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.

10,000 Teens weren't wrong--Modernettes--Get It Straight!!

Within the last few years I've getting into the whole Canadian Punk scene, and fortunately for all of us, Sudden Death Records has been putting out tons of archival releases of some great music of the era. Certainly if you check out the website you will find a source for all things D.O.A. as the label is run by Joe "Shithead" Keithley.  (I'm serious--get your official Joe Keithley bobblehead doll, while supplies last!!)

But it is also a nice place to go for other great bands like Young Canadians, Pointed Sticks, the Vancouver Complication comp, and of course the Modernettes, who are another forgotten great band from the era. I am listening to the original Cd which was originally released by Zulu records of Vancouver. I believe the Sudden Death version has extra tracks than the 20 here.

In many ways the term "New Wave" is considered pejorative these days, merely a way for big labels to make money from the Punk scene by pasteurizing and trivializing the material into something palatable for the American public. But you know what? I kind of think these guys have at least the outward appearance of New Wave and  the music is pretty pop oriented, looking to the great music of the past, while moving forward. But you know what? The music speaks for itself and they are a terrific band. When you hear this music you will wonder why you didn't hear them on the radio back in the 80's.

The Modernettes were Buck Cherry (John Armstrong) vocals, guitar, Mary Jo Kopchne bass, vocals, Randy Valentino, guitar/keyboards and on Drums, Jughead and later Ian Noble. Though basically happenstance kept them off the legendary Vancouver Complication album, they were an important part of Vancouver's Punk scene. For an informative first hand look into that scene, Armstrong's autobiographical book Guilty of Everything is a most worthy read that I highly recommend.

I Don't Want to Watch You Cry......
Still can't figure out why they called him Jughead

Every time I listen to Get It Straight, I just marvel about this band. It's just one great song after another, sometimes poignant, sometimes incisive intuitive lyrics on life, and other time just tongue in cheek sarcastic humor.

Fun music with a darker side to it. What could be better.




You have great pop tunes like Barbara, I Can Only Give You Everything, and Confidential. Mary Jo sings lead on a few of the tracks here, like their revved up cover of Femme Fatale, Static, and Surf City Strangler. You get anthemic pop like Rebel Kind and Teen City; Ten thousand Teens can't be wrong....It's about moving to Vancouver from the burbs.

Nothing to do in this fucking town
Just drink and drink and then fall down
the girls are ugly and it always rains
Now matter what happens, the kids agree....

Soon I'm gonna be, with a million teens like me.

Hence their motto, which appeared scrawled on walls across Vancouver,
Get modern, or get fucked.



So please check this band out if you don't know about them. Definitely one of the best Canadian bands of the 80's. My Zulu Records version  of this record doesn't have a bum track on it. While sometimes more music doesn't necessarily mean better, I am pretty confident in assuming that in the case of the Modernettes, more tracks on the Sudden Death version would be an improvement. I would like them to put out everything these guys ever did, including the entire Gone But Not Forgotten record plus any demos or any live tracks that could be cleaned up off of a crummy cassette. And there is probably a lot of great music from that scene from other bands that I am still ignorant of. Let's hope we see some more releases like this soon.