Related Book Info From Wikipedia (Punk Ideologies):
Punk ideologies are a group of varied social and political beliefs
associated with the punk
subculture. In its original incarnation, the punk subculture was primarily
concerned with concepts such as rebellion, anti-authoritarianism, individualism, free thought and discontent. Punk
ideologies are usually expressed through punk rock music, punk literature, spoken word recordings, punk fashion, or punk visual art. Some punks have participated
in direct action, such
as protests, boycotts, squatting, vandalism, or property destruction. Punk fashion was
originally an expression of nonconformity, as well as opposition to both
mainstream culture and the hippie
counterculture. Punk fashion often displays aggression, rebellion, and
individualism. Some punks wear clothing or have tattoos that express sociopolitical
messages. Punk visual art also often includes those types of messages. Many
punks wear second hand clothing, partly as an anti-consumerist statement.
An attitude common in the punk subculture is the opposition to selling out, which refers to
abandoning of one's values and/or a change in musical style toward pop or more radio-friendly rock in exchange for wealth,
status, or power. Selling out also has the meaning of adopting a more mainstream
lifestyle and ideology.
Because anti-establishment and anti-capitalist attitudes
are such an important part of the punk subculture, a network of independent record labels, venues and
distributors has developed. Some punk bands have chosen to break from this
independent system and work within the established system of major labels.
The do it yourself
(DIY) ideal is common in the punk scene, especially in terms of music recording
and distribution, concert promotion, magazines, posters and flyers.
On religious issues, punk is mostly atheist or agnostic, but some punk bands have promoted
religions such as Christianity, Islam, the Rastafari movement or Krishna.
Specific
ideologies and philosophies
The following include some of the most common ideologies and philosophies
within the punk subculture (in alphabetical order).
Christian punk is a
small sub-genre of punk rock with some degree of Christian lyrical content. Some
Christian punk bands are associated with the Christian music industry, but
others reject that association. Examples of notable Christian punk bands include
The Crucified, MxPx and Flatfoot 56.
Centering around a belief in the abject lack of meaning and value to life, nihilism was a fixture in some protopunk and early punk rock.
Notable nihilist punks include: Iggy
Pop, Sid Vicious and Richard Hell.
Straight edge, which
originated in the American hardcore punk scene, involves abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, and recreational
drug use. Some who claim the title straight edge also abstain from caffeine, casual sex and meat. Those
more strict individuals may be considered part of the hardline
subculture. Unlike the shunning of meat and caffeine, refraining from casual
sex was without question a practice in the original straight edge lifestyle, but
it has been overlooked in many of the later reincarnations of straight edge. For
some, straight edge is a simple lifestyle preference, but for others it's a
political stance. In many cases, it is a rejection of the perceived
self-destructive qualities of punk and hardcore culture. Notable straight
edgers: Ian MacKaye, Tim McIlrath, Justin Sane, and Davey Havok.
Taqwacore is a punk subgenre
centred around Islam, its culture and its
interpretation. The Taqwacore scene is composed mainly of young Muslim artists
living in the United States and other western countries, many of whom openly
reject traditionalist interpretations of Islam. There is no definitive Taqwacore
sound, and some bands incorporate styles including hip-hop, techno, and/or
musical traditions from the Muslim world. Examples of Muslim punk bands include
Alien Kulture. The Kominas and Secret Trial
Five.
Criticism of punk
ideologies
Punk ideologies have been criticized from outside and within. The Clash occasionally accused
other contemporary punk acts of selling out, such as in their songs "(White Man) In Hammersmith
Palais" and "Death or
Glory". Crass's song "White Punks on
Hope" criticized the late-1970s British punk scene in general and, among other
things, accused Joe
Strummer of selling out and betraying his earlier socialist principles.
Their song "Punk is Dead" attacked corporate co-option of the punk subculture. Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra wrote many songs
criticizing aspects of the punk subculture, and he once accused the punk
magazine Maximum RocknRoll of "punk
fundamentalism" when they refused to advertise Alternative Tentacles records because
they said the records "weren't punk".
The Misfits' Michale Graves, a right-libertarian who cofounded the Conservative Punk
website, argued that punks have become "hippies with mohawks".
Author Jim Goad has been very
critical of punk ideologies in many of his writings. In his essay "The
Underground is A Lie!", Goad argued that many punks are hypocrites, and he
claimed that many punks act poor while hiding the fact they come from middle to upper class backgrounds. In
Farts from Underground, Goad claimed that the DIY ethic never produces anything original, and it
allows poor quality work to be championed.
In their book The
Rebel Sell, Joseph
Heath and Andrew
Potter argued that counterculture politics have failed, and that
the punk understanding of society is flawed. They also argued that alternative
and mainstream lifestyles ultimately have the same values.
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock. Punk bands created fast, hard-edged music, typically with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation, and often political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk embraces a DIY ethic; many bands self-produced recordings and distributed them through informal channels.
