The blues come in myriad forms these days -both in life and tape decks. Existence isn’t sweet without the sour and on the new Black Norse/Big Mess split tape, the noisy post-doom blues and pummeling stoner blues are pretty damn sweet. It’s been years since their last releases, but these 6-tracks mark a return for two bands whose numerous other projects and geographic locations have somewhat capped their output and gigs. Somehow they not only never lose a step, but here we find Big Mess and Black Norse at the top of their respective games.
Big Mess’s contribution is an instrumental war of attrition that veers between jarring post-hardcore, sludgy chords and hints of mathrock that might resemble a cross between Unsane and Unwound. The droning, doom-inspired riffage is notable, but it’s so often betrayed by noisy, dissonant chords and angular notes that render the “doom” or “drone” tags wholly inadequate.
On the opener, “The Cutting Edge of Puppetry,” Olivia Close’s earthquake of a bass line sets the pace while Nick Wiedeman’s jagged guitar notes and chords cut a path upon which we know they’ll eventually join forces. Like pounding railroad spikes, they repeatedly bludgeon a few chords while Nick Egersheim’s relentless floor tom thunders along. The rattling, overdriven bass powers the song behind a wall of low end noise, but Wiedeman’s lines and flourishes are far cleaner and free to roam -it’s a powerful and deceptively melodic recipe. In the ender, “Song for Bella,” they work over a simple, yet potent progression to the point where it’s practically unrecognizable -building in layers of notes that continually collide and amalgamate, evolving into a new twisted heap of noise. While droning can sound like there’s simply no destination and no pace, Big Mess constructs sounds and tears them down in a way that’s far more purposeful and experiential.
Not to be outdone, Black Norse returns with a crushing trio of stoner gems to blow minds and eardrums. The sheer enormity of the recording is immediate and impressive. 7 years in, the duo’s song pacing has slowed a bit and their bluesy riffs thickened -mostly shedding the punk-influenced, noisy metal that dominated their last full length recording. Here, they still channel early Kyuss but with a more polished 70’s influence that recalls a burly version of The Sword. Guitar/vocalist Ben Troy is a songwriting wrecking machine and working with Dean Baltulonis at Wild Arctic studios provided even greater access to the raw power and sonic potential that Black Norse were meant to fulfill.
Troy’s vocals -a ghostly, reverb-laden take on Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell- aren’t just held notes above the riffs, but a lynch pin that provides distinction from others in the stoner metal genre. We could name a dozen influences from grunge to post metal to psych rock that make up Black Norse’s distinguished sound, but by any measure, their 3 dynamic songs are expertly crafted. While it’s possible to get lost in their crushing, bass-driven vibrations, the repetitive parts don’t last long -so this isn’t really that kind of high. Black Norse is the stoner who wants to go do shit, and listening to their side of the tape, that shit might be something like riding a roller coaster standing up. The sheer number of guitar and bass tracks on the recording, combined with spirited songwriting and tempo changes, create an intense, swerving narrative that makes passivity impossible. Their opener “Hell Fire,” lives up to its name by letting loose an onslaught of sensory overloading guitars and towering vocals amidst Ryan Harrison’s frenzied drumming. By contrast, “White” begins an airy meditation in which that roller coaster ride finally smoothes out -momentarily. Only to rocket off the tracks again with an echoed scream into melodic free fall that ends with a breakdown and guitar lead that burns like atmospheric re-entry -ala Acid King’s Lori S. May the ride never end.
Black Norse and Big Mess celebrate the tape’s release w/Green Bastard and INNIS this Saturday May 21st at The Brickhouse in Dover, NH.
