Here is a list of all the Punk bands know to me, not in any particular order :
Sex Pistols,The Exploited,NOFX,Ramones,Rancid,Green Day(I'm talking first CDs here), The Offspring,Dropkick Murphys,Anti-Flag,Blink-182,Bad Religion,The Pogues,Sum 41*,Good Charlotte,Pennywise,Uncommenfrommars,The Clash,Nirvana,Dead Kennedys,Millencolin, The Cure,The Strokes,and many more...
I have a feeling I have missed out many,so please leave me a commentary if you notice anything wrong or absent!In the meantime,you may wish to have a look at this site :
http://www.books.i12.com/punk/index.html
Many punk bands have contributed to make the CD of which I expose the cover beside this article.
The Punk Entity
Description :
This is a blog about Punk-...duh-made by...me.I chose pink as the main blog color because its becoming more and more the general punk-ish color.Example : Sex Pistols often wrote the name of their band with a pink outline,like on one of my posters or something. Then there's lowe example like on tony Hawk's American Wasteland the actual game box is covered in pink.Sure,its not so much of an example but,hey,what the hell. An d I can always change the color if I like,so...Piss off!
The best thing with this blog though is that no one will actually be aware of it apart from me...so hah!
...actually,no.I'll put it in black.
Red and black. It's...........Punkadillic!................................
In other words the very first punk band. They're the ones who started it all, even though The Clash and the likes had their word in it.
Here is the exact same content about them that you may find also on Wikipedia, and that i was to lazy to even try and change the words my way (not the song) :
Origins and early days
Originally called The Strand (in reference to a song by Roxy Music), the band was formed during 1972 by Paul Cook (drums), Steve Jones (vocals) and Wally Nightingale (guitar). Other early members included Stephen Hayes (bass) and Jim Mackin (organ). In 1973 the band members began to frequent a 1950s-themed clothes shop, Let It Rock, which sold Teddy Boy clothes in the Kings Road, Chelsea area of London. Here they met the shop's manager, Malcolm McLaren. Jones, being aware that McLaren had some connections within the music business, asked if he would be interested in becoming the group's manager, although at the time McLaren declined. Del Noones, who they met at the shop, was recruited to replace Hayes on bass. By 1974, the group called itself The Swankers and played its first gig at a birthday party of a friend of Cook's at Tom Salter's Café in London. They also began rehearsing in a studio called the Crunchy Frog, near London's docklands. Noones left the band shortly afterwards because he was becoming unreliable and not turning up at rehearsals.
The remaining members recruited bass player Glen Matlock. By early 1975, Jones and Nightingale had begun arguing about what direction the band should take. Nightingale then left the group, and Jones replaced him on guitar. Johnny Rotten, who was another of the clientele of the by-now renamed and restyled SEX boutique, showed up at the shop in August 1975 wearing a homemade 'I Hate Pink Floyd' t-shirt. He was asked to audition by singing along to Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen". He passed.
NME journalist Nick Kent played briefly with the band and introduced the other members to bands such as The Stooges and The Modern Lovers. He left shortly after to pursue his career as a journalist. After Kent's departure, Paul Cook felt that Jones might not be good enough alone on guitar and placed an advertisement for another "Whiz Kid Guitarist". Steve New answered the advert and played with the band for a few weeks, but left because the Pistols decided that they needed only one guitarist.
Promotional flyer for an early Sex Pistols gigMcLaren became the new group's manager and was asked to think of a name for the group. Among the list were Le Bomb, Subterraneans, The Damned, Beyond, Teenage Novel and QT Jones and his Sex Pistols ("QT" was taken from the postcode area in which both Mclaren and Jones lived.) QT Jones was dropped shortly afterwards, and the Sex Pistols were born. The name was, no doubt, intended to bring to mind the male sex organ, but McLaren has stated that he wanted the band to be "sexy young assassins" (in later years band members frequently accused McLaren both of cheating them financially, and of claiming credit for things that were not his idea as well as falsifying the bands' history). Under McLaren's guidance, the band was initially influenced in part by the simple, chord-based style of the New York Dolls and the Ramones. McLaren had given guitarist Jones the Les Paul guitar used by NY Doll Sylvain Sylvain, and the torn-shirt, spiked-hair look of Richard Hell, then bass player for Television. All of these figures were pioneers of the New York City punk, and later New Wave music, scene. Rotten and his circle of friends (coincidentally all also called John) walked into the arrangement already possessed of a similar style - a grungey version of the 'soul boy' fashion affected by fans of Roxy Music. McLaren also claimed that he wanted the Sex Pistols to be "the new Bay City Rollers".
The band played their first gig under their new name at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, where they were shut down before finishing their first song, on 6 November 1975. It was arranged by Matlock as he had been made by default this college's social event organiser as he was studying there at the time. The other band playing was called Bazooka Joe, whose bass player was Stuart Goddard, later known as Adam Ant. This gig would be followed by other performances at colleges and art schools for the remainder of 1975 until early 1976, when they started playing at clubs (like the 100 Club) and pubs (like The Nashville). On 3 September 1976, they played their first concert outside of Britain, when they played at the opening of the Club De Chalet Du Lac in Paris. After that they went on their first major tour of Britain, lasting from mid-September to early October (and including a performance at Chelmsford Prison), which got them noticed by EMI.
EMI and the Grundy incident
The cover of The Daily Mirror the day after the Grundy appearance.Following a showcase gig as part of London's first punk festival at the 100 Club in Oxford Street, the band was signed (for a large advance) to the major label EMI. The Sex Pistols' first single, "Anarchy in the U.K.", released on 26 November 1976, served as a statement of intent -- full of wit, anger and visceral energy. Despite a common misconception that punk bands 'couldn't play', the evidence of live recordings of the time reveal the Pistols to be a tight, competent and ferocious live band.
However, it was the band's behavior which created their first national exposure: on 1 December 1976, the group and their close circle of followers, the Bromley Contingent, created a storm of publicity in the UK when, goaded by interviewer Bill Grundy, Johnny Rotten used the word "shit" and guitarist Steve Jones called Grundy a "fucking rotter" on Thames Television's live early evening television programme Today after he had made a rather inept attempt at 'chatting up' Siouxsie Sioux. Although the programme was only seen in the London ITV region (and although Matlock had, aparently unnoticed by Grundy, been the first to utter the word 'fuck'), the ensuing furor occupied the tabloid newspapers for days afterwards. The Daily Mirror famously ran the headline "The Filth and the Fury", while the Daily Express went with "Punk? Call it Filthy Lucre" -- both titles adopted by Lydon's sense of irony for Pistols' projects many years later (a film, and a tour, respectively). Grundy was suspended for two weeks and the Today programme was cancelled two months later.
The shambolic 'Anarchy Tour' of the UK followed, with the majority of the concerts dogged by a hostile press and cancelled by local authorities, and many of the rest ending in states of semi-riot.
Sid Vicious joins the band
After the end of the 'Anarchy Tour' in December 1976, EMI decided it was too dangerous for the Sex Pistols to be in the UK, so they got the band some gigs at the Paradiso in Amsterdam in early January 1977. After getting some bad publicity at Heathrow Airport on their return, EMI finally had enough and dumped the band on 27 January 1977. The Paradiso gigs would be the last with Glen Matlock on bass, as in February, Matlock parted company with the band. According to legend he was sacked because he "liked The Beatles" - but Steve Jones later claimed the reason was that Glen (being of a different upbringing) had never really been "one of them", and that he was "always washing himself", besides. Matlock himself now claims to have quit voluntarily (probably due to increasingly acrimonious clashes with Rotten, with whom he'd never been particularly comfortable). This latter story seems most likely (and is seemingly endorsed by Lydon, as well, in his statements in a later film). He was quickly replaced by Rotten's friend and "ultimate Sex Pistols fan" Sid Vicious (real name John Simon Ritchie) of The Flowers of Romance, famously endorsed as a member by McLaren for his looks and "punk attitude" despite his very limited musical abilities. According to Jon Savage's biography of the Sex Pistols, England's Dreaming, at live performances his amplifier was often turned down or off, and most of the bass parts on the band's later recordings were actually played by guitarist Steve Jones or Matlock, who (according to Lydon's autobiography Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs) had been drafted in as a session musician. Vicious played his first concert with the Pistols at the Screen On The Green in London on 3 April 1977, a show which was featured in Don Lett's film The Punk Rock Movie.
God Save the Queen
The band signed to A&M Records on 10 March, in a ceremony outside of Buckingham Palace. They later went back to the A&M offices for a party, at which the Sex Pistols' unruly behaviour included Jones and Cook chatting up all the secretaries, and Vicious trashing the Managing Director's office whilst vomiting on his desk (according to Lydon, Sid had somehow injured his foot and was "bleeding all over the place", as well). As a result, A&M dumped the Pistols within a week (on 16 March). On 12 May, the Pistols signed their third and final record deal with Virgin Records, with the promise of total artistic control.
The cover of the God Save the Queen single designed by Jamie Reid.The group's second single, released by Virgin on 27 May 1977 was "God Save the Queen", a stinging attack on the ideals and institutions of Britain, delivered in Johnny's trademark sneer. The song is summarized in the line "There is no future ... in England's dreaming," which became a de facto position statement for British punk. The song was widely perceived as a personal attack on Her Majesty, and seemed to be personally offensive to most of his countrymen. Rotten however stated that the song was not specifically aimed at the Queen's person at all ("God save the queen/We mean it man!"), but was written to attack the 'old order' of British Society. Coming at a time when deference to royalty was still a predominant trait in both the establishment and the country as a whole, it caused tremendous public outcry, and the record was quickly banned from airplay by the staid BBC, whose Radio 1 dominated music broadcasting at the time. As Rotten later remarked, "We had declared war on the entire country -- without meaning to!"
Nevertheless, in the week of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee, the record officially reached number two in some UK charts. However, the number one spot was, tellingly, left blank in some listings. Many believe, with evidence [citation needed], that the record actually reached number one, but the charts had been rigged to prevent such a spectacle. At least one radio station announced the song as number one, but stated that they would not play the record, as they had been advised it might cause unrest, especially during the national celebrations.
Meanwhile, the Pistols themselves decided to mark the Jubilee, along with the success of their record, by chartering a party boat, upon which they sailed down the Thames, past Westminster and the Houses of Parliament, performing their live set (which was, of course, intended to include God Save the Queen). As usual, the event ended in chaos; the boat was raided by the police, despite being licensed for live music, and McLaren, the Pistols and most of their entourage were taken into custody. It was arguably all good fun and a great publicity stunt, but matters took a distinctly uglier turn when young punk followers of the Sex Pistols became victims of physical attacks in the street by 'pro-royalists', and Rotten himself was assaulted by a razor-wielding gang of 'Teddy Boys' outside the Pegasus pub (which was a music venue at the time) close to Newington Green, Islington, who, it seems, didn't see the humour of the Pistols' antics. This delayed the tour of Scandinavia by a couple of weeks, which would have started at the end of June, but because of the attacks, it started in mid-July. This was followed by a secret tour of the UK at the end of August (known as SPOTS, Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly), with the band playing under pseudonyms to avoid cancellation.
Never Mind the Bollocks
Main article: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols album coverThe promise of the band's early singles was eventually fulfilled by the group's first album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, released on 28 October 1977. The album included singles "Pretty Vacant" (released on 2 July 1977), an ode to apathy, and "Holidays in the Sun" (released on 15 October 1977) - Bruce Foxton, bass player for The Jam and Stiff Little Fingers later alleged in a 1990s book that the riff had been stolen from the Jam's "In the City" single.
Again the Sex Pistols faced controversy when a record shop in Nottingham was threatened with prosecution for displaying the album's 'obscene' cover, although the case was overturned when defending QC John Mortimer produced expert witnesses, including Professor James Kinsley, a professor of linguistics at the University of Nottingham, who were able to demonstrate that the word "bollocks" was a legitimate Old English term originally used to refer to a priest, and that although the word is also slang for the testicles, in this context it meant 'nonsense'.
Last UK gig
The Sex Pistols' final UK performance was at Ivanhoe's in Huddersfield on Christmas Day 1977, a benefit for the families of striking firemen. Despite the band's state of disintegration by this time, the gig was considered by some as a vindication of their anti-establishment stance when they were, for once, united with what might be viewed as their true constituency, the dispossessed British working class. They played two shows, a matinee and an evening show. Tickets for the latter were furtively sold for a secret venue, announced shortly before the gig as a tactic to avoid the attentions of local councillors and the like, who had cancelled many of the Pistols' other shows. Those waiting outside for the second show were given turkey sandwiches from the remains of the meal laid on for the strikers' families. The atmosphere in the evening show was counter to the negative publicity that had been generated towards the band by the tabloid press; before the show, Johnny Rotten mingled with the crowd wearing his pith helmet, and the good humour of the matinee (which was a benefit played for free) lingered on. Years later the promoter of the evening show confessed that the Pistols never cashed his cheque.
The end of the band
Early in 1978 an American tour was booked by McLaren. Originally they were scheduled to begin the tour in December 1977, beginning with a performance on Saturday Night Live, but due to the members' minor scrapes with the law, they were unable to receive passports in time. (Elvis Costello and the Attractions went on instead). The two-week American jaunt was an exhausting, badly-planned, dispiriting experience for all concerned (Vicious was beaten by the bodyguards hired to protect him, Rotten had a fierce head cold, and the band's performances were plagued by bad sound and physically hostile audiences, mainly at unlikely venues in the South), and on the final date at Winterland in San Francisco on 14 January, the disillusioned Rotten quit, famously asking "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" from the stage before walking off.
