What PostPunk has RIU&SA make you drolly over?

Woebot

Well-known member
I'm still only 200 pages in because I've been struggling for the past two weeks with an absolutely insane burden of things. Excuses, excuses! Though hear me out: the week before last I was writing late every night when I got back from animating all day. I did linernotes (two interviews), 5 singles reviews, a 7000 word column, a 1000 word feature (one interview) and a book review.

Then this last week I've been working even later in the evening and trying to care for my wife and two babies, all of whom have been struck by this vicious virus, thats involved all night care as well as doing what i usually do (cooking and putting away breakfast and dinner). Poor little Sam, you should have seen him crashed out, bogies everywhere, heavy lids. I only managed to represent at the RIU&SA panel thing at the last minute, and sadly had to miss the Friday night sesh with The Mover......

....but I've still found time to read 200 pages, not sounding so bad now is it! I've been keeping a little checklist for myself of things which having heard Simon describe I'm desperate to check out. Presumably it's all over the web by now, but if you haven't discovered the pdf discographies available at the Faber and Faber website you ought to check them out as soon as possible. So anyway here's just a few of the things I'm after:

Iggy Pop's: The Idiot

OK OK OK. Yes I did have it when I was kiddywink, but I sold it about 7 years ago. It and Lust for Life are just staples arent they. But LFL is a much less interesting record, very catchy of course but a bit trite and R'n'B-ish. The Idiot on the other hand was a record which always used to unsettle me, Iggy looked deeply unpleasant on the cover and the music was, well, nasty. Cruel. Obviously the vision of something without my ken. And cold. And all those synths....the whole vibe is very Deutsche Gabber. I reckon I probably sold it cos I was never properly reconciled with it. And then I find Ian Curtis listened to it the night he topped himself!

Thomas Leer: 4 Movements and Contradictions

I've already managed to find a copy of private Plane on eBay along with Rental's Paralysis http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4720279622&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWN:IT&rd=1 which strikes me as one hell of a score for 14 quid. I did have Contradictions at one point, and I've no idea why I sold it.

Devo: The Booji Boy Singles

I think Simon gets justifiably frothy about Pere Ubu's early stuff. The Datapanik collection (heart flutters) is just to die for. And the Modern Dance, well it was just about the only thing I listened to for years darling. I even had that (quite poor) Tin Huey LP at one point, but Devo! Devo?!? Devo I completely missed. I reckon this may have been because they were, in 1985, when I started to get deeper into music, very much around. Doin the college tour thing, and generally reduced to shtick. Bit of a turn-off. I heard that "Are we not men?" for the very first time EVER last week. I turned to my colleague at work and said, "Hmm, this sounds weirdly....like....mid.....period....Eno." Dang, what a great single. (scratches head) Wonder what the LP is like. Blissblogger has some GREAT GREAT GREAT Devo stories, but you'll have to read the book cos I'm not telling you them cheapskate!

Minutemen Paranoid Time and Bean Spill EPs

Why would you be interested in records which I havent actually checked out yet...er I dunno. For some reason these two little blighters have fallen through the cracks in my Minutemen collection and I intend to remedy that. Yes sir I do!

The Fire Engines

Slightly jumping ahead of myself here, havent even got to the Scottish chapter yet. Is there one? Ive been scratching around Postcard alot recently (as is attested elsewhere on this f'rum) but this I must hear....

The Albion Band and Martin Carthy

I'd really appreciate it if someone could reccommend me some good stuff (the best stuff) by these candidates. The Penster is on record saying this is what they were listening to at the Scritti squat. And I know the Albion Band LP was massive, but (again scrathes head) which was THE ONE? On a related note I've been digging a little deeper into UK folk music of this era. The Pentangle "Basket of Light" LP (which I know I'm the last person to hear) is just splendid also on the trail of some Bill Fay, though it looks like I'll have to surrender to buying it on CD.