The term "punk" was first used in relation to rock music by some American critics in the early 1970s, to describe garage bands and their devotees. By late 1976, bands such as the Ramones in New York City and the Sex Pistols and The Clash in London were recognized as the vanguard of a new musical movement. The following year saw punk rock spreading around the world, and it became a major cultural phenomenon in the United Kingdom. For the most part, punk took root in local scenes that tended to reject association with the mainstream. An associated punk subculture emerged, expressing youthful rebellion and characterized by distinctive styles of clothing and adornment and a variety of anti-authoritarian ideologies.
By the beginning of the 1980s, faster, more aggressive styles such as hardcore and Oi! had become the predominant mode of punk rock. Musicians identifying with or inspired by punk also pursued a broad range of other variations, giving rise to post-punk and the alternative rock movement. By the start of the 21st century, pop punk had been adopted by the mainstream, as bands such as Green Day and The Offspring brought the genre widespread popularity.
Characteristics
Philosophy
The first wave of punk rock aimed to be aggressively modern, distancing itself from the bombast and sentimentality of early 1970s rock.[3] According to Ramones drummer Tommy Ramone, "In its initial form, a lot of [1960s] stuff was innovative and exciting. Unfortunately, what happens is that people who could not hold a candle to the likes of Hendrix started noodling away. Soon you had endless solos that went nowhere. By 1973, I knew that what was needed was some pure, stripped down, no bullshit rock 'n' roll."[4]John Holmstrom, founding editor of Punk magazine, recalls feeling "punk rock had to come along because the rock scene had become so tame that [acts] like Billy Joel and Simon and Garfunkel were being called rock and roll, when to me and other fans, rock and roll meant this wild and rebellious music."[5] In critic Robert Christgau's description, "It was also a subculture that scornfully rejected the political idealism and Californian flower-power silliness of hippie myth."[6]Patti Smith, in contrast, suggests in the documentary 25 Years of Punk that the hippies and the punk rockers were linked by a common anti-establishment mentality.
Throughout punk rock history, technical accessibility and a DIY spirit have been prized. In the early days of punk rock, this ethic stood in marked contrast to what those in the scene regarded as the ostentatious musical effects and technological demands of many mainstream rock bands.[7] Musical virtuosity was often looked on with suspicion. According to Holmstrom, punk rock was "rock and roll by people who didn't have very much skills as musicians but still felt the need to express themselves through music".[5] In December 1976, the English fanzineSideburns published a now-famous illustration of three chords, captioned "This is a chord, this is another, this is a third. Now form a band."[8] The title of a 1980 single by the New York punk band Stimulators, "Loud Fast Rules!" inscribed a catchphrase for punk's basic musical approach.[9]
Some of British punk rock's leading figures made a show of rejecting not only contemporary mainstream rock and the broader culture it was associated with, but their own most celebrated predecessors: "No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones in 1977," declared The Clash song "1977".[10] The previous year, when the punk rock revolution began in Great Britain, was to be both a musical and a cultural "Year Zero".[11] Even as nostalgia was discarded, many in the scene adopted a nihilistic attitude summed up by the Sex Pistols slogan "No Future";[3] in the later words of one observer, amid the unemployment and social unrest in 1977, "punk's nihilistic swagger was the most thrilling thing in England."[12] While "self-imposed alienation" was common among "drunk punks" and "gutter punks," there was always a tension between their nihilistic outlook and the "radical leftist utopianism"[13] of bands such as Crass, who found positive, liberating meaning in the movement. As a Clash associate describes singer Joe Strummer's outlook, "Punk rock is meant to be our freedom. We're meant to be able to do what we want to do."[14]
The issue of authenticity is important in the punk subculture—the pejorative term "poseur" is applied to those who associate with punk and adopt its stylistic attributes but are deemed not to share or understand the underlying values and philosophy. Scholar Daniel S. Traber argues that "attaining authenticity in the punk identity can be difficult"; as the punk scene matured, he observes, eventually "everyone got called a poseur".[15]
Musical and lyrical elements
Punk rock bands often emulate the bare musical structures and arrangements of 1960s garage rock.[16] Typical punk rock instrumentation includes one or two electric guitars, an electric bass, and a drum kit, along with vocals. Punk rock songs tend to be shorter than those of other popular genres—on the Ramones' debut album, for instance, half of the fourteen tracks are under two minutes long. Most early punk rock songs retained a traditional rock 'n' roll verse-chorus form and 4/4 time signature. However, punk rock bands in the movement's second wave and afterward have often broken from this format. In critic Steven Blush's description, "The Sex Pistols were still rock'n'roll...like the craziest version of Chuck Berry. Hardcore was a radical departure from that. It wasn't verse-chorus rock. It dispelled any notion of what songwriting is supposed to be. It's its own form."[17]
Punk rock vocals sometimes sound nasal,[18] and lyrics are often shouted instead of sung in a conventional sense, particularly in hardcore styles.[19] The vocal approach is characterized by a lack of variety; shifts in pitch, volume, or intonational style are relatively infrequent.[20] Complicated guitar solos are considered self-indulgent and unnecessary, although basic guitar breaks are common.[21] Guitar parts tend to include highly distorted power chords or barre chords, creating a characteristic sound described by Christgau as a "buzzsaw drone".[22] Some punk rock bands take a surf rock approach with a lighter, twangier guitar tone. Others, such as Robert Quine, lead guitarist of The Voidoids, have employed a wild, "gonzo" attack, a style that stretches back through The Velvet Underground to the 1950s recordings of Ike Turner.[23] Bass guitar lines are often uncomplicated; the quintessential approach is a relentless, repetitive "forced rhythm,"[24] although some punk rock bass players—such as Mike Watt of The Minutemen and Firehose—emphasize more technical bass lines. Bassists often use a pick due to the rapid succession of notes, which makes fingerpicking impractical. Drums typically sound heavy and dry, and often have a minimal set-up. Compared to other forms of rock, syncopation is much less the rule.[25] Hardcore drumming tends to be especially fast.[19] Production tends to be minimalistic, with tracks sometimes laid down on home tape recorders[26] or simple four-track portastudios. The typical objective is to have the recording sound unmanipulated and "real," reflecting the commitment and "authenticity" of a live performance.[27] Punk recordings thus often have a lo-fi quality, with the sound left relatively unpolished in the mastering process; recordings may contain dialogue between band members, false starts, and background noise.
