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JOE STRUMMER: 1952-2002
Strummer, best known for fronting the mighty Clash,
passed away at his home in Somerset, England on
Sunday, December 22. Strummer, who recently turned 50, had made
no mention of any critical health
problems. The cause of death is
believed to have been a heart
attack according to BBC officials.
Strummer and The Clash were
pivotal figures in the develop
ment of British and American
punk rock, providing a wry polit
ical slant more akin to Woody
Guthrie than Johnny Rotten.
Born John Graham Mellor in
1952 to a traveling British
diplomat, Strummer's comfort
able upbringing paralleled the
mostly working class roots of his
bandmates in The Clash, but it
also provided him with the fierce
social smarts that fueled much
of the band's most enduring and
influential material.
With Strummer sharing the
frontline with fellow vocalist,
guitarist and songwriter Mick Jones, The Clash
evolved from a sweaty, disheveled team of Brits
careening like a hot-wired jalopy out of what they
referred to as "Garageland" to the tightly wound
take-no-prisoners unit that produced a cornerstone
of late 20th century rock and roll in 1979's London
Calling to musical alchemists experimenting with
collision-ready styles including reggae, dub, disco
and funk. Though the overindulgent latter-day
projects (Sandinisto for example) confounded and
alienated even their most devout fans, throughout
its career The Clash bowed only to its own lofty
agenda, which led to quarreling and the ultimate
demise of what many had dubbed "the only band
that mattered."
After the remnants of The Clash officially
called it quits in 1986, Strummer tried his hand
as an actor, appearing in several ingenious indepen
dent films including Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train and Alex Cox's sur
realist spaghetti western Straight to Hell which, with its gun-toting,
briefcase-coveting outlaws (Strummer and Dick Rude), provided the
blueprint for the protagonists of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.
Strummer also scored several films during the late '80s and early
'90s, including another Alex Cox feature. Walker, and the John
Cusack vehicle Grosse Pointe Blank. Aside from filling in for a dis
tressed Shane MacGowan as an honorary
Pogue, 10 years would pass between
Strummer's proper solo debut Earthquake
Weather and his anticipated return
backed by the formidable Mescaleros.
That band's two albums, 1999's Rock Art
& the X-Ray Style and 2001's Global-A-Go-
Go saw Strummer experimenting with
more obtuse world music styles than in
his Clash period. The band performed reg
ularly and had just wrapped up a recent
tour of the U.K. During one show of that
tour, Strummer reunited with ex-band-
mate Mick Jones on-stage for the first
time in nearly 20 years.
Though many Clash contem
poraries—the Sex Pistols,
Buzzcocks, X—decided to reunite
during various punk resurgences.
The Clash never did. Many believe,
though, a reconvening would've
eventually taken shape. Along
with The Police and Elvis Costello
& the Attractions, The Clash are
among the 2003 inductees into the
Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, and as
the Ramones' induction was ren
dered bittersweet without the pres
ence of Joey Ramone, the ceremony
will undoubtedly be an occasion for
Strummer's peers and fans to
remember him in passing.
Strummer is survived by his wife,
Lucinda, and their three children.
His tenacious attitude and uncom
promising approach to music were
shaped as much by Bob Dylan and
Hank Williams as by the Ramones
and Little Richard. They live on in a
slew of bands—both famous and
unknown—from around the globe. To paraphrase the Clash's "Janey
Jones," it'll be a lonelier rock and roll world without him.
Michael Andrews
CANCERSTICK
LINEUP:
Jason Askew—guitar
Adam Bugbee—guitar
Matt Riley—drums
Jay Rogers—bass
HISTORY The choice of a name for
Watkinsville's Cancerstick came not
out of brain-wrenching deliberation
or market considerations, but on a
spur of the moment suggestion by
drummer Matt Riley. "We were dri
ving the car one day, thinking of
band names and Matt suggested it,"
Bugbee says. "I was like, 'Why not?'"
Bugbee, Askew and Riley began
playing together around the turn of
the century, having known each
other as friends since their days in elementary school. "We tried to
get some singers at first, but we didn't like how [they] made us
sound like everybody else," Bugbee says. "So we decided to go for
the instrumental thing."
Eschewing the easy route, Cancerstick fought its way to its first
studio time by winning an Atlanta battle of the bands. "There was a
battle of the bands at the Cotton Club that we won," recalls Bugbee.
"We won a bunch of time at a studio in Atlanta called Southside
Studios, [where] we did our first demos and later recorded our first
full-length."
After auditioning a series of bass players, the band finally settled
on another longtime friend, Jay Rogers, at which point the band
had "their army complete."
The closeness of the bandmembers is
also evident in the band's choice of man
ager, Jolene Bugbee, Adam's mother. "It
does have its bad things in that maybe
you don't feel as established because your
mom's your manager," Bugbee comments.
"But I don't have a problem with it at all.
My mom's cool. She won't screw us over."
To say that the soaring instrumentals
on the record, Egolost, center around the
guitar would be an understatement, like
saying that eating centers around food.
But it would be a mistake to downplay the
sometimes thudding, other times crisp
timekeeping of drummer Riley.
The guys in Cancerstick like to think of
themselves situated somewhere amongst a
less-than-well-known "underground scene"
of like-minded bands in Athens. "There's a
scene based out of Low Yo-Yo Stuff,"
Bugbee says. "It's like the whole Mike
Patton, Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, Dillinger Escape Plan, Garbage Island,
Sci Fu thing. There's a big audience for it. We just gotta tap into it."
Trying to get a grasp on the musical root*; of the band outside
those listed in the press sheet, I ask: If you could choose any band
to do a Cancerstick tribute album, who would it be?
The band quickly throws out the name of Converge, to which
Riley adds his dream of a reformed Misfits including Glenn Danzig.
"If Mike Patton even touched any of our songs it would be great,"
Riley continues. Bowie's name surfaces somewhere along the way.
And then, finally, consensus arrives with Askew's suggestion: Bjork.
Not a bad idea.
John Knight
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