Thursday, May 18, 2006

His intentions are good but he sits idle

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
It's difficult to make writhing and screaming like a feral child under the voodoo spell of a snarling beat sound precise and musical, but not so difficult if that beat is as locked-in as rigor mortis. That's right, artful screaming and rigor mortis beats, the Blackouts, one of the most criminally under-appreciated band of the post punk era. The release of History in Reverse, an anthology of their stuff, by K in 2004 didn't have the earth-shattering impact that it should have. Fans of Wire and Bauhaus and the darker side of post punk should have been going ape shit over this unusual stateside addition to the post-punk diaspora. Those of you who have heard this stuff know what I'm talking about, and for those of you who missed it, here's four tracks from '80/'81 that give all those endlessly exalted british bands a run for their money.

The Blackouts - Probability
The Blackouts - Dead Man's Curve
The Blackouts - Young Man
The Blackouts - Industry

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Buy

Bill Rieflin's drumming makes my pants tight. In an interesting turn of rocknroll genealogy, Rieflin and the rest of the band, save for singer Erich Werner, were absorbed into Ministry after the Blackouts disbanded in 1985.

No comments: