Never Mind The Sex Pistols, Here's The Dames
when so-so art prompts great conversations
Dame Sophie: Hellooooo Dame Karen! Are you ready to talk about some filth? Some fury? Some reminiscences and record-correcting?
Dame Karen: Always. We’re talking Pistol!
Dame Sophie: Yessss! I love retrospective analysis and jumping-off points. For readers who haven’t seen Pistol,(← naughty language-laced red band trailer) it’s a 6-part miniseries adaptation of Lonely Boy, Steve Jones’s memoir of his life and times as the founder of the Sex Pistols. It’s written by Baz Luhrmann acolyte Craig Pearce, directed by hallucinatory former bad boy of indie cinema Danny Boyle, and stars some very promising young actors who seem like they can do considerably more than the scripts call for.
Dame Karen: That’s probably true. So as you might imagine with that crew, there’s very little filth here, although it’s desperately implied, and the fury is similar to something you might find in an after-school special. Does that mean it’s bad? No, it’s great! I think? I really enjoyed it and also threw up my hands in exhaustion and irritation several times.
Dame Sophie: Yeah, it’s not great tv, but it is great to watch and to think about. At a few points, I thought “hm, this wants to be Velvet Goldmine, but it’s more like warmed-over Trainspotting-meets-Moulin Rouge?” Which again, is not great popular art as an end result, but I appreciate the big swing and genuine entertainment value. There are enough moments of brilliance and a delightful smorgasbord of interesting-to-me questions about the players, music, and general milieu. I was always going to watch the whole made-in-a-lab-for-me shebang, and was always going to want to think about how it could be better.
Dame Karen: I don’t think I would have watched it if you hadn’t brought it up, so thank you for that! What did you think was brilliant?
Dame Sophie: My pleasure to entice a fellow viewer, always! My top pick for brilliance is that I can’t stop thinking about Anson Boon’s performance as John Lydon/Johnny Rotten. Lydon is now such an indelibly memorable cliché that it would be easy to play him exclusively as his off-putting dickhead public persona. Boon digs deeper and makes Lydon very off-putting while also highlighting his genius as a lyricist, and allowing little moments of sincere care for a select few (Sid Vicious & his mother in particular) flicker across his face. It’s particularly affecting to me because the entire series is not built for subtlety or delicacy, so when either appears, it has more power than it might otherwise on this emotionally porous heart.
Dame Karen: Agree; at first I thought he was doing a really absurd and over the top impersonation, but how else would this production introduce THE Johnny Rotten, right? I remember seeing the video for “Rise,” probably the best-known song from his post-Pistols band Public Image Ltd., as a wee Dame, and just being absolutely electrified by the refrain “anger is an energy.”
Dame Sophie: No surprises here, I love that song. Lydon’s an excellent distiller of collective disgust and dissatisfaction into catchy, memorable lyrics. There’s something Oscar Wildean about his flair for language and his gimlet eye for absurdity.
Dame Karen: I think my favorite part of the entire series is the scene in which the Sex Pistols literally fight Yes. I mean, not the band itself but its entire framework, sound, and existence. Again, there is no subtlety here; in case we can’t deduce that the Sex Pistols were raging against the machine, as it were, we are treated to them playing a show at a tepid disco full of people in full ‘70s polyester nightmare drag. They eventually explode into chaos after they are told to be quiet becauses the bingo players in the next room can’t hear the numbers, as an interminable Yes keyboard breakdown plays in the background. Did I mention there are two enthusiastic punk fans moshing as the Pistols play for them and them alone? It’s so absurdly corny and just put it in my veins, please. [Not a Sid and Nancy reference, btw]
Dame Sophie: What are your thoughts on Chrissie Hynde here? I feel like she’s the real hero of the series and yet is also not as fully drawn as I’d have liked.
Dame Karen: Agree. I’d also like to take this moment to express my irritation at all of the male characters getting actors that literally look exactly like their younger selves while the female characters get actors that look like Instagram filtered versions of their young selves. The Chrissie Hynde actress is GORGEOUS--I was immediately besotted, tbh, while the real-life Chrissie Hynde is incredibly attractive and sexy but is not traditionally beautiful. For one thing, she has a definite androgynous vibe that is entirely absent here. Vivienne Westwood and Nancy Spungen got the same treatment here. Exhausting.
Dame Sophie: Yeah, for all of Pistol’s devotion to verisimilitude, Sydney Chandler looks like a cross between Linda Cardellini and Shannen Doherty. And good for her! But she’s way too pretty and her skin is too clear for this role. Let a slightly off-kilter hot woman play the slightly off-kilter hotness and spikiness of Chrissie Hynde!
