I Was a Teenage Punk Rocker - Why Dedication Beats Fanaticism Anyday! Even for Punk Rock or Success in Any Field!

"Do something once or do it everyday." - Andy Warhol

Just like the title says, I was a famous punk rocker... Really.... It's true. I was a famous (sort of) punk rocker.... Woo Hoo! And dedication does matter... Even if it is dedication to something that seems as ridiculous as punk rock...

Early 1980 at Santa Barbara for one of our last gigs

I think that everyone knows that dedication has immense value... It is especially valuable if that dedication is true dedication over the long term and not short-term fanaticism.

I was the lead singer of a famous one-hit-wonder band of the late 1970s. Why were we only "One Hit Wonders?" Because we weren't "dedicated" to what we were doing. We were short-term fanatics. 

By some miracle, or accident of god, even though we were terrible, we sold a sh*t-load of records back then. Bands like the Dead Kennedys or Black Flag were opening bands for our shows. We used to play many shows with bands like the seminal Los Angeles Punk band, Fear. The bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea, was a bassist for Fear at one time.

Left to right: Furukawa Taro, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist, Flea, me at Tokyo Dome.

Guys like Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedy's and the members of Black Flag, Flea and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are dedicated. That's why they have performed for such a long time. We were fanatics, so we faded quickly into oblivion.

Dedicated people stick with something for a long time. Fanatics are like people who get interested in a new religion one day and they are "on fire" about it for a very short time... Yes. "On fire" is a good description... So "on fire" are they that they also burn out quickly and lose interest. 

The dedicated ones are on a slow, evenly burning flame...

Maybe it's like "falling in love" is comparable to fanaticism; "falling in love" is easy and quick but can end too soon in a sudden fashion. Dedication is like "true love;" "true love" lasts a long time and requires dedication and work to achieve. 

If you do something, anything, try to be dedicated not fanatical.

Back in those days I hung around with lots of kind of famous people. Many of those people who were famous in those days are now dead...

That's me on the left

But the guys in my band (and I) were stupid. A lot of those people from the other bands figured out something that the guys in my band were too dense to realize... What did they realize? Well, it's simple; if you want to be famous and live off of playing music then you have to live it. I mean really live it. You have to dedicate to it. Many people do the talk... Few do the walk. My band wouldn't do the basics. We wouldn't dedicate.

Why didn't we figure out? Well, we didn't figure it out that "Stick-to-it-tiveness" and "dedication" pay off... We wanted the easy way to fame and fortune. It was so easy to make our first hit, that I think it spoiled the hell out of us. We got lazy and didn't work hard. 

What I am getting at is that, "...if you keep to your guns, and do not compromise and work hard, then maybe, perhaps, you can succeed..." If you don't keep at it, then you fail for certain.... 

Is there any business or endeavor in the world that doesn't require dedication and stick-to-it-tiveness?

It's pretty easy when you look at it that way, isn't it? You either do or you don't.

"There is no try. There is only do or not do." - Yoda from Star Wars

May I digress? There is one other reason we didn't succeed; we were conceited jerks. Long ago, I worked with one of the most famous DJs in the entire world, the world famous Rodney on the Roq (Rodney Bingenheimer). He told me, "You have to be nice to everyone because you never know who will become famous or powerful someday." It's true. In show business, you never know who will one day become a famous producer or get married to a powerful person.

It took me years to figure out what he meant. He is absolutely right! Now, I try to be nice to everyone. Even the old cleaning lady who comes to the station to clean up everyday. Who does she come to clean up for? Of course because it is for her job, but she also comes to clean up for us! So we can have a clean environment to work in.

Great ideas and creations do not come from dirt and filth; they come from clean and fresh and healthy ideas and places.

I told the guys in my band, at that time, that "If we just stay together for the time it takes to build a crowd and a solid reputation - maybe 10 to 15 years - even without any hits - we can be famous and live off of playing music all our lives." (Perhaps that's also what Malcolm Gladwell talks about in his book "Outliers" that says "10,000 hours of work are required for success in any field.")

