Adam & The Ants - "Kings of the Wild Frontier" (1980)
Adam Ant was born Stuart Leslie Goddard. Not as big a mouthful as Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, but I think we can forgive him for wanting a stage name.
Interesting song, You've got African style drums, masquerading as Native American drums. You've got guitars that are twangy, so they evoke the country sound and more specifically, the western movie genre sound. then you've got war whoops and lyrics about family, nobility, war cries and 'redskins'. Not exactly politically correct, but for a British band from the 80s gosh darn it they were trying to bring attention to something. They actually used two drummers on this album, one of whom, Chris Hughes, produced the record. The whole guitar sound, crashing down loudly over the drums makes this track much louder and impressive than I expected going into a track from the band before Adam Ant went solo.
So a little history on that. Adam & The Ants were founded in 1977 and had some minor success live, while never achieving much success on record sales. In January of 1980 the band's manager Malcolm McLaren (who had managed the Sex Pistols) convinced the whole band, minus vocalist Adam Ant, to quit and be the basis for a new band, Bow Wow Wow, to be fronted by a 14 year old girl that his friend had seen in a dry cleaner. Adam put together a new band, recorded a new album, and released Kings of the Wild Frontier, a big hit. Just two years later he went solo as Adam Ant, but continued to work with guitarist Marco Pirroni as a co-songwriter.
Showing posts with label post punk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label post punk. Show all posts
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
"Some Candy Talking"
The Jesus and Mary Chain - "Some Candy Talking: (1986)
So this is why shoegaze exists. I think I get it a little bit better now.
In Scotland there lived two brothers, William and Jim Reid, who had always wanted to start a band. The like The Stooges, and the Sex Pistols, but they also liked the Beach Boys and The Shagri-Las. When they finally formed a real band it was the early 80s, and music was either punk, or keyboard pop, but they wanted to be different. They wanted to play guitars but they wanted to have tight harmonies and fun melodies. On stage they were known for inciting violence, and yet their records were known for having beautiful songs. More than that though, they added feedback and other noise to the tracks so that they sounded different. They wanted to be different. Their brand of music eventually was dubbed 'Noise Pop' and it was that combined layers of guitars and vocals and sound that eventually gave way to the more avant-garde of shoegaze which was all about the sound layers and kind of forgot about the tight melodies.
This track has strings helping to fill out an already big sound of ringing guitars and drums. All of the sound, but most noticeably the vocals, sound like they were recorded about halfway down a well and have a echo/ringing sound. The whole band never really sounds like they are close to us, no matter how loud they get it seems like the center of the sound is just out of reach and we are just getting the sound a little later.
So this is why shoegaze exists. I think I get it a little bit better now.
In Scotland there lived two brothers, William and Jim Reid, who had always wanted to start a band. The like The Stooges, and the Sex Pistols, but they also liked the Beach Boys and The Shagri-Las. When they finally formed a real band it was the early 80s, and music was either punk, or keyboard pop, but they wanted to be different. They wanted to play guitars but they wanted to have tight harmonies and fun melodies. On stage they were known for inciting violence, and yet their records were known for having beautiful songs. More than that though, they added feedback and other noise to the tracks so that they sounded different. They wanted to be different. Their brand of music eventually was dubbed 'Noise Pop' and it was that combined layers of guitars and vocals and sound that eventually gave way to the more avant-garde of shoegaze which was all about the sound layers and kind of forgot about the tight melodies.
This track has strings helping to fill out an already big sound of ringing guitars and drums. All of the sound, but most noticeably the vocals, sound like they were recorded about halfway down a well and have a echo/ringing sound. The whole band never really sounds like they are close to us, no matter how loud they get it seems like the center of the sound is just out of reach and we are just getting the sound a little later.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
"Public Image"
Public Image Ltd. "Public Image" (1978)
When Johnny Rotten left the Sex Pistols and the band broke up, he was the first to join a new group.
Public Image Ltd. began when John Lyndon (formerly known as Rotten) called a friend of his and asked him to listen to some reggae together, and when he agreed that it was great, Lyndon asked him to learn how to play the bass. Lyndon put an add in the paper to get a drummer, and called The Clash guitarist Keith Levene to play guitar. This first single was released in England the day after Nancy Spungen died, and the album was released less than a year from the last day the Sex Pistols performed on stage.
