The Nipple Erectors- later the Nips- were one of many mediocre London punk bands riding on the coattails of bands like the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Damned. The only reason anyone still remembers them- enough to put them up on Youtube apparently!- is because of who their singer was. That man was the great Shane MacGowan (then using the punk pseudonym “Shane O'Hooligan”), later the singer for the Pogues.
“Rise Above” by Black Flag is punk rock self-help music, an inspirational rallying cry for punk rockers fed up not only with hippies and cops but with everything and everyone that stands in their way. I first heard this song when I was nineteen years old, and it felt like a wake-up call to burst through all of the problems that were weighing me down and break through into a better, stronger life. It still feels that way today, twenty years after I first heard it.
The other thing about this particular clip is that it shows rare, live footage of Black Flag in performance with a very young Henry Rollins on vocals. Grainy and shaky as the video is, it does capture at least a little bit of what made the Black Flag live show such a legendary experience.
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“Los Angeles” by X has always been a controversial song because of its opening lines, which are explicitly racist and homophobic. What a lot of people don't realize is that singer Exene Cervenka isn't identifying personally with the racist woman in the song. She's just describing a type of person she met sometimes in Los Angeles.
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Before the term “punk hardcore” was invented to describe the music of Black Flag and other LA bands, Black Flag was just seen as another punk band. “Nervous Breakdown,” their first release, sounds much more like old school punk rock rather than punk hardcore per se.
Black Flag went through a number of different singers before settling on Henry Rollins, and this track is from well before Rollins' time with the band. The singer is actually Keith Morris, later of the Circle Jerks. After he left and started his own band, Black Flag continued under the leadership of guitarist Greg Ginn. Since Ginn was the band's primary songwriter, it wasn't too difficult for them to just hire a new singer whenever they needed to.
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No matter how many decades it weathers, that particular breed of out-of-tune power-chord garage punk never seems to age. Young and brash as the rest of them, here's Empty Faces with a track off their self-titled debut cassette.
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There's an old proverb that says “even a cornered mouse will bite the cat.” I can hardly think of a more appropriate saying for either this song or the current political and economic reality.
The song is “Backed Up Against a Wall” by the Circle Jerks, as sung by Keith Morris (the original singer for Black Flag, way before Henry Rollins joined the band). The video is from the documentary “Decline of Western Civilization.” Even though the words of the song tell punk rockers that they're not going to get anywhere trying to fight the police, the feeling of the song is one of desperate defiance.
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One of the all-time great protest songs, “The Murder of Liddle Towers” by the Angelic Upstarts. Liddle Towers died in a holding cell, possibly due to police brutality, and yet no one was ever charged. This Oi! Punk classic was the only justice ever meted out.
The song seems particularly appropriate this week, as Marine veteran Scott Olsen lies in the hospital with a fractured skull after being shot in the face with a tear-gas canister after the police broke up Occupy Oakland. The unintentional result of a chaotic situation? Hardly. As you can see in the following video, riot police deliberately waited until other occupiers gathered to help Olsen where he lay bleeding on the street, and then tossed a flash-bang grenade into their midst:
Deliberate, callous, criminal violence- which in all likelihood will never result in charges against anyone. In the face of oppression and brutality, what weapon do we have except the truth? In the words of the Angelic Upstarts:
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