Punks On Film

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[NB. This entry was originally published in 2009]

Last week Plain Jane Productions premiered their new film, Burning Down The House:The Story Of CBGB, at the Tribeca Film Festival. Unless you've been living in a cave on the border of Afghanistan for the past thirty years you already know that CBGB was the spiritual home of the New Wave of rock music in America. If Punk Rock was conceived in the Midwest by the Stooges and the MC5, then it was delivered in New York a few years later by the Ramones, Dead Boys and the Voidoids...at CBGB. The official name of the club was CBGB & OMFUG (for Country, Bluegrass, Blues & Other Music For Uplifting Gourmandizers) and owner Hilly Kristal's original intent was to feature C, BG, and B, but the de facto star of the place was the OM...Punk and New Wave rock. The Ramones and the Talking Heads played their first gigs there. The Police kicked off their first American tour there. The New York Dolls, Blondie, Devo, Elvis Costello, the Dictators, Patti Smith, The Jam, and tens of thousands more played there. I made the pilgrimage to CBGB in June of 1981, while I was in New York to see The Clash at Bond's. I was duly impressed by the club's ambiance, if not by the band that happened to be playing that night (all I remember is that the singer was wearing a tweed jacket). If you never made it there, you can get a taste of what it was like with this clip from the movie, Blank Generation (1980). It features a nice long dolly shot from the back of the club toward the stage while Richard Hell and the Voidoids play. Sadly, the infamous CBGB restrooms are not shown in this clip. However, I did pay tribute in the men's room while there and I can report that it's a nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to touch anything. In 2006 the Bowery Residents Committee refused to renew Kristal's lease due to a dispute over rent increases. Many New Yorkers rallied to save the club, and filmmaker Mandy Stein documents the effort in Burning Down The House. But it was to no avail. After a 33-year run, CBGB's closed up for the last time October 15, 2006. Hilly Kristal died from cancer less than a year later. No word yet on film distribution, but as soon as I find out I'll post it here. Mandy Stein's other films include Too Tough To Die (a tribute to Johnny Ramone), and a documentary about the Bad Brains which is now in post-production. Check out the teaser, below. Oh, and if you happen to run into Osama Bin Laden, tell him CB's is gone. 

 

 

 

Additional links

• NPR radio piece: Making Music History-Bad Brains at CBGB 1982

Rock n' Roll Radio Redux

It was twenty-six years ago today. U2 was opening(!) for Todd Rundgren at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, and my friend DD Thornton was there, interviewing the band at the start of their 1983 U.S. tour.

DD is a bit of a celebrity among the rock and roll faithful back home in North Carolina. She started doing radio shows at Wake Forest University in late 1977, on what had become known as Deaconlight, WFDD's late night rock and roll program. And for the next four years she introduced thousands of listeners to a range of music that they couldn't hear anywhere else on the radio in North Carolina (or most other places, for that matter). Progressive rock, new wave and punk were her stock in trade, what she termed "classic and current contemporary non-schlock-rock metropolitan music", in the days when Foreigner, the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac ruled the airwaves. I was lucky enough to discover Deaconlight at a time when I was eagerly seeking new sounds, and DD was a regular tour-guide for me into unknown musical territories. Among the first hearings I encountered on her shows were Jean Michel Jarre, Devo, the B-52s, and The Residents.

After WFDD management did away with all rock programming at the end of '81, DD went on to host a show at Winston-Salem Top-40 station, WKZL. Her New Generation Show on 'KZL did for the commercial market what Deaconlight had done for college radio over the previous four years. In fact, the show was so popular that DD started deejaying New Generation Nights at area nightclubs, and the radio station started working some of her musical choices into their regular mix. It was DD who convinced management to add R.E.M. to their playlist, making WKZL one of the first big commercial stations anywhere to play R.E.M. in high rotation. She also interviewed a number of now-legendary musical artists during this period, including Bono and The Edge, and Brian Setzer of the Stray Cats.

DD left radio in the mid-80's, but happily she's back at the mic again now with a new Deaconlight show on ErrorFM.com. After a twenty-year hiatus she is again introducing listeners to new sounds, both classic and contemporary. Catch her show weekdays from noon to two o'clock, Eastern time, and be sure to log into the chat room where you can request a song or talk music with the deejay and the other listeners.

Along with my friend Phil Pfaff, I credit DD with putting me on the path to musical enlightenment, and my ears have been the happier ever since. Rock on, DD!

• Deaconlight's home on the Web
  

• Interview with DD in Punk Globe magazine
  

• DD's interview with Bono and Edge, April 23, 1983