TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK – AN INTERVIEW WITH ERIK PETERSEN OF MISCHIEF BREW

Posted on July 3, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged Against Me!, Beyonce, Blink-182, crass, dead kennedys, defiance ohio, DIY, Donald Trump, Emma Goldman, erik petersen, folk, folk-punk, grandmaster flash, howard zinn, IWW, mischief brew, music, music that matters, owl sanctuary, pete seeger, plan-it x, punk, punk rock, ronald reagan, Run DMC, subhumans, underground, utah phillips, whodini.

by Chris Jarvis

In the early 2000s, American punk music underwent one if its periodical renovations on the underground scenes. Bringing together punk rock’s anger, pace and aesthetic and meshing it with the instruments, skill and stories of folk music, folk-punk shifted the goalposts of what it meant to be a punk band. While Against Me! are probably the most famous, Defiance, Ohio the most innovative and influential, Mischief Brew are probably the best. A decade after their first full-length release Smash the Windows they continue to produce rebel rousing and exciting music, with last year’s This is Not for Children shows their ongoing versatility and eclecticity endures.Continue Reading

PUNK AND ERASURE: 40 YEARS LATER

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged 7 Year Bitch, anarchism, anniversary, arts, Babes in Toyland, Bad Brains, Black Flag, Blink-182, Blood & Honour, British music, Buzzcocks, celebration, crass, culture, dead kennedys, DIY, earasure, female artists, female musicians, Ford Dagenham, Ghost Town, Goldfinger, Green Day, grunge, history, Iggy Pop, IWD, John Lydon, L7, Less Than JAke, LGBT+, Madness, Malcolm McLaren, male-centric, Minor Threat, music, music that matters, neo nazi, New Found Glory, New Rose, NWA, Patti Smith, politics, punk, punk rock, Ramones, Rancid, RAR, refused, retrospective, revisionism, riot grrrl, Robert Smith, rock against racism, Roxanne Shante, Run DMC, salt n pepa, Sex Pistols, Sham 69, Sid Vicious, Siouxsie Sioux, Ska, The Beat, The Bodysnatchers, The Clash, The Offspring, The Selecter, Young Marble Giants, zine.

by Chris Jarvis

Anniversaries are strange things. Almost exclusively, they consist of rose-tinted, uncritical and nostalgic assessments of whatever they seek to commemorate. 2016, forty years since the ‘birth’ of punk, appears no different. Expect Union Jacks, safety pins galore and excessive images of John Lydon in BBC sanctioned documentaries. Expect descriptions of how important Malcolm Mclaren was to punk’s success, claims that New Rose was without contention the first punk rock single and a neat lineage where pub rock became punk – a very British phenomenon.

Inadequate as such histories are, they are demonstrative of the problem we have with understanding punk as a cultural occurrence. Debate rages amongst fans about whether punk was ever grassroots, whether it was ever political, whether any of the anti-establishment ethos was ever genuine, or instead fabricated by an astute record industry seeking to find the new zeitgeist. Adherents to either theory will read selectively into the evidence and ignore anything which would disprove their dogma.Continue Reading

NOT YOUR PUNK – AN INTERVIEW WITH NIKOLAI JONES OF KING PRAWN

Posted on April 10, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged asian dub foundation, Babar Luck, babylon whackers, bob marley, crass, dead kennedys, east end trinity, hardcore, hip hop, King Prawn, music, music that matters, politics, public enemy, punk, rage against the machine, Random Hand, Ska, the king blues.

By Chris Jarvis

In 1993, a new icon was born. King Prawn’s incendiary sound emerged from London, and paved the way for countless other bands on a burgeoning and ever developing scene. Over the next decade, they would lay waste to notions of genre as album after album would reinvent punk, ska, hip-hop and hardcore blazing a trail for many others to follow. Sonic Boom Six, Random Hand, The King Blues all built upon the legacy of King Prawn. So diverse and innovative, they coined their own label to define their music – Wildstyle, and their rebel rousing songs combined with their flagrant disregard for musical convention led to comparisons with American rap-metal pioneers Rage Against the Machine.Continue Reading

MAINTAIN AND RESIST – AN INTERVIEW WITH IAIN OF AUTONOMADS

Posted on March 27, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged anarcho-punk, arts, autonomads, crass, dub, hunt saboteurs, manchester, music that matters, politics, Propagandhi, punk, Ska, subhumans.

By Chris Jarvis

Bringing together anarcho punk aesthetics and lyrical themes with dub and ska sounds, Manchester based Autonomads are the ultimate sound clash. Their releases move seamlessly between genres. 2012 EP No Man’s Land exemplifies this at their best, drifting from aggressive growls of ‘No more GMP, get out of our city!’ to the bouncy ska singalongs like Supermarket Sweep, before toning down for mellow moments such as Dubbing Up the Downfall, no song sounding suddenly discordant or out of place. Throughout all of their music is an obvious and explicit political underpinning. On Conditions of the Working Class, they declare ‘our oppression’s still the same, as it used to be’ and on their anti-green washing anthem 2000BP they make clear ‘ethics for profit, that’s treason’.

VOICES OF HOPE COMING OUT OF THE DARKNESS – AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHNNY DOOM OF POLICE BASTARD

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged conflict, crass, crust punk, doom, enter shikari, hardcore, johnny doom, king blues, metal, music, music industry, music scene, music that matters, musician, police bastard, politics, punk, subhumans, thrash metal.

by Chris Jarvis

For anyone of my generation who group up in the Midlands with a taste for alternative music, Johnny Doom is something of an icon. Tuning into Kerrang Radio (when it was still broadcast on FM), it was the dulcet tones of this Brummie legend that would really excite, much more so than even the anarchic Tim Shaw or the esoteric Nick Margerisson. Unsurprisingly, he has won accolades for his wry radio conversations, being named Brummie of the Year in 2008.

But Johnny has a long history within music outside of his radio work. Becoming active initially in the late 1980s in the influential Crust Punk band Doom, Johnny went on to form the less acclaimed, but equally important Police Bastard, who fuse a raw and brutal aggression with thrash metal riffs and hardcore compositions. Encapsulated within that sound is an anti-authoritarian politics which is evident even from the band’s name. Because of this, we decided to talk to Johnny Doom about his politics and the role it plays in his music as part of our series Music That Matters.

crass

TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK – AN INTERVIEW WITH ERIK PETERSEN OF MISCHIEF BREW

PUNK AND ERASURE: 40 YEARS LATER

NOT YOUR PUNK – AN INTERVIEW WITH NIKOLAI JONES OF KING PRAWN

MAINTAIN AND RESIST – AN INTERVIEW WITH IAIN OF AUTONOMADS

VOICES OF HOPE COMING OUT OF THE DARKNESS – AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHNNY DOOM OF POLICE BASTARD

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