I do know I'm always of two minds about my country. I've never been a blind patriot - we tend to be a big bully, at home and abroad, and not mindful of the little guy. That disappoints me. We also are seriously damaged as a republic and in serious need of mending, and no two people can agree on HOW it should be done. Which bodes ill for us all. This may be an eternal problem, however: Witness Husker Du
's 30-year-old protest classic "In A Free Land
," here taken at a slower, more classic punk rock pace than the more hardcore version on their 2nd 45. Still, Bob Mould
's guitar and words ring harshly in indicting our system: "Why bother spending time/Reading up on things/Everyone's an authority/In a free land." Sadly, this still holds true, Bob....Still, America is a great country that's offered a lot to this world culturally. Dave Alvin
knew this well when he penned "American Music
" for his then-band, The Blasters
. I still can't figure out why he didn't include punk rock in the roll call of great musics America has given the world. And I could add a shitload of great artists (Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock
, etc., etc.), poets (Walt Whitman
, Allen Ginsberg
, Emily Dickinson
, Sylvia Plath
, etc.), and authors (Raymond Chandler
, James Ellroy
, J.D. Salinger
, Jack Kerouac
, etc.):Ultimately, I can think of no better celebration of the American spirit than the moment Jimi Hendrix
took the stage at Woodstock
and played the national anthem. Here he was, a man whose country had long crushed his people, and he rose above that and became an artist of unparalleled vision and force. Then he applied that force to a song written by a pair of slave owners, which had become his nation's rallying cry. And as he played the national anthem in the midst of a brutal war we had no reason to be in, this former US Army veteran added a crying, wailing tone to "The Star Spangled Banner,"
as well as all the rockets redglare and bombs bursting in air we'd sung about all these years. It's hard to ever sing this, after hearing how Jimi did it:There you have it, Irregulars. My feelings about this country I love, yet weep for, expressed the best way I know how: Through song. Maybe I'll finally write my own American musical epic today. Who knows? I suggest you celebrate in the way you see fit. And let's report back in a few days. Be good out there!
and 
) and a parallel career as a rock journalist (check out his excellent recent histories of both 
and 
). (Actually, I haven't read the latter yet, so perhaps I shouldn't be calling it "excellent." John, think you can send me a signed copy so I can check its' excellence?) Anyway, before I get too Rev. Norb in these diversionary, parenthetical tangents, the point of this now-rambling paragraph is that John has asked me to do a blog for his excellent musical/cultural site, 
(or whatever) and learning to cook on your pitiful resources. (I've even been teased, in my search for recipes from my more talented-in-the-culinary-department pals, that I should start a series here called "Cooking With Napalm." Give me a chance to actually get good at this first, please.)
But now and again, my body tells me otherwise....
, who some authoritative rock critics like 
feel were 
. (Bob Mould acknowledges 
had an impact, and his later band 
even covered Burma's "
.") This whirling dervish of obtuse pop melodics, crushing volume and noise, and rhythmic thrust, Burma, like many bands I adore, never received their due until after they were gone, sacrificed to guitarist Roger Miller's worsening tinnitus. And like some seminal bands, Burma reformed in the past decade and played to larger and more adoring crowds than they enjoyed in their heyday. You can see why in this clip from their dawn, 1979, ripping into one of their best, "Peking Spring":
, the nasty mojo children of future recording studio genius 
, as controversial a figure as the American underground has seen. Big Black, Albini's introduction to the world at large, were gloriously explosive and dangerous: Sheet metal guitar tones, cement mixer bass, and the relentless hammering of Roland The Drum Machine (which was a big fuck-you to the then prevalent technopop and dance culture, as well as to naysayers who felt you couldn't rock with a drum machine). And to match the unrelentingly ugly sonic mood, Albini as a lyricist pulled back the rock that was American culture and scooped up the worms and bugs crawling underneath and rubbed them in your face: Racism? Check. Domestic violence? You bet. Small town boredom turned to petty destruction? Absolutely. An entire small midwestern town populated by pedophiles? Uh-huh. This was the sound of the 
gone mean and nasty and direct....
LP really touched a nerve in me. They sounded to me like a louder, nervier 
with 
as musical director on one hand, and what I always had wanted heavy metal to sound like on the other. And guitarist/songwriter Greg Ginn's knack for clawing at his own nerve endings and turning his own neuroses inside out in a painful fashion offered a different take on punk rock angst, one only implicitly political and less preachy. This was emotional, committed, explosive, intense rock 'n' roll that still stands to this day. Here's the lineup that created Damaged, with a young 
who had yet to see many gyms or tattoo artists....
, that is) doing a commercial in 1956 to the tune of 
But you won't believe this very real Japanese commercial I found on my pal Dan Epstein's Facebook wall, featuring James Brown, um, reimagining one of his classics to sell...well, you'll see....
almost returning to his rock 'n' roll roots, singing a blues called "When You're Cool." But, he gets a chorus line, too? And it's noted San Francisco-by-way-of-Louisiana art terrorist pranksters 
?!!
! I mean, they kinda hinted at that once themselves:
ever come by with a contract? Did 
ever realize 
should have guested on that same Scooby Doo series that had guest appearances from 
or
? NOOOOO! Hell, even 
got a cartoon show in their heyday!
classics and uploaded them to YouTube. The results are crude, but no less crude than either those '70s Hanna Barbara or Filmation "limited animation" series I mentioned earlier. And these are probably a million times funnier and soaked in 
' spirit, right down to the pop cultural and cartoon references, even references to other 
lyrics.
might be my favorite, as it's the most ambitious production, right down to the intro and fake movie trailer at the end:
' corporate interests approve of these clips. But I don't think they're an embarrassment, and I wish whoever this animator is would do more! Gabba gabba, we accept, we accept you! One of us!