Punk rock lyrics are typically frank and confrontational; compared to the lyrics of other popular music genres, they frequently comment on social and political issues.[28] Trend-setting songs such as The Clash's "Career Opportunities" and Chelsea's "Right to Work" deal with unemployment and the grim realities of urban life.[29] Especially in early British punk, a central goal was to outrage and shock the mainstream.[30] The Sex Pistols classics "Anarchy in the U.K." and "God Save the Queen" openly disparage the British political system and social mores. There is also a characteristic strain of anti-sentimental depictions of relationships and sex, exemplified by "Love Comes in Spurts," written by Richard Hell and recorded by him with The Voidoids. Anomie, variously expressed in the poetic terms of Hell's "Blank Generation" and the bluntness of the Ramones' "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue," is a common theme. Identifying punk with such topics aligns with the view expressed by V. Vale, founder of San Francisco fanzine Search and Destroy: "Punk was a total cultural revolt. It was a hardcore confrontation with the black side of history and culture, right-wing imagery, sexual taboos, a delving into it that had never been done before by any generation in such a thorough way."[31] However, many punk rock lyrics deal in more traditional rock 'n' roll themes of courtship, heartbreak, and hanging out; the approach ranges from the deadpan, aggressive simplicity of Ramones standards such as "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend"[32] to the more unambiguously sincere style of many later pop punk groups.
Visual and other elements
The classic punk rock look among male American musicians harkens back to the T-shirt, motorcycle jacket, and jeans ensemble favored by American greasers of the 1950s associated with the rockabilly scene and by British rockers of the 1960s. The cover of the Ramones' 1976 debut album, featuring a shot of the band by Punk photographer Roberta Bayley, set forth the basic elements of a style that was soon widely emulated by rock musicians both punk and nonpunk.[2] Richard Hell's more androgynous, ragamuffin look—and reputed invention of the safety-pin aesthetic—was a major influence on Sex Pistols impresario Malcolm McLaren and, in turn, British punk style.[33][34] (John Morton of Cleveland's Electric Eels may have been the first rock musician to wear a safety-pin-covered jacket.)[35] McLaren's partner, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, credits Johnny Rotten as the first British punk to rip his shirt, and Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious as the first to use safety pins.[36] Early female punk musicians displayed styles ranging from Siouxsie Sioux's bondage gear to Patti Smith's "straight-from-the-gutter androgyny".[37] The former proved much more influential on female fan styles.[38] Over time, tattoos, piercings, and metal-studded and -spiked accessories became increasingly common elements of punk fashion among both musicians and fans, a "style of adornment calculated to disturb and outrage".[39] The typical male punk haircut was originally short and choppy; the Mohawk later emerged as a characteristic style.[40] Those in hardcore scenes often adopt a skinhead look.
The characteristic stage performance style of male punk musicians does not deviate significantly from the macho postures classically associated with rock music.[41] Female punk musicians broke more clearly from earlier styles. Scholar John Strohm suggests that they did so by creating personas of a type conventionally seen as masculine: "They adopted a tough, unladylike pose that borrowed more from the macho swagger of sixties garage bands than from the calculated bad-girl image of bands like The Runaways."[37] Scholar Dave Laing describes how bassist Gaye Advert adopted fashion elements associated with male musicians only to generate a stage persona readily consumed as "sexy".[42] Laing focuses on more innovative and challenging performance styles, seen in the various erotically destabilizing approaches of Siouxsie Sioux, The Slits' Ari Up, and X-Ray Spex' Poly Styrene.[43]
The lack of emphatic syncopation led punk dance to "deviant" forms. The characteristic style was originally the pogo.[44] Sid Vicious, before he became the Sex Pistols' bassist, is credited with initiating the pogo in Britain as an attendee at one of their concerts.[45]Moshing is typical at hardcore shows. The lack of conventional dance rhythms was a central factor in limiting punk's mainstream commercial impact.[46]
Breaking down the distance between performer and audience is central to the punk ethic.[47] Fan participation at concerts is thus important; during the movement's first heyday, it was often provoked in an adversarial manner—apparently perverse, but appropriately "punk". First-wave British punk bands such as the Sex Pistols and The Damned insulted and otherwise goaded the audience into intense reactions. Laing has identified three primary forms of audience physical response to goading: can throwing, stage invasion, and spitting or "gobbing".[48] In the hardcore realm, stage invasion is often a prelude to stage diving. In addition to the numerous fans who have started or joined punk bands, audience members also become important participants via the scene's many amateur periodicals—in England, according to Laing, punk "was the first musical genre to spawn fanzines in any significant numbers".[49
Wendy Orlean Williams (May 28, 1949 – April 6, 1998), better known as
Wendy O. Williams, was the lead singer for the American punk band the Plasmatics, as well as a solo artist. Her stage
theatrics included blowing up equipment, near nudity and chain-sawingguitars.
