The Beatnigs
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The Beatnigs – (Welcome) Television
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Biography
San Francisco Bay Area
They released material on Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label and toured Europe with Billy Bragg. Early venues for the band included Berkeley’s infamous Barrington Hall and Gilman St Project. They had a regular weekly gig at San Francisco’s Firehouse on 16th St ( now the Kilowatt).
Eventually circa 1990, Franti & Tse split off to form The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, recutting the Beatnigs’ song “Television, Drug of The Nation” for Chris Blackwell’s Island Records. Flood & Carnes formed The Broun Fellinis, an avant jazz band.
Radical politics and even more radical musical ideas come together on the Beatnigs’ 1988 debut. Crediting all five members with “industrial percussion” — i.e. circular saws, tire rims, chains and buzzers — the Beatnigs’ trademark sound is a collage of tape edits, TV clips, samples and voices which congeals to touch base with traditional musical styles like rock, rap, funk, dub and jazz. The band’s lyrical targets are as wide-ranging, taking on racism, television, poverty, and the CIA.
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The Beatnigs
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bEATWEAKer
Me too.
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ulfkastner
Still waiting for the Death Grips kids to arrive...
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outrenoir
surprised there weren't/aren't more bands in this vein. They oddly sound close in some ways to bands like Foetus and Mosely-era Faith No More but more genuinely industrial
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theory_of_mind
wow, i didn't realize "Television, the Drug of the Nation" predates the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. they toured Europe with Billy Bragg, awesome.
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T0x4
awesome
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johnnycat242
...Gr00VY...
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Gravejr
Live show: http://www.archive.org/details/beatnigs1989-12-16.FM.flac16
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PuddaWudda
I love the Beatnigs, so criminally unheard of.
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Pandemonium360
Well it was one of the earliest pictures I could find with both Rono Tse and Michael Frani - For some reason its really hard to actually find pictures of the beatnigs..
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b_international
Isn't that pic just The Disposable Heroes with William Burroughs though?
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darewon
Change the picture...that's not the Beatnigs (Michael Franti/Rono Tse and the rest).
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affe55
find a comfortable place inbetween your speakers
