quinta-feira, 18 de outubro de 2012

Wendy O. Williams & The Plasmatics - The DVD: 10 Years Of Revolutionary Rock & Roll













































































Wendy O. Williams Info (from wikipedia):

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-sawing guitars.
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.
Gene Simmons, Joey Ramone, and many others issued statements on her achievement at the time of her death. On Motörhead's 1999 live album Everything Louder Than Everyone Else, before the song "No Class", Motörhead vocalist Lemmy said that he wanted to dedicate this song officially to her.[15]
A memorial was held at CBGB on May 18.[16] Several of Wendy's former Plasmatics co-members (Chosei Funahara, Richie Stotts, Wes Beech, Stu Deutsch, Jean Beauvoir and TC Tolliver) played a six-song set with four of them handling the vocals.[17][18]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_O._Williams )









































Plasmatics Info (from wikipedia):

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's Neal 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 Priestess mini-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]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasmatics )

The Plasmatics making a video in a west side meat locker in New York City 7/22/80.




























More Info Related WebSites:

http://mvdb2b.com/s/WendyOWilliamsThePlasmaticsTheDVD10YearsOfRevolutionaryRockRoll/DR-4522 + http://www.discogs.com/Plasmatics-The-Ten-Years-Of-Revolutionary-Rock-And-Roll-The-DVD/release/3510878 + http://www.wendyowilliams.com/ + http://www.plasmatics.com/


DVD Trailer, Clip & Interviews from Youtube:







quinta-feira, 26 de julho de 2012

Rockbitch - Bitchcraft














































































About Rockbitch:

Rockbitch was an expat, British, mostly female, Celtic punk/metal/goth band, best known for performing nude and incorporating sexual acts and Pagan rituals into their performances.

History

Rockbitch was originally formed as Red Abyss by bassist Amanda, who drew other band members from the matriarchal, polyamorous, pagan, feminist community of which she was the prime founder.
Musically, Red Abyss drew on jazz, funk and rock influences dominated by singer Julie's Janis Joplin-influenced vocals. In time, its music took on harder punk and metal edginess. Red Abyss switched to the Rockbitch name when the lineup changed: a male drummer (Steve) was replaced by Jo. The line up varied over time with other characters such as 'Luci the Stage Slut', 'The Haema-Whore', Kali and Erzulie the Sex Magik Priestesses all making appearances.
The former two were primarily a combination of sexual performance artist and gonzo-camera team; capturing closeups of stage action to be displayed on the projection screen at the rear. They were also responsible for the cued playing of prepared art videos of subject matter relating to the songs. These included child clitoridectomy, public stonings of adulterous women, binge/vomiting models, etc.
The latter two were primarily sexually explicit performers, described as 'Archetypes of the Dark Feminine psyche' personifying Kali, the Hindu Goddess of death, and Erzulie, the Voudoo Goddess of Love.
At its intended last gig (at a biker festival), the decision to incorporate the orgiastic, pagan sex from its home life into the stage act gave birth to Rockbitch.[citation needed]
The band toured Germany, France, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, the UK, (but were banned from venues in Scotland), Italy, Spain, Finland, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Estonia and did a promotional tour that involved Canada (but were eventually also banned from the intended venues without having played), while instituting its new theme of liberation through sexual freedom.
Rockbitch became infamous not only for performing live sex acts, but also doing so with audience members via "The Golden Condom". At a point during its show, a condom was tossed to the crowd and whoever caught it (male or female) was taken backstage for sexual relations with one or more band members.[1]
This led to critics saying they tried to use sex and paganism to sell bad music; however, fellow musicians from disciplines as varied as jazz (bassist Jonas Hellborg) have voiced their appreciation.[citation needed]
Rockbitch toured widely from approximately 1998 until 2002, meeting increasing resistance from authorities, particularly English, German and Norwegian town councils who often banned its concerts.
Because of the banning in Almelo in the Netherlands, Dutch TV producer TVAmsterdam caught attention on the band, and was forced by a non-Dutch "manager" to arrange a concert in a town outside Amsterdam (Zaandam), to record the show as it went, adding some extra footage to complete the documentary "Bitchcraft".
It was local authorities, not the public itself, who caused a struggle. Babe stated in the program Anna in Wonderland : "Rockbitch had no problem with lads out for seeing breasts, as they were a component of the audience, there were always others seeing the deeper meaning and both groups had a good time. They generally made up for a great combined atmosphere".[2]
Outside the UK (and censorship problems it also encountered in some states of Germany)[citation needed] audiences were sympathetic, particularly in Holland, where they drew vast crowds of men and women from all walks of life.[citation needed]
The Rockbitch lineup became entirely female in 2000. Original lead guitarist Tony (known as 'The Beast') retired, taking over management/production. Alexandra (known as 'Babe') moved into lead guitar duties (from rhythm) while Luci, previously a "Stage Slut" (one of the nude dancers and sexual band/crowd liaisons), instead strapped on a rhythm guitar.

