In the past I have delved extensively into No Wave music, one of my favorite American musick genres. Ikue Mori & Arto Lindsay of band DNA, James Chance / White / Black, Lydia Lunch / Teenage Jesus…these are some creative souls that have enriched my musical life a great deal.
No Wave was born in the lofts & walk-ups of late 70s / early 80s downtown New York City. The name came about as reaction to the term new wave. At the tail end of the 70s the record industry was trying to rebrand punk & labeled the more pop-punk bands that came in the aftermath of punk as new wave. The No Wave bands wanted to reject this pop side but they also felt no affinity to punk. They were committed to tearing down convention in the rift between sound, music, & art. One band I never posted before (but am remedying right now) is the great UT.
UT formed in 1978, after Peter Gordon introduced Sally Young & Jacqui Ham to ex-Gynaecologists / ex-Dark Day member Nina Canal. The female presence in No Wave was never that rare. There were very few No Wave bands that represented the standard-issue 'guys/guitars' formula of rock music. However, an all-girl outfit was a slightly rarer proposition. But then, UT are an exceptional band. They really came into their own as the survivors of the original scene, the torch-bearers who took the original discordant aggressive attack onward to the next generation, especially on Griller, which was engineered by Steve Albini.
UT developed a distinctly dark sound based on free improvisation & spontaneous song writing. As with many No Wave bands, UT lacked a strong grounding in musical training, which they intentionally accentuated by changing instrumentation on each song. These methodological approaches channeled the raw energy of UT's song writing process into their live performances & finished songs (example: on "Confidential" Sally sings & plays guitar, Jacqui plays guitar, & Nina plays drums; on "Phoenix" Sally sings & plays guitar, Nina plays guitar, & Jacqui plays drums; & on "Absent Farmer Jacqui sings & plays guitar, Nina plays guitar, & Sally plays drums...& that's just in the first four songs!!!).
UT left the US in 1981 to tour with The Fall & eventually settled in London, releasing a number of albums, playing & recording until they disbanded in 1990. After a pause from 1991 to 2010, UT is back doing live dates.
UT - Conviction, Out Records OUT R03, 1985. all decryption codes in comments
I haven't posted up any Legendary Pink Dots for quite some time. Most of their work is available one place or another, from the band themselves or one of the myriad fan posters like myself. I'm just kinda too lazy to go through each release I feel like sharing to find out if it's available or not. That being said, how about some The Tear Garden?
Many of the usual suspects: Edward Ka-Spel; Phil 'The Silver Man' Knight; Ryan Moore; Niels van Hoorn; Martijn de Kleer & several folks from Skinny Puppy: cEvin Key & De Green Guy.
This is a work of fragile powerful beauty that digs even deeper into the psychedelic underground than its predecessors. It's one I never get tired of hearing…
When I watched the video of Alton Sterling being assassinated by two police officers, intellectually I understand the decision of Micah Johnson or Gavin Long to retaliate with violence for violence, with murder for murder. But violence & mayhem are not the answers. Violence simply begets more violence & the level continually escalates.
I often seem to be sharing my reading material with visitors here. Right now I'm reading Fist Stick Knife Gun by Geoffrey Canada.
Canada is an American educator, social activist, & author who since 1990 has been president of the Harlem Children's Zone in Harlem, New York. Harlem Children's Zone's goal is to increase high school & college graduation rates among students in Harlem. Geoff recently received the prestigious National Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, for his commitment to improving education & fighting poverty.
I am reprinting the preface…
"It was a bad summer, the summer of 1993 in New York City. Late August saw a sixteen-year-old mother accidently shot by a thirteen-year-old boy. He was trying to shoot a sixteen-year-old boy. The young mother was trying to save her baby, who was playing a few yards away. She was climbing a small fence that surrounded the playground. The bullet entered her head, killing her instantly, leaving her draped on the fence. Several days later the police arrested two other boys, both teenagers, who were accused of killing a thirteen-year-old girl. The girl was raped, cut several times with a knife, then as she lay half dead and moaning, one boy stomped on her neck, over and over. She was placed in a large box, carried to an abandoned lot, and hours later one boy came back to set the box on fire. The girls body, burned beyond recognition, was discovered by firefighters who came to put out the fire."
"Then, on August 29, a ten-year-old boy was shot. Two men had another man, their intended victim, in hand, guns out, when he broke away and ran for his life. They managed to shoot him in the thigh, also managed to shoot ten-year-old Luis Rivera in the head. The last the papers reported, Luis was in very critical condition."
"America has long had a love affair with violence and guns. It's our history, we teach it to our young. The Revolution, the 'taming of the West', the Civil War, the World Wars, and on and on. Guns, justice, righteousness, freedom, liberty---all tied to violence. Even when we try to teach about non-violence, we have to use the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., killed by the violent. I'm sorry, America, but once you get past the rhetoric what we really learn is that might does make right. Poor people have just never had any might. But they want it. Oh, how they want it."