Dubbed "The Queen of Shock Rock," Williams was widely considered the most
controversial and radical female singer of her day.[1] She often sported a
Mohawk haircut.
Williams was nominated in 1985 for a Grammy in the Best Female
Rock Vocal Performance category during the height of her popularity as a
solo artist.
Biography
Early life
Williams was born in Webster, New York. Early on, she was destined
to be in the music industry, as she studied clarinet at the Eastman School of
Music. She even appeared on the "Howdy Doody Show" as a member of the "Peanut
Gallery". She attended R.L. Thomas (public) High School in Webster at least
partway through the tenth grade, but apparently left school before graduating.
At the age of 16, she hitchhiked her way to Colorado where she earned money
selling crocheted string bikinis.[2][3] She headed for Florida and then to Europe, where she worked as a macrobiotic cook in London and then as a dancer with a gypsy
dance troupe.[4] In 1976 she arrived
at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City where she saw
an ad in Show Business Magazine that lay open on the bus station floor. It was a
casting call for radical anti-artist and Yale MFA graduate Rod
Swenson's experimental "Captain Kink's Theatre". She replied to the ad and
there was immediate chemistry between Swenson, known as Captain Kink, and
Williams, which began a 22-year relationship that would see her launched as lead
singer of the punk/metal rock group the Plasmatics some two years later.
With the Plasmatics
In January 1981, Milwaukee police arrested her for
simulating sex on stage. Also charged with battery to an officer and obscene
conduct, she was later cleared. Later that same year in Cleveland, Ohio,
Williams was acquitted of an obscenity charge for simulating sex on stage
wearing only shaving cream (she subsequently covered her nipples with electrical
tape to avoid arrest).[5][6] Then, in November,
an Illinois judge sentenced her to
one year supervision and fined her $35 for roughing up a freelance photographer
who had attempted to take her picture as she jogged along the Chicago
lakefront.
Meanwhile, the Plasmatics toured the world, having a concert in London
cancelled on safety grounds, where the press dubbed them "anarchists." During shooting of an appearance on
NBC's SCTV comedy program in 1981, studio
heads said they would not air Williams unless she changed out of a stage costume
that revealed her nipples. Williams refused. The show's make-up artists found a
compromise and painted her breasts black.
Solo career
In 1979 she appeared in Gail
Palmer's XXX-rated adult production, Candy Goes to Hollywood playing
herself (though she is credited as Wendy Williams). She is featured as a
performer on a parody of The Gong Show where she shoots ping pong
balls across the set from her vagina.[7]
Wendy recorded a duet of the country hit "Stand by Your Man" with Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead in 1982.
In 1984, she released the W.O.W. album, produced by Gene Simmons of Kiss. Kiss members Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, Eric Carr, and Vinnie Vincent also
perform on the album.
In 1985 Wendy starred in The Rocky Horror Show at the Westport
Playhouse in St. Louis. The show played for over six months, but a nationwide
tour fell through.
In 1986, she starred in Tom
DeSimone's indie-film Reform School Girls. Neither she nor
manager Rod Swenson liked the film when it came out, but at this point the
producers had heard Kommander of Kaos (her second solo album) and wanted
to include 3 tracks from the album in the movie score. They approached Rod about
producing the title track for the film and having Wendy sing it. The band
reluctantly agreed to do it. Uncle Brian from the Broc joined Rod as co-producer
and also played sax. He also appeared in the video that the film company had
asked Rod to produce and direct, playing the sax and wearing a tutu.
In 1987, she starred as the part-time friend/enemy in the underground spy
world to the title character on Fox's The New Adventures of Beans
Baxter. The Plasmatics' last tour was in late 1988. Williams appeared in
Pucker Up and Bark Like a Dog, directed by Paul S. Parco, in 1990.
In 1988, Wendy put out another solo album, this time a "thrash rap" album
called Deffest! and Baddest! under the name "Ultrafly and the Hometown
Girls."
Wendy's last known performance of a Plasmatics song occurred due to the prompting of Joey Ramone. She performed
"Masterplan" one final time with Richie Stotts, when Richie's band opened for the
Ramones on New Year's Eve, 1988.[8][9]
Retirement
In 1991, Williams moved to Storrs, Connecticut, where she lived with
her long-time companion and former manager, Rod Swenson, and worked as an animal
rehabilitator and at a food co-op in Willimantic.[10] She explained
this move by saying that she "was pretty fed up dealing with people."[11]
Despite her reputation as a fearsome performer, Williams in her personal life
was deeply devoted to the welfare of animals, a passion that included a vegetarian diet,
working as a wildlife rehabilitator and being a natural foods activist. In one
TV talk show appearance on KPIX's The Morning Show, she accused Debbi Fields (of "Mrs.