Activism

Members lent their voices to female and sexual issues, were winners of the yearly prize at the Sex Maniacs Ball (now Night of the Senses) founded by Tuppy Owens, openly voiced their admiration for sexual politics icons such as Annie Sprinkle and Betty Dodson, and generally put in a good word for open female sexuality as a healthy part of human nature.[3]
Via the Rockbitch website, on which members could also view their community life, the band had contact with straight/bi/lesbian women reaching as far as Borneo, Chile, Japan, India and the US, all of whom expressed a sense of empowerment and justification by the stated beliefs of Rockbitch.[citation needed]

Dissolution

After the release of its first studio album, Motor Driven Bimbo, which received critical acclaim in many countries (OOR Magazine in The Netherlands, the UK, and Japan),[citation needed] Rockbitch was dropped by its record company.
A second, goth-influenced album called Psychic Attack, which featured the song "I Wish I Were" written by American poetess Erzsebet Beck, was never released.
Following continued pressure from British Interpol about its sexually driven themes and performances, Rockbitch ceased performing in 2002 and was the subject of a 30-minute documentary on BBC Choice the same year.[4] A further, hour-long documentary was broadcast on Channel 5 in the UK in 2003.[5]
In 2005, the entire latter-day Rockbitch lineup emerged under the name MT-TV. This was a music-only project—no sex or nudity of the Rockbitch days—but it incorporated stage theatrics. After a UK tour in summer 2005, they performed throughout the United States.[citation needed]
Amanda and Jo subsequently went on to form the band Syren with singer/songwriter Erin Bennett in 2006. Jo died from cancer on 11 January 2012.[6]


Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockbitch

More Info: http://www.discogs.com/Rockbitch-Bitchcraft/release/2236840
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298524/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rockbitch-Rock-Bitch-Bitchcraft-Video/dp/B001PPPLRQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343327852&sr=8-1
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL242F9B96A423A99D

http://www.rockbitch.com/
http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/rockbitches/motordrivenbimbo.html&date=2009-10-26+01:46:12
http://www.mttv.vldesign.com/

sábado, 23 de junho de 2012

Manifesto da SCUM













































































About the SCUM Manifesto (taken from wikipedia):

The SCUM Manifesto is a radical feminist manifesto[1][2] written in 1967[3][4] by Valerie Solanas. It argues that men have ruined the world and that women should overthrow society and eliminate the male sex.[5][6]

Publication history

Solanas began drafting the SCUM Manifesto as early as 1959 or 1960.[7] In 1967, she self-published the first edition by making two thousand mimeographed copies and selling them on the streets of Greenwich Village in New York City.[3][4][8] Solanas charged women one dollar and men two dollars each.[9][10][11] By the following spring, about 400 copies had been sold.[12][13]
The first commercial edition of the Manifesto was published by Olympia Press in New York in 1968. It includes a preface by Maurice Girodias and an essay titled "Wonder Waif Meets Super Neuter" by Paul Krassner.[14] According to Sharon Jansen, there are subtle differences between the 1968 Olympia Press edition and Solanas' original mimeographed version.[15] In an interview with The Village Voice, Solanas commented on the Olympia Press edition, complaining that "none of the corrections ... [she] wanted made were included and that many other changes in wording were made—all for the worse—and that there were many 'typographical errors': words and even extended parts of sentences left out, rendering the passages they should've been in incoherent."[16] In 1977, Solanas self-published a "correct" edition which was closer to the original version and included an introduction written by herself.[17]
The SCUM Manifesto has been reprinted at least ten times in English and translated into Croatian, Czech, Finnish,[18] French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish,[19] Portuguese, Dutch,[20] and Danish.[21] It has also been excerpted in several feminist anthologies,[22] including Sisterhood Is Powerful, a collection of radical feminist writing edited by Robin Morgan.[23][24] Verso Books published an edition in 2004 with an introduction by feminist philosopher Avital Ronell.[25] Jon Purkis and James Bowen describe the SCUM Manifesto as a "pamphlet which has become one of the longest surviving perennials of anarchist publishing".[26]
Solanas's sister, Judith A. Solanas Martinez, is the reported copyright holder of the SCUM Manifesto by 1997 renewal.[27]

