Hey man, thanks for the heads up on all the bands you suggested to me. Everyone of them are fantastic!! Cheers bud!!
Ken
Now for a debate. I am a huge fan of Cocksparrer, Cockney Rejects, Sham 69, Menace, Slaughter And The Dogs, Angelic Upstarts, early Skrewdriver, as well as most of the bands that came along afterwards ie Last Resort, Ejected, Business, 4 Skins, PATTB, Combat 84, Condemned 84, Oppressed etc. Fast forward to 2011....why is it that bands from France, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Sweeden, Norway, Switzerland and other countries in the mainland EU are better than anything coming out of the UK??? For a place that has such a huge musical legacy why cannot they have bands today that can stand up shoulder to shoulder to the early stuff. Debate!
No problem, Ken! Happy to spread the word...if anything else pops into my head, I'll shoot you a message or something. As for your question, I couldn't tell you, but there does seem to be a few countries (esp. France and Sweden, in my opinion) that are producing bands with a more "classic" Oi! sound. There's tons of great new bands out there, but a lot of them seem to lean more toward an aggressive streepunk-type thing than Oi!.
ReplyDeletePeople have moved on to an extent Ken.
ReplyDeleteThe Oppressed played a wee while ago and sold out, as did Cock Sparrer, but they are more the exception to the rule than anything else.
In hindsight I think that it's maybe a generational thing.
Most of the young punk bands that are currently playing were raised on Green Day, Blink 182 and their ilk.
So what we get is directly descended from that rather than anything else.
Then there are the hardcore kids, but once again they are steeped in US hardcore and it just seems that UK punk bands/Oi bands have been squeezed out as an influence.
Of the bands that do key directly into that UK sound of the past I honestly have to say that the majority are crap. Pretty much clueless as to how to do much more than shout and gurn into a microphone. Just cartoonish posturing of the worst kind.
Our European cousins really are far better at it.
The youth of the UK are mainly dislocated from the era you talk about.
Hey Jay, the thing is, I dig bands like One Way System, Vice Squad, Blitz, Exploited, etc. and your comment about bands leaning towards the streetpunk thing is completely true. However, the difference between the "classic" bands that I mentioned and these newer bands is that they lack imagination and style. Heck, if mmore bands from France and Sweeden keep making cool bands then I am all for it.
ReplyDeleteKen
Ken
ReplyDeleteNot really up on the Oi stuff nowadays but the latest Resistance 77 album "Survival Of The Richest" was a good un, also the Control CD "Hooligan Rock n roll" is worth a listen.
Daz
@Mainy, I get where you are coming from. Though music seems to go around in circles at times. Lars of Rancid fame has a new band called The Old Firm Casuals. I have a hunch that the kiddies will eat this up, or at least I hope so.
ReplyDelete@ Daz, how are you??? Hey thanks for the reccomdenations! I actually got the new Resistance 77 a few weeks ago and have only listened to it once. Downloaded the Control ablum a few weeks ago too. I have so much stuff to listen to that I forget what I have!
Ken
Hi Ken,
ReplyDeleteI'm fine mate, hope your well.
I hear you, too much music and so little time to digest it all. In one sense the internet has given us a chance to hear more music but sometimes one listen isnt enough to appreciate it properly. When I bought more CDs if it didnt hook me in straight away then I perservered after all it had cost me hard earned cash! Now unfortunatly its too easy just to dismiss and move on to the next download.
Daz
Exactly Daz!!!! Could not have said it better myself. Glad you're doing well too!
ReplyDeleteKen
hey bro, wassup! what about a link exchange? http://punkoteca.tk cheers!
ReplyDeletecheers...the whole "early days" scene was there just for the fun and glory,todays kids just for the money!That's different!I've hardly know any good new band from UK...good as any old one from glorious years of anarchy chaos and destruction!
ReplyDeleteBest rgds
Personally I think there's a huge element of "the grass is greener". In England, from the late 80's, bands like Heresy and Stupids started wearing baseball caps and hi-tops and worshipping US bands - Britain's punk heritage from almost anything made after 1979 became deeply unfashionable and Oi!/Streetpunk was considered something just for the alcoholics and bone-heads. Then when Nirvana got big, followed by the whole mid-90's Green Day/Offspring/Epitaph thing, it just kept reinforcing that American punk was cool and Britpunk/Oi!/streetpunk was not. The demographic in the UK also shifted dramatically in the mid-90's, as punk became a more of a middle-class thing (at least among the new people coming into it) and what do middle-class kids know or care about tower blocks, dole-queues or getting into trouble with the police? To be honest, although there are a few exceptions, that demograph has remained (or they have fucked off and started playing acoustic music or moved out of the scene altogether), hence the unbelievable lack of decent punk music from the UK these days - essentially, the lineage has been broken and its hard to get a vibrant scene going again once that happens.
ReplyDeleteIn the U.S. (to continue the grass-is-greener idea) old UK streetpunk has a pretty big, enthusiastic and youthful following these days and I'm not really too convinced that most of those kids with The Exploited and GBH on their jackets can REALLY relate to what the world those bands came from either, but perhaps on both sides of the Atlantic it's the fantasy that appeals more than the reality...
Ed, would you like to write for this blog???? Nicely put!!
ReplyDeleteKen