Plastic People Power
Czech band that helped spawn revolution comes to San Francisco
Dan Ouellette
Sunday, March 7, 1999
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle
URL:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/03/07/PK80634.DTL&type=music
Thirty years ago a group of young Czechoslovakian musicians formed a rock band. An
innocent act by American standards, it was profoundly subversive in a country held
hostage by the Soviet Union.
Named after a Frank Zappa tune they smuggled behind the Iron Curtain, the Plastic
People of the Universe proved to be much more than a bunch of upstarts out for a rowdy
time. With their propulsive beat and dour- comic-sardonic lyrics, the group not only
became a provocateur but, ultimately, a catalyst for the Czech revolution.
``Yes, we're still very famous back in Czechoslovakia,'' says Plastic People alto
saxophonist Vratislav Brabenec by telephone from New York City. The band's first-ever
U.S. tour stops at San Francisco's Bottom of the Hill this Friday. ``The band
continues to be seen as a symbol of the fight against communist oppression.''
Speaking with a heavy accent, Brabenec says he sometimes feels as if the band's role
in the fight against Soviet oppression has been overblown. After all, the tunes
themselves weren't blatant calls to revolution.
But the Plastics vigorously bucked the status quo by delivering thought-provoking
lyrics wrapped in power-packed rock. Brabenec notes that the band's biggest
contribution to the uprising was its refusal to make concessions.
``We did not compromise, which was rare at that time,'' he says. ``It really is a
miracle that we survived. The Communists did not like us. They wanted us to emigrate,
but we held out.
``That's why today it's very important for a lot of young people that the Plastic
People exist.''
RESPONSE TO SOVIET TANKS
In 1968 in the United States, rock 'n' roll provided the soundtrack for the protest
against the Vietnam War. In Czechoslovakia, music became a response to Soviet tanks
rolling through the streets of Prague -- the outward sign of sociopolitical clampdown.
Born a few months after the invasion, the Plastic People started out as a cover band,
drawing material from the Doors, the Fugs and the Velvet Underground. They gradually
integrated their own material into the psychedelic mix, inspired by the likes of
Captain Beefheart and Zappa's Mothers of Invention.
``We were playing music that was influenced by the feeling of freedom that was in the
air at the time,'' Brabenec says. ``It was the same everywhere, but because of the
Communists we had a harder time expressing it.''
In 1973, the Czech government revoked the Plastic People's license to perform, which
forced the band underground. It played unannounced concerts in abandoned buildings and
countryside venues and in 1974 secretly recorded its first album.
Titled ``Egon Bondy's Happy Hearts Club Banned'' in an obvious allusion to the
Beatles' ``Sgt. Pepper,'' it was a hard-driving collection of crass poems about such
topics as constipation and toxic chemicals.
Two years later, the secret police raided one of the group's concerts and arrested the
band for ``organized disturbance of the peace.''
The raid sparked a response by Czech dissidents, including future President Vaclav
Havel, who published the human rights manifesto Charter 77 (which paved the way for
the Velvet Revolution in 1989).
After a public trial, the band's manager and artistic director Ivan Jirous and
Brabenec were jailed -- the former for nine years, the latter for eight months.
``I still don't know why I was the only musician in the band to be imprisoned,''
Brabenec says. ``One of the theories is that they singled out people who had a
university education and were considered intellectuals.''
The Plastic People kept performing and recording secretly, and the government con
tinued to harass the band. A landscape architect by profession, Brabenec couldn't find
work after he was released from jail and eventually was forced to move to Canada in
1982.
The rest of the band finally called it quits in 1987, with three members forming the
post- punk groove group Pulnoc. The Plastics didn't re-form until January 1997, when
at the request of President Havel they played at the Czech Republic's 20th anniversary
celebration of Charter 77.
Pleased by the response, the band began to perform sporadically, playing concerts in
Slovakia and the Czech Republic and last July staging a show in New York.
The most recent Plastics recording is ``1997,'' a live show performed in Prague and
released on the Globus International imprint. Available here as an import, the CD
captures the band playing its old material from the 1970s and '80s.
The tunes are hard-edged, crunching rockers with a metallic throb and pile-driving
beat. The numbers are also characterized by a jamming vibe, with young guitarist Joe
Kararfiat (a new Plastic member) serving up funky, fiery psychedelic riffs and
Brabenec soaring into free-jazz saxophone excursions.
``Even though we're playing old songs, this is not a Plastic People revival,''
Brabenec says of the tour, which is sponsored by Tamizdat, a New York-based nonprofit
organization fostering relationships between U.S. and Eastern European musicians.
``We're not interested in copying what we did before. We're revisiting the songs with
new, refreshing arrangements. The melodies are clearer, the mood isn't as dark and the
rhythms are more upbeat.''
Still, Brabenec cautions, don't expect any new songs at the show. ``Our songwriter
Milan Hlavsa is working on new material, but we are very lazy and are moving very
slowly. We want to make sure the songs are good before we play them. We plan to start
working on them after the tour.''
AN EMIGRANT AT HOME
Brabenec, who moved back to Prague from Canada in 1997, says life has changed so much
there that he feels like an immigrant in his homeland. He hopes the resurrected
Plastic People of the Universe will once again make a difference in the cultural
discourse, developing songs to reflect the new Czech Republic.
``Democracy is a long ways off. People are looking for freedom and what it means. I'm
still trying to figure that out for myself.''
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PLASTIC PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE
The Czech rock band makes its San Francisco debut at 10 p.m. Friday at Bottom of the
Hill, 1233 17th St., San Francisco. Tickets: $8. Call (415) 621-4455.
