Anything On Your Mind?
And so, we arrive at 1986. This was the year that my strange trip through elementary school finished up, so we’re way in my past. I was getting basically an individual education at this point, from Mr. Jim, and I think I didn’t really fully understand at the time how unusual that was. Like, yes, I knew that I wasn’t doing in school was not the same thing as the other kids, but it was also just what was happening to me. I think when you’re 11, you can pretty quickly just normalize stuff like that. I was a bookish kid, and I was left to do plenty of reading on my own, so it was all pretty good as far as I was concerned. Entering junior high, which I did in the fall, was a pretty jarring return to a more normal school experience.
But, the thing that’s most relevant for this blog is the first album I remember buying with my own money. I was in the car with my dad, driving with him to his place for the weekend, and the college radio station was on the radio (probably at the request of my sister). They played “Peter Piper” by Run-DMC, and it was like nothing I’d ever heard. It was, in fact, nothing like a lot of Americans had heard. While the Beastie Boys would release License to Ill later in the year and would blow up much bigger, Run-DMC was there first with the first really huge rap record.
Anyway, I listened carefully to the DJ so I could remember who made that song, and when I got a chance to look it up in a record store, I hesitated. Raising Hell? Was this album going to be too much for me? God, I was a nerd. Anyway, I went for it, and the album was a revelation. While I didn’t end up become a music fiend yet, it’s an album that stuck with me and one I kept listening to, and it primed me for discovering De La Soul in a few years, and the rest is history. History documented on this blog. Sorry.
Looking at the RYM chart for the year, I have only seven of these in the library, and I suspect from here, I’ll keep seeing low numbers of records. This seemed like it might be the end point for this series, but I guess I’ll take a look at 1985 and see what it looks like.
What Are You Listening To From 1986, Josh?
A sampling of albums that I’m still listening to from…fuck me, four decades ago.
Note that fewer and fewer of these records are going to be on Bandcamp, but you can still find most of them in various places.
Horse Rotorvator, Coil
The early industrial scene was united more by bands being strange and noisy more than any particular consistency of sound. Among that group of pioneers, Throbbing Gristle was one of the most important, and the contributors of that band went on to do a bunch of other stuff. One of the bands that descended from them was Coil, who were John Balance and Peter Christopherson plus guests, who started the band as an offshoot of other projects. And the eclectic nature of early industrial was really taken to another level by Coil. Over the couple decades of recording, Coil never really stopped evolving, and has sounded like a lot of different bands over the years, but all with an essential dark sleaziness to them.
This record is widely considered their best record, and that’s an assessment I agree with. It features a lot of contributors, including Marc Almond (Soft Cell), who worked with Coil on multiple occasions, and J.G. Thirlwell (Foetus, etc), another early industrial pioneer. This record is kind of indescribable. They use noise, orchestration, pounding rhythms, and a myriad of other sounds. It’s restless, gothic, menacing, creepy, unsettling, and a thousand other things. The only other records like it are really Coil’s other albums. This is an essential listen.
Ragin’, Full-On, fIREHOSE
D. Boon, the singer/guitarist of the legendary Minutemen, died in a tragic car accident at the end of 1985. The heartbroken remaining members were persuaded to continue making music by Ed Crawford, and they together formed a new band, fIREHOSE. Less than a year later, this record arrived. And it didn’t really sound that much like the Minutemen. Sure, the incredibly agile rhythm section was still there, and Mike Watt’s occasional vocal contributions were also still present. But Crawford was a very different front man than Boon. Both in their vocal registers but also in the way they each sang. Beyond that, the band had moved pretty decisively away from hardcore, instead sounding almost like the fastest classic rock band around. That’s not a criticism at all, for the record, I adore this album. It’s probably wise that Crawford wasn’t trying to sound like Boon, because that would never have worked. Moving to a new sound, theoretically let people judge them as their own thing.
