N° 01 : MUSIQUE
RIOT GRRRL
GRUNGE IS THE PSYCHIC REJECTION OF THE WAY BOYS TELL YOU TO DRESS AND THE WAY MUM CAUTIONS YOU TO BEHAVE WHEN BOYS GET ANGRY your best friend in art school wrote in her first message - i love courtney love, too let’s be friends and go to shows together make each other new wave mixtapes sneak in whiskey because we’re underage write cut paste fanzines about punk sex drugs and drag queens YOU WATCH TV ON THE FLOOR OF HER BEDROOM TOGETHER tank girl vanquishes her enemy with red lipstick smile and kathleen hanna frozen mid-show with SLUT scrawled across her navel shouts “girls to the front !” YOU WANT TO BE SOFT AND LOUD AND VULNERABLE YOU WANT TO TELL BOYS IN HARDCORE BANDS AND KEROUAC WANNABES IN WORKSHOP TO FUCK OFF AND SHUT UP you have so many plans as you sip on herbal tea and talk about THE GAZE and Hunter S Thompson novels before falling into bed still wearing mascara.
ON PARLE LE LANGAGE PUNK PARTOUT
UN AMI CHERCHE UN CHANTEUR à UNE VOIX EXPRESSIVE COMME SIOUXSIE SIOUX TU AS JAMAIS ENTENDU SA MUSIQUE MAIS TU CONNAIS SA PHOTO - UN MAQUILLAGE SOMBRE, UNE TENUE DE BONDAGE ET DE FÉTICHE. TU TENTES D’IMITER SA VOIX une femme aux cheveux bleus et qui porte une veste à imprimé léopard est au bar si tu étais Siouxsie, tu aurais le courage de lui demander son signe astral LE PUNK EST CRÉÉ DANS LES DISCOTHèQUES GAYS DES GRANDES VILLES POST-INDUSTRIELLES une femme qui était le batteur d’un groupe électro te donne une fleur pour ton anniversaire et te conseille d’écouter les rythmes simples et atonales de Lizzy Mercier Descloux NINA HAGEN A QUITTÉ KREUZBERG POUR LONDRES TU ES SÉDUITE PAR SES CHEVEUX ROSES ET LA FÉROCITÉ DE SA VOIX FORMÉE à L’OPÉRA c’est le punk qui t’a ému de teindre les cheveux et chanter plus fort.
NO WAVE
THE CAMERA FOLLOWS BASQUIAT AROUND LOWER EAST SIDE ON A MISSION TO SELL A PAINTING IN ONE GRAINY SCENE HE SITS IN THE MUDD CLUB AND PEOPLE JUST TALK AT HIM your first time to NYC you went alone right after a breakup and the Tr*mp protests metro stations are filled with post-it notes YOU DON’T REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME YOU HEARD SUICIDE (THE BAND) BUT GOT INTO THAT CHEREE BEAT THAT FOLLOWS BASQUIAT AS HE RIDES INTO THE SUNRISE IN A CAR HE BOUGHT WITH A SUITCASE OF MONEY FROM HIS FAIRY GODMOTHER DEBBIE HARRY SOMEONE WRITES ABOUT THOSE DAYS EVERYONE WAS CREATING there’s lydia lunch with teenage jesus and the jerks dna contortions on the no new york cd ART DOESN’T BELONG TO THE PEOPLE WHO WENT TO CONSERVATOIRE but to kids making weird sounds xerox collages and graffiti murals and NAN GOLDIN HAD BETTER THINGS TO DO THAN WEAR ALL-BLACK GALLERY SPEAK SIP ON GLASS OF WINE.
PSYCHOSEXUAL
SOCIETY EXPECTS TO SEE YOUTH MENTALLY (SILENT) AND PHYSICALLY (PROMISCUOUS) which creates conflict in you YOUNG and QUEER and FEMME walk past an ad but it doesn’t forget you it works subliminally applies force teenage pressure to “BE SEXY” you try to explain that when Courtney Love screams she’s at her most tender and vulnerable and mum doesn’t get it she tells you to WASH YOUR HAIR AND FACE and girls like that just want attention you attempt to engage over-stimulation of images directed at you like Barbara Kruger and attempt to make small confessions like Anne Sexton no coincidence the word PSYCHOSEXUAL peaks in usage in 1979 just as post-punk emerges Siouxsie Sioux subverts gender sexuality transgresses boundaries DISMANTLES DOMINANT CULTURE and you turn to punk rock to vocalize frustrations you can’t yet name.
