by Marcella Ortega
Daily Lobo
With the release of their latest album, Flat-Pack Philosophy, the Buzzcocks are going back to their roots.
The band out of Manchester, England, was formed during the punk boom of the late 1970s along with bands like the Sex Pistols. Steve Diggle, guitarist and vocalist for the Buzzcocks, said the initial period was political and explosive.
"There were years of progressive rock. The musical landscape was barren," he said. "It should get back to the simple days."
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The Buzzcocks revisited the early days of rock with three-minute songs but created an entirely different sound.
"It was unique and individual to us," he said. "Before that, you always had to be a great musician."
Diggle said the Buzzcocks were formed with four strangers who had little musical experience.
"Our limitations became our greatness," he said. "We weren't very good players, but we knew we had things to say. If we could play really well, we wouldn't be a good punk band."
The veteran punk rockers will be performing in Albuquerque on Wednesday at the Launchpad.
"When we were in Manchester making those first records, I never thought people in America, merely Albuquerque, would listen to it," he said. "When they come see it, they will see we came from that era."
Over the past few months, the Buzzcocks have performed on the Vans Warped Tour alongside modern punk bands.
"There were some great bands," he said. "But they were doing a different interpretation of punk rock than we do. Our version was what we invented and not something passed on to us."
Diggle said much of the band's inspiration comes from day-to-day experience.
"I was reading some marketing books before I wrote the album," he said. "There are things in there like how they can control you in a supermarket to be impulsed - how they plan out the route to manipulate."
Flat-Pack Philosophy is a reference to how individuals develop in a market-driven world, Diggle said.
"In life you get certain instructions, and you have to assemble yourself," he said.
Songs like "Sell You Everything" and "Big Brother Wheels" illuminate the album's political messages.
"It's about how far you will go to sell your soul," he said. "It's me being a little bit more politically wary."
The Buzzcocks' philosophy applies to the music industry as well.
"They just pump this sausage-blind kind of music," he said. "That's the sound of the big corporate machine making money and not art or creativity. The individuality goes out the window."
The Buzzcocks are with the independent label Cooking Vinyl despite their enormous cult following.
"I think that's what people respect," he said. "They appreciate the fact that we stick to our guns and not sold out."
Diggle said he looks forward to meeting fans and playing a small venue like the Launchpad.
"The greatness is you can almost look in their eyes," he said. "That's kind of exciting for us. It will be like discovering a new woman."
The Buzzcocks
Wednesday
The Launchpad
$15
