The first punk rock badge/button I ever got was a gift from Oedipus. He had the radio free punk show 'the DEMIMONDE' and I used to call him up & ask about all the sounds I was hearing.. not really knowing they were new but knowing I was FEELING something. He sent me on day that 1st punk rock token of comradery. It was white & has a picture of a turntable & it says 'is your leisure time private?' on it. I was 15 and thrilled to have received something in the post from a complete stranger --- who nonetheless --- I admired & worshipped. This guy was playing sounds/words which rang into my young mind & affected me. Is your leisure time private???

    and how private is listening to a record?? and how many of you still listen to records? how many of you have never listened to a record? A whole lot has happened since Oedipus gave me that button. (1978?) Punk rock died & was resurrected. turntables died. vinyl died ... almost ... kept alive by the punk rock ghost, and now being zombied out by the major labels, who think their tokenistic apology to the vinyl industry with their 'limited edition' vinyl release of their million dollar seller or their split deals with 'cool' indie labels somehow EXCUSE their lecherous early 80's activities ...hostile destructive maneuvers to overtake overcome, conglomerate, run the small guy out of business with this new technological gadget called the CD cuz it's NEWER, BETTER, NEVER SCRATCHES OR SKIPS ...and they had so much money $$$$ to pour into the lie that hardly anyone had a chance to question it above a whisper & cry of drowning.

    This question was asked long before CDs came into the public game. how much choice do you really have in the matter ... it's kinda scary. Those outside forces-powerglots-money-grabbers were already planning their new take on taking. taking away our cheap form of musical communication. taking away our 45's ---quick easy noise for our leisure --- our leisure is no longer ours. WE can't afford it anymore.

    our leisure has become an accepted commercially accessible commodification, a by-product of a HOSTILE capitalism where the goal is to take until no one lese has. a fight between 5 entities who own all but less than 1/100th of a percent left over for the fools in love with the noise enough to throw their lives into perpetual debt to appease their musical demon desires.

    AND SO, after the rock star 70's stadium megabux displays of singleton egos consuming the multitude of kids willing to pay 20 bux to be part of an oblivion of 100's or 1000's, there was the punk rock mockery of rock star image --- brats spitting in the faces of those who paid into the awakening of a choice in the matter & rushing out to borrow a guitar for their own gig next time. get on stage & pose 'My facade is just a fake. shock horror no escape sensationalism for the feed caricatures are what you breed' - X-Ray Spex -dispelling the rock star myth with a jolt & a startle.

    Chaos cracked the cool of the industry's control & confused it for a spit second (how many labels dumped the Sex Pistols?) until it caught it's breath & coughed out CDs, MAYBE, wished the industry, if we toss out this new 'technological advance' the kids will throw out their turntables & the unruly sounds of screaming spitting anti-heroes stuck on the outmoded vinyl spinning discs, and MAYBE we can return to rockstar idolatry glitched into aluminum super-spinning diskettes produced at half the price & sold at twice. Force the vinyl out of the radio stations & market the hell out of the new form. This was the industry's plan to regain control of rock commodification-of-feelings stardom. Turn it all back into a profitmaking backbiting consuming business.

    and somehow, throughout all the thorough planning of the big industry, they forgot about the music. music exists with & without technology, music won't go away & won't be captured into the fight for commercialism. The underworld's underground tenacity gripping vinyl alive, holding onto feelings, saving memories for a future which doesn't exist in the aftermath of A-bomb project debris but somehow manages to snarl & growl it's way into our consciousness.

    And this is how Rock Stars Kill. It is with their accepting of a method/medium of overcontrolling greed which won't allow for the other unless it's to prepare it for sacrifice & consumption. and it is their forgetting of the organic elements of music & forgetting the humble & fragile position we are in & that... 'WE are a mirror in the universe of music. It's not what you say of it, but what the MUSIC, it says of YOU.' -Sun Ra