Genesis P-Orridge Quotes

Hearing things like 'Wake Up' by Lora Logic, or the Raincoats' 'In Love' - that was something I wasn't prepared for. I couldn't hear anything that came before it in the music, and I didn't want to. I was absolutely in love with its out-of-nowhereness.

I was real into Devo, Pavement, Captain Beefheart, and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

All punk is is attitude. That's what makes it. The attitude.

I didn't like the '60s because it was too important what people who had nothing to do with the war thought about it.

I really want to do a book on the history of the no-wave music scene in New York, how it extended out and formed lots of other things. It was such a great visual culture.

When people tap into this politics of resentment, it usually ends ugly.

When Soundgarden formed, we were post-punk - pretty quirky.

Mars is really different, into art. Lydia Lunch is more energy. James Chance is more commercial in a different way, in funk and jazz. They were all doing original things, trying to create their own sound and music. I think they're all great.

I can’t stand it anymore. I can’t stand what’s happening to this country.

Disruption of the New Left

No sane person with a life really wants to be a political activist. When activism is exciting, it tends to involve the risk of bodily harm or incarceration, and when it's safe, it is often tedious, dry, and boring. Activism tends to put one into contact with extremely unpleasant people, whether they are media interviewers, riot cops, or at times, your fellow activists. Not only that, it generates enormous feelings of frustration and rage, makes your throat sore from shouting, and hurts your feet.

The poor man … will be swayed by his sense of injury against the men who try to hold what they have improperly won… the most awful passions will be let loose.

Sonic Youth could never really get it together acoustically - quite frankly, it wasn't something we were really that interested in.

Abduction was what it felt like on first listening to Public Enemy. Like the post-punks, Public Enemy implicitly accepted the idea that a politics which came reassuringly dressed in established forms would be self-defeating.

Obviously, Sonic Youth has been a huge part of my life for many, many years, and I love all those guys dearly.

It turns out that there's a huge community of African-American musicians whose main influence is Throbbing Gristle.

I don't know what the vintage Sonic Youth sound is.

Bands such as LiLiPUT and Essential Logic were just as unorthodox as Gang of Four or Wire, even taking their sounds a step further with shrieking vocals and saxophone.

Do you get the anger that is out here?

I'm angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.

The rebellious mood of the country during those [60th] years allowed me to plug right back into my old hatreds. I could scream and holler, as I did on the albums, against religion, government, big business - all those assholes and their values. That hatred was very real.

P.I.L. has been a favorite of mine since high school especially there metal box album. The guitarist Keith Levine gets some of the best sounds ever to come out of a guitar. The songs are really free form and experimental and have a heavy dub influence.

I spend most of my time in California. I feel I am fueled by rage and by the political climate there. I am angry most of the time when I am there, which might be unbearable for someone else, but for me it's fuel for my writing.

Modern American literature was born in protest, born in rebellion, born out of the sense of loss and indirection which was imposed upon the new generations out of the realization that the old formal culture-the "New England idea"-could no longer serve.

Okay that’s it. Now I’m torching this. I just need to score a match.