The promotional poster of The Great Rock 'n' Roll SwindleOn 17 January 1978, Rotten announced the break-up of the Sex Pistols. He later claimed to have been bluffing, but McLaren, Cook and Jones left for a working vacation in Brazil, and Vicious left for New York, leaving Rotten stranded without airfare in America. Warner Bros. paid his passage back to London, courting him as a solo artist.
McLaren had been attempting to make a film featuring the Sex Pistols and in 1977 had hired director Russ Meyer to make such a film. The film, titled Who Killed Bambi? was scripted by McLaren and Roger Ebert but only a day and a half's worth of shooting was ever achieved.[2] The next attempt was in the summer of 1978, Cook and Jones helped McLaren make The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle which was directed by Julien Temple. The movie was McLaren's fictionalised account on the band's history, claiming he controlled and manipulated the band from start to finish. The soundtrack had Jones, occasionally Cook or Vicious, and sometimes Edward Tudor-Pole, trading on their vocals and engaging in McLaren-concocted gimmicks -- such as recording two songs on the album with notorious British criminal Ronnie Biggs.
Post Sex Pistols
After leaving the Pistols, Johnny Rotten reverted to his given name of John Lydon, and formed Public Image Ltd. with his old friend Jah Wobble (born John Wardle), a previous contender to replace Matlock. This group was signed by Virgin and Warner Brothers (in the UK and US respectively). Vicious meanwhile relocated to New York and continued to gig as a solo performer, recording an album that many consider substandard. He was shortly afterwards arrested on 12 October 1978 for the murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, in New York City and died of a heroin overdose on 2 February 1979, before his trial. It was revealed in Sid's suicide note that he and Nancy had had a death pact, that she had killed herself and he must uphold his end of the bargain.
A fictionalised account of Vicious's relationship with Spungen was later recounted in the 1986 film Sid and Nancy (dir. Alex Cox). Lydon has publicly dismissed this film, stating that it has little to do with the reality of what actually happened.
Cook and Jones continued to work as something of an 'instant band,' doing many dates as session musicians, and later forming The Professionals, whose records are in a strong continuum with the duo's post-Rotten 'Pistols recordings. Glen Matlock was involved in various projects, the most noteworthy being The Rich Kids, which featured Midge Ure, later of Ultravox, on vocals. Malcolm McLaren went on to manage Adam & the Ants and Bow Wow Wow, and later scored a number of hits as a solo artist. Paul Cook is currently playing in the band Man-Raze.
In 1987 Lydon took McLaren to court in order to gain control of the Sex Pistols copyright and to sue him for "all the criminal activities that took place"[3]. After a long drawn out case Lydon won and set up Sex Pistols Residuals (a company t/a for Rotten, Jones, Cook, Matlock, and the estate of Sid Vicious) which gained complete ownership of all the band's master recordings; all the copyrights to the music publishing of the songs; and ownership of all film footage and the name Sex Pistols. This made the documentary The Filth and the Fury possible and the film was released in 2000. The film, directed by Julien Temple, was an attempt by the band to tell the story of the Sex Pistols from their point of view.
The surviving members of the Sex Pistols reunited for the six month 'Filthy Lucre World Tour' in 1996 including a headlining slot at that years Phoenix Festival, two gigs (one in the UK at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, 'Pistols at the Palace', and one in the US) in 2002, and the three week 'Piss Off Tour' in North America in 2003. They are also planning to do a concert in Iraq [4] and a Japanese tour in the near future.
In November 2005, it was announced that they would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an honour that the surviving members turned down with an "obscene gesture" and a comment to the Hall of Fame to "kiss this". [5] [6]. On March 9, 2006 the band sold the rights to their music to Universal Music Group. The sale was criticised as a "sell out"[7].
Influences and legacy
The Sex Pistols remain influential, both for their musical style and in terms of their effect on the British cultural landscape. Whereas previous challenges to the class system, and to the post-war British ethos of uncomplaining sacrifice, had come mainly from within, such as from the public school and Oxbridge dominated satire boom of the late 1960s and early '70s (including the Monty Python troupe), or from the social-realist novels and theatre of the 1950s and early '60s, the Pistols communicated directly with a much wider, more vernacular audience and, to some extent, the resulting shock waves can still be felt.
In pure form, their chord progressions and pounding, primal bass lines can still be heard in the music of bands such as Rancid, The Libertines, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and other revivalists. They also had a major influence on Oasis, with Liam Gallagher claiming Never Mind the Bollocks was his favourite album of all time and stating that he tries to sing like a cross between John Lydon and John Lennon.
Conversely, it can also be argued that the Sex Pistols were a manufactured pop act in the vein of The Sweet, Mud, and other early-'70s 'hard rock' singles acts, in as much as their look and sound were in part Malcolm McLaren's innovations. Opinions, however, differ widely on McLaren's actual responsibility for the band's artistic and cultural relevance, with the evidence suggesting that McLaren was never fully in control of events, and played almost no role in creating the band's actual music and lyrics.
The aim of shocking the establishment has always been a traditional goal for all groups who feel that a given music or art style is in serious need of renovation. The Sex Pistols emerged at a time when the economic boom had finished, youth unemployment was rising, and pop music was indisputably sugary. Their aggressive lyrics and standpoints were taken literally by the conservative press but really can be seen as a form of theatre of rage. Making money was not glorified at this time.
Here is the exact same content about them that you may find also on Wikipedia, and that i was to lazy to even try and change the words my way (not the song) :
Origins and early days
Originally called The Strand (in reference to a song by Roxy Music), the band was formed during 1972 by Paul Cook (drums), Steve Jones (vocals) and Wally Nightingale (guitar). Other early members included Stephen Hayes (bass) and Jim Mackin (organ). In 1973 the band members began to frequent a 1950s-themed clothes shop, Let It Rock, which sold Teddy Boy clothes in the Kings Road, Chelsea area of London. Here they met the shop's manager, Malcolm McLaren. Jones, being aware that McLaren had some connections within the music business, asked if he would be interested in becoming the group's manager, although at the time McLaren declined. Del Noones, who they met at the shop, was recruited to replace Hayes on bass. By 1974, the group called itself The Swankers and played its first gig at a birthday party of a friend of Cook's at Tom Salter's Café in London. They also began rehearsing in a studio called the Crunchy Frog, near London's docklands. Noones left the band shortly afterwards because he was becoming unreliable and not turning up at rehearsals.
The remaining members recruited bass player Glen Matlock. By early 1975, Jones and Nightingale had begun arguing about what direction the band should take. Nightingale then left the group, and Jones replaced him on guitar. Johnny Rotten, who was another of the clientele of the by-now renamed and restyled SEX boutique, showed up at the shop in August 1975 wearing a homemade 'I Hate Pink Floyd' t-shirt. He was asked to audition by singing along to Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen". He passed.
NME journalist Nick Kent played briefly with the band and introduced the other members to bands such as The Stooges and The Modern Lovers. He left shortly after to pursue his career as a journalist. After Kent's departure, Paul Cook felt that Jones might not be good enough alone on guitar and placed an advertisement for another "Whiz Kid Guitarist". Steve New answered the advert and played with the band for a few weeks, but left because the Pistols decided that they needed only one guitarist.
Promotional flyer for an early Sex Pistols gigMcLaren became the new group's manager and was asked to think of a name for the group. Among the list were Le Bomb, Subterraneans, The Damned, Beyond, Teenage Novel and QT Jones and his Sex Pistols ("QT" was taken from the postcode area in which both Mclaren and Jones lived.) QT Jones was dropped shortly afterwards, and the Sex Pistols were born. The name was, no doubt, intended to bring to mind the male sex organ, but McLaren has stated that he wanted the band to be "sexy young assassins" (in later years band members frequently accused McLaren both of cheating them financially, and of claiming credit for things that were not his idea as well as falsifying the bands' history). Under McLaren's guidance, the band was initially influenced in part by the simple, chord-based style of the New York Dolls and the Ramones. McLaren had given guitarist Jones the Les Paul guitar used by NY Doll Sylvain Sylvain, and the torn-shirt, spiked-hair look of Richard Hell, then bass player for Television. All of these figures were pioneers of the New York City punk, and later New Wave music, scene. Rotten and his circle of friends (coincidentally all also called John) walked into the arrangement already possessed of a similar style - a grungey version of the 'soul boy' fashion affected by fans of Roxy Music. McLaren also claimed that he wanted the Sex Pistols to be "the new Bay City Rollers".
The band played their first gig under their new name at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, where they were shut down before finishing their first song, on 6 November 1975. It was arranged by Matlock as he had been made by default this college's social event organiser as he was studying there at the time. The other band playing was called Bazooka Joe, whose bass player was Stuart Goddard, later known as Adam Ant. This gig would be followed by other performances at colleges and art schools for the remainder of 1975 until early 1976, when they started playing at clubs (like the 100 Club) and pubs (like The Nashville). On 3 September 1976, they played their first concert outside of Britain, when they played at the opening of the Club De Chalet Du Lac in Paris. After that they went on their first major tour of Britain, lasting from mid-September to early October (and including a performance at Chelmsford Prison), which got them noticed by EMI.
EMI and the Grundy incident
The cover of The Daily Mirror the day after the Grundy appearance.Following a showcase gig as part of London's first punk festival at the 100 Club in Oxford Street, the band was signed (for a large advance) to the major label EMI. The Sex Pistols' first single, "Anarchy in the U.K.", released on 26 November 1976, served as a statement of intent -- full of wit, anger and visceral energy. Despite a common misconception that punk bands 'couldn't play', the evidence of live recordings of the time reveal the Pistols to be a tight, competent and ferocious live band.
However, it was the band's behavior which created their first national exposure: on 1 December 1976, the group and their close circle of followers, the Bromley Contingent, created a storm of publicity in the UK when, goaded by interviewer Bill Grundy, Johnny Rotten used the word "shit" and guitarist Steve Jones called Grundy a "fucking rotter" on Thames Television's live early evening television programme Today after he had made a rather inept attempt at 'chatting up' Siouxsie Sioux. Although the programme was only seen in the London ITV region (and although Matlock had, aparently unnoticed by Grundy, been the first to utter the word 'fuck'), the ensuing furor occupied the tabloid newspapers for days afterwards. The Daily Mirror famously ran the headline "The Filth and the Fury", while the Daily Express went with "Punk? Call it Filthy Lucre" -- both titles adopted by Lydon's sense of irony for Pistols' projects many years later (a film, and a tour, respectively). Grundy was suspended for two weeks and the Today programme was cancelled two months later.
The shambolic 'Anarchy Tour' of the UK followed, with the majority of the concerts dogged by a hostile press and cancelled by local authorities, and many of the rest ending in states of semi-riot.
Sid Vicious joins the band
After the end of the 'Anarchy Tour' in December 1976, EMI decided it was too dangerous for the Sex Pistols to be in the UK, so they got the band some gigs at the Paradiso in Amsterdam in early January 1977. After getting some bad publicity at Heathrow Airport on their return, EMI finally had enough and dumped the band on 27 January 1977. The Paradiso gigs would be the last with Glen Matlock on bass, as in February, Matlock parted company with the band. According to legend he was sacked because he "liked The Beatles" - but Steve Jones later claimed the reason was that Glen (being of a different upbringing) had never really been "one of them", and that he was "always washing himself", besides. Matlock himself now claims to have quit voluntarily (probably due to increasingly acrimonious clashes with Rotten, with whom he'd never been particularly comfortable). This latter story seems most likely (and is seemingly endorsed by Lydon, as well, in his statements in a later film). He was quickly replaced by Rotten's friend and "ultimate Sex Pistols fan" Sid Vicious (real name John Simon Ritchie) of The Flowers of Romance, famously endorsed as a member by McLaren for his looks and "punk attitude" despite his very limited musical abilities. According to Jon Savage's biography of the Sex Pistols, England's Dreaming, at live performances his amplifier was often turned down or off, and most of the bass parts on the band's later recordings were actually played by guitarist Steve Jones or Matlock, who (according to Lydon's autobiography Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs) had been drafted in as a session musician. Vicious played his first concert with the Pistols at the Screen On The Green in London on 3 April 1977, a show which was featured in Don Lett's film The Punk Rock Movie.
God Save the Queen
The band signed to A&M Records on 10 March, in a ceremony outside of Buckingham Palace. They later went back to the A&M offices for a party, at which the Sex Pistols' unruly behaviour included Jones and Cook chatting up all the secretaries, and Vicious trashing the Managing Director's office whilst vomiting on his desk (according to Lydon, Sid had somehow injured his foot and was "bleeding all over the place", as well). As a result, A&M dumped the Pistols within a week (on 16 March). On 12 May, the Pistols signed their third and final record deal with Virgin Records, with the promise of total artistic control.
The cover of the God Save the Queen single designed by Jamie Reid.The group's second single, released by Virgin on 27 May 1977 was "God Save the Queen", a stinging attack on the ideals and institutions of Britain, delivered in Johnny's trademark sneer. The song is summarized in the line "There is no future ... in England's dreaming," which became a de facto position statement for British punk. The song was widely perceived as a personal attack on Her Majesty, and seemed to be personally offensive to most of his countrymen. Rotten however stated that the song was not specifically aimed at the Queen's person at all ("God save the queen/We mean it man!"), but was written to attack the 'old order' of British Society. Coming at a time when deference to royalty was still a predominant trait in both the establishment and the country as a whole, it caused tremendous public outcry, and the record was quickly banned from airplay by the staid BBC, whose Radio 1 dominated music broadcasting at the time. As Rotten later remarked, "We had declared war on the entire country -- without meaning to!"
Nevertheless, in the week of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee, the record officially reached number two in some UK charts. However, the number one spot was, tellingly, left blank in some listings. Many believe, with evidence [citation needed], that the record actually reached number one, but the charts had been rigged to prevent such a spectacle. At least one radio station announced the song as number one, but stated that they would not play the record, as they had been advised it might cause unrest, especially during the national celebrations.
