Urgh! A Music War

Aren't Magazine on it?

yep - they are, and they're f-ing great...right after Joan Jett's performance. Of course, who wouldn't sounds great after Joan Jett? You don't give a damn about your bad reputation? ooooh.

and Sting has always been a twat!

yea he was rather twunty on here, wasn't he? and did they have to end the whole video with "Roxanne," my LEAST favorite Police song? (actually I hate that song with a passion)

Alternate question: What is YOUR awesome new wave/post punk concert- going experience? Did you ever see Devo, Gary Numan, or any other band/artist dress up in amazing costumes? I, unfortunately, have none - but I'd still like to live vicariously through your stories. Come on....

Anyway, about Klaus Nomi, there's not a lot to explain. If you naturally connect with a classically trained gay opera singer seduced by technology and the relentless modernism of the New Wave then you don't need an explanation. If you don't like what you hear no explanation will suffice. Nomi was surely on the forefront of American Weirdness for a brief spell, and I wonder whether he would have continued to innovate or peaked briefly and gone on to a career in the fashion industry had he lived out his normal life span... impossible to say. (Nomi died in more or less the first wave of AIDS deaths in NYC; early on at any rate, I forget when)

Plus, I'm excited. Plus, we're trying to decide which song to cover, and I'm willing to bet you all can help us decide between Steel Pulse and Pere Ubu, heh heh.

anyway:
The Onion Presents "Urgh! The War To End All Wars" at the Knitting Factory -- a tribute to yesterday's music of tomorrow, based on the concert film that fucked up a thousand childhoods. 14 bands, 4 DJs, 2 nights, 2 floors, 2 stages!

All proceeds go to benefit children's war-relief charities.

Fri Sept 24: The Rogers Sisters, Dalek, The Red Eyed Legends, Pilot to Gunner, Parts and Labor, Shy Child, Vitesse

Sat Sept 25: Oneida, The Figgs, Blood on the Wall, King of France, Oxford Collapse, The Quick Fix Kills

Each band will cover one song from the original Urgh! performance.

I love this movie...I remember being so blown away watching it at a friend's apartment in college....

personally, the idea of Oneida doing an a fast, angsty, yet ballsy and epic length version of Uncontrollable Urge totally floats my boat, but I imagine that'd be the song everyone wants to do?

Some of the other covers also look like they'll be pretty cool, but I'm not sure I'm at liberty to divulge who's doing what.

Agreed about the DVD, 'cause then we'd have a lot more songs to pick from!

and mr. thacher, I'm sure it's not to anyone's annoyance, as everyone around the world is excited to hear about the inner workings of the cutting edge brooklyn music movement of the early 21st century.

I'll believe it when I see it.

I remember enjoying the Surf Punks' perfromance as well.

I've got 2CDs that a friend mastered for me off vinyl that I'll gladly swap if someone can get me a VHS or VCD copy.

seeing it on 35mm tonight

Ordered the DVD & 2CD from the site listed a couple posts up and two years ago. Nearly $90 in my pathetic currency, hope it's worth it.

OK, so let me get this straight. Dude was so obsessed with the film that, after spending big bucks for copies and getting stiffed (more or less), he got someone he knew to boot the footage onto a professionally mastered DVD and CD, and's been selling these boots on a professionally set up web site for at least TWO years.

Something smells.

Then of course there's: Registrant Search: "Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc." was found in about 2,196,827 other domains

Something's hinky. Any votes for this being Copeland's back door? Why has this not been shut down?

Please post on here if you get the goods, and they're the real deal!

(Ned - Yes of course I saw the Urgh gig @ the Paramount in Seattle. The Members, The Dead Boys, Pere Ubu, Magazine)

And are you in Chicago? Where's it playing?

And of course, if you're not in Chi, why are you plugging PFG? Inquiring minds want to know...

born and raised outside of chicago, peter francis geraci practically raised me himself w/his commercials~

it played in l.a. and it was a good print, looked great!

(((BANKRUPTY)))(((INFO)))(((TAPES)))

Something smells.

