| Author | Message | ||
     kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 102 Registered: 05-2005 |
Now that the current crop of bands have moved on from the previous crop parodying the sounds of 1976-78, and we have reached 1979-81, what is your favourite post punk album? From my own shortlist of Unknown Pleasures, Metal Box, Fear of Music, Entertainment,and 154 I have gone for: 154 - Wire | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 122 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Only Fun in Town - Josef K | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 175 Registered: 10-2004 |
it's really impossible for me to narrow it down to one, but here's a short-ish list: wire - 154, chairs missing (although that's '78) colin newman - a-z joy division - unknown pleasures, closer siouxsie - kaliedoscope, juju pil - metal box the passions - 30,000 ft. over china the sound - jeopardy gang of four - solid gold magazine - 2nd hand daylight associates - affectionate punch durutti column - return of..., lc, another setting john cooper clarke - snap, crackle, & bop buzzcocks - different kind of tension bauhaus - mask cowboys int'l - original sin the fall - grotesque but if forced to choose one - like kevin, wire's 154 might clinch it. it's such an amazing album. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 175 Registered: 03-2005 |
For me, the post-punk period is one of the absolute greatest, comparable to the 1965-1966 period. The punk upheaval was necessary to blow the likes of Boston, the Doobie Brothers and Led Zep out of the way but the real creativity began in 1978 or 1979. I add: The Saints--"Prehistoric Sounds" The other two great Magazine albums--"Real Life" & "The Correct Use of Soap" The Cure--"Boys Don't Cry" Honorable mention to the Monochrome Set. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 123 Registered: 05-2005 |
Randy, Strange Boutique was one of the first albums I ever got into as a 12 year old! They were excellent! Half Mute - tuxedo Moon | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 138 Registered: 04-2005 |
Kevin and Jeff have nailed almost all of the ones I'd come up with, though I'd be inclined to take "Chairs Missing" over "154" if I had to choose. A few others that might qualify: Echo and the Bunnymen - "Crocodiles" XTC - "Drums and Wires" and "Black Sea" Soft Boys - "Underwater Moonlight" Young Marble Giants - "Colossal Youth" Probably something by Siouxsie and the Banshees should be on there too. I guess "Send Me A Lullaby" came out a year too late to count? | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 165 Registered: 08-2004 |
Bunnymen - Heaven Up Here Kraftwerk - Computer Love Talking Heads - Remain In Light Suicide - Alan Vega/Marty Rev The Clash - London Calling The Associates - Fourth Drawer Down The Specials - The Specials | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 177 Registered: 10-2004 |
everything everyone's mentioned is definitely worthy of a best post-punk records list. i'm really happy someone mentioned the associates fourth drawer down. but, i can't believe i neglected to list these stunning classics: teardrop explodes - kilimanjaro and wilder | ||
| M. Mark Burgess Member Username: Fortysomething Post Number: 65 Registered: 05-2005 |
It's a toss up between X-Los Angeles and Pere Ubu- Dub Housing. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 127 Registered: 05-2005 |
jeff like your list. and jerry's too. its really great to look back at all these great artists. how I wish I'd have seen the gig of gigs in 1980 the Associates, on the same bill with Josef K, The GoBetweens and The Scars! | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 13 Registered: 05-2005 |
Pink Floyd - The Wall ! | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 108 Registered: 05-2005 |
thats anti post punk wilson!! I was having a pleasant morning (even if I am at work!) until you reminded me of this tragedy of comic proportions. Then again, I say that having only heard that dreadful title track single. Come to think of it, I've only ever heard that and Money, some 10 minute monstrosity about Diamonds that always seemed to get put on our pub jukebox every bloody weekend (which meant everybody elses selections had to wait ages till this overlong dirge finished),and one or two other tracks which a mate tried (unsuccessfully) to brainwash me with from an album called,pathetically, Ummagumma. Feel better now! | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 167 Registered: 08-2004 |
