"Rock is Dead"

In an interview conducted by his son Nick Simmons for Esquire Magazine, “KISS” front man Gene Simmons stated that rock and roll is finally dead.

“The death of rock was not a natural death,” Simmons said. “Rock did not die of old age. It was murdered.”

The murder of rock music has been collectively committed by individuals who can no longer comprehend or treasure it's true brilliance , Simmons said.

“I am so sad that the next 15-year-old kid in a garage someplace in Saint Paul, that plugs into his Marshall and wants to turn it up to ten, will not have anywhere near the same opportunity that I did,” Simmons said. “He will most likely, no matter what he does, fail miserably. There is no industry for that anymore. ... And the real culprit is that kid's 15-year-old next-door neighbor, probably a friend of his. Maybe even one of the bandmates he's jamming with. The tragedy is that they seem to have no idea that they just killed their own opportunity — they killed the artists they would have loved. Some brilliance, somewhere, was going to be expressed, and now it won't, because it's that much harder to earn a living playing and writing songs. No one will pay you to do it.”

Simmons would not even want to be an aspiring musician in this era of entertainment.    

“It's very sad for new bands,” Simmons said. “My heart goes out to them. They just don't have a chance. If you play guitar, it's almost impossible. You're better off not even learning how to play guitar or write songs, and just singing in the shower and auditioning for The X Factor. And I'm not slamming The X Factor, or pop singers. But where's the next Bob Dylan? Where's the next Beatles? Where are the songwriters? Where are the creators?”

However, Simmons offers advice to young musicians and songwriters, stating “don’t quit your day job,” because the days of creative solace have vanished. 

What do you think? Has true creativity been replaced with an artificial "X factor"? Is the next Bob Dylan hiding behind the shadows of another wayward reality icon? Or is Neil Young right?

Maybe You'll Understand, Maybe You Won't - Playlist

How To Fight Loneliness - Wilco

Metamorphosis Two - Philip Glass

The Sounds of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel

Today - Jefferson Airplane

Sunday Morning - The Velvet Underground

Open Heart Surgery - The Brian Jonestown Massacre

Tangled Up In You - Playlist

Tangled Up In Blue - Bob Dylan

Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division

All I Want Is You - U2

The Moon Song - Karen O

Take Care - Beach House

The White Lady Loves You More - Elliott Smith

A Performance Like "No Other" - Celebrating The Music of Gene Clark

      In 1974, Gene Clark of The Byrds released the solo album No Other.   Though the album received little critical acclaim, and was even deleted from the catalog of Asylum Records, it has garnered contemporary adulation and become lauded as a "cult favorite."  On January twenty-second, indie rockers Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally of Beach House, along with Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold, Grizzly Bear's Daniel Rossen, and members of The Walkmen gathered in Philadelphia to perform Clark's esoteric magnum opus, note for note.  

    Prior to the performance, Beach House released this statement concerning Gene Clark and the album:

         "Though we generally love all of his music, we are most infatuated with his 1974 record, No Other. It feels like a special moment in Gene Clark's songwriting. At first, the overdone, studio nature of the album feels overbearing: the electric violin, the female chorus, the bass riffs, the layered guitar sequences. However, with more listens, Gene Clark's very unique lyrics, voice and spirit become the central focus. It's one of those records where each time you listen, you love a different song the most. Every song is nuanced and amazing in its own way."

The performance began with a viewing of the 2013 Gene Clark documentary, "The Byrd Who Flew Alone", which both provided insight into the making of Clark's forgotten work of art, yet left the audience with many unanswered questions.  When the musicians took the stage, the sublimely familiar voices of Robin Pecknold and Victoria Legrand, entwined with the sentimental sounds of the 70s, transported the audience to a time of no return.  It truly was a performance like no other. 

"When She Talks, I Hear the Revolution" - The Rise of Riot Grrrl

"When She Talks, I Hear the Revolution" - The Rise of Riot Grrrl

          The Riot Grrrl revolution began as an underground feminist movement, which aimed at establishing  women as a paramount force in punk rock.  Additionally, the movement fostered a subculture, consisting of fanzines, political activism and individual empowerment.  

