Comments for q-sputnik

Comment on women in punk (four of them actually) by sam

sam — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:30:43 +0000

i think the first version comes from greil marcus, who is a massive s-k fan. its a reading of what they do as a band, rather than an actual version of their coming together, for which im sure there are various creative reasons.

if people expect a woman in a rock band to be behind the bass guitar, then its a double subversion if the band is all women, and on top of that they eschew the very necessity of having a bassist.

Comment on women in punk (four of them actually) by geonorton

geonorton — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:39:39 +0000

not sure I undersatnd the 1st version entirely, I mean what is the point in an all-women band? By definition it subverts expectations because the expectation is not that women play bass but that they only play bass.
the second one, if it were true, would mean that they would have first to accept and reproduce the stereotype that bass sound is masculine.

So I would suggest that it was just for some practical reason, or because they liked the sound of a guitar tuned as a bass?

thanks for coming back here!

Comment on women in punk (four of them actually) by sam

sam — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:27:53 +0000

re: bass and women in (punk) bands -

i’ve heard two different versions of why sleater kinney don’t have a bassist. firstly, which sounds like the nicest argument to me, they don’t have bass so they don’t have a bassist in order to subvert that expectation that if a woman is present she will be playing the bass. no bass: no stereotyped female bassist.

secondly, and this is perhaps a little more imaginative/speculative, someone told me sleater kinney don’t have bass because it is commonly thought of as a masculine sound. to have a woman replicating a masculine sound would be dishonest in some way, so no bassist.

either way, i think these are interesting takes on this debate. and sleater kinney are still awesome.

ps- first time visiting in a while, and i’ve only just noticed this has become a music-only blog!

Comment on my sonic youth by geonorton

geonorton — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:12:22 +0000

i think this is because of the cultural capital they carried (in the form of vinyl accumulation and also knowledge around groups, dates, discographies)-that made them quite defensive, their attitude was like they actually did not want to sell because thought kids 14-15-17 yrs old can’t possibly know what they knew! especially if you were a girl, what can possibly a girl be doing in an underground record store? it is this aura of records and the power of knowledge that cds destroyed when they arrived at this store, it changed drastically, it was strange.

Comment on my sonic youth by Split Lentil

Split Lentil — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:49:42 +0000

I miss the times when “7+7″ was a serious recordstore. I bought the first record from there that made me feel that I was “underground” thenceforward, Xentrix’s “shattered existence”. Up to then I only had records from Maiden, Dio, Slayer and Helloween. The guys working in “7+7″, by the way, throughout the time I know the store (14 yrs), have been the most unlikeable people ever! It must have been a necessary condition to be hired!

Comment on this weblog stops here by geonorton

geonorton — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:38:22 +0000

hey Jess, I’m flattered you read this blog, being from the fword. I probably will, I’ll email you when I do. I just want to play by the anonymity rules-this blog is mostly accessed by people I know offline-and I want to see if this holds me back from writing ‘the personal’. thanks and see you.

Comment on this weblog stops here by Jess

Jess — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:32:17 +0000

Oh no! Are you going to start blogging somewhere else?

Comment on Who took the ram from the ramalamadingdong by geonorton

geonorton — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:46:18 +0000

haha! you must feel very lucky after all, being one of the very few. I’ve never seen them and it sucks, cause they don’t play anymore but then I always think that I’ve seen the ramones twice and I feel better!

Comment on biofuels, food and parents by geonorton

geonorton — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:19:44 +0000

I understand your point that even when this food is not used for fuel it will still not go to feed people. But even if ‘biofuels actually play a pretty minor part’ of the system, it still needs to be addressed as a problem, and so do issues such as overconsuming and disposing perfectly good food. One does not retract the other, and actually the fact that there is a collective way to do that(vote against) makes it accessible. It is difficult to tackle buying too much food at the supermarket but a collective decision(through the council for example) can forbid the use of plastic bags(which actually makes you think of the amount of stuff you buy because they have to fit your regular containers).

It is all in the same cycle of production-consumption and I don’t see why adding damaging factors instead of trying to limit them.

Comment on Who took the ram from the ramalamadingdong by sam

sam — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:28:46 +0000

so good! i saw them a few years ago and despite feeling terribly out of place as one of a handful of males in the room, they were brilliant.