But it was not to be for us...

Alas, we were too hard-headed and selfish too see the truth in dedication. My band spent more time fighting over silly stuff like trying to alter other people's behavior to accommodate our own, rather than playing and practicing hard. 

The Rotters 1977 (L to R) Phester Swollen, Johnny Condom, Nigel Nitro (me), Rip Chord

What a waste! Now we are all businessmen and/or unemployed and live with high-blood pressure, stress and all sorts of diseases and sicknesses that are going to kill us ASAP. 

What a fun life, eh?

Now, please allow me to indulge myself and allow me now to ramble quite a bit....

From late 1977 to Jan. of 1980, my name was Nigel Nitro and I was the lead singer of a punk band called the Rotters. We had a single that sold 600,000 records in Europe; supposedly 1 million records all over the world. (But remember that record labels always inflate their numbers so remove a zero from those and you are probably closer to the real totals! Still not bad.)

It was also the only song by an American band that the Clash played for the BGM of their first American tour. It was also one of the first (and only?) records to be banned nationwide on American FM radio. The song was called, "Sit on my Face, Stevie Nicks." It was a monster hit and why were are called "one-hit wonders."

Listen to: The Rotters - Sit on my Face Stevie Nicks here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKtASyCinfc

It was all a scam (of course, it was Punk rock, right?)... I think about it now and can't figure out how the guitarist, Phester (real name is Tom) and I arranged all that... But we did. We talked people into recording our record, making a master, and printing it.... All for free...

It was totally DIY in late 1977!

By some miracle of timing, we were lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time to be one of the late 1970s Los Angeles punk bands... 

At that time, I had all the most beautiful girls in town as my girl friends (in my vanity I considered them decorations) and our band was hot and famous. We charted on radio stations all over the country and were guests several times on Rodney Bingenheimer's radio show on KROQ and, according to Rodney, "The most requested song in the history of the radio show..." (beating even the Bay City Rollers and the Sex Pistols!).... 

I met the Clash, the Ramones, Blondie, Phil Spector, the Knack (My Sharona) and many others; we played at the Masque for Brendan Mullen with the Germs, the Dils, the Bags, The Screamers; as I said, we often played gigs with Fear, the Angry Samoans, Black Flag (before Henry Rollins) and bands like the Dead Kennedy's were the opening band for our shows!.... I was even at the debut show of the Go-Gos (they were terrible! - but they stuck with it!) and I've gotten high with Dee Dee Ramone and the Ramones many times before and with so many artists that I can't name them all.... In fact, I've even gotten stoned with Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO in Santa Barbara in 1979 or 80! All because I was in a one-hit wonder band!

Joey Ramone and I even became good friends one day many years later....

Oh, those were the days, my friends. I thought they'd never end! We'd sing and laugh forever and a day....

So don't you tell me there's no god!

How did that happen?

Here's how: I was a college student in 1977. I was a full-time stoner... I never studied... One day I came home from school "high," as usual, and turned on the TV.... 

TV in those days was sometimes redeeming as I found Monty Python at that time (I have always been an "early adopter") and would come home to watch PBS. There, that day, on the TV was a program about this, "New and sick music craze that was sweeping Britain!" It was Punk Rock. I immediately loved it!

All I really remember was that people had short red hair and were wearing dog collars and jumping around. I'd find out later that it was a video of the Damned live. They were choking each other. 

The announcer was saying how sick these kids were. I thought it was cool. The kids also had cool fashions and wore lots of leather. The bands were real and they were rock and roll. I thought and, as I watched, I felt that I was watching a revolution.

There was a record store in town called "The Wherehouse" so I went there and asked the guy at the counter if they had any "Punk Rock"? He looked at me strange and said, "What?" I said it was a new kind of British rock music. He pointed to the left and said, "The imports are over there!"

I didn't know the names of any of the bands or really what to look for in the import albums but I knew they had short messy hair. I started rifling through the records of guys with nice crew cuts and hippie bands. Then I came upon the first Damned record. The one where they have pumpkin pie smashed all over their faces. I turned it over and there was Dracula and the guy wearing a waitress dress. "That's it!" I thought. So I bought it.