"It is because most people in this country don't have to think about their personal safety every day that our society is still complacent about the violence that is engulfing our cities and towns. What if I were to tell you that we are approaching one of the most dangerous periods of our history since the Civil War? Rising unemployment, shifting economic priorities, hundreds of thousands of people growing up poor and with no chance of employment, never having a legal job. A whole generation who serve no useful role in America now and see no hope of a future role for themselves. A new generation, the handgun generation. Growing up under the conditions of war. War as a child, war as an adolescent, war as an adult. War never ending."
"Not like Vietnam, where Americans, if they survived, came home. The war today is home. There is not even the hope of getting out. You just survive. Day by day, hour by hour. Year after year after year."
"For the handgun generation there is no post-traumatic syndrome because there is no 'post'. We need a new term to describe what happens to people who never get out from under war conditions, maybe 'continuing traumatic stress syndrome'…The next generation might be called the Uzi generation because of their penchant for automatic weapons. These children, armed better than the police, are growing up as violent if not more so than the handgun generation.”
"And what about the police? The lesson is straight forward and clear. The police don't care. Like many others trapped in the ghettos of this country, I have learned that the police are not the answer when trouble come to your door."
"And the gun manufacturers in their greed continue to pump more and more guns into our already saturated lives."
"Some may think that violence is new, but it's not. Violence has always been around, usually concentrated amongst the poor. The difference is that we never had so many guns in our inner cities. The nature of the violent act has changed from fist, stick, and knife to the gun. But violence. I remember."
preface – Fist Stick Knife Gun by Geoffrey Canada
Gun Club – Divinity 2x12” EP, New Rose Records ROSE262, 1991. decryption code in comments
Been re-acquainting myself with Pee-wee's Playhouse.
I guess what started this was when I watched the Wayne White
docu/film Beauty is Embarrassing about White's art career. I dug the
part where he worked as one of the creators of the Pee-wee's Playhouse
TV show which served as a springboard for White's burgeoning work in
design (on another of my favorite shows, Beakman's World as well),
creating some of the most arresting & iconic images in pop culture.
As I was watching the first episode, I was lifted off the potato couch by Peewee declaring, "It's Dance Time!" Well, yes it is.
I thought to start with "Land of 1000 Dances" by Wilson Pickett, but realized 'the Pick' only mentioned six.
In the original version of the song, Chris Kenner names sixteen dances, which immediately put my in mind of "Dance this Mess Around" by the B-52s. They do all sixteen dances, even though they only list eight.
Add to that the "Hippy (hippy forward) Hippy Shake" & "The Mess Around" that they don't list, but mess around & dance.
Then Chubby does "Dance the Mess Around" & lists six more dances that no one else mentioned. Add a few more that nobody bothered to enumerate (the Isley Brothers did note the Shingaling & the Skate) & now we're getting into the spirit of things, though far from those 1000 dances as promised.
Various – It's Dance Time (in 1000 dances or less)
Hansen is one of the founding members of Danish experimental noise-rock band Grind, who later became Amstrong in 1999. He produced, recorded, programmed, & co-wrote Amstrong's debut Sprinkler.
Here Amstrong are: Marie-Louise Munck – guitar, piano, & vocals; Tanja Jessen – guitar; Jens Danielsen - programming, synthesizers, samples, & vocals; Jacob Leth – bass; & when performing live, the group is joined by Frederik Bokkenheuser - drums, percussion, programming, organ, & vocals with Camilla Munck – vocals.
I am not a Monkees fan, & never cared for their TV show or the movie Head. But I love the theme to the movie, "The Porpoise Song". I guess it's the sad & spacey mood, the lovely chord progression & the odd harmonies that got me hooked.
Carole King & Gerry Goffin wrote "The Porpoise Song". I think they were aiming for the elegiac psychedelia of "Strawberry Fields Forever". They hit their mark. The producers pulled out all the stops for the 1968 soundtrack recording: church organ, string section, tubular bells, & the sounds of our fine flippered friends. An overdub has no choice, & there is a surfeit of them here. Maybe "It's All Too Much" (as George Harrison sang on another movie soundtrack), but I find it sublime.
Twenty years after the Monkees movie, "The Porpoise Song" was covered by Bongwater on a 1988 single (with Roky Erikson's "You Don't Love Me Yet" on the flip). An outpouring of Porpoise Song covers began in the 90s. I have netted enough of them to fill a CD. Some are faithful to the original while others add splashes of modern electronica or metal (!)
Carole King's demo recently surfaced online, and it is included here (minus her introductory Gregorian chant). Track 2 is the studio instrumental from the 2010 three disc reissue of Head. Tracks 18-20 are also from that reissue, which was shared by Willard in one of his wonderful Wormholes. Tracks 1, 14, and 17 are web rips. Track 7 is my own noisy vinyl rip. The rest are from various sources and in various bitrates.
