Nitzer Ebb

Nitzer Ebb, “Control I’m Here”

That Total Age was more towards the industrial end of industrial dance, with more clanking machines in the sound, and Showtime found them pushing a little more melody in things and varying their arrangements more. This comes from the album in-between, Belief, where they kind of blended those two approaches, and arguably made their more interesting record. There’s a risk in industrial dance in ending up in parody, but this album is so direct in its intention that it feels pretty good.

Nitzer Ebb, “Control I’m Here (live)”

I mentioned the other day that I kept up with the proliferation of Nitzer Ebb releases for a while, and this is a good example of what a pain in the ass that was. When they started picking up some momentum after Nine Inch Nails brought a lot of attention to the genre, the label decided to try and pick up some buzz for Ebbhead by releasing a live EP. But did they just release a live EP? Oh my, no. They released it in two separate discs you had to buy, with the first one including a slip case that would fit the second one. Did they release both halves at once to make it easier to pick up? Of course not! I did find both halves, and frankly, it’s just a live EP and totally not worth tracking down.

Pink Floyd, “Is There Anybody Out There?”

In a different potential project of mine, I was looking at albums released in 1979, and it’s pretty amusing that the same year in rock produced London Calling and 154 and also The Wall. I know rock is pretty dead as a commercial prospect these days, but it’s just kind of fun to consider that those extremes were commercially viable in what was ostensibly the same genre once upon a time.

The Toasters, “New York Fever”

I’d have to go back and listen to a bunch of early Toasters records to confirm this, but in my memory, New York Fever is the record where the Toasters’ sound kind of accelerated. There’s a more frantic pace to their work from here going forward, which kind of presages the ska-punk to come along in a few years.

UFO Or Die, “Old Cold Meat”

UFO or Die is a side project of Boredoms leader/genius/lunatic Yamatsuka Eye. It’s just pure experimentation, all sound collages, weird squawky noises, random hiss, and just general messiness. Is it good? I don’t think that’s really a sensible question to ask of something like this. Is it fun to listen to? Every now and again, sure.

200 johns, “the sun is a h0t m4ss”

Did you know that you needed hyperpop covers of They Might Be Giants songs? I didn’t, until I heard this this EP. And I realized, yes, I very much needed hyperpop covers of TMBG songs.

Nitzer Ebb, “Godhead (remix)”

I was just saying Nitzer Ebb hadn’t aged particularly well to a buddy yesterday! And, you know, it hasn’t particularly. But again, this is part of the whole thing where industrial dance also was just endlessly remixed and re-released, which didn’t help anything. Although there is one remix of “Lightning Man” (on ONE of the multiple singles for that song) that I remember as absolutely ripping. However, I lost that EP, and I haven’t listened to it in ages and had kind of forgotten it until now. I could still pull up the riff from it in my head though.

Nitzer Ebb, “Shame”

Might get back into industrial dance again. I mean, sure, this shit is dumb as hell, but maybe that’s what the times demand. Get some Belgians yelling at me about vague Dystopian futures.

Cavity, “Spine I”

In case you were wondering what “Spine II” was a follow-up to.

Less Than Jake, “Johnny Quest (Thinks We’re Sellouts)”

Less Than Jake would regularly re-record songs for later albums, polishing up the previous version. It was an interesting habit because it clearly wasn’t for a lack of material - their albums were always a healthy length, and during their prime, they put things out regularly. So I think it was just a matter of them wanting to get things right. This song originally appeared on Pezcore, and they revived it for Losing Streak (this version) a year and a half later. I wonder why?

Today’s list!

Gang of Four, “5.45”

Entertainment!, from 1979, is one of the keystones of post-punk, a wiry, edgy blast that countless followers would attempt to mimic. The sort of vaguely dance-y rhythms, the bursts of guitar, the monotone singing, these would become hallmarks of bands even down to today. As a consequence, it’s an album that still sounds pretty fresh.

Gang of Four would keep coming and going, with hiatuses of various lengths, but I’ve never really listened to anything beyond the first two albums.

Six songs today! Repeats are your best value here at Five Songs Incorporated!

Nitzer Ebb, “Higher (Barry Adamson Mix)”

This is from an obscure EP called As Is, a little four song thing with a grab bag of tracks on it. It was put out to precede Ebbhead, which was to be their major label debut, and was supposed to get people hyped up. It’s not a bad little EP, you know, if you’re into Nitzer Ebb.

Music!

The Microphones, “You’ll Be In The Air”

There are going to be a fair number of artists where I exhaust what I know about them or have to say about them fairly quickly. The Microphones are one of them. You can check out the previouslys down below for my previous tepid takes!

Overall, this is one of my concerns of this project - will I just run out of things to say about everything? Will it just devolve into random junk? Probably. I could critique the exact song in question, I suppose, but I’m not sure I really have the musical vocabulary to make that work consistently.