Pavement, Green Day, Tool & L7 : California <> Slackerism

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petrolino
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Pavement, Green Day, Tool & L7 : California <> Slackerism Feb 18, 2022 23:39:45 GMT

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Post by petrolino on Feb 18, 2022 23:39:45 GMT

🛼 Pavement : Acedia Rising (1989 - 1999) 🛹

Pavement were a bunch of slackers who made music together while slumming it in sunny California until one day the music stopped ...

"As we prepare for the upcoming long, lazy 4th of July summer weekend, we are taking style cues from Jeff “Surf’s Up” Spicoli, the star of the 1982 cult classic, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Played by a young (pre-Madonna) Sean Penn, who would go on to narrate Dogtown and Z-Boys, Spicoli sends up the Cali slacker stereotype in style. His beanies, layered tops, Hawaiian shirts, and striped Baja hoodies feel very now as the ’80s look is poised for a comeback.

But the cornerstone of Spicoli’s look was checkerboard slip-on Vans, which he, um, single-footedly made a thing outside the Cali surf/skate world — for better or worse. “Early ’80s in CT skateboarders were few and far between,” notes a chagrined commentator named Joe on one skate forum. “All of the sudden I start seeing people with Vans on. I'd be like, ‘Hey, do you skate?’ answer, ‘Um, nope?’ Damn you Spicoli.”

- Laird Borrelli-Persson & Emma Morrison, Vogue

Anthony Edwards, Sean Penn & Eric Stoltz in 'Fast Times At Ridgemont High' (1982), the first entry in Amy Heckerling's 'Education' Trilogy

'Forklift' - Pavement

- - - - -

'I knew that someday I was gonna die. And I knew before I died
Two things would happen to me. That number one, I would regret my entire life. And number two, I would want to live my life over again.

Life is lead weights, pendulum died,
Pure or lost, spectator or crucified,
Recognised truth acedia's blackest hole,
Junkies, winos, whores; the nation's moral suicide ...'

- 'Of Walking Abortion' (Manic Street Preachers)

Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald & Anthony Michael Hall in John Hughes' detention-set, high school comedy 'The Breakfast Club' (1985)

Alan Ruck, Mia Sara & Matthew Broderick in John Hughes' truancy-set, high school comedy 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' (1986)

'Grave Architecture' _ Pavement

- - - - -

"In high school, I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. But I knew exactly what I was.
I was a slacker.

This Wednesday, “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” is back on the big screen, part of Consolidated Theatres Hana Hou Picture Show. Before Wayne and Garth, there was Bill and Ted, forerunners of a genre of movies I call, “Slacker Cinema.” These films about spectacular underachievers gave a voice to Generation X, inspired a new wave of filmmakers, and ensured I’d be going to a state college."

- Brian Watanabe, Honolulu Magazine

'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure' (1989 - Stephen Herek)

'What's In My Bag? - Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks [Amoeba]

“I think it was a perfect recipe to inspire would-be shooters. They chose a popular actor at the time, Christian Slater, who played a classic anti-hero. Winona Ryder was an emblem of counter-culture. The characters they played in the film represent those groups that high-school shooters often say they identify with. And it’s a film that showed what life looked like when you get to sit in judgement on those around you. I watched Heathers as a teenager in the 1980s and I’m not sure I totally understood then it was a satire."

- Dr. Jennifer Johnston, expert on the relationship between media reporting of mass shootings and copycat killings at Western New Mexico University, 'Is Heathers Too Shocking For 2018?' (article published at the British Broadcasting Corporation, 3 August, 2018)

'Heathers' (1989 - Michael Lehmann) / 'Airheads' (1994 - Michael Lehmann)

'The One Song Stephen Malkmus Wishes He Wrote' [Pitchfork]

"Pump Up the Volume hardly made a dent at the box office, landing in the 15th position during its opening week at a time when theaters were dominated by Ghost, Flatliners, and Presumed Innocent. But months later it found a following among disaffected and dissatisfied teenagers. Which really could be any teenager, as long as they had parents who weren’t paying much attention to what was getting rented on their Blockbuster account. (Even Sam Esmail, who would revive Slater’s career 25 years later with Mr. Robot, is an avowed fan of Pump Up the Volume and snuck in references to it on his show over the years.) The film also functioned like a mixtape guide to a more interesting life, encouraging amenable viewers to not just track down Pixies B-sides and the music of Leonard Cohen, but to learn about everything from Lenny Bruce to cock rings to the sweet, artificial thrills found inside a can of Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi.
Pump Up the Volume, with its call for new voices from an ascendent generation to emerge, foretold a major shift that was about to happen in pop culture. The year after its release would bring the debut album of Tupac Shakur, Bikini Kill’s Revolution Girl Style Now! cassette, Liz Phair’s Girly-Sound 4-track recordings that would soon evolve into Exile in Guyville, and Nirvana’s Nevermind. (In a strange bit of synchronicity, in Pump Up the Volume after Hard Harry lambasts the sellouts of his parents’ generation, he warbles the chorus of the Youngbloods’ hippie classic “Get Together,” a comedic bit that Kurt Cobain repeated in the intro to “Territorial Pissings.”) Beyond the world of music, in 1991 Richard Linklater’s Slacker got a theatrical release, John Singleton made his cinematic debut with Boyz n the Hood and Quentin Tarantino filmed Reservoir Dogs, while Donna Tartt sold her debut novel The Secret History to Knopf for $450,000 and Douglas Coupland published Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture.
“It felt like something was happening,” says Samantha Mathis, who was 19 when she was cast in Pump Up the Volume. “We were moving away from that synthesized sort of sound and moving into something edgier, and we had the dissonance of being around the ‘greed is good’ era of filmmaking and finance in the world. There was anger, and I thought Allan really tapped into that with this movie.”