This post is the result of a comment from W, a ubiquitous commenter on anything Tucker Crowe (subtle Juliet, Naked – Nick Hornby misspoke)…er…Colin Tucker around the Interweb. I have never been all that into the cult of CLT, but I have some of his voluminous output. Certain songs like "There Over There" or "Bury the Hatchet"are right up there with the best & CLTs Remarkable certainly is. Hope this is good enough, W.
One of Tucker’s first musical projects was Plain Characters, a band made up ofColin Tucker – vocals; Paul Jonhstone – guitar; John Hyde – keyboard & bass; & Tim Broughton – percussion.
Their very first release was the single "I Am A b/w Very Peculiar Julia", which came out in 1977.
In 1979 Colin Lloyd-Tucker was working at De Wolfe Music, the Soho music publisher/recording studio with Matt Johnson (mastermind behind The The). The two of them recorded Matt’s first album, Spirits. This album remains unreleased, although the album track "What Stanley Saw" was included on the Cherry Red Records compilation Perspectives & Distortion.
By the early 80s, CLT was involved in numerous musical projects. One of the groups was The Gadgets, which was made up of Tucker, Johnson, & fellow De Wolfe-mate John Hyde. Here is their first release.
In 1981 Plain Characters released their first (& only) full-length LP, Invisible Yearnings. This album has a lot going on with it. From garageband post-punk to spoken-word-space-jazz to minimal electronics to foot stomping dance punk, this record has some great moments. Two of best songs are on back-to-back tracks on Side 2. "Menial Tasks" is a bass-driven post-punk dance tune with hints of Metal Box-era Public Image Limited & Entertainment-era Gang of Four. The next song could be stylistically its polar opposite. "Julia" is a largely electronic track with back-and-forth synthesizer & guitar. But the one thing unites these two songs & helps retain some semblance of cohesion is Colin’s vocals.
At this same time Colin was introduced to Simon Fisher Turner by Matt Johnson. They played together with Johnson at The The live shows (notably at The Venue & the Lyceum in London & an extended stay at the Marquee Club) but never on any official The The releases. This is when Tucker & Turner came in contact with Deux Filles, the aptly named female French duo. Gemini Forque & Claudine Coule met as teenagers at a holiday pilgrimage to Lourdes, during which Coule's mother died of an incurable lung disease. Forque's mother was killed & her father paralyzed in a grisly auto accident. The two teens bonded over their shared grief & worked through their bereavement with music. However, after recording two critically acclaimed albums, after playing throughout Europe & North America, Forque & Coule disappeared without a trace in North Africa in 1984 during a trip to visit Algiers, where Forque had lived from birth to the age of five. Theories ranging from abduction & murder to self-planned disappearance to spontaneous human combustion have cropped up from time to time. Since 1984 not a trace of the duo has turned up except for a mysterious letter purportedly written by Coule claiming that the pair journeyed to India on a spiritual quest, only to meet with further hardships. Indeed the short, terribly unhappy lives of Forque & Coule are at the root of the small but fervent cult following the mysterious duo have gained since their disappearance. (This would be a terribly sad story if a word of it were true. In reality, Deux Filles were Colin & Simon. They would pose in drag for the album covers. They even played live without the audience realizing that the tragic French girls on-stage were actually the two of them.) As I noted in another post, Deux Filles’ two albums have been recently re-released & are available, if you’re interested in this craziness.
The two would go on to work together on numerous projects.
Here are a couple: a mostly covers album Royal Bastard by The King of Luxembourg (a nom de musique of Simon Turner with vocal assistance from CLT…
CLT has a deep catalogue of solo works reaching from 1984s Toybox to 2012s Still Calm Melancholy Air Brush Hush. Much of his more recent material is readily available, go search it out.
One album I can’t really listen to is Songs of Love, Life, & Liquid. It’s just so much country-pop crap compared to other CLT outings, but I will post up "Love Her Dearly" (the only notable track IMO) but I’ve taken it from the Humbuggery compilation from Humbug Records 1995.
In Mysterious Ways (previously un-issued CLT track 2015)
Prayer for Vince (Deux Filles from the album ‘Space & Time’ 2016)
Your Incredible Mind (from the CLT album ‘Inner Nutshell’ 2011)
This Is For You (Maggi Ronson from her album ‘Sweet Dreamer’ 2013)
Kids (from the CLT album ‘Fear of Flying’ 2004)
Look to the Moon (previously un-issued version CLT 1996)
The Alligator Song (CLT previously un-issued 2015)
For You, Your Majesty (CLT previously un-issued 2015)
Brush (CLT from the album ‘Still Calm Melancholy Air Brush Hush’ 2012)
Home (CLT previously un-issued 2015)
Elephant Head (from CLT ep 2014)
New Beginning (CLT previously un-issued 2014)