Wilson, I trust the exclamation mark is evidence of an oxymoron. | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 15 Registered: 05-2005 |
That reeled 'em in didn't it... I have several views on this and I'll risk a few here. OK It obviously isn't post punk, that was just to get reaction. There was a post-punk Love/hate dichotomy that existed and still does regarding certain bands and music styles. The golden rule was to maintain it or risk alienation from either camp, or else accept you have a "third way" and brave it out. As a 16 year old in 1979 I tried to point out that I loved my favourite moments of The Buzzcocks (the camp energy, chord changes,economic riffs etc) as much as my favourite bits of Pink Floyd. For this crime I was hanged by my new wave friends, some of whom many years later admitted to being closet Floyd fans, (I spat in their eye)they told me they had since bought the Floyd back catalogue, I pointed out their mistake as most of it was utter self indulgent noodling. Then John Lydon admitted he had never hated Floyd and was a huge Beefheart fan (I laughed long and hard). One punk pioneer at our school who was a serious Ramones fan ran into me in the street years later and proudly told me his walkman was playing Nazareth !. I choked. In 1980 the prog/Floydian mates sneered at my ecelecticism and poked fun at the amateurist/DIY ethic "they can't play man !" Of course they didn't understand when I told them that the repetitive drone of the Buzzcocks "ESP" was genius and moved me as much as the closing section (a very prog phrase)of "Comfortably Numb". A view which nearly had me disembowelled. I told them that "Public Image" by Public Image and the opening chords of "Holidays in the Sun" made my hair stand on end with sheer excitement (they still do). They were having none of it. There was one hilarious day in Leeds in 1982 when a convergence occured. An all day gig at Elland Road with Teardrop Explodes on the bill with Queen headlining. The hate on the Queen fans faces towards Julian's camp posturing and pretending to be a World War 2 aeroplane was frightening, they eventually bottled him off. Later under the BIG lights and vacuous Queen histrionics their front man, who also was slightly camp, pretended to be an aeroplane during a tedious pomp instrumental, and was cheered by the same Queen fans (I yawned). At the end of the day it's "whatever blows your hair back". As a forty something it's been a rocky ride but I'm more comfortable now. Believe me it would have been easier if my tastes hadn't cross these boundaries. My desert island discs would include The Members -Sound of the suburbs and Eddie and the Hot Rods "Do anything you wanna do". They would also include "Echoes parts I and II" by Pink Floyd. I will probably never convince a Floyd head that "Head full of steam" is as close to pop perfection as you will get. But some post-punkers will appreciate some of the better Floyd moments. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water... ..phew that's better... | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 178 Registered: 10-2004 |
well, i do like pink floyd with syd barrett. arnold layne, see emily play, bike, etc.. brilliant. | ||
| M. Mark Burgess Member Username: Fortysomething Post Number: 69 Registered: 05-2005 |
And don't forget they rode Syd all the way to the bank. I don't think any of the rest of them ever had an original thought. | ||
| gareth w Member Username: Gareth Post Number: 39 Registered: 05-2005 |
Someone tell me i'm not the only big Pink Floyd fan who visits this board! I even enjoy the 2 albums without Waters...'Division Bell' is very underrated! | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 135 Registered: 05-2005 |
WHat annoyed me about 'The Floyd' was titles like Division Bell, I mean, really!! One could have only devised that one whilst supping a Latte in one's converted barn, whilst stroking one's new 50th Anniversary Gold pick up ridden Fender Strat!!! One funny story, i used to manage Virgin Records in 87-88 and we used to shot ourslevs every lunchtime on Wednesdays and Fridays as the area manager Phil used to come around and put Roger Waters' Radio Khaos on, it was a f*ckin awful record in my opinion, but it summed him up, he also loved Gong and Tangerine Dream, I can probably live with those. One Wednesday though me and Colin my superior put on GoBees Liberty Belle on a lunctime slot that was strictly forbidden, chart stuff or Roger Waters, that's all, and guess what, we sold the only two copies on CD as well!!!!!! | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 11 Registered: 08-2005 |