Meanwhile, the Pistols themselves decided to mark the Jubilee, along with the success of their record, by chartering a party boat, upon which they sailed down the Thames, past Westminster and the Houses of Parliament, performing their live set (which was, of course, intended to include God Save the Queen). As usual, the event ended in chaos; the boat was raided by the police, despite being licensed for live music, and McLaren, the Pistols and most of their entourage were taken into custody. It was arguably all good fun and a great publicity stunt, but matters took a distinctly uglier turn when young punk followers of the Sex Pistols became victims of physical attacks in the street by 'pro-royalists', and Rotten himself was assaulted by a razor-wielding gang of 'Teddy Boys' outside the Pegasus pub (which was a music venue at the time) close to Newington Green, Islington, who, it seems, didn't see the humour of the Pistols' antics. This delayed the tour of Scandinavia by a couple of weeks, which would have started at the end of June, but because of the attacks, it started in mid-July. This was followed by a secret tour of the UK at the end of August (known as SPOTS, Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly), with the band playing under pseudonyms to avoid cancellation.
Never Mind the Bollocks
Main article: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols album coverThe promise of the band's early singles was eventually fulfilled by the group's first album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, released on 28 October 1977. The album included singles "Pretty Vacant" (released on 2 July 1977), an ode to apathy, and "Holidays in the Sun" (released on 15 October 1977) - Bruce Foxton, bass player for The Jam and Stiff Little Fingers later alleged in a 1990s book that the riff had been stolen from the Jam's "In the City" single.
Again the Sex Pistols faced controversy when a record shop in Nottingham was threatened with prosecution for displaying the album's 'obscene' cover, although the case was overturned when defending QC John Mortimer produced expert witnesses, including Professor James Kinsley, a professor of linguistics at the University of Nottingham, who were able to demonstrate that the word "bollocks" was a legitimate Old English term originally used to refer to a priest, and that although the word is also slang for the testicles, in this context it meant 'nonsense'.
Last UK gig
The Sex Pistols' final UK performance was at Ivanhoe's in Huddersfield on Christmas Day 1977, a benefit for the families of striking firemen. Despite the band's state of disintegration by this time, the gig was considered by some as a vindication of their anti-establishment stance when they were, for once, united with what might be viewed as their true constituency, the dispossessed British working class. They played two shows, a matinee and an evening show. Tickets for the latter were furtively sold for a secret venue, announced shortly before the gig as a tactic to avoid the attentions of local councillors and the like, who had cancelled many of the Pistols' other shows. Those waiting outside for the second show were given turkey sandwiches from the remains of the meal laid on for the strikers' families. The atmosphere in the evening show was counter to the negative publicity that had been generated towards the band by the tabloid press; before the show, Johnny Rotten mingled with the crowd wearing his pith helmet, and the good humour of the matinee (which was a benefit played for free) lingered on. Years later the promoter of the evening show confessed that the Pistols never cashed his cheque.
The end of the band
Early in 1978 an American tour was booked by McLaren. Originally they were scheduled to begin the tour in December 1977, beginning with a performance on Saturday Night Live, but due to the members' minor scrapes with the law, they were unable to receive passports in time. (Elvis Costello and the Attractions went on instead). The two-week American jaunt was an exhausting, badly-planned, dispiriting experience for all concerned (Vicious was beaten by the bodyguards hired to protect him, Rotten had a fierce head cold, and the band's performances were plagued by bad sound and physically hostile audiences, mainly at unlikely venues in the South), and on the final date at Winterland in San Francisco on 14 January, the disillusioned Rotten quit, famously asking "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" from the stage before walking off.
The promotional poster of The Great Rock 'n' Roll SwindleOn 17 January 1978, Rotten announced the break-up of the Sex Pistols. He later claimed to have been bluffing, but McLaren, Cook and Jones left for a working vacation in Brazil, and Vicious left for New York, leaving Rotten stranded without airfare in America. Warner Bros. paid his passage back to London, courting him as a solo artist.
McLaren had been attempting to make a film featuring the Sex Pistols and in 1977 had hired director Russ Meyer to make such a film. The film, titled Who Killed Bambi? was scripted by McLaren and Roger Ebert but only a day and a half's worth of shooting was ever achieved.[2] The next attempt was in the summer of 1978, Cook and Jones helped McLaren make The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle which was directed by Julien Temple. The movie was McLaren's fictionalised account on the band's history, claiming he controlled and manipulated the band from start to finish. The soundtrack had Jones, occasionally Cook or Vicious, and sometimes Edward Tudor-Pole, trading on their vocals and engaging in McLaren-concocted gimmicks -- such as recording two songs on the album with notorious British criminal Ronnie Biggs.
Post Sex Pistols
After leaving the Pistols, Johnny Rotten reverted to his given name of John Lydon, and formed Public Image Ltd. with his old friend Jah Wobble (born John Wardle), a previous contender to replace Matlock. This group was signed by Virgin and Warner Brothers (in the UK and US respectively). Vicious meanwhile relocated to New York and continued to gig as a solo performer, recording an album that many consider substandard. He was shortly afterwards arrested on 12 October 1978 for the murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, in New York City and died of a heroin overdose on 2 February 1979, before his trial. It was revealed in Sid's suicide note that he and Nancy had had a death pact, that she had killed herself and he must uphold his end of the bargain.
A fictionalised account of Vicious's relationship with Spungen was later recounted in the 1986 film Sid and Nancy (dir. Alex Cox). Lydon has publicly dismissed this film, stating that it has little to do with the reality of what actually happened.
Cook and Jones continued to work as something of an 'instant band,' doing many dates as session musicians, and later forming The Professionals, whose records are in a strong continuum with the duo's post-Rotten 'Pistols recordings. Glen Matlock was involved in various projects, the most noteworthy being The Rich Kids, which featured Midge Ure, later of Ultravox, on vocals. Malcolm McLaren went on to manage Adam & the Ants and Bow Wow Wow, and later scored a number of hits as a solo artist. Paul Cook is currently playing in the band Man-Raze.
In 1987 Lydon took McLaren to court in order to gain control of the Sex Pistols copyright and to sue him for "all the criminal activities that took place"[3]. After a long drawn out case Lydon won and set up Sex Pistols Residuals (a company t/a for Rotten, Jones, Cook, Matlock, and the estate of Sid Vicious) which gained complete ownership of all the band's master recordings; all the copyrights to the music publishing of the songs; and ownership of all film footage and the name Sex Pistols. This made the documentary The Filth and the Fury possible and the film was released in 2000. The film, directed by Julien Temple, was an attempt by the band to tell the story of the Sex Pistols from their point of view.
The surviving members of the Sex Pistols reunited for the six month 'Filthy Lucre World Tour' in 1996 including a headlining slot at that years Phoenix Festival, two gigs (one in the UK at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, 'Pistols at the Palace', and one in the US) in 2002, and the three week 'Piss Off Tour' in North America in 2003. They are also planning to do a concert in Iraq [4] and a Japanese tour in the near future.
In November 2005, it was announced that they would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an honour that the surviving members turned down with an "obscene gesture" and a comment to the Hall of Fame to "kiss this". [5] [6]. On March 9, 2006 the band sold the rights to their music to Universal Music Group. The sale was criticised as a "sell out"[7].
Influences and legacy
The Sex Pistols remain influential, both for their musical style and in terms of their effect on the British cultural landscape. Whereas previous challenges to the class system, and to the post-war British ethos of uncomplaining sacrifice, had come mainly from within, such as from the public school and Oxbridge dominated satire boom of the late 1960s and early '70s (including the Monty Python troupe), or from the social-realist novels and theatre of the 1950s and early '60s, the Pistols communicated directly with a much wider, more vernacular audience and, to some extent, the resulting shock waves can still be felt.
In pure form, their chord progressions and pounding, primal bass lines can still be heard in the music of bands such as Rancid, The Libertines, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and other revivalists. They also had a major influence on Oasis, with Liam Gallagher claiming Never Mind the Bollocks was his favourite album of all time and stating that he tries to sing like a cross between John Lydon and John Lennon.
Conversely, it can also be argued that the Sex Pistols were a manufactured pop act in the vein of The Sweet, Mud, and other early-'70s 'hard rock' singles acts, in as much as their look and sound were in part Malcolm McLaren's innovations. Opinions, however, differ widely on McLaren's actual responsibility for the band's artistic and cultural relevance, with the evidence suggesting that McLaren was never fully in control of events, and played almost no role in creating the band's actual music and lyrics.
The aim of shocking the establishment has always been a traditional goal for all groups who feel that a given music or art style is in serious need of renovation. The Sex Pistols emerged at a time when the economic boom had finished, youth unemployment was rising, and pop music was indisputably sugary. Their aggressive lyrics and standpoints were taken literally by the conservative press but really can be seen as a form of theatre of rage. Making money was not glorified at this time.
The Ramones are also largely considered the very first punk band, so largely that I am beginning to wonder if I have not made an error in the last article...................................................................Anyway here's the Wikipedia article corresponding. PLease leave me any commentaries if there is anything you think I should change.
1970s
The pre-history of the band is centered in the predominantly Jewish, middle-class neighborhood of Forest Hills in the New York City borough of Queens. The band all first met as bored teenagers, drawn together by a mutual love of The New York Dolls, The Stooges, The MC5 and '60s garage rock. Most of the members had been in various bands since the late 1960s--Johnny and Tommy had both been in a high school garage band circa 1966-'67 known as the Tangerine Puppets, and Joey was in a brief, early 1970s glam rock outfit called Sniper. The initial version of the Ramones included Jeffry Hyman on drums, John Cummings on guitar, and Douglas Colvin on bass and vocals. Colvin was the first to use the name Ramone, calling himself Dee Dee Ramone. He was inspired by the fact that Paul McCartney used the pseudonym Paul Ramone—although some accounts say Paul Ramon— when he checked into hotels. The other members followed suit and adopted new stage names; Hyman became Joey Ramone, reportedly after bubblegum pop music vocalist Joey Levine, Cummings became Johnny Ramone, and the group itself became known as the Ramones.
Soon after the band was formed, Dee Dee realized that he couldn't sing and play bass at the same time (he would continue, however, to count off each song's tempo with his trademark rapid-fire shout of "1-2-3-4!"). Joey became the lead vocalist, which left the drummer position vacant. The band auditioned new drummers at Performance Studio, where they rehearsed. Thomas Erdelyi, an employee of the studio and long time acquaintance of the other members, would often take the drummer seat in order to demonstrate to the auditioners how to play the songs. It became apparent that he was more able to play the group's songs than anyone else, and he joined the band as drummer Tommy Ramone.
They played their first show at the Performance Studio in New York on March 30, 1974. Their early songs were very fast and very short; most clocked in at about two minutes. Earliest titles included "I Don't Wanna Walk Around with You," "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement," and "I Don't Wanna Get Involved with You." Dee Dee later said, "We didn't write a positive song until 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue'."
In the early '70s, a new music scene emerged in New York, with many bands started to play in clubs in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, such as Max's Kansas City and CBGB OMFUG (which stands for "Country, BlueGrass, Blues, and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers" according to owner Hilly Kristal). Other bands from this period of New York's "underground" music scene include the Television, Blondie, The Cramps, Richard Hell and The Voidoids, The Patti Smith Group, Suicide, and Talking Heads. Ramones concerts at CBGB's became legendary, due in part to their brevity: most concerts were twenty to thirty minutes long, much shorter than their contemporaries', and are often described by their witnesses as extremely fast, crude, energetic and desperate. A few super–8 movies of these shows have survived, and are present in a couple of the band's later videos.
After garnering considerable attention for their performances at CBGB, the group was signed to a recording contract by Seymour Stein of Sire Records in autumn 1975. They soon recorded their debut album Ramones on an extremely low budget: about $6,000.
The band was plagued by hostile audience reactions outside of New York City; it wasn't until they made a small tour of England that they began to see the fruits of their labor: a performance at The Roundhouse in London, England, on July 4, 1976 (second-billed to the Beatlesque Flamin' Groovies) was a huge success. Their appearance galvanized the burgeoning UK punk rock scene, inspiring future punk stars including members of The Clash and The Damned.
The band's critically acclaimed third album, 1977's Rocket to Russia.Upon returning from England, they found themselves prophets without honor in their own country: their subsequent two albums, Leave Home and Rocket to Russia (both 1977), failed to become the hits the band desired. Tommy, tired of touring, left the band at this time but continued to produce; he was replaced by Marc Bell, who became Marky Ramone.
Their fourth album, Road to Ruin, included some stylistic flourishes—acoustic guitar, several ballads, songs over three minutes—that might have been concessions to mainstream tastes, but the album still failed to chart highly. Despite excellent reviews for both their albums ("Rocket to Russia is the best American rock & roll of the year and possibly the funniest rock album ever made," Dave Marsh wrote in Rolling Stone magazine) and their live performances, the Ramones remained a cult band. The highly publicized dissolution of the Sex Pistols in 1978 seemed to signal the end of punk as a viable commercial force and branded the Ramones as forever outsiders.
1980s and 1990s
The Ramones on the cover of their 1980 album, End of the CenturyAfter the band's movie debut in Roger Corman's Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979), legendary producer Phil Spector became interested in the Ramones and produced their 1980 album End of the Century. During the recording sessions, Spector reportedly pulled a gun on Dee Dee, and forced Johnny to play the opening chord to "Rock 'n' Roll High School" hundreds of times. The band would later consider this one of their "not-so-great" albums they had released, crediting tensions between the producer and the artists. Johnny recalls that he was disappointed with the outcome of End of the Century and the album failed to capture the public's attention. Albums like Pleasant Dreams (1981) and Subterranean Jungle (1983) found the Ramones struggling to maintain their identity as punk's first family.