Fields" cookies) of being "no better than a heroin pusher" for using so much processed white sugar
in her products.[12]
Death
Williams had first attempted suicide in 1993 by hammering a knife into her
chest; the knife lodged in her sternum and she changed her mind, calling Swenson
to take her to hospital.[5] She
attempted suicide again in 1997 with an overdose of ephedrine.[5]
Williams died at age 48 on April 6, 1998 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in
a wooded area near her home. Rod Swenson, who had been Wendy's significant other
for more than twenty years, returned from shopping to the wooded area where the
two had lived since moving to Connecticut from New York. He found a package that
Wendy had left him with some special noodles he liked, a packet of seeds for
growing garden greens, some oriental massage balm, and sealed letters from
Wendy. The suicide letters which included a "living will" denying life support,
a love letter to Swenson, and various lists of things to do set Swenson
searching the woods looking for her. After about an hour, and after it was
almost dark, he found the body in woods near an area where she loved to feed the
wildlife. Several nut shells were on a nearby rock where she had apparently been
feeding some of the squirrels before she died. Swenson checked the body for a
pulse, and there was none. A pistol lay on the ground nearby, and he returned to
the house to call the local authorities. "Wendy's act was not an irrational
in-the-moment act," he said, she had been talking about taking her own life for
almost four years. Swenson reportedly described her as "despondent" at the time
of her suicide.[13] This is what she
is said to have written[14] in a suicide note regarding her
decision:
“
I
don't believe that people should take their own lives without deep and
thoughtful reflection over a considerable period of time. I do believe strongly,
however, that the right to do so is one of the most fundamental rights that
anyone in a free society should have. For me, much of the world makes no sense,
but my feelings about what I am doing ring loud and clear to an inner ear and a
place where there is no self, only calm.
The Plasmatics were an American heavy metal and punk band formed by Yale University art school graduate Rod
Swenson with Wendy O. Williams. The band was a
controversial group known for wild live shows that broke countless taboos. In
addition to chainsawing guitars, blowing up speaker cabinets and sledgehammering
television sets, Williams and the Plasmatics blew up automobiles live on stage.
Williams was arrested in Milwaukee
by the Milwaukee police before being charged with public indecency.[1]
The Plasmatics' career spanned five studio albums, and multiple EPs. The band
was composed of vocalist/front person Wendy O. Williams and various other musicians
rotated behind her over time. Aside from Wendy and manager Rod Swenson,
Guitarist Wes Beech
was the only other permanent member of the group. Guitarist Richie Stotts was a
co-founder of the band and a mainstay of the pre-breakup core group
(1978–1983).[2] After the breakup of
the band following the release of Coup d'Etat, Richie was edited
out of band videos and not referred to by name in a 2006 compilation DVD
released by Plasmatics Media LLC (via plasmatics.com).
History
Formation
(1977-1979)
In 1977, Rod Swenson, who received his MFA in 1969[3] from Yale where he
specialized in conceptual, performance, and neo-dadaist art, held the view that
the measure of true or high art is how confrontational it is. He began a series
of counter-culture projects which, by the mid-70s, found him in the heart of Times Square producing
experimental counter-culture theater as well as video and shows with the likes
of the then-little-known bands The Dead Boys, The Ramones, Patti Smith, and others. It was there that he met
Wendy O.
Williams (her actual birth-given name, the O. standing for Orlean and her
initials spelling "WOW") after Wendy happened upon a copy of Show Business Weekly someone had
discarded on the bus station floor. The issue lay open to a page with an ad in
the casting calls section for Rod's theater show Captain Kink's Sex Fantasy
Theater.[4] She
answered the ad and applied for a job.
Wendy and Rod began auditioning potential band members in 1977 and, in July
1978, the "Plasmatics" gave their first public performance at what would later
become the rock shrine CBGB on New York City's Bowery.[4] The
earliest version of the band was a three piece put together with a strong
emphasis on visuals. The band quickly realized they needed another guitarist to
hold them together musically. Guitarist Wes Beech joined the group; he would
become, after Wendy, the only permanent member of the group playing or touring
behind or involved in the production of every Plasmatics and Wendy O. Williams
record ever recorded.
From their initial gig at CBGB's, The Plasmatics quickly rose in the New York
City Punk Underground scene of the time. From playing a single weekday night,
they moved quickly to playing repeated stands of four nights straight with two
sold-out shows each night. They had lines stretching around the block and
brought more fans into CBGB's during this time than any other band in its
history. The group quickly outgrew CBGB's, largely because there were no
intermediate rock venues to play in New York City at that time. The band's stage
show soon became notorious, with acts such as chainsawing guitars in half part
of their performance.[5] Jim Farber
of Sounds
described the show: "Lead singer/ex-porn star/current weight lifter Wendy
Orleans Williams (W.O.W. for short) spends most of the Plasmatics' show fondling
her family size breasts, scratching her sweaty snatch and eating the drum kit,
among other playful events".[5]
Rod Swenson soon made a deal to book what was then a little known polka hall
called Irving Plaza from
the Polish War Veterans who ran it at the time. The band repeatedly sold out the
venue, with The Plasmatics helping to give Irving Plaza national recognition and
launch it on the path to becoming an established rock venue in New York City.