I rushed home and put it on the turntable. Neat Neat Neat came on. I loved it. Soon I took a scissors and cut off all my hair.

That moment changed my life. I became a fanatical fan of Punk rock. Within 3 months, I got together a band and arranged a recording session and we made our first and biggest hit... We toured a lot and played many shows... But my band members fought constantly and weren't dedicated...

And, that, in a nutshell, my friends, is how we became "one-hit wonders."

Phester Swollen, the guitarist in that band is still my dear friend to this day. In early 1979, the famous San Francisco punk band, The Nuns, called us and asked us to open for them. Of course the guitarist and I said, "Yes!" but the drummer and bassist refused to go to SF to open for the Nuns because, get this, they said they had "already promised their friends to go surfing." Idiots. 

That was the defacto end of the Rotters. I was furious. If I knew then what I know now, I would have kicked those two assholes out of the band right there on the spot and the guitarist and I would have gone to SF and performed by ourselves.... Alas, we didn't. We messed up big time.

I fucked up. Really, I should have fired those two idiots. Why? Oh why? Didn't I?

With the White Stripes on July 25, 2002

(Left to right: George Williams, Jack White, me, Meg White) 

That may sound disappointing and it was to me for a long time. For years I was bitter and sad about it until one day, Jack White of the White Stripes - way before they were famous - was a guest on my radio show. When I told him I was in a punk band and what the name of the band was, his eyes grew wide and he shouted, "I bought that record when I was, like 13, I loved that!! I told him how I was pissed off at my failure and he then put his hand on my shoulder and said to me, "Mike, it's better to have punked and lost, than to have never punked at all!" 

Wow! That was like lightening hitting me right between the eyes. He's right!.. I'm glad I was in the Rotters... Too bad, though, it could have been so much more...

Actually our second single did get some airplay and sold pretty well too...

I once saw it in a record collectors shop selling for $250... I told the clerk that I was

the lead singer of the band... He didn't believe me...

Oh, but that's all past now... Long past. Up until a few years ago, the guys in the band had many reunion gigs in the USA, and asked me to come perform, but I never did. The last time I ever played with that band was a few shows in Japan in 1988.

I don't want to do that anymore. It's a good memory and I want to keep it that way.

The point of this all is, like I said, determination and dedication.... Fanaticism isn't necessarily a good thing. Long term thinking, planning and work and practice - no matter what the business - pays off; whether it's music, a new business venture, sports, or a hobby or craft. 

Stick to it. Dedication and hard work pay off... Even if it's only Punk Rock.

NOTE: The above is far too serious. I've always thought that Punk rock should be laughs and fun. If you want a laugh, actually many good laughs, read the below. It is a short recollection of those days by the guitarist, Phester Swollen. Phester has a way with words and this is hilarious! From the online band information site, Break My Face has this:

PULL IT AND YELL...It was 1978 and rock and roll was the worst putrefying heap of overblown bovine excrement imaginable. Walking into a record store was about as fun as having a raging bout of the Hershey squirts and with no choice but to use a Super Seven gas station toilet that was plugged with some wino's puke and butt blow. Hearing the likes of Peter Frampton, Steely Dan, the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and that phony working class schmuck, the Boss, left us contemplating the big sleep to put us out of our misery. What the fuck was this shit? It sure as hell wasn't rock. We were frustrated, pissed off and offended.

Nigel Nitro and I were a couple of nasty film production students at Moorpark College, just northwest of Los Angeles. We stuck out and didn't fit in. Neither of us wanted to make films with a couple of retarded lovebirds walking on the beach to some lame ass Jim Croce ballad. Our goal was to make vicious, stabbing satires. If people were offended we knew we were on the right track. One night we both saw an episode of 20/20 on the lobotomy box ranting on the evils of this hideous new scourge on society from England called punk rock. It featured live footage of the Damned and the Sex Pistols with subtitles for the lyrics so that the world could see how vile and disgusting they were. They hated it. We loved it. If it pissed them off so much it HAD to be good! It had everything we'd been dying to hear for years and besides, any idiots could do it. That meant us, too.Within a couple of weeks we started The Rotters with another Moorpark film loony, Bruce Brink on drums and Rip Chord on bass.