Marky Ramone was fired in early 1983 because of his alcoholism and eventually replaced by Richard Reinhardt (under the name Richie Ramone). The Ramones recorded three albums with Richie: Too Tough to Die in 1984, Animal Boy in 1986 and Halfway to Sanity in 1987. Richie left in August 1987. He was replaced by Clem Burke (a.k.a. Elvis Ramone) from Blondie. Burke lasted two shows before Marky, now clean and sober, returned.
Dee Dee Ramone left after 1989's Brain Drain, and was replaced by Christopher Joseph Ward (C.J. Ramone), who performed and recorded with the band until their break-up. However, Dee Dee did continue contributing to the music of the Ramones by lending his lyrics for use in later songs. Dee Dee left to pursue a brief and rather embarrassing solo career as a rapper, adopting the name Dee Dee King.
After 16 years at Sire records, the band moved to new label Radioactive Records with their 1992 album Mondo Bizarro, which also reunited them with producer Ed Stasium.
Intra-band tensions
The Ramones always had a certain amount of tension, mainly between Joey and Johnny. The pair were highly politically antagonistic, Joey being a left-leaning liberal, Johnny a staunchly right-wing conservative. The relationship between the two got considerably worse when Johnny 'stole' Joey's girlfriend Linda, whom he later married. They didn't speak to each other for years afterwards. It is believed the song "The KKK Took My Baby Away", written by Joey, alludes to this enmity. Johnny did not even call Joey before his death in 2001, but said in the documentary End of the Century that he was depressed for weeks after the singer's death.
Ramones Break Up
After a spot in the 1996 Lollapalooza festival, The Ramones disbanded, reportedly due to ongoing personality clashes and frustration at not achieving success commensurate with their influence. Joey was also reported to have drug problems, and later admitted drinking heavily for much of the '80s. Joey achieved sobriety in 1990, but was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1995. In his later years he became an avid follower of yoga and health food. During the late 1990s, Joey started day trading NYSE stocks. Joey actually wrote a song about CNBC financial news reporter Maria 'Money Honey' Bartiromo, entitled "Maria Bartiromo", which is included on his 2002 solo album Don't Worry About Me.
Their last show was recorded, and later released on video and CD as We're Outta Here. The show featured several special guests such as Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead, Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam, Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederiksen of Rancid, and Chris Cornell (then in Soundgarden).
On July 20 of 1999, all of the former members of the group except for Richie appeared together at Tower Records in New York City for an autograph signing. This was the last occasion on which the ex-members of the group appeared together before Joey's death.
In 2002, the band was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Johnny, Tommy, Marky and Dee Dee spoke on behalf of the band. Johnny blessed George Bush and his presidency. Dee Dee congratulated and thanked himself. Sadly, this would be one of his last public appearances as he died two months later of a heroin overdose. Also at the ceremony, Green Day played Teenage Lobotomy and Blitzkrieg Bop as a tribute to the Ramones, showing the influence that the Ramones had on later rock bands. In the summer of 2004, the Ramones documentary End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones was released in theaters. Its release was treated as an event by Ramones fans and former members, and it received rave reviews. Coincidentally, however, Johnny Ramone—who had been privately battling prostate cancer—died almost exactly as the film was released, on September 15, 2004.
Deaths
Joey Ramone Place, New York CityJoey Ramone died of lymphoma on April 15, 2001 in New York.
Dee Dee Ramone was found dead at his Hollywood home on June 5, 2002 following a heroin overdose, only two months after The Ramones were inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.
Johnny Ramone died of prostate cancer on September 15, 2004 in Los Angeles, California.
[edit]
Musical Style and Influence
The Ramones pioneered a straightforward, stripped-down sound that was a far cry from the virtuosic musicianship and complex instrumentation that 1970s rock music had become known for. Joey Ramone has stated the Ramones were rather taken with the Bay City Rollers' hit song "Saturday Night", and set out to imitate its catchy, singalong quality, inspiring the "Hey-ho, let's go" chant from their first single, "Blitzkrieg Bop." Johnny disliked guitar solos, and played only a handful of them in his more than two decades with the group; his simple, direct playing exclusively bar chords with 8th note downstrokes set the standard for many subsequent punk guitarists.
There were strong influences from the rock and pop music of the 1950s and 1960s; bands such as the Beach Boys, the Who, the Kinks, the Troggs and the Yardbirds. The Ramones recorded cover songs of such "garage" classics as "Surfin' Bird" and "California Sun." Joey often cited Ronnie Spector as one of his favorite singers; the various love songs he sang for the band are reminiscent of the 1960s girl group sound. This type of material alternated with harder rock songs in the vein of proto punk bands The Stooges, MC5 and The New York Dolls. The Ramones' first British concerts on July 4 and 5, 1976, are widely credited with inspiring the first wave of English punk groups: Buzzcocks (first concert July 20, 1976), The Damned (first concert July 6, 1976), The Clash (first concert July 10, 1976) and others. (Coincidentally, all these shows were supporting the Sex Pistols). Likewise, early shows in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. inspired groups as diverse as X, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, and Bad Brains. The upbeat, singalong aspects of their songs influenced pop punk bands, while their aggressive and powerful rhythm section become a blueprint for the future hardcore punk and even thrash metal genres.
Legacy
The Ramones has never achieved much commercial success in the United States during the time they were touring, but they were extremely popular in Europe and especially South America, where their records often topped the charts. Their only album to reach certified gold status in the U.S. was the 1988 best-of album, RamonesMania; 1992's Mondo Bizarro went gold in Brazil. Ironically, the band has seen somewhat of a renaissance during the early and mid-2000's, with their songs being used in soft drink, car, athletic wear, and cellular phone commercials. The band and their albums now regularly appear on "all-time greatest" lists in various rock magazines, such as Spin, Rolling Stone, and Mojo--an honor not often bestowed upon them during their career. Their famous "presidential seal" logo is often seen as being trendy (to the ire of some fans), pictures of Paris Hilton wearing a pink tee-shirt featuring the seal have been printed and it is frequently parodied. Sales of Ramones merchandise are apparently growing every year.
The Ramones 30th Anniversary Tribute concert occurred on September 12, 2004. The event was at Los Angeles' Avalon and hosted by Rob Zombie. The performers demonstrate the breadth of the Ramones' influence: Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Dickies and X played sets and then C.J. Ramone, Marky Ramone and long time producer Daniel Rey took the stage and played while different guitar and vocal teams, including longtime Ramones fan Henry Rollins, performed various Ramones songs.
Some bands are so taken by the Ramones as a whole that a subgenre dubbed "Ramones-core" has appeared. These bands often dress up like the Ramones, and play instruments like theirs. The music is generally a little faster and heavier on the guitars with (often) tongue in cheek lyrics about girls and similar fare. Notable bands include Screeching Weasel, The Spazzys, The Vindictives,The Queers,Teenage Bottlerocket and The Mr. T Experience, who recorded covers of the Ramones albums Ramones, Leave Home, and Rocket to Russia, and Road to Ruin, respectively. There are also bands heavily influenced by the Ramones such as The Lillingtons. This type of music can also be considered Cartoon Punk. In 1992 Canadian jazzcore band NoMeansNo created a side-project called the Hanson Brothers; adopting Ramones-esque alter-egos, Ramoneslike graphics and stage monikers, and releasing three successful albums in Ramones three-chord style. While sometimes panned as a Ramones parody; the Hanson Brothers, all longtime Ramones fans, conceived the project as a tongue-in-cheek tribute to their heroes.
In 2002, the Ramones were voted the second greatest rock and roll band ever in Rolling Stone and Spin magazines, trailing only in both polls to The Beatles.
...............hate the haircut though.
1970s
The pre-history of the band is centered in the predominantly Jewish, middle-class neighborhood of Forest Hills in the New York City borough of Queens. The band all first met as bored teenagers, drawn together by a mutual love of The New York Dolls, The Stooges, The MC5 and '60s garage rock. Most of the members had been in various bands since the late 1960s--Johnny and Tommy had both been in a high school garage band circa 1966-'67 known as the Tangerine Puppets, and Joey was in a brief, early 1970s glam rock outfit called Sniper. The initial version of the Ramones included Jeffry Hyman on drums, John Cummings on guitar, and Douglas Colvin on bass and vocals. Colvin was the first to use the name Ramone, calling himself Dee Dee Ramone. He was inspired by the fact that Paul McCartney used the pseudonym Paul Ramone—although some accounts say Paul Ramon— when he checked into hotels. The other members followed suit and adopted new stage names; Hyman became Joey Ramone, reportedly after bubblegum pop music vocalist Joey Levine, Cummings became Johnny Ramone, and the group itself became known as the Ramones.
Soon after the band was formed, Dee Dee realized that he couldn't sing and play bass at the same time (he would continue, however, to count off each song's tempo with his trademark rapid-fire shout of "1-2-3-4!"). Joey became the lead vocalist, which left the drummer position vacant. The band auditioned new drummers at Performance Studio, where they rehearsed. Thomas Erdelyi, an employee of the studio and long time acquaintance of the other members, would often take the drummer seat in order to demonstrate to the auditioners how to play the songs. It became apparent that he was more able to play the group's songs than anyone else, and he joined the band as drummer Tommy Ramone.
They played their first show at the Performance Studio in New York on March 30, 1974. Their early songs were very fast and very short; most clocked in at about two minutes. Earliest titles included "I Don't Wanna Walk Around with You," "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement," and "I Don't Wanna Get Involved with You." Dee Dee later said, "We didn't write a positive song until 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue'."
In the early '70s, a new music scene emerged in New York, with many bands started to play in clubs in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, such as Max's Kansas City and CBGB OMFUG (which stands for "Country, BlueGrass, Blues, and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers" according to owner Hilly Kristal). Other bands from this period of New York's "underground" music scene include the Television, Blondie, The Cramps, Richard Hell and The Voidoids, The Patti Smith Group, Suicide, and Talking Heads. Ramones concerts at CBGB's became legendary, due in part to their brevity: most concerts were twenty to thirty minutes long, much shorter than their contemporaries', and are often described by their witnesses as extremely fast, crude, energetic and desperate. A few super–8 movies of these shows have survived, and are present in a couple of the band's later videos.
After garnering considerable attention for their performances at CBGB, the group was signed to a recording contract by Seymour Stein of Sire Records in autumn 1975. They soon recorded their debut album Ramones on an extremely low budget: about $6,000.
The band was plagued by hostile audience reactions outside of New York City; it wasn't until they made a small tour of England that they began to see the fruits of their labor: a performance at The Roundhouse in London, England, on July 4, 1976 (second-billed to the Beatlesque Flamin' Groovies) was a huge success. Their appearance galvanized the burgeoning UK punk rock scene, inspiring future punk stars including members of The Clash and The Damned.
The band's critically acclaimed third album, 1977's Rocket to Russia.Upon returning from England, they found themselves prophets without honor in their own country: their subsequent two albums, Leave Home and Rocket to Russia (both 1977), failed to become the hits the band desired. Tommy, tired of touring, left the band at this time but continued to produce; he was replaced by Marc Bell, who became Marky Ramone.
Their fourth album, Road to Ruin, included some stylistic flourishes—acoustic guitar, several ballads, songs over three minutes—that might have been concessions to mainstream tastes, but the album still failed to chart highly. Despite excellent reviews for both their albums ("Rocket to Russia is the best American rock & roll of the year and possibly the funniest rock album ever made," Dave Marsh wrote in Rolling Stone magazine) and their live performances, the Ramones remained a cult band. The highly publicized dissolution of the Sex Pistols in 1978 seemed to signal the end of punk as a viable commercial force and branded the Ramones as forever outsiders.
1980s and 1990s
The Ramones on the cover of their 1980 album, End of the CenturyAfter the band's movie debut in Roger Corman's Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979), legendary producer Phil Spector became interested in the Ramones and produced their 1980 album End of the Century. During the recording sessions, Spector reportedly pulled a gun on Dee Dee, and forced Johnny to play the opening chord to "Rock 'n' Roll High School" hundreds of times. The band would later consider this one of their "not-so-great" albums they had released, crediting tensions between the producer and the artists. Johnny recalls that he was disappointed with the outcome of End of the Century and the album failed to capture the public's attention. Albums like Pleasant Dreams (1981) and Subterranean Jungle (1983) found the Ramones struggling to maintain their identity as punk's first family.
Marky Ramone was fired in early 1983 because of his alcoholism and eventually replaced by Richard Reinhardt (under the name Richie Ramone). The Ramones recorded three albums with Richie: Too Tough to Die in 1984, Animal Boy in 1986 and Halfway to Sanity in 1987. Richie left in August 1987. He was replaced by Clem Burke (a.k.a. Elvis Ramone) from Blondie. Burke lasted two shows before Marky, now clean and sober, returned.
Dee Dee Ramone left after 1989's Brain Drain, and was replaced by Christopher Joseph Ward (C.J. Ramone), who performed and recorded with the band until their break-up. However, Dee Dee did continue contributing to the music of the Ramones by lending his lyrics for use in later songs. Dee Dee left to pursue a brief and rather embarrassing solo career as a rapper, adopting the name Dee Dee King.
After 16 years at Sire records, the band moved to new label Radioactive Records with their 1992 album Mondo Bizarro, which also reunited them with producer Ed Stasium.
Intra-band tensions
The Ramones always had a certain amount of tension, mainly between Joey and Johnny. The pair were highly politically antagonistic, Joey being a left-leaning liberal, Johnny a staunchly right-wing conservative. The relationship between the two got considerably worse when Johnny 'stole' Joey's girlfriend Linda, whom he later married. They didn't speak to each other for years afterwards. It is believed the song "The KKK Took My Baby Away", written by Joey, alludes to this enmity. Johnny did not even call Joey before his death in 2001, but said in the documentary End of the Century that he was depressed for weeks after the singer's death.
