Nevermind the Buzzcocks, Here comes Howard DeVoto

This one is a no-brainer, but must be included in the first of my post-punk posts. Granted, I've done post punk posts before, but this time it's for reals.

This just isn't any old post punk offering. This is probably the first record where someone from an actual, established punk band (The Buzzcocks, of course) parted ways with his former bandmates to form a band inspired by the clean slate of punk. Hence the "Post," hence the "Punk." Whatever.

I'm watching Conan O' Brien on the TV right now. I'm going to cry. I watched a lot of TV in college, and Conan was one of the TV things I watched. Also M.A.S.H. and also the shows on Cartoon Network. I also read a lot of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories.

Anyway, sweet meltmaster, you may ask, what makes a post-punk band? Or, more precisely, sweet meltmaster, what makes a definitive, genre-founding post-punk band?

Well, punk attitude. Which Howard Devoto has in spades. The Buzzcocks' Spiral Scratch EP is the most listenable of nascent, definitive brit-punk statements. The Buzzcocks were awesome after DeVoto, but hardly any punk band released anything as raw, snotty, and brilliant as Spiral Scratch. DeVoto brings that to Magazine, his new band. And then some cool piano and synthesizers. And the guitars are still there. And that makes post-punk, sweet meltmaster!!!

There were plenty of other forward-thinking bands. Pere Ubu was basically already making post-punk albums before the Ramones toured the UK. (Proto-post-punk, I guess we could say.) Other touchstones would be the some of the glamrock such as the first Roxy Music album, the first Eno album, Bowie etc; and previously maybe 13th floor Elevators and other psychedelic explorers who weren't so much as hippie as hip before their time. Anyhow, I always like to out-snob punk snobs by saying that "Punk" died in 1977 when Johnny Rotten quit the Pistols at the end of their US tour in California. Mainly because it did, mostly. But DeVoto started Magazine in what year HUH?!?!?!?! 1977? And it sounds light years away from Orgasm Addict!!!!

From this:


To this:

link!


Oh yes, all of the other Magazine albums are really good too.

Know What You're Waiting For

For Meltmaster!

Glorious brainy snotty 70s art-punk.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/ki3dzy10tjw/Swell Maps- International Rescue.zip

What is the Heart of Everything?

You know how sometimes you hear an album, and think, this is the music I've wanted to hear all my life?

Overview: Dutch anarcho-punks team up with Ethiopian soul-jazz magician. Abrasive, soulful, intense, occasionally awkward or even corny, and overall fucking brilliant results.

For more info, try the Youtube video below:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/zfyizm1332m/Getatchew Mekuria, The Ex & Guests- Moa Anbessa.zip

Cuddly Toys, formerly "Raped."

The story of (Irish!) Cuddly Toys just seems to get stranger and stranger the more you look into it. They formed originally as the punk band, "Raped," in 1977. (Although some would argue that since they didn't form in 1976 or before, they weren't a real punk band.) They changed the name to "Cuddly Toys" shortly thereafter, for obvious reasons (presaging Steve Albini's similarly ill-fated band "Rapeman" by several years.) Their first EP was "Pretty Paedophiles." Ahem. It seems like just another band crassly, cynically, reprehensibly seeking publicity. Which would make sense, given the climate of those early punk years. But nevermind: somehow their first hit, "Madmen," was penned by none other than both David Bowie and Marc Bolan. I don't know the story behind this collab, but it's pretty remarkable. (The poster of the youtube video apocryphally states that the band found old bootlegs of unfinished T. Rex and Bowie songs.) Marc Bolan died shortly thereafter. The band friendly-ed up its image with glam gloss and a stellar groove with the release of this album "Guillotine Theatre." (Honesly, I don't know if "Pretty Paedophiles" by "Raped" is available--I'm afraid to look for it.)

Anyhow, the musical result is pretty interesting; they represent a nexus of some past and present major preoccupations of mine in guitar/rock built music: Punk Rock, Glam Rock, and the post-punk thereafter. They sound like a punk rock band with a serious glam influence. Not surprising. Glam had a huge influence on early punk--see New York Dolls--(which was mostly stripped, to its detriment, IMO, in hardcore.) The influences don't quite gel, and the move past punk isn't as paradigm-shifting as it is in Devoto's Magazine. But Cuddly Toys deserve a place in the post-punk pantheon, and also will provide a good springboard for future post-punk posts on punk on this blog.

There's more Diamond Dog Bowie in this than anything else. The Marc Bolan influence is there too...I have to say I can't really listen to whole albums of Marc Bolan. I certainly love a T. Rex song sprinkled in a mix here and there. And there's probably lots of bands that are much better than Cuddly Toys. I'll have to post the ones I know in the future, such as Virgin Prunes, The Sound, Sad Lovers and Giants, UK Decay, Danse Society, Wolfgang Press, Teardrop, not to mention some Brazilian and Svensk shit I got. (And Ero hinted at some Bunny-action.) But this is a good place to start. I feel good about it.

http://www.mediafire.com/?hnmmn5fkefj

RAPED? It's a raped-based economy.


Who are YOUR favorite post-punk bands? Marilyn Roxie has a kick-ass list here.

Pushing the Extreme

Deeply satisfying over-the-top guitar punk. A secret classic of American rock and roll.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/2lk13yyylzz/Wipers- Youth of America.zip

Song #30,084 that has been stuck in my head

Here is a great reason why nobody hates the Pretenders: Glam, Post-punk, Classic, New Wave...It's all there:



And in case you don't already have a huge crush on Chrissie Hynde:

Mixtapes for Mason- Many Rodents- Punk 2

More punk. Enjoy.

I'm tired of typing explanations about these mixtapes. Older posts explain in various ways.

This one's punk. Side B.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/zw2zymmdzmz/VA- Many Rodents- Punk 2 for Mason.zip

Next up: rap/hiphop mixes!

Mixtapes for Mason- Coyotes Eat- Punk 1

Another installment in the massive mixtape series, this time the genre is Punk.

The compilation was intended for someone on the young side, so this is sort of half history lesson and half thrill ride. All the songs here are pretty ferocious though. Hard to mess up. I've interpreted 'punk' pretty freely (as with all the genre mixtapes), but i think the results stand up to repeated listening.

Timed for cassette. This is Side A; side B will follow.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/1muwmwztmnm/VA- Coyotes Eat- Punk 1 for Mason.zip

President Reagan Can Shove It

A short bit of music today, since you may still be recovering from recent megaposting madness.

A clued-in buddy in my high school art class, knowing I was into Wire and the Sex Pistols and Black Flag but that I knew nothing else about punk, made me several excellent cassettes full of great stuff. Wish I still had them.

This was on one of those cassettes, along with the Weathered Statues EP (if anyone wants, I can upload that too-- it shows more of a development toward goth/metal), and misc Minor Threat, 7 Seconds, and Fugazi's 13 Songs (another truly timeless classic).

There's something lovely about the compressed fury here. Eventually TSOL became sort of a sloppy metal band; I remember in 1990 or so picking up a live cassette and being outraged at the groupie-baiting guitar-solo wanking metalness of it all. And I think they've been releasing stuff pretty consistently over the decades, following their own particular Southern-California punk vision. But at this early stage they were pure densely maniacal punk punk punk, buzzsaw guitars and galloping drums and anti-nuclear-war lyrics, all spit out in a sort of not-in-time-but-on-time perfection.

I'd almost forgot about this record until Scarah New gave me her much-loved copy last year, along with a host of other wonderful vinyls. Here it is.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/zzxdaihkvtv/True Sounds of Liberty- The Black EP.zip