NEUE DEUTSCHE WELLE
The singer of Max’s band loves DAF from germany part of an UNTERGRUNDBEWEGUNG MIT SCHLAGZEUG TROMMELMASCHINE SYNTH UND SCHäRFE STIMME they wrote AUF DEUTSCH played with rhythm of language SO JUNG SO STARK SO SCHöN discontent HOMOEROTISCHE DAF and their black leather sweat and chest hair SCHWITZT MEINER KINDER EINE GESANG DES KuRZEN SäTZE PERKUSSIVEN BEATS freiwillige selbstkontrolle began as a group of friends who wrote a fashion magazine MODE UND VERZWEIFLUNG einstürzende neubauten made rhythms out of banging hammers hair salons served as galleries no art collectors concrete bunker without windows as KONZERTSAAL a floor covered in beer cans EIN ZEITGEIST avant-garde luigi russolo’s sound boxes IMMER NOCH KLäNGE MACHEN over melodies.
GAY GOTHAM
the first time you watch PARIS IS BURNING you sit on curb outside smoke a cigarette try to grasp venus’ senseless murder THE BALLROOM WAS A SECOND HOME FOR NEW YORK YOUTH FASHION AND THEATRE BECAME VESSELS CARRYING JOYS FEARS TRIUMPHS CREATING SPACES TO DISMANTLE SEX AND GENDER PERFORMANCE EMBODIED THE SACRED AND TABOU you’ve internalized all the rules about what to wear how to flirt you have rituals wearing mascara biting nails WEARING A DRESS THE LIVENESS OF A POEM IT’S ALL RITUAL THE CITY IS THE STAGE THE BRIGHT-HAIRED KIDS ARE NOT TRYING TO SLIP BY UNDERCOVER push a few centimeters tectonic shift WHAT KNOWLEDGE DOES YOUR ENGAGEMENT IN THIS PERFORMANCE PRODUCE ?
PUNKS, POETS AND PROVOCATEURS
STAND IN FRONT OF CHELSEA HOTEL IMAGINE SONGS AND POEMS WRITTEN THERE YEARN TO SEE KEITH HARING’S GALLERY AT THE MUDD CLUB HOW ABOUT THE 1950S AS JAZZ MUSICIANS PLAY BEBOP BETWEEN FRANTIC LATE-NIGHT CHATS AT DINERS IN TIMES SQUARE BEFORE ALL THE SIGN FLASHING WILLIAM BURROUGHS STILL HANGS AROUND DOING THE CASUAL READING TO GHOSTS sensual boredom underneath a train in Bushwick and the smells of food trucks Brooklyn is young but still so old vibrating you stand in front of vacant storefronts and wonder what Anya Phillips and Basquiat used to chat about THE DAMNED WERE THE FIRST ENGLISH PUNK BAND TO SHAKE THE CBGB’S GRAFFITI’D WALLS EDIE SEDGWICK GLITTERS PURE SEXUAL POWER AT MAX’S KANSAS CITY HER LIPSTICK SMEARS CANDY DARLING STRUTS AROUND IN HIPPEST BACK ROOMS you hear lou reed’s lyrics play in your head as you walk around and people radiate in place UNTOUCHABLE COMMANDING THE STAGE THE PARENTS TRIED IN VAIN TO DROWN THEM IN HOLY WATER.
DOMINATRIX SLEEPS TONIGHT
Synthpop new york city 1984 AT FIRST YOU PONDER HOW YOU’RE GOING TO SURVIVE THE 95-DEGREE WEATHER UNTIL THE EDM AND SANGRIA START WORKING spoken lyrics synthesizer roland 808 samples some kids travel 23 hours by bus to spend the weekend in nightclubs DANSE RAVE DISCOTHèQUE L’AMOUR LA PAIX LE RESPECT the night ends at a club called Berlin you take off your jacket and dance and sweat paloma cocktails and a friend tells you about the time he accidentally took his ultra conservative mother to a drag show pop-up show in a café - FUR AND STOCKING-CLAD DOMINIQUE CAUSES A SCANDAL WITH HER MUSIC VIDEO but for the first time you think you understand the concept of DUENDE dancing until the sights beats and smells become SNAPSHOTS OF STRANGERS DRINKING SHOUTING DANCING THE STROBES SEIZE YOU AND YOUR MIND NO LONGER CONTROLS YOUR LIMBS the body a vessel steaming on its own power.