Cynthia Connolly has spent her storied life creating, supporting and curating DIY arts and music. Now in its 7th printing, her self-published book, “Banned in DC” is the quintessential (definitive) documentation of the legendary early 1980’s Washington DC punk scene, but the list of her contributions over the years is a mile long. She’s written for pioneering zines Flipside and Maximum Rock and Roll, booked for the fabled venue, D.C. Space, worked with Dischord Records and created the iconic artwork for Minor Threat’s seminal E.P., “Out of Step.” Throughout it all, her groundbreaking photography has been showcased all over the world, gracing the pages of dozens of publications including the exhibit and book, “Beautiful Losers.” Recently, she’s curated hundreds of diverse exhibitions at museums and art spaces in her current home city of Arlington, VA.
On May 13, Connolly will be at Wrong Brain HQ in Dover, NH to discuss “Banned in DC” and share a slideshow of additional artifacts and anecdotes from her time in the DC punk scene.
Cover photograph of Eddie Janney copyright 1980 Jay Rabinowitz
Why do you think “Banned in DC” still seems to resonate so well with new audiences?
For awhile I didn’t know. Since I was the one who did all the publishing and the mail order and so I sort of became the contact person and then people would write to me once in awhile, you know, email me and say, “You know, I just want to thank you for publishing the book because it sent me in this direction and this is what I’m doing now.” And sending some examples- something like working at a non-profit that’s helping kids, any various different things, but usually something to do with helping a community -which is really awesome that people actually write to me because it really makes my day. Cause it was a struggle all these years to keep it in print and I was so stubborn. Leslie was like, “well, maybe you should get someone else to print it.” I was like “No! I want it to be printed by us so that it looks like you can do this!” (laughs) And you know, you can control your own history, but you can also be the one actually publishing it and distributing it, so you’re a direct conduit -people can actually talk to you directly and it’s not so distant from who made it. So, I think that might have something to do with it, that it was self-published and continues to be self-published and it represents being able to control your own culture and how you control your own life in a way. I think that because it’s about DC as well, it has that double impact. That whole punk scene from Washington DC has a lot of impact and it’s very serious and Dischord still exists and there’s Ian (MacKaye) and there’s all these different bands that still exist and some of the labels still exist so I think that’s part of why the book continues to have a voice.
I don’t know if that’s the only reason, I think the book itself, I don’t know if the way it’s made. When I imagined the book to be created, I always wanted it to be not written by one singular voice because the scene as it was, wasn’t one singular voice it was a whole bunch of people who worked together. We all wanted, well we didn’t know what we wanted, but we wanted some kind of community and we supported each other in it. So the book, it was fully intended as you see it. It didn’t really morph into something else, I mean, I imagined it to have these stories from people, because people were really great story tellers here and then photographs and flyers. And in some kind of chronological order because it just seemed like that’s how you remember things -you know, “What year was that?” “I don’t know, 1983.” (laughs) But the stories were really important cause then it made everybody have a voice and contributed to the book. So maybe that’s one of the reasons why, because it can actually speak for other scenes and places and art movements as well, in some way. It represents not just Washington DC, but maybe it actually represents a music or art movement. I’m just thinking of this because I’ve never really thought about it in depth, I’m surprised that it does keep on going.
How did you go about bringing the book back after it was out of print for so long?