Allan Moyle got the idea to make his protagonist a pirate radio DJ from the unregulated stations in the United Kingdom that would broadcast off of ships during the 1960s. But even more important to Pump Up the Volume and its suburban setting was a figure from his own past. Moyle grew up in Shawinigan, a small town in Quebec about 150 miles from the Vermont border, during the post–World War II era. At the English language high school he attended, he had a classmate with an amateur printing press he kept in his basement. That classmate would use it to make anonymous pamphlets to distribute around the school. Some featured his commentaries on life, others attacked the principal and the institution. Moyle admired him and saw him as someone more sophisticated and far braver than he could be at their age.

Then his classmate shot himself with a .22 rifle in the nearby woods."

- Eric Ducker, 'Talk Hard : The Making Of The Teen-Angst Classic Pump Up The Volume' (articled published at The Ringer, 21 August, 2020)

'Pump Up The Volume' (1990 - Allan Moyle) / 'Empire Records' (1995 - Allan Moyle)

'Stephen Malkmus On Pavement's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain' [Matador Records]

- - - - -

👕 Joey Lauren Adams : 'The Queen Of Slacker Cinema' (... soundtrack by Pavement) 🧦

- - -

Pavement { ... formed in Stockton, California, in 1989 ... }

Stephen Malkmus (born May 30, 1966, Santa Monica, California) – Guitar
Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg (born August 30, 1966, Stockton, California) – Guitar
Mark Ibold (born October 17, 1962, Cincinnati, Ohio) – Bass
Bob Nastanovich (born August 27, 1967, Rochester, New York) – Synthesizers

Gary Young (born May 3, 1953, Mamaroneck, New York) - Percussion

Steve West (born December 8, 1966, Charlottesville, Virginia) – Drums

"When people say “Keep Austin weird”, the weirdness they are referring to is the basis of “Slacker”. The film is a plotless but enthralling collection of conversations between arty types, eccentrics, and the outright mentally ill. If you love a talky movie, it is definitely a must see. If you lack the patience, then you’re probably too busy to be a slacker. If you’re a conspiracy theorist, you probably are “Slacker” considering the film spotlights more conspiracy theories than a whole year of tabloids.
The film begins with a monologue about by filmmaker Richard Linklater himself, setting up the dreamlike quality of the long takes of seamless street discussions that comprise its entire run time. The discussions are often philosophical, a signature present throughout Linklater’s filmography. Others are political or even environmental. The greenhouse effect and disappointing elections come up to pique a 2020 viewer’s interest, making them wonder what the last thirty years were for. And then there are a lot of segments that seem to function mostly as cringe porn, including a frontrunner for the most unexpected Madonna reference you will ever find.
On its surface, it’s an ode to every conversation we ever wanted out of, but it meant something to Generation X. It embodied a fresh and free approach to film, the D.I.Y. ethos that was inspiring so many other creatives. Kevin Smith has cited “Slacker” as a catalyst for the making of his own Gen X master work “Clerks”. To these fans, it was not a movie where nothing happened. It was a movie that could let nothing happen."

- Kari Rogers, '10 Great Movies That Defined Generation X' (article published at Taste Of Cinema, 12 November, 2020)

Joey Lauren Adams : (born January 9, 1968, North Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.) {Capricorn ~ diligent, meticulous, organised}

'What's In My Bag? - Stephen Malkmus [Amoeba]

“Owen Wilson and I, when we were at the University of Texas, saw a movie being filmed on the street behind a restaurant we used to go, Mad Dog And Beans.
It was Richard Linklater’s ‘Slacker.’ We didn't know anything about it, but we wanted to make movies, so we were lurking, watching. Then we saw ‘Slacker’ at the Dolby cinema on the edge of the campus and we were captivated by it.
It was a movie that had been made right here. We could see the scene that we watched them film. It brought it all very close to home.”

- Wes Anderson, The Houston Chronicle (article published 29 October, 2021)

'Slacker' (1990 - Richard Linklater) / 'Dazed And Confused' (1993 - Richard Linklater) / 'SubUrbia' (1996 - Richard Linklater)

'Clerks' (1994 - Kevin Smith) / 'Mallrats' (1995 - Kevin Smith) / 'Chasing Amy' (1997 - Kevin Smith)

'Bio-Dome' (1996 - Jason Bloom)

'Big Daddy' (1999 - Denis Dugan)

'Watery, Domestic' (1992) ~ Pavement

- - - - -

'S.F.W.' (1994 - Jefery Levy)

'No Life Singed Her' (1992, 'Slanted And Enchanted')

'5-4 = Unity' (1994, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain')

'Father To A Sister Of Thought' (1995, 'Wowee Zowee')

'Blue Hawaiian' (1997, 'Brighten The Corners)

'You Are A Light' (1999, 'Terror Twilight')

"Parker Posey is known, legitimately, as Queen of the Indies, but does that even cover it? Her presence in the films of the Sundance generation is indeed majestic and crucial, both elevating the films themselves, including Party Girl (1995), Richard Linklater‘s Dazed and Confused (1993), Noah Baumbach‘s Kicking and Screaming (1995), and Greg Mottola’s The Daytrippers (1997), but also linking them as pieces of a whole, a canon. Within the films, though, her performances have the quicksilver kiss and danger of mercury. She is often hilarious and always unpredictable — whether as the chaotic basket case who imagines she is Jackie Kennedy in The House of Yes (1997), the kooky heroine of Hal Hartley’s Fay Grim (2007), or the boring ditz in Christopher Guest’s masterpiece Best in Show (2000). It’s a breathlessly exhilarating thing, watching her, sensing that she too has no idea where the performance could take her."

