Musings on music, old, new, popular and obscure. Post punk, metal, hip-hop, funk, and rock in general. A music fan with a desire to lose boundaries on what should and should not be listened to writes about experience in music from a listener's perspective, hopefully unhindered by prior expectation.
Barry Andrews - "Rossmore Road"
Bronski Beat - Age of Consent
Kate Bush - The Kick Inside [US Release]
Cursive - Burst and Bloom* Dr. John - Locked Down
Patterson Hood and the Downtown 13 - "After It's Gone"*
Hüsker Dü - Candy Apple Grey
Hüsker Dü - Flip Your Wig Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Josef K - "Heaven Sent" 12" Single Peter Koppes - Manchild & Myth
Luna - Rendezvous*
Magazine - Real Life
Magazine - "Rhythm of Cruelty"
Mclusky - Mclusky Do Dallas
Mission of Burma - Forget New Order - Movement Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance
Post Marked Stamps #5 "Project Mercury" - Aspera Ad Astra/Haelah
Public Image Limited - Album
Public Image Limited - First Issue
The Replacements - Tim Leon Russell - Leon Russell
*RSD Exclusive/Release. I missed out on the Minus the Bear and Ryan Adams singles...
I've let this blog sit for various reasons, partly as a result of moving and shaking back in the real world, partly to try and get myself situated for a few discussions that are more in line with the underlying motivation, which is to talk about current and recent musical explorations more than older ones I want to bring to the light, as I've been doing recently. There are some flaws with that plan, mostly stemming from the fact that I'm generally headed in one direction musically of late. I don't think even many people I know, let alone a ton of people in general, are looking to read about this or that post-punk band or strange, unique 80s alternative band of even other stripes. At the same time, I'm treading familiar ground for many people, which can be a nice confirmation boost for some (including myself when I read similar things), but isn't news and becomes disposable.
I don't know who you know, or who he knows, or she knows, or they know, and sometimes I don't even know who my best friends or family know. I've had nothing but bemused pleasure at sitting my father down for bands he'd discarded in the avalanche of music in the 70s in particular and was surprised to find himself appreciating more. But that's an unusual instance, and most people I know either don't pay attention to music or already know all the underground-popular bands I do.
Today I'm going to talk about one that I'm not sure of anyone's familiarity with, beyond one friend. Brian and I shift bands back and forth, and he will nudge me toward the odd one established in the last two decades, and I will nudge him usually with the force of more years of musical exposure from the father and friends I've had. Of late, there's been a willing trade of post punk and alternative bands, where I hit some first and he hits a lot of others first. His willingness to dive in to digital formats makes his access to them a lot more rapid, so he got through The Cure far faster than I did, for instance, but my bull-headed insistence on "getting" a band I cross my fingers and literally buy into, physically, and get chunks of side-story on via both text and "bonus" tracks gives me a different point of view on them.
Or, sometimes, we just attack a band from different periods in their career. To sort of amusingly illustrate the band I'm going to talk about, here is David Thomas, vocalist for Pere Ubu, answering the bizarre question, "Do you think you've improved with age?" by comparing his band to...a cup.
