TS: UK Punk vs New York Punk vs L.A. Punk

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Or, (Damned, Sex Pistols, Clash) vs (Talking Heads, Television, New York Dolls) vs (X, Black Flag, Germs).

I'll choose Los Angeles, despite the fact that England had an overall larger number of good bands, the nadir of L.A.'s bands were more interesting and great than New York and London's best bands (i.e., X, Gun Club, Screamers, Bags, Urinals).

― T. Weiss (Timmy), Monday, 4 August 2003 23:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Even though I think X were brilliant, I would have to say UK punk for sheer volume and consistent quality: Clash, Damned, Jam, Pistols, 999, Buzzcocks, Siousxsie and so on.

― Orbit (Orbit), Monday, 4 August 2003 23:37 (twenty-three years ago)

New York (the Testors, John Berenzy Group, Bad Posture, Corpsicles, Ramones, Dictators, Ivan and the Executioners - "I Wanna Kill James Taylor", the Mad - "I Hate Music", Alan Milman Sect - "Stiches in My Head") is tough to beat. LA started off really inspired, but got too hardcore. UK had tonnes of awesome bands (I posted a top ten UK punk singles somewhere). This is a tough call.

Midwest punk beats them all. Probably Texas too. There was probably 100x as much great stuff from outside London/LA/NYC as from within but that wasn't the question I guess.

SF Bay Area punk was probably the worst, but even there was some great stuff.

― Kris (aqueduct), Monday, 4 August 2003 23:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Too tough a call to make.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 4 August 2003 23:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Kris, remind me to burn you a copy of this random punk comp I got -- at least half of it will be exactly your thing.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 4 August 2003 23:55 (twenty-three years ago)

What is it?

― Kris (aqueduct), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:03 (twenty-three years ago)

NY easy.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:06 (twenty-three years ago)

I forget the name, but it's one of those equivalents of a Nuggets-knockoff except for punk, so you've got all these weird Slovenian and Finnish and Belgian bands doing spaz punk songs from 1978 or so. They're great!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh I would like that!

― Kris (aqueduct), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Thought you might! I'll get around to it as I can.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:15 (twenty-three years ago)

i'll pick Cleveland instead.

― jack cole (jackcole), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Minneapolis!

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:28 (twenty-three years ago)

L.A. for sure. No irony, you see.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:31 (twenty-three years ago)

I agree with Alex NYC. I'd rather pick one from column A and one from column B. Too many good bands to elevate one particular scene.

― Bruce Urquhart (Bruce Urquhart), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:42 (twenty-three years ago)

What is representitive of SF punk? (aside from the dead kennedys)
Nothing comes to mind.

― A. H. (A.H.), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 01:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Avengers, Crime, Sleeper, etc. . . (technically Chrome and Factrix if you want to get hyper inclusive).

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 01:42 (twenty-three years ago)

NYC, if we're including all the Blondies and Talking Heads and so on.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 01:48 (twenty-three years ago)

crime! yes!

― nnnh oh oh nnnh nnnh oh (James Blount), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 01:50 (twenty-three years ago)

Brisbane and Perth punk dammit

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 01:51 (twenty-three years ago)

more sf punk:

flipper
the nuns

and please don't forget the dicks who moved from austin to SF (and back i think).

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 02:01 (twenty-three years ago)

i'll take oxnard though for the record

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 02:02 (twenty-three years ago)

NYC had better bands but LA had more good bands.

― Asymmetric Cocktails (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 02:03 (twenty-three years ago)

And the UK had the best singles.

― Asymmetric Cocktails (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 02:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Crime, Flipper, the Lewd, Snuky Tate, and the Maids are my favorite SF area bands.

― Kris (aqueduct), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 02:06 (twenty-three years ago)

LA is Only Too Keen To Rock. And that makes for A Rocktastic Experience. And punk must be Nothing Less Than A Rocktastic Experience.

That's the problem the more intelligent cities like NY, SF, and London have. All that braininess get in the way.

Yeah, though, UK has best singles and always will. UK is a bit of a singles nation.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 02:07 (twenty-three years ago)

I am high on caffeine. Please excuse me.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 02:08 (twenty-three years ago)

It's kind of unfair to TAKE the entirety of England's output and compare it against even the biggest American cities. London (or even Manchester) vs. NYC might be close (LA's not even on my radar), but the UK as a whole just produced an insane amount of great music (pretty much all the time, but def during punk era).

Realized I forgot Flipper, right after I pressed send, hah.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 02:11 (twenty-three years ago)

The Angry Samoans are the best LA band AND the best bay area band, since Metal Mike lives in Hayward now.

― Kris (aqueduct), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 02:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Maybe VOM is the best LA band. Metal Mike AND Meltzer!

