THE 2nd ANNUAL PART TIME PUNKS FESTIVAL
Sunday, October 11, 2009
At THE ECHO & ECHOPLEX, Los Angeles, CA
Sponsored by KXLU and The Standard Hotels
Los Angeles will be the location of the world's second-ever Post-Punk Festival (the first-ever, of course, being the 1st Part Time Punks Festival held last November, with A Certain Ratio, Pylon, Love Is All, Vivian Girls, Medium Medium and the list goes on and sideways). The day-long event will once again be held in conjoined venues, The Echo & The Echoplex, in Echo Park, Sunday October 11, 2009 from 2pm - 2am.
Here is the confirmed line-up:
The Raincoats, Section 25 (Factory Records), Gang Of Four (guest DJs Hugo Burnham & Dave Allen), The Jazz Butcher, Medium Medium, Kid Congo Powers (Gun Club/The Bad Seeds), Savage Republic, Viv Albertine (The Slits), Abe Vigoda, Weave, Rainbow Arabia, The Intelligence, Christmas Island, Shark Toys , Blessure Grave, Spirit Photography...and Guest DJs Don Bolles (The Germs), Brendan Mullen (The Masque), James Nice (LTM Record Label), Dan Selzer (Acute Records)...
The 2nd Annual Part Time Punks Festival will mark the first-ever L.A. appearance of THE RAINCOATS. Formed in 1977, The Raincoats were the world's second all-girl punk band. Only, by the time Rough Trade released their debut album in 1979, they weren't making punk music any more, but post-punk, and more akin to The Velvet Underground's first LP or the records it shared the racks with: The Slits' "Cut," Young Marble Giants "Colossal Youth" and The Cure's first LP. The only reason the band remains lesser known is that their three albums remained out of print for more than a decade before Kurt Cobain tracked them down during a pilgrimage to London in the early 90s. Cobain was also responsible for "convincing" his label, Geffen, to reissue The Raincoats three albums in 1993 (co-writing the liner notes with Kim Gordon), which paved the way for the Riot Grrrl movement. It seems only fitting, then, that Kill Rock Stars will be reissuing the first Raincoats LP the week before the Fest
"If it weren't for the luxury of putting on that scratchy copy of The Raincoats' first record, I would have had very few moments of peace.
-- Kurt Cobain
The Part Time Punks Festival will also mark the first L.A.. appearance of Factory Records' own SECTION 25 since 1982. Dismissed by many journalists in the post-punk era as clones of their labelmates, Joy Division, the band has since been recognized in the highest echelon of Post-Punk innovation, alongside Public Image Limited, Wire and...well...Joy Division, for fusing punk with psychedelia and the surging motorik rhythms of Krautrock bands like Can, Faust and Neu. This credit is certainly largely due to James Nice, whose LTM label has re-issued the band's entire back catalogue (along with most of the rest of the Factory Records back catalogue) as well as their last two albums, "Nature and Degree" (2009) and "Part Primitiv" (2007) - both of which were released to universal critical acclaim.
GANG OF FOUR need no introduction. Though perhaps their involvement in the Fest does... Last year, just before the Part Time Punks Festival, the band's drummer Hugo Burnham sent Part Time Punks' founder/booker/DJ/artmaker Michael Stock an email, raving about the Festival line-up and how he wished he could be there. Michael suggested that perhaps next time, he could be. And now, eleven months later, he will be-along with bassist, Dave Allen-and behind the decks, marking these chaps' West Coast DJ-debut.
THE JAZZ BUTCHER are also returning to Los Angeles for the first time in over two decades-featuring original members Pat Fish, Max Eider and Kevin Haskins (of BAUHAUS & LOVE AND ROCKETS).
KID CONGO POWERS. Consider the pedigree alone: former Bad Seed, founding member of The Gun Club and The Cramps. Then see him live, and you'll wonder why he and Jonathon Richman didn't form a band and take over the world.
MEDIUM MEDIUM and SAVAGE REPUBLIC are the only two bands from last year's festival who have been asked to return this year. Both bands fuse dub and tribal rhythms to sparse and chopping guitars, though while MM add a near-No Wave layer of sax to the festivities, SR opt for massive oil drums (flames optional).
