History Lesson - Part II

I've pretty much gotta admit, that music is as important to me as making images. When you are a filmmaker, it's pretty much a given, that you'll just get all Quentin T. and dip into that hip music rights bankroll and release a soundtrack that rises to the top of the charts in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and some weird place in Ohio...

BUT, if you shoot still photos, what do you do? I hear it in my head. I hear it before I shoot when I plan. I hear it in the bar or coffee shop when I'm brainstorming with a model. I play it loud as fuck while I'm shooting. I blast it when I'm retouching. I hear it on the subway coming back from the lab all tingly because of a slight glimpse at a contact sheet.

I hear it now.

Chas Ray Krider released a CD of music to "accompany" his Taschen book. Brilliant, really, and only available from his website. Looking at his book with the CD on creates a mood - and not only a mood, but the artist's intended mood. It's pretty powerful and completely different from the movie I made in my head when I first looked through his book in silence, or while listening to The Minutemen.

The Minutemen. That's what this photo is about, Specifically, their love song to each other, "History Lesson - Part II" which always makes me a little weepy. It's punk rock incarnate. Google the lyrics. I'd post them here, but godammit, why do I have to do all the work?

This shot is not the "definition" of punk rock, but what was playing in my head at the time...

Stoya. Martha on MU. The Gershwin Hotel.

Have you ever heard The Minutemen's cover of "Dr. Wu" by Steely Dan?

There's a history lesson there. It’s all about heroin…and at least The Minutemen were honest about it.