Bruce Pavitt's Blog

WE GOT POWER! coauthor David Markey’s all-time classic rock documentary 1991: The Year Punk Broke chronicles with machine gun wit and guerrilla flair Sonic Youth’s tour of Europe that year while accompanied by Nirvana, the Ramones, Dinosaur Jr., and Babes in Toyland.

Shortly after Rolling Stone recently named 1991 one of the “Top 25 Punk Films of All Time,” L.A.’s vinyl-only Pop Obscure Records honored We Got Power! with a photo exhibit featuring images—and live humans—from the book. Among the treasures on display were shots from the one-and-only roll of 35mm film Markey shot on his trusty old still camera during the making of 1991.

Now Pop Obscure proprietor Sherry Lee has scanned those original negatives to create an eye-popping, mind-blowing, “you are there” 12-inch by 34-inch contact sheet print. Pick up prints of Markey’s history-as-it-happened photo collection at Pop Obscure, until the end of the We Got Power exhibit on January 9.

POP OBSCURE Records, 735 S. Los Angeles St., Los Angeles, CA

Read WE GOT POWER!: Hardcore Punk Scenes from 1980s Southern California, by David Markey and Jordan Schwartz

BLOODY ROOTS OF GRUNGE AND METAL

Week of October 8, 2016

Sat 10/8, 6PM ET

Sun 10/9, 1PM ET

Mon 10/10, 9AM ET

Tues 10/11, 4PM ET

Thurs 10/13, 9PM ET

Honoring Seattle-area long-haired punk music to mark the 25th anniversary of Nirvana’s surprise breakthrough Nevermind, Bloody Roots digs the distortion and flannel of grunge acts like Tad, Nirvana, Earth, Mudhoney, and Soundgarden. Host Ian Christe (“Sound of the Beast”/Bazillion Points) braves the rain and fog and extracts the heaviest moments of the bands above plus Fecal Matter, Green River, and the pinnacle of sludge, the Melvins. Also featured: grunge covers by S.O.D., Grave, Opeth, Machine Head, Impaled, Thou, and more. Slow your Roots!

Above photo of Kurt Cobain / Nirvana, by Steve Double, from the book Experiencing Nirvana: Grunge in Europe, 1989, by Bruce Pavitt.

PLAYLIST:

Tad – “Salem” from Salem EP

Melvins – “Heaviness of the Load” from Gluey Porch Treatments

Fecal Matter – “Downer” – from Illiteracy Will Prevail

The U-Men – “Dig It a Hole” from Solid Action

Soundgarden – “Head Injury” from Ultramega OK

Earth – “Tallahassee” – from Pentastar

Green River – “Hangin Tree” from Sub Pop 200

Mudhoney – “Sweet Young Thing Aint Sweet No More” from SINGLE

Nirvana – “Negative Creep” – Live at Rhino Records

Gruntruck – “Tribe” from PUSH

Alice In Chains – “We Die Young” from WE DIE YOUNG

Coffin Break – “American Dream” from CRAWL

S.O.D. – “Territorial Pissing” from Live At Budokan

Machine Head – “Negative Creep” from Take My Scars

Grave – “Them Bones” from As Rapture Comes

Impaled – “Tourettes” from Medical Waste

Thou – “Something in the Way” from The Archer & the Owle

Melvins – “Sweet Young Thing Ain’t Sweet No More” from Steel Pole Bathtub Split

Opeth – “Would” from Burden

Bloody Roots is Sound of the Beast author (and Bazillion Points publisher) Ian Christe’s heavy metal history show on Sirius XM Liquid Metal channel 40. Since June 2004, each weekly show has examined another subgenre, band, movement, country, or theme in metal, punk, and heavy rock. The show is available on-demand online from SiriusXM.com.

Slaying season has come once more to Seattle. Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, the Emerald City doom circle fronted by “heavier-than-God” Sub Pop-era grunge legend Tad Doyle of TAD fame, has announced that multi-instrumentalist Andrew McInnis has joined the group. McGinnis, formerly of Girth, will debut as a Brother on October 29, unleashing the loud, the crushing, and the sludgy all over Seattle’s Substation venue. He joins the existing crew of Tad Doyle on guitar and vocals, Peggy Doyle on bass, and Dave French (formerly of the Anunnaki) pounding the drums.

Black Bone Exorcism, Summoned by Giants, and Guest Directors—featuring original TAD axe-man Gary Thorstensen—are set to open. Only 100 tickets remain up for grabs—so grab yours now.