- John Lurie, Andy Warhol's Interview

Friends and early ensemble co-stars Joey Lauren Adams & Parker Posey

Pavement perform 'The Hexx' as an encore, post-recording on 'Reverb', in 1999

- - - - -

'Fast Times At Ridgemont High' (in 2005), 'Slacker' (in 2012), 'The Big Lebowski' (in 2014), 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' (in 2014), 'The Breakfast Club' (in 2016), 'Rushmore' (in 2016) and 'Clerks' (in 2019) were selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, having being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Last Edit: Feb 17, 2023 20:17:24 GMT by petrolino

"Movies are the enemy of the novel because they are replacing novels. Novelists shouldn’t write for the movies, unless, of course, they discover they’re no good at writing novels." - John Irving

petrolino
Revered Member

"People aren't supposed to look back. I'm certainly not going to do it anymore.” - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

@petrolino
Posts: 27,864
Likes: 21,348

Pavement, Green Day, Tool & L7 : California <> Slackerism Apr 8, 2022 21:51:39 GMT

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Post by petrolino on Apr 8, 2022 21:51:39 GMT

🛹 Green Day : Low Clouds Rollin' ... (1987 - ) 🛼

Green Day cut their teeth by becoming one of the house bands at the D.I.Y. punk venue 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California. Crimpshrine and Operation Ivy built solid reputations there and inspired those around them. Some groups that appeared at 924 Gilman Street had members who were still attending high school, including Sweet Children who evolved to become Green Day.

“Being in a band, you got paid a couple hundred bucks here and there — so it was easy to pay for rent, eat Top Ramen, and buy weed. It was an eye-opening experience. Suddenly, I was on my own, smack out in one of the gnarliest neighborhoods in Oakland. You look around and you see cracked streets and broken homes and ghetto neighborhoods, and you’re in the middle of it. You’re scared, thinking, ‘How do I get out of here?’ Then suddenly it starts to feel like home. There is a sort of empathy that you have for your surroundings when you’re around junkies and homelessness and gang warfare.”

- Billie Joe Armstrong, Alternative Nation

Billie Joe Armstrong & Winona Ryder

'Holiday'

Being based in Berkeley, radical politics and the search for societal solutions consumed the clientele of 924 Gilman Street, morning, noon and night. Six-pack handlers Green Day largely bucked the trend in their early days, shuffling around in a cloud of smoke (their name is believed to be a nod to the stoner lifestyle - guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong's nickname in high school was 'Two Dollar Bill', allegedly due to the price he charged for a fat joint).

Upon reaching adulthood, the group developed a reputation on their local scene for committing random acts of eye-popping exhibitionism (Billie Joe Armstrong can outmoonie Scott Kannberg) amidst hypertense cocktail frenzies that eventually led to complete blackouts. This put them at odds with certain contemporaries who adhered strictly to the punk rock scene's growing "straight-edge" philosophy of living life clean and reaching for purity highs.

"I’d argue Green Day do what any successful band ought to do: support the struggling clubs they come from. Though Green Day’s success is particularly relevant to the East Bay, the importance of artist collectives is international. By nature, these organisations oftentimes don’t have the resources to keep their heads above water. They are constantly threatened by landlords until forcibly evicted, as in the case of Los Angeles’ The Smell, or they lie nervously under the radar until some horrible catastrophe shuts them down, as in the case of the Oakland Ghost Ship warehouse fire last winter. Green Day shouldn’t be glorified for their promotion of Gilman - but we can be pleased that they recognise it."

- Veronica Irwin, 'Green Day, The Gilman Street Project And The Wide Reach Of East Bay Punk' (article published 3 July, 2017 at The Quietus)

Hayley Williams & Billie Joe Armstrong

'Jesus Of Suburbia'

In the year that Green Day's breakthrough album 'Dookie' (1994) was released, genre films (seemingly) as disparate as 'Airheads' (1994), 'Jimmy Hollywood' (1994), 'Pulp Fiction' (1994) and 'The Stoned Age' (1994) were depicting different social strata in California consumed by the pervasive effects of slackerism. Something strange was going on in the state of California.

Slacker behaviour in cinema was rife in the 1990s, from suburban wasters and dust bowl drifters in Texas, to urban laggards and high street grifters in New Jersey, yet California's sluggards took the cake and were as likely to be found in rural retreats as suburban enclaves or urban haunts. A movie like 'Love And A .45' (1994) showed it took real effort to be a loafer in a state like Texas where they popularised the question, "... can the entire global population of the world fit inside Texas?" (much of which was said to consist of uninhabited space).