Ramones Break Up
After a spot in the 1996 Lollapalooza festival, The Ramones disbanded, reportedly due to ongoing personality clashes and frustration at not achieving success commensurate with their influence. Joey was also reported to have drug problems, and later admitted drinking heavily for much of the '80s. Joey achieved sobriety in 1990, but was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1995. In his later years he became an avid follower of yoga and health food. During the late 1990s, Joey started day trading NYSE stocks. Joey actually wrote a song about CNBC financial news reporter Maria 'Money Honey' Bartiromo, entitled "Maria Bartiromo", which is included on his 2002 solo album Don't Worry About Me.
Their last show was recorded, and later released on video and CD as We're Outta Here. The show featured several special guests such as Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead, Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam, Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederiksen of Rancid, and Chris Cornell (then in Soundgarden).
On July 20 of 1999, all of the former members of the group except for Richie appeared together at Tower Records in New York City for an autograph signing. This was the last occasion on which the ex-members of the group appeared together before Joey's death.
In 2002, the band was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Johnny, Tommy, Marky and Dee Dee spoke on behalf of the band. Johnny blessed George Bush and his presidency. Dee Dee congratulated and thanked himself. Sadly, this would be one of his last public appearances as he died two months later of a heroin overdose. Also at the ceremony, Green Day played Teenage Lobotomy and Blitzkrieg Bop as a tribute to the Ramones, showing the influence that the Ramones had on later rock bands. In the summer of 2004, the Ramones documentary End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones was released in theaters. Its release was treated as an event by Ramones fans and former members, and it received rave reviews. Coincidentally, however, Johnny Ramone—who had been privately battling prostate cancer—died almost exactly as the film was released, on September 15, 2004.
Deaths
Joey Ramone Place, New York CityJoey Ramone died of lymphoma on April 15, 2001 in New York.
Dee Dee Ramone was found dead at his Hollywood home on June 5, 2002 following a heroin overdose, only two months after The Ramones were inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.
Johnny Ramone died of prostate cancer on September 15, 2004 in Los Angeles, California.
[edit]
Musical Style and Influence
The Ramones pioneered a straightforward, stripped-down sound that was a far cry from the virtuosic musicianship and complex instrumentation that 1970s rock music had become known for. Joey Ramone has stated the Ramones were rather taken with the Bay City Rollers' hit song "Saturday Night", and set out to imitate its catchy, singalong quality, inspiring the "Hey-ho, let's go" chant from their first single, "Blitzkrieg Bop." Johnny disliked guitar solos, and played only a handful of them in his more than two decades with the group; his simple, direct playing exclusively bar chords with 8th note downstrokes set the standard for many subsequent punk guitarists.
There were strong influences from the rock and pop music of the 1950s and 1960s; bands such as the Beach Boys, the Who, the Kinks, the Troggs and the Yardbirds. The Ramones recorded cover songs of such "garage" classics as "Surfin' Bird" and "California Sun." Joey often cited Ronnie Spector as one of his favorite singers; the various love songs he sang for the band are reminiscent of the 1960s girl group sound. This type of material alternated with harder rock songs in the vein of proto punk bands The Stooges, MC5 and The New York Dolls. The Ramones' first British concerts on July 4 and 5, 1976, are widely credited with inspiring the first wave of English punk groups: Buzzcocks (first concert July 20, 1976), The Damned (first concert July 6, 1976), The Clash (first concert July 10, 1976) and others. (Coincidentally, all these shows were supporting the Sex Pistols). Likewise, early shows in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. inspired groups as diverse as X, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, and Bad Brains. The upbeat, singalong aspects of their songs influenced pop punk bands, while their aggressive and powerful rhythm section become a blueprint for the future hardcore punk and even thrash metal genres.
Legacy
The Ramones has never achieved much commercial success in the United States during the time they were touring, but they were extremely popular in Europe and especially South America, where their records often topped the charts. Their only album to reach certified gold status in the U.S. was the 1988 best-of album, RamonesMania; 1992's Mondo Bizarro went gold in Brazil. Ironically, the band has seen somewhat of a renaissance during the early and mid-2000's, with their songs being used in soft drink, car, athletic wear, and cellular phone commercials. The band and their albums now regularly appear on "all-time greatest" lists in various rock magazines, such as Spin, Rolling Stone, and Mojo--an honor not often bestowed upon them during their career. Their famous "presidential seal" logo is often seen as being trendy (to the ire of some fans), pictures of Paris Hilton wearing a pink tee-shirt featuring the seal have been printed and it is frequently parodied. Sales of Ramones merchandise are apparently growing every year.
The Ramones 30th Anniversary Tribute concert occurred on September 12, 2004. The event was at Los Angeles' Avalon and hosted by Rob Zombie. The performers demonstrate the breadth of the Ramones' influence: Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Dickies and X played sets and then C.J. Ramone, Marky Ramone and long time producer Daniel Rey took the stage and played while different guitar and vocal teams, including longtime Ramones fan Henry Rollins, performed various Ramones songs.
Some bands are so taken by the Ramones as a whole that a subgenre dubbed "Ramones-core" has appeared. These bands often dress up like the Ramones, and play instruments like theirs. The music is generally a little faster and heavier on the guitars with (often) tongue in cheek lyrics about girls and similar fare. Notable bands include Screeching Weasel, The Spazzys, The Vindictives,The Queers,Teenage Bottlerocket and The Mr. T Experience, who recorded covers of the Ramones albums Ramones, Leave Home, and Rocket to Russia, and Road to Ruin, respectively. There are also bands heavily influenced by the Ramones such as The Lillingtons. This type of music can also be considered Cartoon Punk. In 1992 Canadian jazzcore band NoMeansNo created a side-project called the Hanson Brothers; adopting Ramones-esque alter-egos, Ramoneslike graphics and stage monikers, and releasing three successful albums in Ramones three-chord style. While sometimes panned as a Ramones parody; the Hanson Brothers, all longtime Ramones fans, conceived the project as a tongue-in-cheek tribute to their heroes.
In 2002, the Ramones were voted the second greatest rock and roll band ever in Rolling Stone and Spin magazines, trailing only in both polls to The Beatles.
...............hate the haircut though.
The Dead Kennedys are an american hardcore punk band started in 1978,dibanded in 1986 and then reformed in 2001. Here's what Wikipedia has to say on the subject (th neutrality of the subject is disputed) :
The Dead Kennedys formed in June 1978, after guitarist East Bay Ray (real name Raymond Pepperell, Jr.) advertised for band mates after seeing a punk show at the Mabuhay Gardens. The original DK lineup consisted of Jello Biafra (real name Eric Boucher) on vocals, East Bay Ray on guitar, Klaus Flouride (real name Geoffrey Lyall) on bass, and 6025 (real name Carlos Cadona) on drums. They recorded their first demos with this lineup. In early July the band wanted a more experienced drummer, so they hired Ted (real name Bruce Slesinger). 6025 left, but was invited back as second guitarist. Their first concert was on July 19, 1978, at the Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco.
They played numerous shows at local venues afterwards. Because of the band's provocative name, they sometimes played under pseudonyms, including "The Sharks", "The Creamsicles", and "The Pink Twinkies". The name, despite popular belief, was not meant to insult the assassinated Kennedy brothers, but to remind people that the American dream was killed.[1]
6025 left the band in March of 1979. In June of 1979, the band released their first single, "California Über Alles", on Alternative Tentacles. They followed with a well received east-coast tour.
On March 25, 1980, the DKs were invited to perform at the Bay Area Music Awards in front of music industry big-wigs to give the event some "new wave credibility" in the words of the organizers. The day of the show was spent practicing the song they were asked to play, the underground hit "California Über Alles". In typically subversive, perverse style, the band became the talking point of the ceremony when after about 15 seconds into the song, Biafra said, "Hold it! We've gotta prove that we're adults now. We're not a punk rock band, we're a new wave band." The band, who all wore white shirts with a big, black S painted on the front, pulled black ties from around the backs of their necks, to form a dollar sign, then tore into the previously unheard "Pull My Strings", a barbed, satirical attack on the ethics of the mainstream music industry. As well as containing the lyrics "Is my cock big enough, is my brain small enough, for you to make me a star", the song also sent-up The Knack's biggest new wave hit, "My Sharona". The song was never recorded in the studio but this performance, the first and only time the song was ever performed, was released on the posthumous compilation album Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death... and the band was never invited to play the awards show again.
During the spring of 1980, they recorded and released "Holiday in Cambodia". In the fall they released their debut album, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. It reached #33 in the UK Albums Chart.
In December of 1980, Ted announced that he wanted to leave to pursue a career in architecture and would help look for a replacement. He played his last concert in February. His replacement was D.H. Peligro (real name Darren Henley). Around the same time, according to a 2005 Biafra interview conducted by Nardwuar the Human Serviette, East Bay Ray had tried to pressure the rest of the band to sign a major label deal with Polydor Records; according to Biafra, he was prepared to quit the group if the rest of the band wanted to sign the deal.[2] Polydor balked after they learned that the Kennedys were planning their next single to be "Too Drunk To Fuck".
In May, the band released the single "Too Drunk To Fuck". The song caused much controversy in the UK as BBC feared the single would reach the Top 30; this would require a performance of the song on Top of the Pops. However, this never came to be as the single peaked at #31. The EP In God We Trust, Inc. (1981) and album Plastic Surgery Disasters (1982) showed a development in musical style, and their music became a political force, pitting itself against rising elements of American social and political life such as the religious right and Ronald Reagan. The band continued touring all over the United States, as well as Europe and Australia, during the 1980s and gained a large underground following.
In January of 1986, the DKs decided to break up to pursue other interests. They played their last concert on February 21. During the summer they recorded Bedtime for Democracy, which was released in November. In December, the band announced their split. Biafra went on to become a highly active political force, appearing on numerous television shows and releasing a number of spoken-word albums. Ray, Fluoride, and Peligro also went on to solo careers.
Criminal obscenity prosecution
The release of the album Frankenchrist in 1985 caused a furor with the newly formed PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center). In December of 1985 a teenage girl purchased the album at a Wherehouse chain record store in Los Angeles County.[3] The girl's mother wrote letters of complaint to the Attorney General for the State of California and to Los Angeles prosecutors.[3] In 1986 members of the band Dead Kennedys, along with other parties involved in the distribution of Frankenchrist, were charged criminally with distribution of harmful matter to minors. The Wherehouse store where the girl actually purchased the album was never named in the law suit.[3]
The criminal charges were primarily based on an H.R. Giger illustration included with the album. Members of the band and others were each charged with violating California Penal Code section 313.1 / 313.4, which carries a maximum penalty of up to a year in county jail and a base fine of up to $2000. The poster, "Landscape # 20: Where Are We Coming From?" (also known as Penis Landscape), depicts nine sex acts.[4] Biafra says that during this time government agents invaded and searched his home. The prosecution tried to present the poster to the jury in isolation for consideration as obscene material, but Judge Isacoff ruled that the poster must be considered along with the music and lyrics. [5] The charges against three of the original defendants, Ruth Schwartz (owner of Mordam Records), Steve Boudreau (a distributor involved in supplying "Frankenchrist" to the Los Angeles Wherehouse store), and Salvatore Alberti (owner of the factory where the record was pressed), were dismissed for lack of evidence. [3] In August of 1987 the criminal trial was submitted to the jury with the two remaining defendants: Jello Biafra and Michael Bonanno (former Alternative Tentacles label manager).[3] In August of 1987, the criminal trial ended with a hung jury. The split on the jury was 7 to 5 in favor of acquittal for all of the defendants. District Attorneys Michael Guarino and Ira Riener made a motion for a retrial which was denied by The Honorable Susan Isacoff, Superior Court Judge for the County of Los Angeles.[6] The album, however, was banned from many record stores nationwide.
Internal conflicts
It was discovered in the late 1990s that there were issues with the payments each band member had received from their record label Alternative Tentacles. Former band members claimed that Jello Biafra had conspired to pay less royalty rates to the band members. Although both sides agreed that the failure to pay these royalties was an accounting mistake, they took issue with the fact that Biafra failed to inform the band of the mistake after he and his co-workers discovered it. Biafra claims that their lawyers had told him only to correspond through lawyers and not directly with the band, as the conflict over payment had apparently arisen before the accounting mistake was discovered. Both sides claim they attempted to resolve the matter without legal action, but the ultimately complicated legal dispute (involving royalties, publishing rights, and a number of other issues) soon led to the courts, where Biafra was found liable for the royalties and guilty of fraud and malice, Appeal Verdict, Dead Kennedys v. Jello Biafra. Biafra's appeal was denied; he had to pay the outstanding royalties and damages, and was forced to hand over the rights to the majority of Dead Kennedys' back catalogue to the Decay Music partnership. The courts also found from evidence presented by both sides that the songwriting credits were due to the entire band. (Jello had received sole songwriting credit for most Dead Kennedys songs on all released albums for the last 20 years or so without complaints from the band, though a minority of songs had given credit to certain group members or the entire band as a whole, indicating a system designed to reflect the primary composers rather than a regimented system like the Jagger/Richards partnership; today, most Kennedys reissues list the songwriters as "Biafra, Dead Kennedys" indicating Biafra's lyrical contributions -- which the band doesn't dispute, or else simply as "Dead Kennedys"). However, the online database of BMI still retains the original songwriting credits. Ray, Fluoride and Peligro found new distribution through another label, Manifesto Records.