― Kris (aqueduct), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 02:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Feederz were SF, originally from Arizona, now living in Seattle.

this is a tough question. living on the east coast I think NY was more important to me (actually DC: Slickee Boys, Black Market Baby and later Bad Brains, GI & Minor Threat) but UK and LA were far away and held that mystery...Heck, I'll go with LA, come one Black fucking Flag...nobody could touch them (for a while)

― Brandon Welch (Brandon Welch), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 03:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I agree with Alex NYC. I'd rather pick one from column A and one from column B.
Waiter: You can choose 2 from Column A or two from Column B
Diner: 2 B's...no, not 2 B's...
< /BAD SHAKESPEARE JOKES>

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 10:55 (twenty-three years ago)

"L.A. for sure. No irony, you see."

Absolutely Colin. Irony? Heaven forbid!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 11:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Brisbane!!!

― frownland (frownland), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 11:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Another point is that they all influenced each other to some degree, so they're all sort've intertwined to begin with.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 12:22 (twenty-three years ago)

L.A. influenced the UK? Sorry Alex but I don't remember hearing or even being aware of any bands from the West Coast over here at all until California Uber Alles was released over here late in 1980, by which time the punk scene here had already imploded under it's own weight!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 12:38 (twenty-three years ago)

I was talking more about NYC & the UK, actually.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 20:39 (twenty-three years ago)

why nolove for the quick and kim fowley?

― doom0, Tuesday, 5 August 2003 20:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Nah, I love that stuff, but Stew's right....I doubt the UK Punks were too familiar it (although, on the inner sleeve of the Exploited -- who came much later, yes I know -- Big John Duncan has drawn the Black Flag bars on his very tattered jeans).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 21:08 (twenty-three years ago)

that should've read: I doubt the UK Punks were too familiar with L.A. Punk to the same degree as they were with NYC's offerings.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 21:09 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm with Kris here: Detroit and Cleveland beat them all.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 22:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Was there a Detroit punk scene circa 77-80?

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 23:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Other than Destroy All Monsters and Radio Birdman (deniz tek is from Ann Arbor) I cannot really think of anything punk from Michigan in from the mid to late 70's.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 23:31 (twenty-three years ago)

I was more referring to Indiana, actually. I completely forgot about Detroit and Cleveland!

Detroit punk bands still around in '77 were mostly holdovers (but awesome nonetheless): Sonic's Rendevous Band, The Dogs, Destroy All Monsters.

― Kris (aqueduct), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 23:38 (twenty-three years ago)

As I perceive it in simple terms, punk was invented in the US (mainly NYC but elsewhere like Detroit and Cleveland too), developed and turned into a marketable product in the UK (NOT necessarily a good thing!) then sold back to the rest of the US.

I remember interviewing Johnny Ramone in 1980 and he said he reckoned bands like Blondie and Ramones would still have been playing backstreet bars in NYC if it hadn't been for the 'Pistols, Clash, Damned etc. re-exporting Punk to the US.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 07:20 (twenty-three years ago)

the pistols implosion was probably the big thing that freaked out the big us labels towards punk - big investment, little return: I'm sure a lotta suits felt it was a scam, with 'ever get the feelin you've been cheated' as the nelson muntz 'haha'. the damned didn't come any closer to having a hit than the dead boys, and pistols got alot more ink than airplay (they did get ink though, and - unlike the ramones et. al - stirred up enough fuss to get the cover of rolling stone, 'rock is sick and living in LONDON'). the clash did have hits but not until they did their griel marcus tribute and injected some r&b (this being the key to the lock - blondie, talking heads the only cb's acts to score real hits* cuz of the funk)(blame it on the disco)(plus the clash s/t wasn't even released stateside til nyc punk was in its deaththroes).

* the exception being patti smith natch, thanx to classic rock pockets, bruce oyster cult.

― nnnh oh oh nnnh nnnh oh (James Blount), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 08:04 (twenty-three years ago)

HarDCore* 'till I die, Motherfuckers!!

*loosely defined as including Baltimore, Annapolis, and several unfashionable Virginia and Maryland suburbs.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 14:13 (twenty-three years ago)

I was a Reading Punk 'til everyone else died. ;~(

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 14:26 (twenty-three years ago)

family fodder vs. suicide vs. the screamers... that's like picking between fingers.

i <3 jack cole.

― msp, Wednesday, 6 August 2003 14:55 (twenty-three years ago)

i changed my mind.

i chose pasedena instead.

kisses to all.

― jack cole (jackcole), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 15:48 (twenty-three years ago)

DC PUNK!

(Okay, so I've been listening to Bad Brains, it got a tight stranglehold on my nutsack and said "pay respects to DC PUNK or we SQUEEZE.)

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 16:03 (twenty-three years ago)

pasadena vs. oxnard

DESTROY ALL LAFMS vs. ILL REPUTE?

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 16:40 (twenty-three years ago)

i will not kill for you.

― jack cole (jackcole), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 16:45 (twenty-three years ago)

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