Vic Godard

This guy I thought just sounded great. The quote of his I liked which I recounted to the panel at RIU&SA was this: (Vic) told Melody Maker that he viewed "Rock" as "potentially a really good secondary education system...Teaching (people) to educate themselves." I wanted to know why that would just be an unthinkable remark for a musician to make nowadays, why it seems (tragically) completely irrelevant these days. Gina spluttered something, which I didnt get , about how Vic Godard only had about 100 fans (yeah didnt understand that remark at all, was that supposed to mean he was irrelevant, unlike The Raincoats who had 500 fans...and you cant really answer back at these affairs, winks) and Morley, quite graciously I thought, cos it was kind of an ill-formed lackadaisical question which seemed to generally fail to ignite the panel's ardour, that with the internet knowledge is at everyones finger tips (nice of him, but i suppose potentially prompting the reply, then why the hell dont people fucking use it to enlighten themselves!?! and wasnt it better in the old days!)

I liked Vic's idea enormously. Truth be told thats EXACTLY how i used "Rock". Like an alternative secondary education system. When I was at my posh public school, I just couldnt begin to understand what the hell use ANYTHING i was being taught was. It wasnt that it wasnt conceivably interesting stuff, Latin, Geography, English Literature and all that, just the starting point, the assumption that lay beneath the reason you were being taught these things was so crooked that I just felt like I was autistic. It just seemed so weird. Rock education superior. Cut with the personal stuff.

The Swans "Filth"

I suppose largely because it's on Glenn Branca's Neutral label. Kind of sexy slice of vinyl. My bruv used to have "Cop" and that was good as well. Actually I regret not having that still as well.

-------
One of the truly great things about RIU&SA is that you get to hear the blissblogger talking about really quite famous records like Talking Heads "Remain In Light" and Wire's "Chair Missing" while usually he's writing about something deeply obscure (c'mon Simon, you know it's true!) And you're just overpowered by the need to check them out again.
 

dubplatestyle

Well-known member
<i>One of the truly great things about RIU&SA is that you get to hear the blissblogger talking about really quite famous records...And you're just overpowered by the need to check them out again.</i>

i had this exact reaction with the meat puppets stuff once i finished the sst chapter. <i>up on the sun</i>...what an album!
 

gaz

Member
cos i'm trying to read it a bit at a time over my morning coffee in the pitch dark before work i'm only 10 pages in (!) but i am sorely wanting to hear the first PiL record again - i was the fool who sold it way back when.
 

SMorlighem

Well-known member
Robert Rental

Still waiting for my copy of the book ; anyway, already made my way through the discographies ; I was a bit disappointed to notice that Robert Rental was overshadowed by Thomas Leer. I had a very great epiphany discovering & listening to 'The Bridge' and, oh, both singles, which are very moving, a few years ago. Too bad he didn't released much more stuff.
Great page : http://gutterbreakz.blogspot.com/2004/09/post-punk-icons-1-robert-rental-in.html

And, Fire Engines are ace, Matt !
 

jenks

thread death
the book is already impacting on the credit card - picked up liberty belle by the go-betweens last week, the first josef k this week and am trawling the internet most days for blissblogger recommendations. nearly picked the residents commercial album on saturday but didn't feel that reynolds had been that warm about that particular album!
yep i need that first PiL album and early orange juice as well allot of the us stuff that somehow i just missed out on. listened to dare again this weekend and it is every bit as startling as it is always written about.
i daren't go to the faber site just yet the gas bill has just arrived.
p.s. know that whole sick children snot thing woebot, hope thy're better now.
 

francesco

Minerva Estassi
After reading the chapter about Bow Wow Wow, since I never listened to them, i feel the urge to go out and buy their records, which obviously are unfindable except a double cd anthology from Sanctuary, "I want Candy - the collection" wich sound great to me (even if it doesn't have "sexy tower effeil, how wich Simon say great things, and the second cd is all from the late records and live tracks, so is useless (not listened to this 2nd cd yet anyway)).
Many of the postpunk records (nothing really rare but the essential ones) i have on vinyl on my parents house and reading the book i regret not to have them with me. Maybe i will rebuy some essential on cd, so totally destroying my bank account.... (or maybe i'll wait for the inevitable remasters, god, why?).