This dispute was hotly contested by all concerned who felt passionately for their cause, and the case caused minor waves within punk circles. Many fans felt the three's lawsuit against Jello was motivated by greed,[citation needed] as they had numerous unsuccessful solo records and gigs after the band's break-up (Biafra was by far the most prolific and successful of the four). In addition, Biafra claims that guitarist East Bay Ray had long expressed displeasure with Alternative Tentacles and with the amount of money he received from them, thus the original incentive for the discovery of the back payments. (In a related instance, Biafra recalled during the 2005 Nardwuar interview that Ray had called Biafra at the Texas studio the latter was working on his 1994 album Prairie Home Invasion and, in Biafra's words, "yelled at me for over an hour, claiming that I ruined his life because we didn't sign with Polydor."[2]) Some observers felt that although Biafra did not try to cheat his band in any way (as he does not take a salary from Alternative Tentacles[7]), his sneering, irreverent attitude did not endear him to jurors during the trial. Biafra accused the band of wanting to license the famous Dead Kennedys song "Holiday in Cambodia" for use in a Levi's jeans commercial, which the band denied. Biafra apparently pushed this issue in court, although there was no hard evidence and the jurors were apparently unconcerned with corporate use of independently produced political music. Biafra would later complain that the jury was not sympathetic towards underground music and punk culture. The song never appeared in a Levi's commercial, although in interviews Biafra described the situation surrounding the commercial in detail and was able to give specifics about the advertisement, including the name of the advertising agency that had created the commercial's script.
Biafra's bandmates, under the apparent, though unspoken leadership of East Bay Ray, maintain that they sued because of Jello Biafra's deliberate withholding of money, though when pressed they have acknowledged that the payment was an accounting mistake and that Biafra was wrong in failing to inform the band directly, however details about this issue remain scarce. The band also maintains that the entire Levi's story was completely fictitious and invented by Biafra to discredit them. Ultimately, these issues have led to a souring of relationships with the erstwhile bandmates, who still have not resolved their personal differences as of 2006.
Matters were stirred up even further when the three bandmates invited Jello Biafra to "bury the hatchet" in the form of a band reunion. Jello Biafra felt it was unprofessional because no one contacted him directly. In addition, Biafra was disdainful of the reunion, having long expressed his disdain for nostalgia and rock reunion/oldies tours in particular (with the 1996, corporate-sponsored Sex Pistols reunion perhaps fresh in his mind), flatly stating that the whole affair was an exercise in greed.
Several DVDs, re-issues, and live albums have been released since the departure of Jello. According to Jello, the live albums are cash-ins on the Dead Kennedys' name and Jello's music. Jello also accused the releases of the new live material being of poor sound quality and claims to not be receiving royalties from their sale or the sale of any Manifesto Records releases. The other band members deny Biafra's accusations, and have defended the mixes of the material as an effort of hard work.
Biafra further criticized them for advertising shows using his own image taken from the original 80s incarnation of the band, which he labeled as false advertising. Biafra recently attacked them on song called "Those Dumb Punk Kids (Will Buy Anything)", which appears on his second collaboratory with experimental metal band The Melvins, Sieg Howdy!.
Reformation
The reformed Dead Kennedys followed their court victory by announcing a number of tour dates, released reissues of all Dead Kennedys albums (except Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, which they did not have the rights to until 2005) and a number of concert DVDs, as well as licensing several songs (in Tony Hawk Pro Skater and The Manchurian Candidate remake, respectively), actions that were thought extremely controversial among some fans, but those fans appear to willfully ignore the fact that Biafra, along with the other band members, approved the use of Dead Kennedys' songs in other major film releases like Neighbors, 1981 and Class, 1983. Biafra also approved the licensing to Tony Hawk's video game.[8] But this controversy was ultimately paid little attention by the press and the group's overall fanbase.
The Manchurian Candidate, which used "Kinky Sex (Makes the World Go 'Round)", was a movie about an evil corporation, while "Police Truck" was used in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater because of punk music's close bond with skateboarding. The band says on their website that they still pay close attention to an anti-corporation ideology, noting that they have since pulled out of a show in Los Angeles when they found that it was being sponsored by Coors[9] However, many fans, as well as Biafra, claim the above mentioned licensing deals prove otherwise.
In 2001, Ray, Peligro, and Fluoride chose Brandon Cruz to replace Biafra's role as vocalist. The band played under name "DK Kennedys" for a few concerts, but have since gone back to "Dead Kennedys" permanently. They have played across the continental United States, Europe, Asia, South America, and Russia.
Brandon Cruz left the band in May of 2003 and was replaced by Jeff Penalty. The band has released two live albums on Manifesto Records of old performances - Mutiny On The Bay, an edited-together compilation of various live performances of varying quality from the San Francisco area, and Live at the Deaf Club, a recording of a 1979 performance at the Deaf Club in San Francisco, which was greeted with more enthusiasm.
Lyrical stance
The Dead Kennedys are noted for the acerbity of their lyrics, which generally express a harsh and staunchly left-wing view of contemporary America. Unlike other leftist punk bands who use more direct sloganeering, the Kennedys' lyrics are often satirical and sarcastic, all the while retaining the deliberately shocking lyrics of punk. "Holiday In Cambodia" is a multi-layered satire targeting both yuppie culture and Cambodia's then-current Khmer Rouge regime (together with the US government who at the time of recording were tacitly supporting Pol Pot in his war against Vietnam). Songs such as "Kill The Poor", "California Über Alles" and "Police Truck" actually take the lyrical viewpoint of the band's hated right-wing targets. In some cases in their early days the band attracted support from right-wing punks who took the lyrics of "Kill The Poor", etc. at face value, somehow missing the staggering amount of sarcastic nastiness and irony with which the lyrics were presented. The Kennedys wrote a song in response to this development, tellingly titled "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!".
Jello Biafra continues to be a noted critic of the American political establishment, embarking on lecture tours both before and after his time with the band.
The Dead Kennedys formed in June 1978, after guitarist East Bay Ray (real name Raymond Pepperell, Jr.) advertised for band mates after seeing a punk show at the Mabuhay Gardens. The original DK lineup consisted of Jello Biafra (real name Eric Boucher) on vocals, East Bay Ray on guitar, Klaus Flouride (real name Geoffrey Lyall) on bass, and 6025 (real name Carlos Cadona) on drums. They recorded their first demos with this lineup. In early July the band wanted a more experienced drummer, so they hired Ted (real name Bruce Slesinger). 6025 left, but was invited back as second guitarist. Their first concert was on July 19, 1978, at the Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco.
They played numerous shows at local venues afterwards. Because of the band's provocative name, they sometimes played under pseudonyms, including "The Sharks", "The Creamsicles", and "The Pink Twinkies". The name, despite popular belief, was not meant to insult the assassinated Kennedy brothers, but to remind people that the American dream was killed.[1]
6025 left the band in March of 1979. In June of 1979, the band released their first single, "California Über Alles", on Alternative Tentacles. They followed with a well received east-coast tour.
On March 25, 1980, the DKs were invited to perform at the Bay Area Music Awards in front of music industry big-wigs to give the event some "new wave credibility" in the words of the organizers. The day of the show was spent practicing the song they were asked to play, the underground hit "California Über Alles". In typically subversive, perverse style, the band became the talking point of the ceremony when after about 15 seconds into the song, Biafra said, "Hold it! We've gotta prove that we're adults now. We're not a punk rock band, we're a new wave band." The band, who all wore white shirts with a big, black S painted on the front, pulled black ties from around the backs of their necks, to form a dollar sign, then tore into the previously unheard "Pull My Strings", a barbed, satirical attack on the ethics of the mainstream music industry. As well as containing the lyrics "Is my cock big enough, is my brain small enough, for you to make me a star", the song also sent-up The Knack's biggest new wave hit, "My Sharona". The song was never recorded in the studio but this performance, the first and only time the song was ever performed, was released on the posthumous compilation album Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death... and the band was never invited to play the awards show again.
During the spring of 1980, they recorded and released "Holiday in Cambodia". In the fall they released their debut album, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. It reached #33 in the UK Albums Chart.
In December of 1980, Ted announced that he wanted to leave to pursue a career in architecture and would help look for a replacement. He played his last concert in February. His replacement was D.H. Peligro (real name Darren Henley). Around the same time, according to a 2005 Biafra interview conducted by Nardwuar the Human Serviette, East Bay Ray had tried to pressure the rest of the band to sign a major label deal with Polydor Records; according to Biafra, he was prepared to quit the group if the rest of the band wanted to sign the deal.[2] Polydor balked after they learned that the Kennedys were planning their next single to be "Too Drunk To Fuck".
In May, the band released the single "Too Drunk To Fuck". The song caused much controversy in the UK as BBC feared the single would reach the Top 30; this would require a performance of the song on Top of the Pops. However, this never came to be as the single peaked at #31. The EP In God We Trust, Inc. (1981) and album Plastic Surgery Disasters (1982) showed a development in musical style, and their music became a political force, pitting itself against rising elements of American social and political life such as the religious right and Ronald Reagan. The band continued touring all over the United States, as well as Europe and Australia, during the 1980s and gained a large underground following.
In January of 1986, the DKs decided to break up to pursue other interests. They played their last concert on February 21. During the summer they recorded Bedtime for Democracy, which was released in November. In December, the band announced their split. Biafra went on to become a highly active political force, appearing on numerous television shows and releasing a number of spoken-word albums. Ray, Fluoride, and Peligro also went on to solo careers.
Criminal obscenity prosecution
The release of the album Frankenchrist in 1985 caused a furor with the newly formed PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center). In December of 1985 a teenage girl purchased the album at a Wherehouse chain record store in Los Angeles County.[3] The girl's mother wrote letters of complaint to the Attorney General for the State of California and to Los Angeles prosecutors.[3] In 1986 members of the band Dead Kennedys, along with other parties involved in the distribution of Frankenchrist, were charged criminally with distribution of harmful matter to minors. The Wherehouse store where the girl actually purchased the album was never named in the law suit.[3]
The criminal charges were primarily based on an H.R. Giger illustration included with the album. Members of the band and others were each charged with violating California Penal Code section 313.1 / 313.4, which carries a maximum penalty of up to a year in county jail and a base fine of up to $2000. The poster, "Landscape # 20: Where Are We Coming From?" (also known as Penis Landscape), depicts nine sex acts.[4] Biafra says that during this time government agents invaded and searched his home. The prosecution tried to present the poster to the jury in isolation for consideration as obscene material, but Judge Isacoff ruled that the poster must be considered along with the music and lyrics. [5] The charges against three of the original defendants, Ruth Schwartz (owner of Mordam Records), Steve Boudreau (a distributor involved in supplying "Frankenchrist" to the Los Angeles Wherehouse store), and Salvatore Alberti (owner of the factory where the record was pressed), were dismissed for lack of evidence. [3] In August of 1987 the criminal trial was submitted to the jury with the two remaining defendants: Jello Biafra and Michael Bonanno (former Alternative Tentacles label manager).[3] In August of 1987, the criminal trial ended with a hung jury. The split on the jury was 7 to 5 in favor of acquittal for all of the defendants. District Attorneys Michael Guarino and Ira Riener made a motion for a retrial which was denied by The Honorable Susan Isacoff, Superior Court Judge for the County of Los Angeles.[6] The album, however, was banned from many record stores nationwide.
Internal conflicts
It was discovered in the late 1990s that there were issues with the payments each band member had received from their record label Alternative Tentacles. Former band members claimed that Jello Biafra had conspired to pay less royalty rates to the band members. Although both sides agreed that the failure to pay these royalties was an accounting mistake, they took issue with the fact that Biafra failed to inform the band of the mistake after he and his co-workers discovered it. Biafra claims that their lawyers had told him only to correspond through lawyers and not directly with the band, as the conflict over payment had apparently arisen before the accounting mistake was discovered. Both sides claim they attempted to resolve the matter without legal action, but the ultimately complicated legal dispute (involving royalties, publishing rights, and a number of other issues) soon led to the courts, where Biafra was found liable for the royalties and guilty of fraud and malice, Appeal Verdict, Dead Kennedys v. Jello Biafra. Biafra's appeal was denied; he had to pay the outstanding royalties and damages, and was forced to hand over the rights to the majority of Dead Kennedys' back catalogue to the Decay Music partnership. The courts also found from evidence presented by both sides that the songwriting credits were due to the entire band. (Jello had received sole songwriting credit for most Dead Kennedys songs on all released albums for the last 20 years or so without complaints from the band, though a minority of songs had given credit to certain group members or the entire band as a whole, indicating a system designed to reflect the primary composers rather than a regimented system like the Jagger/Richards partnership; today, most Kennedys reissues list the songwriters as "Biafra, Dead Kennedys" indicating Biafra's lyrical contributions -- which the band doesn't dispute, or else simply as "Dead Kennedys"). However, the online database of BMI still retains the original songwriting credits. Ray, Fluoride and Peligro found new distribution through another label, Manifesto Records.
This dispute was hotly contested by all concerned who felt passionately for their cause, and the case caused minor waves within punk circles. Many fans felt the three's lawsuit against Jello was motivated by greed,[citation needed] as they had numerous unsuccessful solo records and gigs after the band's break-up (Biafra was by far the most prolific and successful of the four). In addition, Biafra claims that guitarist East Bay Ray had long expressed displeasure with Alternative Tentacles and with the amount of money he received from them, thus the original incentive for the discovery of the back payments. (In a related instance, Biafra recalled during the 2005 Nardwuar interview that Ray had called Biafra at the Texas studio the latter was working on his 1994 album Prairie Home Invasion and, in Biafra's words, "yelled at me for over an hour, claiming that I ruined his life because we didn't sign with Polydor."[2]) Some observers felt that although Biafra did not try to cheat his band in any way (as he does not take a salary from Alternative Tentacles[7]), his sneering, irreverent attitude did not endear him to jurors during the trial. Biafra accused the band of wanting to license the famous Dead Kennedys song "Holiday in Cambodia" for use in a Levi's jeans commercial, which the band denied. Biafra apparently pushed this issue in court, although there was no hard evidence and the jurors were apparently unconcerned with corporate use of independently produced political music. Biafra would later complain that the jury was not sympathetic towards underground music and punk culture. The song never appeared in a Levi's commercial, although in interviews Biafra described the situation surrounding the commercial in detail and was able to give specifics about the advertisement, including the name of the advertising agency that had created the commercial's script.