Having then caught the full attention of the most important people in the
entertainment world of New York City, the Plasmatics headlined the Palladium Theater on November 16, 1979,
the first group in history to do so at full ticket prices and without a major
label recording contract.[6]
New
Hope for the Wretched Era (1980-1981)
The Plasmatics were soon selling out shows in Philadelphia, Boston, venues in New Jersey, and elsewhere in the Northeast. Chris
Knowles of Classic Rock magazine wrote: The
Plasmatics "were the biggest live attraction in New York... and the media was on
them like white on rice... It's one thing to play at subversiveness, but The
Plasmatics, unlike other Punk bands... put their Punk philosophy into action."
Many U.S. record labels were afraid to sign the band; The band was signed by Stiff Records, a British label, in March
1980, and appeared on the cover of Sounds in June that year.[7][8] Artists
and Repertoire (A&R) from Stiff Records flew to New York City to see
a show in person to determine if what they had been reading and hearing could
possibly be real. The day after seeing the performance, Stiff put in an offer
and a deal was inked within a month. A few months later, The Plasmatics began to
record songs in New York City for what would become the album New
Hope for the Wretched.
In addition to songs like "Corruption" and "Living Dead", which were linked
to TV smashing and automobile destruction, the song "Butcher Baby" featured a
chainsaw sawing through a guitar in place of a guitar solo which also took place
during their live shows. The Plasmatics visited the UK for a tour, which met
with opposition from some quarters including the Greater
London Council (GLC), particularly for their intention to blow up a car as
part of their stage show and Williams' semi-nudity, and the GLC cancelled the
band's show at the Hammersmith Odeon after fire inspectors
decided the show would not meet safety requirements, although police had already
arrived to disperse the gathering crowd before the decision had officially been
taken.[7][9] Stiff
released "Butcher Baby" as a single where it reached No. 55 on the UK Singles Chart.[7]
Stiff America had scheduled a release and a US tour. To capitalize on the
band's popularity, the US edition of the album came packaged with a poster for
the cancelled Hammersmith Odeon show and an insert for the Plasmatics Secret
Service, the official fan club. The album reached No. 55 on the UK Albums Chart.[7] The band was
set to tour the West Coast for the first time after the London cancellation and
get their momentum back. To kick off the tour, Wendy drove a Cadillac towards a stage at a free concert on New York
City's Pier 62 loaded with explosives, jumping out moments before the car would
hit the stage, blowing up all the equipment.[4][10] The permits needed
for this were hard to get and only allowed for an estimated 5-6,000 people. The
day of the performance, 10,000 showed up,[11] jamming the
downtown streets and lining the rooftops. Even though it cost virtually the
entire advance for the US release of New Hope for the Wretched to do it,
Wendy was quoted by a reporter from the Associated Press as saying, "It was worth it
because it showed that these are just things and... people shouldn't worship
them," a point she'd repeat more than once.
The Plasmatics debut in Los Angeles was at the famed Whisky a Go Go. The show
was originally planned for only 2 nights, but was later expanded to 4 due to
large sold-out crowds.
The ABC
show Fridays, which was looking to be a
more cutting-edge version of Saturday Night Live, booked Wendy and
the Plasmatics to appear in late December to go live on national TV.[6]
In January 1981, Wiliams' stage performance in Milwaukee led to her arrest on
charges of indecency after she reportedly "simulated masturbation with a sledge
hammer in front of an audience".[12] After
objecting to being searched she was thrown to the ground and reportedly kicked
in the face (later requiring a dozen stitches), with manager Rod Swenson also
beaten unconscious when he tried to intervene.[12] Williams
was charged with battery of a police officer, resisting arrest, and "conduct in
violation of a Milwaukee city ordnance pertaining to establishments that sell
liquor",[12] with
Swenson also charged, but both were later cleared of all charges.[1][13] A
subsequent performance at the Palm Club sold out, and passed without incident,
although the venue was raided after the show by the vice squad, with more than
30 police officers in attendance in case of trouble.[12] Williams
was also arrested on obscenity charges in Cleveland, but she was again
acquitted.[4]
Beyond
the Valley of 1984 Era (1981-1982)
A second album was long overdue but due to the ongoing legal battles and the
Miller debacle with the first album, which was costly both in terms of time and
money, it was agreed that this one had to be lean and mean. Bruce Kirkland at
Stiff agreed to put up the funds as long as Rod produced and the album was done
in less than 3 weeks at a quarter of the cost of the first.
Given the recent turn of events, Rod proposed the name Beyond
the Valley of 1984 and the tour, in 1981, became "The 1984 World Tour".
In between touring drummers, Alice Cooper'sNeal Smith was brought in to do the
drumming for the record,[6] and the
album, with its Orwellian and
apocalyptic theme and songs such as "Masterplan", "Pig is a Pig", and "Sex
Junkie", was released a few months later. During recording for the album, The
Plasmatics were booked on the Tom
Snyder late night TV show, where Tom Snyder introduced them as possibly 'the
greatest punk rock band in the entire world."
