The fish are on vacation

[sovay]

So tonight derspatchel and rushthatspeaks and I went to see Urgh! A Music War (1981) at the Brattle because why on earth wouldn't we? It was an original 35mm print, which meant that some of the acts were missing because some enterprising projectionists had decided over the years that what they really wanted to take home from the job was three minutes of Pere Ubu, or Magazine, or the topless bit of the Surf Punks. As a concert film, it was so cut-up we couldn't tell what was missing until the end credits. It was fantastic.

Assorted, partly out of order, and incomplete reactions I wish to record before I am too tired to stare at this computer anymore (and it's still three in the morning):

The best thing about Wall of Voodoo live is not the desultory way Stan Ridgway plunks out a synth part in "In the Flesh," but it really doesn't hurt.

Actually, I like Toyah Willcox as a musician. I wouldn't call her song punk, but I don't know what other kind of concert it could have been included in. Her facepaint, though, absolutely.

It's kind of weird to be listening to Danny Elfman without Tim Burton visuals.

"SHOW US YOUR BICEPS, BIAFRA!"

I had heard recordings of Klaus Nomi. I had never seen footage of him. I knew he was a countertenor. I did not know that he was also the secret child of Cabaret's Emcee and the finale of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. What an awesome, alien man. Also, magnificent opera chops.

So I should really, really have heard of Steel Pulse before now. They were the most political band on that stage. Also the only all-black one. Possibly this is not a coincidence.

I feel like it should have made an impression that the Surf Punks performed their number in a motley of swimming and sports gear and that a woman was almost de-bikini'd onstage, but mostly I noticed that we cut raggedly to the next act—mid-chord—right before her top came off. Their music wasn't so great that I cared. The missing performance by Pere Ubu, now that I resent.

Gary Numan, once you had lit-up blocks of amps responding to the keyboardists stationed to either side of the stage, did you really need a fog machine and a go-kart?

Jello Biafra ranted about punk in Nebraska. He is conclusively outweirded by the Cramps, as Lux Interior swallows and regurgitates his microphone melodically while the rest of the band studiously has no idea who this guy is or how they painted those pants on him.

Somebody send me all the recordings they have of the Au Pairs, stat. They had the best stage repartee and some of the most pointed gender politics in the show and I had heard of them even less than the Go-Go's.

Although Joan Jett is just a force of rock star charisma and that's all there is to it.

Ian McCulloch is so young, oh my God. It's like baby David Byrne in The Blank Generation (1976), only more so. He looks like he cut class to come to this concert.

So is there any line of transmission or common musical ancestor between Gang of Four and Mission of Burma, or did those noisy, angular, neck-jolting time signature shifts just spontaneously come into being in 1979?

999 should not have followed Gang of Four. No song where more than half the lyrics are the word "Homicide" is going to be able to compete.

Devo occasions a spontaneous round of cheering from the Brattle crowd. They deserve it.

Who are UB40 and why are they in this movie? I zoned out on them until the dancer with dreadlocks picked up a mic. Then I wondered about what he did after he left UB40.

It is not actually possible to care less than Exene. Sorry.

By the time we come around to a barn-burning, extended encore of "Roxane," not only is the entire audience onscreen shouting the chorus along with Sting, so is the audience in the Brattle. Worth it.

I really appreciate that the credits music is Klaus Nomi singing Camille Saint-Saëns. Nothing says post-punk like confusing the fuck out of the audience on their way up the aisles.

Jonathan Demme is thanked in the credits. Whatever he learned from working on this movie, it paid off in Stop Making Sense (1984).

Tracking down the soundtrack's various songs as we speak.

Comments

[tam_nonlinear]

I vaguely recall UB40 from the song Red Red Wine and a cover of Can't Help Falling in Love With You, and that they were named for an unemployment form, and this exhausts my knowledge.

[sovay]

Red Red Wine and a cover of Can't Help Falling in Love With You

That's what derspatchel told me.

and that they were named for an unemployment form

Huh. I didn't know that.

They were not my kind of thing.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

OMG Steel Pulse! Back when wakanomori and I were just "courting"--which is to say, our first year in grad school--he went to a Steel Pulse concert in Boston.

