Trees presents ... Synthpunk Day

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Synthpunk is a term coined by Damian Ramsey in 1999, used to categorize a musical movement (mostly based on the US's West Coast) that brought together the aggression and irreverence of punk and the synthesizer technology of the period between 1977 and 1984. Below are my favorite songs by various synthpunk groups along with external links to histories, discographies, and so on. By no means is this a complete listing— my sonic bias is inherent. Enjoy!

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Suicide:



Suicide's Wikipedia Entry


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The Screamers:



A History of LA's The Screamers


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Pink Section:



WFMU's Blog Entry on Pink Section


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Units:



A Journalistic History of San Francisco's Units


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Inflatable Boy Clams:



The Inflatable Boy Clams Site


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Voice Farm:



An Incomplete Discography of San Francisco's Still-Extant Voice Farm


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Crash Course in Science:



Crash Course in Science Official Site


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Nervous Gender:


(note: "Confession," perhaps Nervous Gender's most awesome song, comes in around the 7:45 mark)

A Collection of Miscellany about San Francisco's Nervous Gender


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Systematics:



A Piece on Post-Punk and Synth-Punk in Sydney, featuring Systematics


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KaS Product:



The KaS Product Official Site


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Liaisons Dangereuses:



Liaisons Dangereuses Official Site
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p.s. Hey. Synthpunk is an awesome genre. Trees is a consummate host. Combine them, and you're set for today. So, switch off your jazz, your indie rock, your noise, and click those vids and links until further notice. That is all. Thank you, kind Trees. ** Changeling, Not only can you make the Angela Carter post, I insist! Well, okay, not insist. Cajole. I cajole you. Thank you, man? How are you? How's the writing and the possible muse and everything else? ** Adjoun, Hey. Well, he definitely seemed to have seen your work. Yeah, I heard about the Dutch arts cuts. France has been threatened with severe ones too, but they haven't seemed to have been made official yet. I guess Sarkozy is too busy being hated. That's funny: the only two other current Dutch artists he mentioned liking a lot were, yes, Joep van Lieshout and Rineke Dijkstra. Yeah, I like their work too. His very, very favorite currentish Dutch artist is/was Rene Daniels, and who can blame him? I certainly can't. I got to impress him by mentioning I interviewed Rene Daniels in the 80s. I love the Duvert so far. I can't remember where I am in it. It's been weeks since I had to put it aside for my novel. I'm just about halfway through it. ** Hayden Derk, Hey. Oh, my pleasure, sir. I get those spontaneous plot epiphany things too. Weird. My writing's kind of a combination of the heavily pre-ordained and the outburst-like. I have to give myself a kind of cut-off point so I can finish books, and I figure I can use the spontaneous stuff in the next thing or as a short piece. Anyway, that's pretty exciting that you're three months from finishing your novel. I really, really can't wait to get a chance to read that. Big fan here, as you know. ** David Ehrenstein, Hey. Oh, I think I saw 'No Orchids For Miss Blandish' at one point. Yeah, it was very odd, very memorable. Got the email, thank you. Very interesting. And, wow, go Barry Diller! ** Toniok, Hey there! Did I read between the lines correctly that the show of your photographs opened last night? Did I get it right? If so, how was it? Openings are so weird and confusing, but still ... how was it? Thanks a lot about my nearly finished novel. It is a strange one, and I'm very curious to find how strange it is. ** Allesfliesst, It's kind of that cold here too. It makes the Xmas decorations looks really great though. I don't know why. Some cold air-related visual effect or something. You stayed at H'otello? Strange. I wonder who thought up that name. The people working there were nice. The buffet breakfast wasn't bad. Considering German literature's wealth of great 'conceptualists', that prejudice is pretty bizarre. Ha ha, everyone at my reading either worked for the Kunstverein or Amerikahaus or were invited/ strong-armed into attending by people who worked at those places. Really, not a single curious stranger. It was interesting. ** Pilgarlic, Hey. Yeah, I thought I'd throw the naked girl one in there just to see if anybody was paying attention. Thank you for your attention, ha ha. That shit story was interesting and a bit, you know, ugh. Weird how that works. It's ridiculous, but every time I see Thurston Moore, I always flash back to that scene