Razorcake Podcast #197: With Todd Taylor
Punk has taught me a lot of things.
Here’s a short list I came up with when compiling this podcast.
A.) $50 punk shows can blow me. Class war.
B.) It’s hard for me to call a band a “band” if they haven’t made any new music in the past ten years. I feel that some bands should now be listed in air quotes. “Dead Kennedys.”
C.) History’s cool. Slavery to that history isn’t.
D.) Slavery still isn’t cool.
F.) I like Fugazi a whole lot. That’s not an extremely revelatory statement today, but in 1989, it was. I’m glad I didn’t toe the “Minor Threat or nothing” line. I’ve seen the alternative-universe Todd and he’s an insufferable prick.
G.) I don’t hate the internet. I wouldn’t be so testy if the internet met its promise and potential, where the world would be smaller, closer; not more isolating; that’d we be playing on a more level playing field against forces much more powerful than us. We’re not. It’s not. I’m bummed.
H.) Nostalgia. Why is it so expensive? And I’m not talking just about money. Don’t you get any bit excited that there are new bands making new songs… that flat-out rule?
I.) Over the past fifteen years, DIY punk’s been more invisible because “punk” became a “sound” and, for the people who marketed it as such, it was business as usual... and many punks bought into the fiction. Curious.
K.) Don’t worry about killing your idols. Kill the idea of idolatry. Trade it in for mutual respect.
L.) Let punk lead you by the hand to other awesome shit. Here’s a trajectory that close listening took me: Billy Childish-Oblivians-Goner-Stax-Otis Redding. Rad. Thank you.
M.) If you listen to a band that’s not singing in your native tongue, how you listen to music changes.
N.) Anger and questioning are international languages.
O.) If we don’t make and preserve and maintain our own history, we’re done. Erased. Or someone else turns it into nostalgia.
P.) What the fuck? I never played “Hops and Barley” by Leatherface before on a podcast? I’m a dope.
Q.) Enjoy the spectrum of punk, from past to present. Treat it as a living thing, not an ossified parody of itself. Interact with them shits.
-Todd
Tracklisting:
Future Virgins, “Wax Memories” (Starcleaner)
Statues, “We’re Disparate” (P.Trash / House Party)
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Fugazi, “Cashout” (Dischord)
Eddy Current Suppression Ring, “Demon’s Demands” (Goner)
Red Dons, “Secret Agent” (Deranged)
Reigning Sound, “We Repel Each Other” (In The Red)
Minutemen, “Sell or Be Sold” (SST)
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Knugen Faller, “For Sverige I Tiden” (Cage Match / Wasted Sounds / Ny Vag)
Alley Cats, “Give Me a Little Pain” (Dangerhouse)
Kalashinikov, “Sonja Contro la Grande Distibuzione” (SP / Waterslide)
Steve Adamyk Band, “X-Eyed Tammy” (Dirtnap)
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Thee Headcoats, “Every Little Thing” (Hangman)
Otis Redding, “Fat Gal”
Sultans, “Just a Fool (That’s Down)” (Swami)
Lost Sounds, “I Get Nervous” (In The Red)
Fuck All Night Super Stars, “Spray Paint Innuendo” (I made that title up. It’s track 10 of the unreleased Loveland Sessions demo)
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Mind Spiders, “Time Sucker” (Dirtnap)
Leatherface, “Hops and Barley” (Deranged)