|
Author
|
Topic: Big Boys
|
larrybob
Punk Posts: 51
Registered: Aug 2001
|
posted 03-16-2002 02:01 AM
   
Nice Big Boys web page: http://members.fortunecity.com/bigboyswebsite/ Someone should tell them when the Goofy's show was... that was before my time, sadly... IP: Logged |
Felix Havoc
Punk Posts: 1629
Registered: Sep 2000
|
posted 03-16-2002 07:50 AM
I love the Big Boys, I missed their show with Minor Threat for the stupidest of reasons. I have all the vinyl at least. There are two good CD collections the "Skinny Elvis" and the "Fat Elvis" which are definately worth the money, we stock both at Extreme Noise. I love the Big Boys ability to move seamlessly from fast hardcore, to melodic and soulfull rock to funk and still have high energy and be engaging. As a young hardcore fundamentalist their use of horns and such challenged some of my ideas of what was accpetible in hardcore. That is to say the delivery was pretty hardcore if the music wasn't always conforming to the established patterns. They were fairly prolific for a hardcore band Frat Cars 7"
Where's my Towel 12"
Fun Fun Fun LP
No Matter How Long the line at the cafeteria there's always a seat LP
Lullabies Help the Brain Grow LP
Split live LP with the Dicks LP
split 7" live with the Dicks
Wreck Collections LP
a few bootlegs and re issues of the early stuff exist as well. Wreck Collections is the best bet, it is a later "hits" collection and gives a great overview of the band's work. Other than that my favorites are Frat Cars, Fun Fun Fun and Lullabies, but really each record has some amazing tracks on it. I played the Big Boys for some of the younger volunteers at Extreme Noise a few months ago. They thought it was a little too mellow. I was a little upset but I guess it was taken out of context. If these guys were around today I'm not sure how they would be recieved, I mean I think they were a uniquely talented and creative group of guys who took advantage of the breakdown of barriers in music afforded by the rise of hardcore to create some pretty unique music. In today's world of commercialized punk, bad radio indy rock, and overly stratified sub genres these guys might be stuck in the garage forever. Bicuit Turner did the cover art on the new Spazm 151 LP, he manages a head shop in Austin and still occasionally goes to hardcore shows. the Strike used to cover Fun Fun Fun I frequently quote "We got your money" when kids complain about shows... IP: Logged |
sonicfreak
Punk Posts: 2594
Registered: Apr 2000
|
posted 03-16-2002 08:21 AM
I saw some cool shows with the Big Boys, they were great! I saw them play a show at the Upper Deck with the Huskers but the best was when I was visiting Washington DC and I saw a show with Trouble Funk/Minor Threat/Big Boys. Very good time! Punkers dancin' to the Go-Go funk. Funkers watchin' the Punky Punk.IP: Logged |
zomzom
Punk Posts: 77342189
Registered: Mar 1920
|
posted 03-16-2002 08:33 AM
That Upper Deck show definitely rates among my top 5 favorite shows ever.
They really rocked, and were cool guys as well. I still have my "lullabies help the brain grow" t-shirt!
They were truly unique and "experimental" in the best musical definition of that questionable word, I remember how cool I thought "sound on sound" was, that they would include a tune like that in the mix.IP: Logged |
Nick Sakes
Punk Posts: 366
Registered: Jan 2002
|
posted 03-16-2002 09:20 AM
quote:
Originally posted by sonicfreak:
I saw some cool shows with the Big Boys, they were great! I saw them play a show at the Upper Deck with the Huskers but the best was when I was visiting Washington DC and I saw a show with Trouble Funk/Minor Threat/Big Boys. Very good time! Punkers dancin' to the Go-Go funk. Funkers watchin' the Punky Punk.
My wife was at that show, too! She grew up in Alexandria, VA and her big brother took her to shows. IP: Logged |
chief heap big 6 pack
Punk Posts: 250
Registered: Apr 2000
|
posted 03-16-2002 10:24 AM
quote:
Originally posted by sonicfreak:
Trouble Funk/Minor Threat/Big Boys. Very good time! Punkers dancin' to the Go-Go funk. Funkers watchin' the Punky Punk.[/B]
I'm green with envy. I've been on a Trouble Funk kick since last summer for some reason. probably because it kicks 99% of the current assembly line hip-hop in the ass.
