What does Sup Forums think of pic related?
I think it's probably the best look into the west coast's underground rock scene of the late 70s and early 80s.
My only complaint is that there should've been more bands in it. Dead Kennedys and Flipper would've been great. I assume they just weren't well enough known yet.
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I really liked it, at least the Black Flag, Circle Jerks and Fear performances.
great doc
rip Darby Crash
The Decline of Western Civilization [Slash, 1981]
Every big-name L.A. punk this side of Samoa gets soundtracked here. X are the great ones (buy their albums), Black Flag the good ones (keep an ear out for Greg Ginn's axe). After that come Fear, L.A.'s version of the Sic Fucks, tighter musically (big Van Halen fans) but less, er, subtle (spokesperson Lee Ving could be Don Rickles with a botched facelift). Then the Circle Jerks, L.A.'s other version of the Sic Fucks (bet there's more). And in the pits three critics' bands: Catholic Discipline (somebody tell Claude Bessy zat zere is no such thing as French rock and roll), Alice Bag (Craig Lee, call your office), and the Germs (L. Bangs: "Bye, schmuck"). Not bad, but no fun. For docudrama I'll take An Evening With Wild Man Fischer, for social theory I'll take Psychotic Reaction or even Carburetor Dung, and maybe you'd better just see the movie. B-
>Catholic Discipline (somebody tell Claude Bessy zat zere is no such thing as French rock and roll)
Ah yes, Christgau's perennial "Those silly Yuropeans can't rock" bullcrap.
Those were probably the most entertaining crowd wise and musically. The Germs section would've been great if Darby actually sang but I guess then it wouldn't have been in typical Germs fashion. Playing a shitty show for a video is almost like getting the picture for your driver's license taken while you're wasted.
The Reason that The Dead Kennedys and Flipper were not in The Decline of Western Civilization is because the film focused on the LOS ANGELES punk community, and DKs and Flipper are from San Francisco, plus Flipper hadn't been formed yet.
But, yes, it is a good documentary and did a good job covering what was happening at the time in that part of California.
>What does Sup Forums think of pic related?
my fav spengler album ;)
The girl was Darby's beard. He was afraid of people knowing he was gay.
Hey, Rob!
Ever hear of bands like Metal Urbain, Stinky Toys, or perhaps Plastique Betrand?
I thought as much.
He's right that Catholic Discipline suck, but I never liked X and he glosses over the germs I think
The Fear show was recorded in San Francisco so I assumed it was just west coast in general.
The Dead Kennedys first single came out in 79' and their first album came out in 80' so they were around. The Flipper's first single came out in late 80' I think.
Most of the footage was probably taken in 79' so they were probably just too late to be considered even if they would've been.
I don't know where you got your information from, but that's wrong. NONE of the film was shot in San Francisco or The Bay Area.
You probably took Fear seriously when they declared that A) They were from "Frisco" and B) they were gay.
He's only ok with it when they're guys like the Stones and Clapton who like to LARP as Delta bluesmen.
That's ok because San Fran never had a punk scene that was worth anything anyway. DK were the best they ever got and they were still pretty bad.
It's a really good film, and one of the most important punk films obviously.
I've met some of the people involved in the 70s San Francisco scene, and their main complaint was just that the film's tone was actually a lot bleaker than that of the scene. Their comment was that if the scene had really been that miserable, they wouldn't have been as into it; it was more fun than that.
The other thing was that it slightly distorts the relationships of the bands. The Germs were HATED in the LA scene as basically being this totally incompetent, shitty band. 3 things made the Germs as legendary and significant as they were: their album was great, which made them well-loved outside of California; they were destructive and primal, which made them popular among the coming hardcore scene; Decline itself built their legend.
It also doesn't really show the growing division between the old school, artsy bands like X, The Dils, Crime, The Weirdos, and The Screamers, and the bands that would lead the hardcore scene forming in the suburbs, like Black Flag and The Circle Jerks. All the bands I just mentioned should've been included as well.
It's no fault of the movie, but another big opportunity they missed by shooting a year too early, is that they just missed the deathrock scene of bands like Christian Death and The Gun Club.
At the end of the film it says where all the bands played and I swear it said that the Fear show was in San Francisco. I guess I'll have to watch it. Either way I think San Francisco bands were worthy of being in the film seeing as many San Francisco band frequently played L.A. and many L.A. bands played in San Francisco.
I love Christgau's review of FFFRV where he manages to mix up Jello Biafra with the openly gay frontman of a totally different San Fran punk band who eventually died in the AIDS epidemic.
>I want there to be more punk rock, I do, I do. I want there to be more left wing new wave (by Americans, I swear). But not from a guy with Tiny Tim Vibratro who spent the first half of the '70s creating rock cabaret.
I somehow doubt Jello was inventing rock cabaret when he was 13-14 years old.
>and their main complaint was just that the film's tone was actually a lot bleaker than that of the scene. Their comment was that if the scene had really been that miserable, they wouldn't have been as into it; it was more fun than that
I mean, it's just rock and roll. A lot of punk (and metal) angst was tongue-in-cheek and played for kicks.
Christgau and a lot of critics have a tendency to take popular music a little too seriously for their own good.
I think allot of the violence had to do with the fact that the people knew they were being filmed.
X were art punks so figures they'd appeal to hipster critics.
How does the saying go? It's like the anthropologist who visits some tribal village in Papua New Guinea and writes about the culture of so-and-so tribe. Well, he's not. He's writing about how a tribe that has an anthropologist living among them acts.
Ever hear of Crime, or The Avengers? Negative Trend? (Which half of them became Flipper after they broke up.)
What about clubs like Mabuhey Gardens or The Deaf Club?
Don't sell San Fran or The Bay Area short. Some good stuff came out of there.
You mean like how Margaret Meade was told a bunch of bullshit by Samoans and wrote about it as fact?
youtube.com
part III is best
How did anyone manage to take this guy seriously for so long?
Circle Jerks don't even sound like Sic Fucks. This name dropping bullshit doesn't work when you can actually verify the references.
And of course he likes a punk band with campy 50s-style girl choruses, the fucking dork
>listen to circle jerk albums
>all sounds the same
>listen to circle jerk live gigs
>they're actually good
Is this it? Have I discovered the best way to listen to punk rock?
It depends on the band. For the Circle Jerks particularly they were one of the first L.A. punk bands to sign to a major label so after Group Sex the production quality is basically as clean as you could get for a punk band in the 80s. I think with that level of production you lose a bit of the flavor. The raw intensity of live preformance captures song more accurately sometimes. The song Trapped by them is a perfect example. Live it sounds amazing but on the album it's rather bland.
its easily the most depressing of the trio too.
Part I is a cool showcase of late 70s LA punk, Part II is a real laugh riot (complete with a nice Megadeth performance) and Part III really hits you in the feels.
Proud owner of the blu-ray box set.
I watched Part 3 about Crusties a few days ago on YouTube. Sucks to hear about Squid. I’m assuming Spoon is still in prision?