HERJAZZ
You don’t understand all this nonsense about “girl in a band” KURT COBAIN IS THE FIRST GUY YOU SEE IN A DRESS as if courtney love or pj harvey or kathleen hanna or siouxsie sioux or patti smith is revolutionary for only picking up a microphone YOU STAND IN FRONT OF A TV WATCHING THE SAME VIDEO REPEATEDLY and writing lyrics as if they don’t want to be understood or be heard like the men who came before YOU PAUSE AND REVERSE VHS TAPE TRY TO MIMIC WHAT YOU SEE ON SCREEN PLAY GUITAR THE SAME WAY as if their art is not need or sacred ritual just cute and performance YOU DON’T KNOW KURT COBAIN BUT YOU FEEL HE MIGHT HAVE LISTENED just a phase just teen angst adults repeat calmly IF YOU TOLD HIM THAT YOU WERE HAVING AWFUL CRAMPS HE MIGHT HAVE GIVEN YOU HOT TEA AND PATTI OR SIOUXSIE OR RAINCOATS RECORD you both sitting on floor enthralled by their pure magick shouting snarling at the crowd.
MUSIQUE CONCRETE
THE NIGHT YOU MEET MAX HE FIRST ASKS YOUR ASTRAL SIGN THEN MOVES FROM JAZZ TO QUANTUM THEORY TO THE MAGNA CARTA AND FINALLY TO MUSIC CONCRèTE flowers of romance chansons de rock minimaliste YOU HEAR SOUND SAMPLES PEOPLE TALKING ON THE TELEPHONE un groupe qui utilise un synthé en faveur de la guitare il y a des moments du son simple ça s’agit de la musique concrète l’absence d’une mélodie peut réaliser tel un sentiment de mal comment ? Max doesn’t know how to play synth but HE’S A MAD FUTURISTE TRYING TO RELEASE THE COMPOSITION IN HIS HEAD HE JUMPS UP AND DOWN ON STAGE WITH GUITAR VOCALIST STAND-UP DRUMMER punk rock astrologist AVEC MAGNèTOPHONE ET DISQUES SOUPLES SUR PLATINES. His band sits in your apartment drummer programs drum machine SHE GIVES YOU FLOWER FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY SHE WANTS TO WRITE MORE OPEN-CHORD SONGS LIKE THE VELVETS next morning long hug goodbye.
DADA
HOW TO RESPOND TO THE DARK AND GROTESQUE ? the world defies (again) your effort to make sense of it mental exhaustion falling asleep on the bus and missing your stop no money for fresh vegetables ignore your mother’s voicemails sitting in a studio apartment WITHOUT WARNING A GRIM JOLLY ABSURDISM PSYCHOSIS YOU FEEL AS IF YOU’VE FALLEN INTO A GELATIN BATH AND ARE SUFFOCATING VOILà AN EXTENSION OF THE SURREAL AND ABSURDIST ART OF THE TUMULTUOUS EARLY 20TH CENTURY uncertainty like shaking ground underneath war planes painted like hungry sharks weird art is not new you want to shock the people whom you serve cocktails into reaction TOUT EFFACER TOUT EFFACER no customer satisfaction for once you are not the one going home shaking THE MAD THE IRATE THE CONFUSED WILL LIVE ON.
STORY OF JUNK
Kit and laura in the STORY OF JUNK are the first femme lovers you read about before that was FRENCH CLASS AND VERONIQUE AND THE SWEET MESSAGES SHE WROTE YOU AND THE MYTH OF QUEER IS DANGER AND A CAR DRIVING TOO FAST you start popping pills at sixteen you over do it and lay puking on the floor praying that if gawd lets you live you promise her you’d never do this again but you’re lying to gawd YOU HAVE FAITH IN PILLS SOMETIMES COKE MOSTLY ALCOHOL STRANGERS AT PARTIES YOU DON’T REMEMBER YOUR FIRST KISS Laura’s working in a restaurant and nothing really inspires her YOU FEEL THE SAME WAY BEHIND YOUR BAR her girlfriend’s got a band sometimes she goes to shows INEZ SWEARS SHE’S NOT INTO GIRLS BUT AT A SHOW AFTER HALF A FLASK OF WHISKEY SHE BITES YOUR SHOULDER the cops are knocking on laura’s door the paramedics are carrying Inez out the door and YOU KNOW THERE’S ALWAYS A CRASH AT THE END OF THESE STORIES.
