Standing Over By The Record Machine: Chip Kinman confronts his past, present and future

Punk pioneer sets aside his guitars to make an electronic album, then picks them back up for a Dils live anthology.

Chip Kinman: "“What if I twisted this knob?’ (Pic courtesy Chip Kinman)

“OK!  This record and my new LP, The Great Confrontation, both punk rock and both completely different,” Chip Kinman announced in a social media post last week. He couldn’t have been more accurate.

Interesting, Kinman dubbing his new electronic record The Great Confrontation (In The Red Records). That phrase could describe his entire musical career/discography/life. Neither he nor his late brother Tony Kinman ever stayed settled in one groove. They shed genres like stepping outta underpants at day’s end. In the ‘70s, they flew in the face of rock orthodoxy in California’s pioneering political punks The Dils, welding stridently leftist lyrics to slashing guitar rock as informed by the Everly Brothers as the New York Dolls and The Who. Blame it on the airtight harmony work only brothers could share. With Rank and File, they revealed they likely heard as much Merle Haggard and Lefty Frizzell around the house as they did the Dolls, leading to one of the first fusions of punk overdrive and hardcore country. This gave way to the highly-processed alt-rock of Blackbird, and the acoustic Old West songs of Cowboy Nation, before a slight return to punk (Chip Kinman and PCH) and a blues-drenched rock sound (Ford Madox Ford).

The Dils, 1978: Tony Kinman in foreground. (Pic: Jonathan Postal, courtesy Chip Kinman)

So why should anyone be surprised that Chip Kinman inked with prestige garage/punk label In The Red to issue an electro record? Or that he’s calling it punk rock?

He is correct. A certain artistic restlessness was bred into punk. You were meant to never settle, to always challenge yourself and your audience. Stasis, after all, is a conservative impulse – why change? Why can’t everything just stay the same? Well, for one thing, that’s boring. And the battle against boredom has been one of punk’s primary motivations.

So, how does a man who has spent a lifetime operating six strings in various manners keep from stagnating artistically? Well, why not get a buncha old analog synths and see what happens across two LPs?

It’s tempting to dig the bones of Metal Machine Music from Lou Reed’s crypt. That beautiful two-record monstrosity may have been the former Velvet Underground leader’s finest hour as a solo artist - four sides of multi-tracked feedback, oscillations, white noise, and electronic squelchery. Lou insisted it was a work of “modern classical music,” that snippets of known symphonies could be heard in the cacophony. In reality, it was likely designed to break his recording contract, and was certainly one of the planks upon which industrial music was built. Lord knows you could clear any party with a few minutes of placing that on your turntable.

The Great Confrontation is most decidedly not Chip Kinman’s Metal Machine Music. Parts of it might be  – it develops more abrasive tendencies as it goes along. But really, this is more akin to Brian Eno’s ambient records over the years. Except it’s hard to tell what this is Music For…. There are genuine tunes here, with abrasive sequencer patterns, squelches and beeps decorating the works. Track 3, Side C – “Round About Danny” – is in fact the ancient Irish folk lament “Danny Boy” given an electro makeover. At times, it resembles someone turning on the Demonstration program on an old Casiotone, then fucking with it. And this is a good thing. Other times, it’s like 8-bit video game music run amok, grown desperate and sinister. This is also a good thing.

If Chip Kinman wanted to thoroughly cleanse his artistic palette, he couldn’t have found a better, more listenable squeegee than The Great Confrontation. Nor a more challenging one. These two gray plastic circles are some of the most fulfilling listening heard around these parts in a while. They don’t really resemble much of anything else in my record collection. Nor in yours’, I’m betting. Again, these are positive qualities.

Chip (l) and Tony Kinman, onstage with The Dils, ca. 1979 (pic courtesy Chip Kinman)

Then right on the heels of the electro record, prestige punk reissue house Porterhouse Records goes rooting around in the Kinman archives, pulling out The Dils Live!, a 35th anniversary reincarnation of the first record I reviewed for fLiPSiDe in 1987. Which can’t help but be thrilling. The Dils’ 1st generation pogo rock is excitement personified, and they never got around to recording a proper LP, though they likely had three albums’ worth of material under their studded leather belts by the time they imploded, as hardcore began rearing its pimply, shaven head. Three rare 45s were all the recorded evidence of their brief, fraught existence. As Al fLiPSiDe says in his liner notes carried over from the original Triple X release, the band was crucified for being critical of every local scene they inhabited, despite mad respect for their powerful musicianship and fierce Blank Generation ideals – DIY gigging at affordable prices, DIY clothing, DIY records, etc. But they received sharp clapback for opening for The Clash’s debut West Coast dates, as if the opening band had anything to do with exorbitant ticket prices promoters charged for a touring British band. Somehow, this was The Dils being hypocritical. Weren’t they “urine-stained communists” and all that?

First, a side-and-a-quarter of clearly-recorded evidence of The Dils’ classic lineup - Chip on leap-frogging electrical-taped guitar and vocals, Tony on straddle-legged bass and vocals, and miniature Keith Moon-on-steroids drummer John Silvers – from the end of their run in 1980. Then four crap-fi mono recordings from their 1977 dawn, featuring less-skilled drummer Endre Algover. Even in its original 1987 pressing, it was evident Silvers made all the difference, the ‘77 tracks being frantic and barely cohesive, despite the songs and energy being firmly there. The ‘80 recordings show the country strains Rank and File gave full blossom peeping out of the cracks, especially on “It’s Not Worth It” and “Sound Of The Rain,” both highlights of their final Made In Canada EP. But they could still offer a bulldozing “Class War,” even as they were gazing towards a twangier horizon.

Porterhouse head honcho Steve Kravac’s careful remastering makes these tracks sound like they had a full night’s sleep, a shave, a shower, and a pot of coffee. Even that muffled, shit-fi ‘77 cassette gains some newfound clarity, though all the EQ fuckery and gris-gris dust cannot completely excavate a 45 year old, sub-bootleg quality cassette from the murk. The packaging and artwork are significantly improved, as well. But the real gem is the bonus CD from the 1978 “New Wave Against Black Lung” miner’s benefit at the Mabuhay Gardens, featured in the Search & Destroy documentary Louder, Faster, Shorter. A board recording, it explodes, even as they battle P.A. problems and descend into occasional slop. But it’s even better than the vinyl LP in capturing and presenting all their taut in-person fury, plus its a full set, including the vintage singles “Class War” and “I Hate The Rich” in all their proletariat rousing glory, as well as an extended 1980 “What Goes On” appended at the end. It’s the best Dils record ever made.

Texas Music Museum interview up at YouTube

A few weeks back, the Texas Music Museum here in Austin honored my Austin Punk Chronicles series at The Austin Chronicle with a 90 minute event. Museum board member Jason Mellard, PhD:  Director, Center for Texas Music History, Department of History, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX asked me questions before a good-sized audience, including a few people covered in the series, such as Franklin’s Mast leader Bevis Griffin and David Saldaña of San Antonio power poppers The Krayolas. Footage of the event has finally hit YouTube - watch it here! 

Thank you for enjoying our time together. Coming soon: An exclusive Chip Kinman interview! The Tim “Napalm” Stegall Substack is reader-supported, unfettered punk journalism, covering books, music, and culture. Both free and paid subscriptions are available. If you want to support my work, the best way is by taking out a paid subscription, only $5 monthly. Please share this with your friends, and remember - I am now writing for you. 

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