PLANET CHOCKO – art/music/movies/beyond

Punk Island 2012

August 2nd, 2012 by chocko

Last June, The Planet Chocko Kaiju Crew landed on Punk Island via the free weekend ferry from Brooklyn Bridge Park. Punk Island is a free day-long, multi-stage festival of punk rock music on Governor’s Island in NYC. Big up to ABC No Rio’s HC/Punk Collective for organizing this year’s fun event. Dumbo-Chocko accidentally deleted all of his photos from that day, but thanks to Mr. C for coming through and sharing his photographs.

After the short ferry ride with a mix of weekend warriors, tourists and Planet Brooklyn inhabitants, we made our fashionably late entrance and meandered to the “Cointelpro” Stage and randomly caught some songs by Banji. Their punk-dance music got Chocko moving like a Wacky Wobbler. We listened and twerked to some jams, then kept it moving.

We saw Obamanation (Bushwick in the house!) rip through some songs at the “Pookie & Eli” stage. Their songs have an interesting mix of fast and loud punk music, reggae, dub and thrash. Their stuff on their newest “i lo hi lo” EP threw me off a bit in a good way. Check it out here – a triple threat of brand spanking new, improvised jazzy-punk instrumentals.

After Chocko got his share of oggling the lead singer of Tribal Force after totally missing their set, we soaked in some sun at the “Glacial Doom” Stage while the NJ trio, Less Life demolished and destroyed. I’m surprised they didn’t leave a sink hole after their set. These angry, hardcore technicians best described themselves on their website… “It’s sort of like if Takaru, Deadguy, Botch and Tragedy all got mixed up in a smoothie with some soy milk.” So quench your thirst, wet your whistle and enjoy this vicious, vegan concoction at a punk rock venue near you. Definitely check out their 2011 demo and “Today Will Be Ours” EP. Awesome stuff!

Hands down, the most fun in the pit was going down during The Barons of Tang set at the “Dispatches from The Underground” Stage. Their infectious gypsy music influenced by punk, rockabilly and circus music immediately draws the listener in and before you know it, you are dancing in the pit, kicking up dust and singing along. Seeing kids lose their minds in the circle pits to the sounds of The Barons was definitely a highlight of the fest. The Barons of Tang hail from Down Under-Melbourne, Australia to be exact where they first played for underground theatre and circus troupes. Buy their music and go see them live when they come to your town. If I could, I would follow them around the globe like a puppy.

After checking out some violent, hockey punk tunes courtesy of Two Man Advantage, we made it back to the “Glacial Doom” stage to catch Cojoba. I’ve seen them play a bunch of times at ABC No Rio and was looking forward to seeing Taína and her crew rock it at Punk Island. The Puerto Rican punk band, now based in NYC played a great set of anti-authority, feminist riot songs which got the crowd moving. It was nice to see the newest member of the group Ray banging away at the drums. Ray is also a member of the Latin hardcore band M-16. Chocko and Mr. C picked up some Cojoba albums after the set that were selling like hot cakes. On the way back to the boat to Brooklyn, we caught some songs by Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits, a folk-punk duo that performed funny, witty songs. The one particular song “Life Is Excellent” was a great way to end the day…a super catchy song that will have you singing along. Funny lyrics… “Life is excellent, the tap water tastes like excrement. The skies rain poison, but I gotta pay the rent!” Check out the video of that song we shot below and a couple others too!