Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

When Tim Curry died last month, I immediately began proselytizing for Times Square (1980)   because hardly anyone I talked to had seen it. Allan Moyle based it on a diary he found in a used couch he purchased that was written by an emotionally disturbed young woman. Director Moyle, best known for the later music films, Pump Up The Volume (1990) and  Empire Records (1995), it tells the story of runaways from different sides of the tracks who meet in a psych ward and start a punk band called the Sleez Sisters. The film purports to be a sort of punk rock Saturday Night Fever (1977) because of the involvement of producer Robert Stigwood. As producer, he wanted less dialogue and additional musical sections, so he fired Moyle.  Despite this contentious situation, the film is a true gem that should be discussed in any conversation that includes the other commonly cited punk classics: Rock and Roll High School  (1979), Ladies and Gentleman, the Fabulous Stains (1982), ...

Crimpshrine and Fifteen songs often interpolate or play with the idea of reworking/reusing lines from earlier famous songs within the lyrical and musical framework of songs, Ott's and Jack Curran's melodies are deceptive because they bury them in layers of distortion. However, just as their lyrical ambition often tells complex stories through the framework of deceptively simple choruses, the lyrics hide Easter eggs within simple love and relationship songs. Crimpshrine's "Tomorrow" borrowed lyrics from "Tomorrow" from  Annie , but Ott has continued to include popular lyrics in interesting ways. Pop melodies were common in many of the bands that played with Fifteen at 924 Gilman Street in the 1990s, but Ott's hardscrabble songs stand out because of their wordplay and insistence on melodic invention.  Other bands that played with them reveled in wordplay and definitive walking East Bay basslines, but generally fitted into different frameworks. While th...

I used to be a wallflower at the punk show.  Standing in back like those cool people in that Jawbreaker lyric or Peter Parker, replete in sweater vest a tour song well defined. I watched everyone else participate, slunk in the corner like a ragdoll  in required black hoodie, shock of auburn hair, drooped over crooked glasses. '90s indie fashion or a Weezer video extra, the early days of emo.  A backpack possibly slung over my shoulder, and a lack of beer in my hand, made me stand out, an awkward clown, never a joiner. Even though I loved the volume of the music, the warmth of the room, distinguished from the blustery, wintery outside, I found it hard to join.  These states never get warm. The band never breaks a string. Once I finally joined and met the people in the room, I became a figure in the scene, with my own nickname and relevance. Seldom a band member, I was the eternal commenter, the guy who could talk records, a legend in my hometown. Like that irredeemabl...

From the opening notes of Propagandhi's anthem of resilience, "At Peace," the title track on their eighth album, listeners will realize that the band has learned how to reflect and grow, despite the anger they continue to feel from years of governmental malfeasance. The band's flirtations with metal are becoming more hardened with each release, and this track is heavy. metaphorically and musically. The feeling of doom is underscored by menacing metallic guitar arpeggios before Chris Hannah's weary, world worn vocals break the heaviness. The verses and choruses reach a riffy consensus as he hits a breathy, hypnotic, drawn-out mantra, "I am at peace," The band, including bassist Todd Kowalski, guitarist Sulynn Hago, and drummer, Jord Samolesky find their groove in a sludgy, trudging heaviness that martially moves along with the lyrics.  Hannah sings a plea that resonates heavily with many of us who have been trying to understand how we have gotten to this ...

Roddy Bogawa's 2004 documentary I Was Born, But is named after Yasujiro Ozu's 1934 silent film and mirrors that film in specifics of identity formation, particularly how class, culture, and nation inform who we are. The film is parts quiet meditation on Japanese American identity, including thoughts on Pearl Harbor, and the formative influence of the punk rock scene. Through additional reflection on his childhood in California and Hawaii and its impact, Bogawa creates an entrancing narrative that feels very different from Ozu but still tells a similar story on how art and identity shapes us.

Every time I listen to the Mr. T Experience, or MTX for short, I marvel at how Dr. Frank takes a clever turn of phrase and uses it to ever greater effect in each song. For a band that writes "Songs About Girls" with tongues planted firmly in their collective cheeks, the group has gone through many permutations, but Frank has been the one constant in their long career. The band has written many great songs in different periods, whether one is a fan of the more punk and rock 'n' roll period with Jon Von turning in the occasional raucous, garagey anthem like "Kill The Ramones" or "I'm In Love With Paula Pierce" or the power pop records in the early 90s with tracks such as "Even Hitler Had a Girlfriend. Of course, the Joel Reader era produced pop-punk classics like Love is Dead , which morphed into a brief indie rock period before the band's dissolution. The other day I was listening to 1989's Making Things With Light , an album t...