And I always will think of Joan Jett singing "Crimson and Clover"

[sovay]

Back when wakanomori and I were just "courting"--which is to say, our first year in grad school--he went to a Steel Pulse concert in Boston.

That's really cool!

And I always will think of Joan Jett singing "Crimson and Clover"

. . . I heard her first duetting with Paul Westerberg on "Let's Do It" from the soundtrack to Tank Girl (1995). I'm not even sure how that happened.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

Now that you mention him, I think I read something once about Klaus Nomi. The description made me picture a musical version of Max Shreck in Nosferatu. I googled him just now and this seems to have been pretty accurate.

[sovay]

The description made me picture a musical version of Max Shreck in Nosferatu. I googled him just now and this seems to have been pretty accurate.

He was wonderful.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

I've been watching his videos on and off all weekend. I suspect that the black tutu that appears in a couple of them is a nod to the "tonnelet" worn by male dancers in Baroque ballet, and I love that.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

This sounds great! Thanks for the commentary. I'm not sure why UB40 were in *anything*.

[sovay]

This sounds great! Thanks for the commentary.

You're welcome! Watch it if it ever comes to a theater near you, although don't blame me if Pere Ubu are missing.

[gwynnega]

I was at one of the gigs they filmed for that movie--one that included the Dead Kennedys and the Cramps and a couple of other bands. I was supposed to be at the Surf Punks show, but I had the flu.

UB40 seemed incongruous to me watching the film when it came out, and and I guess that hasn't changed!

[sovay]

I was at one of the gigs they filmed for that movie--one that included the Dead Kennedys and the Cramps and a couple of other bands.

That's really cool! I wish I'd known to look for you in the crowd scenes.

UB40 seemed incongruous to me watching the film when it came out, and and I guess that hasn't changed!

I feel better!

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

UB40 were British New Wave much more than they were punk, but there was a fair bit of overlap between the two.

I am coming to terms with the realization that seeing The Police on their first American tour means I am old.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I saw them before that. I was taken to see them, alllmost before they broke through in the UK - by a friend of mine who had known Sting when he was with Last Exit in Newcastle - while he was still wearing the stripy sweater that earned him the nickname. So you can't be old, because obviously I'm not old. And Sting's certainly not old. The sweater, though? That's old.

[sovay]

UB40 were British New Wave much more than they were punk, but there was a fair bit of overlap between the two.

I didn't object to their inclusion because they weren't punk; I objected to their inclusion because they weren't interesting. Except for the one guy who I hope had a separate musical career, because then I could follow it.

I am coming to terms with the realization that seeing The Police on their first American tour means I am old.

I think you should listen to desperance.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Wow, I was so in love with Jello Biafra at one point. I still listen to High Priest of Harmful Matter when I want to cheer myself up.

[sovay]

Wow, I was so in love with Jello Biafra at one point. I still listen to High Priest of Harmful Matter when I want to cheer myself up.

Did I manage to send you Live at the Deaf Club (1979)? It has some of the most non sequitur stage banter I have ever heard. "A song for the blind Hitler saluters!" Also the best cover of "Back in the U.S.S.R." ever.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

No, you never did! I'd totally go for that.

[sovay]

I'd totally go for that.

Check your e-mail!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

By the time we come around to a barn-burning, extended encore of "Roxane,"

They're all like that. Extended. Regular exposure to live Police concerts led me to the grim conclusion that Sting writes great songs, but has no idea whatsoever how ever to end one. On a record he could just fade to black, but on stage? They just grind on and on and on and...

[sovay]

Regular exposure to live Police concerts led me to the grim conclusion that Sting writes great songs, but has no idea whatsoever how ever to end one. On a record he could just fade to black, but on stage? They just grind on and on and on and...

Hah. I had never experienced a live Police concert before, so figured it was some kind of exception being made for the song everyone in the audience likes to shout along with. It works fine if you haven't heard it before!

[francis-clay.livejournal.com]

Check out SNL, s5e7, where Nomi does backup for David Bowie with Joey Arias.  It's a terrific piece.

[sovay]

Check out SNL, s5e7, where Nomi does backup for David Bowie with Joey Arias. It's a terrific piece.

Thank you! Yes, I want to see that.