This Ain't No Disco

After over a year's worth of fuss New York's legendary club CBGB's finally shut down last week. Once the epicenter of the American punk movement the club became a something of a pop culture icon in it's own right after a number of bands playing there in the 70's like Blondie and The Ramones broke through into the mainstream and the venue got a shout-out in a Talking Heads song leading to a the omni-present CBGB OMFUG (it sounds dirty, but actually isn't) clothing that I see people wearing all the time even though I live on the other side of the country. Despite the past year's worth of obituaries and articles lecturing the fine points of the importance of the club Voltage noted that not everyone was sad to see it go or even had fond memories of the place. One generally positive reader response to the Village Voice article that Voltage references points out that "CBGBs in a way was a morgue and a tourist attraction. It became a parody of its former self" which is behind general tone of "good riddance" comments about the closing. Voltage picked a great quote from the negative ones, but I really fond of this response to the haters:

Don't be so negative. If you don't have something nice to say then don't say anything at all.

: How punk rock is that? Mom would be proud that someone is still giving that advice.

Good news CBGB fans, while the music has come to an end CBGB Fashions will remain open at it's current location until the end of the month so there is still time to buy some merch. Now that is the true spirit of punk.