SUPPORT UNGDOMSHUSET!

So Nørrebro is in flames because of the recent eviction and subsequent demolition of Ungdomshuset (Wiki here and homepage here) plus check my former post (i think i titled it "late late late update"). As a resident of Nørrebro and former user of Ungdomshuset, I can only mourn the loss. Copenhagen is slowly going from a model of tolerance and humanism, to a strange little rascist and intolerant city in an even stranger little country. H.C Andersen is becoming the Brothers Grimm...

As to the violence... the media is having a field day describing Nørrebro as cowering in fear - fed up with the "senseles destruction" of private property. They don't show the banners in support of Ungdomshuset flying from peoples windows or the pro-Ungdomshuset posters in store fronts.

I won't fly into a political rant, but will underline that we are many citizens on Nørrebro that, despite of the violence, still whole heartedly support Ungdomshuset. I have spoken to many and witnessed even more that have taken activists into their flats when chased by police, secured them access to back yards and delayed the police in non-violent ways - as have I. In short, we are many that want our house back!

So in support of Ungdomshuset - No Hope For The Kids´ "Gasangreb" (translates to gas attack - since I´ve breathed quite alot of the police CS gas over the weekend).

NHFTK's are straight out of Ungdomshuset, spouting semi-melodic punk-rock - I normally like my punk a bit harder, but what the F*** - they are "good ol' boys" from "Ungern" so.... However their 78´british punk-rock sound is quite charming, with some early Misfits inspiration on some of their songs as well. "Gasangreb" was released on the now defunct danish label "kicknpunch records" in 2003. Also check out this feature on them on the Sailor Jerry site - not cause its brilliant but just cause Sailor Jerry is kinda cool.

Anyway - support Ungdomshuset here
(You will be supporting a petition to keep Copenhagen culturally diversified and in support of a non-violent solution) Its mostly a danish thing allthough there a quite a few foreign "signatures".

Write the mayor of Copenhagen Ritt Bjeregaard (who is to blame for all this) at ritt@kk.dk - try to keep it sober. Rants and verbal abuse wont do much good.

Follow the demonstrations minute by minute here (in danish)

And finally, read the Christian fundamentalists who bought the house and had it demolished "victory speech" here (in danish). Pretty heavy stuff - their next mission is to abolish homosexuality and porn. Nice...

Audionom & 2 Live Crew & random ramblings

Once again its been ages since I´ve posted - sorry to all my faithful readers (all 3 of them).
I´ll skip the usual excuses and go straight to boring you with the details of my life, skillfully weaving in bits of music to keep you interested - ill do the band descriptions etc. at the end...

A lot has happened - we did the second Weather Underground party at Stereobar, Copenhagen Fashion (w)eeeak came and went, leaving a flurry limp wrists and soggy cheek-kisses in its wake and finally - I passed my two exams - one in Literature Theory and the other in Modern Culture - allowing me to move on to my next course (the aptly named Modern Culture 2) and start thinking of my next career move. Will it be Modern Culture or Visual Culture at Copenhagen University? Or will I make the ultimate move and scoot on back to London for a Masters in Design Management and probably Debauchery and Debt? The excitement mounts...

The Weather Underground (part 2) was our most ambitious project to date. Aimed as a critical response to Fashion Week (which I happily take part in every season, kissing ass for guest list places and the ever elusive "front row seating" which - like most of the toffs who sit up front - I totally don't deserve.) the idea was to lay the ground stone for an anti-fashion festival to precede the coming Fashion Weeks. Not that I don't love fashion - more that I feel, for fashion to evolve, it needs a healthy underground to nourish it. Otherwise we´ll just end up stuck in the eighties for years on end (???). Anyway, we had gotten hold of a Double Decker bus, a couple of trannies and other assorted queens and freaks - and were going to do a trash-fashion walk-off out of the bus, accompanied by the appropriate strobo-lighting and deep bass whump whump, emulating the Village Scene of the 80´s NYC (theres that damn decade again!).

Needless to say - everything went wrong (i am still pretty proud of the flyer though - my Illustrator skills in mind). Our license was revoked, the trannies bailed on us and everything ended in lethargy and bitterness. The party itself was quite good though - I would have liked for another 50 people through the door, but considering our own promotional effort after everything went wrong, I think we did quite well. I´ll be posting the pictures on the Myspace . Must mention the Meatraffle crew from London coming over to DJ on the night. Stewart and Milan (the DJ´s) were excellent - and their crew were extremely nice and patient. Also all the other DJ´s and guests were excellent - your the best! If your in London, drop by one of Stewart and Milans nights - Meatraffle. Before I wrap up the party stuff - me and Rasmus (W.U) will be playing at Rust on the 14th of March - more info later.