"The year was 1993 and, notoriously, sharks were patrolling the waters of rock’n’roll’s subterranean scenes. In the wake of Nevermind’s paradigm-shifting success, major labels had scrambled with their chequebooks to every percolating punk rock scene across the U.S., in the hope of snagging the next Nirvana and copping some of that sweet crossover action.
So maybe it’s a testament to the modesty of Billie Joe Armstrong that, when A&R bods began phoning Larry Livermore, founder of Lookout! Records, in a bid to sign Green Day, the frontman waved them off, believing they had to be crank callers.
But they weren’t. And soon, Billie Joe and his bandmates found themselves in the unlikely position of being wined and dined by execs toting corporate credit cards, the subjects of a bidding war between multiple big labels. One exec even tried to woo the band with a trip to Disneyland, though they remained unmoved. Indeed, it was only once they met Rob Cavallo, a higher-up at Warner Bros., that Green Day began to seriously entertain the idea of ditching Lookout! for a major label. A record producer who also doubled as a session musician, and an unabashed lover of punk rock, Rob had been blown away by a cassette of Green Day demos, and had pushed the label to sign the Bay Area trio. Similarly, it was the trust his fervour and temperament inspired that led Green Day to sign with Warner Bros. over its competitors.
The punker-than-thou crowd at 924 Gilman, the anarchic underground club in West Berkeley that was home to Green Day and their peers, took the news badly, perhaps even worse than the staff at Lookout!, for whom they sold more records than any other act on the label. Green Day’s leap from the underground wasn’t driven by greedy dreams of multi-platinum success, however. “We didn’t have stars in our eyes, we just wanted our records to get out there,” drummer Tré Cool told VH1 of their motivation for graduating to the big leagues. That didn’t stop some fans in the audience at Gilman screaming ‘sellout’ when news of their signing to a major filtered out to the scene. Tré Cool responded by asking the kids if they loved The Clash and the Ramones, and then pointed out that all of those bands had been signed to major labels, too.

A compelling argument, but it didn’t save Green Day from being effectively “banned” from the stage of their beloved Gilman, which as a matter of principle refused to book groups signed to major labels. By joining Warner Bros., then, Green Day were burning bridges, but Billie Joe remained resolute. “I couldn’t go back to the punk scene, whether we were the biggest success in the world or the biggest failure,” he reflected. “The only thing I could do was get on my bike and go forward.”

Rob Cavallo signed on to produce the album, and booked the group in at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, a plush recording palace that had previously hosted the likes of Journey, Europe and R&B heroines En Vogue. Green Day had approved Fantasy primarily because it was close enough to their home that they could cycle to the sessions – they hated cars. Billie Joe later described Fantasy to MTV as having “that ’70s, coke-y vibe: mahogany and strange dead wood around the place.” Every day at the studio underscored a sense that things had changed for the band, perhaps irrevocably. They’d spent a paltry $1,900 rush-recording their first two albums at Art Of Ears. Dookie, by contrast, would cost the band a whopping $105,000 – still a slight budget by major label standards, but oodles of cash for a group that was living in a dingy warehouse above a brothel on the sketchy side of town.
The band didn’t squander their budget on upmarket take-out or rock’n’roll excess, however. Their producer set a strict schedule, with the band arriving at midday, and rarely leaving before midnight. They were working hard; crucially, however, they were loving it. “It was like going to college every day,” bassist Mike Dirnt told VH1, as Rob and the band set about coining what would become the trademark Green Day sound, taking the amiable, energised pop-punk of their earlier records and pumping up the volume, sharpening the edges and boosting the vocals until they were delivering fiery melodic pipe-bombs. They worked fast; well-rehearsed and tour-tight, the group played with a focus born in part of a desire to nail this opportunity as best as they could, and to silence the naysayers amid the Bay Area punk scene who predicted they’d fail in the major leagues. The album was completed in just under two months, with Billie Joe recording all the vocals on all the songs in only two days."

- Stevie Chick, 'How Green Day’s Dookie Captured The Spirit Of A Generation' (article published 1 February, 2022 at Kerrang!)

Billie Joe Armstrong & Lady Gaga

'Last Of The American Girls'

In 1994, Green Day, like Pavement, were lazily referred to in sections of the English music press as being "rock revivalists" from northern California. In southern California, Beck and Kyuss were simultaneously drawing up musical plans built upon complex, multi-layered rhythmic pulses and clipped slackerbeats. These 4 acts (and more) collided in Central Valley ...

'Down to Santa Rosa Half Moon Bay,
Across the grapevine to L.A.,
We've got deserts, we've got trees,
We've got the hills of Beverly,
Let's burn the hills of Beverly!

Walk with your credit card in the air!
Swing your nachos like you just don't care!
(Your guess is as good as mine)
This is the slow sick sucking part of me,
This is the slow sick sucking part of me,

And when I'm sucking kisses direct (?)

Up to the top of Shasta Gulch,
And to the bottom of the Tahoe Lakes,
Manmade deltas and concrete riv-ers,
The south takes what the north deliv-ers,

You fill hack (?)

Lost in the foothills of my mind,
Drinking sterno, say good night,
To the last psychadelic band,
From Sac'to, northern Cal,
From Sac'to northern Cal,

Take it, neighbor,
'Cause you're my neighbor,
And I mean famous,
You're my neighbor,
You do me favors,
'Cause I'm your neighbor,
I'm not your neighbor,
You Bakersfield trash.
Traaaaaash!!!!!!

Traaaaaash!!!!!!

Traaaaaa-ou-ou-ooo!!! ...'

