Olive Branches to Jeff Carter, & Robert Wheeler

[Andrew Prutsok]

Merry Christmas to all of you punks. This airs tonight. The time listed here is Mountain, I'm pretty sure.

 

Director Penelope Spheeris surveys the late-1970s Los Angeles punk scene: X, Black Flag, Fear, Germs, Catholic Discipline, Alice Bag Band.

[W. Niederhut]

39 minutes ago, Andrew Prutsok said:

Merry Christmas to all of you punks. This airs tonight. The time listed here is Mountain, I'm pretty sure.

 

Director Penelope Spheeris surveys the late-1970s Los Angeles punk scene: X, Black Flag, Fear, Germs, Catholic Discipline, Alice Bag Band.

If it's about the decline of Western civilization, they should have interviewed Cliff Varnell.  He's, obviously, an authority on that subject. 🤣

[David Andrews]

2 hours ago, Robert Wheeler said:

The whole "Paisley" sound was new to me, but I think The Bangles are regarded as a Paisley influenced band, if not the only one to find commercial success. 

 

I don't think any band really wanted to identify as "Paisley Underground."  It was just some record exec's catchphrase for selling all these dawn-of-the-80s California bands as a "wave," based on their propensity to jam, plus the studied resemblances of the first Dream Syndicate album to the Velvet Underground - actually the most exciting and least annoying Velvets hommage ever. 

The Bangles were a collection of scene hangers-on who didn't make the cut for the other bands, and succeeded through Susanna Hoffs' rich-mommy determination, plus a major label's desire to brand a new version of The Go-Gos. 

In Green on Red's case, "running buddies of the Dream Syndicate" is code for "fellow drunken a-holes trying to recreate the Palomino club scene of Gram Parsons' day, and guesting on each other's albums."

Here's the Paisley Underground's collective covers album, where a sliding roster of some bands mentioned tries to recreate The Basement Tapes.  Full credits are available on the YouTube page if you click Show More:

Edited December 1, 2020 by David Andrews

[David Andrews]

Here's an article with an alternate explanation of the "Paisley Underground" monicker:

http://magnetmagazine.com/2001/05/18/one-nation-underground-the-story-of-the-paisley-underground/#more-37599

Here's Susanna [Hoffs] and the Elders, from the Bible.  I think this is how the CBS record execs discovered The Bangles:

I don't hate The Bangles, though.  Here's one of the best covers ever.  Has a great 1960s feel, like they've been listening to Tommy James and the Shondells:

 

Edited December 2, 2020 by David Andrews

[David Andrews]

This, too was Paisley: Opal, featuring David Roback of Rain Parade and Kendra Smith of Dream Syndicate:

And this is the ultimate 1990s evolution of Opal, Mazzy Star, with Roback plus Hope Sandoval on vocals.  Familiar from TV/movie soundtracks:

 

Edited December 1, 2020 by David Andrews

[W. Niederhut]

  If Cliff ever writes his social and intellectual history masterpiece, it should be titled, "The Decline of Western Civilization in the Late 20th Century-- From Bach, Beethoven, and the Beatles to the Butthole Surfers."

[Cliff Varnell]

3 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

  If Cliff ever writes his social and intellectual history masterpiece, it should be titled, "The Decline of Western Civilization in the Late 20th Century-- From Bach, Beethoven, and the Beatles to the Butthole Surfers."

Ah, the end of Western Civ...at the hands of...The Vandals!

Hold the government!

[Cliff Varnell]

Before they pioneered the Paisley Underground as The 3 O'Clock they played pop-punk as The Salvation Army.

 

[Cliff Varnell]

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by Cliff Varnell

[Cliff Varnell]

 

[Cliff Varnell]

 

[Cliff Varnell]

 

[Cliff Varnell]

 

[Cliff Varnell]

Biden Watch

Biden's economic adviser picks are underwhelming the left, to say the least

https://www.salon.com/2020/12/07/biden-neoliberal-picks-for-economic-advisers-neera-tanden-brian-deese/

 

[Cliff Varnell]

On 11/14/2020 at 1:46 PM, Cliff Varnell said:

Biden Watch

Biden: I was right about Libya

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/joe-biden-libya-wrong-224595

"My — my question was, 'OK, tell me what happens?,'" Biden recalled. "'He's gone. What happens? Doesn't the country disintegrate? What happens then? Doesn't it become a place where it becomes a — Petri dish for the growth of extremism? Tell me. Tell me what we're gonna do."

Rose responded, "And it has."

"And it has," Biden said, going on to say that the United States should not use force unless the interests of the country or its allies are directly threatened, whether it can be done "efficaciously" and whether it can be sustained. </q>

Biden likely to break barriers, pick woman to lead Pentagon

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/biden-likely-break-barriers-pick-woman-lead-pentagon-n1247842

From Michele Flournoy's wiki:

In 2011, in the midst of the Arab Spring and popular street uprisings, Flournoy, then Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, helped persuade President Obama to intervene militarily in Libya, despite opposition from members of Congress and key White House advisors, such as Joe Biden, Vice President; Tom Donilon, National Security Advisor; and Robert Gates, Defense Secretary.^[29]. Flournoy supported the NATO-led imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya to oust resistant leader Muammar Gaddafi, accused of ordering the killing of demonstrators and promising to "hunt the rebels down and show no mercy."^[29] Flournoy said imposition of a no-fly zone necessitated first destroying Libya's air defenses with U.S. and British cruise missiles targeting the Libyan missile defense system, and U.S. B-2 bombers attacking Libyan airfields.[1] In a 2013 conversation with the Council on Foreign Relations, Flournoy said she had supported US military intervention on humanitarian grounds.^[30] Critics who disagreed with Flournoy described the war on Libya as "disastrous" in its destabilization of entire regions in the Middle East and North Africa,^[31] facilitating the transfer of arms to extremists across countries. Two years after the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi, Flournoy defended the U.S. military intervention in Libya, telling the Council on Foreign Relations: “I think we were right to do it.” </q>

Biden doesn't have a problem hiring women with whom he's had sharp disagreements.

We'll see...

DemHawk Flournoy passed over for SECDEF.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-to-nominate-retired-army-general-lloyd-austin-as-defense-secretary-the-first-black-man-to-hold-the-role/