That, of course, didn’t happen very much. fIREHOSE got plenty of stick over their existence for not being the Minutemen, which is just an unfair criticism. Nobody has ever been the Minutemen, and you can’t live up to a ghost. If people didn’t know that this was Watt and George Hurley, I think this album would be a beloved classic (along with If’n). Maybe enough time has passed for people to jud…FOUR DECADES? COME ON!
London 0 Hull 4, The Housemartins
The Housemartins wrote some of the sweetest pop rock around, with absolutely beautiful vocal harmonies. And then you listen to the lyrics, and you realize that they’re mostly leftist manifestos about people waking up and seizing the means of production. Come for the delightful choruses, stay for Paul Heaton scolding the Queen. An album of pure delight.
Let’s Talk More 1986
How about some more 1986, why not?
Last Exit, Last Exit
Thanks to finding Naked City early in college (due to exploring noise), I discovered skronkmeister John Zorn. That led to learning more about some of his collaborators, including Bill Laswell, which eventually led to learning about this record. An improvised record of, I guess, free rock, it’s Bill Laswell on bass, Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums, Sonny Sharrock on guitar, and Peter Brötzmann on sax. I’ll warn you up front: this is free improvisation, and it’s chaotic, unpredictable, and difficult stuff. But if you are willing to just kind of hang in there and let it cook, it’s also pretty fascinating.
Skag Heaven, Squirrel Bait
I’ve often referenced the Squirrel Bait family tree, because it can be easy to kind of focus on the band as just the source of a bunch of descendants. Given that Squirrel Bait themselves didn’t last that long and really only put out an album and an EP, it’s reasonable to focus on the later bands, especially Slint, Bitch Magnet, and Gastr Del Sol. But that overlooks that this stuff is also pretty incredible post-hardcore, before bands like Fugazi ever existed. You can say that they sounded a lot like Hüsker Dü, and sure there is for sure some influence there, but I think that’s mostly the vocals. Plenty of bands either tried to sound like Squirrel Bait or were second-generation copies, and it’s worth going back to the original, because this album still rips.
Indestructible Beat of Soweto, Various Artists
I really like Paul Simon’s Graceland, even after learning more about how it all came about. Among other things, it’s a musical connection to my dad, who also really liked that record. And so in college, at some point I decided to learn a little bit more about it, and invariably, the next thing anybody recommends if you like that is this compilation. And sure enough! It’s a sampling of what a bunch of African artists were up to in the mid-80s, and you can absolutely hear what inspired Simon’s record here. Which I guess is a kind of diminished way to think about it. I shouldn’t be thinking of these artists solely through the lens of an American! Anyway, great comp.
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.
“Stateside”, The Decemberists
florasongs is a collection of five songs leftover from the What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World sessions. And the songs definitely are companions to that record, and if you like it (I do), it’s a good thing to also have around.
“Better Wings”, The Messthetics
The Messthetics have received a lot of attention with their last two albums, when they collaborated with James Brandon Lewis. The added sax brought a new dimension to their sound, and those albums do rule. But I hope that people also check out the two albums they recorded before then. They tilt more in the rock direction than the jazz fusion of the later stuff, but they’re still excellent stuff. This comes from the second of them, 2019’s Anthropocosmic Nest.
“Parasitosis”, Spent Case
grrrrrrrrr blog too smart must smash
“Dracula (Who Is Mr Brown version)”, Bob Marley & the Wailers
FiftyFive Records released a series of compilations that tried to gather more or less everything Bob Marley & the Wailers ever recorded. A bit exhaustive at times, the comps are nonetheless fun journeys, especially the early ones. This is from the sixth of those, and this song is just a goof, really.
“You’re Gonna Get Yours”, Public Enemy
I did mention this record last time, and here you go: the opening track of Public Enemy’s first record. The arrival of one of the most important acts in hip-hop. This album is the sound of a band absolutely wrecking it, but they’d eclipse this record so thoroughly with their next one that people kind of forget about it.
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.