'Unfair' - Pavement

- - - - -

🔋 Soylent Green Days 💨

Flight Of Voices perform 'Longview'

- - -

Green Day { ... formed in East Bay, California, in 1987 ... }

Green Day perform 'Welcome To Paradise' on 'The Howard Stern Show'

Guitar - Billie Joe Armstrong (born 17 February, 1972, Oakland, California)
Bass - Mike Dirnt (born 4 May, 1972 - possibly Rodeo, possibly Oakland, possibly Berkeley ... but somewhere in California)
Drums - Tré Cool (born 9 December, 1972, Frankfurt, Hesse, GERMANY)

Drums - John Kiffmeyer (born 11 July, 1969, El Sobrante, California)

Green Day perform 'American Idiot' on 'The Howard Stern Show'

- - - - -

🚥 13 Songs _ Green Day ✨

01. '16' (1990, '39/Smooth')

02. 'The Judge's Daughter' (1990, '39/Smooth')

03. 'No One Knows' (1991, 'Kerplunk')

04. 'Who Wrote Holden Caulfield? (1991, 'Kerplunk')

05. 'Chump' (1994, 'Dookie')

06. 'When I Come Around' (1994, 'Dookie')

07. 'Bab's Uvula Who' (1995, 'Insomniac')

08. 'Panic Song' (1995, 'Insomniac')

09. 'Reject' (1997, 'Nimrod')

10. 'Hitchin' A Ride' (1997, 'Nimrod')

11. 'Letterbomb' (2004, 'American Idiot')

12. 'She's A Rebel' (2004, 'American Idiot')

13. 'Horseshoes And Handgrenades' (2009, '21st Century Breakdown')

- - - - -

'Pulp Fiction' (1994) was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2013, having being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Last Edit: Feb 3, 2023 21:19:10 GMT by petrolino

"Movies are the enemy of the novel because they are replacing novels. Novelists shouldn’t write for the movies, unless, of course, they discover they’re no good at writing novels." - John Irving

petrolino
Revered Member

"People aren't supposed to look back. I'm certainly not going to do it anymore.” - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

@petrolino
Posts: 27,864
Likes: 21,348

Pavement, Green Day, Tool & L7 : California <> Slackerism Apr 8, 2022 23:35:27 GMT

Quote

Post by petrolino on Apr 8, 2022 23:35:27 GMT

🌱 Slacker Blues (1994 - 1995) : Nor-Cal VS SO-Cal (VIA CENTRAL VALLEY) 🌿

'Prepare To Bawl' ~ Grandaddy (Modesto skateboarder Jason Lytle retired from competition following a career-ending ACL injury and self-released this cassette in 1992)

'Maximumrocknroll, often written as Maximum Rocknroll and usually abbreviated as MRR, is a not-for-profit monthly zine of punk subculture. Based in San Francisco, MRR focuses on punk rock and hardcore music, and primarily features artist interviews and music reviews. Op/ed columns and news roundups are regular features as well, including submissions from international contributors. By 1990, it "had become the de facto bible of the scene".

MRR is considered to be one of the most important zines in punk, not only because of its wide-ranging coverage, but because it has been a consistent and influential presence in the ever-changing punk community for over three decades.'

- Wikipedia

'Basket Case' - Green Day

- - - -

'Self Esteem' - Offspring

'Brownie Bottom Sundae' - AFI

'Olympia WA' - Rancid

- - - -

Mary Faber of 'Avenue Q' and 'American Idiot : The Musical' working on location ...

'Red Eyed Troll' _ The Muffs

Last Edit: Feb 3, 2023 21:02:18 GMT by petrolino

"Movies are the enemy of the novel because they are replacing novels. Novelists shouldn’t write for the movies, unless, of course, they discover they’re no good at writing novels." - John Irving

petrolino
Revered Member

"People aren't supposed to look back. I'm certainly not going to do it anymore.” - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

@petrolino
Posts: 27,864
Likes: 21,348

Pavement, Green Day, Tool & L7 : California <> Slackerism Apr 9, 2022 22:16:51 GMT

Quote

Post by petrolino on Apr 9, 2022 22:16:51 GMT

📗 Rob Cavallo, Green Day & The Muffs 🧶

I'm genuinely very thankful for all that Billie Joe Armstrong's said and done since Kim Shattuck's passing on 2 October, 2019. This includes his involvement in fundraisers held to raise money for research into the disease ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and to aid hospitals and charities that care for those affected.

'Green Day are auctioning a guitar via musical instrument resale site Reverb to raise funds for ALS research. The gift is in memory of Kim Shattuck, the leader of heroic ’90s punk outfit, the Muffs.
The guitar – an Epiphone Les Paul Special listed yesterday by Billie Joe Armstrong’s guitar tech, Hans Buscher – was played by the Green Day leader and “over 100 die hard fans” on the Revolution Radio Tour, during the audience-participation cover of Operation Ivy’s “Knowledge.” It was signed by Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre’ Cool on Feb. 20th.'

- Alternative Press (reporting on 4 March, 2020)

Billie Joe Armstrong, Tré Cool & Mike Dirnt performing at the Paradise Lounge in San Francisco in 1994

Kim Shattuck speaks with Elisha Shapiro on 'Nihilist's Corner' (2005); Shapiro ran as an independent candidate in the 2006 Governor of California elections but lost to Arnold Schwarzenegger

Green Day have mentioned in the past that they wore out their copy of 'The Muffs' (1993) by the Muffs, the group's debut album which was produced by the band with Rob Cavallo and David Katznelson. Before long, Green Day and the Muffs were labelmates. Kim Shattuck used to joke about her record label's disappointment that they couldn't break the Muffs commercially like they managed to do so successfully with Green Day.

'Another week passes and another cover recorded in isolation from Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong.
This week he has tackled Kim Wilde's classic song 'Kids In America', which was also recorded by The Muffs.'

