[kj] 1000 SUNS Outside Gate and PHANTASMAGORIA

[B. Oliver Sheppard]

I
 got into punk in '88 or '89, and by this time, yeah, a lot of the punk 
bands had made the leap to hair metal or at least to some type of metal 
from the punk roots (roots they'd proudly brandish again any years later 
when they realized that was why folks liked them after all).

Have you compared SSD (SS Decontrol) circa 1982 to their last hair metal 
album? Good lord! Or, of course, Danzig going from '77-era East Coast 
punk in The Misfits, to being basically a hair metal dude by 1988, 
naming his band after his own (fake) last name in the fashion of metal 
bands naming themselves after themselves, like Van Halen, Winger, and 
others?

On the _American Hardcore_ documentary -- not a perfect documentary by 
any means (where are the Dead Kennedys and Misfits in it?? HUGE gap in 
history of 80s punk by not including them) -- it even shows early Boston 
HC band DYS on stage announcing publicly, circa 1985, "We used to be a 
hardcore punk rock band, but now we're just a hard rock 'n roll 
band...." Then it showed DYS playeing what sounded like some crappy 
mid-tempo RATT-inspired rock music with the singer using that bad 
falsetto that was so omnipresent in the 80s. And wasn't _Decline of 
Western Civilization 2_ a documentary about hair metal bands? I've never 
seen it, but I always wondered -- what were the hair guys rebelling 
against? Not enough Aquanet available in L.A. at the time, or what?

Back on topic to Killing Joke, though, I always saw their, uh, 
"crossover" into pure new wave in the late 80s to be another version of 
this change a lot of bands went through, in a sense. I just cannot 
listen to anything KJ made after Nighttime until Extremities came along.

-Oliver



gingoblin at easynet.co.uk wrote:

> The Blood were a great band! Still play them a lot.

>

> Most of the early-80's punk bands seemed to "progress" onto something else 

> fairly rapidly.  Anti Nowhere League, Adicts, Angelic Upstarts, Abrasive 

> Wheels... and that's only the ones beginning with A!    There was MUCH 

> disappointment to be had for a young punk rocker in those days!   I'd 

> actually quite like to hear some of the later material again just to see 

> what I make of it now, but on the whole, it was fucking awful at the time!

>

> Max Splodge never sold out though!!

>

>

> Dave

>

>

>

>

>

> At 12:07 23/02/2007 +0000, you wrote:

>

>   

>>> Speaking of bands changing sound, the Cockney Rejects going from Oi/punk to

>>> AC/DC sorta stuff has to be one of the biggest and most hilarious

>>> "progressions" ever!

>>>       

>> A few punk bands went that way didn't they . .

>>

>> Anyone remember The Blood?

>>

>>     

>

>