VIV ALBERTINE, founding member of THE SLITS, will also be performing a solo set, featuring original Slits cuts and tracks from her forthcoming full-length album on Manimal Vinyl.
The rest of the bands on the roster feature the future of post-punk. Which is to say, a handful of some of the very best new bands around-all of whom were inspired by Post-Punk sounds.
ABE VIGODA have actually cut their teenage teeth at Part Time Punks (and not just the smell), increasingly fusing their racket with complex songwriting and the sonic sheen of shoegazing gone surf.
WEAVE laces the punky reggae rhythms of The Slits with Banshee-style guitar chops and tribal whoops worthy of The Raincoats, Liliput or Malaria.
RAINBOW ARABIA take their Siouxsie-isms and fuse them with Eastern rhythms and sounds and come out sounding like a breathless update of Chris And Cosey.
THE INTELLIGENCE and CHRISTMAS ISLAND are forging the new path in post-punk on In The Red Records fusing Swell Maps with analog tape, Tronics and yer finer Messthetics moments.
SHARK TOYS actually cover the Tronics track, "Crush On You," and as they also hail from the burgeoning DIY scene in San Diego, it sorta makes sense. Don't wait 'til the A&R guy from Matador hears them in six months. Come early. Listen now.
BLESSURE GRAVE and SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY also dwell in San Diego's hemisphere...albeit the darker regions, filed next to the 4ad back catalogue: Clan Of Xymox, In Camera, Birthday Party and the first The The single. Want a cred check? Then consider this: they're on two of the best indie record labels in present existence: B.G. on Captured Tracks (run by Mike Sniper & his Blank Dogs) and S.P. on Sacred Bones.
The Standard Hotel is proud to sponsor the Part Time Punks Festival and has offered up rooms for all of the headliners of the Fest. To celebrate the partnership, the weekend's festivities will kick off on the rooftop of The Standard Hotel in Los Angeles with the Part Time Punks Poolside Pre-Party on SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10THfrom 2 - 8pm.
Part Time Punks' founder/DJ Michael Stock will be spinning records all afternoon with the chaps from GANG OF FOUR, THE GERMS, PUNKY REGGAE PARTY, LTM RECORDINGS and ACUTE RECORDS. Additionally, several of the bands performing at the Festival will be doing record signings, including members of THE RAINCOATS, SECTION 25, GANG OF FOUR, THE SLITS and THE JAZZ BUTCHER. The event is FREE and open to all.
So what the hell is PART TIME PUNKS?
Originally, it was but one track (of four) on the 1978 debut DIY 7" platter by The Television Personalities. A track about all the punters and trainspotters (poseurs to you non-Anglo-obsessives) who worked their mind-numbing shit jobs all week long only to go out on the weekends dressed up like punks.
But since May, 2005 it's also been the name of a club which is Los Angeles' answer to The Hacienda. (Or maybe, more accurately, The Factory, back in 1978 when Tony Wilson started it at The Russell Club.) Started by Michael Stock and Benjamin White, PART TIME PUNKS both celebrates and investigates the Post-Punk period and its sub-categories (DIY, synth-punk, minimal synth, punk-funk, punky reggae, new wave/no wave, industrial and so on and so forth thru the history of rock journalese descriptors) as well as occasional excursions into Indiepop and Shoegaze. Not only in the form of the music being played for the dance floor, but also the bands that are booked to play. Mostly up-and-coming and unsigned (from LA and NYC); all of whom are draw their influences from the creative pool.
While the last two hours (or so) of every Sunday are devoted to a freaky dance party (spun entirely on vinyl), the first two hours every week are devoted to the live bands that Michael books -- featuring a mix of classic Post-Punk bands (A Certain Ratio, Pylon, The Chameleons, The Slits, ESG, Medium Medium, Nikki Sudden, Chrome, Nervous Gender, Savage Republic, Kid Congo Powers, The Homosexuals, The Silver Apples, The Nightingales, Spectrum, St. Christopher, Phil Wilson) and the best up-and-coming bands who are mining the Post-Punk world of obscurities for their inspiration (Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts, Cause Co-Motion, Blank Dogs, No Age, Mika Miko, Abe Vigoda, Ariel Pink, Love Is All, Tokyo Police Club, Tussle, Glass Candy, Chromatics, Indian Jewelry, Psychic Ills, New Bloods, The Strange Boys, Times New Viking, The Tough Alliance, The Go Team). Not to mention an impressive array of Guest DJs: David J., Buzzcocks, !!! (Chk Chk Chk), Alan McGee, Calvin Johnson, Ian Svenonious, Juan MacLean, Cut Chemist and Doug Martch from Built To Spill.
