What If Punk Never Happened?

Hi all, the post you are to read below is written by the "friend" half of the Marika and Friends signature that I affix every time I write an entry in Trash Radio Manila. You see, Je should be doing this more often, being the far more talented writer that he is than I am. But you know how precious things are....

Je writes about a part of The King Blues' latest release, which contains "What If Punk Never Happened?", and how this piece struck him and inspired him to produce the mix that you are hearing on our player. Here goes.

(Photo credits: The King Blues from their MySpace site, Music Front from their MySpace site.)

Hello All,

I do not usually write for blogs. Editing and writing for other people being my main source of livelihood, I somehow find it difficult to write what’s in my own mind. However, things sometimes come from way out left field that they almost knock you down.

Special thanks are due Bisikleta Productions for knocking me down and bowling me over today. The guy behind the production outfit sent me an MP3 late this afternoon. It was a copy of The King Blues’ “What If Punk Never Happened” off of their latest release “Save The World. Get The Girl”. (Please get the album if you can.) To say my life has been changed again is an understatement. But the email made me remember many things. Many many things.

My first reaction to the song was that I had to get the lyrics. In the process of looking for them across the Net, I also stumbled upon a general invite from the band to remix the song.

It is past midnight now, and I have just come out from the studio. (Ok, it’s just the other room in my flat where I have my stereo. I merely hooked up my laptop to an interface in the stereo so that I can “remix” the song.) My bandmates do not know it yet, but I have mixed in one of our songs, “Let’s Dance”, to the spoken word version of “What If Punk Never Happened” and we now have “What If Punk Never Happened? Let’s Dance”, a cross-continental unauthorized collaboration between The King Blues and Music Front.

If The King Blues ask me to take it down, I will ask Marika to take it down. If my bandmates ask me to take it down, I will ask Marika to take it down. If they don’t, then well and good for all of us. We will keep the remix uploaded here on Trash Radio Manila for a week so download as you may.

“So shine your light so bright that all can see,

Take pride in being whoever the fuck you want to be,

Throw your fist in the air in solidarity,

And shout, ‘Viva la punk, just one life, anarchy’”

Be brave and wise,

Keep the faith,

Je

(Download mix here.)