Then of course there's: Registrant Search: "Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc." was found in about 2,196,827 other domains

Something's hinky. Any votes for this being Copeland's back door?

The site is copyright "Vegga Corporation" - if you google that you'll find the owner's name (and a class action settlement against him for selling dodgy debt management solutions). It's not Copeland.

I got a DVD of this at LOCAL LARGE RECORD STORE a little over a year ago - I told a friend about it, and he wanted a copy so we went to LOCAL LARGE RECORD STORE LOCATION #2 ACROSS SMALL BODY OF WATER - and the one he bought had a black & white cover, whereas mine was color. The info on the back says "Certification: Finland S" ... I don't know what that means.

Damn! There goes my theory. Still, give this a bump when the goods roll in. Love to have one if it's the real deal.

I used to have occasion to walk right by Geraci's office on a weekly basis, with it's faux Greek statuary, and all.

will let you know on the quality.

the DVD I have is pretty good quality.

Anyone who has a DVD of this in any form is like...way ahead of me. I'm humbled.

Arrived today, which is reasonably quick. Quality of packaging isn't fantastic, it looks like a home copy job. A good one, but nothing professional. Interestingly the DVD says 'CBS FOX' on it. The DVD also apparently has digital 'Dolby Theatre Sound', which sounds like bullshit, but I will take it into the 5.1 immersive sound lab at school to check.

Still, the double CD has some extra tracks that aren't on the double vinyl, which is great considering John Cooper Clark and significantly less great with two more Police songs.

Just from the packaging I feel a little ripped off, but will report back once I've listened/watched.

So is John Cooper Clarke on the DVD? My recollection was that he didn't make it on to the VHS version I saw once, but I was led to believe there was another version with him on it. Can't remember the details.

John Cooper Clarke is on the DVD I have.

we should poll this at least once a year

best performance from URGH! A MUSIC WAR

the poll options were links to youtube vids, more than half of em seem to be down "due to terms of use violation"

oddly enough the top 4 are still there

Urgh! A DVD!

Looks like it's part of the whole Warner Archives on-demand deal with no bonuses or the like, but still.

wau

Now someone get The Decline of Western Civilization out.

For those who won't be satisfied with their Urgh! DVD unless it includes Splodgenessabounds: http://www.urgh-dvd.com/details.html

DEVO rules hard in this movie

Finally won this CD on eBay. That should be a signal that it's due for a deluxe reissue. Please?

Rescreened tonite...Best Movie Ever

love this through and through

Seems to be a favourite, so I'll try to temper this a bit.

Stumbled over it the other night on Hollywood Suite, caught the Cramps, and PVR'ed to watch the whole thing later. Besides the Cramps, I loved X, liked the Magazine song, thought Gary Numan's schtick was funny, and the Go-Go's, Devo, and Joan Jett--playing songs I knew and liked--were fine.

A lot of it I found very ordinary, even people who've made music I like. Bands like Chelsea and the Alley Cats sound so generic now. I know the Gang of Four and Pere Ubu are important, but didn't like either of the songs they played. There are XTC songs I love; watching them here, they could have been the Alan Parsons Project or something.

And then there was the horrid novelty stuff: Surf Punks, Oingo Boingo, Skafish--god, I hated those songs.

It's definitely a snapshot of a moment. I'm glad Husker Du and the Replacements and R.E.M. were getting off the ground right about the same time.

I saw this in the theatre, and though I know a bunch of the groups, I only remember loving Devo and hating Skafish and Surf Punks. "Birdies" and "Respectable Street" aren't the songs I'd play to get anyone into Pere Ubu and XTC.

The Pere Ubu clip is kinda funny because Mayo Thompson has his back to the cameras practically the whole time.

The XTC bit is neat document of how charismatic Partridge was as a frontman; kind of amazing they were off the road more or less permanently in just a few years.

