Saturday, September 13, 2008

The Crazy Homicides - Twilight of the old Brooklyn

This is a story I wrote about The Crazy Homicides, a gang in Park Slope, Brooklyn when i started my recording studio there 27 yrs ago, back when the neighborhood was in a major downward spiral.
My studio is still there , and it's now a land of baby strollers, micro-breweries and fancy coffee shops.
Bill Laswell, producer, and then studio partner, is involved in this story. And Africa Bambaataa also got drawn in.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

What Is Punk ?

What is Punk ? - Martin Bisi -- with quotes by Lydia Lunch and Legs McNeil

So who am I ?
Let's go where the bio doesn't take us. 1977 - I'm in high school. I ride the subway at night instead of giving 100% to my homework. uhh.. 'Why ?' you ask. Graffiti. Yes that was my empowering activity as a young man. I was contributing to the prodigious chaos that decorated the subway walls and doors of the day. Tellingly, we called this 'bombing' the trains This visual assault of color and seemingly meaningless words, was for the average subway rider, a perfect metaphor for the unhinging of society in the late 70's - the urban blight era that will surely have a mythic place in American history, similar to the Wild West. Well, where does Punk come in ?