No Internet! No Cel Phones! No PC'S!--Bloodied But Unbowed---Historical Documentary of Vancouver Punk Scene now on DVD!

Bloodied But Unbowed is a highly entertaining documentary movie by Susanne Tabata, chronicling the Vancouver punk scene of the late 70's /early 80's. And now it's available on DVD!!  For $10.00!!! Go to www.thepunkmovie.com. Excellent product for a cheap price. The collectors 3-DVD version is sold out; they only made 150 of them, unfortunately. I held out and found myself out of luck last month. Luckily I managed to win one on Ebay. The single disc is still worth double what they are asking. If this project is successful, maybe more film makers will be encouraged to make more films like this.



This is a white hot, intelligent, humorous look at a special scene that like a lot of punk scenes, came and went in a short short period. And while things that happened there paralleled the trials and tribulations of other scenes, as in the early days places like Vancouver were islands in a mainstream ocean. Hell, they were an island in their own city! These days all bands are alternative, so this is something a lot of people probably don't understand. That punks had to travel in groups in order to risk getting mauled by complete strangers.
But the Vancouver had its own unique qualities, and that had to do with the unique personalities of the musicians.

A big part of this movie of course is D.O.A. and the Subhumans, excellent bands who are more hardcore punk. But the documentary includes a variety of bands, showing the diversity and experimental nature of the scene. In other words there was a high level of musical tolerance in those days. It wasn't like certain styles were considered verboten then.

One of the biggest problems was finding venues where punk rock was accepted, one of which was the Smiling Buddha, which seemed to be a bit of a dump but nonetheless a haven for the new sounds. Of course one of the problems was that places got wrecked, so there was not going to be a second booking. There is a lot of historic footage in the film, plus loads of contemporary interviews with many of the Vancouver groups and also American musicians of the era who performed in Vancouver and were fans of the music. San Francisco and Vancouver were very much kindred scenes with a lot of similarities. Dead Kennedy's Jello Biafra and The Avengers' Penelope Houston have a lot of insight on the subject, as do Southern Californians like Black Flag's Henry Rollins and Circle Jerk's Keith Morris.

In addition to the above mentioned bands, there are interviews with Pointed Sticks, the amazing pop punks, Tim Ray, Jade Blade of the Dishrags. You have interviews with Buck Cherry and Mary Jo Kopechne of the Modernettes. Kopechne speaks with a great deal of candor about her punk experience. On the one hand, getting involved got her into a community, because she was going in a bad direction earlier. On the other hand, some of the things that happened to her in that period are absolutely harrowing. It's no wonder that she is disillusioned about the old days. As tough as it was to a punk rocker in those days, it was triply tough to be a female punker. You also have an interview with Art Bergmann of the K-Tels/Young Canadians, one of the most talented artists of the era, who unfortunately did not find the success his ability merited.

One of the most intelligent, engaging interviewees is Gerry Hannah of the Subhumans. Later on you find out that he was an extreme environmental activist, one of the Squamish Five, who did some pretty serious stuff. They blew up a factory building parts for cruise missiles and also a power plant. He did five years hard time out of a possible 10. Today he still holds strong convictions, but is contrite about how you go about achieving goals. Another one of the cautionary parts of this movie is the destructiveness of hard drug use. A lot of people who could have been in this were not around to do it.



I highly recommend this movie. By viewing this movie, you get a good idea of what things were like in those days. And the interviews are insightful and funny. It puts a face on the great music we listen to today. A lot of the recordings of these bands can be found on Joe Keithley of  D.O.A.'s music label, Sudden Death Records. It's great that classic Canadian punk music like The Modernettes, D.O.A.,K-Tels/Young Canadians, and Pointed Sticks and the landmark Vancouver Complication comp are readily available today. But check out this documentary sooner than later. I think you will really enjoy this. Kudos to Susanne Tabata and all involved in the making this important movie.

If You Can't Beat Em' In The Alley.....PUCK ROCK Volume 2...

All Killer, No Filler

Well as we all know, the basketball lock out is still happening, though the players union and the owners are negotiating away, attempting to salvage the 2011-2012 season. I was looking forward to see how the New York Knicks were going to do this season, but it is conceivable that once the Superbowl ends in February, Hockey will be the only game in town. Currently it is the only game for most days of the week, which does not bother me in the least. Watching is not as much fun as playing, not by a long shot, but I am perplexed why the sport isn't more popular in most of the US. It's exciting, fast moving, and pretty violent at times. What's an American not to like? I guess since its the national sport of Canada we can't seem embrace this pastime. Same reason bullfighting isn't going to replace the NBA anytime soon for us. But we simply can't compete--when Canadian children are born, they are fitted for skates as the umbilical cord is cut--it's an arms race we can't compete with. But if you watched Fareed Zakaria's GPS you probably know this already.

So, what better theme music is there for the battle for Lord Stanley's Cup than Johnny Hanson Presents Puck Rock Vol. 2!! Released back in 1999 on Joe Keithley's Sudden Death Records, a label that has done a great service in making a lot of essential Canadian punk rock readily available. I have already discussed Volume 1 in an earlier post, and like its predecessor, Volume 2 is a bit of a mixed bag, but still with a lot to recommend it. If the best of both volumes was on a single disc it would be a recording of ice melting awesomeness. But the best things here make it a worthwhile consumer for your favorite hockey punk. The album starts out pretty strong, then peters out with too much samey sounding aggro/hard core.

First of all the disc begins and closes with Hanson brothers. Some people would want to take their kids to see Smurfs on ice, but the Hansons are basically the Ramones on ice. Though I enjoy my hilarious Connecticut beer hockey compatriots The Zambonis, the Punk Hansons are the Kings in my opinion. Marvel at the their take on the D.O.A punk classic The Enemy, turning the tune into an all time great hockey song. They fittingly end the compilation with Ring Dem Bells, a Hanson original. "The sticks are up and the gloves are down, Grab your partner round and round". I think they have 3 studio discs and a live for all you completists out there.

The other hands down classic is D.O.A.'s turbocharged tribute to old-time hockey, Beat 'Em Bust 'Em.

Headbutting, eyegouging,
Impaling, decapitating
A broken arm and skull,
fracture, conquest & defeat,
A 5 minute major and a suspension,
a new team
and a hospital sheet.

Joe Keithley......he's like a Canadian Dylan Thomas. More hockey songs, please! It doesn't get better than this folks. One of the best sports songs ever.




The Swedish band The Bones make a nice punk pop contribution with Some Kinda Freaks. Euro-contenders. You High Sticked My Heart by the Dinks is also pretty good. As far as the harder edged songs go, The Red Wings tune The Commies, and Penalty Box by The Commies are decent, short and not so sweet. Royal Grand Prix's CCM is more overdriven punky pop.



Jon Ginoli's Pansy Division (see my post on his earlier band, The Outnumbered) make an appearance with their funny song about mullets, Ice Hockey Hair. I like the hard riff rocking 60's sound of JP5, where they declare their love of Gino Odjick. Sillier novelty songs like Hockey Night in Toronto by King Hokum & the King Bees, and The Stool Pigeons' DollyPartonesque Ballad of Cookie LaRue, are also pretty entertaining.

Probably the only other hockey classic is Blood on the Ice by The Riverdales, a side project of Screeching Weasel. More Ramones inspired puck rock glory.

Blood on the Ice
There's a puck flying at your head
Slammed into the boards and
you hit the deck

Get up and try to fight
but you're going down tonight
It's time to drop the gloves
Blood on the ice.

So, it's almost winter, so do yourself a favor; drop the gloves already and pick up some Puck Rock today, pencil neck.