- Rock Sound

Ronnie Barnett, Kim Shattuck, Melanie Vammen & Criss Crass performing at the Whisky A Go Go on the Sunset Strip on October 27, 1992 in Los Angeles

'All For Nothing' - The Muffs

The Muffs' early singles were released on independent music labels like Sub Pop and Sympathy For The Record Industry. They then signed a contract with Warner Bros. Records which wasn't an easy time for the band. After line-up changes, the Muffs switched over to Reprise Records, a subsidiary label that operated through Warner Records and allowed them greater creative freedom. This provided a platform for the release of their albums 'Blonder And Blonder (1995) and 'Happy Birthday To Me' (1997), after which they wound up their Warner recording contract and returned to working the independents.

"Back in 1993, grunge was taking over the world, with its flannel shirts and in many cases, barely listenable bands; much of the world was crying out for something less dull, something that would sparkle and lighten the mood. Handily, the Muffs came along; then a four-piece including two ex-members of the Pandoras, Kim Shattuck (lead guitar and vocals) and Melanie Vammen (rhythm guitar), plus Ronnie Barnett (bass) and Criss Crass (drums). In Shattuck, the band had a front person whose voice initially sounded quite sweet, but it didn't take long to hear the snottier, almost sarcastic tone that underlined her performance. The other noticeable quality about Shattuck's voice was that out of nowhere, she could produce a howl that was akin to a trapped wolf seeking freedom; quite a thing to behold.
The album itself had a production team which included Rob Cavallo, the man who one year later would be part of Green Day's meteoric rise to fame, fortune and the world of the mainstream, but who at this stage was a much lesser known man than he is today as Chairman of Warner Bros. The production was and remains spot on in terms of a suitably beefy sound that allows the guitars to come across with the right amount of treble, creating a perfect pop-punk output. From the moment that the first chords of "Lucky Guy" rang out, it was obvious that Cavallo and co. had hit the right note with the production job, one that worked extremely well for the band and the pop-punk sound it had."

- Rich Cocksedge, Punknews.org

"When we went from Warners to Reprise, it was great. They had great publicity people, they had a whole other staff, and they’d done such a great job with Green Day, we thought they’d do better with us, too. We actually shared the same management as Green Day, so we asked them to get them on Reprise, so we can use that little boat label on our record, and we’d be cool! We liked the staff over there, they were the cool kids, and they got us. Warners, they were great, but we kinda thought they were a little lost as to how to market us. With Reprise, they were fans of the band. We’d see ‘em at our shows, and we liked the people over there.
But like you said, things weren’t necessarily great behind the scenes. We had quite a bit of drama going on around then, back in 1994 and 1995. We split with Melanie [Vammen], who’d been with us since the beginning, and she was my best friend, so it was hard. Before that, we’d got rid of Chris Crass, but losing him, we sort of saw it coming he was very intense, but he didn’t feel like a team player. I don’t have anything against him, and he was a fun and entertaining guy, but behind the scenes it got too trying, and he just wasn’t working out. Melanie, she was going through a bunch of drama in her personal life, and it was spilling over into the band, and it was making things hard, and then she split.
So now we were a three piece, but you know, I think it worked out for the best! (Laughs) At the time, I was so upset about losing Melanie, and I didn’t think we’d be the same band without her. I hadn’t really thought about us becoming a power trio, and initially, I didn’t think we’d work that way. I was wrong! (Laughs) I hadn’t expected it to gel, but I quickly fell in love with it. It kind of forced me to step up as a guitar player. Every lead I would do was no longer backed up with a rhythm guitar, so I had to up my game, and when I look back at the challenge it presented, I realize how much of a positive influence these negative things had on me as a songwriter, and for the band as a whole."

- Kim Shattuck, The Recoup

Green Day performing at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley in 1991

'What You've Done' - The Muffs

Green Day left Lookout Records and signed a deal with Reprise Records in the early 1990's. They began working with producer Rob Cavallo on 'Dookie' (1994) as they liked his work with the Muffs. They would go on to work with Cavallo on many albums.

"I was producing a band called the Muffs, and they were from Orange County, and it was the first band I ever produced for a major label. Me and a guy named David Katznelson, we signed them, and the band needed some attorneys. So we knew these guys, Jeff Saltzman and Elliot Cahn, who were Bay Area attorneys. And when we were mixing the Muffs album, I think Jeff Saltzman placed on the mixing desk one night at like 1 in the morning, a little cassette. It said “Green Day” on it. He said, “Listen to this when you get a chance.” And I remember thinking at first, “Oh my God, another tape.”
And as I was leaving that night at like 2 in the morning, I said, “You know, don’t be an asshole. Just put the tape in. You never know, it could be the one.” And then as I’m driving home, I went from being a tired guy with his eyeballs falling out of his head to being on the freeway going, “Oh my God, I love this band. What the fuck, this is awesome! This is my kind of music!” So I called him the next day and said, “I gotta meet these guys, they’re amazing.”

Well, you’re right, it came down to Warner, Columbia and Geffen, and all the A&R guys were definitely going at ’em pretty hard. And I had two things, maybe three things going for me. One was I was at Warner. The second one was I was producing the Muffs and had signed the Muffs to Warner, which Green Day liked. They were like, “Well, you signed and produced a band like the Muffs on a major label.” Whatever we called that style of music was not prevalent at the time. I mean, it was more grunge at the time, and much less sort of punk or pop-punk, however you want to call it. So they were impressed with that. And then, Cahn and Saltzman, the management, they said to the Green Day guys, “This guy Cavallo can play every Beatles song” — pretty much any song on the guitar that you could name, from the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, but primarily the Beatles. So they were like, “Oh, he knows all the Beatles songs on the guitar? Well, we’re gonna find out.”

