Punk in Africa Documentary

A few days ago two French punks came around to the shop and gave us a few CD-Rs and one of them is a home-made compilation of South African punk rock. Pretty interesting since we never really heard anything much about punks in Africa.

The fact is the scene has been there a long time, even going back to “Year Zero” (1976) and beyond. In the mid-90s, Ernie Garcia Marques came to KL from Cape Town and gave us a bit of stuff from South Africa. The man was running a tape label called Sound Action and later he released a split-tape of Carburetor Dung’s live tracks and a South African band Diminished Return. Last I heard Ernie is still putting out tape compilations!

Anyway, putting on that compilation tonight, I went and searched for some of the bands featured and stumbled upon this:

This is a “teaser” for an ongoing documentation of punk rock in South Africa and it’s looking mighty interesting especially the earlier footages with bands like National Wake, Asylum Kids etc. As you may have known, these bands were there during the apartheid era, and that’s really a crazy, fucked-up time.

go here for more: punkinafrica.co.za

BTW; the shop will be distributing that South African DIY CD-R soon. Bands featured on it are: Touched By Nausea, Solitary Confinement, A.W.O.L., Oi! Rothol, The Deadbeats, Insek, Groinchurn, Death By Monkeys, Sleeping At The Popes, TDKM, Mutiny, Skelm Helm, The Hazards, Distrust, Appleshine and Distruction Wolves. It is not an official release I’m sure, just a self-made compilation by somebody who wants to share SA Punk Rock with the world I guess. So lets share it!