’s “A terrible mistake, we have invented a machine from hell we cannot turn off.” Sounds pretty much like what Karl Marx said in 1872 about Bourgeois capitalist society being like “A sorcerer, who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world, whom he has called up by his spells.” Lessons from history get forgotten. In the present we need to look to the past and remember the future!

MUSIC IS REVOLUTION!

But in the hands of politicians it's PROPAGANDA!

Michael Davis - R.I.P

Sad news; Michael Davis MC5 Bassist has died aged 68. Here was a man who believed in the power of music as a force and means for social change.

MUSIC IS REVOLUTION!

THE ONLY ONES - XFM Session 28/5/07

The Only Ones; a band who back in the day were too hippy for the punks and too punk for the hippies. Their torch burnt bright in the eyes of the critics and their cult following. The Only Ones blazed their own Rock’n’Roll trail before drug and record company problems saw the band fall apart in the early 80’s. Their influence however was to last for a lot longer; spanning the post punk, Brit pop and grunge years, to the present day. The band reformed in 2007 this session is from May that year, nothing new, just 3 Only Ones classics: The Whole Of The Law, The Big Sleep and Another Girl Another Planet, a song which has kept Peter Perrett in supplies over the years. Time has not lost what the Only Ones had, they’ve still got it. Enjoy! If yer an Only Ones ‘fan’ then when you’ve finished downloading this, you’d be a fool if you didn’t take a trip to Noise Addiction blogspot where you’ll find a brilliant live soundboard recording from 1979 in Minneapolis USA, and an audience recording from Oscars in Liverpool UK from the same years, I’m sure there’s also a compilation of Peter Perrett and The One Radio Sessions there as well.

Rock'n'Roll and Football!

The following post is the basis of something I’m writing for a blog called Journeyman & Co. which specialises in writings about the beautiful game. The finished and expanded article should be posted there in a few days time, or whenever I get my arse in gear to complete it.

Rock’n’Roll and football, two escapes from the working class ghetto of day in day out dead end mundane jobs. The terraces or the dancehall.
The decline of English football since managers stopped wearing sheep skin jackets.
Where are the Rock’n’Roll footballers?
Without wanting to sound like some ‘football fascist’ Has the influx of players from across the world had e detrimental effect on the English game? It’s made a lot of money, but costs a lot of money, just ask Glasgow Rangers.
Big business SkyTV Football has sold out, and it’s the fans that pay the price, and they do pay a price £30 tickets, merchandise; with ever changing team strips etc What do they get in return….players whose team loyalty is based on the size of their transfer fee.
Hard for up and coming English players to play for top flight teams. Are there many English players playing football abroad? Home grown talent goes unnoticed in a global market, so when it comes to the International Squad England has a small pool of experienced players to pick from, as many young players don’t get the chance to gain the experience at club level because teams are made up of the highly paid new celebrity signining, interestingly England’s 2010 World Cup squad was the oldest ever, with the average age being 28.something.
Racism in football has come a long way since the days of Ku-Klux-Kan hoods on the terraces of Millwall in the 1970’s to banana skins being thrown at John Barnes in the 80’s, but it’s still got a way to go. Now it seems to be the players with their racist rants, what a shinning example to the yoof John Terry is, he should have stepped down as captain as soon as he was charged, and as to his guilt or innocence, well live TV can’t lie, or can it?
Stuart Pearce for England captain, he’s got good musical taste, likes The Clash. Talking of music lets not forget some of those great or not so great football songs; Chas and Dave and Tottenham Hotspurs, New Order and The England Squad. Hoddle and Waddle anyone, Kevin Keegan, Cockney Rejects.

Taken for a ride.

Travelling on the bus down Selfish Street, on the way to Intolerance Road. The person in the seat behind me is eating loudly….crunch, crunch, crunch. Someone a few seats down has stunk the bus out with a BigKac Meal. There’s someone coughing and spluttering and clearing their throat out, and the person next to me, well their personal music machine is pretty unpersonable buzzing away loudly, someone else is having a mobile phone conversation, and I’m sitting here ready to explode……..FOR FUCKS SAKE! What’s up with people, they’ve no time for anything, breakfast, lunch everything on the go, everything needs to be done instantly, no one seems to stop and think about anything, or anyone other then themselves, no one has anytime to just be….it’s all do, do! Time to ring the bell and stop the bus, I’m getting off!