1. mp3 - Audionom - and you said I was the only one


And then it was Fashion Week. Mads Nørgaard, normally the height of Fashion Week, opted for a small intimate show for buyers and press - and me of course (I work for the brand strategy firm who did the concept work - and yes, I worked on it in the beginning as well so Im semi-important too). Also I collaborated with one of our graphic boys (Jess) on a t-shirt line for Mads as well - they should be in stores now. Quite cool really to see one of your "designs" walking down the run-way and in shop-windows. Basically we took the punk xerox-aesthetic (both of us having been punks in our youth) and applied it to some of Mads references. I´ll post some pictures when I can lay my hands on them...

Apart from Mads Nørgaards show, I paid a visit to the Gallery trade fair. Gallery features some of the most exciting labels in Copenhagen at the moment - including my dear friend Diana Brinks.
Once again, Diana has put together a great collection - stark and sharp graphical edge, clean cuts and straight black and white dichotomy balance Diana's clothes between austere and heart-achingly sensual. Her clothes remind me of a million bitter-sweet heartbreaks for girls with too much kohl under their eyes back in high-school. If your fashion surfing, check out Monies jewellery who make fascinating jewellery - especially the really oversize bracelets and necklaces are extremely cool. Next stop during fashion week, was the Vice party to check out the Ed Banger boys - nuff said. And lastly Morden Gehrmunds new club concept at Stereobar - Klub - which was a really cosy club night, easy-going crowd, good music and old friends. Check it out next time...

First Mp3 up there is from Swedish Audionom started in early 1992 and recently reformed. The song is taken from their Retrospektiv album which is... well... a retrospective. On the first listen, I was convinced they were from the late seventies - mostly because of their kinship with Can and NEU!. Both bands are not really my cup of tea, finding allot of their material too slow or too moody. Audionom however manage to fuse the melodic meanderings of said bands with a distinctly punk energy and beat, making them go down allot smoother in my book. Still songs like the almost 15 minute "Horisont" just plain piss me off. I'm sure there is a lot of art and skill involved in that kind of stuff, but my attention span rarely goes further than the five minute mark. However, when Audionom do manage to keep it short and sweet they hit a perfect mix of punk tempo tinged with Iggy'esk rock vocals.

Listening to this second song, I start to think what the hell I was doing in the 91 instead of listening to this stuff. Then I realize I was 11 and probably just discovering that pussy did´nt come in boots - strangely I found out later that it does indeed in some cases come in boots - and so the story comes full circle (sorry I´ve just always wanted an excuse to use the whole "full circle" bit).

Enough! 2 Live Crew released "As Nasty as They Wanna Be" in 1989 - through equal measures of controversy and quality the LP sold over 2 million copies. 2 Live Crew were sued and counter-sued, some poor record shop clerk was sued for selling it to a 14-year old girl etc etc. Only in America! Best part was the distinguished literary critic and now Harvard University professor, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. an "expert witness", testifying on behalf of the defendants. He argued that the material that was allegedly profane, actually had important roots in African-American vernacular games and literary traditions and should be protected.

(from the cover in-lay)


Anyway, 2 Live Crew were champions of the 808 kick drum, and were key in founding the whole Miami/booty base sound - this is of "Sports Weekend" - the sequal to "As Nasty...". If only I had a convertable and it was´nt freezing in Copenhagen, I would be cruising with my top down, flipping hand signals and going "Pop that Pussay" - oh well, a bus card and an Ipod will have to do...

2. mp3 - 2 Live Crew - Pop that Pussy

WIRE + VOICE FARM

Wire have a history of transcending genres rather rapidly - from their first punk-influences debut "Pink Flag" over the post-punk/ new wave inspired "Chairs Missing" and "154" to the more arty and disonant "Document and Eyewitness". The 80's and 90's saw numerous solo projects ranging from noise terror to proto-techno along with a couple of Wire releases just as diverse - I´ll spare you the details and let you read about it here.

Getting to the point, this song is from the debut "Pink Flag" released in 1977 on Harvest. Staying in tune with my current regression into my early musical roots, this in of the "punkest" tracks on the album - however choosing which one to feature was really hard - not only is every track brilliant, posting a single track really does'nt give any credit to the bredth and versatility of the album - sometimes closer to Iggy Pop, other times leaning towards early Germs every track is smart and to-the-point - I can only recomend that you buy it yourselves.

Wire - Mr. Suit

Second up is a little gem that I´ve been thinking of posting for quite a while - from the debut of Voice Farm comes "Modern Things" - a great example of early San Fransisco synth-punk. All though they aparently opened for Depeche Mode and have also played Madison Square Garden, there really is'nt much info on them out there. Most of the guys I´ve checked site the 1982 "The World We Live In" as their second album - and I believe this is their debut single from 1980 - but hell if you really care, you will probably be bothered enough to put in the effort to find out for yourself.