So I went to their house, and what I saw was pretty much what you saw in the “Longview” video, ’cause that’s what we shot. I mean, I saw the room that they practiced in, which was then painted red and blue, and then the living room that was just filled with stuff on top of the coffee table where he’s watching the TV, and that was pretty much it. Anyways, they played a bunch of songs and I was just blown away. I thought, “Oh my God, this band is tremendous.” Every song to me seemed like a flawless little gem. That’s what I thought when I was sitting there. And I thought, each one of these kids is great on their instrument. They were fantastic instrumentalists, and the way they played together created a fury of excitement. It was just unbelievable to me.
And then they got me really stoned. And then they put me in somebody’s bedroom and handed me a guitar and said, “Alright, well how do you play this Beatles song? How do you play this?” So I did it for an hour or two, showed them the descending line in “Help.” I remember that was one where they were like, “Oh, we were trying to figure out how to do that.” I was like, “Oh, it’s this little trick.” So I played a bunch of songs, and eventually they decided to sign with me."

- Rob Cavallo, Billboard

"We had two A&R guys, Rob Cavallo and Dave Katznelson. We decided to have both of them produce, even though Dave had never ever produced before and Rob had only produced one thing. I had never produced."

- Kim Shattuck, The Culture Brats

Kim Shattuck & Ronnie Barnett performing at Starfish Room in 1996 in Vancouver, Canada

'Numb' - The Muffs

The music supervisors for the family film 'Angus' (1995) were Elliot Cahn and Jeff Saltzman who at the time managed both the Muffs and Green Day. 'Funny Face' by the Muffs features on the movie's soundtrack. Green Day contributed an unreleased song to the soundtrack, 'J.A.R.', Mike Dirnt's tribute to his childhood friend Jason Andrew Relva which had been recorded during the sessions for 'Dookie' but not made the cut. Like Dirnt, Billie Joe Armstrong and Tré Cool, Relva was born in 1972; he died in 1992, aged 19, as the result of injuries sustained from a car accident.

Last Edit: Feb 3, 2023 20:19:12 GMT by petrolino

"Movies are the enemy of the novel because they are replacing novels. Novelists shouldn’t write for the movies, unless, of course, they discover they’re no good at writing novels." - John Irving

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Pavement, Green Day, Tool & L7 : California <> Slackerism Apr 14, 2022 21:04:51 GMT

Quote

Post by petrolino on Apr 14, 2022 21:04:51 GMT

🚏 Tool : Factory Line (1990 - ) 🦿

As far as I'm aware, none of the core members of Tool were born in the state of California, but the group rose up through the Californian metal scene. Subgenres like thrash metal, hair metal and funk metal had been thriving in California before the band's arrival. Los Angeles, in particular, had become an industrial metal hub.

'By now, it’s common guitar knowledge that Tom Morello and Adam Jones grew up together, but the Tool man recently revealed what kind of player the Rage Against The Machine electric guitar maverick was when the pair first met.
“Tom, he was just very inspiring,” Jones told Chris Jericho on Talk Is Jericho. “Growing up, he was very animated. I always thought he'd be, like, this actor. He was in a lot of plays and I remember they had this band, and they were terrible. They were called The Electric Sheep. But it was fun - there were no concerns of being signed or how important it is. It’s a high school band, and at some point, he needed a bass player, and I have grown up playing violin, and then in high school, I started playing bass, but I always played guitar on the side. I'm self-taught, and it's just amazing to me now how much Tom sucked at that moment when I met him, and now no-one can touch him.”

Despite Jones’s admiration for the player Morello became, he didn’t make the cut as one of the 10 guitarists who shaped the Tool guitarist's sound. A few years back, Morello shared a picture of the Electric Sheep, complete with Jones on bass - dig Morello’s Explorer power stance below.'

- Guitar World

Electric Sheep performing Mars Bonfire's biker anthem 'Born To Be Wild'

'72826' [DEMO TAPE] ~ TOOL

1. "Cold And Ugly" — 0:00

2. "Hush" — 3:47
3. "Part Of Me" — 6:25
4. "Crawl Away" — 9:23
5. "Sober" — 14:09
6. "Jerk-Off" — 18:40

'Sweat' (1992, 'Opiate EP') = Tool

Los Angeles cemented its reputation for being the metal machine city with the birth of something called the "nu-metal" movement. Metal outfits like Fear Factory, Deftones, Machine Head, Korn, System Of A Down, Papa Roach and Linkin Park were seen by some music writers as being part of California's "nu-metal" contingent. Bumper record sales and platinum successes followed.

Meanwhile, Tool and Rage Against The Machine were caught swimming against the tide in the City of Angels, crafting complex metal soundscapes through unfettered combinations of angular riffs, rugged dynamics and modulated metrics. Tool and Rage Against The Machine performed in a seemingly possessed style that might once have been described by music critics as "art rock".

'Here in this hopeless f*cking hole we call L.A.,

The only way to fix it is to flush it all away,

'Any f*cking time, any f*cking day,

Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona bay ...'