You know, the book went out of print 10 years ago, approximately, and I kept about 300 copies myself so if somebody really wanted one they could track it down. I sold them, but I really minimized, I wasn’t really pushing them to sell them I was just really holding on to them in case somebody really wanted some. So they really ran out about 5 years ago. I probably have a box left, but that’s like super emergency and that’s when I decided that maybe I should redo this again. My friend Eric Denno said he’ll do it, which basically meant he was going to make this book a digital negative so it could actually be printed again because the analog negatives, which were made in the late 80s, were completely deteriorated and you couldn’t print from them anymore -or make plates. So really, the only reason why the book exists is because Eric Denno said he would do it and he didn’t get paid, he just did this on his own because he really wanted the book to exist and he’s super psyched that it exists. So, in a way, that kind of enthusiasm for the book and that people think it’s important that it exists is really awesome and so I feel like I’m this caretaker of this object, that we did all create it, but for some reason, I’m sort of holding the hot potato in this case and I keep on trying to figure out creative ways to sell it or do things with it. So this time, I wrote this afterward and I actually went to Ian (MacKaye) a lot talking to him about what I should do about this book if I’m going to spend all this time trying to get this book together, because it took 5 years to make it again to make it look exactly like the old one, but it’s digital -we literally had to type all the text over again and everything. We talked about it a lot and we were just like, “Why don’t you write something about how and why you made the book?” And like, “Nobody really cares about that.” But then when I started writing it, I realized this is really interesting. I’ve told parts of the story but so much has changed over the past 25 years when the book -I mean, it was 30 years ago when I thought about making the book and so much have changed. People used to buy books, people don’t buy as many books anymore, there’s way less book stores, everything’s online -there wasn’t the world wide web in 1986 so there’s a lot of things that have changed and the way we communicate has changed. So it’s interesting to write about that as well because it does change how we interact as a society. So the book might even represent the fact that it was another time and people lament that it’s gone. I’m not really sure.
How did the discussion and slide show tour come to be?
When I did the afterward, I thought, “Oh, I’ll just do this book signing in L.A.” this is last summer, because I’m going to LA. A friend of mine in Baltimore said, “Well, why don’t you do like a slideshow” “No, nobody’s interested in that.” (laughs) He was like, “What do you mean, don’t you have other images or ephemera that didn’t make it into the book that you could talk about?” I was like, “I guess, I just have some flyers.” So I started going through my stuff and you know, there’s more than I thought and I’m sure if I spent more time, I’d find even more and I do and I add more stuff to the slideshow as time goes on. And so I did my first talk and it was supposed to be in Baltimore, but I was going to New Orleans and I contacted this woman who was really into “Banned in DC” because it actually represented some African Americans in it and she always found that an influence for her because she’s African American. So I asked her if she’d arrange and talk and she was like, “Yeah,” did so I did my first one in New Orleans. She was like, “that’s so inspiring,” and I was like, “it is?” So for me, I always thought of it as just a story, but it seems that the story of why I wanted to do the book and what the whole theme was about is just about DIY. Which is about empowering yourself to do what you want to do and then trust your own intuition about the things you want to do in your life.
That’s a perfect lead -at this stage in your life, what does punk mean to you and what role does it play in your life and art now?
Well, I actually work for the government as a curator so I always have to tap back into that perspective and the energy that I had in the 80s because that is who I am and sometimes it gets lost, especially working in a bureaucracy because it’s so draining. What it is now is the same it always was which is that it’s about taking risk and being comfortable in taking risk. And being positive about that and for me, being involved in communities and supporting people in the things that they’re interesting in doing. So it’s about being creative and working outside the box and supporting those people in their creative endeavors so that they can actually succeed as well. It’s really about trying to make the most of your life, that’s what it means for me. So it’s about being a supportive community that is about creativity and pushing out the walls and not being confined to the rules that we already have -and continually questioning along the way.
How do you personally find compatibility between your ideals and the real situations we find ourselves in as we mature?
I’m having this conundrum right now about should I move back to California or not? Cause I grew up in California and I have this opportunity to move there. And one of the reasons I think about it is because I have this retirement in my job that I could actually take in 3 years and should I stay here and do that? And it’s funny because obviously when you’re 16 you don’t have retirement (laughs) So that’s a good question. How does that apply. That unsuredness in moving somewhere else and getting a job and what’s that mean. Again, I actually do tap into this like me, you know, as who I am I’ve always been able to find something to do. And I need to remind myself of that and that’s sort of part of the punk thing -reminding yourself that we think differently and we have a different perspective. For me, I really see opportunities and I seize opportunities as they come to me. So, a lot of my friends are supportive -again the same thing about supporting your community, being creative and thinking outside the box. When you get older you end up harboring all these things you own, which is something now I’m contemplating because I own a house so I can contain my artwork that I’ve created. But what does all this mean? And when you’re 16, 17, 18, 19, you don’t really have that, so you can be more experimental. So this is where I am right now -What am I doing? Have I just completely bogged myself down with the things I’ve experimented with and created? And then how do I move forward from here? So I’m actually really thinking about that, but I don’t really know how to resolve that at the moment.
