Welcome To The Iceage

By Less Lee Moore

Photo © Alberte Karrebæk

This is Iceage. Although there’s a better press photo that proves these four Swedish guys are, in fact, still in high school, I picked this blurry one because it looks more akin to what they sound like. And that’s something I’m not yet fully able to describe.

Based on the song, “White Rune,” I’ve got high hopes for Iceage’s debut album New Brigade, which will be released via What’s Your Rupture? on June 21. It’s got that exciting, on-the-verge-of-collapsing, post-punk sound of which I will never grow tired.

Yet unlike a lot of revisionist-sounding post-punk bands, I can’t immediately name another band Iceage seems to be imitating. And “White Rune” features saxophone. You know the kind. Not sax of the Yacht Rock or Kenny G. flavor, but the bad ass kind.

New Brigade is a mere 24 minutes long but based on “White Rune” it looks to be an exhilarating 24 minutes. I will keep you posted.

In the meantime, check out the band’s website. They’re playing lots of UK dates in May so go see them if you can.

Iggy & The Stooges, Raw Power Live

By Less Lee Moore

Raw Power, the last official Stooges record, was originally released in 1973 and has been the subject of conflict ever since (amongst the band and its fans), due to the various remixed and reissued versions. This live album, recorded in September 2010 at the All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in New York is a great interpretation of Raw Power and completely free of any polemic politics. There are some minor changes: the track list is slightly rearranged and “I Got A Right” is added on at the end, but nothing could ever change the incredible spirit of these songs. Raw Power is the perfect description of not just The Stooges, but Iggy Pop himself.

(more…)

Invisible Hand, S/T

By Less Lee Moore

At first the name Invisible Hand conjured images of some kind of Scooby Doo villain. Discovering that the lead singer and songwriter is named “Adam Smith” (yes, his real name) made me laugh; hearing the band’s music did, too. Invisible Hand isn’t a joke band, though they are clever, both musically and lyrically. They’re also incredibly fun and addictive.

(more…)

Erland & The Carnival, Nightingale

By Less Lee Moore

“A musical and melancholy sound” is not just a lyric from “Nightingale,” the title track from Erland & The Carnival‘s latest album, but also a perfect description of the band. They weave both musical references and literary allusions into their distinctive melodies, creating an evocative, intoxicating musical tapestry that is lush and extraordinary.
(more…)

I Slept With Joey Ramone: A Punk Rock Family Memoir

By Less Lee Moore

The Ramones have infiltrated pop culture to the point where one can hardly imagine a world without them. Yet out of the original lineup, all have passed away except for Tommy. Dee Dee died in 2002; Johnny died in 2004. Joey died from lymphatic cancer in 2001. His brother Mickey Leigh started writing I Slept With Joey Ramone not long afterwards, with the help of longtime friend and punk writer Legs McNeil.
(more…)

Real Women and Unreal Feminists

A recent article in The Daily Mail called 20-year-old ethereally androgynous fashion model Andrej Pejic, “fashion’s ultimate insult to women.” The Daily Mail is not heralded for its “unique” approach to journalism, but ignorance—particularly with regard to gender issues—must always be exposed and called out for exactly what it is.

Writer Amanda Platell blames the fashion industry for the “defeminsation” of women, stating early on that, “[r]eal women started to love their curves long before Christina Hendricks wowed the world in Mad Men with hers. And by all accounts men love them, too.” Even a brief unpacking of such bold statements would take far too long, so I’ll hit the high notes: Who or what are “real women” exactly? And why is it so important that men love curves?
(more…)

The Mistress And The Maid: Mildred Pierce

By Less Lee Moore

When I learned of the Mildred Pierce miniseries—directed by Todd Haynes and airing on HBO—I was thrilled. I’ve been a longtime fan of the novel and film, as well as of Haynes. Then I started to second-guess my excitement.

Would another male-directed version of this story merely intensify the story’s “male gaze”? Furthermore, should I revere Mildred Pierce as a feminist text when the original novel was written by one man (James M. Cain) and first captured on screen by another (Michael Curtiz)?
(more…)

A Little Bowie, A Little Bardot: The Runaways

By Less Lee Moore

The Runaways, Floria Sigismondi’s 2010 film about the seminal all-girl rock band, is not a documentary. That role, to some extent, has already been filled: Former Runaway Vicki Tischler-Blue made Edgeplay: A Film About The Runaways in 2004, even though Joan Jett declined to participate and refused to allow any original music from the band to be used.

Despite the fact that Joan Jett was an executive producer on The Runaways, do not watch it expecting a history lesson. Because the movie, although based on member Cherie Currie’s bio Neon Angel, is partly fact and partly fiction, but all fantasy: sex, drugs, more drugs, rock & roll, heartbreak, and dreaming.
(more…)

The Notorious Bettie Page

By Less Lee Moore

Called “the greatest pinup model that ever lived” by pinup photographer Art Amsie, Bettie Page was nothing if not an enigma. The now-iconic images of her alternate between sweet, sassy cheesecake shots and those fetish photos and films that were brought before the Kefauver Hearings of the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in the mid-1950s. It is this contrast and conflict that director Mary Harron examines in her 2005 film, The Notorious Bettie Page.

(more…)

A History Lesson, Part 1: Punk Rock in Los Angeles in 1984

By Less Lee Moore

My interest in this documentary on some of the bands in the mid-80s L.A. punk scene was piqued by the inclusion of Redd Kross, which, as anyone who knows me will attest, is my all time favorite band. Not because they are necessarily the best band in the world, or the most famous, or the most infamous, but because they forever changed my life for the better, a topic too lengthy to get into here, but which is, unsurprisingly, completely relevant to a discussion of A History Lesson Part 1.

This is not your standard glossy, let’s-explain-why-punk-rock-is-so-important documentary. It’s comprised of old footage shot by Dave Travis, a fan and friend of the bands featured—The Meat Puppets, The Minutemen, Twisted Roots, Redd Kross—interspersed with current interviews from members of those bands. The immediacy and importance of all the bands is captured in the grainy footage, and rather than coming across as embarrassing, it’s completely invigorating.
(more…)