The album cover for Beyond the Valley was photographed in the Arizona
desert where Wendy appears on horseback with the band (without a drummer) as the
"Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse".
The 1984 World Tour continued with the bold slogan "Down On Your Knees and
Pledge Allegiance!".
Metal Priestess EP
During the last part of the tour Rod had been contacted by American singer,
songwriter and record producer Dan Hartman's office asking that Dan have a meeting
with Wendy and Rod. Hartman, who produced acts .38 Special, James Brown, and others, had been working on a
session in LA when he picked up a copy of Beyond the Valley of 1984 and
could not stop playing it. He felt it was "ground breaking". He said, "I knew I
wanted to meet these people and do something with them." Dan came down to the
Tribeca loft, met Wendy and Rod, and a month later he and Rod were working on
the production of the Metal Priestessmini-LP. The band needed more product but another album
was premature, partly because Capitol Records was now making overtures for
the next one. Bruce at Stiff was ready to release it and that summer Metal
Priestess was recorded at Dan's private studio off his schoolhouse turned home
and studio in Connecticut and
released early that fall. Metal Priestess saw the band move closer to heavy metal, and
also included new members Chris "Junior" Romanelli (replacing Jean Beauvoir) and
Joey Reese.[14]
The band made an appearance on SCTVs "Fishin'
Musician" shortly after releasing Metal Priestess.
Coup d'Etat and the Electric Lady Land Sessions
(1982-1983)
By the spring of 1982, a worldwide deal was inked with Capitol Records, and
Dan Hartman offered to produce a demo of the album for Capitol with Rod at Electric Lady
Studios, Jimi Hendrix's old studio, in NY. The whole album
was arranged, recorded and mixed within a week. Dieter Dierks, who had just come off a number one
album with the Scorpions, also expressed interest in
producing.
Coup d'Etat was a
breakthrough album that began to blend the punk and metal genres, something that
would later be done time and time again by bands such as S.O.D.,
Anthrax, and the Cro-Mags by the end of the 1980s. Wendy
also broke ground for her unique singing style. She pushed her vocals so hard
she had to make trips into Cologne, Germany, where the album was being
recorded, each day for treatments to avoid permanent damage to her vocal
cords.
The Hartman demo was released 20 years later under the name Coup de Grace. The
rawer version of Coup d'Etat, which took
less than a tenth of the time and a fraction of the budget, is hailed by many
fans as the true version of the album.
The video Rod produced and directed of "The Damned" featured Wendy driving a
school bus through a wall of TVs, climbing onto the roof of a moving bus which
had been loaded with explosives, and then singing from the roof and jumping off
a few moments before the bus goes through a second wall of TVs and then blows
sky high.[15]
As touring began, it became clear that Capitol was beginning to turn away
from the group in favor of groups such as Duran Duran, who could generate ten times the sales
with none of the political liability and fallout. Soon after the album was
released, Capitol Records dropped The Plasmatics.[4]
Plasmatics "break-up", Wendy O. Williams' solo career
(1983-1986)
In 1982, KISS asked for Wendy and the Plasmatics to appear
as a special guest on their tour. KISS wanted the controversial street edge that
Wendy would bring as part of their tour and for the Plasmatics it was a chance
to play in front of different audiences in different markets than they would
ordinarily play. By the end of the tour with KISS it was clear that, although
the formal notice that Capitol would not pick up their option for a second album
did not come in for six months, the relationship with Capitol was done. It had
taken months and months for the deal to be done, months to record and release
the album and now months to get out of the deal. Gene Simmons approached Wendy and Rod about
producing the next Wendy O. Williams album. So as to avoid any wasted time in
legal issues with Capitol Records, it was decided not to use the Plasmatics name
on the record at all and was simply called W.O.W., the initials for Wendy O. Williams. Gene
Simmons felt it would give him the freedom he wanted to add more new players to
the album.
Wes Beech remained to play rhythm and lead and T.C. Tolliver, the drummer on
Coup d'Etat, remained to play on the new album. Gene Simmons played bass under the pseudonym of
"Reginald Van Helsing". The only other new player on the album was lead
guitarist Michael Ray, brought in to solve the technical challenges that had
been a problem for several albums and had come to a head with the more complex
music of Coup D'Etat. Gene also pulled in the talents of Ace Frehley, who had not played with KISS since
leaving the band years before, Paul Stanley, and then-current KISS drummer Eric Carr did one song as guests.
The record was released on Passport (international and U.S. distribution by
JEM).
Review copies were sent out to the various media outlets. Malcolm Dome, a
reviewer for KERRANG!
magazine, had picked the WOW album as his album of the year. Williams
received a Grammy nomination for 'Best Female Rock Vocal' in 1985.[1]
With Mohawks now starting to become common, Wendy decided to let her hair
grow in, and the cover Rod shot for what would be called the "album of the year"
in the pages of KERRANG! was the very opposite of the earlier covers;
total simplicity.
