“Edgy” could be one of the most
overused adjectives in the history of cultural writing, along with
“brilliant” and “understated.” Granted, I am as guilty as
anyone else, but words are really just mere vessels for our
intentions and ideas. One man's edgy is another one's boring and one
of the things I have observed over the years is that most things
labeled “edgy” are often the furthest thing from the truth. Sure,
a lot of folks clamor for it, but when they actually get it, they
will go out of their way to run from it. Case in point, lots of
people wet their collective panties over Wes Anderson, an overly
arch, white bread faux-indie filmmaker if ever there was one, but a
guy like Alejandro Jodorowsky, a born & bred maverick, still has
problems garnering funding for his projects. Then again, I'm someone
who firmly believes in the adage, “Give the people what they
deserve.” Any artist that honors that is someone who will always be
my valentine.
Speaking of which, I got to check out
the Crass episode of the web series “The Art of Punk” and was
instantly inspired by band founder Penny Rimbaud. Unlike some of the
other episodes, you actually get to hear some of Crass' music as well
as see the intense and vital visual side. Rimbaud is my kind of
hippie. Mentally sharp, cranky and individualistic to his core,
Rimbaud is as uncompromising now as he was in the 1970's. The other
“Art of Punk” episodes are definitely worth checking out,
including ones on Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys. The former is a
super-gem thanks to some interview footage with the great Raymond Pettibon.
Going back to Rimbaud and Crass, I love
it that one of the most seminal “punk” bands was founded by an
older, commune living activist. Given how popular the phrase “never
trust a hippie” was, there is something just so beautifully
subversive about that. Not to mention, one thing that gets lost on a
lot of folks is that punk originally was purely about DIY. Before it
got codified by the mainstream and put in an “angry,skinny,white
hetero male with spiky hair” box, punk was actually a musically
diverse movement. In the UK alone, bands like Crass would have never
been confused with say, The Damned or Big in Japan. Not just because
Crass was so incredible, but because a lot of these bands stood out
from the pack. The US scene was equal as well, with early proto-punk
bands like The Stooges and later on, the massively underrated Destroy
All Monsters, standing as unique giants along side bands like
Suicide, the New York Dolls, The Fast and Jayne County.
One of the many reasons why I love the
concert film”Urgh! A Music War”so much is that it is a
semi-perfect document of punk and post-punk before it became
completely signed, sealed and delivered by both the mainstream record
companies, as well as the more sheep-like “fan”contingent. You
have such equally great but different bands as Wall of Voodoo, The
Cramps (those last two alone sealed my affection for the film), X,
The Fleshtones, John Otway and the still incomparable after all these
years, Skafish. (We'll just ignore the fact that UB40 is also in the
film. Hey, the devil works in many ways.)
Now more than ever, the air is ripe and
the time is more than right for a new cultural revolution. Movements
like Dada, the Beats and Punk have all laid out the groundwork to
show us that it can be done. Like the song goes, let's rip it up and
start again.