Biafra's bandmates, under the apparent, though unspoken leadership of East Bay Ray, maintain that they sued because of Jello Biafra's deliberate withholding of money, though when pressed they have acknowledged that the payment was an accounting mistake and that Biafra was wrong in failing to inform the band directly, however details about this issue remain scarce. The band also maintains that the entire Levi's story was completely fictitious and invented by Biafra to discredit them. Ultimately, these issues have led to a souring of relationships with the erstwhile bandmates, who still have not resolved their personal differences as of 2006.
Matters were stirred up even further when the three bandmates invited Jello Biafra to "bury the hatchet" in the form of a band reunion. Jello Biafra felt it was unprofessional because no one contacted him directly. In addition, Biafra was disdainful of the reunion, having long expressed his disdain for nostalgia and rock reunion/oldies tours in particular (with the 1996, corporate-sponsored Sex Pistols reunion perhaps fresh in his mind), flatly stating that the whole affair was an exercise in greed.
Several DVDs, re-issues, and live albums have been released since the departure of Jello. According to Jello, the live albums are cash-ins on the Dead Kennedys' name and Jello's music. Jello also accused the releases of the new live material being of poor sound quality and claims to not be receiving royalties from their sale or the sale of any Manifesto Records releases. The other band members deny Biafra's accusations, and have defended the mixes of the material as an effort of hard work.
Biafra further criticized them for advertising shows using his own image taken from the original 80s incarnation of the band, which he labeled as false advertising. Biafra recently attacked them on song called "Those Dumb Punk Kids (Will Buy Anything)", which appears on his second collaboratory with experimental metal band The Melvins, Sieg Howdy!.
Reformation
The reformed Dead Kennedys followed their court victory by announcing a number of tour dates, released reissues of all Dead Kennedys albums (except Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, which they did not have the rights to until 2005) and a number of concert DVDs, as well as licensing several songs (in Tony Hawk Pro Skater and The Manchurian Candidate remake, respectively), actions that were thought extremely controversial among some fans, but those fans appear to willfully ignore the fact that Biafra, along with the other band members, approved the use of Dead Kennedys' songs in other major film releases like Neighbors, 1981 and Class, 1983. Biafra also approved the licensing to Tony Hawk's video game.[8] But this controversy was ultimately paid little attention by the press and the group's overall fanbase.
The Manchurian Candidate, which used "Kinky Sex (Makes the World Go 'Round)", was a movie about an evil corporation, while "Police Truck" was used in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater because of punk music's close bond with skateboarding. The band says on their website that they still pay close attention to an anti-corporation ideology, noting that they have since pulled out of a show in Los Angeles when they found that it was being sponsored by Coors[9] However, many fans, as well as Biafra, claim the above mentioned licensing deals prove otherwise.
In 2001, Ray, Peligro, and Fluoride chose Brandon Cruz to replace Biafra's role as vocalist. The band played under name "DK Kennedys" for a few concerts, but have since gone back to "Dead Kennedys" permanently. They have played across the continental United States, Europe, Asia, South America, and Russia.
Brandon Cruz left the band in May of 2003 and was replaced by Jeff Penalty. The band has released two live albums on Manifesto Records of old performances - Mutiny On The Bay, an edited-together compilation of various live performances of varying quality from the San Francisco area, and Live at the Deaf Club, a recording of a 1979 performance at the Deaf Club in San Francisco, which was greeted with more enthusiasm.
Lyrical stance
The Dead Kennedys are noted for the acerbity of their lyrics, which generally express a harsh and staunchly left-wing view of contemporary America. Unlike other leftist punk bands who use more direct sloganeering, the Kennedys' lyrics are often satirical and sarcastic, all the while retaining the deliberately shocking lyrics of punk. "Holiday In Cambodia" is a multi-layered satire targeting both yuppie culture and Cambodia's then-current Khmer Rouge regime (together with the US government who at the time of recording were tacitly supporting Pol Pot in his war against Vietnam). Songs such as "Kill The Poor", "California Über Alles" and "Police Truck" actually take the lyrical viewpoint of the band's hated right-wing targets. In some cases in their early days the band attracted support from right-wing punks who took the lyrics of "Kill The Poor", etc. at face value, somehow missing the staggering amount of sarcastic nastiness and irony with which the lyrics were presented. The Kennedys wrote a song in response to this development, tellingly titled "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!".
Jello Biafra continues to be a noted critic of the American political establishment, embarking on lecture tours both before and after his time with the band.
Bad Religion is a punk rock group known to have helped to the rebirth of punk rock in the late 1980's. Here is the Wikipedia article about them :
Early career (1980-1985)
Bad Religion was formed in Los Angeles, California in 1980 by high school students Greg Graffin (vocals), Jay Bentley (bass guitar), Jay Ziskrout (drums), and Brett Gurewitz, also known as "Mr. Brett" (guitar). In 1981, the band released their eponymous debut EP on their own newly-formed label, Epitaph Records, which is managed and owned by Gurewitz. 1982 saw the release of their first full-length album, How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, gaining the band a sizeable following. During the recording of How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, Jay Ziskrout left the band and was replaced by Peter Finestone.
In 1983, the band released Into the Unknown, a keyboard-driven psychedelic rock album that was enormously unpopular with the band's core fanbase. It is now out of print, and generally disowned by the band. However, in past years it has become a collectors item, and has gained some acceptance from fans. It now can be seen going for more than 100 dollars on eBay, and is often pirated. A common sign of a pirated version of the LP is the blueish hue on the cover, instead of the reddish hue. In 1984 Greg Hetson of Circle Jerks fame joined to play alongside Gurewitz. Bad Religion returned to a somewhat mellower, rock and roll version of their original sound with the Back to the Known EP, but disbanded temporarily soon after.
Major career (1986-1992)
The band reformed in 1986 and released Suffer in 1988 cementing their comeback in the punk community. Not only is this album often cited as one of their very best by fans, but it is credited with "saving" the Southern California punk rock scene by fans and Bad Religion's contemporaries alike.
No Control (1989) and Against the Grain (1990) further increased the band's popularity, followed by Generator (1992). Before recording sessions for Generator commenced, drummer Pete Finestone left Bad Religion in 1991 to focus on his other band, The Fishermen, which had signed with a major label, and Bobby Schayer joined the band as his replacement.
Mainstream success (1993-1995)
With alternative rock breaking into the mainstream, Bad Religion left Epitaph Records for Atlantic Records and quickly re-released their seventh full-length studio album Recipe for Hate (1993) on the major label. (In fact, Epitaph sold the rights to Recipe for Hate to Atlantic Records). 1994's Stranger Than Fiction followed, but Gurewitz left the band shortly following its release. Officially he cited the increasing amount of time he was spending at Epitaph's offices as The Offspring became one of the biggest bands of the mid-1990s, but it was well-known that the departure was not on good terms, as he later accused the band of selling out for leaving Epitaph for a major label. During concerts, Graffin would sing "I want to know why Gurewitz cracked," replacing "Hemingway" in the song Stranger Than Fiction. Also during Graffin's turmoil with Gurewitz, he would sing "I want to know where Brett gets his crack". Brett Gurewitz was an admitted crack addict (see Along the Way DVD), but is now clean and sober. Gurewitz recorded a song with his new band The Daredevils entitled "Hate You," reportedly directed towards Jay Bentley. Gurewitz, moreover, was struggling more seriously with heroin and other addictions that had plagued him for years. He discussed his drug use on the band's Suffer tour documentary, Along the Way.
Gurewitz was replaced as a guitarist by Brian Baker, former member of bands such as Minor Threat and Dag Nasty. Previously Greg Graffin and Gurewitz had split songwriting duties, which left Graffin as Bad Religion's sole songwriter.
Bad Religion personnel
(1980-1982) Greg Graffin - vocals
Mr. Brett - guitar
Jay Bentley - bass guitar
Jay Ziskrout - drums
(1982-1983) Greg Graffin - vocals
Mr. Brett - guitar
Jay Bentley - bass guitar
Pete Finestone - drums
(1983) Greg Graffin - vocals
Mr. Brett - guitar
Paul Dedona - bass guitar
Davy Goldman - drums
(1984) Greg Graffin - vocals
Greg Hetson - guitar
Tim Gallegos - bass guitar
John Albert - drums
(1985) Greg Graffin - vocals
Greg Hetson - guitar
Tim Gallegos - bass guitar
John Albert - drums
(1986) Greg Graffin - vocals
Greg Hetson - guitar
Tim Gallegos - bass guitar
Lucky Lehrer - drums
(1987-1991) Greg Graffin - vocals
Mr. Brett - guitar
Greg Hetson - guitar
Jay Bentley - bass guitar
Pete Finestone - drums
(1991-1994) Greg Graffin - vocals
Mr. Brett - guitar
Greg Hetson - guitar
Jay Bentley - bass guitar
Bobby Schayer - drums
(1994-2001) Greg Graffin - vocals
Brian Baker - guitar
Greg Hetson - guitar
Jay Bentley - bass guitar
Bobby Schayer - drums
(2001-present) Greg Graffin - vocals
Brian Baker - guitar
Mr. Brett - guitar
Greg Hetson - guitar
Jay Bentley - bass guitar
Brooks Wackerman - drums
Post-Gurewitz period (1996-2001)
Bad Religion continued without Gurewitz and released three albums, The Gray Race (1996), No Substance (1998), and The New America (2000) (though The Gray Race in particular was well-received by many fans). As their popularity was not what it once was, Bad Religion departed from Atlantic Records in 2001 and returned to Epitaph.
Gurewitz rejoins (2002-2004)
Bobby Schayer left the band following a serious shoulder injury and was replaced by Brooks Wackerman (Suicidal Tendencies) and Gurewitz rejoined the band in time to record The Process Of Belief (2002). Their next album The Empire Strikes First was released in June 2004. Both albums are widely regarded by fans and critics as a return to form for the band, as opposed to their time on Atlantic. The band has also released (on Epitaph) digitally-remastered versions of several of their early albums, including How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, Suffer, No Control, Against the Grain, and Generator. The How Could Hell Be Any Worse? re-issue, titled 80-85, also contained all of their first EP, the Public Service EP (alternative versions of Bad Religion, Slaves and Drastic Actions from the self titled EP) and "Back To The Known".
Current events (2005-present)
In May 2005, The Bad Religion Page reported Graffin saying that work on a new album was to begin "later this year" for a release "sometime in 2006". In early February 2006, The Bad Religion Page also reported that bassist Jay Bentley has confirmed that the album will likely be released sometime in September of the same year. The website also reported that guitarist Brett Gurewitz said the album might be a double release. As of August 2006, it has been confirmed by drummer Brooks Wackerman that their new album is now due for release sometime in mid/late 2007. The album was rumored to be called The Ultra Tyranny, but internet reports believe that the name has not even been confirmed by the band. The name was originally posted at the message board of a Bad Religion fan site.
On March 7, 2006, a live DVD, Live at the Palladium was released. This DVD featured a live show performed in late 2004 at the Hollywood Palladium, as well as extensive interviews, several music videos, and a photo gallery.
Graffin released his second solo album, Cold as the Clay, on July 11, 2006.
Wackerman will be handling drums for Jack Black's Tenacious D on their fall/winter trek set to kick off in the fall and take them through the US and Europe.
Influences and tributes
In 1992, the American ska band Sublime released a song cover of "We're Only Gonna Die for Our Own Arrogance" (from the album How Could Hell Be Any Worse?) on their debut album 40 Oz. to Freedom.
Another cover of "We're Only Gonna Die for Our Own Arrogance" can be found on Biohazard's album Urban Discipline from the same year. In 1994 both bands were playing at the "Bizarre Festival" in Cologne (Germany) and performed the song together.
In 1996, a tribute album to Bad Religion, Fuck Hell - This Is a Tribute to Bad Religion was released. One band (Candysuck) released one cover and seven more different bands including Astream, Blender, Flakes, Loss, Puffball, Toast and Troublemakers each released two cover songs.
In 1999, a tribute album to Bad Religion from Argentina, Devotos De Una Mala Religion was released. A lot of bands from the underground punk scene released covers including Cadena Perpetua, Shaila, Asphix, etc. 19 tracks labeled by Speed Power Emotion.
Zack de la Rocha, lead singer of 1990s band Rage Against the Machine, said that the Bad Religion song "Fuck Armageddon, This is Hell" changed his life.
The Vandals version of 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' (from the Disney Film 'Mary Poppins') from the Album 'Live Fast Diarrea' features a guitar intro identical to that of 'Fuck Armageddon...' And features a section towards the end similar to the 'slow' section of Bad Religion's 'We're Only Gonna Die'. Brett Gurewitz sings backing Vocals on the Vandals song 'Anarchy Burger (Hold the Government)' from the 1982 EP 'Peace Through Vandalism' which was originally released on epitaph. He is credited as 'Brett Religion'.
Many modern rock or later punk groups, such as The All-American Rejects, Autonomy, blink-182, Death By Stereo, Down By Law, Fall Out Boy, Good Riddance, Ignite, My Chemical Romance, The Offspring, Pennywise, Rancid, Starving Millionaires, The Used and Yellowcard, cite Bad Religion as an influence.
Alternative metal bands, such as Papa Roach and Rage Against the Machine also cite Bad Religion as an influence.