One of the things I feel like I need to get more involved with is -ever since I was a kid, cause I grew up in California and lived through the drought in the 70s- was this concern about our food and how we don’t really respect the earth and how much food we waste. We don’t respect how important food is and we Americans waste I think it’s 40% of the food that’s produced which is unbelievably painful to hear that and it’s painful to see your friends waste food. It’s probably one of the things that before I was involved with punk that I really thought a lot about. And that’s something I feel as if I need to go in that direction. Applying that creative thought to food systems and communities and how we can move food to the people who need it. So that’s sort of where I’m thinking I need to go somehow, but I’m not sure how that’s going to happen.
What’s your take on the most recent incarnation of the punk scene in DC? I just saw NPR wrote a piece on DC hardcore. How involved are you with that scene?
It pretty interesting, it’s been going on for awhile. I don’t go to any of those shows. At this point, I don’t really listen to that music, but it’s not really -the music is a vehicle for me to propel some of my own ideas and so, in the early 80s, they all coalesced at the same time. I was looking for, in California, a creative group people or a community I could connect with. At the time, in Southern California near the beach what you really had was a surf scene that was really dude oriented. So that’s not what it was for me, because I wanted to be an actual participator and creator, not just a stand-by kind of person. So music for me, at that time, was a part of the whole community. Now the community, music is still a part of it, but it’s even bigger for me -it’s art and it’s politics and there’s just so many different aspects to it. I’ve heard about this whole scene in DC, which is totally fascinating because we were even talking about earlier -there’s practically no space left, so there’s actually these shows in basements and houses in DC, which is really cool. And I know some people who take photos of them and they tell me about them and they’re like, “You should come!” I’m like, “Yeah, ok,” (laughs) I mean it would be really cool to go, I just haven’t gotten it together to actually connect the dots to go do it… It’s super awesome that people have these shows in basements and again, it’s about controlling -being able to have your own scene. It’s not reliant on anybody else, you’re not asking anybody else to help you and you’re just doing it yourself. I think that’s the best thing ever. There’s nothing more infuriating than when an artist thinks that they need somebody else to help them to make something happen. I think that actually so many artists and musicians can make things happen on their own and they don’t need the help of others. Realizing that completely frees you in a way that you can’t have any other way.
As a pioneering woman in the punk and art scene, what’s your perspective on the extent of growth for women in punk rock and art today?
That’s awesome you said that, but you know, going back to that story about Los Angeles. I went with this guy, the drummer from The Urinals, to go see the LA County Museum of Art exhibit on the Russian avant garde. And that was really inspiring to me because it spoke about a community of men and women as artists creating something that was new and different and I wanted to be a part of that… When I discovered the punk scene in L.A., I realized that so many women were on stage and performing as well as being participants. So that’s why I was involved with it. I was stubborn in that I thought it was important to be involved and that I happened to be a woman. I really like the idea that the Banned in DC book was made by all women. I asked Leslie if she wanted to do the book and it just seemed natural to ask my friends who were interested in it to help make the book. So it turned out to be 4 women, which is kind of unusual. And it continues. Like the woman in New Orleans, she really wanted to do the Banned in DC talk because it really inspired her. Something that’s sort of a passive representation -I feel like what I did was to represented women in this passive way of just being there and my name was there and the names of the people who made the book, who were all women, were there. And that inspired people and women to do the same as well because it represents that empowerment. So, it continues and it’ll only expand because of the way our societal perspective of what women’s roles are has changed, even from the 80’s until now. Because women are more involved in things, that it’ll make it completely different -I would guess it might be less violent (laughs).