Voice Farm - Modern Things

ETERNAL AFFLICT AND THE PROLETARIAT

First up is a little EBM/wave gem I recently stumbled upon. Hailing from Germany, "The Eternal Afflict" is apperently responsible for a couple of Goth classics (namely "Childhood" and "Warchild" - or so I've read). This is a nice little cover version of Rolling Stones' "Paint it Black" - the great thing about the track being the "added eerines" along with the hillarious german accent - particularly "Paint it Bbbllarch". The double "machine-gun" industrial drum-beat and added synths are just bonus flavouring!

The Eternal Afflict - Paint it Black

"Paint it Black" is from "Black Heritage" - a mini album of cover songs. I can´t really figure out when it was released, but since they also cover Soundgardens "Black Hole Sun" it must be post 1994.

However, me venturing into the goth genre stems more from my long standing love affair with Minimal and Cold Wave rather than any craving for corpse paint, lace and fangs. Actually I have been rediscovering my Hardcore roots with bands like Black Flag, Minor Threat, DRI, MDC etc. Buying Steven Blush's account of the American Hardcore scene in the 80´s (at amazon here) is probably one of the best things I´ve done all year, allowing me to connect with the time where I wore bandanas around my 16-hole DM's - unfourtunatly I was to young to have been a apart of the movement itself - meaning I spent ages tracking down compilations etc. in my teenage years. Anyway, thanks to Steven Blush, I discovered "The Proletariat" hailing from the Boston HC scene.

"Options" by "The Proletariat" comes of the "This is Boston, Not LA" compilation
released in 1982 on Modern Method. Featuring a killer Oi drum beat and Gang of Four-ish riffs, this track sounds like you wished all those crappy post-Sex Pistols art-punk bands would have sounded like. All though notorious for its violence, the american HC scene did, in my eyes, maintain a more true punk ethos than it´s UK counterpart. Where Punk turned artsy and vain, HC stayed true to the kids and to its anti-establishment roots during 1980 - 1984, building one of the most furious and in-your-face movements ever. In an age where MTV and Clear Channel dictate what is youth culture, HC stands as a reminder that you don´t have to buy into their bullshit.



The Proletariat - Options

The blog has been dead for about a month now (at least) – probably sacrificing the 8 readers that I had compiled!

Basically school, work and my new club-night have been keeping me mad busy. The club night was a mad success - people piling in, people dressed to the nines, people getting naked (seriously!) and me in a blissful stupor, repeating “I just love you guys” over and over again…
(Check the pictures - I'll have some up on the myspace soon hopefully)



Today’s track I found over at “Lost Bands” a while ago (bookmark it!) – I play it a couple of times a day, and am still amazed by it’s contemporary feel – this could have been remixed by Ed Banger and put out today. “Spring in Fialta” by Slow Children was put out in 81´on their self-titled debut album. The extended edit featured here is from the single – also out in 81. They released yet another album in 82 - “Mad about Town” - and since then Pal Shazar (Vocals) and Andrew Chinich (guitar) apparently grew up and away from each other. Pal continues to make music – although a somewhat different style than Fialta.

Slow Children - Spring in Fialta (extended edit)

RAVE-RAVE-RAVE

I stumbled across a 2 Unlimited video on youtube the other day and it instantly sparked my long dormant fetish for Eurodance! Since then I´ve fluo'ed my myspace, developed an unhealthy hankering for Gabber and have spent hours copying the rather snazy dance moves of Ray Slijngaard from the above music video!

2 Unlimited, originally the... urm... brainchild of producer duo Phil Wilde and Jean-Paul de Coster, spawned the classic and timeless 90's rave classics "Are you ready for this" and "No limit" which still carries one of the best bridges EVER combined with that brilliant 4/4! Grab your whistles and your smiley pins and RAVE like its 1994!!!

2 Unlimited - No limit

(Remember to sign the on-line petition on the website to get Anita Doth back to sing for them)

Next up is the ever fantastic eurodance duo U96! Remember "Das Boot"? Of course you do if your worth your Air Jordans and your glowstix! Anyway, this is another one of those bangers that you´ve probably done the running man to, wired out on E and decked out in your finest addidas track-bottoms! Taking the best from Happy Hardcore and combining it with their KLF meets Scooter lyrics this is

U96 - Love Religion


NEW UPDATE ON THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND NIGHT 21/10 -06! @ NADSAT!
DOORS OPEN AT TEN, FREE DRINKS BY GREEN MARK VODKA FOR THE EARLY BIRDS!
ALSO CHECK OUT WEATHER UNDERGROUND'S MYSPACE!

Forgot to add pictures - duh! Read post below

WE DESTROY ARE SELVES WITH GLUE AND BOOZE - ARTIKLE OB UNGDOMSHUSET IN RAPPORT- LATE 80´S



RICHARD HELL

HENRY ROLLINS - BLACK FLAG DAYS