 Bruce soon bailed out for fear that the local Oxnard or Ventura hillbillies would kill him for playing punk, a reasonable concern. Rip's friend Johnny Condom took over on drums. Since Nigel and I were both students at Moorpark College we were able to weasel our way into the recording class almost immediately as they were in need of bands to record on the four track. The recording students hated us. We weren't real musicians. We were sloppy, not together. We were out of tune most of the time. We didn't know what the fuck we were doing. But we didn't care. We had a lot of wild enthusiasm and the teacher of the class, Richard Simpson, caught on to this. He told us; "you guys aren't any good, but you have fun and that's all that's really important." Then he encouraged us to put out a single, which he would master for us for free.We'd played a few volatile shows. After being kicked out of the Mickey Moose disco in Ventura for sucking and being pelted with debris in Anisque Oyo Park in Isla Vista for being shitty, we knew we were good. "Sit On My Face Stevie Nicks" was a standout and the logical choice for the single. It had been written in about ten minutes as one of the worst songs possible while at the same time taking a stab at the big bucks rock world we hated so much. 

"Amputee", a kind of anthem of the stupid, was on the flip side.Once we had a test pressing we naively decide we should take it down to KROQ and give it to Rodney Bingenheimer to play. Rodney's show Rodney On The ROQ was THE punk show on L.A. radio at the time. We drove down to Pasadena to the station and snuck in by standing at the back door with a bunch of punk looking guest types. When they let them in, we walked in too. We didn't know it right away but they were the Ramones and Clem Burke, the drummer from Blondie. Even though we didn't have any drugs for Dee Dee, Rodney still played our record and put us on the air with Joey Ramone. Almost immediately Rodney asked us, live on the air, if we liked the Ramones. Nigel and I simultaneously said, "uh... er... we like the Sex Pistols". They broke for a commercial, told us "you guys gotta leave now!" and kicked us out. But the damage was done. KROQ was inundated with requests for "Sit On My Face Stevie Nicks" the next day.

For some strange reason Fleetwood Mac took offense. Well, there's no accounting for taste. It seems this was the era when Mick Fleetwood was boning Stevie Nicks behind Lindsey Buckingham's back and he felt he had to rescue her honor. Christ! As if they didn't have enough problems of their own with all the break ups, infidelity, cocaine addictions and millions of dollars burdening them! They had to throw their weight around and go after some fledgling punk band. I guess it was a case of the big bully beating up the asthmatic wimp on the playground for making a smart ass comment and laughing during his oral report. We soon found we were banned in Los Angeles. Someone claiming to be Mick Fleetwood himself called KROQ and threatened them with a lawsuit if they played the song, then called Nigel at home with the same threat. All the major record stores in Los Angeles were threatened with no more big selling Big Mac albums if they sold our nasty little single. Ooh scary! What a threat. Who the hell bought Tusk anyway? It sucked the turds out of a dead bloated water buffalo's anus. Some stores hid our records under the table like a bunch of pussies and some gave Fleetwood Mac the finger and still got their albums anyway. Then they decided to be less obvious and the doors to a number of the clubs in town closed to us mysteriously.

We didn't really need their help in fucking everything up though. We could do that ourselves. Any money we might have made went into beer. We couldn't play worth shit most of the time, didn't follow any L.A. punk clique rules and were lazy as hell. None of this helped at all. The second single, "Sink The Whales Buy Japanese Goods" b/w "Disco Queen", we couldn't give away. None of us had any use for stacks of the record so many of the 1,000 copies went into the trash. Now it's a coveted collector's item. Go figure. Disillusioned, with our dreams of glory crushed, we broke up early in 1980. However, The Rotters have managed to survive although not with the original line up. But what the hell, how many punk bands stay the same for more than 20 years? The whole idea of middle age punks is offensive anyway. But then again, that's the point.

