Friday, May 18, 2012

new music blog

Check out Puss In (Punk) Boots, where I talk more about music and less about spirituality (although there's a whole lot of intertwining going on, especially because I've been thinking and talking a lot about MCA lately).

Much earlier today I had a song in my head, specifically this one:


It's called "Easy to be Hard," from the musical Hair by Jerome Ragni and James Rado. The video is from the film version of the musical.

Why post it here instead of on my music page? I think it's because the wistful quality is appropriate for some of the ups and downs I've been experiencing lately. This is the song that soundtracked my thoughts earlier.


Later on, I had a much different song playing in my head. It's called "Pay To Cum," by DC hardcore band Bad Brains. The lyrics are impossible to understand because the song's so fast, but they are:


I make decision with precision
Lost inside this manned collision
Just to see that what is to be
Perfectly my fantasy
I came to know with now dismay
That in this world we all must pay
Pay to write, pay to play
Pay to cum, pay to fight 
And all in time,
With just our minds
We soon will find
What's left behind 
Not long ago when things were slow
We all got by with what we know
The end is near. Hearts filled with fear
Don't want to listen to what they hear 
And so it's now we choose to fight
To stick up for our bloody right
The right to sing, the right to dance
The right is ours... We'll take the chance 
A peace together
A piece apart
A piece of wisdom
From our hearts

East Coast versus West Coast Dharma Punks

Several months ago I read Dharma Punx by Noah Levine. I was struck by the differences between the East Coast and West Coast experience. As a member of the NYC punk/hardcore scene, I felt familiarity with a lot of things he said about the music and the community of the scene, but there was a lot I couldn't relate to because it was so far removed from how things were on this side of the continent. The emotions, the violence and crime, the drugs, the solidarity and support systems: I was surprised at how many differences there were.

Once again I have a reason to miss MCA; Adam Yauch would have been someone who could have so eloquently and with such depth of understanding explained the similarities and differences between Levine's experiences and ours. He was a member of the same NYC punk/hardcore scene as me, and he became very well-known not only for his music but for his Buddhism, especially his right livelihood with the Milarepa Fund and the Tibet Freedom Concert series.

I would love to know if Adam ever wrote a review of Dharma Punx, or even if he made mention of it sometime. I wish I could hear his opinion, discuss it with him, learn his thoughts about not just the book but his experience as a counterpoint to Levine's.

Sigh.