THE STRING QUARTET TRIBUTE TO… BLACK FLAG?

Last year, former Billy Corgan Zwan-mate David Pajo released an LP of lo-fi acoustic Misfits covers. Surprisingly, these bare compositions–drowned in tape hiss–worked rather well. Now as open-minded as I am about artists reinterpreting the work of other artists to make new songs, I was admittedly a little taken aback when I heard about an upcoming performance that will feature classic hardcore punk songs converted into classical music.

Yeah, you read that right. THIS IS ACTUALLY FUCKING HAPPENING!

Sebastian Meissner, Germany’s well-known producer of electronic music, who also works under the name Klimek, collaborates with Kwartludium, one of Poland’s most innovative classical/avant-garde quartets. Together, as Solid State Transmitters, they perform an homage to the artists and sound of California’s infamous punk label SST Records, often described as the most influential and popular underground indie label of the 1980s. Essential songs from the SST catalog will be reinterpreted in a surprising, strikingly beautiful manner, to reveal their persisting uniqueness and relevance.

Now I’m familiar with Meissner’s folktronica-ish Klimek material, and I’m not much of a fan. So it doesn’t fill me with confidence that this ensemble’s take on SST bands like Black Flag, Husker Du, Meat Puppets and Minutemen will be at all to my liking. It sounds like some seriously pretentious, ironically artsy hipster bullshit, if you ask me. Let’s not forget that SST also put out a whole mess of Saint Vitus records back in the day too.

Even though this February 4th concert at David Rubenstein Atrium at New York’s Lincoln Center wont cost you any money to attend, it might potentially cost you loads of credibility. See you there? I hope not!

-GS

[Gary Suarez usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don’t you follow him on Twitter?]