Contents

The SCUM Manifesto consists of an introduction, a list of grievances, and a conclusion.[14]

Introduction

The manifesto opens with the following declaration:[28]

"Life" in this "society" being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of "society" being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and eliminate the male sex.
Solanas begins by presenting a theory of the male as an "incomplete female" who is genetically deficient due to the Y chromosome.[29] According to Solanas, this genetic deficiency causes the male to be emotionally limited, egocentric, and incapable of mental passion or genuine interaction. She describes the male as lacking empathy and unable to relate to anything apart from his own physical sensations.[30]
The manifesto continues by arguing that the male spends his life attempting to become female, and thereby overcome his inferiority. He does this by "constantly seeking out, fraternizing with and trying to live though and fuse with the female." Solanas rejects Freud's theory of penis envy, and argues that men have "pussy envy". Solanas then accuses men of turning the world into a "shitpile" and presents a long list of grievances.[31]

List of grievances

The bulk of the manifesto consists of a litany of grievances against the male sex. The grievances are divided into the following sections:[32]
  • War
  • Niceness, Politeness and "Dignity"
  • Money, Marriage and Prostitution, Work and Prevention of an Automated Society
  • Fatherhood and Mental Illness (fear, cowardice, timidity, humility, insecurity, passivity)
  • Suppression of Individuality, Animalism (domesticity and motherhood) and Functionalism
  • Prevention of Privacy
  • Isolation, Suburbs and Prevention of Community
  • Conformity
  • Authority and Government
  • Philosophy, Religion and Morality Based on Sex
  • Prejudice (racial, ethnic, religious, etc.)
  • Competition, Prestige, Status, Formal Education, Ignorance and Social and Economic Classes
  • Prevention of Conversation
  • Prevention of Friendship and Love
  • "Great Art" and "Culture"
  • Sexuality
  • Boredom
  • Secrecy, Censorship, Suppression of Knowledge and Ideas, and Exposés
  • Distrust
  • Ugliness
  • Hate and Violence
  • Disease and Death
Conclusion

Due to the aforementioned grievances, the manifesto concludes that the elimination of the male sex is a moral imperative.[33] It also argues that women must replace the "money-work system" with a system of complete automation, as this will lead to the collapse of the government and the loss of men's power over women.[34]
In order to accomplish these goals, the manifesto proposes that a revolutionary vanguard of women be formed. This vanguard is referred to as SCUM. The manifesto argues that SCUM should employ sabotage and direct action tactics rather than civil disobedience, as civil disobedience is only useful for making small changes to society. In order to destroy the system, violent action is necessary: "If SCUM ever marches, it will be over the President's stupid, sickening face; if SCUM ever strikes, it will be in the dark with a six-inch blade."[35]
The manifesto ends by describing a female-dominated utopian future in which there is no money, and disease and death have been eliminated. It argues that men are irrational to defend the current system and should accept the necessity of their destruction.[36]