Two band singers contributed vocals on the Stranger Than Fiction album, Jim Lindberg (of Pennywise) contributed backing vocals on "Marked" and Tim Armstrong (of Operation Ivy, Rancid and The Transplants) contributed lead vocals on "Television".
The album "Recipe for Hate" contained many guests. Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam can be heard on "Watch It Die" and "American Jesus," Concrete Blonde's Johnette Napolitano sings on "Struck A Nerve," and Claw Hammer's John Wahl and Chris Bagarozzi's guitar leads on "Kerosene."
In an interview with Kerrang! Magazine, Sum 41's lead singer Deryck Whibley listed Stranger Than Fiction as his favorite Bad Religion album. Sum 41's video of the single "The Hell Song" has a very strong similarity with the video for the song "The New America" (from the album The New America).
NOFX's 7" of the Month Club April release included a song entitled "I'm a Huge Fan of Bad Religion" which included references to the band's often erudite lyrics and Bentley's iconic brown Fender Precision. Graffin also put in backing vocals on the cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way" on their 1989 album S&M Airlines, where he says "backin' up, everything's waiting for you" and "open up, everything's waiting for you". NOFX also Parodied "Stranger than Fiction," as "Stranger than Fishin'" which can be found on their Double Disc B-side album.
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes also used elements of the song Generator ("like a Rock Like a Planet...." became "Like the dog Bites..") in their reworked cover of My Favorite things (from the Sound of Music) on their Are a Drag album.
Their single "Infected" is part of the Playstation 2 video game, Guitar Hero, released in 2005. Their songs "You" and "Big Bang" also appear on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 and Tony Hawk's Underground respectively. "We're Only Gonna Die" appears on Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. The tracks "Them and Us" (The Gray Race), "Inner Logic" (Stranger Than Fiction), "Hear It" (No Substance) and "Ten in 2010" (The Gray Race), appear in the soundtrack of Crazy Taxi. Those tracks, as well as "Empty Causes" (The Gray Race) and "Punk Rock Song", also appear in Crazy Taxi 3. The song "Atomic Garden" is also featured in the video game NCAA Football 06.
Greg Graffin and Joan Jett recorded a version of the song "Let's Do It, Let's Fall In Love" by Cole Porter for Laguna Tunes. This was rumored to have been the original version for the theme of Tank Girl, but was replaced with a version by Jett and Paul Westerberg.
"Leaders and Followers" was used in the movie Clerks. by Kevin Smith, during the funeral scene.
Their song "News from the Front" has appeared in the anime series Bleach as the theme song for the the character Ichigo Kurosaki.
Early career (1980-1985)
Bad Religion was formed in Los Angeles, California in 1980 by high school students Greg Graffin (vocals), Jay Bentley (bass guitar), Jay Ziskrout (drums), and Brett Gurewitz, also known as "Mr. Brett" (guitar). In 1981, the band released their eponymous debut EP on their own newly-formed label, Epitaph Records, which is managed and owned by Gurewitz. 1982 saw the release of their first full-length album, How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, gaining the band a sizeable following. During the recording of How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, Jay Ziskrout left the band and was replaced by Peter Finestone.
In 1983, the band released Into the Unknown, a keyboard-driven psychedelic rock album that was enormously unpopular with the band's core fanbase. It is now out of print, and generally disowned by the band. However, in past years it has become a collectors item, and has gained some acceptance from fans. It now can be seen going for more than 100 dollars on eBay, and is often pirated. A common sign of a pirated version of the LP is the blueish hue on the cover, instead of the reddish hue. In 1984 Greg Hetson of Circle Jerks fame joined to play alongside Gurewitz. Bad Religion returned to a somewhat mellower, rock and roll version of their original sound with the Back to the Known EP, but disbanded temporarily soon after.
Major career (1986-1992)
The band reformed in 1986 and released Suffer in 1988 cementing their comeback in the punk community. Not only is this album often cited as one of their very best by fans, but it is credited with "saving" the Southern California punk rock scene by fans and Bad Religion's contemporaries alike.
No Control (1989) and Against the Grain (1990) further increased the band's popularity, followed by Generator (1992). Before recording sessions for Generator commenced, drummer Pete Finestone left Bad Religion in 1991 to focus on his other band, The Fishermen, which had signed with a major label, and Bobby Schayer joined the band as his replacement.
Mainstream success (1993-1995)
With alternative rock breaking into the mainstream, Bad Religion left Epitaph Records for Atlantic Records and quickly re-released their seventh full-length studio album Recipe for Hate (1993) on the major label. (In fact, Epitaph sold the rights to Recipe for Hate to Atlantic Records). 1994's Stranger Than Fiction followed, but Gurewitz left the band shortly following its release. Officially he cited the increasing amount of time he was spending at Epitaph's offices as The Offspring became one of the biggest bands of the mid-1990s, but it was well-known that the departure was not on good terms, as he later accused the band of selling out for leaving Epitaph for a major label. During concerts, Graffin would sing "I want to know why Gurewitz cracked," replacing "Hemingway" in the song Stranger Than Fiction. Also during Graffin's turmoil with Gurewitz, he would sing "I want to know where Brett gets his crack". Brett Gurewitz was an admitted crack addict (see Along the Way DVD), but is now clean and sober. Gurewitz recorded a song with his new band The Daredevils entitled "Hate You," reportedly directed towards Jay Bentley. Gurewitz, moreover, was struggling more seriously with heroin and other addictions that had plagued him for years. He discussed his drug use on the band's Suffer tour documentary, Along the Way.
Gurewitz was replaced as a guitarist by Brian Baker, former member of bands such as Minor Threat and Dag Nasty. Previously Greg Graffin and Gurewitz had split songwriting duties, which left Graffin as Bad Religion's sole songwriter.
Bad Religion personnel
(1980-1982) Greg Graffin - vocals
Mr. Brett - guitar
Jay Bentley - bass guitar
Jay Ziskrout - drums
(1982-1983) Greg Graffin - vocals
Mr. Brett - guitar
Jay Bentley - bass guitar
Pete Finestone - drums
(1983) Greg Graffin - vocals
Mr. Brett - guitar
Paul Dedona - bass guitar
Davy Goldman - drums
(1984) Greg Graffin - vocals
Greg Hetson - guitar
Tim Gallegos - bass guitar
John Albert - drums
(1985) Greg Graffin - vocals
Greg Hetson - guitar
Tim Gallegos - bass guitar
John Albert - drums
(1986) Greg Graffin - vocals
Greg Hetson - guitar
Tim Gallegos - bass guitar
Lucky Lehrer - drums
(1987-1991) Greg Graffin - vocals
Mr. Brett - guitar
Greg Hetson - guitar
Jay Bentley - bass guitar
Pete Finestone - drums
(1991-1994) Greg Graffin - vocals
Mr. Brett - guitar
Greg Hetson - guitar
Jay Bentley - bass guitar
Bobby Schayer - drums
(1994-2001) Greg Graffin - vocals
Brian Baker - guitar
Greg Hetson - guitar
Jay Bentley - bass guitar
Bobby Schayer - drums
(2001-present) Greg Graffin - vocals
Brian Baker - guitar
Mr. Brett - guitar
Greg Hetson - guitar
Jay Bentley - bass guitar
Brooks Wackerman - drums
Post-Gurewitz period (1996-2001)
Bad Religion continued without Gurewitz and released three albums, The Gray Race (1996), No Substance (1998), and The New America (2000) (though The Gray Race in particular was well-received by many fans). As their popularity was not what it once was, Bad Religion departed from Atlantic Records in 2001 and returned to Epitaph.
Gurewitz rejoins (2002-2004)
Bobby Schayer left the band following a serious shoulder injury and was replaced by Brooks Wackerman (Suicidal Tendencies) and Gurewitz rejoined the band in time to record The Process Of Belief (2002). Their next album The Empire Strikes First was released in June 2004. Both albums are widely regarded by fans and critics as a return to form for the band, as opposed to their time on Atlantic. The band has also released (on Epitaph) digitally-remastered versions of several of their early albums, including How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, Suffer, No Control, Against the Grain, and Generator. The How Could Hell Be Any Worse? re-issue, titled 80-85, also contained all of their first EP, the Public Service EP (alternative versions of Bad Religion, Slaves and Drastic Actions from the self titled EP) and "Back To The Known".
Current events (2005-present)
In May 2005, The Bad Religion Page reported Graffin saying that work on a new album was to begin "later this year" for a release "sometime in 2006". In early February 2006, The Bad Religion Page also reported that bassist Jay Bentley has confirmed that the album will likely be released sometime in September of the same year. The website also reported that guitarist Brett Gurewitz said the album might be a double release. As of August 2006, it has been confirmed by drummer Brooks Wackerman that their new album is now due for release sometime in mid/late 2007. The album was rumored to be called The Ultra Tyranny, but internet reports believe that the name has not even been confirmed by the band. The name was originally posted at the message board of a Bad Religion fan site.
On March 7, 2006, a live DVD, Live at the Palladium was released. This DVD featured a live show performed in late 2004 at the Hollywood Palladium, as well as extensive interviews, several music videos, and a photo gallery.
Graffin released his second solo album, Cold as the Clay, on July 11, 2006.
Wackerman will be handling drums for Jack Black's Tenacious D on their fall/winter trek set to kick off in the fall and take them through the US and Europe.
Influences and tributes
In 1992, the American ska band Sublime released a song cover of "We're Only Gonna Die for Our Own Arrogance" (from the album How Could Hell Be Any Worse?) on their debut album 40 Oz. to Freedom.
Another cover of "We're Only Gonna Die for Our Own Arrogance" can be found on Biohazard's album Urban Discipline from the same year. In 1994 both bands were playing at the "Bizarre Festival" in Cologne (Germany) and performed the song together.
In 1996, a tribute album to Bad Religion, Fuck Hell - This Is a Tribute to Bad Religion was released. One band (Candysuck) released one cover and seven more different bands including Astream, Blender, Flakes, Loss, Puffball, Toast and Troublemakers each released two cover songs.
In 1999, a tribute album to Bad Religion from Argentina, Devotos De Una Mala Religion was released. A lot of bands from the underground punk scene released covers including Cadena Perpetua, Shaila, Asphix, etc. 19 tracks labeled by Speed Power Emotion.
Zack de la Rocha, lead singer of 1990s band Rage Against the Machine, said that the Bad Religion song "Fuck Armageddon, This is Hell" changed his life.
The Vandals version of 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' (from the Disney Film 'Mary Poppins') from the Album 'Live Fast Diarrea' features a guitar intro identical to that of 'Fuck Armageddon...' And features a section towards the end similar to the 'slow' section of Bad Religion's 'We're Only Gonna Die'. Brett Gurewitz sings backing Vocals on the Vandals song 'Anarchy Burger (Hold the Government)' from the 1982 EP 'Peace Through Vandalism' which was originally released on epitaph. He is credited as 'Brett Religion'.
Many modern rock or later punk groups, such as The All-American Rejects, Autonomy, blink-182, Death By Stereo, Down By Law, Fall Out Boy, Good Riddance, Ignite, My Chemical Romance, The Offspring, Pennywise, Rancid, Starving Millionaires, The Used and Yellowcard, cite Bad Religion as an influence.
Alternative metal bands, such as Papa Roach and Rage Against the Machine also cite Bad Religion as an influence.
Two band singers contributed vocals on the Stranger Than Fiction album, Jim Lindberg (of Pennywise) contributed backing vocals on "Marked" and Tim Armstrong (of Operation Ivy, Rancid and The Transplants) contributed lead vocals on "Television".
The album "Recipe for Hate" contained many guests. Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam can be heard on "Watch It Die" and "American Jesus," Concrete Blonde's Johnette Napolitano sings on "Struck A Nerve," and Claw Hammer's John Wahl and Chris Bagarozzi's guitar leads on "Kerosene."
In an interview with Kerrang! Magazine, Sum 41's lead singer Deryck Whibley listed Stranger Than Fiction as his favorite Bad Religion album. Sum 41's video of the single "The Hell Song" has a very strong similarity with the video for the song "The New America" (from the album The New America).
NOFX's 7" of the Month Club April release included a song entitled "I'm a Huge Fan of Bad Religion" which included references to the band's often erudite lyrics and Bentley's iconic brown Fender Precision. Graffin also put in backing vocals on the cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way" on their 1989 album S&M Airlines, where he says "backin' up, everything's waiting for you" and "open up, everything's waiting for you". NOFX also Parodied "Stranger than Fiction," as "Stranger than Fishin'" which can be found on their Double Disc B-side album.
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes also used elements of the song Generator ("like a Rock Like a Planet...." became "Like the dog Bites..") in their reworked cover of My Favorite things (from the Sound of Music) on their Are a Drag album.
Their single "Infected" is part of the Playstation 2 video game, Guitar Hero, released in 2005. Their songs "You" and "Big Bang" also appear on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 and Tony Hawk's Underground respectively. "We're Only Gonna Die" appears on Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. The tracks "Them and Us" (The Gray Race), "Inner Logic" (Stranger Than Fiction), "Hear It" (No Substance) and "Ten in 2010" (The Gray Race), appear in the soundtrack of Crazy Taxi. Those tracks, as well as "Empty Causes" (The Gray Race) and "Punk Rock Song", also appear in Crazy Taxi 3. The song "Atomic Garden" is also featured in the video game NCAA Football 06.
Greg Graffin and Joan Jett recorded a version of the song "Let's Do It, Let's Fall In Love" by Cole Porter for Laguna Tunes. This was rumored to have been the original version for the theme of Tank Girl, but was replaced with a version by Jett and Paul Westerberg.
"Leaders and Followers" was used in the movie Clerks. by Kevin Smith, during the funeral scene.
Their song "News from the Front" has appeared in the anime series Bleach as the theme song for the the character Ichigo Kurosaki.