Sunday 20 March 2016

Has it really come to this - punk as heritage culture?

The Story of Funk: One Nation under a Groove


In the 1970s, America was one nation under a groove as an irresistible new style of music took hold of the country - funk. The music burst out of the black community at a time of self-discovery, struggle and social change. Funk reflected all of that. It has produced some of the most famous, eccentric and best-loved acts in the world - James Brown, Sly & the Family Stone, George Clinton's Funkadelic and Parliament, Kool & the Gang and Earth, Wind & Fire.
During the 1970s this fun, futuristic and freaky music changed the streets of America with its outrageous fashion, space-age vision and streetwise slang. But more than that, funk was a celebration of being black, providing a platform for a new philosophy, belief system and lifestyle that was able to unite young black Americans into taking pride in who they were.
Today, like blues and jazz, it is looked on as one of the great American musical cultures, its rhythms and hooks reverberating throughout popular music. Without it hip-hop wouldn't have happened. Dance music would have no groove. This documentary tells that story, exploring the music and artists who created a positive soundtrack at a negative time for African-Americans.
Includes new interviews with George Clinton, Sly & the Family Stone, Earth, Wind & Fire, Kool & the Gang, War, Cameo, Ray Parker Jnr and trombonist Fred Wesley.

Watch George Clinton's P-Funk Mothership Get Reassembled For Its Smithsonian Museum Debut


Via

Saturday 19 March 2016

How to send an 'E mail' (Database Thames TV 1984)

Change Itself: An Art Apart - Genesis Breyer P'Orridge (Trailer)


To sum up the life and work of British artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge is close to impossible. Not only because of the wide range of artistic disciplines, but also because of the timespan, since the mid 1960s to the present day, that has been saturated by hundreds of records, thousands of concerts, exhibitions, interviews, videos, spoken word performances, collages, sculptures, philosophy, cultural engineering, occultism and radical transgender concepts. A couple of descriptions are still valid after these 50 years of active creativity and provocation. P-Orridge is a romantic existentialist and a cultural engineer. Everything is both work as such and seed for cultural and behavioural change.
A film by Carl Abrahamsson, Sweden, 2016, 58 mins. Copyright © Carl Abrahamsson trapartfilm.com

'Ramones': The Story Behind a Debut Album From Punk Pioneers

Taipan Tiger Girls - Live @PBS FM's Drive Live (1/2/16)


Ollie Olsen (synths)
Mat Watson (drums)
Lisa MacKinney (guitar)
Playing this Sunday as Taipan Pisces Girls (2 synths 1 organ) @ Keele St Collingwood with The Primitive Calculators (4:00-7:00)

Girlz With Gunz #59399

...and Trump fans say Michelle cheapened the highest office!

Dull hipsters in broad daylight - why I’m done with today’s dance music

Ad Break: Ever wanted something more?

subject to availability

Friday 18 March 2016

Under The Covers: On-U Sound

M.I.A. - Mia-Ola/Foreign Friend


Via

Thursday 17 March 2016

This story is just fucked beyond belief

Sunn O))) - Live @Max Watt's Melbourne (16/3/16)


(Click arrow to download)
Photographs from last night HERE
Good interview about their Australian tour and info I'd missed about their collaboration with Scott Walker HERE

Asian Dub Foundation - Blade Ragga

Wednesday 16 March 2016

The Klansman (1974)


Disturbing drama about the Ku Klux Klan and race starring Lee Marvin,
Directed by Terence Young (Dr. No & From Russia With Love)
Based on the novel by William Bradford Huie

Recycled


Recycled
2013
Animation by Lei Lei + Thomas Sauvin
Sound Art by Zafka
An Introduction to the Animation:
The following images come from negatives salvaged from a recycling plant on the edge of Beijing, where they had been sent to be filtered for their silver nitrate content.Over the years French collector Thomas Sauvin built this archive of more than half a million 35mm negatives, depicting the capital and the life of her inhabitants over the last thirty years.
From 2011 to 2013, Chinese artist Lei Lei selected over 3000 photos to create the animation you are about to see, an almost epic portrait of anonymous humanity.
The film is the winner of Grand Prix shorts - non-narrative at the 2013 Holland International animation film festival, Nenarativní animace at the 12th Anifest International animation festival, Special Mentions by the jury members in 12th Countryside Animafest Cyprus. and Official Selected by Annecy International Animation Festival 2013.
raydesign.cn
Via

WAKE UP, AMERICA!