Dame Karen: For real--the John Lydon character had extremely obvious and self-conscious fake zits--spread that stuff around, how ‘bout? But anyway…
Dame Sophie: We digress, as is our wont. (Hi, I have been reading and thinking about PG Wodehouse a lot recently, and it may jolly well be creeping into my writing voice.)
Dame Karen: (I can tell! Lol, I love it!) We do. So, pre-Pretenders, pre co-writing “Smelly Cat,” Chrissie Hynde moved to London to try and start a band and worked at SEX, the clothing store/attempt at some sort of vague revolution started by Vivienne Westwood, who is now a literal Dame and one of the most famous couture fashion designers in the history of fashion, and Malcolm McClaren, who is classified by Google as an “Impresario” when one does a search for him, which kind of says it all. In a way, it feels like her storyline is meant to be a modern-day “oops that was bad, huh” acknowledgement of how sexist punk, like every other musical scene ever, was and is. At one point she literally gives a little speech about sexism.
Dame Sophie: Yeah, I’m caught here between opposing thoughts and feelings. On the one hand, there are WAY more female characters in this series than there are in almost any other music film or tv show I’ve ever seen (RIP the one season we got of High Fidelity, you were too good for this fallen world). I genuinely do love to see it! On the other, even though it’s clear the show is trying to give the Women of Punk (and in the case of Chrissie and her band The Pretenders, glorious, shimmering, spiky post-punk pop that actually is still played on Classic Rock radio every day) their due, it’s not hitting the mark. They’re all cartoonish and sort of flat, except for when they pop up to intone something important.
At the same time, it was genuinely a thrill to see Jordan (Maisie Williams) scandalize everyone on the commuter train with her tits out under a clear vinyl raincoat. To recognize Chrissie Hynde (and probably Don Letts, in the whole 10 seconds of screentime he gets)! To hear my husband say, “oh, that’s Siouxsie Sioux!” How starved are we for representation of literally anyone who is not a skinny white dude that we get excited just to see, for a few brief moments, women in this context, where they were actually responsible for a TON of what went on in that scene!
Dame Karen: Exactly. Crumbs. Delicious, paltry crumbs. Another female character is the literal embodiment of one of the most notorious and fucked up Sex Pistols songs, which was really interesting and weird and…you guessed it, ultimately infuriating!
ANYWAY, the Sex Pistols have a song called “Bodies” which is an extremely violent and terrifying song in a way their other songs just are not, musically and lyrically. The lyrics are a very graphic and disgusting/disgusted recounting of a woman named Pauline who lives in a tree, has been institutionalized, and has an abortion. It was supposedly based on an actual Pistols fan who the former members have talked about in a “yikes, that crazy chick” way.
In Pistol, Pauline has indeed escaped from some sort of institution where she’s been sexually assaulted by a staff member, which has resulted in her getting an abortion and…carrying around the fetus in a handbag?! She is inspired by and delights in punk and ends up having a heart-to-heart with John Lydon, who encourages her to bury the bag and treats her like a human being before the scene ends with a performance of “Bodies.” It’s all so fucking bizarre and honestly kind of creepy in its literal Disney-fication, which you wouldn’t think was possible in a situation involving a fetus in a handbag but here we are.
Dame Sophie: It’s so weird that this series has taken a song (which I’ll admit I had not heard prior to Pistol) that’s already deeply disturbing and messed-up (but also very compelling, otherwise we wouldn’t be discussing it now) and making it even more disturbing by tidying up its origin story and making Johnny Rotten seem kind of heroic for immortalizing this young woman’s trauma in song. On the other hand, this revisionist history also lets Anson Boon add more nuance to his performance, which he does very well.
I think, too, that it’s got to be challenging to convey to contemporary viewers just how unsettling and weird and dangerous punk sounded and looked when it first emerged, because it’s been so thoroughly integrated into rock and pop (and fashion and slang and and and) over the last 40-odd years. Absent the Sex Pistols and their parent-terrifying ilk, alt-rock of the 80s & 90s doesn’t exist. Without that scene, there’s no grunge, no pop-punk, no Madchester, no emo, no…Hot Topic?
Dame Karen: Right, and despite the fact that punk got as famous as it did in England because it was exploited as a marketing gimmick, which to this day is perhaps why a stereotypical “punk rocker” looks like punk did in England as opposed to New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., etc., it obviously truly spoke to and inspired people in a singular, wide-reaching way.
