The Mo-dettes - White Mice

What can I say...I don't get to play this song enough.

From Kate Korris of The Slits and The Raincoats, a short lived band and this is the only single of theirs I have, from Rough Trade's Post-Punk Vol 1 collection. I did find some Peel Session songs on the internet and they're good enough to want to find more of their stuff. I just don't have it as a high priority because I'm a perpetually broke DJ and this isn't the best dance music because it's so obscure. But I love it. I love girl punk/post-punk groups.

The Slits - Typical Girls

Well, I haven't been keeping up with my blog, have I?

The Slits are one my favorite bands. That cool mix of dub/reggae and punk with feminine allure.

Typical Girls, 1979, with it's B-side cover of I Heard It Through The Grapevine are two of my essential songs to DJ with.

Being an atypical girl, myself, the A-side really touches on my feminist side, you can look up the lyrics for yourself. Ari Up's voice on this single and the album Cut are wonderful, but the real prize is Budgie (before joining Siouxsie and the Banshees) on drums. This is great dance music all around.

Afrika Bambaataa

I'm definitely a nonlinear person, so I will interrupt my reminisces of Siouxsie and the Banshees with other thoughts.

So, here we go with my favorite Hip Hop artist. Afrika Bambaataa.


Looking for the Perfect Beat: 1980-1985, released in 2001 contains some of the best songs I love to listen to when I just want to let go of my cares and dance in my head or on a dance floor. Containing such hits as Planet Rock, Frantic Situation, and Looking for the Perfect Beat, the origins of Hip Hop with a nod to Krautrock and electronic music in general demonstrates that early Hip Hop is comparable to Punk in its DIY creation of dance music and activist lyrics, such as the song Unity (with James Brown) with it's refrain "peace, unity, love and having fun."

Not included in this collection that are great to have on hand are the songs Metal(a Gary Numan cover) and Afrika's collaboration with John Lydon (PiL/Sex Pistols) as Time Zone with their cross genre hit World Destruction, which was before the Run DMC/Aerosmith collaboration.

I aspire to have turntable skills like Bambaataa, that's for sure.

Siouxsie and the Banshees, post one, Hong Kong Garden, 1978

1978: Hong Kong Garden


The argument's been made somewhere (I don't remember where) that this is the single that started Post-Punk.

I'd have to agree. Musically, it diverges from the London punk bands that had come out over the two years before. The video for it is really low quality in terms of today, but the clash of lo-fi effects in terms of fitting the music, is very spot on.

When I play this song in a club, I just feel heavenly for some reason. I thought it was wild when Sopia Coppola had this in her movie on Marie Antoinette, but the dancing choreographed to it was really well done. It has a simple rhythm and beat and yet high energy. The guitars are the driving force that moves the song forward, the bass and drum work to give it a near perfect pogo from the initial "Chopsticks" like intro. Sioux's staccato singing during versus is keeping with drums with sensual "oh"s filling in like the coming orgasm of guitar and gong splash.

In terms of what was to come, this song suggests the controversial side of punk/post-punk/goth. It has drawn criticisms of racism with it's stereotypes of Asians, but the Banshees have answered to this.

SIOUXSIE: "I’ll never forget, there was a Chinese restaurant in Chislehurst called 'The Hong Kong Garden'. Me and my friend were really upset that we used to go there and like, occasionally when the skinheads would turn up it would really turn really ugly. These gits were just go in on mass and just terrorise these Chinese people who were working there. We’d try and say ‘Leave them alone’, you know. It was a kind of tribute." Source: Punk Top Ten Interview 08/06/01.
SIOUXSIE: "I remember wishing that I could be like Emma Peel from The Avengers and kick all the skinheads' heads in, because they used to mercilessly torment these people for being foreigners. It made me feel so helpless, hopeless and ill." Source: Uncut 01/05.

The B-Side, Voices (On the Air) is a haunting clash of feedback and effects. It was re-recorded in 1984 for the The Thorn EP and included on the Downside Up collection of B-Sides and rarities.

kick start

I thought I'd start this blog off with a music post.

My favorite band is Siouxsie and the Banshees.

I was captivated by this sad, yet beautiful woman with long black hair and this long yellow dress. The album was "Superstition." At the time, I was still a baby bat and just getting my feet wet in the diverse worlds of punk, post-punk and gothic rock.

I have a different opinion of that album nowadays, but then...that album art and those songs started a love affair that still goes on today. I love Siouxsie and the Banshees. I wanted to be Siouxsie Sioux, and still to this day emulate her look more often than not. I have my own twist on her style to be sure, but the root is there.

I have collected their oevre in many forms: vinyl, cassette, cd. I have them as mp3s to play them on my iPod. They're an old reliable no matter what mood I'm in, if I can't think of anything to listen to, I just go to them.

So, I thought, what better way to start off this blog than to discuss the diverse career of Siouxsie and the Banshees and how these singles and album and the band members have influenced me.

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