Driving bass line for sure. Simple, but the man had only learned bass guitar a few months earlier, lets give him a break. The guitar and vocals are both heavily echo affected. The guitar does this thing that makes it sound like an ambulance and Lyndon's vocals come in late singing the chorus; that's my favorite part. The band sounds a little like Echo & the Bunnymen, Joy Division, and other post punk bands, but I think they sound a lot like early B-52s. Without a keyboard they are definitely not New Wave, and the truly experimental rock and post-rock sound wouldn't come until later in the bands career, so for the immediate moment of their first single, they were hard to classify.
Aspects reminded everyone of punk, but the guitar was more melodic, the song was longer, and the whole band wasn't trying to deafen you. Lyndon's vocals are high and still very whiny, but the rest of the band is making music with some clarity. There may be a lot of echo effects, but the musicians playing the instruments are more talented than the Sex Pistols.
When Johnny Rotten left the Sex Pistols and the band broke up, he was the first to join a new group.
Public Image Ltd. began when John Lyndon (formerly known as Rotten) called a friend of his and asked him to listen to some reggae together, and when he agreed that it was great, Lyndon asked him to learn how to play the bass. Lyndon put an add in the paper to get a drummer, and called The Clash guitarist Keith Levene to play guitar. This first single was released in England the day after Nancy Spungen died, and the album was released less than a year from the last day the Sex Pistols performed on stage.
Driving bass line for sure. Simple, but the man had only learned bass guitar a few months earlier, lets give him a break. The guitar and vocals are both heavily echo affected. The guitar does this thing that makes it sound like an ambulance and Lyndon's vocals come in late singing the chorus; that's my favorite part. The band sounds a little like Echo & the Bunnymen, Joy Division, and other post punk bands, but I think they sound a lot like early B-52s. Without a keyboard they are definitely not New Wave, and the truly experimental rock and post-rock sound wouldn't come until later in the bands career, so for the immediate moment of their first single, they were hard to classify.
Aspects reminded everyone of punk, but the guitar was more melodic, the song was longer, and the whole band wasn't trying to deafen you. Lyndon's vocals are high and still very whiny, but the rest of the band is making music with some clarity. There may be a lot of echo effects, but the musicians playing the instruments are more talented than the Sex Pistols.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
"Dum Dum Boys"
Iggy Pop - Dum Dum Boys (1977)
A eulogy by Osterberg and Jones in the city of Berlin.
A sad opening backed by David Bowie on keyboards, Iggy Pop gives us the the breakdown on where all of his old band mates The Stooges have ended up. We get a distorted guitar break after that to let us know how down and dirty the song is going to be. The guitars are distorted with reverb effects through the whole song. The drums even have some echo delay added. The bass is simple and clean, so it really sticks out.
Iggy's vocals are also laden with effects. The echo is so long it gives a dreamy almost heroin affected sound to his downer lyrics about his old band. He sings about old times with the gang with nostalgia, missing them, and what they did together. One of the last lines he explicitly wants them back, he doesn't know how to carry on without them; it's sad. But in fact, Iggy Pop had moved on. This album, written with and produced by David Bowie, while Bowie was in the middle of his Berlin Trilogy was Iggy's first real taste of success. The Stooges were seminal, and revered amongst the punks that they had influenced, but were unknown outside of that niche. This album The Idiot (whose title is inspired by the Dostoyevsky novel) is considered one of Pop's best, if not representative of his usual sound.
Final note. Tony Visconti, a frequent colaborator of Bowie, did the final mix of this album from the demo tapes that Bowie produced. He also wrote the preface to The Book.
A eulogy by Osterberg and Jones in the city of Berlin.
A sad opening backed by David Bowie on keyboards, Iggy Pop gives us the the breakdown on where all of his old band mates The Stooges have ended up. We get a distorted guitar break after that to let us know how down and dirty the song is going to be. The guitars are distorted with reverb effects through the whole song. The drums even have some echo delay added. The bass is simple and clean, so it really sticks out.
Iggy's vocals are also laden with effects. The echo is so long it gives a dreamy almost heroin affected sound to his downer lyrics about his old band. He sings about old times with the gang with nostalgia, missing them, and what they did together. One of the last lines he explicitly wants them back, he doesn't know how to carry on without them; it's sad. But in fact, Iggy Pop had moved on. This album, written with and produced by David Bowie, while Bowie was in the middle of his Berlin Trilogy was Iggy's first real taste of success. The Stooges were seminal, and revered amongst the punks that they had influenced, but were unknown outside of that niche. This album The Idiot (whose title is inspired by the Dostoyevsky novel) is considered one of Pop's best, if not representative of his usual sound.
Final note. Tony Visconti, a frequent colaborator of Bowie, did the final mix of this album from the demo tapes that Bowie produced. He also wrote the preface to The Book.
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