LLLLLET'S GET SMALL ! IP: Logged |
MO
Punk Posts: 711
Registered: Oct 2001
|
posted 03-16-2002 10:46 AM
That was a great show at the Deck. They were so fun.IP: Logged |
Felix Havoc
Punk Posts: 1629
Registered: Sep 2000
|
posted 03-16-2002 12:16 PM
Arrrggghh! That Minor Threat, Big Boys, Trouble Funk show at Landsburgh will haunt me forever. It was, as it turned out Minor Threat's last show. I knew about it but didn't have a ride and my mom wouldn't let me take the train downtown to some place she'd never heard of by myself. Missing that show is the number one regret of my whole life, tears of frustration are streaming down my cheek as I write this. Arrrggghh! Seriously, that must've been an awesome show. I saw T Funk with Government Issue a few months later but that was my only chance for both the Big Boys and Minor Threat, Arrgggh! I was 14 year old kid just getting into hardcore and had no idea these would become legendary bands. Alas, like many great early punk bands I know these bands only from their vinyl output, at least they recorded. Scarred forever by missing Minor Threat I made it a point to go see Government Issue and Scream every time they played and mosh it up like it was my last chance ever to represent my hardcore pride!IP: Logged |
sonicfreak
Punk Posts: 2594
Registered: Apr 2000
|
posted 03-16-2002 05:16 PM
Sorry Felix that ya didn't make it. It was a total fluke that I did. I went to DC with my Mom for some reason, I can't remember the specifics, either just a vacation or she also had friends there and possibly some business. Whatever.. I was 19. And of course I looked around to see if there was any cool music and lo and behold I found this one!! I had seen minor Threat once in Minneapolis at a Purple Hearts club or something and I had seen the Big Boys once or twice. I can't remember if I was familier with Trouble Funk yet? I think perhaps I had heard a couple of their songs. WoW though! What a great show. All three bands were in top form! I am lucky to have seen Trouble Funk twice (because as far as I know they have never been to Mpls, usually just seemed to play the East coast) My girlfriend for a couple of years in the mid eighties was going to college at Brown University in Providence Rhode Island and one time I was there visiting and Trouble Funk played at the school! Very cool! Why are there no other cool bands like them? That Go-Go funk was so fun!!!IP: Logged |
Felix Havoc
Punk Posts: 1629
Registered: Sep 2000
|
posted 03-16-2002 10:31 PM
Actually we talked about Go Go on another thread on here that started off talking about DC hardcore. I think T Funk were good, but just one of many. EU (Experience Unlimited) were probably the next best known Go Go band and had a minor hit on a soundtrack to a Spike Lee film. The godfather of Go Go is Chuck Brown who with his band the Soul Searchers has played DC style Go Go for over 20 years. There is a really good comp LP called "Go Go Crankin' Paint the White House Black" that has all the crucial early 80's Go Go bands. I went to an 80% Black high school and Go Go was the main form of music, more popular than rap music, which was actually bigger with some of the white kids (who would now be called Wiggers I guess, they were white hip hop kids, as opposed to white metal or punk kids like me). For those who do not know, Go Go is a highly percussive dance oriented form of funk music originating in Washington DC. It has a hard driving "jungle beat" typically performed by a large percussion section. I would say it is influenced by stuff like Parliament and Bootsy plus some James Brown style party time soul, but it really has a sound all it's own. Go Go bands are big, with horns, guitar, back up singers, bass and lots of percussion instruments. The vocal style is typically a call and response often using bits and pieces of popular R&B tunes, TV commercials etc. In the 80's there were a lot of street parties featuring numerous Go Go bands that would go all night. During the violent mid 80s these parties became less frequent and go go moved more into a club environment. I remember going to see EU one night at a dance at an upper class white private high school and the next night at a street party where I was the only white kid for blocks. I heard there was recently a Go Go retrospective CD box set, but I don't know much about CDs, I just remember seeing something about it in the paper last time I was in DC. I think Go Go has faded a lot in popularity since the mid 80's and most kids in DC listen to the same rap bands that kids in LA or NY or Peoria do. I think Chuck Brown is still going, he's over 60 now.
