Movie of the Week: The Queen Is Dead by Derek Jarman (1986)

Here's a short film by Derek Jarman for the Smiths' new release at the time, The Queen Is Dead. There are three songs used ('The Queen is Dead', 'There is a Light that Never Goes Out' and 'Panic'),  and they are matched by some great imagery put together by Jarman. Apparently the "Panic" video was extracted from this film.

Danceteria: The Beginning and the End

February 1982

Well, sort of the beginning... this was for the opening on West 21st Street. The club's second, but much more well known & established location.

July 1986

It was time. Thanks to John Argento for the images.

Movie of the Week: X - The Unheard Music (1986)

 
We've run it before, and we'll run it again.

Purchase the DVD here

Visit X's website here

Friday Ephemera: Cramps Family Tree (1986)

From Sunglasses In the Dark by Lindsay Hutton

Lost & Found: Boogie Down Productions’ Criminal Minded practice tapes

I stopped keeping up with the latest hip hop much longer ago than I'd care to admit. When I WAS into it, however, one of acts that you could not ignore at the time was Boogie Down Productions, whose Criminal Minded (1987) was certainly a stunning debut, and has definitely gone down as one of the great hip hop albums in the genre's history. That should go without saying. 

Last week DJ Kenny Parker, via the Frozen Files show on East Village Radio, shared the tracks you can listen to below - BDP practice tapes from the mid-80's as they shaped what became Criminal Minded. Fascinating stuff especially in light of the fact that hip hop bootlegs (and I don't mean mix tapes) still seems to be a somewhat under-exploited thing. But hey...I could be wrong about that. Enjoy these old school beats.

Hat tip to Fact Mag and Unkut.

Movie of the Week: Reality 86'd (with Black Flag, Painted Willie & Gone, 1986)

Here's an extra holiday weekend edition of Movie of the Week:

Every touring independent band on the road these days owes a debt to Black Flag. Reality 86'd is a first hand look into the mid-80's American scene, featuring three SST bands on tour (the label's usual practice back then of packaging bands together on the road), it would be Black Flag's final fling as they toured behind the album, In My Head. Hat tip to Music Ruined My Life.

Three bands and crew, 2 Dodge Ram extended cab vans, one equipment truck, one PA system traverse the continental US for six months. A road documentary shot from the inside of the last Black Flag tour ever (the 1986 In My Head US tour.) Featuring behind the scenes proceedings and live performances from Black Flag, Painted Willie, and Gone (Ginn's side project, then featuring Sim Cain and Andrew Weiss (later of the Rollins Band). David Markey was along for the entire trip as the drummer/singer for Painted Willie, documenting the six month tour with his Super-8 camera as it happened. Also features roadie Joe ("Planet Joe") Cole, soundmen Davo Claasen and Dave "Ratman" Levine, and the tour manager who kept it all together, Mitch Bury. A crucial turning point in American underground rock. The end of the line for a trail blazing American band.

Shot in 1986 and completed by director David Markey in 1991 for We Got Power Films.

Dec. 5, 1986: New Order plays for Ruth Polsky

Kraut (post Dougie) at the Pyramid (1986)

The second line-up of Kraut plays the Pyramid Club, July 1, 1986 (source)

Movie of the Week - X: The Unheard Music (1986)

Purchase the DVD here

Visit X's website here

Movie of the Week - Lovedolls Superstar (1986)

 

The sequel to 1984's Desperate Teenage Lovedolls, this piece of underground fun from 1986 was much more notable for it's soundtrack than the actual film. Still, its a good laugh, and worth a watch. The cast includes Jeff McDonald (Redd Kross) with appearances by Vicki Peterson (the Bangles), Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys) & Sky Saxon (the Seeds).

Twenty minutes of love In Tompkins Square

Geordie from Konk just posted this fantastic live video of the band tearing it up in Tompkins Square Park in 1986. It's an epic twenty (!) minute version of "Love Attack."



In keeping with the live, eighties, LES vibe, visit EV Grieve for some excellent footage of a crowd enjoying themselves at a 1981 Tompkins Square concert featuring Pierce Turner, Essential Bop, Liquid Liquid, Science, and Certain General.

Kyle's Cassettes: Robert Wyatt - Nothing Can Stop Us

Robert Wyatt

Nothing Can Stop Us

1986 Gramavision

A lot of kids think that the whole 80’s British art school scene was all about the Cure and hairspray, but if you want to really get down to some brass tacks, no non-sense business then this is probably more where it’s at. 

Check it: moping around your seaside Bristol studio trying to work out some issues regarding feminine identity in your politico-abstract-expressionist paintings while smoking a little Bali Shagg mixed with some low-grade sensi and this is jamming on the box in the back ground. That beret with the trench coat ensemble was working for you. I mean come on, you wish your mom was this cool.

All what have you aside, this is a pretty special little tape. In 1973 Wyatt fell out of a window at a party and was left in a wheelchair. He spent the rest of the seventies laid up on the outskirts of London in a flat that Julie Christie gave him marinating on everything from disco and soul to bebop and Chilean folk songs. When he resurfaced in the 80’s this is what he came through with. These jams are hella frail in a soulful- spooked-out-vibes kind of way. These songs are about struggle and sincerity and the inherent pitfalls there with in. This tape always makes me feel like everything is going to be all right.

Visit Kyle at Trustzine.

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.