    During the late 1970's and early 1980's, the number of alternative female musicians rose dramatically.  Musicians such as Siouxsie Sioux (of Siouxsie and the Banshees), The Raincoats, Joan Jett and Patti Smith provided the impetus for women to "pick up a guitar", rather than complacently "sit pretty."  

   In 1987, the magazine "Sassy" premiered.  The magazine grappled with controversial societal issues whilst other adolescent magazines failed to. Furthermore, the magazine viewed its young female readers as multidimensional beings, with thoughts and emotions broader than the concern of acceptance.  An article published in 1989 entitled, "Women, sex and rock and roll" became the first public platform for the movement.  

  The term "Riot Grrrl" was coined in 1991, in reference to the Mount Pleasant race riots of the aforementioned year.  Together, photography student, Kathleen Hanna, and disk jockey, Toby Vail, reacted to the violence by creating an original zine, as well as the punk rock band, Bikini Kill. Hanna stated, "I felt completely left out of the realm of everything that is so important to me.  I know that this is partly because punk rock is for and by boys mostly."   Her performances were described as "fiery" and imbued with passion.  Additionally, the weekly zine dealt with racism, patriarchy and sexual abuse and was met with a devoted cult following.  The movement officially became a central component of Pacific Northwest culture.  

 Despite denouncing the movement, the alternative rock band "Hole" became a defining figure in the emerging feminist movement of the Pacific Northwest.  Lead singer and lyricist, Courtney Love, unabashedly proclaimed her rage in resolute performances.  Songs such as "Jennifer's Body" and "Violet" discussed topics such as rape, motherhood, anger and suicide in an undaunted fashion.  In 1994, the bands sophomore album "Live Through This" was released with critical acclaim, symbolizing Courtney's cathartic means of survival.  

In 1994, the band "Sleater-Kinney" formed in Olympia, Washington.  The band has been noted as "one of the most blatantly talented and important bands of the 90's and 2000's.  Additionally, the band was a key component of the Riot Grrrl movement and subsequently third-wave feminist consciousness.  By incorporating societal ills of the era, the band echoed the likes of 1960's folk musicians.  Undoubtedly, they called women around the world to arms.  

As of 2010, the "Riot Grrrl Collection" has been held at New York University's Fales Library and Special Collections.  The collections chief objective is "to collect unique materials that provide documentation of the creative process of individuals and the chronology of the Riot Grrrl movement overall."  Kathleen Hanna of "Bikini Hill" and Carrie Brownstein of "Sleater-Kinney" have each donated primary source materials. Hanna has stated that she feels the collection is "free from feminist erasure."  
In the 21st century, the Riot Grrrl Movement is not devoid of relevance, but rather a fervid reminder of the power in social transformation.  Indeed, it is a potent revolution which will remain timeless.  

Blue Winter - Playlist

Day of the Lords - Joy Division

Pink Moon - Nick Drake

A Whiter Shade of Pale - Procol Harum

Wishes - Beach House

Never Mind the Norm - Punk as an Intellectual Vanguard

Never Mind the Norm - PUNK as an Intellectual Vanguard

Musician, Patti Smith, and photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe                      Sid Vicious of the "Sex Pistols"

Freedom began in the smoke-filled pubs of London and burgeoned in the sordid bathrooms of the Bowery.   It was here that lovers of resistance joined to cry their sound of victory and restore artistic sincerity.  As the commercialization of everyday life intensified during the 1970’s, meaning became a lost art.  The punk subculture was an acknowledgement of this crisis, and essentially an aesthetic realization of post modernity.  Deconstructive fashion signified the nihilism felt by many young adults, as well as the prevailing sense of purposelessness. Intrinsically, the punk subculture was an intellectual vanguard, a rejection of corruptible normality.