— Phester Swollen

The first Rotters 7 inch. had at least two distinct pressings. The first pressing says "BANNED" only while the second pressing says "BANNED IN L.A." (pictured above). The second and far more rockin' Rotters 7in. was a single pressing, but with a couple of different paper stocks. The more common sleeve is on standard white stock, the less common is on heavier yellow stock (though either are practically impossible to find). Some copies have both sleeves. Both Rotters 45's (along with several other early L.A. punk greats) have been reissued by Dionysus Records.

Here's a video that I made that has footage of our 1988 show in Japan:

Thanks to Jp Valentine, and Enrico Ciccu.

For my dear friends Yuri Tsujimoto, Sharon Kennedy and Tom Swollen

I Was a Teenage Collector's Item! (part two)

When I was young, I was in two bands. The first one was sort of famous and our records sell for several hundred dollars. The second band went nowhere at all. Our only single now is on sale for $1680 at auction. Go figure. Here's the link: http://bit.ly/2d3EM07

マイクは若い時に２つのバンドをやってた。ロッターズと、そしてもう一つの全然有名じゃないバンド。その２つ目のバンドのレコードがなんだかすごいことになっている。なんとまあ、コレクターズのレコード屋で１７万円！http://bit.ly/2d3EM07　（マイクは写真の一番右）

In January of this year, I found out that the only single of the second band we ever mad - a record that didn't sell at all - we couldn't give them away, was one of the top selling priced items at a record auction site in August of 2015, selling for $1350 (USD)!!!! I wrote about it in, "I Was a Teenage Collector's Item!" You can read about that here: modernmarketingjapan.blogspot.jp/2015/12/i-was-teenage-collectors-item.html

Now, today, it is going for even more money?! WTF?

Photo from original record jacket. Left to right: Johnny Brewton (drums), Peter MacKenzie (Guitar), Bob Rogers (Bass), Me (Piano and vocals).

OH MY GOD! Somebody has actually put up on Youtube one of our songs! (I think this is one of the best songs I ever wrote - I Must Be Lou Reed was another one) "Things Dogs Do." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5VbgTxFxSY

Bobby's Bar - Cool Japanese Psychobilly Rock Band from Tokyo!

I just made the debut video for a Japanese Rock-a-Billy, er, I mean, Psychobilly band from Tokyo named Bobby's Bar. These folks are tight as hell and have an awesome look.

Bobby's Bar

I've mentioned before that I make promotion videos for free for bands to help them (they don't have any money) and I want to pay back to music for the great life it has given me.

Bobby's Bar is a trio with Naoya on guitar, Sharky of stand-up bass and Mira Kuru on drums....

On, and by the way, there is a burlesque dancer in the video too. Her name is Miwa Rock. When we saw her perform we were blown away. It reminded me of the throwback to strip or burlesque dancing from the 1940 or 50s. She says that there is a burlesque boom going on with the young people in Tokyo and it is, in part, due to to the film "Burlesque" featuring Dita Von Teese. Miwa Rock isn't just your average everyday sexy Japanese girl stripper... Er, maybe that didn't come out right... Anyway, Miwa Rock is cool!

Miwa asked Ken and I to make her demo video and we probably will. We might feature Miwa Rock along with making a documentary about youth culture in Japan - we also met an awesome bluegrass banjo player the night of the video shoot too! It's fascinating what the Japanese youth are into these days!)

Here's Bobby's Bar and "Weirdo Jungle".... Enjoy!

Marketing Japan: Akira Kurosawa and Other Short, Fun Japanese Videos Online!

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

A lot of cinema fans in the west just love Japanese movie director Akira Kurosawa, but did you know that he is more famous in the west than he is in Japan? Actually, that happens a lot with artists and musicians from Japan; they are popular in the west, but not so much in Japan.