_ 'Aenima' _ Tool

'Aenima' [Demo Sessions]

{ : 0:00 - 'Stinkfist' / 4:43 - 'Eulogy' / 12:32 - 'Pushit' / 21:33 - 'Aenima' : }

- - - - -

🪛 Tool { ... formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1990 ... } 📼

Vocals - Maynard James Keenan (born April 17, 1964, Ravenna, Ohio)
Guitar - Adam Jones (born January 15, 1965, Park Ridge, Illinois)

Bass - Paul D'Amour (born May 17, 1967, Spokane, Washington)

Bass - Justin Chancellor (born 19 November 1970, London, England, UNITED KINGDOM)

Drums & Percussion - Danny Carey (born May 10, 1961, Lawrence, Kansas)

'Bottom' (1993, 'Undertow') ~ Tool & Henry Rollins

- - - - -

Progressive English smoothie Justin Chancellor (Peach) replaced rough-edged pick-toner Paul D'Amour on bass guitar and Tool's sound changed. Their raw recordings became more subtle and refined through extensive studio work, with cleaner productions, a gentler rhythmic base and greater commercial appeal. In the process, they were no longer seen as genre slackers, leading them to project a more sophisticated band image in photographic shoots.

Tool _ 'H'

'Take The Power Back' _ Rage Against The Machine

- - - - -

Maynard James Keenan joined forces with Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys) and Billie Joe Armstrong's friend Dee Dee Ramone (Ramones) to headline the 'Bikini Bandits' film franchise. This drive-in movie mash-up applied a slacker spin to proceedings to create one of the worst franchises in movie history.

Last Edit: Feb 3, 2023 21:22:59 GMT by petrolino

"Movies are the enemy of the novel because they are replacing novels. Novelists shouldn’t write for the movies, unless, of course, they discover they’re no good at writing novels." - John Irving

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Revered Member

"People aren't supposed to look back. I'm certainly not going to do it anymore.” - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

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Pavement, Green Day, Tool & L7 : California <> Slackerism Feb 3, 2023 22:20:48 GMT

Quote

Post by petrolino on Feb 3, 2023 22:20:48 GMT

💣 L7 : Leaden Stench (1985 - ) ⚓️

L7 were a rock heavy band who blew up sweet L.A. in the middle of a hair metal storm when refusing to wash their tresses, reminding locals that slackers carried the only scent worth sniffing out.

"As with folk music, college-rock politics can seem sentimental, programmatic, pro forma, on the surface, and so forth. But also as with folk music, there's now a gratifying outpouring of what can best be designated protest songs -- protest songs that tend to be more musically and emotionally rooted and compelling than even the sharpest of the preaching-to-the-converted ditties of the '60s and the Popular Front era.

There's no way to be certain how much good they do. But it's my perhaps literalistic belief that a music that includes Mofungo's "El Salvador" and Y Pants' "That's the Way Boys Are" and the Ramones' "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" and and Hüsker Dü's "Turn On the News" and Thelonious Monster's "Property Values" and Carmaig de Forest's "Crack's No Worse Than the Fascist Threat" and the Chills' "Submarine Bells" and the Mekons' "Funeral" and L7's "Wargasm" and Sonic Youth's "Youth Against Fascism" and the collected works of the Minutemen is more useful politically than one that doesn't contain such songs. For damn sure it's more fun."

- Robert Christgau ('Dean Of American Rock Critics') ~ Excerpt from a lecture delivered at a conference on 'Youth Music And Youth Culture' held at Princeton University, New Jersey in November 1992

'Broomstick' (1990, 'Smell The Magic')

'Diet Pill' (1992, 'Bricks Are Heavy')

Over the years, L7 have found time to cover a number of punk songs including 'Suzy Is A Headbanger' (Ramones), 'Cherry Bomb' (The Runaways), 'Lion's Share' (Germs), 'Let's Lynch The Landlord' (Dead Kennedys), 'American Society' (Eddie And The Subtitles), 'Bloodstains' (Agent Orange) and 'Baggs' (Shonen Knife). They also recorded a version of 'Hanging On The Telephone' by the Nerves, which was covered in the 1970s by Blondie; the Nerves' song 'Walking Out On Love' was sometimes performed live during performances of Green Day's stage musical, 'American Idiot'.

"Bricks are heavy – and so are L7."

- Cat Woods, Guitar.com

'This Ain't The Summer Of Love' (by Blue Öyster Cult) _ L7

- - - - -

⚙️ L7 { ... formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1985 ... } 🔩

Suzi Gardner (born August 1, 1960, Altus, Oklahoma) : Guitar

Donita Sparks (born April 8, 1963, Chicago, Illinois) : Guitar

Jennifer Finch (born August 5, 1966, Los Angeles, California) : Bass

Demetra Plakas ~ 'The Thunder Goddess' (born November 9, 1960, Chicago, Illinois) : Drums

'Freak Magnet' (1994, 'Hungry For Stink')

Greta Brinkman : Bass

Gail Greenwood : Bass

Janis Tanaka : Bass

Anne 'The Plan' Anderson : Drums

Roy 'The Toy' Koutsky : Drums

'The Masses Are Asses' (1997, 'The Beauty Process : Triple Platinum')

- - -

Donita Sparks joins Butch Vig as 'Bricks Are Heavy' turns golden ...

- - - - -

In John Waters' crime comedy 'Serial Mom' (1994), L7 portray heavy metal hard-ons Camel Lips.

Camel Lips perform 'Gas Chamber'

Last Edit: Feb 3, 2023 22:59:11 GMT by petrolino

"Movies are the enemy of the novel because they are replacing novels. Novelists shouldn’t write for the movies, unless, of course, they discover they’re no good at writing novels." - John Irving