The thing that really makes the movie is how expansive a portrait it paints of the New Wave scene at that time: there's straight-up Punk (both British & American), Hardcore, Psychobilly, Synth-Pop, Mallrat stuff, Pub Rock, Poet Punk, Post-Punk, Reggae, Ska, whatever it is Klaus Nomi was doing...

It also really well-made for a run-and-gun performance film, with some of the footage the best many of these bands ever got. I love the little intros some of the bands get (Wall of Voodoo answering the phone, X riding up in John & Exene's car, the GoGos getting dropped off at their show etc.) and if there's a performance one isn't 100% into, wait a sec and there'll be another one.

Wow, I think "Respectable Street" was one of the first XTC songs I totally loved. The way the guitars clang, the bass herky-jerks along, Andy yelping, the falsetto backing vox... It all seems like music tailor made for me, if not music to sell XTC to someone else.

I really like "Nothing Means Nothing Anymore" (the Alley Cats song) too. A bit generic sounding now maybe, but in the year of Saturday Night Fever 1978, a band recording and releasing a song like this as a single and touring the country behind it was a sea change for me.

Was Skafish the band near the end with the white singer throwing around the smoking lamp thing on a chain?

Was hoping you'd chime in, Grisso. Skafish did the song about a dance based on the crucifixion; the social commentary seemed thuddingly obvious to me.

how expansive a portrait it paints of the New Wave scene at that time

Don't disagree with that. I just like what came next so much better.

Although if a similar film had been done in 84 or 85, there would just have been a different batch of filler groups in between the better ones you named.

Just watched 11 of these performances that ranged from interesting to great. Biggest takeaway is that Dave Formula of Magazine would look like Keith Emerson even without a bank of keyboards.

Watching this as a teen not long after it came out, the Au Pairs performance really stood out as something different and interesting in a kind of exotic way, esp bc they never had much of a presence Stateside (never properly toured here, I think). Devo/Go-Go's/Cramps/Gary Numan et al are great in it, but were familiar to me already. I didn't know quite what to make of Pere Ubu.

there would just have been a different batch of filler groups in between the better ones you named

True enough. It'd be Husker Du followed by Saccharine Trust, Saint Vitus, and two other SST benchwarmers. (If you're a fan of those two bands, please, no need to scold me--I'm picking names out of dim 35-year memories.)

I liked "In the Park," but did anyone else find Gary Numan's stage antics unintentionally funny? The whole coming out in a toy car, looking too frightened to step out and engage with the world?

saw this in the theater when it came out, yes it's very uneven but it's an invaluable snapshot of the era

I wish they'd straighten out all the legal hassles and get this thing released on DVD, preferably a deluxe edition with all the remaining footage left out of the original movie.
― Jeff K (jeff k), Wednesday, September 8, 2004 10:43 AM (seventeen years ago)

still holding out for this

And then there was the horrid novelty stuff: Surf Punks, Oingo Boingo, Skafish--god, I hated those songs.

I am sorry but Oingo Boingo ruled in this movie, and rules in general

I remember being a kid and having an idea of this as some kind of big punk rosetta stone, then finding it at the weirdo video store and putting it on and the first band that comes out is The Police. I remember thinking "ok... I'm going to have to adjust my expectations." I remember the real mindblower for me as a kid was seeing Klaus Nomi, I couldnt believe that this wasnt a famous artist that lots of people had heard of. Beyond that I agree w/clemenza that the good bands are pretty much all the ones you'd assume would be good, the rest is kind of surprisingly generic - it works much better as a time capsule than an actual functioning concert movie imo.

I just like what came next so much better.

World Urgh II

i haven't seen in years, but i remember loving the devo performance in particular.

see I remember watching this and thinking that all the performances were awesome, then later hearing music by some of them, and being disappointed.

Some bands need more than three minutes to get you involved, e.g. the Ubu and Gang of Four songs in this. It's more a vignette of a musical style than a satisfying song performance.

I'd agree about the Ubu bit, but you get pretty much everything you need to know about Go4 from their performance.

Except a hook?

It's not their strongest hook, but you still get a great sense of what the edgier original Go4 were about.