Showing posts with label punk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label punk. Show all posts
monday music:
never meant to be this way
BETRAYED
This here is a song that I felt like singing after suffering a recent fiasco concerning false friends. It's an obscure skate-punk song from an obscure Pinoy band, probably known only to those sort of familiar with the underground rock scene of the 1990s. I was so surprised to find it posted somewhere on the intarwebz.
I first heard about Betrayed in the early '90s, from self-styled metallistic friends of mine in those days. They had a collection of indie-label tapes (yesss, casette tapes) and alternative albums that don't get radio airtime (we liked listening to music like that; it kind of felt like we had our own special world that the fans of the Michaels and Madonnas did not know about). The Betrayed album had this not-so-polished feel to it; the music was rough and raw, apparent with the influence of late-'70s/early-'80s punk. The album cover was so indie in it's plain-ness, it looked like it was just coughed out by a teenager for a demo tape; it was just black, white and red with the word "BETRAYED", and was printed on only one side. Never Meant To Be This Way was the song that I liked the most; I liked it so much that it stuck in my mind though I never heard it again in more than a decade.
Hearing music like this again reminds me of a time when rock was not performed in a way that sounded like moping, with the occasional pretentious growl to make it a bit more hardcore, sung by guys with hair covering one eye and too much eyeliner on the other. "Punk" used to literally mean trashy and degenerate, so it's really not supposed to be polished and presentable. It was kinda more about expressing things as is, rather than being sellable enough to make money.
Ah, well. What do i know, right? :p
I found this video of Betrayed playing live at a reunion gig of sorts, at some random blog. They play Never Meant To Be This Way, a bit more upbeat than the recording.
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I first heard about Betrayed in the early '90s, from self-styled metallistic friends of mine in those days. They had a collection of indie-label tapes (yesss, casette tapes) and alternative albums that don't get radio airtime (we liked listening to music like that; it kind of felt like we had our own special world that the fans of the Michaels and Madonnas did not know about). The Betrayed album had this not-so-polished feel to it; the music was rough and raw, apparent with the influence of late-'70s/early-'80s punk. The album cover was so indie in it's plain-ness, it looked like it was just coughed out by a teenager for a demo tape; it was just black, white and red with the word "BETRAYED", and was printed on only one side. Never Meant To Be This Way was the song that I liked the most; I liked it so much that it stuck in my mind though I never heard it again in more than a decade.
Hearing music like this again reminds me of a time when rock was not performed in a way that sounded like moping, with the occasional pretentious growl to make it a bit more hardcore, sung by guys with hair covering one eye and too much eyeliner on the other. "Punk" used to literally mean trashy and degenerate, so it's really not supposed to be polished and presentable. It was kinda more about expressing things as is, rather than being sellable enough to make money.
Ah, well. What do i know, right? :p
I found this video of Betrayed playing live at a reunion gig of sorts, at some random blog. They play Never Meant To Be This Way, a bit more upbeat than the recording.
back when sid and nancy were punk royalty
A (mis)match made in hell?
Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen were a sort of punk royalty back in the late 70's ("Punk royalty"? -- What an oxymoron. But that's what they were called in a documentary on love gone wrong). Sid was the (rather untalented) bassist of legendary Brit punk band Sex Pistols. Nancy was an American groupie, allegedly a former hooker.
Their love was high on heroin and controversy. People around them seemed to agree that they were horrible for each other, but they just had this psychotic dependency thing going on and they stayed together. The romance ended in her murder (still a mystery) and his suicide (which turns out to be assisted by his mother). In his suicide note, he mentioned...
We made a death pact, and I have to accomplish my part of the deal. Please bury me next to my baby. Please bury me with my leather jacket, my jeans and my biker boots. Goodbye. With love, Sid.
Forget Romeo and Juliet. Ain't Sid and Nancy's tale of woe a modern romantic tragedie, in a twisted, demented Mayerling sort of way?
Though probably found repulsive by those close to them, their sick love story (if you can call it that) would seem so romantic to those who watch from a safe distance.
I don't typically enjoy tragedies, but I find theirs intriguing. Though I was only a little over a year old when Vicious died, for some reason I grew up with an idea of who he was and who the Sex Pistols were. For that matter, the name "Sid Vicious" is one of my favorite stage names ever; it's so freaking cool, I wish I'd thought of it.
A Sid and Nancy movie was made in 1986. I haven't seen it yet but I heard Gary Oldman was awesome in that one.
Just a tangent: It's calamitous when a rock star dies young, especially someone so iconic or talented. But there's something fortunate about it too - they instantly turn into legends, like those in the Forever 27 Club. Besides, they wouldn't have to publicly age and fizzle out into rickety, old rock stars. I.m.h.o., it's kinda painfully to see an ancient punk rocker still all defiant and deviant at grandfather age. Have you seen Sid's former bandmate Johnny Rotten lately?
A little bonus. I stumbled upon a series of Doc Martens ads featuring dead punk icons like Joey Ramone and Kurt Cobain. Here's the one with Sid Vicious:
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