Anything On Your Mind?
We have arrived at 1987 in our walk backwards, a year that was a bit of a strange year for me, school-wise. I was sort of a kid without a proper grade, taking an assortment of classes in junior high that were kind of randomly fulfilling requirements across 7th and 8th grade. I felt like a kid who was way out of place, which was largely true, as these weren’t kids that I’d been going to school with for a while due to my unusual path through the school system. I did manage to make one good friend during this time, which sometimes is all you need. If you’re a weirdo loner, that can really be corrosive to the way you view the world. If you’re a weirdo with a weirdo buddy, you’re not alone against the world. I also did meet some of the kids that I would hang out with in high school, although I think they all thought I was really irritating at this point. Largely because I was.
Musically, nothing much to report, really. I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to music, just what was on the radio or MTV, so the stuff in my collection are all records that I went back and picked up later. Looking at my library, the metal and hip-hop really stands out. For the former, Bathory’s Under The Sign of the Black Mark was helping set the template for black metal, Death released Scream Bloody Gore to do the same for death metal, and Napalm Death’s Scum was doing the same for grindcore. Extreme metal was causing a thousand (disgusting) flowers to bloom. Meanwhile, in hip-hop, Public Enemy’s debut came out, Boogie Down Productions released Criminal Minded, and Eric B. & Rakim released Paid In Full, all three unimpeachable classics that expanded the boundaries of hip-hop and inspired so much of what was to come. Genres were being born in the underground.
Perusing the RYM chart for the year, I have ten of these in the library. And it’s kind of crazy to contemplate that Michael Jackson released Bad the same year that Big Black released Songs About Fucking. Those seem like totally different universes.
What Are You Listening To from 1987, Josh?
A sampling of albums that I’m playing regularly, whether older ones or newer ones. Just the things that I think are worth highlighting, and maybe you’d enjoy.
This section is a little harder to write, because I don’t have a lot of secret albums to talk about here. If you’re into extreme metal, you know about those albums I mentioned. If you’re into classic hip-hop, same. Nobody needs me to tell them about Prince, or the Smiths, or Sonic Youth, or the Replacements. The good news is that I do have some stuff to tell you about.
Stretching Out, The Skatalites
Oh, you thought in this interregnum between the second and third waves, that I wouldn’t have any ska to write about. Well, fuck you, I do. A first wave band.
In 1983, in the wake of the Specials et al resurrecting the popularity of ska, the eight surviving members of the original Skatalites (Don Drummond had passed away in 1969) came together for a reunion show to be recorded and released. That session was finally released in 1986, on cassette. A year later, another show was added and the whole thing was released on a double-CD set. This session catches the band at their absolute best, and it’s the best single album that they ever did (since their original run was pretty much all singles). I said over here that Foundation Ska was about as good a choice as you could make for a Skatalites record, but the other candidate would be this one. Better get both to be safe.
Escape From Noise, Negativland
Negativland comes up here a lot. Like, a lot a lot. When your neighbors on this blog are people like Einstürzende Neubauten and Wilco, you know I’m writing about them a lot. But during this sequence of looking at musical years, I haven’t yet recommended an album from them. “Josh, you numbskull, you did, like, two weeks ago!” But no! That was a single! Who is the numbskull now?
Escape From Noise is an album where Negativland decided to try out making some things that were recognizable as being songs, or at least song shaped. Song-ish. Song-esque. Unlike most of their albums, which are usually themed around something and contain a bunch of pieces loosely relating to that theme, this album just has a bunch of fun stuff in it. I guess “noise” is the theme, but it’s not a heady meditation on copyright, freedom, consumer society, religion, or whatever. It’s a bunch of goofy noises and wacky found sounds collaged together. It also contains the song I maybe played the most on the radio, “Announcement”, which is and always will be the ultimate lead-in to basically any song. Play that and then some Napalm Death? Perfect. Godflesh? Hell yeah. Conlon Nancarrow? You betcha, pulled that move a couple times. Naked City? Come on, you can’t get better than that.
The song also kind of presages our current algorithmic wasteland of mathematics deciding what will be shown to us, so that’s also fun. It really is a reminder that we’ve all been traveling this road for decades. I guess our musical culture has been getting shitty the same way as bankruptcy: gradually, then suddenly. But, mostly, this is a goofball record. I recommend it very highly.