Kurosawa didn't become even remotely popular in Japan until years after Seven Samurai was released in 1954 and remade in the USA as "The Magnificent Seven," starring Yul Brenner, Eli Wallach and Steve McQueen in 1960. 

Many people believe that Seven Samurai is one of the ten greatest movies ever made and is the very first action movie. 

So, today, for your Sunday morning pleasure, I wanted to show you  few things that I found that are very nice and I thought very culturally interesting for your enjoyment. The first is a one minute short film montage of Japanese posters of the films directed by Akira Kurosawa, played to the theme music of "Yojimbo." It is only one minute long and very fun!

Double click on video for full screen

Double click on video for full screen

Here is also a great Akira Kurosawa documentary (about 11 minutes) that talks about the director's life with much detail about Seven Samurai.

Double click on video for full screen

Double click on video for full screen

This material is from an Internet site that I often enjoy going to and searching around. It is called the Internet Archive - it is absolutely free - and it is full of rights free materials that can be used for student films and other non-profit uses. To show you what can be done using the materials here, I used one here for a Punk Rock and Horror video that I made with Ken Nishikawa a few years ago. It is for the Kyoto girl's punk band, The Soap. Watch it here:

Double click on video for full screen

Double click on video for full screen

Pretty cool, eh?

Anyway, I digress... The Internet Archive is full of great films, short and long and I highly recommend it.

The Internet Archive is here.

------
Keywords:
Japan, Akira Kurosawa, Eli Wallach, Mike Rogers, Seven Samurai, Marketing Japan, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, The Soap, Kyoto, Ken Nishikawa, Punk Rock, horror video, Yojimbo, Internet, Internet archive, cinema, Yul Brenner, Steve McQueen, Magnificent Seven

Cool (and Funny) Videos for Christmas (Part 1)

I remember when I was in a punk band in Los Angeles in early 1978. All the guys still had long hair and very few people had even heard of punk music. So of course we never could buy an cool new clothes... We had to make our own or we'd go to the local Good Will store and buy all the clothes the grandmas and grandpas sold.

Me in 1979 with silver hair....

The old folks had the coolest sh*t! They had, by far, the coolest sunglasses too!

Also, I thought it wasn't fair that, while we young people had short hair and colored it purple or silver, everyone though we were freaks but the old people were all walking around with green and blue or purple hair. Heck they still do! No fair!

OK... Well, it's not exactly the Twelve Days of Christmas.... But funny just the same and sure to bring a smile...

*I like the message to this entire production: The collapse of the USA economy. But the more subtle one is a criticism of a consumer society that bases status on how much junk one owns.

Russian Punk Rockers Pussy Riot: 2 Years in Prison? A Travesty of Justice? No way!

The Russian punk band Pussy Riot have been sentenced to prison for two years. The western media are in arms.

Even Amnesty International wants to cash in on the act:

Amnesty International USA writes:

"We are outraged that a Russian court found 3 members of Pussy Riot guilty of "hooliganism" today for singing a 30 second protest song and sentenced to 2 years imprisonment in a penal colony! SHARE this image to stand in solidarity with Masha, Katia and Nadia..."

That's not true at all. The members of Pussy Riot were not sent to jail for "singing a 30 second protest song." Not only is Amnesty USA guilty of lying, they are morons to boot. (As if Putin has so much free time on his hands he is concerned about a bunch of hooligans crashing a church ceremony!)

That's "morons," as in "idiots" and that includes Amnesty International, the band Pussy Riot, the western media and the western public who thinks this is a travesty of justice.

Here's why:

Despite the "Spin," Pussy Riot weren't convicted of "speech crimes" or singing a song....The band, Pussy Riot, were convicted of breaking and entering, trespassing, assault, resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer, TERRORISM!, threatening people with violence and a a handful of other charges...(AND, to make matters worse, this was their second offense!) - the 1st time they got off with a fine and a warning from the judge that if they pull this kind of sh*t again, they'll go to jail! (follow the links here for a more in-depth story on Pussy Riot). http://poorrichards-blog.blogspot.jp/2012/08/russias-pussy-riot-stunt-supported-by.html?m=1

And, then they go do it again!