Reception and criticism

Various critics and scholars have analyzed the Manifesto and Solanas's statements regarding it. Prof. Dana Heller said the author had an "anarchic social vision"[37] and the Manifesto had "near-utopian theories"[38] and a "utopian vision of a world in which mechanization and systems of mass (re)production would render work, sexual intercourse, and the money system obsolete."[39] According to Village Voice reviewer B. Ruby Rich, "SCUM was an uncompromising global vision",[9] in the Manifesto criticizing men for many faults including war and not curing disease; many but not all points were "quite accurate";[9] some kinds of women were also criticized, subject to women's changing when men are not around;[40] and sex (as in sexuality) was criticized as "exploitative".[41]
Feminist critic Germaine Greer said that Solanas argued that both genders were separated from their humanity[42] and that men want to be like women.[43] Alice Echols says the Manifesto articulates gender as absolute rather than relative.[44]
Heller argued that the Manifesto shows women's separation from basic economic and cultural resources and, because of psychological subordination to men, women's perpetuation of that separation.[45] Robert Marmorstein of the Voice said that SCUM's main message included that "men have fouled up the world" and "are no longer necessary (even biologically)".[46] Sharon L. Jansen said Solanas considered men "biological[ly] inferior".[47] According to Laura Winkiel, the Manifesto wants heterosexual capitalism overthrown and the means of production taken over by women.[48] Rich and Jansen said that technology and science would be welcome in the future.[49][50]
Jansen describes the plan for creating a women's world as mainly nonviolent, as based on women's nonparticipation in the current economy and having nothing to do with any men, thereby overwhelming police and military forces,[47] and, if solidarity among women was insufficient, some women could take jobs and "unwork", causing systemic collapse;[51] and describes the plan as anticipating that by eliminating money there'd be no need to kill men.[52] Heller said the Manifesto would let drag queens live and be "useful" and "productive".[53] Jansen and Winkiel say that Solanas imagined a women-only world.[54][55] Winkiel says the Manifesto imagines a violent revolutionary coup by women.[56] Prof. Ginette Castro found the Manifesto was "the feminist charter on violence", supporting terrorist hysteria.[57] According to Jansen, Solanas posited men as animals who will be stalked and killed as prey, the killers using weapons as "phallic symbols turned against men".[58] Rich, Castro, reviewer Claire Dederer, Betty Friedan, Prof. Debra Diane Davis, Deborah Siegel, Winkiel, Marmorstein, and Greer said that Solanas' plan was largely to eliminate men, including by men murdering each other, although Rich thought it might be Swiftian satire and that men's retraining was an alternative in the Manifesto, Castro did not take the elimination of men as serious, and Marmorstein included criminal sabotage of men.[59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][46][42]
According to Jansen, it called for reproduction only of females,[47] and not even of females once the problems of aging and death were solved so that a next generation would no longer be needed.[67]
According to Siegel, the Manifesto "articulated bald female rage",[68] while Jansen says the Manifesto is "shocking" and breathtaking.[69] Rich described Solanas as a "one-woman scorched-earth squad"[41] and Siegel says the stance was "extreme"[70] and "reflected a more general disaffection with nonviolent protest in America overall."[70] Rich says the Manifesto brought out women's "despair and anger" and advanced feminism[41] and, according to Winkiel, U.S. radical feminism emerged because of this "declaration of war against capitalism and patriarchy".[3] Heller suggests the Manifesto is chiefly socialist-materialist.[71] Echols has argued that Solanas had "unabashed misandry",[72] and people associated with Andy Warhol (whom she shot) and various media saw it as "man-hating".[73]

As parody and satire

Laura Winkiel, an associate professor of English at the University of Colorado at Boulder, argues that the "SCUM manifesto parodies the performance of patriarchal social order it refuses." Winkiel further suggests that the manifesto is "an illicit performance, a mockery of the 'serious' speech acts of patriarchy." The SCUM women mock the way in which certain men run the world and legitimize their power, Winkiel contends.[74] Similarly, sociologist Ginette Castro states:

If we examine the text more closely, we see that its analysis of patriarchal reality is a parody [...] The content itself is unquestionably a parody of the Freudian theory of femininity, where the word woman is replaced by man [...] All the cliches of Freudian psychoanalytical theory are here: the biological accident, the incomplete sex, "penis envy" which has become "pussy envy," and so forth [...] Here we have a case of absurdity being used as a literary device to expose an absurdity, that is, the absurd theory which has been used to give "scientific" legitimacy to patriarchy [...] What about her proposal that men should quite simply be eliminated, as a way of clearing the dead weight of misogyny and masculinity? This is the inevitable conclusion of the feminist pamphlet, in the same way that Jonathan Swift's proposal that Irish children (as useless mouths) should be fed to the swine was the logical conclusion of his bitter satirical pamphlet protesting famine in Ireland. Neither of the two proposals is meant to be taken seriously, and each belongs to the realm of political fiction, or even science fiction, written in a desperate effort to arouse public consciousness.[75]
James Penner reads the manifesto as a satirical text. He states that "[l]ike other feminist satires, the 'SCUM Manifesto' attempts to politicize women by attacking particular masculine myths that are embedded in American popular culture." He adds that "[a]s a work of satire, the 'SCUM Manifesto' is rhetorically effective in that it deconstructs the reader's received notions of masculinity and femininity."[76] English professor Carl Singleton notes the "outrageous nature" of the manifesto and Solanas' increasing mental instability, which, he argues, led many people to trivialize the text. Singleton adds that "[o]thers saw the document as a form of political satire in the style of Jonathan Swift's 'A Modest Proposal.'"[77] Similarly, Sharon L. Jansen compared it to Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, describing "its craft ... [as having] satiric brilliance"[78] and calling Solanas "cool and mordantly funny".[79] The bulletin of the Project of Transnational Studies echoes the comparison to Jonathan Swift, stating that "[a] more common strategy is to read SCUM as an instance of political fiction or parody in the vein of Jonathan Swift."[80] Writing for Spin in September 1996, Charles Aaron calls the SCUM Manifesto a "riotous, pre-feminist satire".[81] Film director Mary Harron called the manifesto a "brilliant satire" and described its tone as "very funny".[82] According to Rich of The Village Voice, the work possibly was "satire"[9] and could be read as "literal or symbolic".[41] Winkiel said, "[t]he humor and anger of satire invites women to produce this feminist script by taking on the roles of the politically performative SCUM females";[83] in other words, the satire invites women to act as the Manifesto calls. Paul Krassner, who was a personal acquaintance of Solanas, called the manifesto a "dittoed document of pathological proselytization with occasional overtones of unintentional satire."[84]
Solanas's first publisher, Maurice Girodias, thought of it as "a joke"[85] and described the manifesto, according to J. Hoberman, as "a Swiftian satire on the depraved behavior, genetic inferiority, and ultimate disposability of the male gender".[86] Solanas, however, disagreed with Girodias on several points.[87] In 1968, speaking to Marmorstein, she characterized herself on the "'SCUM thing'" as "'dead serious.'"[88] Alexandra DeMonte, however, argues that Solanas "later claimed that her manifesto was simply a satire."[6]

SCUM as literary device

In 1977, Solanas told Smith and Van der Horst, "["'the society'"] .... [i]s just a literary device. There's no organization called SCUM—there never was, and there never will be."[89] Claire Dederer said, "Solanas ... described [the term] SCUM as a kind of 'literary device.'"[61] Solanas said to Smith and Van der Horst, "'[she] thought of it as a state of mind .... [in that] women who think a certain way are in SCUM .... [and] [m]en who think a certain way are in the men's auxiliary of SCUM.'"[90]

SCUM as acronym or not

Though it has come to be said that "SCUM" stands for "Society For Cutting Up Men" (said in places such as on the cover of one edition[91] and inside another,[92] in The New York Times,[93] and elsewhere[94][95]), this phrase actually occurs nowhere in the text. Heller argued that "there is no reliable evidence that Solanas intended SCUM to stand as an acronym for 'Society for Cutting Up Men'."[96] Susan Ware et al. state that it was Solanas' publisher Girodias who claimed that SCUM was an acronym for "Society for Cutting Up Men", something Solanas never seems to have intended.[97] Gary Dexter contends that Solanas called it the SCUM Manifesto without periods after the letters of SCUM. Dexter adds: "The spelling out of her coded title by Girodias was one more act of patriarchal intervention, an attempt to possess."[98]
However, the phrase is on the cover of the 1967 self-published edition, after the title, in "'Presentation of ... SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) ....'"[99]
The word "SCUM" is used in the text in reference to a certain type of women, not to men. It refers to empowered women, "SCUM - dominant, secure, self-confident, nasty, violent, selfish, independent, proud, thrill-seeking, free-wheeling, arrogant females, who consider themselves fit to rule the universe, who have free-wheeled to the limits of this `society' and are ready to wheel on to something far beyond what it has to offer".[100] According to Avitel Ronell, that "SCUM" was intended as an acronym was a "belated add-on", which Solanas later rejected.[101]

