Can anyone teach me about SOUTH AFRICAN ROCK?

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I want to know a everything about South African rock music. Not african-influenced stuff like Ladysmith Black Mambazo or hiphop, just punk or rock or speed metal or whatever they hve down there.

I would also love to know how the music made/listened to by white people in South Africa has changed - if at all - with the fall of the apartheid regime. Did they have a lot of Skrewdriver clones, or what?

And oh, this is not your local skinhead asking.

― matulageci, Wednesday, 3 March 2004 16:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Tribe After Tribe to thread?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 16:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Dave Matthews to thread! okay, not really

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

"african-influenced"?!?!

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

You know, like the same way David Banner once saw a documentary about Mississippi on TV and thought "That's for me!"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 16:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Shit, I was sure my english wasn't good enough to actually ask a question that includes the words "africa", "rock" and "white" without commiting a mistake someone would jump on.

― matulageci, Wednesday, 3 March 2004 17:01 (twenty-one years ago)

it has less to do with your english than where you used it

― jfklsd, Wednesday, 3 March 2004 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I know, I know.

― matulageci, Wednesday, 3 March 2004 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

John Kongos was South African. Weren't his early singles recorded there before he released his solo albums on Elektra?

― dlp9001, Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

The Flame! Blondie Chaplin!

― andy, Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Four Jacks and a Jill!@

― maypang (maypang), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Dischord band Q and Not U are going to go play in South Africa, I read somewhere. Although that doesn't tell you anything about South African rock

― Steve Kiviat (Steve K), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

You mean they ain't gonna play Sun City?

― maypang (maypang), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, wait.. I read that wrong. Nevermind.

― maypang (maypang), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Who was that one guy in the 80s from South Africa? He had a multiracial band...he was kinda their equivalent of Boris Grebeshekov or Paul Kelly or something like that...or Ruben Blades....(sorry can't be more specific but I know he exists)

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:06 (twenty-one years ago)

that would be johnny clegg (and his band, savuka)

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I once borrowed a South African Nine Inch Nails bootleg from a classmate. It was a really crude compilation, with the song "Suck" listed as "Such".

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

that would be johnny clegg (and his band, savuka)

thank you, fact checking cuz! that's it!

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 20:56 (twenty-one years ago)

They've been on it since day one. The SA acid rock band Suck recorded a Black Sabbath cover in 1970.

Here's a link to a SA HC site -- their links section can send you to the South African punk and metal hubs.

There's a big grindcore scene there -- ever hear of Groinchurn?

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 21:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Manfred Mann and Trevor Rabin to thread?

Oh, wait, that's not what you were asking for? ;)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 22:53 (twenty-one years ago)

i've heard of groinchurn (through the t-shirts of angry young men), but i'm not gonna claim to know very much about the hardcore/punk scenes - if we're talking abt the sa rock receiving media coverage, then the bands hardly deviate from 'mtv rock' format: tweak are the most famous of the sum 41/blink 182 (before they became the cure) brat-rock punk-lite crew; wonderboom and the (late) springbok nude girls are post-post-grunge grey in the shade of nickelback, hoobastank etc etc; 'sa rock veterans' just jinger produce pop-rock ballads very much in the style of a matchbox 20 and watershed are a less gutsy uncle kracker. i'm currently (not) waiting for the sa incarnation of The New Rock Revolution Stripes. if you're not alex in nyc and think you might have any interest in hearing any of the above bands based on my lazy comparisons, i should at least issue a personal warning - in the rare moments i've enjoyed rock radio over the last 5 years, the hooks were brighter and the guitars thicker than what i've heard from the majority of sa guitar bands. i'm not sure why, but kids here seem to have a greater tolerance for ploddiness in rock than our u.s. counterparts.

kwaito managed only one successful crossover hit - mandoza's "nkalakatha" (if you're feeling lenient, possibly mandoza and mdu's "let's go 50/50" too). local hiphop's much better placed to attract a multiracial audience - we haven't had a legitimate crossover banger yet, but tumi and the volume are working hard to attract fans of the roots and blackalicious and whoever else thinks hiphop needs more (non-sampled) woodwind instruments. h20's "it's beautiful" sounds more like a hit in the kanye era than it did at the beginning of last year! still, it feels like we've gone straight on to brit-rap without ever having our shot at a south african 'grime', but that's another story.

― m., Thursday, 4 March 2004 09:20 (twenty-one years ago)

freedom's children were pretty cool, if you like deep purple. a lot. suck ruled.

― el sabor de gene (yournullfame), Thursday, 4 March 2004 09:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Clout "Substitute", the most masochistic ode to self-abasement ever recorded

― dave q, Thursday, 4 March 2004 11:18 (twenty-one years ago)

By a strage coincidence I was listening to "The Best Of Johnny Clegg and Savuka" on the way into work this morning - and rather lovely it is too!

I can't tell you much about them but Thomas Mapfumo, The Real Sounds Of Africa and expecially The Bhundu Boys (all from Zimbabwe) are all worth checking out

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 4 March 2004 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

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