jeffrey lewis and the mountain goats in pop-art collabo triumph

here's some fun: inter-textual fun, that is!

cartoonist, troubadour and indie-rock historian jeffrey lewis is currently touring with rap-loving blogger john darnielle's illustrious lo-fi outfit the mountain goats. a profitable relationship in itself, but jeffrey has also drawn a cartoon accompaniment to the goats' new album, heretic pride. above is one page, but it's too small, so you need to go here and ch-ch-check it out. here.

did you do that? right. jeffrey and the goats recently got two of the lousiest, stupidest album reviews i've seen of late on the web 2.0. this account of heretic pride by the NME is about the least informative nincompoopery i've ever read, and that includes max gogarty's blog (i'm not sure whether this review on DiS is intended as an arch rebuttal - i'd like to think so). and this onslaught on jeffrey's clever, witty, enjoyable 12 crass songs by pitchfork makes me want to pen a privately-published pamphlet exposing the fallacious logic of its author.

far be it from me to ruin the credibility of two promising young websites like NME and pitchfork by unleashing the full wrath and cultural authority of GMS upon them. i know the awesome power this blog has. it gets comments and everything, occasionally. with great blog comes great responsibility, etc. etc. reader, pitchfork and NME are sometimes okay, and they like indie rock. groovy times! but hear ye, hear ye: jeffrey and the mountain goats are good, as are the albums what they make. get it? got it? good. now for some fun: PAY ATTENTION.


here's 'sax rohmer part 1' by the mountain goats, from heretic pride. as jeffrey explains, sax rohmer was the pulp author who invented fu manchu. not the band, though! the chinese fellow.



here is jeffrey lewis telling the legend of the fall. not the season or the film or the albert camus book, though! the manchester band.

The Oxford English Dictionary of ROCK #1: Punk

I like punk rock. It’s got a cool beat, and I can bug out to it. Plus, if I want to shake my fist in the general direction of The Man, it’s just the ticket. Screw you, The Man!

But I’d like to learn more about these street-punks and their snotty ways. In the first (and possibly the longest) of a regular series, GMS seeks higher learning the language’s best and biggest repository of FACT, the Oxford English Dictionary. Here’s a definition:

punk rock n.

Originally: rock music played in a fast, aggressive, or unpolished manner. In later use: spec. a genre of rock music originating in the late 1970s, characterized by a deliberately outrageous or confrontational attitude, energetic (and often chaotic) performance, and (freq.) simple or repetitive song structures; the subculture or style associated with this music.

Gold Blade – ‘Punk Rock’ (from Do You Believe In The Power Of Rock’n’Roll?)

Mogwai – ‘Punk Rock’ (Live at All Tomorrow’s Parties, Camber Sands, 2000)

Straightforward enough, but there’s still debate about what, or who, counts as punk. Recently John Lydon suggested Green Day’s spiky hair and ripped clothing made them less like punk and more like “gorgonzola in old boots”. True punks might take this sort of argument outside. GMS takes it to the OED:

punk n.

b. A performer or fan of punk rock; a person who adopts the style or attitude associated with punk rock. In terms of appearance a punk is typically characterized as having coloured spiked hair, wearing deliberately ripped clothing, and using safety pins for adornment, either as a decoration on clothing or as a piercing through the ear or nose.

One-nil to Green Day. But wait:

1976 New Musical Express 17 Apr. 43/1 Johnny Rotten..has the makings of a good punk.

Honours even, then, for attire and attitude. Some mp3s:

Sex Pistols – ‘No Fun’ (Live at San Francisco Winterland, 1978)

Green Day – ‘She’s A Rebel’ (Live)

But which bands does the OED use to define punk? Hands up whoever said Sleater-Kinney and Green On Red.

punk band n.

2006 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 29 June C25 Sleater-Kinney emerged out of the early '90s riot grrrl movement, a loose coalition of female punk bands.

punk style n.

b. With past participles (in sense A. 5), as punk-influenced, punk-related, punk-styled, etc., adjs.