Spotted a couple of minor error about Whitehouse, one album real title is "dedicated to Peter Kurten ..." and not "dedicated to Dennis Andrew Nielsen"; "Bradford Red Light Discrict" is actually a field recording of Bennett walking around the Bradford red light district (so no direct serial killer worship on this!). "Cock dominant" I have never ear of, maybe Blissblogger is referring to the classic "my cock on fire"?
[nah! the blissblogger was right as always and i was wrong :( ; see Martin post and my other post below]
Is somebody drooling about buying Whitehouse after reading RIUASA?
 
Last edited:

LRJP!

(Between Blank & Boring)
I saw a Bow Wow Wow LP (Duck Rock an all) on the cheap in my local second hand store the other day but wasn't overly inclined; am i fool? Should i be dashing to pick it up?

It wasn't RIU&SA inspired, but the Essential Logic compilation Fanfare In The Garden has been on permanant rotation round mine for a few months now. I'm so sick i hadn't been listening to this stuff before now, fool that i am...
 

jwd

Well-known member
Martin Carthy, umm, try the second solo album, w/Dave Swarbrick. And for mid-70s period Carthy, I always really enjoyed "Crown of Horn". I haven't got RIU&SA yet but I'm sure Simon would have mentioned Steeleye Span's "Hark the Village Wait" which is a must-have, ditto its follow-up "Ten Man Mop". But you've heard me go on about those records before. I imagine those four would make for a good starting point w/Carthy, but it's mostly all great. Simon knows lots about this era so hopefully he will swoop and tell all.

Albion Band - (scratches head) - sheesh! I have that "Battle of the Field" one, it's good. The best thing they did was easily the Shirley Collins & Albion Country Band "No Roses" album which is, for me, in the top 5 of all-time best folk-rock records, easy. Also recommended from that milieu is the first Morris On record, folk-rock renditions of Morris dancing choons, I can hear the Dissensus masses groan and roll their eyes but bear with me, it's a beaut - particularly on "Staines Morris" which is Shirley Collins' (or Shirley Hutchings as the cover has it) guest appearance. And yeah Pentangle's "Basket of Light" is lovely, in fact everything from the first era of Pentangle is good though you could argue (as many do) that it gets a bit too lugubrious toward the end of that run, "Solomon's Seal" etc. (I actually think that's a much under-rated album.) Matt - buy the Bert Jansch & John Renbourn "Bert & John" CD - you won't regret it.

As for Vic Godard, this might be a good time to point out the brill "Singles Anthology" just out on the Motion label, cracking stuff, really traces his history. "Ambition" one of my fave singles ever, and nice to have "Holiday Hymn" - though I kinda prefer the Orange Juice cover of that one actually.

Fire Engines are indeed ace although I can't help but feel that all you REALLY need is the "Candyskin" single and only the A-side as that. The rest of their stuff is good, but that was really the pinnacle. Having said that, am still roundly kicking myself for selling the "Fond" CD on Rev-Ola back in the day.

What did you make of later Swans? I sometimes feel I'm the only one who thinks they improved with time - "White Light From the Mouth of Infinity" and "Love of Life" are totally ecstatic.
 

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
Few unnerving synchronicities here.

Yeah, The Idiot pisses all over lust for life, always did. And I'm taken aback to hear it mentioned here, it;s been running through my mind for weeks. Unlike Matt I was never unnerved by it or felt a need to reconcile with it; I thought it was light relief. Mass Production is fantastic. The TV Eye live album from the same period is great also, with excellent Bowie backing vox on NightClubbing and an incendiary version of Fun Time.

Filth by Swans was alright. Not as raw as Cop (but then what is?), it's kinda the "funky" end of their output. Best Swans tune is the twelve of A Screw. The Raping a Slave EP is good but not as good as Cop. I used to worship Swans. I turned off after Children of God, which was great, and the live show at the time was phenomenal (mind you I was doing a lot of pagan stuff at the time, so I was up for it).

