Episode 43.5 — Bonus Cut: Little Work Arounds

[admin 330]

You wouldn’t believe what we have in store for you on this week’s bonus episode of improv4humans! Our guests Zach Woods, Brian Huskey, and Jill Donnelly join Matt Besser for scenes involving religious loopholes and an extra Man On The Street Interview. Plus, we give our Sound Opinions on Punk Rock.

[benk 257]

Loved this! I thought the extra Man on the Steet scene was fantastic. Could be in the best of!

[KevinJones 9]

Finally, Besser is talking about music! I've been waiting for this as he never seems to want expand on things like his old zine, etc.

 

First off, Wire wasn't punk? What about this jam:

 

-- Ex-lion tamer

 

or this:

 

-- Mr. Suit

 

Wire was a huge influence on bands like the Minutemen, whose first albums are undisputeably punk.

 

As for describing bands like Talking Heads and Television as new wave, there are two things to remember:

 

1. Bands like the Talking Heads and Television were considered "punk" not just because they were playing CBGB's, but because they were also among the first bands to be featured in the uber-influential Punk Magazine, started by "Please Kill Me" author Legs McNeil.

 

2. New Wave was a term invented by Sire mogul Seymour Stein in order to re-package these punk bands since the word punk had such bad connotations (Stein himself has said that he found the term "derogative" -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Stein) So just because there was a concerned campaign to ensure bands like the Talking Heads, Television and Devo were listed as "New Wave," they could also be described as punk too.

[KajusX 1807]

Rabbi Besser: Not Jews.

Rabbi Huskey: Not Jews, Oh no no no no. I mean—

Rabbi Besser: Germans.

Rabbi Huskey: Yeah.

Rabbi Besser: A little payback.

Rabbi Huskey: I mean, a little bit of payback. Eh, I mean, y'know, Let bygones be guybuns.

 

Let bygones be guybuns. Burgermeister.

 

Also, "That's why I won't have milk" was a perfect call back/scene-capper.

[Todd Mason 21]

Hell, the Velvet Underground could sound punkish, as certainly did the likes of the Sonics. By the time of the MC5 and particularly the Stooges, and coverage in the real pioneer punkzines such as WHO PUT THE BOMP (mutant sf fanzines and hippie undergrounds for the most part; CREEM caught on pretty quick, before it was remade as the proto-SPIN), it was already coalescing...the CBGB's crowd was simply a hothouse for that, and the No Wavers who followed not long after certainly added their sounds to the mix, as did folks in remote "scenes"...fwiw, SOUND OPINIONS is a full-fledged radio show, distributed by PRX and broadcast here in the Philadelphia area on one of the NPR affiliates, and a weekly hot-air balloon along the lines you describe while you quickly overpraise it...perhaps I let their utterly inept attempt at an obituary for Miriam Makeba, where they mispronounced both her names and got the title of her biggest proto-world music hit, "Pata Pata," wrong, which was a part of the second show of theirs I heard, put me off too hard, but they haven't improved much since. But better they than, say, the FRESH AIR music reviewers...I forget if it was Ed Ward or Milo Miles there who assured us some years back that DIY disappeared from punk rock after the Young Marble Giants faded...when, of course, he meant that he'd missed out on the great efflorescence of DIY in punk/hardcore and extensions because he'd stopped getting things forwarded from ROLLING STONE.

[KevinJones 9]

Hell, the Velvet Underground could sound punkish, as certainly did the likes of the Sonics.

 

YES. And don't forget the Wailers!

 

 

(Being a Washingtonian who lives in California, I have some serious pride in my state's musical roots)

 

The Troggs definitely deserve some credit for being proto-punk as well.

 

It should also be noted that Crime's "Hotwire my heart" single came out around the same time as the first Ramones LP did and the only way it can be described is as "punk as fuck."

 

http://youtu.be/0ApgnE2RK3w

 

As for Sound Opinions, I think these shows where DeRogatis and Kot talk about old albums/important musical movements are just their way of taking advantage of the show and talking about their favorite tracks at length, instead of just dedicating a moment or two in their "Desert Island Jukebox" segment. Sadly, the tracks they chose are always the most played out jams possible and never as exciting as "Hotwire" or the Pagans' "Six and Change"

 

http://youtu.be/2QW5jByT_YQ

[Todd Mason 21]

Thanks...I had barely heard the Pagans before.