The 2012 London Olympics....What a joke! but it's no laughing matter!!

Olympic Track and Field sports….Disc us. Shot putt, what a lot of balls, and Javelin, whats the point?
Just injecting a bit of humour for the people of East London, who if you believe surveys and statistics are the unhappiest people in Britain, as it’s the unhappiest place to live in. How can that be….with The Olympics being held in their manor, mind you, I’m not happy about the Olympics, and I don‘t live in East London. London 2012; a waste of Tax payers money, dodgy tickets to corporate sponsors while locals can’t afford a ticket even if they could find one to buy, secrecy behind how many tickets are actually available for ’the people’ then there’s the legacy of the athletes village being an affordable housing development of luxury flats, then there’s the thousands of people descending on the streets of East London for two weeks, and that’s just the security.

MC5 - Live @ Radio Bremen TV Studios 1972 (MP3)

I watched a program on BBC4 the other week, it was about the British invasion of the USA by Rock bands in the late 60’s and early 70’s, bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Jethro Tull. At one point it was mentioned that the reason these bands were so successful in the US, was because there was nothing to compare to these bands in America….wait up I thought, yes there was and they were called the MC5, and the majority of kids in America were never really given the chance to appreciate them. Despite releasing three major label albums, it was only after their demise that the MC5 were truly recognised for their greatness, ironically it was the British and European kids that took ‘em to their hearts.
With their reactionary and revolutionary stance the kids of the 60’s underground counter culture couldn’t get enough of their explosive mix of Blues, Soul and Rock’n’Roll. When the announced they wanted to “Kick out the jams mutha fuckers” the last couple of words shook the foundations of Americas music biz, and as for their allegiance to manager John Sinclair’s White Panther party, well that was never gonna win the hearts of the mainstream music moguls and the mass market, neither were songs about fire bombs exploding all around. They’d rather kids were listening to songs about stairways to heaven and other corporate cock sucking rock and southern boogie which filled stadiums and shifted the dollars. Lack of sales saw the band dropped by record labels, hard drug use began to take its toll, and things began to fall apart in the MC5 camp. By 1970 the underground had been buried and turned into commodity, with hippies and freaks for sale in San Francisco, where flowers were replaced by needles in your hair. The powers that be saw the power that could be and killed it. Music was revolution and that’s what scared the man.
By early 1972, when this was recorded, the MC5 had become the MC4, with Steve Moorhouse replacing original Bassist Michael Davis, who left the band because of ‘Drug problems’ the main problem being Michael had got busted at the airport before leaving America, customs found his ’works’ and detained him, which meant he missed the flight and subsequently an important gig in London. By the end of 1972 the 5 had become 2 with just Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith flying the flag.
(See previous MC5 Kick Copenhagen post.) Anyway here’s a blast of the MC5 recorded in Feb/March 1972 at Radio Bremens TV studio in Germany. I dunno if this is a complete recording as unfortunately the final number Black To Comm falls apart and fades out, Kick Out The Jams, Ramblin’ Rose, Motor City Is Burning and Tonite are all complete, as a little bonus I’ve included an alternate version of Kick Out The Jams from the same session.
I watched a bit of MTV the other day, and was struck that after forty years one of the MC5 slogans appeared to have come true as several videos appeared to show that there is “Dope, Guns and fucking in the streets” How times have changed mutha fuckers!

Black and Blue with an Orange hue.
A new day dawns and a grey mist hangs over barren skyline.
There’s no more industrial production and that’s just fine
For a culture that’s consumed the land, where the people don’t understand
They worship celebrity, it’s all that they see.
Snowflakes fall from the sky.
Settling slowly, chaos comes quickly phones ring loudly, no need for a sickie.
The post industrial country comes to a standstill as it turns into one big land fill.
People look no deeper than what their eyes see, in all the bleakness there’s a natural beauty.
No social construction that brings destruction.
The annihilation of a distant nation.
A pursuit for power brings freedoms final hour.
Total control over the proles 24 Hour system overload.
Total technology stuck in traffic on a snow covered road.
The network goes down no one knows just what to do.
The mobile’s come to a standstill, as we slide deeper into the landfill.

I Will Never Love You

I woke up today to hear about the “Sad”, “Tragic” death of an“Iconic superstar”
….Move along, there’s nothing to see here, cos Whitney Houston meant nothing to me. So I’m gonna turn off the radio and listen to some Johnny Thunders! “Too much junkie business, I don’t wanna hang around with you.”