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2599481

Next the Brothers of the S.C. “will spend the remaining months of 2016 and early 2017 preparing the next level of low-end power and irrefutable rhythmic dimensionalism… taking new paths [to] push themselves beyond what they know of their instruments and voices.”

For a you-are-in-the-van crash course in the origins all this heaviosity, pick up Experiencing Nirvana: Grunge in Europe, 1989 by Sub Pop founder Bruce Pavitt, our exclusive and deluxe frontline recollection of TAD’s 1989 jaunt overseas with Nirvana and Mudhoney. Talk about brothers of the sonic cloth!

Experiencing Nirvana: Grunge in Europe, 1989

http://www.facebook.com/Brothers-of-the-Sonic-Cloth

Frontman H.R. and guitarist Dr. Know of hardcore punk giants Bad Brains are each facing serious health issues. In the spirit of keeping up that elusive Bad Brains P.M.A., fans are rallying to raise funds for medical expenses, with a few great benefit shows along the way.

H.R. is presently dealing with an unbearable headache-inducing neurological disorder. Earlier today, the GoFundMe page set up to help finance his treatment reached its $15,000 goal. So big up on that score:

Health Fund for HR (Paul Hudson)

Now onward from pain of head to pain of heart. In November 2015, Dr. Know suffered a cardiac arrest that brought on massive organ failure and put him on life support. Despite being told he had a five-percent chance to live, Dr. Know surged back; he currently resides in a medical rehab facility, and is working toward full recovery.

Dr. Know’s medical GoFundMe page enables supporters to help cover his considerable expenses. Right now the meter is 70% full, have a look as you reach for the donate now button:

Dr. Know (Bad Brains) Support Fund

Last month, New York hardcore squads Cro-Mags, Token Entry, Breakdown, Antidote, and Maximum Penalty headlined a free charity concert for Dr. Know in Tompkins Square Park. More than two thousand strong drummed up a healthy $25,000 to the cause. Respect.

BLOODY ROOTS OF SHOEGAZER METAL

Week of August 6, 2016

Sat 8/6, 6PM ET

Sun 8/7, 2PM ET

Mon 8/8, 9AM ET

Tues 8/9, 3PM ET

Thurs 8/11, 9PM ET

The upper limits of atmospheric heavy metal are tested on the Bloody Roots sesson this week as host Ian Christe (Sound of the Beast, Bazillion Points) catches the all-encompassing sounds of shoegazer metal. Dreamlike and intense bands from France, Chile, China, Norway, New Zealand, Germany, and the United States feature, including Neurosis, Lantlos, Bailter Space, Dopamine, Alcest, Burzum, and Deafheaven. Know your Roots!

PLAYLIST:

NEUROSIS – “At the Well” from HONOR FOUND IN DECAY

BAILTER SPACE – “Projects” from B.E.I.P.

BURZUM – “Beholding the Daughters of the Firmament” from FILOSOFEM

LANTLOS – “Pulse/Surreal” from NEON

ALCEST – “La Ou Naissent Les Couleurs Nouvelles” from LES VOYAGES DE L’AME

DOPAMINE – “Fans Night Part 1” from DOPAMINE

SILENCE OF THE OLD MAN – “Tiempo de Miseria” from CARENCIA DE AUSENCIA

DEAFHEAVEN – “Dream House” from SUNBATHER

Bloody Roots is Sound of the Beast author (and Bazillion Points publisher) Ian Christe’s heavy metal history show on Sirius XM Liquid Metal channel 40. Since June 2004, each weekly show has examined another subgenre, band, movement, country, or theme in metal, punk, and heavy rock. The show is available on-demand online from SiriusXM.com.

Comedian Fred Armisen has ventured back into Bazillion Points territory, this time posting a portrait of WE GOT POWER! author Jordan Schwartz and mainstay Herb Lienau from backstage at a Bob Mould show in Los Angeles. “They have such friendly faces!”

Of course, Jordan’s book is filled with early ’80s photos combining members of Circle Jerks, Black Flag, and Minutemen—or Descendents, Black Flag, and Saccharine Trust. Armisen’s right, they were having fun. Party or go home!

WE GOT POWER!: Hardcore Punk Scenes from 1980s Southern California

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Nevermind, Britain’s Q Magazine has conducted an exclusive interview with our author Bruce Pavitt (Experiencing Nirvana, Sub Pop USA) about Nirvana and the times that spawned them.