Influence

Whether the Manifesto should be considered a feminist classic is challenged by Heller because the Manifesto rejected a hierarchy of greatness,[39] but she said it "remains an influential feminist text."[104]

Women and shooting

Laura Winkiel argues that, among the effects of the Manifesto, Solanas shot Warhol[105] and cited her Manifesto so people could understand why.[73][9] Heller, however, stated that Solanas "intended no connection between the manifesto and the shooting".[96] James Martin Harding suggests that "there is no clear indication in Solanas' ambiguous statement to reporters that the contents of the manifesto would explain the specifics of her actions, at least not in the sense of providing a script for them."[106] Harding understands the SCUM Manifesto is an "extension, not the source, of performative acts, even a violent one act like the shooting of Warhol."[107]
Winkiel argues that revolutionary Roxanne Dunbar moved to the U.S. "convinced that a women's revolution had begun",[108][9] forming Cell 16 with a program based on the Manifesto.[109] According to Winkiel, although Solanas was "outraged" at the women's movement's "appropriat[ion]" of the Manifesto,[110] "the shooting [of Warhol] represented the feminist movement's righteous rage against patriarchy"[73] and Dunbar and Ti-Grace Atkinson considered the Manifesto as having initiated a "revolutionary movement",[73] Atkinson (according to Rich) calling Solanas the "'first outstanding champion of women's rights'"[9] and probably (according to Greer) having been "radicalized" by the language of the Manifesto to leave the National Organization for Women (NOW),[42] and (according to Winkiel) women organized in support of Solanas.[111] Solanas was viewed as too mentally ill and too bound up with Andy Warhol, according to Greer, "for her message to come across unperverted."[42] According to Prof. Davis, the Manifesto was a "forerunner"[112] as a "call to arms among pragmatic American feminists"[112] and was "enjoy[ing] ... wide contemporary appeal".[113] According to Winkiel, the Manifesto "was ... influential in the spread of 'womansculture' and lesbian separatism"[114] and is also "credited with beginning the antipornography movement."[115] Friedan opposed the Manifesto as bad for the feminist movement and NOW.[116]

Film and television

Scum Manifesto is also the title of a 1976 short film directed by Carole Roussopoulos and Delphine Seyrig. In the film, Seyrig reads several passages from a french translation of Solanas's manifesto.[117]
Warhol later satirized the whole event in a subsequent movie, Women in Revolt, calling a group similar to Solanas's S.C.U.M., "P.I.G." (Politically Involved Girlies).
Solanas's creative work and relationship with Andy Warhol is depicted in the 1996 film, I Shot Andy Warhol, a significant portion of which relates to the SCUM Manifesto, and Solanas's disputes on notions of authorship with Warhol. The Venture Bros. television animation episode "Viva Los Muertos!" featured a character named Velma[118] who directly quotes the S.C.U.M. Manifesto throughout the episode.[citation needed]

Literature

The title story of the Michael Blumlein short story collection, The Brains of Rats, employs the Manifesto to illustrate the male protagonist's hatred of himself and his gender.
In 2006, Swedish author Sara Stridsberg published a semi-fictional biography of Valerie Solanas, Drömfakulteten (The Dream Faculty), in which the Manifesto is referred to on several occasions.[119] Parts of the Manifesto are also cited in the book.

Music

Solanas is quoted on the sleeve notes of the Manic Street Preachers debut album Generation Terrorists. Their song "Of Walking Abortion" on the album The Holy Bible is named after a quote from the manifesto.[citation needed] Liverpool punk band Big in Japan composed the song "Society for Cutting Up Men" directly inspired by the manifesto.[citation needed] The British band S.C.U.M. is named after the manifesto.[120] On Matmos' 2006 album The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast, one of the tracks is "Tract for Valerie Solanas" and featured excerpts of the S.C.U.M. Manifesto.[121]


These extract text are taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCUM_Manifesto

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Solanas + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Shot_Andy_Warhol


Two related clips from YouTube: