quoperative

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This weekend I watched Joe Strummer - The Future is Unwritten, a really great documentary on the life of the late great Clash frontman.  I never really knew that the band had just kind of imploded like that at the height of their success. Kind of tragic, but it’s pretty easy to understand how a band of humble guys built on such solid DIY morals would have a hard time coping with the kind of fame the Clash was experiencing in the early 80s.  It was bound to collapse.  One of the best moments in the film was seeing Mick Jones and Joe Strummer bury the hatchet and get up on stage post-Clash fallout to support the firefighters’ union — what a fitting tribute to a band of working class punks. But by far my favourite part was seeing Joe lay down the vocal track for White Riot in the studio — with no band behind him.  The raw energy coming off that guy could power 60 homes.  Check out a few seconds of it in the trailer.

Joe Strummer brings me to Billy Childish’s latest garage rock outfit: Wild Billy Childish and the Musicians of the British Empire, who have a new album called “Thatcher’s Children” coming out in July on Damaged Goods.  You can check out the first single (also called “Thatcher’s Children”) on their MySpace page. The soundtrack of this post is a track called “Joe Strummer’s Grave” and is taken from their first album: Punk Rock at the British Legion Hall.  How’s this for punk rock in 2007?

Cold Britannia, Jesus saves
Rupert Murdoch rules the waves
Richard Branson doesn’t shave
And Joe Strummer’s spinning in his grave 

And one more movie recommendation for y’all: Son of Rambow.  Rather than explain it, just go watch the trailer… aces.

posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 5:11 pm in Jukebox, Movies, Music
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