Movie of the Week: Test Dept - Program For Progress (1984)

testdept.org.uk

Shot By: Ted Barron

(Love goes to) building on fire. A neighborhood watches a fire. Lower East Side, NYC, 1984. ©Ted Barron.

Movie of the Week: Beat This! A Hip Hop History (1984)

 Here's an amazing doc from 1984 from the BBC on the still nascent (at the time) hip hop scene. Astounding & beautiful...

Appearances include Easy A.D., Almighty K.G., Arthur Baker, Afrika Bambaataa, Drew Bundini, H. Rap Brown, Grandmaster Caz, Charlie Chase, Brim Fuentes, G.L.O.B.E., Kool Herc, Lisa Lee, Malcolm McLaren, Pow Wow, Sha Rock, and Tony Tone.

Hat tip to Dangerous Minds

Movie of the Week: Big Country Play At Home (1984)

The Play At Home Series wraps up with this edition by Big Country in which they discuss the realities of, and the art of putting together a tour. Stuart Adamson RIP.

Movie of the Week: Angelic Upstarts Play At Home (1984)

After some nudge, nudge, wink, wink, over the last few days, things get a bit more serious in the Play At Home series - this edition courtesy of the Angelic Upstarts.

Movie of the Week: XTC Play At Home (1984)

Following Siouxsie & The Banshees, New Order, and Echo & The Bunnymen, we have XTC's Play At Home film from 1984.

Movie of the Week: Echo and the Bunnymen Play At Home (1984)

By Phil Nicholls

Here's the Play At Home contribution by Echo & the Bunnymen...
Enjoy that distinctive Liverpudlian accent!

Movie of the Week: Play At Home Presents Siouxsie and the Banshees (1984)

Dating from 1984, this is certainly an oddity in the Banshees catalog. A made-for-British-TV special, just under an hour in length, Play At Home Presents Siouxsie and the Banshees features the band in a number of Alice In Wonderland themed situations, as well as some live performances, and includes appearances from Robert Smith who (as if he wasn't busy enough at the time) was part of the band at two different times.

The Fall: Perverted by Language Bis (1984)

 

Wings

Totally Wired

Kicker Conspiracy

Hex-Strife ad.

Eat Y'Self Fitter

The Confidnce of Glaspance

Tempo House

Man Whose Head Expanded

Smile

Drago//Hip Priest

The Fall online

Hat tip to Pukekos

Thursday at the New Museum: Graffiti / Post-Graffiti screening & discussion

This Thursday at the New Museum: A screening of "Graffiti / Post-Graffiti" (1984) will be followed by a discussion with Patti Astor, Fab 5 Freddy Brathwaite, Lady Pink, Paul Tschinkel, Charlie Ahearn, Futura 2000 and Marc Miller. Here's a clip:

Movie of the Week - The Height of Goth 1984: A Night at the Xclusiv Nightclub

The Height of Goth 1984: A Night at the Xclusiv Nightclub, Batley, West Yorkshire UK

 

Before and After - Album Art 4

Before - Chelsea Girls (film) by Andy Warhol & Paul Morrissey (1966):

Watch the film over at Dangerous Minds or YouTube.

After - The Splendour of Fear by Felt (Cherry Red Records, 1984):

Sample & buy The Splendour of Fear at Amazon or from Cherry Red Records.

Kyle's Cassettes: Felt - The Splendor of Fear/Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty

Felt

The Splendor of Fear/Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty

1984 Cherry Red
 

So if your anything like me your probably just about all stocked up on all these fucking goons being so overly over the top sincere about their love for The Smiths and any other piece of dog shit Morrissey narrowly avoided stepping into on a sidewalk. I mean I really couldn’t give less of a shit about how his lyrics have touched you so deeply and that’s why you’ve been a vegetarian since you were like two years old. Don’t get me wrong I love The Smiths and all; when I’m out with my old lady at some tastefully understated Brooklyn bistro and they come on I don’t complain. I just chew my food and mentally appreciate it without broadcasting 1400 tweets about it or worse, start crying all over my arugula salad.  Seriously kids the well is fucking dry. So that being the case, the question begs to be asked: What formerly over-looked, soft-ass British shit is there left to drool all over? Answer: Felt.

