News & Updates — punk

It's the return of the '70s Funk Rock party! For those that like their rock funky and their funk rocking. It's a Mothership connection and long-hairs are welcome. Come to The Rendezvous, Wednesday March 1 to hear Peace & Rhythm DJs (Andujar, Studebaker Hawk & Bongohead) selecting groovy cuts all from vinyl. Spanning the late '60s to the early '80s we'll be spinning funk rock & heavy funk in all its glory: popular and obscure cuts, psycofunkadelia, the funkiest classic rock, danceable post-punk, groovy psych from around the world, Latin-rock, Afro-rock, native rock, hard rock breaks, fusion and more. Funkadelic,...

Well punkers, here is some glorious Sex Pistols footage from The Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, January 10, 1978. No riots. Merle Haggard would roll into the venue just nine days later. A YouTube gem:

Our punk-salsa heroes from Puerto Rico, Orquesta El Macabeo, were recently featured at Bandcamp Daily with a nice write-up and some catalog selections (article here). The band releases many of their records in co-op fashion, with several labels from around the world helping pick up the tab. Peace & Rhythm have done so for three of the group's records, including the now out-of-print Macacoa 7" and the vinyl edition of their 2011 release El Entierro (we still have VERY limited copies remaining, grab them here) and the brand new release, La Maldición del Timbal, the band's finest effort to date....

One of the funkiest was Rick James, the wild funk-rock genius of "Super Freak". Buffalo-born, he escaped to Canada as a draft-dodger and played in the Mynah Birds with Neil Young and Bruce Palmer until he was busted and thrown in the clink. He played on the amazing psych record by Bruce Palmer (The Cycle Is Complete) as Rick Matthews, before transforming into the larger-than-life funk god. And the rest is dirty history. From 1981's Street Songs:

I've been chatting with some friends about whether or not Into the Unknown, Bad Religion's 1983 second album is any good. Of course that's a matter of personal taste and this bizarre departure into '70s-inspired progressive rock, with keyboards, synths & acoustic guitar, is certainly nothing the punk scene was going to go for at the time and is not at all like their hardcore stuff. Rumor has it the rhythm section walked off the recording sessions pretty early and the band broke up temporarily after this. The band didn't believe their existence would last and made a goofy record...