in 'The Year Punk Broke' where he shows off the gigantic shit he took in some toilet. Why, Thurston, why?! ** MANCY, Hey. I'm glad you liked the photos. I was actually wondering what you would think of them since there seemed to be at least a distant relationship to some of your interests and concerns as an artist. ** Trees, First, a big old thanks for the show upstairs. I am your humble and grateful curtain raiser. Building a shack in a vacant lot? I hope you took pix or vid. For some reason, the sound of that got me all excited. Childhood stuff coming back, I guess. ** Stan Czarnecki, Hey. It sounds kind of like how it was for me with profs at Pasadena City College. Maybe it's a City College thing. Yeah, if you can upload those vids, that'd be awesome. You might get away with the first film on Vimeo. Its police are looser. Understood about holding off on the apartment if you're not sure how much longer you'll get to be there. Breaking leases can be very tricky and costly. Man, I wish I knew someone there with a job to give you. Everyone I know in LA is sort of clinging nervously to their sources of income right now. Well, 'The Man Without Qualities' is insanely great, but it's a beast and a real commitment. ** Killer Luka, Holeing up and working on my novel non-stop is making me more neurotic too. Or that's what Yury says. How would I know? Do I seem more neurotic? The posts? How would I know? The ground is white here too. I love it. Is that neurotic? No, it's pragmatic. I'm okay. ** Squeaky, Darrell! Well, wow, hi, man! It's awfully good to see you, my pal. You're still in SF? How is that? What's going on? What are you working on? It's great to see you back! ** Ishmael, Hey, Ish! Oh, cool, there it is. The official list w/ photos (not of us). Nice. Everyone, do you want to see Artforum give a nice, warm backslap to 'Them' and some other stuff too? Easy, if so. I certainly know the name Xavier Le Roy, but I haven't seen the work, I don't think. I'll ask Gisele about him when I see her tomorrow. The French theater artist guy I was raving most to you about is Yves-Noel Genod. Yeah, big excitement on my end about the regrouping. ** Bacteriaburger, Hey, Natty! That's great news that your book has a launch date. I want to introduce and celebrate the hell out that baby's birth on this here blog when the time comes. Glad to hear things are good in general, except for the Pittsburgh winter. ** Sypha, Hey. Blurb's coming later today. So sorry for my slowness. 'The Man Who Was Thursday' is really nice. I read it ages ago, but I remember. I love how you schedule up your reading for the year in advance. It's cool. I have about 8 books I'm the middle of, so that'll take up next year's first couple of months for me. Well, yeah, a Thomas Ligotti and/or Weird Woonsocket Day would be really awesome, man! Thanks for wanting to make them. ** The Dreadful Flying Glove, My galerie thanks you for your kind patronage. I'm good. We got enough snow here yesterday to whiten the sidewalks and tree tops, but not enough to change the way the streets look. It's a start. That is some title, my friend, and you are without a doubt -- or mine at least -- a genius. Yup. ** _Black_Acrylic, Your snow is a lot better than our snow. Or worse, as the case may be. I'd show you ours in return, but it's too humiliating. ** Steevee, I haven't heard the name Bettye Lavette in a long time. Yeah, great voice. 'Nights in White Satin', is, err, a really bad choice. I last saw 'Cruising' maybe, oh, fifteen years ago. That viewing didn't change my opinion that it was kind of a stiff mess of a film, but it does have a lot of period charm. Friedkin is really revered in France. I don't quite get it. ** Chris Cochrane, You got a solo Artforum Top Ten nod? Well I mean solo in the sense of being recognized outside the 'Them' family. Dude, sweet. Novel's really close to its finis now, and, yeah, very looking forward to seeing you. ** L@rstonovich, Oh, man, the knee really got serious on you. I'm sorry to hear that. The fluid extraction isn't that torturous, is it? Just a jab, a suck, and you're on your way? ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hey, J. Oh, while I've got you, the post will go up here on Saturday, the 11th. It all looked real good, and it all set up very nicely. Thank you a lot, man. No, I don't use outside editing at all. Just my tradition of showing Amy Gerstler my newly completed novels and getting her read and opinion before I show them to anyone else. Although I'm not going to be able to do that this time because of the time and distance stuff. Mm, I only really looked for in-progress feedback when I was first writing seriously, in poetry workshops and things. For me, getting feedback while I'm writing is too confusing. It's too easy to give a person's subjective opinion too much weight, and that can really throw me off. And I like the kind of hot house, mad scientist way of working. But I have gotten pretty good at being able to edit my work objectively over the years. I don't know why that happened, though. I have a lot of confidence in my abilities even as I'm very aware of my limitations as