Recycling was important to DOA!

The History of Punk, Class #7

The Edmonton Free School
Saturday 23 June 1:30PM
Location: Humanities 1-14, The University of Alberta
All-Ages, All-Welcome

“Not All Quiet on the Western Front: Punk in Eastern Europe during the Cold War”

During the Cold War, Western music had subversive implications for Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. In this seminar, we will examine what happened when the punk got through the Iron Curtain. Specifically, we will look at Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the USSR. We will also look at what happened when the Eastern Bloc variants of punk traveled to the West.

Just like last week, we’ll start with a short lecture, and then transition into our intellectual picnic format – so bring food to share if you can!

Readings:
Tomáš Pospíšil, “Making Music as a Political Act: or how the Velvet Underground Influenced the Velvet Revolution”
“Hungary Scene Report” Maximum Rocknroll #39
“Hungary Scene Report” Part II
Czech Scene Report – Maximum Rocknroll #42 November 1986
“Radio Free Lithuania” Flagpole Magazine
Dropping the Iron Curtain
“Personal Expression vs. the Powerful’s Repression”

Playlist:
The story of The Plastic People of the Universe
Plastic People of the Universe – ‘Podivuhodný Mandarin”
Plastic People of the Universe – “Slavná nemesis”
DOA – “General Strike”
Beats of Freedom Trailer
Dezerter – “Szara Rzeczywistość”
Bix – Saves Neapgausi

The History of Punk, Class #2

The Edmonton Free School
Saturday 19 May 1:30PM
Location: Humanities 1-14, The University of Alberta
All-Ages, All-Welcome

“Punk and Protest: Laws, Counterculture, Action!”

In the late-1970s and early 1980s, the Vancouver punk scene was a vibrant and diverse community. We’ll look at originators like Joey “Shithead” Keithley, his group DOA, and another local band called The Subhumans. Gerry “Useless” Hannah, The Subhuman’s bass player, was a member of the activist group Direct Action. These dissenters were arrested by the RCMP for attacks against property, which sparked a media firestorm. We’ll also discuss Vancouver participants in relation to the wider punk milieu, and the 1980s’ counterculture as a whole.

Readings:
American Hardcore, pp. 256-260.
The Philosophy of Punk, pp. 112-114.
I, Shithead, pp. 125-127.
“The Vancouver 5”
Hannah’s Maximum Rocknroll column, 1984.
Toronto Star, 15 October 1982, p. A1
Toronto Star, 15 October 1982, p. A3. 

Playlist:
Duff McKagan recalls the Pacific Northwest punk scene
Chris Arnett: The Furies
The Skulls move to Toronto
Vancouver punk scene’s D.I.Y. recording history
Henry Rollins on DOA
The Stiffs – “Fuck You”
Dishrags – “I Don’t Love You” live 1979
DOA – “Disco Sucks”
DOA – “World War III”
The Subhumans – “Firing Squad”
The Subhumans – “Slave to my Dick”
DOA – “Trial by Media”

Vote for Joe!

Joey Keithley lives his life by a basic formula: Talk – Action = 0. Since the mid-1970s, he’s not only played in a great punk rock band, but he’s usually out on the front lines of important causes before other “activists” can even organize a photo-op. Now he’s taking his inspirational attitude straight into the conventional political arena.

Last week, he told the crowd at his free acoustic show at Permanent Records in Edmonton he was thinking of running for the NDP in the next B.C. election. This was followed by a tweet last night which said: “I am working on winning an NDP nomination for the next provincial election in my beloved BC We can change this world into a better place.” And, in the National Post, an article appeared under the headline “Prominent punk rocker seeking NDP nomination.”

No word as of yet if Keithley will be using his nickname “Shithead” during his nomination campaign, but one thing is for sure: it’s about time punk rock hit Canadian politics, and there’s no one better suited to do it than him.

Not Just White Noise Supremacy: The Diversity of the Underground Punk Network in late 1970s-early 1990s America

Recently, a book called White Riot: Punk Rock and the Politics of Race, edited by Stephen Duncombe and Maxwell Tremblay, was released. Race has been at the forefront of debates on punk, probably before, and definitely since, Lester Bangs wrote his article “White Noise Supremacists” in the Village Voice in 1979. Reactions to White Riot reveals the diversity of opinion on race and politics in punk milieux, especially this review of the book in Maximum Rocknroll, “White Riot: Another Failure.”

Discussions on punk and race instantly brings to mind not only the Clash song “White Riot,” but also the Minor Threat song “Guilty of Being White.” The song was written by Ian MacKaye, who was frustrated by being mistreated, because of the color of his skin, by black youths in the community he grew up in. Highly contentious, debate and different interpretations continue to surround the song. As the book White Riot and the reactions to it show, this contention extends to the issue of race and punk as a whole.

The thing about punk is, as D. Boon said: “punk is whatever we made it to be.” From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, punk was a melange of not only different races, but also voices, messages, outlooks and ideas. Music scenes sprung up across the United States (and parts of Canada), forming an underground network where people could raise voices differing to the status quo of the mainstream.

In the following, I try to touch on the diversity that existed in the underground punk network in the United States. It is by no means comprehensive, but should provide a taste of what was happening, and how the varying elements of that diversity mixed together.

Well, except for Diversity being an old wooden ship from the Civil War era