There was this band of little kids called the Junkyard Band who played go go on literally trash cans and buckets. I used to see them playing at Metro stations and shit, the Beastie Boys covered one of their songs on the Root Down 12". Like a lot of go go bands, one of their members was killed in a drive by in the mid 80's. There was this radio show on late at night on some AM soul station that played Go Go and the kids would call in and get their nick names read out and dedicate stuff to their girl friends and shit. A favorite was to call in you band or crew's name. We would be listening at work calling in with these ridiculous nick names, and just as the DJ would announce our deication we'd realise he was giving a shout out to some other punk kids like "Boo Boo and Whitey" which was the dudes in Swiz. There are very few go go records, mostly it was dubbed on boom boxes with double cassette decks that were set up with mic's to record live at clubs and street parties. There were "boom box kids" at my school who dubbed these tapes and sold them in the hall. These kids had to have like bodyguards so no one would beat them down and steal their boom boxes. Finally the school out lawed bringing boom boxes to school. OK, enough Go Go remisniscing for this Big Boys thread. IP: Logged |
Pete Scholtes
Punk Posts: 329
Registered: Dec 2001
|
posted 03-19-2002 08:03 PM
Here's my clunkily written interview with Chuck Brown, but it also has a bunch of useful sites if you want to track down go-go CDs, records, and tapes. The name of the compilation Felix mentioned is "The Beat: Go-Go's Fusion of Funk and Hip Hop" on Liason Records, and any Big Boys fan would love it. Hope this works:
www.citypages.com/databank/22/1097/article10023.asp IP: Logged |
Pete Scholtes
Punk Posts: 329
Registered: Dec 2001
|
posted 04-16-2002 11:14 AM
I just saw the documentary "Scratch" (soon to arrive locally) about DJs and early hip hop, and there's a poster for Kool Herc with the Big Boys headlining. Anyone know if this historic gig happened? I.e., if that's the same Big Boys? It flashes onscreen in the context of talking about how hip hop moved downtown and punks started coming...IP: Logged |
Pete Scholtes
Punk Posts: 329
Registered: Dec 2001
|
posted 04-22-2002 08:43 AM
Oops, I've since decided that "Big Boys" refers to the other acts on that bill. Never mind...IP: Logged |
sonicfreak
Punk Posts: 2594
Registered: Apr 2000
|
posted 09-09-2002 03:57 PM
New Film Chronicles DC 'Go-Go' Scene
A new independent film is shining the spotlight on Washington, D.C.'s go-go music movement via interviews and live footage from the scene's past and present, including go-go legend Chuck Brown, the Backyard Band, Little Benny, Experience Unlimited, and the Uncalled 4 Band. "The Pocket," produced, written, and directed by Michael Cahill and Nicholas Shumaker, also sports interviews with Fugazi's Ian MacKaye, poet Thomas Sayers-Ellis, and writer Norman Kelley. The film recently had its first screening at D.C.'s historic Lincoln Theatre. It will follow the film festival circuit and be marketed to U.S. and foreign TV networks in the coming months. In a fitting portrayal of a movement that blurred racial lines with its relentless, party-driven rhythms, "The Pocket" offers a vista that traverses a thriving local economy, one that has unpredictably persisted amidst the strengthening restrictions of a consolidated global music industry. Negotiations for a soundtrack are currently under way. "This is a movie that had to be made," notes Marlon Creaton, manager of San Francisco's Record Kitchen. "It's time for the kids who spend money on Ashanti and Murder Inc. records to know about a different form of African-American-rooted music. We're waiting on a soundtrack from this movie. The timing couldn't be better for it. It could -- and should be -- absolutely huge." "The Pocket" follows in the footsteps of the 1986 film "Good to Go," produced by then-Island Records president Chris Blackwell. The movie featured such go-go mainstays as Brown, Trouble Funk, and EU.
-- Larry Flick, N.Y
IP: Logged |
zomzom
Punk Posts: 77342189
Registered: Mar 1920
|
posted 09-09-2002 04:42 PM
Uhhh.. how does this film relate to a Texas punk band with skate/funk tendencies?IP: Logged |
Felix Havoc
Punk Posts: 1629
Registered: Sep 2000
|
posted 09-09-2002 06:02 PM
DC Go Go band Trouble Funk opened for the Big Boys and Minor Threat at a critical show in Sept of 83, that Sonic Freak attended and I missed. We did discuss Go Go on two other threads here as well. IP: Logged |
zomzom
Punk Posts: 77342189
Registered: Mar 1920
|
posted 09-09-2002 06:07 PM
Oh, okay.
So, the Big Boys are in this film? Is that what you're saying?IP: Logged |
sonicfreak
Punk Posts: 2594
Registered: Apr 2000
|
posted 09-09-2002 07:07 PM
I guess this was a weird place to put this. I remembered a thread where folks were talking about DC go-go funk so I did a search and if you read back in this post you will see that indeed there was quite a discussion on that. So I plunked it here. To somehow tie this together here is the poster for the show in DC that I was at. I actually still have a copy of this poster!!  and here is some Big Boys action for ya: 
IP: Logged |
zomzom
Punk Posts: 77342189
Registered: Mar 1920
|
posted 09-09-2002 07:11 PM
Oh yeah, now I remember.
Wot handsome lads, eh?IP: Logged |
Reno
Punk Posts: 1460
Registered: Jun 2000
|
posted 09-10-2002 12:12 AM
BABY LET'S PLAY GOD
(Kerr, Gates)Baby, let's play God
You do everything I say
And if you're real nice to me
I might let you be the pope someday GOD, GOD, GOD
BABY, LET'S PLAY GOD What's this with this complex in you?
When you say jump, we're all supposed to move
I've turned the tables now and I've got the gun
And God is pissed so you better run! GOD, GOD, GOD
BABY, LET'S PLAY GOD Baby, let's play God,
And I'll be God so who are you?
It's not important what you want anyway
When you're God you get the final say GOD, GOD, GOD
BABY, LET'S PLAY GOD IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email This Page to Someone!
TCPUNK
