Californai Uber Alles
As applicable today to the current Web 2.0 Ochlocracy as it was to the liberal elite in the early 80s. Many great lines, my favourites being “You will jog for the master race” and, of course, “Mellow out or you will pay”. There’s a bit in Wired this month where they have a map of the world showing places which are about to be destroyed by global warming, either through encroaching desertification, rising sea levels or catastrophic reduction in biodiversity. Their accompanying recommendation, that we jump on a jet plane and visit them all before it’s too late, would be brilliant satire if it weren’t delivered with that total sincerity in the face of overwhelming irony that only Californians seem to be capable of.

My Heart And The Real World
My latest favourite Minutemen track, a chirpy little number perfect for a sunny Friday afternoon like today. As discussed previously they’re amazing.

TV Party

What differentiates the Californian variety of punk from the earlier British and New Yorkian strains is the overt politicking and eschewing drink/ drug induced bad behaviour and art schools in favour of hard work and the the working man, which mutated into the transcontinental straight edge glories of Minor Threat and eventually Fugazi. It’s not hard to argue (as Michael Azerrad does in the frankly only alright book Our Band Could Be Your Life) that Henry Rollins’ activism, DIY ethic and tireless hard work with Black Flag laid the foundations for all this and much of the rest of ‘underground’ derived American rock music in the 80s, 90s and onward.