a writer and even as I'm always trying to enlarge what I can do. Being very, very into the economical certainly helps because removing stuff is a lot of what my editing is about. And I have an intense interest in the rhythms and sound or music of the sentences that I think that helps a lot too. And I think the fact that my fiction writing developed in connection with a lot of reading and writing poetry was a big factor because I think I still edit like a poet edits. But I don't know really. That's the best I can of at the moment. ** Nb, Glad you liked the photos. Kiddiepunk gets the credit. Oh, I remember that you were thinking of using Esther Pearl Watson as an inspiration point. Awesome that you're closer to that point and more confident. I'm telling you, man, confidence is such a huge, huge factor. I'm fine, just putting everything into finishing the novel. It's kind of intense to be days away from having it done. After more than two years of thinking about this novel 24/7, it's pretty trippy. ** Andrew, Those are some sad semi-celebrities right there. Poor Leif Garrett. Yeah, I read something about David Cassidy getting arrested. Like your basic DUI, wasn't it? ** Shannon, Hi, Shannon! I'm really glad you liked the photos. What happened to your horror story? Why have you been in funk? Can I put a lampshade on the blog's head to cheer you up or anything? ** Creative Massacre, Hi. Great news about your mom. Phew. And I'm glad you're feeling better. Oh, I've got your post set to launch on Wednesday, the 8th. Hope that's okay. Oh, and I inserted a little text introduction to each movie just to give some tips and background. Is that okay? I can take that out if you want. Thanks a lot, pal. ** Frank Jaffe, Hi, Frank! Sure, I'm an Argento fan, or a fan of most of the ones I've seen. I think I've only seen maybe, mm, five of his films? Six? The recent ones aren't so hot. Okay, man, get those zzzz's and then continue on your merry and enlightening way. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, I'll probably like the movies in Ultra Violent. Or the magazine will convince me. Good magazines can do that. I do get strangely excited about buche de noels, or the fancy designer ones anyway. Edible toys, I guess? I don't know. You know a lot of scary drivers. Wear your seat belt. I walk fast too. I got that from Yury. He walks at a super high speed. When I walk with friends, they always end up walking a block behind me. Don't get sick. It is that time of year. It always seems to me like cold winter air would kill all dispersing germs and viruses. But I guess it doesn't. My day: Pretty low key. I worked on the novel. I finished the first chapter, and I'm working on the second one now. I'm thinking it'll be finished by tomorrow, but we'll see. For the record, at the moment, the narrator is riding in a car on his way back to Paris after buying a strange chateau in the French countryside, and he's with an Emo boy named Serge, whom he kind of kidnapped from the owners of the chateau, and who sure seems like he's going to get eaten very soon, but, with this novel, you just never know what's going to actually happen. So, I mostly worked. It was very cold and snowing outside, so other than my forced exile, during while I bought two muffins, the new issues of The Wire and Mojo, ate one muffin and read most of The Wire, I didn't go out at all. My agent says that the publishing house in the UK that might publish 'Smothered in Hugs' might be interested in publishing my new novel too, but, obviously, they need to read it first. Gisele got me comp tickets to see KTL aka Stephen O'Malley and Peter Rehberg perform a live music score to some old silent film by, I think, Murnau at the Louvre on Friday night, so that's cool. She wants me to go with her to Disneyland Paris on December 12th so we can ride the rides and talk about how they're structured internally as research for our maze theater piece, and, if it's not freezing cold, I think I'll do that. My sister called. All seems relatively calm on that front. I don't know. Not much else, so I'll leave it with an image of me climbing the loft stairs to my bed. How is Thursday happening for you? ** Pisycaca, Glad you like the photos, Montse. Yeah, I sure hope you guys can make that trip too, of course, of course. When I finish the novel? Yeah, I need to get pretty much right into writing the structure and narrative of Gisele's and my new piece. And answer the eight billion emails I haven't answered, gulp. You have a great day too! ** Misanthrope, It's probably because the interiors remind you more of cute twinks, ha ha. I figured that tooth was going to need to be pulled. But not until Tuesday?! Dude, you are one serious trooper. Oh, you know, the weird and amazing thing about kids is they're so resilient and given to feeling happy even in the midst of total hell. So, those smiles could have been as real as the look of horror. It's so weird. Really hope those pain killers kick the fuck in and give you peace, man. ** Okay, have a glorious, Synthpunk-filled day, you guys. I'll have a novel-filled day, and we can compare notes tomorrow. See you then.