JUNE GLOOM
Y’a tes rêves et tes secrets soko sings in coy tone FIRST SENSATIONS YOU NOTICE ARE VISUAL HER BLUE HAIR “SOKO” SPELLED OUT IN PINK TAPE ON HER AMPLIFIER GRILL second sensations are sonic melody grabs limbs twirls them around in an awkward dance THINK ABOUT A FRIEND WHO IS EASY TO TALK TO - sing, dance, jangly guitars, a sultry voice râpeuse WARM LIKE TEA qui transforme ta gorge en or SOMETIMES YOU TAKE PHOTOS OF SUNSETS THE RUSTY REDS CALMING LIKE FACILE BUT STEADY DRUMBEAT boy-girl duo croons about driving fast in someone’s car I WANNA BE WHEREVER YOU ARE indulge the bubblegum streets of shibuya pastel color Sailor Moon saves Crystal Tokyo URANUS AND NEPTUNE ARE LOVERS BUT THE U.S. VERSION MADE THEM COUSINS adults being afraid of love soft comme nuages de velours undercurrent beneath memories of summers past early afternoon-tinted sky at the beach TAKE A PHOTO OF DAISIES sometimes the best hook is soft.
LE CATALYSEUR
POUR CERTAINS LE MOT PUNK éVOQUE UN IMAGE DES MECS VIOLENTS DANS LA FOSSE shoving and screaming in the middle of a hardcore show POUR TOI C’EST SIOUXSIE OU GUDRUN GUT OU THE SLITS on stage singing about a violent breakup POUR TOI C'EST LES FANZINES PLEINS DE TEXTE ÉCRIT PAR DES FILLES at university the moment they realize their boyfriends treat them like shit ET çA AGITE A LEUR SANTé MENTALE LE PUNK C’EST UN POTE QUI CRéE UNE AFFICHE à LA GRAVURE and handmade mixtapes exchanged between friends C’EST UNE éCHANGE HORS DE TOUT ESPRIT MARCHAND gender and sexuality norms CASSéES EN PUBLIC onstage LE PUNK éLARGIT TON CHAMP DE L’EXPéRIENCE TU ES UNE FEMME NUE QUI POUSSE UN CRI AIGU DANS LA RUE punk rock taught you a way of existing ET TU ARRIVES à FAIRE CE QUI BéNIT à TA SANTé but you also know that CECI N’EST PAS SEULEMENT TON HISTOIRE.
GENIALE DILLETANTEN
Punk ist gütig und sanft und laut MAX MüLLER AND CLAUDIA SKODA DESIGN THEIR OWN FASHIONS ost-punk wohnt in besetztem haus WINDOWS ARE BROKEN ARTISTS CREATE WITHOUT RADIO INTEREST REJECT MUSIC INDUSTRY SING IN YOUR OWN LANGUAGE instrumenten kommen aus metall maschinen der Industrie AND IDEAS FROM UNCERTAIN zeitgeist OF THE COLD WAR plattencover und plakate entwirft die Band selbst NOISE-MAKERS SAXOPHONE FROM AUTOMOBILE EXHAUST PIPE konzertsäle wie ein Bunker siehen aus BAND MEMBERS IN MASKS WRITE A MAGAZINE TOGETHER körpermusik von D.A.F. wird unruhiger expressiver Tanzstil Fotoausstellung an den grauen Betonwänden PENNY LANE friseursalon TURNED ART GALLERY CLARINET BUILT FROM A GARDEN HOSE tausend Fotos machen den Boden in einer Fabriketage schlagzeug aus ein benzinkanister AFTER THE APOCALYPSE AND CIVILISATION SHUTTERS ALL THE SUPERMARKETS sind sie die Helden von der Jugendkultur in eine fremde und seltsame Welt.
THE UNHEARD MUSIC
YOU WEAVE ANOTHER QUICK MINARET exene cervenka and john doe meet in a poetry workshop though neither is from los angeles SPEAK IN SECRET ALPHABETS you watch their onstage chemistry at a punk club in 1980’s l.a. See their forms almost stumbling into one another until the chorus SMOKE ANOTHER CIGARETTE their voices in harmony approach spectral frequency and the hairs on your skin stand up LEARN TO FORGET they are messing around with art whatever comes to mind and you’re singing along to them LEARN TO FORGET except it’s 2019 and you’re driving around fast and frustrated in a car LEARN TO FORGET and exene with dyed-black disgruntled haircut sings with you from the speakers.