The Cure: Seventeen Seconds and Pornography, miserabalist music at its best Talikng Heads: Remain in Light (A few years ago in Bath, where the Cure were recording, I was lucky enough to meet Robert Smith. My brother was shooting an interview with him at Jane Seymour's Elizabethan mansion where they were recording - tough life, eh - and I went along as his assistant. Robert was very 'nice' and very modest. Most un-rockstarlike. And as a sad fan boy I got him and Simon Gallup to sign some Cure CDs.) | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 35 Registered: 04-2005 |
As an aside to Spence's story: I worked in a bar attached to an arts cinema and occasionally made up compilation tapes to play in the bar and educate the masses. The G-B's 'Bachelor Kisses' had just finished, and someone came up and asked me who it was. I thought 'Great! I've turned someone on to the genius of the G-Bs'. But on hearing the name, he said 'Cause it was one of the most f****** miserable songs I've ever heard'. Takes all sorts. | ||
| jelena topcic Member Username: Jelena Post Number: 17 Registered: 05-2005 |
entertainment, gang of four chairs missing, wire | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 36 Registered: 04-2005 |
Anyone listened to the Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls album recently? It was (recognisably) produced by Martin Hannet and I used to really like it. Wonder if it has stood the test of time though? | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 140 Registered: 05-2005 |
No, but did anyone ever hear Metro Pak? Scottish groupo around 81 82, later singer Steve Harrison (A corss between Scott Walker, Paul Quinn and dare I say, Billy Mackenzie) joined ex Josef K rythm section and formed Heyday, a nice mini album on Crepuscule? | ||
| Peter Collins Member Username: Tyroneshoelaces Post Number: 66 Registered: 05-2005 |
Must make a mention of Atom Drum Bop by The Three Johns. Quality. Some fantastic stuff mentioned above, but I have to point out that anyone who naysays the absolute genius of early seventies Tangerine Dream knows not of what they speak (I don't like Gong, though). | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 182 Registered: 10-2004 |
Andrew - funny you mention that Pauline Murray album as I bought it a few months ago. I hadn't heard it before, but since I generally love Martin Hannett's productions, and since I love the Invisible Girls (with it's ever-changing all-star Mancunian line-up) on the John Cooper Clarke records, I thought I'd give it a try. I liked it, but wasn't blown away by it. I felt like Murray's singing was a bit shrill and all over the place and didn't suit the sophisticated, artsy setting so well. And I felt like this particular incarnation of the Invisible Girls didn't throw off as many sparks as they did on John Cooper Clarke records, like Snap, Crackle, and Bop. Have you heard Pauline Murray's late 80s record called Storm Clouds? I haven't heard it, though I'm really curious about it. Seems to have gotten good reviews. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 37 Registered: 04-2005 |
Cheers for that info Jeff! I don't know 'Storm Clouds', but have a couple of 12 inches singles from around that period. A version of Alex Chilton's 'Holocaust' and the other is a Pauline Murray song called 'New Age' (not the Velvets song). It's been a while since I listened to them, but remember liking 'New Age' a lot at the time. I saw her play at the time, in a small club in Edinburgh and it was stunning. I am not sure I can exactly define her appeal! Try here for some downloads http://www.loversofoutrage.co.uk/ | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 167 Registered: 05-2005 |
Theroretically Chinese - Winston Tong | ||
| Peter Collins Member Username: Tyroneshoelaces Post Number: 70 Registered: 05-2005 |
May I also add Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! A classic of its kind. | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 7 Registered: 04-2006 |
this thread could be a home game. but i am too late. i just could add something like soft cell, the birthday party, fun boy three, the pop group, naturally. further: abc, a certain ratio, cabaret voltaire, even the smiths, scritti politti, for sure. not to forget the mekons. it is useless to count all that great artists of this period. but to name one band it could be x-ray-spex with their germfree adolescents lp of 1978. or the first never official released joy division lp. FINE. |