Is it different in the art world? I know that’s where you’re most involved now.
Yeah, there’s a ton of women involved with contemporary art and I see them being perceived as equal to men entirely. I see that even more clearly than in art than in other parts of our society. It’s interesting, I just see it as what it is. I don’t actually think about it at all. I don’t think “That’s great, that’s a woman doing that.” I just see people creating artwork and when you really step back and look, it’s a really feels like a very supportive group and they’re probably equal men and women. In D.C., I can’t speak for every city, but in D.C., that’s what I feeling. It’s great.
That sounds positive. I ask because the punk scene, even its revivals, can still be pretty dudey and violent.
Yeah, right right. The music is pretty violent and so you know. Not unless something changes -I wasn’t attracted to the violent part of it at all. That was totally not my thing. So when that started happening in late ‘81 and continued for at least 4 years I was in art school anyway, but I became more disinterested in it because of that part. Because the violence overshadowed the other messages that were part of the whole punk scene. Until mid to late eighties when there was more politics involved with punk music. Positive Force (activist collective) got more and more empowered to do projects having to do with politics and protest and things like that in DC.
There are some really inspiring aspects today -the Transgender movement has really found a voice in punk rock. These marginalized groups are still coming together and creating their space in the scene and it’s so cool.
That’s amazing! That’s really great! Being able to stand and make your voice and really pushing out the limits of where we are and trying to be creative with what we have. So really pushing things to find a new perspective on the way we live. I just think that’s really important, all in all, for a healthy way to live in society. Being aware and accepting of change. To me that’s all about the punk thing -it’s a really big deal really, when you think about it. And so many people don’t think about it, they’re just like, “Oh, I thought punk was just a bunch of violent kids who are fuck ups.” Well, yeah, some of them are, but a lot of it, that’s not what it is. And what’s kind of cool about it is, even though we get older and there’s kids who are into it. It’s funny because our parents probably were sort of terrified of the whole thing. To me now, I’m not terrified of it, I look at kids and like you were saying, “oh, it’s so great that they’re doing this stuff, you know?” So perhaps it’ll take a different form because there’s the older crew is saying “yeah, that’s totally great!” (laughs) I don’t know if that’ll make them more disinterested (laughs)
Oh yeah, right! That they’re not actually rebelling (laughs)
Yeah, maybe that’s not a good form of rebellion because we’re like, “yeah, good good!”
“Here I’ll buy you a guitar and we’ll get a photocopier, we can make zines!” I wonder what’s next then?
If you think about it, in the respects within punk that -I’m just thinking about now, how kids have computers and everything -and you just said it, instruments, you know those were big deal things to have -an instrument, being able to save money and buy a bass guitar and an amp and then being able to have your friends buy instruments and then being able to make a band and then being able to make something of it is the same way that everybody now has -we have a higher bar of ownership of stuff which includes having a computer and a phone which already is this greater investment that we never made when we were kids. The new generation is forced to spend money on crap that they really don’t need… Again, going over the whole punk thing is that empowerment without having all these tools. At this point, everybody thinks that they need some form of social media and all this stuff to succeed, but again, let’s step out of that and say that’s not what you need. That would be punk because it would say that you don’t need a phone, you don’t need all these things, what do you need to actually make this happen? There could be some kids who feel like they’re left out because they don’t have a phone or they can’t afford a guitar -or they have a phone and can’t afford the guitar because they have the phone. The punk thing would be to look at what you’re doing, reassess what you’re doing and make a bold move. Get rid of the phone so you can own a guitar or do something different -just thinking off the top of my head about what the phone means.
I know you’re a big fan of letterpress, the digital age -art, photography, music and promotion seem to have lost their personal, hand-made touch, how do you still maintain that connection in your work today?