As Homer Simpson would say, "DOH!".... 

Don't you think for one second the courts - in any country - don't enjoy making an example out of people like this?

Did I say, "Idiots?" I did? Thanks.

If you did this in the USA, you wouldn't go to jail, would you? Nah. Probably not. In the USA the cops probably would beat your ass to a pulp and then shoot and kill you.... 

I've been a follower of this band for a long time - before anyone here had ever heard of them... This was a foolish gamble and they lost. 

You go try this stunt where you live and see what happens to you. Remember this was not the first time. It was the second time along with a warning from a judge that you are going to jail if you do it again and see what happens!

Don't be fooled by US propaganda. 

Also, please consider; isn't the timing of this suspicious? Think about Syria and the Russian connection here....

The western media complain that because this is Russia, then that's why there's no freedom of speech!!? Don't make me scoff! 

America hasn't a leg to stand on when it comes to complaining about "lack of freedom" in any other country.

Imagine this: You and your friends put on a ski masks and run into a church on Sunday downtown in downtown, Boonf*ck Iowa, during a congregation.... 

Then you shove your way onto the stage and then start screaming and insulting the 70 year olds attending.... Then the church people (nuns and the well-known muscle-bound clergymen) try to get you to leave. You threaten them and refuse.

Then you and your genius friends take over the church services and set up your  guitars and start playing loud music. You then shout political and social revolutionary slogans and insult and threaten the audience with violence; you continue to insult the church-goers and guests (Gee, if you were a church guest, might you not think this is a terrorist take over (ski masks?!) and be frightened out of your sh*t?) 

Then the cops come in a SWAT type of vehicle and there's a massive ruckus... 

Then you and your rocket scientist friends fight with the cops who drag your asses outta there all the while you scream and shout some insane rantings about "Free Pussy!"

"Irrelevant"? 

Sure. Sure. The only thing that is irrelevant is the function of the logical thinking capacity of people who think this is a travesty of justice and who think they wouldn't go to jail or prison in the west for the exact same stunt.... 

Hell, in many places, you'd have your ass in prison or an insane asylum for more than just two years. Hell in some places in the USA, a drunk driving conviction is 7 years in jail!  

The people who think this is a travesty would make shit-assed band managers and promoters and deserve jail time for this sort of thing or, better yet, deserve getting their ass sued in court (by the girls in Pussy Riot for shitty advice by the way!) for pulling a stunt like this. 

This stunt ends the career of Pussy Riot.... 

Brilliant!!!!!

A promotional stunt that ends their career? Wow!

Folks, we live in a time where people watch way too much TV and don't read and have extremely short memories... Here's a word association game for you: Ski masks... Chechnya...Terrorists.....Attackers seize Russian school kill over 200 people in 2004...Court judges....  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3624024.stm .... 

Oh and, as if some 70 year old court judge even knows what "punk rock" is.... 

Laughable.

Sure. Russia is a terrible place because they have no freedom....

As if it wouldn't be worse for these dumb girls in the west.

More on "Who is Pussy Riot."

Also: "...the case of the Pussy Riot prosecution in Russia which is very much in line, or even less severe, than what is considered the norm in most western countries (check this excellent and detailed legal analysis by Alexander Mercouris for more info).... The sad truth is that the West's support for Pussy Riot is, in reality, nothing more than yet another expression of its rabid hatred for anything Russian or Russian Orthodox.  And if that means erecting a small group of sexually dysfunctional women into a banner for freedom, so be it!  And that if that also means looking away from the obscene and outrageous persecution of a real hero for freedom like Julian Assange by the US Empire and its vassals - then so be it also!" http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32225.htm#.UDDsvgnT1c0.facebook

Watch this video: http://modernmarketingjapan.blogspot.jp/2012/08/the-bbc-on-pussy-riot.html


Thanks to Glenn Williams. Glenn is a longtime music industry professional from the UK with over 30 in the business.

Radiation Causes Dreadlocks, Black Flag, Circle Jerking & Off!