In short, PART TIME PUNKS has always sort of been ahead of the curve in looking back. While punk is now retro and retro is standard fit, Post-Punk is just on the slender margin between history and pop-culture. It falls between the cracks - in the music world, in the film world, even in academia. While the word has definitely entered the vocabulary of most musically-minded kids and adults alike, most folks think it means "DFA" or, best case scenario, "Gang Of Four" or maybe "Joy Division," when what it really means was the period of 1978-1984, and the most musically-diverse time in popular history. Of course Part Time Punks has always been about the mix of that period and those records AND the very bestest, newest bands who are basically mining those tracks for their influences--as opposed to yet another Gang Of Four or Joy Division rehash. For this reason, Michael also pursues his mission of educating the ears and eyes of readers and listeners alike - via his radio show every Thursday 2-6pm P.S.T. on KXLU (88.9FM in LA; www.kxlu.com everywhere else) and the monthly column he writes on vinyl records for FLAUNT MAGAZINE called "The Bins".
Oh yeah, and he's a Part Time Professor, teaching University courses on things like Punk and Post-Punk (Music and Film) and the History Of Comic Books and Creative Writing at places like CalArts, Loyola Marymount, UC-Irvine and UCLA.
Any questions, feel free to email Michael (michael@partitimepunks.com)
or call him on his mobile (323-251-3324)
and he promises to stop talking in the third person.
And/or see www.parttimepunks.com for related sounds and vision.
Most excitingly, the 2nd Annual Part Time Punks Festival will mark the first-ever West Coast appearance of THE RAINCOATS. This, the second-ever all-girl punk band released their debut record on the Rough Trade label in the watershed year of 1979. Except by then, it wasn't punk music they were making, but Post-Punk, more akin to The Velvet Underground's first and second LPs than anything from 1977. Their LP in the racks next to Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, PiL's "Metal Box" and The Slits "Cut". The band reformed in 1993 when Kurt Cobain tracked them down during a pilgrimage to London. Cobain was also responsible for "convincing" his label, Geffen, to reissue The Raincoats three albums in 1993, which paved the way for the Riot Grrrl movement. It seems only fitting, then, that Kill Rock Stars will be reissuing the first Raincoats LP the week before the Fests.
"If it weren't for the luxury of putting on that scratchy copy of The Raincoats' first record, I would have had very few moments of peace.
-- Kurt Cobain
Equally stunning is the first appearance of SECTION 25 in Los Angeles since 1982! At the time, often dismissed as Joy Division clones (also on Factory Records), the band has since been recognized in the highest echelon of Post-Punk innovation, alongside Public Image Limited, Wire and...well...Joy Division, for fusing punk with psychedelia and the surging motorik rhythms of Krautrock bands like Can, Faust and Neu - much of this credit probably due to the reissuing of the band's back catalogue by LTM (who have also reissued most of the Factory Records back catalogue.
The Festival will also mark the first-ever reunion of THE JAZZ BUTCHER, who haven't played in nearly two decades - and with their complete original line-up of Pat Fish, Max Eider and Kevin Haskins (from Bauhaus/Love And Rockets).
The Festival will also provide the first West Coast appearance of The Nightingales since their reformation two years ago, the first-ever West Coast appearance of Vivian Girls AND the first performance by The Wild Stares since splitting in 1987 (who, if you don't know, were Boston's finest Post-Punk band from the early 80s, led by Steven Gregoropolous, now best known for his current band, Lavender Diamond).
