Gasoline is out now!
Image: Nikola Jokanovic.
Newcastle punks Dead Mall have dropped their new single, Gasoline. To celebrate, band member Ruairi Burns is sharing with MILKY their favourite punk songs that feature film and television references.
How many bands have written lyrics about something they saw on TV, or at the movies? One million bands? Maybe that's too many bands. But I bet there are one million songs! And even though I only know about 25 of them, MILKY believed that I was the man for the job. My name is Ruairi and these are the 'Top 5 punk (enough) songs written about television and movies'. It's a great title and not at all too long.
Before we begin, this is my list by my rules. I will not be including 'songs written for movies' or 'songs written about the concept of television' (for or against). So there will be no TV Party by Black Flag, and there will be no Pet Sematery by Ramones. These are the top 5 punk (enough) songs written about television and movies.
FIVE: WALKENS SYNDROME - FUGAZI
If this song was about More Cowbell, this would be number one - no question. Even though writing lyrics about movies isn't a normal Fugazi move, Fugazi rules and this song rules. The lyrics and vocal delivery capture the tone of Walken's character from Annie Hall in a way that's as refined as it is powerful. Plus, it always makes me think of Jet Black by Jawbreaker. The sample of Walken used in Jet Black is the very thing Walken's Syndrome took inspiration from.
FOUR. CITY OF THE DEAD - THE CLASH
This isn't the only Clash song about a movie, but it is the best one. Plus, I like songs in the category of 'lyrics that tell you the plot of the entire movie' (looking at you Danzig).
THREE. THESE ARE THE QUOTES FROM OUR FAVOURITE 80'S MOVIES - THE BOUNCING SOULS
'Songs that quote TV and movies' is a category I didn't know if I should include. But who am I kidding, I love songs like that. I love novelty songs in hardcore. My first ever band was a hardcore band called K.O. Kick. We had one hit on our MySpace page. Unfortunately, I don't think there's a link for that.
"No soup for you, come back one year
You want soup? Get out of here!"
TWO. DEBASER - PIXIES
Clearly a band of geeks, Pixies are no strangers to writing songs about movies. Gigantic being the other big (big) one. And before anyone gets mad about the geek thing, the drummer was known to open Pixies shows with a magic routine. Not that I have anything against magicians. Anyway, the source material of Debaser is Un Chein Andelusi and judging by the lyrics, it sounds difficult to watch.
ONE. EARTH AD - MISFITS
Here we are, number one. Frankly, there could only be one outcome. The masters of summarising the entire plot of a 60's horror movie that you've never heard of and turning it into a two and a half minute audio tagline, Misfits.
I suppose I could have included any Misfits song in this list. Now that I think about it, theres only one kind of Misfits song. And although I will never watch the movies Danzig directs, and I don't actually know how much of Earth AD is really about The Hills Have Eyes, I can't seem to grow out of my Misfits phase.
Gasoline is out now!
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