The ongoing argument between John Lydon and Malcolm McClaren on whether to call the Sex Pistols’ most famous song “No Future,” a commentary on how there’s no future for young people in a world irreparably damaged and on the brink of failure (relatable!) versus the incendiary, attention-grabbing “God Save The Queen”, which is all sarcastic, snotty posturing, is significant. Powerful people co-opting and exploiting the disenfranchised for their own selfish gain is the way of the world, but creativity is eternal. Truly, anger IS an energy, always, as is joy, humor, and fun. Punk lives, going strong outside of the mainstream for anyone who wants to find it.
Dame Sophie: Pistol seems to want to have their cheeky, nose-thumbing cake and eat it daintily, too. It’s both loudly glorifying the Sex Pistols and their influence while putting their excesses and fuckery on display, without actually criticizing those aspects of their work and selves. Which puts us as viewers in a bind! We both really enjoyed the series! And we both see a lot of room for improvement! The thing that annoys me most is how unreasonable it is for all of the critical work to be the responsibility of the viewer.
Special Bonus: The Best of Contemporary Punk
Dame Karen asked her dear friend, massive punk fan from way back, children’s librarian, powerhouse drummer, and member of Dames Nation Chris Strunk to chime in with his recommendations regarding Good Punk Now and boy did he deliver! This is by no means an exhaustive list, of course, and is just one person’s opinion but it seems pretty great! Get in the pit! Thank you, Chris!
BANDS:
SPECIAL INTEREST: From New Orleans, though they are about to leave the DIY punk world for semi mainstream indie success because they signed to Rough Trade and just played Pitchfork Fest, but they definitely come out of DIY punk. They were basically just too good and interesting to not break out to a wider audience. I kind of feel like this band is a master class in writing political punk lyrics in 2022.
SOFT TORTURE: Current Philly band. ex-YDI and Blank Spell. I listen to their tape all the time.
STRAW MAN ARMY: Current NYC band who play in this weird peace punk/early emo vein, who I think are really good.
TAQBIR: Feminist punk/hardcore from Morocco, though they may have moved to another country, but it's all very unclear. This record is very good and was very hyped in the past year or so. It sold out really fast and was kind of hard to find until it was repressed.
RATA NEGRA: Spanish melodic punk band that I listen to a lot.
XYLITOL: Not strictly new since their last record came out in 2020, but I love this band so much and listen to them all the time. Completely abrasive paint peeling hardcore from Olympia WA, with an ex member of G.L.O.S.S. Also a master class in writing political punk lyrics in our era.
PCP AND THE KNIVES: Current favorite local [Boston] punk band
LABELS/DISTRIBUTORS:
FEEL IT! RECORDS: Probably the best and most forward-thinking punk record going right now. They put out a lot of musically varied stuff but it's all very, very good. Great stuff they've put out recently: Spread Joy, Crime of Passing, Delivery, Star Party, Sweeping Promises
THRILLING LIVING: Feminist punk label run by Grace Ambrose. Currently located in Kansas City. Everything on this label is great, including the new Girl Sperm LP, which features Tobi Vail from Bikini Kill on drums.
LA VIDA ES UN MUS: Total powerhouse of a current punk label run out of London.
IRON LUNG RECORDS: Also, another powerhouse which puts out like half of the most popular punk records to come out in any given year
TOTAL PUNK RECORDS: Label and distributor with its finger on the pulse of the more garage rock and art punk side of things.
GET BETTER RECORDS: Philly label run by and for queer/trans punks. Control Top is an incredible band that this label put out, who's drummer runs this label.
COURTESY DESK: Not strictly punk, but carries a lot of punk stuff and Tracey Wilson who does this distro also does an email list called Turntable Report, which is a great way to keep up on stuff.
PUBLICATIONS:
MAXIMUMROCKNROLL: MRR stopped being a physical magazine several years ago, but their website is one of the only real clearinghouses for all things currently punk. They review everything, and their weekly radio show is a great way to keep up on things.
RAZORCAKE: The only monthly punk fanzine left! This is also a great way to keep up on current punk, but they are more into the melodic side of punk than maximumrocknroll.
ENDTIME RELAY: James, formerly of the great Boston band Dump Him's zine. One of the best new punk zines I've read in awhile.
GIMME GIMME GIMME ZINE: If you want to keep up on current Australian punk, this is really the place to do it. Plus the actual magazine has awesome layouts, glossy paper, and is really witty and funny.
I QUESTION NOT ME ZINE: There hasn't been a new issue in awhile, but this is one of my fave hardcore zines. It's a pretty hilarious take on kind of tough New York hardcore, but you can also tell they love that music a lot.
DEMYSTIFICATION ZINE: Really great and funny feminist punk zine from NYC
Rata Negra is so sick!