Black Cab - Uniforms


New single release 
They will be playing at Howler on May 6 with New War and Taipan Tiger Girls as support and then a six month break from live gigs

Naomi Wolf: Fascist America, in 10 easy steps (2010)

Coming very soon


LEGO version HERE

Trump campaign violence goes back a long way

'Hamilton' creator Lin-Manuel Miranda freestyles with Obama at White House

The U.S. Government Wants Apple To Turn Over The iOS Source Code So It Can Spy On Any iPhone

Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures (Trailer HBO 4/4)

Tuesday 15 March 2016

An Open Letter to Donald Trump

Humans of New York
11 hrs
An Open Letter to Donald Trump:
Mr. Trump,
I try my hardest not to be political. I’ve refused to interview several of your fellow candidates. I didn’t want to risk any personal goodwill by appearing to take sides in a contentious election. I thought: ‘Maybe the timing is not right.’ But I realize now that there is no correct time to oppose violence and prejudice. The time is always now. Because along with millions of Americans, I’ve come to realize that opposing you is no longer a political decision. It is a moral one.
I’ve watched you retweet racist images. I’ve watched you retweet racist lies. I’ve watched you take 48 hours to disavow white supremacy. I’ve watched you joyfully encourage violence, and promise to ‘pay the legal fees’ of those who commit violence on your behalf. I’ve watched you advocate the use of torture and the murder of terrorists’ families. I’ve watched you gleefully tell stories of executing Muslims with bullets dipped in pig blood. I’ve watched you compare refugees to ‘snakes,’ and claim that ‘Islam hates us.’
I am a journalist, Mr. Trump. And over the last two years I have conducted extensive interviews with hundreds of Muslims, chosen at random, on the streets of Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan. I’ve also interviewed hundreds of Syrian and Iraqi refugees across seven different countries. And I can confirm— the hateful one is you.
Those of us who have been paying attention will not allow you to rebrand yourself. You are not a ‘unifier.’ You are not ‘presidential.’ You are not a ‘victim’ of the very anger that you’ve joyfully enflamed for months. You are a man who has encouraged prejudice and violence in the pursuit of personal power. And though your words will no doubt change over the next few months, you will always remain who you are.
Sincerely,
Brandon Stanton

Dropping the Political F-Bomb

...the promoter has the muscle and so it goes...

Monday 14 March 2016

America's Agitator: Donald Trump Is the World's Most Dangerous Man

The Music Improvisation Company - Dragon Path


A really good article about the London improv scene and Derek Bailey in particular can be found here and here

In Trump We Trust


With friends like this

Andy Yeung: Amazing drone photos of Hong Kong


HERE

Scottish village in Italian Alps where residents wear kilts and play bagpipes

Austin residents not in tune with SXSW

Story 
...and despite Thor's best attempts it's still on

Woo Way Allstars - Brassey Steppa


Collaboration between Fritz Catlin (23 Skidoo) and Simon Charterton (The Higsons)
More tracks HERE

Someone Will Die

Can - Live @Rock En Stock (1973)


ORTF Studio, Paris 

Richard Hell on Ivan Julian's cancer diagnosois

"I’ve known Ivan since he was 21, in spring 1976 (40 years ago), when Bob Quine and Marc Bell and I were auditioning people to become Quine’s Voidoid co-guitarist. Bob was so impressed by Ivan's chops, he copped the slot on the spot. He’s only gotten better, year after year, as a player and all around monster of goodness, and that’s the truth. I love him. It’s horrible that he has to suffer some terribly painful, life-threatening illness, and have it ravage him financially as well. American barbarism. What’s left are his friends, admirers, and sympathizers."
https://www.gofundme.com/IvanJulianFund
Benefit concert NY May 4


Hell's kitchen: Was punk cooked up in New York?