Wes Beech took a sabbatical for personal reasons and would not tour with the
band on the next tour. The band decided to return to being a 3-Piece. Wes came
in as Associate Producer with Rod on the album and worked on writing, arranging
and recording, but the recording would be Michael, TC, and Greg (who would go on
to play with Alice Cooper,
Richie Blackmore and others and who had been
brought in as the touring bassist for the WOW album). There was
tremendous excitement in tackling the project a kind of minimalist, stripped
down concept, or rite of purification. The songs, including the lyrics would be
also be minimalistic or archetypal again giving Wendy a chance to take her
vocals step further. The tempo of the WOW album had been slower than previous
albums in an effort to open it up, but the new album Kommander of Kaos
(a.k.a. KOK) was to bring back the speed and then some. Songs would be
played at breakneck speeds, with screaming leads and vocals. The recording was
done in Fairfield NJ at the giant Broccoli Rabe Recording complex which would be
home to numerous Wendy O./Plasmatics Projects including three studio albums with
what the group fondly called "The Fairfield Sound".
Maggots: The
Record Era (1987)
Wes had rejoined the band to both tour and play on the next album where the
re-formed 4 piece band became a centerpiece for perhaps the most complex
arrangements in the band's career. After the archetypal minimalism, both
lyrically and musically of Komander, the new album, which would again carry the
Plasmatics name, was again filled with complexity and returned to the social and
political themes previously found most strongly in Coup but in 1984 before it:
environmental decay and a world where excess and abuse led directly to a
doomsday scenario. Maggots:
The Record was recorded in 1987 and set 25 years in the future where
environmental abuse and the burning of fossil fuels have created a greenhouse
effect leading to an end of the world scenario. Called by many the first "thrash
metal opera", the central theme of the album is an end of the world scenario
that follows from genetic engineering and global warming, something that was not
at all part of the general public awareness of the time. A group of scientists
trying to eliminate pollution in the rivers and oceans develop an RNA retro
virus designed to eat it all up and then die once the pollution has been
consumed. But global warming leading to the flooding of land areas instead puts
the virus in contact with the "common maggot" leading to a mutated form of
maggot that doubles in size with each generation looking for more and more
things to consume. In the 'end of the world' finale cities are being destroyed
and humans consumed by giant maggots a horrific metaphorical end to a world
blind to human consumption and environmental destruction.
The album features various scenes of The White Family over the course of
three days. The family is devoured while watching a TV game show. Valerie, the
girlfriend of hot-shot television reporter Bruce is devoured by three massive
maggots while lying in her boyfriend's bed. The final scene has Cindy White
trying to fight off the attacking maggots and running out onto a fire escape
where she sees the crowded streets below as the record shows the entire human
population is headed for imminent annihilation. The album was on the WOW label;
distributed by Profile
Records in the U.S. and overseas by GWR Records, which had been started by Motörhead's longtime manager
Doug Smith.
Wendy did a performance piece to inaugurate the album at NYC's Palladium, which had been transformed
from a proscenium theater into huge multi-level club where she sledgehammered
and chainsawed to smithereens a facsimile all-American living room. "Maggots:
The Tour" began a week later using the Plasmatics name for the first time in two
albums with slogans such as "Those Now Eating Will Soon Be Eaten," "The Day of
the Humans is Gone," and lyrics such as "soldiers for the DNA dissidents are put
away, dragged off in the dead of night, disappear without a sight". Rear screen
projectors ran film of human disasters, fascists and other historical horrors,
environmental carnage and human rights violations on huge screens behind the
band during all the songs from the Maggots album.
A review in Kerrang! came
out shortly thereafter: A 5 out of 5 Ks, "Quite simply a masterpiece... a work
of genius." Wendy's vocals "reduces Celtic Frost's Tom G. Warrior's 'death
grunts' to mere whimpers" it went on coupled with "a mixture of hedonistic
operatic melodies..gut forged to some of the heaviest armadillo beats you're
ever like to hear committed to vinyl."
Motörhead collaboration and the Stand by Your Man (EP)
In 1982, Lemmy of Motörhead was
approached by his label to do a follow-up to his successful Motörhead/Girlschool collaboration, St. Valentine's Day
Massacre EP and Motorhead's manager Doug Smith got in touch with Rod
Swenson in the states and proposed a Wendy and Lemmy duet of the country classic
"Stand By Your Man". The B side would have two
tracks, the Plasmatics "Masterplan" sung by Lemmy and Motorhead's "No Class" sung by Williams. The A
side would have Wendy and Lemmy do a duet of the title track of the EP.[16]
Tracked at a Canadian recording studio, the Stand by Your
Man sessions proved to be tumultuous as guitarist Eddie Clarke (who was
producing the tracks, but not playing on them) quit Motorhead in the middle of
the project. Rod Swenson and Dan Hartman, who had finished demoing the
Plasmatics Coup d'Etat album together, were called upon to finish the rough and
raw project in the mix which they did at Electric Lady Studios in New York. Rod
then shot the cover with Lemmy and Wendy on it and the raw crude project was put
out by Bronze records.
A reviewer concluded "their sandpaper-throated duet on Tammy Wynette's country
standard "Stand By Your Man" has to be one of hard rock's greatest-ever middle
fingers to the mainstream." The review goes on to say, "The Plasmatics,
therefore, wreaked havoc on 'No Class' while Motörhead hammered out a leering
take of 'Masterplan.'[17]
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