I like Punk Rock. I like underground music. I like anything as long as it's new and not the Hit Parade of Hell. I hate that over produced corporate rock crap that they are always playing on the radio (not on my show, they aren't!) 

BLACK FLAG (FEATURING KEITH MORRIS) - NERVOUS BREAKDOWN

Nervous Breakdown is probably my all-time favorite Black Flag song

I like new things. I like adventure and excitement. Life is short so I want to enjoy it. I want to enjoy life so much that I'll try anything at least once.... excepting, maybe, the bizarre trends of the elitists such as three-some nipple bondage, Barack Obama and bungee jumping.


I want to enjoy my life.


I subscribe to several dozen free online music publications. One of my favorites is called  Punk Music. I like these publications because they actually send me free MP3's that I can download and play and do with as I wish.


Free? I love the sound of that.  


In the latest issue of Punk Music, they were talking about Keith Morris, lead singer of seminal punk bands from Los Angeles such as Black Flag, Circle Jerks and Off! Keith was asked what the secret was of his massive dreadlocks. They asked him if they could test his dreads to see what sort of goodies resided in there. Keith complied and allowed his hair to be tested and the results have come in: Keith Morris' dreads have extremely high levels of radiation (uranium to be exact) as well as arsenic and some other known not-so-goodies.

I thought this was funny. I thought it was good to finally have some humor about radiation since recently all we get is overly hyperventilating nonsense from people about how radiation from Fukushima is going to kill 200,000 people! Just like SARS was going to kill 150 million people. Just like Swine Flu was going to kill 50 million people. Just like bird flu was going to kill 75 million people, on and on and on...


They never happened.


Just as I wrote in Japan Nuclear Disaster Update and Strong Criticism of Western Media Sensationalism:


As of today, worldwide deaths from Swine Flu: 82. No nuclear weapons for Saddam (if he had any, do you really think we would have invaded Iraq?). Worldwide deaths from SARS: 100. Worldwide deaths from Bird Flu: 80. Don't even get me started on Man Made Global Warming!


But this post is about massive and dangerous amounts of uranium being found in the hair of the lead singer of a famous punk rock band!


All About Punk Music reports:

It's not often that we delve in science or beauty tips here, but today we're doing both by answering a question that has weighed on all our minds for years: What's the secret behind Circle Jerks/OFF! frontman Keith Morris' lustrous locks?

Turns out, it's uranium.

Vice Magazine, while pondering this conundrum, asked Morris for a sample of his dreads in order to submit them for analysis. Surprisingly, he complied.

Not only did the results come back showing high levels of uranium, but they also found arsenic arsenic and an excess of copper, which can lead to hair loss, which may be the reason why Morris just lets it all run wild. Don't mess with it if it's working.

The study, which has been reported here, doesn't explain if the uranium has mutated Morris into a super mutant here over the years - a sort of Super Circle Jerk - so we can only assume that the answer is yes, it has, and this is being kept under wraps in order to preserve his secret life running wild in the streets....

Cool! I chuckled when I read this. I love the "Who cares?" attitude of punks. Other rock'n'roll woosies probably would have freaked out and cut all their hair off. Wimps!

Depending on what you think about Keith Morris, Black Flag, the Circle Jerks and punk rock music in general, I reckon that the discovery of Keith having this irradiated material in his hair proves that the radiation is not as dangerous as we have been lead to believe....

Either that or it proves that punk rock really is brain damage!

If even only for the peace of mind of their parents, let's hope these punk rockers recover from their illness and get "better."

CIRCLE JERKS - WILD IN THE STREETS

Read the hysterically funny article about the analysis of Keith Morris' hair here: 


From that article: 


In Keith’s case, he could suffer from depression and unnamed allergy symptoms, which doesn’t sound that bad considering he’s walking around with the Fukushima reactor on his head. In fact, Keith’s hair was probably the healthiest overall.
Read the rest at Vice Magazine: WE ANALYZED KEITH MORRIS' DREADLOCK - It Contained Uranium and Arsenic