I think that I like the contrast of the hard edged manufactured object in comparison also to the letter press in particular, because every printing is unique and it adds that human -when you see something printed in letterpress. When you see something written in letter press, there’s different kinds now -they make these plastic plates are directly from a computer negative so it’s something that’s been laid out on a computer as opposed to something laid out in lead type, which is what I do. The lead type really makes it look human and touched a million times because of the spacing between the letters -kerning errors and leading errors -well not errors but irregularities -to the type itself, some of them are shorter than others so there’s more ink on some and less on others. So it really adds this human element to the work which I really like.
Even the very first photo tour I did of people from DC with their Cars and People Live in Their Bands by Pat Graham photo tour that we did in the 90s’. My photographs were framed and I riveted the photos to board, kind of ruining the photos in some ways by puncturing holes in it, but adding that hand made element to it that makes it seem like somebody was really there and made that happen. I think that’s just part of my aesthetic in some way. I don’t like things totally perfect and now that the digital world makes everything so perfect and clean and slick, I’m more interested in doing silver gelatin prints or prints in the dark room that aren’t perfectly printed. I’ve enjoyed printing things now the you can actually see the sprockets were there, that the developing was a little off so you can see that it actually is film. Otherwise then, some of my prints just look like digital prints, they don’t show the characteristics of film. So I like showing -it adds another layer to the work for somebody to interpret as they look at it. By showing these slight errors or irregularities from one print to the other.
While a huge segment of the population seems content to replace or even give up on artistic expression and progression over time, who or what keeps you motivated and fresh these days?
That’s a good question, I don’t know (laughs) Let’s see, I love taking road trips and visiting my friends outside of the DC area. And riding my bike a lot. I ride my bike a lot and that makes me think, it’s this meditative space to sort through what I’m doing. I like the people I work with in my job and I guess hanging out with my friends. To me, they’re really brilliant people and they inspire me and we inspire each other. That’s what keeps me going.
What are you working on currently? What’s next?
I’m working on this project that’s really taking a long time. I haven’t watched TV in about 20 years and I got a TV and started watching it and I was really kind of dumbfounded about how -this is TV TV with an antenna not cable TV so the ads, these ads were really almost 3 fold worse than the ads I remember from 20 years ago where they say something and then there’s a major disclaimer at the bottom that you can’t read in time for the frame to go away. I started getting obsessed with those disclaimers and I’ve been collecting the text from some of those disclaimers and I want to use them in some project. It’s kind of a bummer, but it’s about how we create this world where we’re trying to create something we can’t ever really get. So I want to do these landscape photographs I’ve taken of big wide open spaces and then letterpress these statements from advertisements over them that are just completely, obscenely, “you’ll never get that.” Basically, the message is “you’ll never get what that is,” the image, “you’ll never be able to obtain that in your life.” Cause the message that’s printed on it has something to do with, you know, “most people won’t qualify for this loan.” There was one that really said, “most people won’t qualify,” and I was like, what’s actually the point of the advertisement? (laughs) It was so weird, it’s just bizarre the things that are out there. It’s the survival of the fittest thing going out there with those ads. If you really don’t pay attention, you’re like, “well, that sounds great!” It’s not great at all. (laughs) I don’t really understand. I’ve been thinking about it more that it has to be not just from TV so the quotes have to come from different places. It started with a menu in Miami and it said, “For groups over 8 a 20% gratuity has been added to your check for your convenience.” So I was like, “Oh, for MY convenience you’ve added the 20% gratuity. I see.” (laughs) So it’s those kind of things where the wording is kind of twisted and pointing that out. It’s all over the place.
Photos:
1st mosiac:
Vivien Greene, Toni Young and Giovanna Righini, 1981
Rites of Spring at Food for Thought, 7-29-1984
Nothing Sacred, 9-1981
2nd mosiac:
Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile/Cold Cold Hearts with her 1979 Pontiac Catalina, 5-16-95
Alec MacKaye of The Warmers with his 1967 Mercury Comet, 4-93
Guy Picciotto of Fugazi with his 1976 Chrysler Cordoba, 8-95
MID DECAY 