Tagged: punk rock

Drunken But Influential Hard-Rocking Aussie Farmers Play NY, Featured in New Documentary

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Cosmic Psychos with M.O.T.O.
Cake Shop, NYC, Saturday, September 21, 2013

I remember the name of the band the Cosmic Psychos from back in the early 90s but I didn’t know anything about them until recently.  They are  notable for being an relatively obscure Australian band that somehow got under the skin of the Seattle scene during the formative years of Grunge.  Not too many other people knew about them.  Now they’re celebrating 30 years if existence and are the subject of a new documentary called Blokes You Can Trust.  The band comes from a long line of dumb and repetitive but loveable heavy Australian rock and roll music.  The Saints, Radio Birdman, The Hard Ons, hell even AC/DC fits the bill.  When it comes to the Cosmic Psychos, when the wah-wah pedal kicks in, I learned last night that they deliver powerfully inside the electric church.

This one’s for the cunt who took my farm – Ross Knight

I hate to give Eddie Vedder credit for anything because it’s hard to trust anyone who sits on surfboards playing ukuleles  — but his comments about how great the Cosmic Psychos are live in the trailer for the documentary (below) are accurate.  It appears that Mudhoney and Butch Vig bolster the film’s credibility on this matter.  Kurt was a fan, of course.  When they got onstage one floor beneath the baked goods at Cake Shop on Ludlow Street, their heavy machinery-operating style bent me over and plowed me. True, the guitarist looked like he was inches from death.  He stumbled and almost knocked into me twice before they went on.  It looked like his beer baby bump was about due and he wore a wifebeater.   He had a dirty, orange John Boehneresque alcoholic glow.  I imagine the Replacements’ Bobby Stinson might look like this now, had he lived.  But the bloke channeled Ron Ashton in the best possible way and completely shredded the lid off during the entire event. Ross Knight, hunched over and driving the attack via his rural-yet-industrial, fuzzed-out bass and Lemmy-influenced vocal stylings.  This is an interesting cat and there is a good Q&A with him via Austin Chronicle.

Leading contender for best rock show of the year 2013.

Cosmic Psyhos1   Cosmic_Psychos2

Check out the trailer for the new documentary

Separate post on opening act M.O.T.O. to follow, maybe.

Lawsuits Live 2013: FLAG in New York

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L-R: Greg Ginn, Keith Morris

“This is a disclaimer. We are not Black Flag.  We are FLAG. We play the music of Black Flag.” – Keith Morris, September 19, 2013 (before a note was played)

A lot has been said about Greg Ginn’s lawsuit against “FLAG”. Most of the associated internet trolling paints Black Flag founder, guitarist, songwriter, and sole financial proprietor as some kind of Mike Love-like ogre.  While this is true, he is more than just a sketchy businessman who screwed over the best members of his former group (and also Henry Rollins.  And every artist that ever appeared on his SST label).  Greg Ginn is a musician tied sonically to the music of Black Flag.  His great start/stop/off-kilter guitar riffs are probably the most recognizable thing about them.  He is also the only consistent member of the band since he started it.

Back in June, I enjoyed the Greg Ginn Black Flag experience at Warsaw in Greenpoint, with Chavo Ron Reyes — the Decline of Western Civilization-era lead singer.  Before that show, there was a huge amount of negative hype online because of some shitty quality YouTube videos circulating. They sounded so bad!  I had tickets but my friend bailed on me and honestly I didn’t really want to go either.  “Nobody wants to go to this bullshit,” said my friend Pat D, who was offered a free ticket to the sold out show.  But cameraphone vids are an unfair benchmark.  Amazingly, they sounded great and completely rocked all the hits.  Greg seemed very gracious and appreciative, and I got wasted on Jameson’s with a date I met on the Internet (I otherwise would have had to eat the ticket).

FLAG were also really good and in some ways completely great.  Even considering it was at Irving Plaza, possibly the worst venue in NYC and filled with distateful people from all age groups.  Bill Stevenson is an unrelenting machine on drums.  One of the best punk rock drummers of all time and appropriately on this SPIN list of best “alternative” drummers (writeup by funnyman Jon Wurster).  Original Black Flag singer Keith Morris is a national treasure. He’s been with us all along, most notably with the Circle Jerks and now recently with the popular supergroup OFF!  Keith is still completely manic and effective.  The founding father of hardcore.  They sounded amazing running through the early hits — and on Nervous Breakdown I finally let my guard down and banged my head like a kid. Dez Cadena, the guy that Henry Rollins modeled his schtick on, did a set of pre-Rollins numbers (Thirsty and Miserable, American Waste, Six Pack, etc).  Chuck Dukowski wailed around the stage like a punk rock grandpa. Pretty cute stuff.  My one issue was with beloved later-Descendents/ALL guitarist Stephen Egerton.  While he’s a great player, the way he aped Ginn’s guitar solos note-for-note really bothered me.  Greg may deserve this big “fuck you” but it offended my musical senses.

A full Black Flag reunion with Ginn and this line up of FLAG would be completely incredible but of course this is an impossibility.

FLAG
Uninspired novelty Raymond Pettibon poster