Not only is Felt about a hundred times cooler than the Smiths, but their front man could easily kick the shit out of Morrissey (which probably isn’t saying much, but the Mozzer is fond of ripping his shirt off about 19 times per song in the live show and I have to admit that for an older bloak he does look like he probably still works out (I wonder what he’s maxing out at on the bench?).) Anyhoos, Lawrence (yes they both go by single ambiguous monikers), to my mind at least, always had a better sense of style, taste and understatement. I’ll put it like this: Morrissey is to David Johansen as Lawrence is to Tom Verlaine. On one side you’ve got French symbolist poetry and on the other you’ve got Buster Poindexter, you do the math.

Now if you haven’t heard of Felt don’t worry you’re not alone. I scored this tape from a thrift store in Chelsea for like 50 cents and when I took it to the counter the girl was all, “this looks cool, what is it?” and I sort of mumbled something about it being a sort of obscure eighties British group and she just gave me a blank stare. Then, and this is the best part, I said that it was one of the guys from Belle & Sebastian’s favorite groups of all time and she said, “I’ve never heard of them either.” At which point my jaw probably visibly unhinged it’s self in snobbish aghast and I was like, “I can’t help you,” and just chirped out of there. Whatever though because the point is that there is still time for you to find every demo that Felt ever committed to tape and whatever shite quality videos and live performances you can mine up on youtube and basically pretend that you’ve been into them since you were nine years old and start a band called I Worship The Crystal Balls of Vasco de Gama. Or whatever the fuck it is you kids do today. Just check out the fucking band, alright? Enough already. 

"Mexican Bandits" from The Splendor of Fear:


Visit Kyle at Trustzine.

Friday Ephemera - Danceteria New Year's Eve 83-84

Ephemera Friday - Borscht & Chappaquiddick

Thanks to my long lost friend Debbie U for sending these along! What a pleasant surprise.

Chappaquiddick flyer for our demo tape, 1983:


Borscht collage flyer that I don't recognize, 1983 or 84:

Reminder for the summer

And the hits just keep on coming

One of these days I'll post MP3's and talk about my very first band, Chappaquiddick +5, until then...here are some more photos. The first one is quite special.

Chappaquiddick +5 at the Office, Nyack, NY, 1983. Guitarist Danny, on the left, wore a Hess gas station attendant shirt that night. Me, on the right, wore a Hertz Rental Car shirt. I really got out a kick out that:


Chappaquiddick +5 in the Borscht basement, 1983. This was Steve's basement in Pearl River, NY. You'll notice Mike, front right, is holding a Schaeffer beer along with his cigarette. That was the beer of choice in the Borscht basement. Tall boys:


Borscht at CBGB, 1983. This must have been just prior to Connie leaving Borscht and joining Chappaquiddick, which is when Adam Nodelman came into the picture with Borscht:


Proof sheet of action at the Office, Nyack, NY, 1983 - click for a closer view:


Proof sheet of action at the Office, Nyack, NY, 1983 - click for a closer view:


Me at a loft party my band, the Gibson Girls, were playing in Boston in 1989 or 1990. I had bought the coat that day at a used clothing joint called "Dollar A Pound." I gave it away that same night:

Personal musical memories

Above are a Danceteria pass & ad from the Village Voice from February 13, 1986. It was the one & only time I played the mainstage there. The other gig I played there was a rooftop No Entiendes party thrown by Howie Montaug which had to be one of the wildest nights of my life...you would've had to have been there.

Also pictured are myself & my great friend (more like a brother really), Steve. Following the break up of our two bands (Chappaquiddick & Borscht), and our move to NYC in 1984, we performed as a duo - sort of a punk Simon & Garfunkel - at the first versions of Lach's Anti Folk nights in the loft Steve shared with Lach. We also did open mic nights where we could, and also just busked in the streets, and later CBGB & the aforementioned No Entiendes party. Eventually we got the Lowboys together which lasted a year, maybe two, and then fell apart due to various shenanigans. They were great days. The photos above are of Steve & I playing at and standing in front of CBGB.

Pete Shelley solo gig

Here's a flier for a rare Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks) solo acoustic gig in the cozy basement of the Vasmay Lounge on East Houston Street. Is the joint still there? Circa 1984 or 1985 during the New Music Seminar. The night was DJ'd by Ed Bahlman of 99 Records fame. A good deal for $3.00!

Friends & such

I recently pulled apart a few old raggedy photo albums. As I can scan stuff I'll be posting some of it here. Here are a few photos of friends, most of whom I'm still in touch with. These are all circa 1982-1985, New York City.