BUZZCOCKS OBCURITY FROM 1980

The headline is not misleading. There is a 1980 cassette comp only Buzzcocks song down there. But that's not the real reason for this post. I'd originally intended to make it about Liliput, the band formerly known as Kleenex. After hearing them for the first time in years I couldn't help but think about them in context with the time. Their song "Eisiger Wind" is from 1980. At that time, punk rock was beginning to evolve, or devolve depending on how you look at it. To generalize, punk rock sort of split into three types, straight punk, hardcore, and post-punk, the latter being where all the oddball shit was haphazardly assigned. That's where you could see Liliput being put. I started to think of all of the different bands that weren't punk rock, hardcore, or even new wave. That was a good era, all things considered. Early eighties, before brightly colored new wave came in and took a big ol' dump on things. So, yeah, I started to dig in at Killed By Death, looking at records that were released in 1980. Bam! First one I see, the cassette comp with the Buzzcocks song. Running across an obscure Buzzcocks song from 1980 is about as close as you're going to get to finding a lost Spiral Scratch outtake. I'll take it, along with the other song on the post, a Subway Sect obscurity. Yee haw.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~ 

Listen:

Liliput - Eisiger Wind mp3 at Killed By Death
Liliput - When The Cat’s Away Then The Mice Will Play mp3 at Killed By Death Go there to get it.
Buzzcocks – I Look Alone mp3 at Killed By Death
Subway Sect – Parallel Lines mp3 at Killed By Death Go there to get it.

GENRE ISSUE

In looking for an image for this post, I thought I'd do an image search for "punk women," just for the hell of it, fully expecting to be disappointed. I was, more than I expected. I'm here to tell you, "punk women" doesn't mean what it used to. Neither does "punk men" for that matter. Slap me silly, there's some godawful missuses of the term, especially online where everything is packaged and marketed to death; be it gender, genre, or attitude. It's clueless, it's a haircut, a pair of shoes, a fashion spread, and uninformed editorial self indulgence.

Anyway, Network Awesome recently posted a five part video compilation series called "The Women of Punk." Band wise, there's a whole lot of favorites, most I never really identified as one gender or the other. Some I wouldn't even think of as punk. Regardless, if they're going to take the time to round up (or curate as they put it) that comprehensive of a playlist, they can call it "Pea Soup" for all I care.

If you haven't been on Network Awesome, there's a couple things to note. One is that in each series of videos, they have interspersed short promos for other stuff on their site, along with old commercials, primarily from the 70s and 80s. You can bypass any of these, or any of the music videos, by pulling the slider all the way to the end. It'll automatically go to the next clip or video.

At the very bottom below is a link to a really good recent video of Vivienne Westwood (wife of Malcolm McLaren, and co-clothier to the Sex Pistols) speaking her mind about art, punk, education, status and other related subjects.

Watch:
The Women of Punk, Part 1 at Network Awesome: Suzi Quatro, The Runaways, Joan Jett, X Ray Spex, Bush Tetras, B-Girls, The Cranos, Shonen Knife, Pink Section, The Au Pairs, Bikini Kill
The Women of Punk, Part 2 at Network Awesome: Souixie & the Banshees, The Slits, Penetration, Sexsick, Kleenex, Kas Product, Suburban Reptiles, Kleenex, Neo Boys, Castration Squad
The Women of Punk, Part 3 at Network Awesome: Mo-Dettes, Model Citizens, Blondie, Delta 5, Sonic Youth, Bikini Kill, Pandoras, Knetics, Patti Smith Group, Nina Hagen, X
The Women of Punk, Part 4 at Network Awesome: Plasmatics, The Rezillos, 45 Grave, Vice Squad, Auróra Cirkáló, The Bags, UXA, The Raincoats, Avengers, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Spitboy, The Gossip
The Women of Punk, Part 5 at Network Awesome: Slant 6, Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, Chalk Circle, Huggy Bear, Tiger Trap, The Gits, Bratmobile, Heavens To Betsy, Excuse 17, Babes In Toyland, L7
Definitely watch this:
Vivienne Westwood interview at the Guardian UK