THE CLASH - Lost Treasures

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted anything by The Clash, time to change that with this mighty fine
collection of ….Lost Treasures i.e. various re-mixes, alternate versions and rarities by the greatest Rock’n’Roll band ever, a band that weren’t afraid to explore new musical landscapes and experiment with different sounds and vibes, with Mikey Dread and Futura 2000, or just be themselves, helping out their friend and music writer Kris Needs and his band Vice Creams, by providing the musical accompaniment on the single Danger Love, giving Rock Against Racism an alternative version of White Man In Hammersmith Palais to put on a RAR compilation album Then there’s the time they backed infamous vice queen Janie Jones as The Lash. This collection contains all those and more, it shows just how on top and ahead of the game they were. Some of their experimentations may have pissed of the punk purists and made them wanna puke, but if punk was about pushing the boundaries then The Clash were true punks from the start to the finish. The only band that mattered! and in the age of bands that say nothing and do even less they still do!! ENJOY!

Some Sunday Shit!

Searching for meanings and understanding. Looking for answers to questions that haven’t been asked, and ignoring ones that have.

Religion says there is a god. Science says there is no god; but enables people to play at being god. Religion causes wars and science builds the weapons to fight the wars.
Economics keep the world going round, and Politics is the fight by leaders of nations to control the people.
IMHO Psychology and Sociology provide a better understanding of how and why the world is the way it is, after all the world is a collection of people living in different societies, we need to embrace the difference and not fight against it. We need to be coming together, but the politicians are intent on driving people apart, and the economists want it to be all about the money, money! These attitudes have shaped and moulded peoples minds and the societies they live in.

Science prolongs existence with life support machines that ultimately end in death, that’s if you live in a country that can afford such equipment.
Science keeps people staring at the screens of mobile phones, laptops and TV’s . Religion gives guidelines on what to do to reach the afterlife, when there is no afterlife, just an afterbirth and slow death.
The cure for cancer, now that would be something to benefit the common good, but no….It all comes down to cash and who can afford the life prolonging drugs, some health authorities can afford treatment for patients and others can’t. The life or death lottery. Its either Buy, Buy, or Bye, Bye.

Science, the new Rock’n’Roll. You can stare at the stars, but there are no aliens waiting to land. If there were I’m sure they’d be looking down thinking….What the Fuck! With so much knowledge in the world why are people so stupid, to blindly follow what the politicians, economists, scientists and religious leaders tell them. It’s all a big lie wrapped up in pages of theories and thesis that mean nothing to the person in the street, keep the people stoopid and they wont ask questions that need to be asked, like why is half the world starving while the half live in luxury, politics and economics is the answer to that one. If knowledge is power and there’s so much knowledge out there, then why do people feel powerless? Once again the politicians and economists can answer that! It’s in their interest to keep us dumb and dumfounded, it justifies their existence. Religion proclaims to offer comfort and protection to the hopeless and powerless, all it provides are dogmas and ‘good books’ to follow. It’s all a distraction, different ways of looking at the world that change nothing.

Evolution is no longer a natural process, Science, Economics and Politics have corrupted it and now control the process, and call it Progress!
People are unable to think for themselves without consulting Google first, and then confirming their opinion with that of their Facebook friends.

We are insular and insincere with our self importance.
The motor car once a symbol of freedom now stands still for hours confined in a traffic jam on the M25, because another driver thought they were the only road user that mattered and crashed their car because they were taking no notice of other motorists. Still at least science can save their life, or is it worth saving, I mean would the world miss another selfish bastard.

The Scienceisation of Society.
Professor Brian Cox is the devil; with his scientific sermons. A smiley, smiley Satan, smug with the satisfaction and knowledge that he’s selling ideas that a few years ago no-one would have bought into. Another market has been created a world of telescopes, microscopes and gadgets, all available in your local Tesco’s Express.
I heard on some TV program people talking about the science of music….For fuck sake! I don’t want or need to know how or why the brain responds the way it does to beats and rhythms. Then there’s cooking, Heston Bloomingtwat doesn’t just cook, he uses science to create new methods; I mean who wants to use an oven when you can use a blow torch and dry ice.

No one gets out of here alive and there’s nowhere left to run.

A Sunday Snap!

A sparrow in the snow.