The word “punk” was originally a descriptive term American music critics used to illustrate obscure garage bands of the 1960’s.  However, the term quickly became associated with the musical and aesthetic landscape of Great Britain.  In October of 1971, art students Malcolm McLaren and Patrick Casey opened a boutique called Paradise Garage in London’s Chelsea district.  The boutique originally sold vintage records, magazines and memorabilia of the 1950’s.  McLaren’s girlfriend, Vivienne Westwood, was enlisted to assist with the design of clothing.  Her ingenious designs would later be attributed to establishing new wave fashion as a conventional vogue.  The store was renamed SEX and began to challenge social and sexual taboos.  Traditional designs included T-shirts depicting the image of Peter Cook, a notorious British rapist.  Additionally, a piece of clothing referred to as the Anarchy shirt featured silk embellishments adorned with the face of communist figure, Karl Marx.  British media theorist, Richard Hebdige, noted that “despite its proletarian accents, punk’s rhetoric was steeped in irony.”  Intentionally torn clothing symbolized the imminent disintegration of British society. Furthermore, the aesthetic movement was a dismissal of western consumption.  By recycling societal imagery for satirical purposes, the movement disassembled the prevailing interpretations of cultural icons.  Punk musicians fulfilled this revelation when they became scapegoats for the deposition of civilized order.  Essentially, they strategically maneuvered institutions of mass consumption against themselves in order to expose the ill-fated nature of society.   

         As the youth of Britain relished in the disaffection of Westwood’s fashion, a musical revolution had concurrently begun.  The Sex Pistols formed in London in 1975 and disassembled the traditional notions of what constituted “rock n roll.”  Johnny Rotten’s vocals were characterized by their working- class nodes, whilst the other members publicly displayed their instrumental incompetence.  In 1977, the band released their iconic single, “God Save The Queen”, which coincided with the celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee.   The song compared Queen Elizabeth’s political sentiments to that of a “fascist regime” and essentially was an assault on the British monarchical system.  Vocalist Johnny Rotten noted that, “You don’t write ‘God Save The Queen’ because you hate the English race.  You write a song like that because you love them, and you’re fed up with them being mistreated.” Malcolm McLaren referred to the Sex Pistols as “Dickensian” figures, for they humorously personified a sense of disenfranchisement akin to the characters of Dickens’ novels.  McLaren even managed the Sex Pistols, and in doing so, generated exposure to his and Westwood’s store, SEX.  Whilst the punk movement denounced mercenary capitalism, McLaren and Westwood commercially prospered.   Additionally, the rise of the Sex Pistols indicated a postmodern transformation in the emergence of subcultures, as the “reality” of youthful dissent and the media’s portrayal of “morality” became indistinguishable.  Prior to the formation of a punk subculture, the British media had already begun sensationalizing the dissolution of purity.  This led to the satirical image of depravity found in the musical construct of the Sex Pistols. 

In New York City, punk took center stage at a dingy Bowery bar called CBGB’s.  Whilst the CBGB originally intended to feature country, bluegrass and blues artists, it quickly became a forum for American punk acts, such as Television, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Blondie and the Ramones.  The punk scene of New York City’s Lower East Side drew influence from an assortment of ideological principles and literary figures, most notably the Beat generation.  Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and William S. Burroughs’s Naked Lunch provided the impetus for many punk musicians to reject cultural normality, of which they found artistically inhibiting.  Essentially, as Allen Ginsberg noted in the poem Howl, “They saw the best minds of their generation destroyed by madness”, and wished to restore authenticity.  Furthermore, transcendentalist literature, such as Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience greatly influenced the cerebral composition of New York City’s punk landscape.  As Thoreau stated, “Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty.  The obedient must be slaves.”  This sentiment echoed through the movement’s political construct.  The Velvet Underground’s experimental yet melodic musical structure of the 1960’s was also attributed to the formation of the New York punk movement.  Pop artist and manager of the Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol illustrated the relation between artistic sincerity and celebratory culture in his artwork, which was a chief element of the subculture.  As a result, the Bowery became the cornerstone of punk history. 

As an intellectual vanguard, punk transformed the social scenery of both Britain and the United States.  In their search for meaningful expression, punk musicians engaged spectators as contributing participants, rather than simply consumers of mass media.  The sub cultural movement was in essence a postmodern reply to the political disintegration of society, the cry of the disenchanted souls.