Didn't the bloke from the Fire Engines do a really great proto-techno tune called You've Got the Power (to Generate Fear)? Or was it the bloke from Crispy Ambulance? Not remembering this has been irritating me for weeks.

Wife is out for count with flu, has been for a week, came on in a holiday on Gozo :(. Kids are happily bouncing around though -- no more than the usual level of snot here!
 

hamarplazt

100% No Soul Guaranteed
jenks said:
nearly picked the residents commercial album on saturday but didn't feel that reynolds had been that warm about that particular album!
Oh come on people, this is getting pathetic. Do Simon have to approve of something before you can buy it? How about using your own ears. Recommendations are fine, but they should help you to get ideas of what to check out, not tell you what to like. I haven't got the book yet, but from the discographies I can see that he isn't that warm about Mark of the Mole and The Tunes of Two Cities, and they happen to be some of my all time favorite Residents albums, much more that the super trendy Third Reich'n'Roll. And Commercial Album is excellent.

Actually, for me this happens a lot with Reynolds: I very often agree with him about genres and styles and which aesthetic ideas are interesting, but I just as often disagree about the actual tracks and albums. This happened all the time with Energy Flash. I have often used quite a lot of time and money tracking down something he described really amazingly, only to find myself wondering what all the fuzz was about. That said, I do look forward to the book very much indeed (stupid postal service, be faster), and not least I'd like to see if he can make me "get" canonic albums like Metal Box or Suicide, which I've had for a long time, but never really felt.
 
Last edited:

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
Oh come on people, this is getting pathetic. Do Simon have to approve of something before you can buy it?
and
not least I'd like to see if he can make me "get" canonic albums like Metal Box or Suicide, which I've had for a long time, but never really felt.

Is there an element of self-contradiction here?

Recommendations are fine, but they should help you to get ideas of what to check out, not tell you what to like.
Exactly. Listen and decide - that is the golden rule. Reading helps, some people you can "trust" - but
not 100% (ie Gutterbreakz raving about one of the worst bands ever (Landscape)).

The problem is (and this is where I find the Internet/Torrents so unhelpful) that for loads of "old stuff"
there are no samples/tracks online. Only when there is some sort of revival are tracks posted (I might put a minute of "Dalek (I Love You)" online, just because it feels right after Saturday's Dr Who episode. The Dalek "knows everything" was one of the lines, since he downloaded the "whole Internet" . Well there's loads which is not on the Internet. It would be good if everything _was_ and it was free - specially music).

go to the RIUASA page
which is here

(I don't own a fifth of the music mentioned - but for some of the "uknowns" like Mercier Descloux (good)
and MX80-Sound (good name, music not that good, I first heard them at a party hosted by some crazy Finns (location a few miles from the North Cape)) I am in tune with the Blissblogger. Ahh and the Akron-compilation on Stiff smells of rubber if you scratch the tire on the cover. Now that is what I call multimedia).
 
Last edited:

martin

----
WOEBOT said:
I heard that "Are we not men?" for the very first time EVER last week. I turned to my colleague at work and said, "Hmm, this sounds weirdly....like....mid.....period....Eno." Dang, what a great single. (scratches head) Wonder what the LP is like.

Their first album was really good actually! It's not all like 'Jocko Homo' (which is on it, in a slightly remixed form) (and is great - I'm not slagging it), mostly arty-pop-punk, kind of like Wire meets Feelies meets early B52s. But for God's sake don't go near their later stuff, it's almost exclusively pants.
 
Last edited:

h-crimm

Well-known member
Fire Engines are indeed ace although I can't help but feel that all you REALLY need is the "Candyskin" single and only the A-side as that. The rest of their stuff is good, but that was really the pinnacle.

nah nah nah na na!
its got to be the version of get up and use me on 7" where they fuck it up and if you turn it up way loud in the haitus you can hear the singer mumbling "just carry on". okay maybe it was contrived D.I.Y. styling... but its still good to hear.
next time i'm back near my records i'll rip it and upload it. the b-side to that 7" is really ace as well --- everything's roses --


the record label they did put out some other quite decent 7"s as well. much more fun than the postcard stuffs in my opinion... dubbed up "drinking electricity" drone songs and the like

whats up with the homoeroticism as well... or is that just me? or just the entire eighties shaving-advert-yuppie thing?
 
