I am loving my new discovery Jason Forrest (his myspace here and his main site here[some pages NSFW]). Well, I didn’t really discover him. I mean, other people were already there, and since I do not have a technological advantage over them (quite the opposite, probably), colonization is out of the question.
Anyway. This is some hugely rocking speedy cut-up sampling, much more interesting than your typical mash-up doodlers and scritchy scatchers. First stop, watch the video for “War Photographer,” which imagines viking boats having a music war using some Blood, Sweat, and Tears songs as ammo, which is metaphorically what I imagine Led Zeppelin live was like, if Jimmy Page could shoot lightning bolts out of his guitar. And if he was a Viking.
I know, I know, who says he couldn’t? He just chose not to.
[youtube]QAFXayH1bpY[/youtube]
Now here’s the fun part, or perhaps the part that best illustrates the drudgery of pointless research, depending on your world view and musical taste. Forrest’s “My 36 Favorite Punk Songs” consists of exactly that: snippets of 36 different punk songs artfully arranged in a lovely bouquet of riffs. Where did these sounds come from?
[audio:My_36_favorite_punk_Songs.mp3]
Jason Forrest–”My 36 Favorite Punk Songs”
This little project is very difficult, so I’ll understand when hardly anybody (Ed: no one) takes up this challenge. But for the rest of you, everybody happy with my little scheme of marching up and down the square? Right!
I am such a pretend punk rocker that I can only positively identify two of these samples: “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” and “London Calling.” (And I wouldn’t be shocked if I was wrong about those, even though I feel pretty sure about them. After all, given the inherent nature of sampling, in which the original source sound can and should be altered to fit a new context, there’s no assurance that what meets your eardrums is exactly what you think it is.) Jason Forrest himself has informed me that we can “look for clues in the DC scene” and that most of the songs come from the late 80s.
Don’t be distracted by the synthesizer solo towards the end; that’s not part of this challenge.
Punkologists, to work please. No gobbing.
[tags] punk, music, Jason Forrest, Ramones, The Clash, Led Zeppelin [/tags]
Hmmm, I can think of 4 or 5 songs that those could be sampled from, but I can’t name those tunes with the very brief snippets that were played.
If you want to see a decent history of the movement, there is a documentary called “Punk Attitude.”
Favorite line was Henry Rollins explaining the death of punk rock. “Talent killed punk rock. Most who wanted make music their livelihood learned how to play more then 3 chords really fast.”
Definitely some Clash, Ramones, and Black Flag. I’d guess Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Kennedy’s, Iggy Pop, and Sex Pistols as well. And I get a hint of Fear.
Any ideas on specific tracks?
Uugh… A good part of my punk collection is on either vinyl or tape – actually mostly on tape, recorded from when I was hosting a show on my college’s radio station. I’m just going off the different band’s sound. Sorry.
Jeeze Bains, try reading…
Late 80′s DC scene?
Having left DC ten years earlier for Colorado, I suspect my guesses are well off base. Well except for DK’s
I recently went back and listened to Minor Threat’s first two 7″ (now available on CD), and couldn’t make any solid connections. Which is not to say that there are none, plus it was a good excuse to listen to Minor Threat. Research, that’s it.
I was living in Baltimore at the time, and so should be expected to know a lot more about the contemporaneous DC scene than I actually do. But I was heavily into Baltimore local music at the time, which had more of a funk-punk flavor than the DC variety.
Jawbox and Fugazi? Never kept up with them, but they’re close to the right time frame. Maybe Superchunk (from North Carolina, but I have to assume they probably played DC a lot, being fairly close by).
DKs could certainly be right; he didn’t say it was all DC, and there’s at least 3 separate Ramones samples in there, if not all from different songs.
I think we need punkblogger assistance.
I recall an interchange I had with Jeff Goldstein, yes that Jeff, after I mentioned a DEVO show I’d seen in Baltimore, late 70′s. He grew up there.
While I also caught the Clash at Richie Field house – a truly abysmal acoustic stage – my tastes then heavely leaned towards Little Feat and local hero, Skip Castro. (ahh, the
daysnights on M-street) By the time punk appealed to me (early 80′s), I was out west where SoCal and Bay area influences dominated.And yea, it was a great excuse to listen to my limited CD punk collection. I listened to Golden Shower of Hits twice!
Oh, and DK’s I Kill Children might be the first riff…
Could be. I think it’s the right chord, just stretched out.
3 chords really fast=punk
more than 3 chords really fast, with an odd time signature=speed metal