The complete confirmed line-up is thus:
A Certain Ratio, Pylon, Love Is All, Vivian Girls, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Mika Miko, Savage Republic, Nervous Gender, Medium Medium, The Nightingales, The Urinals, The Wild Stares, Magic Bullets, The Muslims, Grimble Grumble, Warpaint, Softboiled Eggies, Nodzzz. . .
PLUS. . . GUEST DJs: David J (Bauhaus/Love & Rockets), Dave Newton (Mighty Lemon Drops), Brendan Mullen ("the guy who ran The Masque") Chuck Warner (Messthetics/Hyped 2 Death) & Dan Selzer (Acute Records) & Kevin Pedersen (What's Your Rupture?)
PLUS. . .the first-ever band-sanctioned public screening by Throbbing Gristle (videos, live performance & never-before-seen material) AND screenings of rare & unseen Post-Punk videos, films & live performances by Joy Division, New Order, Section 25, Cabaret Voltaire, Fad Gadget, Suburban Lawns, The Films Of Bruce Licher & Savage Republic AND the DVD-release-premiere of Decoder (featuring Genesis P-Orridge, William S. Burroughs, Christiane F and members of Psychic TV, Soft Cell, Talk Talk and Einsturzende Neubauten).
So why PART TIME PUNKS?
Well...where the hell else would it happen?
Probably nowhere in this country.
Perhaps not even the world. (Not since The Hacienda was bulldozed.)
So. A spot of history for you, of the more recent variety:
PART TIME PUNKS is the name of the club which happens every Sunday night at The Echo in Los Angeles. Started in May 2005 by DJ-partners Michael Stock and Benjamin White, the club celebrates/investigates the Post Punk period and its sub-categories (DIY, synthpunk, minimal synth, punkfunk, punky reggae, new wave/no wave and industrial) as well as occasional excursions into Indiepop and Shoegaze. Not only in the form of the music Michael and Benjamin spin for the dance floor (on vinyl only), but also the bands that Michael books to play.
The bands that have played the club have included a mix of classic Post-Punk bands (A Certain Ratio, Pylon, The Slits, ESG, Medium Medium, Nikki Sudden, Chrome, The Chameleons, Nervous Gender, Savage Republic, Kid Congo Powers, Spectrum, Phil Wilson) and the best up-and-coming bands who are mining the Post-Punk world of obscurities for their inspiration (No Age, Mika Miko, Abe Vigoda, Ariel Pink, Love Is All, Vivian Girls, Blank Dogs, Tokyo Police Club, Tussle, Glass Candy, Chromatics, These Are Powers, Cause Co-Motion, Indian Jewelry, New Bloods, The Strange Boys, Times New Viking, The Tough Alliance, The Go Team). Not to mention an impressive array of Guest DJs: Buzzcocks, !!! (Chk Chk Chk), Alan McGee, Calvin Johnson, Ian Svenonious, Juan MacLean and Cut Chemist.
In short, PART TIME PUNKS has always been ahead of the curve in looking back. While punk is now retro and retro is standard fit, Post-Punk is just on the slender margin between history and pop-culture. It falls between the cracks - in the music world, in the film world, even in academia. While the word has definitely entered the vocabulary of most musically-minded kids and adults alike, most folks think it means "DFA" or, best case scenario, "Gang Of Four" or maybe "Joy Division," when what Post-Punk really means was the most musically-diverse time in popular history: 1978-1984. Of course, Part Time Punks has always been about the mix of that period and those records AND the very bestest, newest bands who are basically mining those tracks for their influences--as opposed to yet another dancepunk rehash.
For this reason, Michael also pursues his mission of educating the ears and eyes of readers and listeners alike - via his radio show every Thursday on KXLU (88.9FM & www.kxlu.com) 2-6pm P.S.T. and the monthly column he writes about vinyl records for FLAUNT MAGAZINE called "The Bins". He's also a Part Time Professor, teaching courses on things like Punk Rock & Cinema, Graphic Novels and Creative Writing at places like CalArts, Loyola-Marymount, UC-Irvine and UCLA.
Any questions, feel free to email Michael and he promises to stop talking in the third person: michael@parttimepunks.com
And/or see www.parttimepunks.com for related sounds and vision.