UNHOLY SCREAMS
WILLIAM AND JIM REID FIGHT ALL THE TIME BUT THEY AGREE ON THE VELVET UNDERGROUND Max is on the phone talking about Edie Sedgwick’s stellium in the 12th house doors to other worlds and how playing music hasn’t felt right in a while you both know you can’t wait for the ideas to come find you JIM AND WILLIAM STAY IN THEIR ROOM UNTIL THEY FIND THEIR OWN SOUND you’re thinking about Virginia Woolf describing a room and income of one’s own SHE IS REFERRING TO AUTONOMY just try things take photos write a zine play an instrument customize wardrobe JIM AND WILLIAM WHEAT-PASTE FLYERS UP AROUND GLASGOW BEFORE THE SHOW THEY HANG AROUND THE RECORD STORE HARDLY TALK at first you have a lot to say but people also ask why you talk so quietly AND AS THEY BECAME MORE CONFIDENT JIM AND WILLIAM JUST DIDN’T WANT TO BURY SONGS UNDER INDUSTRIAL DISTORTION ANYMORE.
LA NUIT OU LE JOUR LE PUNK OU LE JAZZ ?
01 COUTEAU LATEX - “MORPHéE” 02 hole - “starbelly” 03 THE BANSHEES - “SIN IN MY HEART” 04 lizzy mercier descloux - “lady o k’pele” 05 SUICIDE - “cheree” 06 TEENAGE JESUS + THE JERKS - “burning rubber” 07 d.a.f. - “der räuber und der prinz” 08 FREIWILLIGE SELBSTKONTROLLE - “hallo wie geht’s ?” 09 kaS product - “so young but so cold” 10 THE DAMNED - “new rose” 11 dominique - “dominatrix sleeps tonite” 12 PiL - “FLOWERS OF ROMANCE” 13 k-holes - “rats” 14 SEXTILE - “DISCO” 15 soko - “diabolo menthe” 16 BIG DEAL - “IN YOUR CAR” 17 malaria ! - “your turn to run” 18 THE SLITS - “TYPICAL GIRLS” 19 x (the band) - “nausea” 20 JESUS + MARY CHAIN - “TASTE THE FLOOR”
EDIE SEDGWICK
Mini skirts, black tights and ermine furs Edie Sedgwick Warhol Superstar YOU ASK YOURSELF WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY LEARN FROM POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL BUT SHE WAS IT Radiating speed intelligence in the moment platinum hair like spaceship unsteady cyclone and storm surge SHE WAS ABUSED THEN DISCARDED A CATASTROPHE SMOKING CIGARETTES IN THE CHELSEA HOTEL ROOM SHE SET ON FIRE SHE WAS VULNERABLE IN FRAGILE WORLD OF NEW YORK CITY EGOS (HER WORDS)YOU HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THE RISK OF BEING MISUNDERSTOOD IF YOU ARE GOING TO TRY TO COMMUNICATE (END)more celestial body than human in love with everyone she’s ever met driving fast and wrecking cars in search of the sound barrier shouting I am alive I am alive until the crash back to Earth tiny comet and the Factory just stepped over her glitter.
NEW YORK CITY IS NOW
The strongest sensation in New York is your eyes darting sight TO SIGHT THE LIGHTS SOUNDS AND SMELLS OVERWHELMING THE SENSES YOU ARE POWERFUL SCRAWLED ACROSS A BAR BATHROOM WALL in lipstick all you need is love com/passion THE CITY IS DENSE NEVER-ENDING A SANCTUARY A GAY GOTHAM RULED BY GREER LANKTON’S SPECTRAL DOLLS FIRE ESCAPES CRAWL UP EAST VILLAGE WITH ITS DUSTY WINDOWS and rotten wooden frames streets buzz and subway rumbles LATE-NIGHT STEEL SHUTTERS AND GRAFFITI’D WALLS APPEAR AS IF IN TRANSFORMATION TO CYBERPUNK UNIVERSE THE HOUR ALWAYS SEEMS TO BE NIGHT TIME AND NEON LIGHTS one local asks, “what are you passionate about ?” and you are unnerved as you stand there at baby’s all right after bar time as your tongue stumbles around for the answer.