Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Long Distance Relationships: An Exception

Photobucket - Video and Image HostingI'm a sucker for new music that sounds old--it's an art, really, making new stuff sound old. If I played you Your City Below and told you it was a british post-punk band from 1979 you would believe me, and you would like it, and the only place you could find it would be their myspace page, the very opposite of vintage so go figure.

Your City Below is an "online collaboration" between a guy who lives in Maryland and a guy who lives in NY. Does this mean that one guy records something and then sends it to the other and he adds his part and then sends it back and so on and so forth? I dont' know, but it would be amazing if these guys were channeling Josef K and Orange Juice without ever meeting in the flesh.

These fellows are in the formative stages, they've barely had their umbilical cord cut from mother post-punk, and these demos are their first words. They won't be playing any shows anytime soon so show them your love on their myspace page, they only have 19 friends.

Your City Below - Our Militia (Demo)
Your City Below - Sisters of Men (Demo)
Your City Below - Trade Her Life (Demo)

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Nose bleeding heat

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It's so sweltering hot all I can do is sweat and listen to the Durutti Column. Lulling guitarscapes like lapping waves of a shimmering body of water to cool me down and make me sigh ahhhh. I've been bled dry of all my energy and effort.

I have nothing to say, except to apologize for being repetitive and boring, because that's how I feel for posting ANOTHER factory release produced by the SAME Martin Hannett who produced the Names and Minny Pops tracks posted below. Oh well. These tracks are from the Durutti Column's first album, 1980's "The Return of the Durutti Column."

The Durutti Column - Sketch for Summer
The Durutti Column - Conduct
The Durutti Column - Requiem for a Father

PS I do listen to *new music* too, i'll post some soon i promise.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

John Foxx

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John Foxx hasn't gotten his due. Sure, he's well respected and people know who he is and stuff but I never hear people freak out about how great he is. He was so underapreciated as a solo artist that he even abandoned music (the equivalent of Aristotle giving up philosophy or something) for ten years before resurfacing in 1997. So right now I'm gonna freak out about how great he is.

I mean, if we were talking "Twins" the movie, Ultravox! with John Foxx is Arnold Schwartzeneger and Ultravox with Midge Ure is Danny Devito. "Ultravox!," the debut album is the kind of fantastic that can only be the result of two geniuses, John Foxx + Briann Eno, and I can't wait for it, along with the subsequent two Foxx-led Ultravox albums, to be remastered and reissued all deluxe styles next month (pre-order here).

After a few great albums, Foxx went solo and released a few more great albums that were relatively unsuccesfull. Which is not to say that they weren't amazing. The first, Metal Beat, is classic Foxx -- the baroque funk of the title track and plenty of synth heavy noire-electro about cement and cars and other futurist-fetishized objects.

John Foxx - Plaza
John Foxx - Metal Beat

His second solo album, Garden, is a bit more organic. "Europe after the Rain" is THE POOP, and Pope John Paul II named Foxx's rendition of "The Lord's Prayer (Pater Noster)" his favorite jam of 1981. I'm serious.

John Foxx - Europe After the Rain
John Foxx - Pater Noster

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

xVOYx

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Who needs a million dollar mixing board and a sound room as tight as a drum anyway? All you really need these days to crank out great music is an old toy synth, a crappy drum machine, a bass, a few good songs, and a free demo version of any recording program. If that formula doesn't wow the sneering music critics in the audience, dress yourself in nothing but khaki for seven years and see if that helps.

xVOYx made music and played shows in Los Angeles throughout 2004 and 2005. They self-released two EP's before splitting up last year, but re-band for the occasional secret show to appease their smallish but loyal cabal of fans.  If you like these songs from their debut self-titled EP, head over to their myspace page to hear some tunes from the second EP.

xVOYx - Remorse
xVOYx - Cut 2 Me
xVOYx - Mutual Tooth + Claw

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Mannequin Piss and the Golden Showers

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More Belgian bands to keep Minny Pops (below) company. The Names are another belgian band that, like Minny Pops, ended up recording a single with Martin Hannett at Factory and that, also like Minny Pops, were pigeonholed as Joy Division apes by all the monkeys and sheep. "Spectators of Life", their first single, was pressed straight from demo. Sounds pretty good. "Nightshift" (Fac 29), all dark and spacious-like, is the Hannett-produced track, and is included on the most recent Hannett retropsective, Zero: A Martin Hannett Story 1977-1991.

The Names - Spectators of Life
The Names - Nightshift

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Vocoder masters Telex, part of the robotic brotherhood of electronic music pioneers that includes kraftwerk and YMO, share with Devo an aesthetic sense/sense of humor that plays up the prefab plastic pop disposability of modern music. Really they are all just the various organs of one big bleep blooping man-machine. "Moskow Diskow" is a classic, one of those songs that you've heard a bunch but may not have ever known who it was. "Twist a St. Tropez" is a cover of an old Guy Laffite song, and "Euro-Vision" is the song Telex wrote, tongues firmly in cheek, to represent Belgium in the annual Eurovision song contest, which is dissertated upon quite entertainingly over at Pogoagogo. They got 17th place.

Telex - Moskow Diskow
Telex - Twist a St. Tropez
Telex - Euro-Vision