I didn’t realize she died! I just heard an NPR story this week about her new record…

Yeah, I was just watching an old documentary on the punk movement where she was interviewed like, two or three days before she died.

So sad.

er, sorry. I was watching the documentary only a few days before she died. The interview was back in the day.

I need more tea.

Or your time machine needs checking.

I will use the time machine to have another cup of tea before I post comment #2.

Excelent tunage!! (Hell is not a Brit; he’s from Kentucky.)

This is a punkier Buzzcocks tune, and—while I love Pete Shelley’s singing voice—Devoto’s in this one is amazing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiTWdZhqoc0

Oh, shitte! I just read the beginning of the post that Poly Styrene recently died. What a shame.

Oh my! I hadn’t heard that she had died until now either. I was 19 when “Germ Free Adolescents” came out and I wore out the grooves on it and my 12-inch of “Oh Bondage Up Yours.” Now, Poly’s made me come out from lurking here to post my first comment.

I have always wondered whether Lydon makes those funny google-eye faces and turn his head back and forth weirdly like that when he orders a latte at the coffee shop.

My Genius Ten based on the same song:

1. “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes” - The Adverts
2. “London’s Burning” - The Clash
3. “Pay to Cum” - Bad Brains
4. “When Our Love Passed Out on the Couch” - X
5. “Turning Japanese” - The Vapours
6. “Rawhide” - The Dead Kennedys
7. “Homosapien” - Pete Shelley (I LOVE THIS!)
8. “The Whole of the Moon” - The Waterboys
9.“No Pussy Blues” - Grinderman
10. “Monster Mash” - The Misfits

Terrible news about Poly’s death; I’m glad that the obituaries that came out this week really gave her the credit for being a true pioneer, a feminist, and an all-around kick-ass lady.

Based on Oh Bondage! Up Yours!
1. Lexicon Devil - The Germs
2. Drug Train - The Cramps
3. Jaded - Operation Ivy
4. Orgasm Addict - Buzzcocks
5. Neat, Neat, Neat - The Damned
6. Too Drunk to Fuck - Dead Kennedys
7. Attitude - Bad Brains
8. T.V. Eye - The Stooges
9. Punk Rock Girl - The Dead Milkmen
10. Problems - Sex Pistols
11. Into the Groovey - Ciccone Youth (Bonus for total randomness. WTF, iTunes? How does this fit better than The Slits?)

Eh, “God Save the Queen” is about as subversive as a teenager wearing an anarchy-symbol t-shirt while hanging out at the mall.

Another great feminist post-punk band is the Au Pairs…  If you get the chance, check them out.

Sophist—I think you’re confusing cause and effect.

Sophist—I think you’re confusing cause and effect.

Damn fucken straight. It’s ironic that one of these pompous “FCD” douchewaddes is so ignorant of actual history.

Based on the same song:

Germfree Adolescents X-Ray Spex
One Chord Wonders (Live at the Roxy) The Adverts
Neat Neat Neat (BBC Session) The Damned
Sonic Reducer Dead Boys
Top Of The Pops Rezillos
Baby Baby The Vibrators
Boredom Buzzcocks
Lexicon Devil The Germs
Another Girl, Another Planet (Demo) The Only Ones

Funny how big of an influence she was not just on my punk rock fandom, but on my youth as a whole.  And I never really knew much about her except what I could parse from her lyrics, and even that was dodgy at times.

My obit from Tuesday is on L.A. Record:

http://larecord.com/staff-blog/2011/04/26/obsessed-with-you-farewell-poly-styrene-1957-2011

Oh, and @Sophist FCD, for that to be true, nationalist thugs would have to stab that mall kid in an alley.  “God Save the Queen” was a joke, but it was no joke, and the band members were attacked for it—in this country, maybe it’d be the equivalent to have a song saying the Bible was causing America’s demise.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2010060.stm

OK, this is pretty fucken funny. Apparently, back in 2002, the Sex Pistols wanted God Save the Queen to reach #1 for the queen’s jubilee of some such british crappe. So Lydon went on record saying that the monarchy is “not that bad”. And Billy Bragg called him out for being a “sellout”! Nothing like washed-uppe old rock-and-roll fuckers slagging each other in the press for selling out.

@PhysioProf, that is so crazy… and Billy Bragg was being a little hypocritical, since he’s played music for the Queen and even given her his autograph.  I interviewed Bragg in 2009 and asked him about it (promise this is the last self-aggrandizing link I’ll post in this thread):

http://larecord.com/interviews/2009/08/29/billy-bragg-interview-youve-got-to-hope

Fuck you, PhysioProf. I’m pretty sure thinking that you can somehow divine who and what I am from a twenty word post and couple of letters after my handle indicates which one of us is the pompous douchewadde.

And I still contend that the song isn’t that subversive. Controversial, yes. Confrontational, yes. However, in my opinion there is a difference between speaking truth to power and just flipping the bird at power. Not that there’s anything wrong with the latter, or that it isn’t of any value, but I feel that being truly subversive requires you to engage with the ideas you are undermining, rather than just pointing out that they exist and that you don’t like them. If you had bothered to ask what I meant rather than jumping in swinging your dick around we might have had a discussion about that, but as it is I’ll just have to invite you to eat a bowl of lightly-salted rat cocks.

Blah, blah, blah. I’m sure you’re much more subtle and truly subversive than anyone else.

I think Amanda and I have the same iTunes library.

If anything confirms my atheism, it’s stuff like this. What kind of deity would let Dick Cheney live and live and live and kill off Poly Styrene? Well, maybe one who was getting tired of the all the fucking harp music, I suppose.

And as other people mentioned, the Au Pairs are a must-listen for anyone who loves the socially-aware punk of that era. Check out “It’s Obvious” on YouTube.

That depresses me.  I found the X-Ray Spex when I was enjoying the awesome punk rock channel on XM before it collapsed and became just another top-40 alt channel in the combo.  I can’t claim to have been completely up on bands that subsided before I was born or before I was in elementary school atleast.  Still she was a highly skilled Operatic singer who decided to go do something fun and different.

Regarding atheism, what deity takes the lives if offering an afterlife?  Ultimately each life is a life lived and ended with hopefully a life well led.  I don’t try and blame god for anybody’s death and frankly I have a much closer death than some cool rocker who passed I never personally knew. 

PS:  The Sex Pistols were sell-outs by definition.  So who really cares what they say, do, or think?

I can’t claim to have been completely up on bands that subsided before I was born or before I was in elementary school atleast.

PS:  The Sex Pistols were sell-outs by definition.  So who really cares what they say, do, or think?

Good lord.

Why be holier-than-thou when you could be hipper-than-thou?

Thirding the recommendation for the Au Pairs. They were wickedly sharp. There’s also Girls At Our Best.

Somebody finally put out a compilation of DC’s Chalk Circle (one of the first all-girl punk bands in the US. they remind me of the Raincoats) that were pretty influential to the first wave of Riot Grrrls. Worth chesking out.

I’ve always liked I’m a Poseur the most of the Spex songs, but the whole album is good.