If y’all don’t know, I found my way to this website by way of another thing I do called Endless Blockades. It’s a little tumblr of mostly backpatches with the occasional buttflap or pair of gnarled out crust pants or something. Through this site I get a lot of really rad people sending me a lot of really rad shots of their really rad vests/jackets/whateverthefucks. I also occasionally get good folks alerting me to other, less “savory” uses of the back patch (like I’m sort of weird fucking authority on this shit or something…?). Anyways, a buddy sent me this link to some website of a bunch of vests made by artists for, as far as I can tell, some Levis promotion of graffiti writers.
Por ejemplo:
So now I put the question up to you. What the fuck is up with all the fashiony types getting all into backpatches/crustpunk/whatever shit? I mean, Lady Gaga in a Doom/Gism jacket, Lil Wayne in some kinda Aus Rotten/Anti-Cimex vest? Now, I’m not a full on hater and I definitely believe in guilty til proved innocent. If there are two people in the pop world that I feel like have to have fairly widespread tastes/knowledge it’d be Wayne (that dude has probably sampled more shit than I’ve ever listened to, although I know fuck all about him) and Gaga (who uses Jonas Åckerlund of Bathory as her video producer or director or something). Is this a good thing for punk/crust/underground music, a bad thing, or just a non-starter that really has no effect. Here’s more article food for thought.
Discuss.
Jack Crank
April 21, 2011 at 9:30 am
In general I agree with you, and you’re probably right, but who’s to say that Lady Gaga doesn’t know fuck from D-Beat man? She did grow up in NY, lived right down the street from ABC No Rio and hung out with a bunch of heshers for a while apparently. Also, why is it “evident” from the music they make that they don’t like punk? Fuck man, I pretty much listen to nothing but Diamond Head and Bongzilla but I can still get down with Otis Redding and Waylon Jennings. This in no way redeems any of the music she’s ever made though.
Fuck, I think we should get that crazy bastard to weigh in here herself. Anyone got Gaga’s digits?
Alex
April 21, 2011 at 1:15 pm
Well I don’t really believe that location has any relation to causation. I’m sure you grew up near a convenience store but never had any interest in glamorizing them, nor do I believe that just because you know some people that were into something that it bleeds into your influence. And I totally understand what you mean about varied palate; The Smiths are my favorite band ever but I still love to blast Disclose, Nausea and Electric Wizard, but I’m sure that you would agree that there is a huge difference in artistic merit between Otis Redding and Madonna. As you said it doesn’t redeem the awful music she makes. I can’t speak for her though but you must remember that she is a pop-star and her entire career is at the mercy of a record label. She jumps when they say jump and she wears what they want her to wear. Somewhere some crust punk is laughing his ass off that his jacket is in an awful pop stars music video though.
Alex
April 21, 2011 at 9:20 am
Well first and foremost you must remember that neither of those people dress themselves: they have stylist. So whatever they’re wearing was not decided by them. It’s evident in either case that neither of these people are even remotely aware of what they’re wearing, as the music featured on the both pieces is diametrically opposed to the music they make. Its pretty obvious that they purchased jackets/vest from Ebay or something and applied them to the video or wardrobe simply to propagate the facade of myriad influences or something, and it’s most likely an emulation of Burberry’s Studded Leather Motorcylce Jacket. But come on, do you really think Lady Gaga listens to anything even remotely associated with D-beat? They’re both applauded and lauded as being groundbreaking but they both make the same genre defining pop dross that everyone else has made for years, albeit with different stylist. (Still that’s nothing to applaud.)