Showing posts with label NoMeansNo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NoMeansNo. Show all posts
Sunday, October 29, 2017
2017 - October 29 - Cats, Sex, and Nazis
It's time to summarize the Trump presidency so far - and probably whatever is left of it as well. I'll let NoMeansNo do it - to get a perspective that is both removed geographically (they are Canadian, after all) and temporally (this song is from the album Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy from 1993). Oh - if you fail to see the reference to cats here, just remember what Donald Trump likes to grab women by (also, as a complete aside, today should be all about cats, as it was Rufus' birthday - and he will forever be my one and only cat - he would turn 34 today). Here's the Trump presidency in a nutshell: Cats, Sex, and Nazis.
Thursday, October 26, 2017
2017 - October 26 - Angel Or Devil
OK... So it's time for some raucous rock'n'roll... And where better to go than to British Columbia, Canada for a visit with now disbanded band NoMeansNo. They remain one of my favorite punk rock (jazz) bands - with brothers Rob and Tom Wright on bass (and lead vocals) and drums respectively along with Tom Holliston on guitar starting with The Worldhood Of The World (As Such) in 1995. They retired last year following an announcement that Tom Holliston was leaving. For today's song, we are going all the way back to the 1995 album that featured the debut of Tom Holliston as well as a second drummer in Ken Kempster. I love the title - The Worldhood Of The World (as Such) - and I love the driving drums on today's track, Angel or Devil.
Monday, April 25, 2016
April 25 - This Story Must Be Told
It's time to change gears. Again. Although I do enjoy the thematic weeks, sometimes they freeze my creativity a little bit more than I would like. In order to truly break free from the mold, today's song is by a band that shattered every mold you'd ever try to put them in. The band is put together in the traditional power trio format, with guitar, bass, and drum, but it is how they use those instruments that truly sets them apart from the rest.
The band is NoMeansNo, yet another great Canadian trio. They are most widely characterized as punk rock, but their music has clear elements of progressive rock and jazz in it as well. It is let by two brothers, John Wright on drums and Rob Wright on bass and vocals, and the guitarist slot was initially held by Andy Kerr, but Tom Holliston has carried the six strings to stage the past 23 years or so (since 1993). If you can't hear the jazz in today's song, it is clearly there in their cover (with lyrics!) of Miles Davis' Bitches' Brew from the album One.
I first heard of NoMeansNo when I was at Hustad Leir as a conscientious objector to Norway's conscription. Being a conscientious objector did not free me from my required service to the country - but instead of 12 months of military service, which often was cut down to about 9 months at this point in time, I had to do 16 months of community service. This was not a punishment, but it did serve as a disincentive for people to simply claim they were conscientious objectors to get out of military service and into a cushier way of serving their country.
I enjoyed my stay at Hustad Leir, although I was really excited to move to Bergen and finish my community service at Center for International Health. The nice things about Hustad was that it had people from very different backgrounds - Jehova's Witnesses and stoners lived side by side as part of the local crew. I got library duty, which fit me to a t (I started in the kitchen and really liked that too, but the early mornings weren't fun - and Library was much more my thing anyway). I spent a lot of time with the stoners in camp, and it was in their company I first heard NoMeansNo. This was the summer and fall of 1994, so I believe the album that was played a lot was The Day Everything Became Isolated and Destroyed. I really liked it, but I didn't really click completely with them until a couple of years later, when I was working in Studentradioen i Bergen.
One of my duties was to be the engineer for their punk rock show, but the name of the show escapes me at this point. On my last show for them, they even played NoMeansNo for me, and it was from their fantastic 1998 album Dance of the Headless Bourgeoisie, which was released during my final stint in Studentradioen. This is the album that really made me aware of them, and while more traditional purists would hold Wrong to be their best, this still has a very special place to me. The opening song itself is a great song, and that is the one I am leaving you with today: This Story Must Be Told.
The band is NoMeansNo, yet another great Canadian trio. They are most widely characterized as punk rock, but their music has clear elements of progressive rock and jazz in it as well. It is let by two brothers, John Wright on drums and Rob Wright on bass and vocals, and the guitarist slot was initially held by Andy Kerr, but Tom Holliston has carried the six strings to stage the past 23 years or so (since 1993). If you can't hear the jazz in today's song, it is clearly there in their cover (with lyrics!) of Miles Davis' Bitches' Brew from the album One.
I first heard of NoMeansNo when I was at Hustad Leir as a conscientious objector to Norway's conscription. Being a conscientious objector did not free me from my required service to the country - but instead of 12 months of military service, which often was cut down to about 9 months at this point in time, I had to do 16 months of community service. This was not a punishment, but it did serve as a disincentive for people to simply claim they were conscientious objectors to get out of military service and into a cushier way of serving their country.
I enjoyed my stay at Hustad Leir, although I was really excited to move to Bergen and finish my community service at Center for International Health. The nice things about Hustad was that it had people from very different backgrounds - Jehova's Witnesses and stoners lived side by side as part of the local crew. I got library duty, which fit me to a t (I started in the kitchen and really liked that too, but the early mornings weren't fun - and Library was much more my thing anyway). I spent a lot of time with the stoners in camp, and it was in their company I first heard NoMeansNo. This was the summer and fall of 1994, so I believe the album that was played a lot was The Day Everything Became Isolated and Destroyed. I really liked it, but I didn't really click completely with them until a couple of years later, when I was working in Studentradioen i Bergen.
One of my duties was to be the engineer for their punk rock show, but the name of the show escapes me at this point. On my last show for them, they even played NoMeansNo for me, and it was from their fantastic 1998 album Dance of the Headless Bourgeoisie, which was released during my final stint in Studentradioen. This is the album that really made me aware of them, and while more traditional purists would hold Wrong to be their best, this still has a very special place to me. The opening song itself is a great song, and that is the one I am leaving you with today: This Story Must Be Told.
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