2005 Uncut June 163/1 Their punk-informed country underpinnings evoke fond memories of fellow travellers like Green On Red.

Sleater-Kinney – ‘You’re No Rock’N’Roll Fun’ (live, 2005)

Green On Red – ‘Easy Way Out’ (from Gas Food Lodging)

Like the OED, punk is continually evolving. The latest addition to the dictionary’s definitions is punk-funk (added: September 2007). That sounds about right: about three or four years ago people were going “ape” for bands like Radio 4 and the Rapture. Rubbish, weren’t they? Turns out, though, “teeny-bop” act T. Rex invented punk-funk. Just ask the staff of Kingston, Jamaica’s Sunday Gleaner.

punk funk n. any of various styles of music incorporating elements of punk and funk; cf. FUNK n.² 2.

1974 Sunday Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 24 Mar. (Mag. section) 6/2 T. Rex. Band with *punk-funk sound. Emerged with second coming of teeny bop, 1970. 1991 C. EDDY Stairway to Hell 45/1 ‘The Stroke’ ranks with the sleaziest, sassiest, strangest, slyest hit singles of the eightiespunkfunk for real. 2004 Uncut Mar. 58/2 The more experimental wing of the post-punk brigade,..the abrasive, sky-strafing guitar stylings of PiL's Keith Levene, the Banshees, or the non-linear, noisenik punk-funk of Gang Of Four.

Side-stepping that whole farrago, here’s some punk rap from the Cold Crush Brothers, funky for you:

Cold Crush Brothers – ‘Punk Rock Rap’

Who invented punk? The US and the UK have long disputed the title. The dictionary notes the old English origins of the word, generally meaning a young prostitute, but attributes the musical meaning to the US. Much as it pains me to say it, that’s substantiated by the relative number of bands cited as examples or inspirations: on the American side there are mentions for the Ramones, Stooges, Descendents, Green On Red, Sleater-Kinney, Angry Samoans, My Dad Is Dead and even Blink 182, as well as 1960s garage progenitors Shadows Of Knight, The Music Machine, and the Nazz. The UK falls just short with Sex Pistols, PiL, T Rex, Mick Jagger, Led Zeppelin, the Golden Horde (Irish, but that’s close enough), Souxsie and the Banshees, Gang Of Four, Elvis Costello (a “punkabilly”) and Toyah Wilcox (on a side note, no sign of the Clash). Interestingly, though, the bands against which punk was said to be in reaction (Pink Floyd, Cream, Genesis and Yes) are all Brits. Europe only gets a passing reference to the Raveonettes. Keep up!

Jeffrey Lewis – ‘The History Of Punk On The Lower East Side’

Gogol Bordello – ‘Immigrant Punk’ (from Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike)

Scott 4 & Magic Car – ‘European Punks’ (from European Punks LP)

I once bought an album from a charity shop called Totally Punk. It was. Here is the best track.

Tom Robinson Band – ‘Glad To Be Gay’

And here are two more top tunes to complete our magical musical journey:

Kenickie – ‘Punka’ (from At The Club)

Magnetic Fields – ‘Punk Love’ (from 69 Love Songs)

Previously on the OED of ROCK

"like the king of a certain musical genre"

looks like this came out about six months ago, which implies that my youtube game is mad weak. still, worth shouting about:

jeffrey lewis - 'will oldham williamsburg horror'



will oldham really needs to make a hastily-put-together youtube response, maybe in his pants by a modest swimming pool somewhere in florida while sporting a black eye, like what cam'ron did with 50 cent. perhaps that neil hamburger chap could help him out.

failing that, here he is with a threatening live version of 'a sucker's evening', the song referenced in jeffrey's video:

bonnie prince billy - 'a sucker's evening' (live, from summer in the southeast)

the old chap in the video is tuli kupferburg of the fugs. if you need educating about the fugs, jeff's your man:

jeffrey lewis - 'the history of punk rock on the lower east side'




More fun:

Buy Jeffrey and Jack Lewis City and Eastern Songs
Jeff's home page
Jeff's myspace
Buy Summer in the Southeast