Rants // Nothing As Punk Rock As King Buzzo and Stephen Malkmus on Fox

Gutfeld is a noted punk guy. He's got the tshirts to prove it

— Nick J (@bridgemusicbunker.bsky.social) 2024-10-05T02:51:10.510Z

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Fox News and indie/punk rock make for some truly strange bedfellows, don’t they? Consider the following question asked by Timothy Burke on Bluesky

sleater-kinney’s Dig Me Out as bump music on Fox? what is happening

What’s happening, apparently, is Fox forging its hip indie cred through both bump music and having guests like Stephen Malkmus (Pavement), King Buzzo (Melvins), Andrew WK and even members of GWAR on its shows!

I can easily see the appeal of GWAR to Fox and its audience – controversy surrounding them and all. The rest make a lot less sense – neither Pavement, nor Melvins can be described as political bands, by any stretch of imagination. And as for Andrew WK…the man largely seem to thrive on absurdity, politics included. So now more questions abound…this one from goodoldbus / huizi stan account

I’m more curious why all these artists in a position to say no can’t do it to fucking fox news

My answer comes down to three points

1. Bands are often comprised of individuals with  totally different political views/beliefs. Here’s looking at you, Slayer and System of a Down. And lest we forget – there’s Johnny Rotten dubbing himself Trump of rock and roll.
2. Combo of age + nihilism/cynicism associated with punk. See Exene Cervenka of X becoming a crazy Qanon lady for awhile.
3. Greg Gutfield

That last point is of particular interest and, dare I say, obsession/fascination to me. Here’s what Wiki says about Greg

Gregory John Gutfeld (born September 12, 1964) is an American television host, political commentator, comedian, and author. He is the host of the late-night comedy talk show Gutfeld!, and hosted a Saturday night edition of Gutfeld! called The Greg Gutfeld Show from May 2015 until March 2021, when it was announced the show would transition to weeknights.

Gutfeld is also one of five co-hosts and panelists on the political talk show The Five. Both of his shows air on the Fox News Channel. From 2007 to 2015, Gutfeld hosted the 3AM series Red Eye, a late-night talk show that also aired on the Fox News Channel.

Red Eye hosting punk/indie musicians as guests is interesting, highly so. After all where else would you see King Buzzo talking about dangers of potential Bernie Sanders presidency? And it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Gutfield praised Melvins sweaters. 

What’s even more interesting is this essay called In Praise of the Unheard Musician – written by Greg in 2015. It might as well been penned by one of Pitchfork or Quietus writers – to wit

I spent my teens in northern California listening to KALX, KUSF, and KFJC finding people that changed my life. Back in the 80’s – Howie Klein’s Outcast show – I think it’s was on KSJO – offered 2 or 3 hour window to a world that wasn’t Jefferson Starship or Asia. I discovered British punk, then SF punk (the DK’s the Mutants, the Bobs, Tuxedomoon, etc), and LA (X, Black Flag, the Circle Jerks). It’s how I found the Cramps – in my mind one of the purest rock bands to crawl the earth.

Is your mind blown yet? If not, further on Gutfeld ends up namechecking anyone from Torche to The Black Angels to Ariel Pink (in his pre-J6 era) to Tame Impala.

Melvins forum offers even more tantalizing evidence of how narrowly Greg missed his calling as a punk rock musician or rock music historian:

I made my way backstage at a faith no more show in brooklyn 5 years ago, and i came across Gutfeld drinking wine with a belligerent Neil Hamburger. I asked him why he works for fox news, and he simply responded by telling me that Fox pays better than anyone ever worked for. Hamburger splashed me with wine, so I stole his bottle from him and walked away drinking it. 😈 His wife apologized to me. \:D/

Comparatively, the guy was class. Fox news needs to be dismantled though. The simpsons had it right to start giving fox shit 20+ years ago.

Admittedly I don’t know much about Gutfeld other than his obsession with indie/punk rock. I do agree, however, that compared to the rest of his Fox brethren he comes as rather classy, low as that bar might be.

Even outside of Fox there are far, far worse examples of punk rock-to-conservatism pipeline. Gavin McInnes, one-time Vice writer and a current Proud Boy, comes to mind – Boyd Rice of Vice, as it were. The less will be said about his views, the better, but I’d love to offer a photo from his punk rock days and an accompanying quote about Canadian punk/indie underground scene from Scallen.com

Members of Anal Chinook went on to play in Montreal experimentalists Exhaust, godspeed you black emperor! and One Speed Bike (Aidan) and Peterborough Tappers of the Spine, Hot Piss.

Once again, mind blown. And it will take me awhile to pick up the pieces.