Last edited:

martin

----
francesco said:
Spotted a couple of minor error about Whitehouse, one album real title is "dedicated to Peter Kurten ..." and not "dedicated to Dennis Andrew Nielsen"; "Bradford Red Light Discrict" is actually a field recording of Bennett walking around the Bradford red light district (so no direct serial killer worship on this!). "Cock dominant" I have never ear of, maybe Blissblogger is referring to the classic "my cock on fire"?

'Right to Kill' was subtitled 'Dedicated to Denis Nielsen', and 'Cock Dominant''s on that one.
 

martin

----
On a post-punk tip, my sister taped me a few tracks off 'Soldier Talk' by Red Crayola - I'd always avoided them because I disliked the name - but it's ace! Had a look online, also appears to be the only one that hasn't been reissued on CD - shame .

Also the self-titled Phew record that Woebot went on about last year, I can't describe how excellent that is.
 

francesco

Minerva Estassi
martin said:
'Right to Kill' was subtitled 'Dedicated to Denis Nielsen', and 'Cock Dominant''s on that one.

So i was in totally error, sorry to everyone :(
As a partial excuse could i say that "right to kill" is incredibly rare, only issued in 300 copies, never reissued, never ever seen by me and obviously never listened to? Martin do you really have a copy? It should really be worth money!
 
Last edited:

martin

----
No, I've just got a CD-R of it - the only time I ever saw the original, it was going for £250 in the Music and Video Exchange... the 'Bradford' LP's meant to be really rare too

I can do you a copy if you like, the sound quality's not so good as it's a copy of a copy, it's quite similar to the 'Peter Kurten' album (right down to the news report on the first track), but it might take a while as I've just moved flat and don't have a clue where half my stuff is right now (PS- hello Matt B, I haven't forgotten your Saxon stuff)- but the one to really get is Live Action 22, from 1983, an absolute ear-splitting, demented, brutal racket with a police raid 12 minutes in and various band members being threatened with violence by the promoter.
 

francesco

Minerva Estassi
martin said:
I can do you a copy if you like, [...] but the one to really get is Live Action 22, from 1983, an absolute ear-splitting, demented, brutal racket with a police raid 12 minutes in and various band members being threatened with violence by the promoter.

Great let me know when you have time for and obviously we can exchange. While i'm on the subject of exchanging cd-rom JWD sorry i haven't sent yet the ItaloProg and '80 Battiato cd-r but i am in a total mess in every sense, beginning from the fragmentation of my music collection in three diverse regions of Italy and finishing with a ongoing disintegration of my whole f**king life, but i will send them soon, promise. By the way i agree "Hark the Village Wait" is one of the greatest album ever.
 

martin

----
francesco said:
Great let me know when you have time for and obviously we can exchange. While i'm on the subject of exchanging cd-rom JWD sorry i haven't sent yet the ItaloProg and '80 Battiato cd-r but i am in a total mess in every sense, beginning from the fragmentation of my music collection in three diverse regions of Italy and finishing with a ongoing disintegration of my whole f**king life, but i will send them soon, promise. By the way i agree "Hark the Village Wait" is one of the greatest album ever.

OK, PM me yr address and I'll get it sorted as soon as poss, I'll also bung 'Psychopathia Sexualis' on if you haven't got that one
 

gaz

Member
my interest in vic godard is kinda piqued - just cos reynolds placement of him as important and his own quotes about trying to avoid the ROCK SONG jibe with my own recollections - the stuff i've heard sounded JUST like rock songs. in fact i'm pretty sure they were. then again mark stewart calls early subway sect "pure distortion" or something. and his continuing career as mod-influenced brill building type songwriter, northern soulfan and on to cole porter 'real" song stuff sounds suspiciously like paul weller (or even joe jackson). so i'm confused.
 
Top