The Men Who Loved Music, The Young Fresh Fellows
I have generally tried to stick to one album per band in this series, says the guy who broke that rule two blurbs earlier. And hell, since I broke the seal, let’s talk about The Young Fresh Fellows’ best album. First, you have to know that the CD booklet for this album (I actually owned it on tape before I wore that out and replaced it on CD) contains a hilariously bad photo of the band captioned “The Worst Funk Band in the World”. That’s not relevant to the quality of the record, but I love it. And, “Amy Grant” is maybe the center of the album, a savage send-up of Grant and her approach to music. And it does kind of sound like the output of the worst funk band in the world.
But they aren’t a funk band. They’re just having fun playing rock. Their songs are lighthearted, they’re playing fast and loose, and they’re having the greatest time. That doesn’t stop them from getting in some really quality shots on things - in addition to “Amy Grant”, their takedown of Hank Williams in “Hank, Karen and Elvis” is brutal. But more than anything, this record is about having sunny entertainment, and it makes me incredibly happy to listen to it.
Let’s Talk New Releases
Records come out every week, and there’s no way to stay on top of them. This isn’t a comprehensive look at everything, just a few things that have caught my ears out of recent releases. Any impressions here are very early!
Four Hombres, Daddy’s Boy
Drunken Sailor Records strikes again! Daddy’s Boy are playing a great, fuzzed out take on hardcore, featuring plenty of rhythmic variation (which can be the downfall of some hardcore). There are actually a lot of elements of noise rock and even a bit of post-hardcore in here, which is also a lot fun. How good of a run has Drunken Sailor been on? I don’t even mention that last Dark Thoughts album (which is great) or the latest Wiccans in that previous post. Anyway, this thing rips.
Lie Down With Dogs, BEDTIMEMAGIC
Courtesy of noise rock merchants The Ghost Is Clear Records, we have…some excellent noise rock. The willingness of BEDTIMEMAGIC to crank out two-minute tunes is fun here, because it means that you’re not sitting with the same groove all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind when bands stretch it out, but here I think the freshness helps the record out.
Dreams Must Explain Themselves, Bassism Trio
Behold! Italian jazz!
I must leave!
Five Random Songs
Yes, it’s the “classic” five random songs format. It’s been told before on this blog many times, but basically, on an old forum, people would post the last five songs their shuffle pulled up. I liked it, so I made it into a blog. And now, here we are.
“Feedbacker Pt. 1”, Boris
This is the first track of their magnificent Boris At Last -Feedbacker-, but it’s really just one chunk of the album length composition. So it feels a little incomplete in isolation. But what are you going to do, it’s not like I set the rules around here.
“The Fruit That Ate Itself”, Modest Mouse
This is from the EP The Fruit That Ate Itself, and on this track in particular, you can hear the influence of Calvin Johnson’s (Beat Happening) production. That is to say: it sounds pretty janky but kind of groovy. If you like their pre-major label stuff, this EP should be on your list to play.
“Ripped Off”, Today Is The Day
Today is the Day is Steve Austin’s long-running experimental metal band. They’ve tried on just about every style of heavy music out there, sometimes within the confines of a single record or song. Trying to pin down what they sound like is really kind of a fool’s errand, as there’s an absolute ton of variation across their catalog. I guess they’re more noise rock than anything, but I’m not sure I’d really claim them as anything other than “experimental”. This is from their third record, 1996’s self-titled LP, released on Amphetamine Reptile Records. I, of course, like the AmRep records quite a bit, but recommendations are tricky for this band.
“Thoughts Around Tea”, Kadhja Bonet
What a pleasant little tune. I should listen to this album again! (I will not remember to do so.)
“Devil Music”, The Men
The Men returned to something closer to their early albums with this record, although you’d never know it from this little guitar piece. Does it match Leave Home? It does not.
Josh, What Are You Doing Here?
I’m just writing about music. A structure like this blog helps me get my thoughts out, and it’s a way for me to explore my own music collection through various lenses. My sincere hope is that some folks out there find some new music they love. That’s all I’m up to. Sincere thanks to everybody who sends me feedback, with news that they’ve found a new favorite especially fun for me. There’s no monetization, no metrics, no ads, no promos, no nothing. Just some static web pages, some links, and my scribbling. If you want to support it, just shoot me a note! Thanks for reading.
Some Better Places To Learn About Music
Check these folks out, you’ll learn more for sure. In no particular order: To The Teeth, Wolf’s Week/Plague Rages, The Devil’s Mouth, Burning Ambulance, Lamniformes Cuneiform, Hex Records, See/Saw, Starkweather, Treble Magazine, The Quietus, Stereogum.