Bad to the Bone playlists & thoughts on punk rock
Today would have been the fifty-eighth birthday of Jeffrey Ross Hyman, better known as Joey Ramone, had the world not lost him to lymphoma in 2001. (By the way, if you're in New York City, there's a Birthday Bash for Joey tonight at the Filmore--click on that link for details.)
I bring up The Ramones to highlight an aspect of Bad to the Bone I haven't discussed much, what with all the attention on vampires and dogs and, well, vampire dogs.
The music.
Like Wicked Game, Bad to the Bone is steeped in rock 'n' roll. It plays an integral part, not only for the characters' internal wellness, but in the plot itself. Songs are used to send messages, including a life-saving one, when our heroine Ciara is in the worst jeopardy.
(Speaking of music, before I forget, Shane McAllister will be live-tweeting the rebroadcast of his "Whatever" radio show tonight from 6-9pm Eastern in honor of Bad to the Bone's release. Stop by if you want to see what he plays and what he says about it.)
After completing the playlist (the songs that actually appear in the book, not the songs I listened to while writing it), I realized that nearly every era/subgenre of punk rock was represented:
- Classic (The Stooges, and the Sex Pistols on the Chapter Title playlist)
- Reggae Hardcore (Bad Brains)
- DC Hardcore (Minor Threat)
- Cowpunk (Meat Puppets)
- Riot Grrl (L7, Bikini Kill)
- Emo-core (Thursday)
- Punk-inspired Grunge (Nirvana, Hole, Garbage)
Of course, every other kind of rock (blues, psychedelic, goth, etc. ) is also represented, and the Chapter Title playlist skews much more mainstream (there's even a disco song and a Plain White Ts cover of "Do You Hear What I Hear?").
Here are the playlists, for your release day enjoyment and beyond. If you'd like to put them on your own page, go to the playlist page and simply click on "Get code for your own site" at the bottom of each playlist.
BAD TO THE BONE Playlist ("Soundtrack")
BAD TO THE BONE Chapter Title Playlist
Why I Love Punk Rock
Despite my harmless exterior (seriously, no one ever looked LESS punk on the outside, and I am completely incapable of changing this), I'm a pretty angry person. I don't know why. I've had a good life. No major traumas beyond the usual. Maybe it's brain chemistry.
Or maybe it's because when I was a teenager it became obvious that there are plenty of things in this world to be pissed about. Things that pop stars wouldn't sing about, like dictators and domestic violence. Things like rape and global warming and the systematic disempowerment of the poor and middle class. Things like--okay, I'll stop. Point made.
But it's not just the socio-political elements of punk that I love. I love its sound, the lack of pretension, the straightforward making of noise for the making of noise.
Like Shane from Bad to the Bone, I have musical skeletons from high school. For him, it was heavy metal hair bands; for me, it was progressive rock, or "art rock." I would actually measure a song's worth not by how much it moved me viscerally or emotionally, but by how many key and tempo changes it had.
(I won't list the bands I loved then that I hate now--I'm much less willing to offend than Shane is--but one of them worships Ayn Rand, and the rest had members who went on to become partners in the law firm of Anderson Bruford Wakeman & Howe.)
What I don't love about punk is the scene, the cliqueishness, the pervading sense of judgment over whether you're "punk enough." I wouldn't last a minute in a hardcore club like Bad to the Bone's Outlander, because I'd be judged based on what I wear and how well I carried the 'tude. Since I'm only punk on the inside (where I keep it warm and safe), I'd be a total failure.
But that's okay. All by my little self I jam to new and new-ish bands like Anti-Flag, Flogging Molly, Bouncing Souls, NOFX, and Rise Against. I got all giddy over the new Green Day release last week (and oh please don't start the Green-Day-isn't-real-punk argument).
Frankly, I fret over the future of punk under an Obama administration. Not that there are no problems left to get mad about, but there's more a sense of everyone seriously trying to solve them in a mature, reasoned manner. Most people, I think, are willing to pitch in and figure a way out of our messes, rather than simply raging about them.
The Rock Against Bush CDs brought a lot of exposure to many of this decade's biggest punk bands. The Iraq War is our generation's Vietnam, but the personifications of that debacle (Bush and Cheney) are gone (okay, just Bush is gone--Cheney is on all the Sunday talk shows for some reason). It would take a truly bizarre turn of events to engender a Rock Against Obama compilation CD.
But punk has "endured" Democratic administrations before. During the nineties, after the long, punk-nurturing Reagan/Bush/Thatcher years, the genre turned towards pop (Green Day, Blink 182) and towards the more internal, personal stylings of emo (Dashboard Confessional, Weezer, Jimmy Eat World). So maybe all is not lost. ;-)
Enough musing. I hope you enjoy Bad to the Bone (which by the way comes out today). Drop me a line and let me know what you think, okay?
Labels: music, vampire series
9 Comments:
Anyway, I totally enjoyed this post. I also think that punk will persevere through the Obama administration. Even if there are no new major problems in our country to get angry and write songs about, there will always be problems abroad to sing about.
Green Day may not be typical hardcore, angry punk rock, but they definitely sing about the issues. I actually loved American Idiot for it's mainstream-ness (new word, yay!) because it got people who normally don't listen to punk to really think about things.
Posted by:
Sara M at 5/19/2009 1:50 PM
Now I want a WVMP t-shirt. Rage against the dying of the light. - Carrie
Posted by:
Carrie Clevenger at 5/19/2009 1:51 PM
I think they're great--I'm listening to the brand-new album this moment. So far it sounds amazing.
Shadows: Thank you, and yes, get that T-shirt so you can be cool!
Shane and Ciara can only start their romance once, so by definition BTTB will be different. (I don't mean that sarcastically at all, it's just a fact of a continuing-relationship story. People who want a romance, well, it's not here. Just plain old love, if that's OK. :-)
Posted by:
Jeri at 5/19/2009 2:03 PM
Posted by:
Carmen R at 5/19/2009 2:51 PM
I haven't listened to punk since high school. Which was really a couple of years ago, but I really listened to it alot. I went and saw a lot of local punk bands, especially the Mansfields who used to do a Joey Ramone Birthday Bash every year and cover all kinds of Ramones songs. That was fun. I even saw the Unseen! xD The only punk band I still listen to are the Distillers, who broke up.
Posted by:
Anonymous at 5/19/2009 5:07 PM
I really, really enjoyed this post. Same here about having the look, I've never had it for any music genre. But then again I've never tried for look, I just enjoyed the music. I listen to what ever I feel is me for the moment, whether it's jazz, classical, punk, or hardcore rock. I think music can give people a better quality of life, IMHO.
Happy Release Day! I know BTTB will do real well, the WVMP series is just fabulous.
Posted by:
Donna at 5/19/2009 9:51 PM
Eventually I got out of that. I hit my early twenties and lost most of that insecurity of not being punk/cool enough (most of it, since I do still bristle when people judge the punkness of my book). Also I discovered a lovely little band called The Distillers who reminded me of everything I love about punk. The song I am Revenant. Damn.
I've also come to look at punk my own way. As someone who was part of the riot grrrl scene toward the tail end and who saw it fail to reach its full potential mostly because people were so concerned about keeping it underground, I *like* it when I see punk infiltrate the mainstream. I am so proud of my hometown boys Rise Against. I love hearing them sing about politics on mainstream radio. And Green Day--- the evolution of that band is SO awesome. I absolutely still adore their snotty pop punk from their Lookout! Record days and it is not like it changed that much when they went major label with Dookie. But now they are writing punk rock operas. Shit! How cool is that?
And I think their latest album shows how punk will carry into the Obama administration, the same way grunge bled into the Clinton adminstration. There is still so much fallout from what Bush did and so much discontent and distrust. Maybe we trust and are hopeful of Obama, but look at the situation with the banks, etc. There is still so much rage. The other day my fiance and I were listening to the Transplants (rap-punk?) song "we trusted you" and he said "this song reminds me of the banks." And I was like "'We line em all up and we gun em all down and we all celebrate when they all hit the ground?'" Wow, yeah there is still plenty for punks to be mad about in America.
Sorry for the diatribe. Loved the post sooooo much and the book too!
Posted by:
Stephanie Kuehnert at 5/20/2009 1:47 PM
Nozomi: I keep hearing the Distillers mentioned--I'm going to have to check them out. Thanks for the rec!
Fantasy Dreamer: Absolutely--I think love of music should come from inside us, not from what we are told is cool. The older I get, the less I care what other people think. :-)
Stephanie: I remember that post very well, and I was thinking of it when I was writing this, because I feel so much the same way. It sucks that people judged your book on such a bogus criterion. It felt so real to me and to so many people, what other basis is there for judgment? Grrr.
And yay for Rise Against and Green Day! I'd rather think about what mainstream is gaining rather than what punk/indie/alternative is losing by independent artists making it big. If it can open up the minds and hearts of the masses, that's a good thing. There'll always be a new band for us indies to "own" next week. ;-)
Thanks for all your comments, everyone! I love to hear your thoughts.
Posted by:
Jeri at 5/20/2009 8:57 PM
Posted by:
Anonymous at 5/26/2009 2:41 AM
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