Kerrang.com has posted a segment of that interview, including a quote about the uneven quality of Nirvana’s early music, and Bruce watching them develop as a band after signing them to his label, Sub Pop. Other interviewees include Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam, Matt Cameron of Soundgarden, Mark Arm of Mudhoney/Pearl Jam, Buzz Osborne of Melvins, and Tad Doyle of Tad.

Check the excerpt at THIS LOCATION.

And do your own background checks on all of the above:

SUB POP USA: The Subterranean Pop Reader, by Bruce Pavitt

Our co-conspirator and all-knowing hardcore guru Tony Rettman, beloved author of NYHC: New York Hardcore 1980–1990, has posted his definitive “Ten Best Punk Documentaries” at Green Room Radio.

Take a trip over to Green Room Radio site to read Rettman’s take on films like 2005’s PUNK Attitude, UK/DK: A Film About Punks and Skinheads, David Markey’s The Slog Movie, the classic Decline of Western Civilization, and several other specimens of safety-pin cinema also featured in Heavy Metal Movies. The trailers in the article alone should get you through the last snowbound night of winter. Spend some time with some onscreen punks!

Note that Freddy Alva’s New Breed cassette comp documentary has just made its cinematic debut and should be on the list, but Rettman actually narrates that film and so recused himself from tooting his own horn.

THE TEN BEST PUNK DOCUMENTARIES

Read up! NYHC: New York Hardcore 1980–1990

In the second season debut of Comedy Central’s This Is Not Happening, punk author/raconteur Henry Rollins performs “Everything Was Heavy,” his contribution to the mammoth anthology WE GOT POWER!: Hardcore Punk Scenes From 1980s Southern California. The tale concerns Rollins’ arrival in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, at which point a Black Flag bandmate encourages him to take an LSD trip: “You’re an asshole. It might help.”

As Rollins writes, that opportunity soon arrived in the form of a woman named Kim Pilkington. “She was extremely intelligent, and I believe she had the lowest fear quotient of anyone I have ever met. Life didn’t seem to be hitting hard enough or going deep enough for her.” Rollins soon found himself in Kim’s car, having taken four hits of acid, with her driving at high speeds along winding canyon roads, veering into oncoming traffic adn edging perilously close to cliff edges.

This hilarious but ultimately harrowing tale appears in WE GOT POWER! alongside 400 photos from the early days of L.A. hardcore punk, plus essays by Keith Morris of the Circle Jerks, Louiche Mayorga of Suicidal Tendencies, Steve Human of The Vandals, Tony Reflex of The Adolescents, and Henry Rollins, Chuck Dukowski, and Dez Cadena of Black Flag, and more. It also includes the complete color reprints of the We Got Power fanzine from 1981­–1983 and beyond. For complete information, visit:

http://www.wegotpowerbook.com/

WE GOT POWER! is the Southern California component of Bazillion Points’ lauded library of authoritative books about revered music scenes, including SUB POP USA: The Subterranean Pop Anthology 1980-1988, by Sub Pop founder Bruce Pavitt; TOUCH AND GO: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine 1977-1983, by Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson; NYHC: New York Hardcore 1980–1990, by Tony Rettman; and MURDER IN THE FRONT ROW: Shots From the Bay Area Thrash Metal Epicenter, by Harald Oimoen and Brian Lew.

http://www.bazillionpoints.com

Bruce Pavitt in his natural environment—a record store (photo: Andy Bokanev)

In its 50th issue, HUCK Magazine has posted a vivid interview with Sub Pop Records Bruce Pavitt, author of EXPERIENCING NIRVANA: Grunge in Europe, 1989, and SUB POP USA: The Subterranean Pop Reader, 1980-1988. Writer Casey Jarman goes exceptionally deep in examining the philosophical underpinnings behind Pavitt’s role exposing unheard regional music as a radio DJ, fanzine editor, newspaper columnist, record store owner, and ultimately indie record label co-founder. Among the highlights:

“I was literally visualising Washington State as an island. Why did England have this robust indie culture? Because you had the BBC with John Peel playing DIY singles that were heard throughout the UK, and you had NME and Melody Maker distributed [weekly] throughout England. So it was all about the media infrastructure, and that’s what the Pacific Northwest started to develop. I visualized Screaming Trees from Ellensburg, and Girl Trouble from Tacoma, and Beat Happening from Olympia, and I thought, ‘We just need to network the state’.”

READ the HUCK article HERE

And get into the power of independent thinking with Pavitt’s crucial SUB POP USA, a real-time survey of over 1,000 pioneering bands of the 1980s and blueprint for the eventual Sub Pop takeover

SUB POP USA: The Subterranean Pop Reader, 1980-1988