The Cramps at Napa State Mental Hospital (1978)

Possibly one of the most unique and most uniquely rock&roll live performances in history, the scene at Napa 31 years ago and in a different world, shows the most committed and participating audience I've ever seen. Even if this was some sort of promo concert, meant to establish the Cramps radicalness, it become something more: a happenning, a statement or, even better, a party, where the line between performer and audience seems arbitrary.



There have been others afterwards but I doubt that they had as much fun...

A belated goodbye to Lux Interior, yet another to join the horde of My Youth's Dead Heroes this past February. It is not a coincidence that Lux's obituary in Rolling Stone magazine contains exactly the Napa video.

Into the Universe - towards the stars we go

B Mashina - Laibach
Tremendous youtube video. Mad props to Chris Roth:

Mercy

Cover beats original: Selah Sue and Triggerfinger are begging for Mercy:



Oh and Triggerfinger? nice:

Ετσα γίνεται στην Κρήτη η Βεντέτα

VIP featuring Νίκος Κυριακάκης - Βεντετα


Λείπουν οι μπαλωθιές στο υπόβαθρο, ή μπαντιές με τα τογιότα τα αγροτικά στα πλάνα και οι ύμνοι στην βοσκική, κυρίως όμως δεν εμφανίζονται όπλα στο βίντεο και ετσά ΔΕΝ γίνεται στην Κρήτη η βεντέτα, αν ομιλούμε λαογραφικώς...αλλά έχει χαβαλέ.

St. Pyotr Mamonov

The information I have is close to nil, but somehow Pyotr Mamonov, who I learned about and listened to (impressed) in the mid-eighties through a friend living in Russia at the time, developed from a cross between a darker and more threatening soviet David Byrne in the 1980s, through his band Zvuki Mu (an amazing band that immediately draws attention to itself in a way that few groups did at the time)...

Zvuki Mu - na telekanale Kultura (1986?) - and more:


Zvuki Mu - "Grubiy Zakat"


... into an incarnation of some demonic figure drawn from the depths of the darkest russian literature performing his heart out in a way that doesn't really need translation.

Pyotr Mamonov - kak ya hotel


Pyotr Mamonov - Blues


In my unheroic quest to rediscover all sorts of artists I only had a fragmentary memory of, through the magic of online video, I learned that this phenomenal musician and actor has left the worldly spotlight and is leading a monastic life in some remote Russian village...

"[He] converted to Orthodox Christianity, left the capital, and settled in a village. He returned to play the lead role in Pavel Lungin's religious film "The Island" (Russian "Остров"), which closed the 2006 Venice Film Festival. His acting in the film was praised by Alexis II, Patriarch of Moscow, and won him a Best Actor Nika Award."

This, to me, seems somehow appropriate. It concludes a path: a visible path through which an artist sculpts his own life into a meaningful (if variable) exhibit.

I'll be digging deeper....


Pyotr Mamonov - Tiritomba

Police Stories

1980. The Dicks - Hate the Police. A classic of American early punk.



And circa ~1985. Black Flag: Police Story

Great Cave

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - I'm on fire

Nick Cave - Babe, I'm On Fire
Ανέβηκε από samithemenace. - Δείτε γνήσια web videos.

A frigging masterpiece of a video, extra-long. Probably one needs some sort of tonic to last the whole piece in one go. After ~15 minutes, what follows is a sort of "...the making of" part. The whole band seems to have enjoyed this one...