PART TIME PUNKS & THE ECHO present
THE 1ST-ANNUAL PART TIME PUNKS FESTIVAL
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Los Angeles will be the location of the world’s first-ever Post-Punk Festival (or at least the first since 1982 or whenever the last Futurama was held in the UK!). The day-long event will be held in conjoined venues, The Echo & The Echoplex, in Echo Park, Sunday, November 16, 2008 from 2pm – 2am.
Most excitingly, the Part Time Punks Festival will mark the first appearance of A CERTAIN RATIO in the United States since 1985! At the time, often dismissed as Joy Division clones (also on Factory Records), the band has since been recognized in the highest echelon of Post-Punk innovation, alongside Public Image Limited, Gang Of Four and The Slits for fusing Punk with dance rhythms – much of this credit probably due to the reissuing of the band’s back catalogue by Soul Jazz.
The Festival will also mark the first West Coast appearance of Pylon since they reformed last year to promote DFA’s releasing of their back catalogue (the label will be re-issuing Pylon’s second album, “Chomp” in time for the Festival).
The Festival will also provide the first West Coast appearance of The Nightingales since their reformation two years ago, the first-ever West Coast appearance of Vivian Girls AND the first performance by The Wild Stares since splitting in 1987 (who, if you don’t know, were Boston’s finest Post-Punk band from the early 80s, led by Steven Gregoropolous, now best known for his current band, Lavender Diamond).
The complete confirmed line-up is thus:
A Certain Ratio, Pylon, Love Is All, Vivian Girls, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Mika Miko, Savage Republic, Nervous Gender, Medium Medium, The Nightingales, The Urinals, The Wild Stares, Magic Bullets, The Muslims, Grimble Grumble, Warpaint, Softboiled Eggies, Nodzzz. . .
PLUS. . . GUEST DJs: David J (Bauhaus/Love & Rockets), Dave Newton (Mighty Lemon Drops), Brendan Mullen (“the guy who ran The Masque”) Chuck Warner (Messthetics/Hyped 2 Death) & Dan Selzer (Acute Records) & Kevin Pedersen (What’s Your Rupture?)
PLUS. . .the first-ever band-sanctioned public screening by Throbbing Gristle (videos, live performance & never-before-seen material) AND screenings of rare & unseen Post-Punk videos, films & live performances by Joy Division, New Order, Section 25, Cabaret Voltaire, Fad Gadget, Suburban Lawns, The Films Of Bruce Licher & Savage Republic AND the DVD-release-premiere of Decoder (featuring Genesis P-Orridge, William S. Burroughs, Christiane F and members of Psychic TV, Soft Cell, Talk Talk and Einsturzende Neubauten).
So why PART TIME PUNKS?
Well...where the hell else would it happen?
Probably nowhere in this country.
Perhaps not even the world. (Not since The Hacienda was bulldozed.)
So. A spot of history for you, of the more recent variety:
PART TIME PUNKS is the name of the club which happens every Sunday night at The Echo in Los Angeles. Started in May 2005 by DJ-partners Michael Stock and Benjamin White, the club celebrates/investigates the Post Punk period and its sub-categories (DIY, synthpunk, minimal synth, punkfunk, punky reggae, new wave/no wave and industrial) as well as occasional excursions into Indiepop and Shoegaze. Not only in the form of the music Michael and Benjamin spin for the dance floor (on vinyl only), but also the bands that Michael books to play.
The bands that have played the club have included a mix of classic Post-Punk bands (The Slits, ESG, Medium Medium, Nikki Sudden, Chrome, Nervous Gender, Savage Republic, Kid Congo Powers, Spectrum, Phil Wilson) and the best up-and-coming bands who are mining the Post-Punk world of obscurities for their inspiration (No Age, Mika Miko, Abe Vigoda, Ariel Pink, Love Is All, Tokyo Police Club, Tussle, Glass Candy, Chromatics, Cause Co-Motion, Indian Jewelry, New Bloods, The Strange Boys, Times New Viking, The Tough Alliance, The Go Team). Not to mention an impressive array of Guest DJs: Buzzcocks, !!! (Chk Chk Chk), Alan McGee, Calvin Johnson, Ian Svenonious, Juan MacLean and Cut Chemist (the Sunday before last).
In short, PART TIME PUNKS has always been ahead of the curve in looking back. While punk is now retro and retro is standard fit, Post-Punk is just on the slender margin between history and pop-culture. It falls between the cracks – in the music world, in the film world, even in academia. While the word has definitely entered the vocabulary of most musically-minded kids and adults alike, most folks think it means "DFA" or, best case scenario, "Gang Of Four" or maybe "Joy Division,” when what Post-Punk really means was the most musically-diverse time in popular history: 1978-1984. Of course, Part Time Punks has always been about the mix of that period and those records AND the very bestest, newest bands who are basically mining those tracks for their influences--as opposed to yet another dancepunk rehash.
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