#underground 70's rock

[musicman69love]

Lou Reed. Take a Walk On The Wild Side Tour. 1973. (Check out the price of admission)

[metalcultbrigade]

THIS DATE IN SAVOY BROWN HISTORY:

September 6

1971: The Park, North Baltimore, OH -- with The Velvet Underground, Cactus and Atomic Rooster

[dankalbumart]

Nervous Breakdown by Black Flag SST 1979 Hardcore Punk / Punk Rock / Alternative Rock / American Underground

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Iron Claw - Strait Jacket

[weinerundcognac45]

🪖Headcanons / Fanons about a Soldier:

Headcanon:

• Homophobia – TF2's actions take place in the 60s and 70s, so homophobia is completely normal in those realities.

• Supports the Vietnam War, literally dreams of fighting, because this is an actual combat action at the time of the comics – this is indicated by the accessories "Soldier's Stash" and "Shellmet" – "We've hit the top of the mountain, son! Now let's defend this pile of rocks!" – a possible reference to the combat action on Hamburger Hill, cutting off ears, as "Tiger Force" did in Vietnam, of course, a scene from the comics:

• The Soldier is well versed in the history of war: weapons, helmets, uniforms, planes, ships, tanks... Attack strategy and tactics. The whole history of the United States from George Washington to Lyndon Johnson / Richard Nixon...

• ... But because of the eternal paranoia against the background of the Cold War, he began to get confused about the facts, literally rewriting history in his head, considering everyone to be enemies of the United States.

I wrote about the paranoia of a Soldier in another post.

• The Soldier likes to use insults related to gender (calls other mercenaries "girls" and calls them to fight like real men) and nationality ("Stalingrad" and "Ivan" in relation to a Heavy, "boche/kraut" and "Fritz" to a Medic, etc.), loves political jokes. He has a nickname for every mercenary, and not only for enemy mercenaries.

Fanon:

• Survived Prohibition in the USA, made wine and other light alcoholic beverages, sold them underground.

• As a true American, he loves baseball (and American football), so he can often play baseball with a Scout. It resembles a scene from movies where father and son also play.

• Has a good relationship with the Scout, I would even say "parental", because both are hyperactive Americans who love sports and battle. The soldier likes to call the Scout different names – "shorty", "rascal", "wit" and "son".

• Can imitate different animal sounds, especially the cry of an eagle and the chirping of raccoons. This unusual skill appeared as a result of working as a "ranger" – a reference to the comic book Doom-Mates.

• Denies many diseases, believing that this is an excuse to leave the army. He hates long-term treatment, because this is a "manifestation of weakness" that goes against the image of a real warrior. A broken leg is no reason to shirk the army!

[cherrylng]

Great Guitarists 100 - Matthew Bellamy and Jack White [CROSSBEAT (November 2009)]

Matthew Bellamy Who is commonly known as "The Prince". It's an apt description. He is fluent not only on the guitar but also on the piano, and his beautiful melodies are worthy of such a name. Of course, the guitars he holds in his hands are all "prince" guitars. The custom-built guitars, assembled by a former Led Zeppelin guitar tech, are a perfect reflection of Matthew's taste. It even has a shiny aluminium coating and laser beams emanating from all over the body. When asked who his favourite composer was, he replied: "I guess the Romantics. I like Liszt, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky." Asked about his musical background, he replies, "Robert Johnson and Ray Charles". What is your background as a guitarist? "I was attracted to Spanish guitar and studied it for about six months." Of course, Matthew doesn't hide his influences from grunge and heavy rock, but he also blends them with non-rock elements, which is his style. However, even though it is mixed, it is not an American-style hodgepodge. It's smart. Gorgeous all the way. In his songwriting, he always pays attention to beauty, based on melodies of classical origin. His choice of notes, overflowing with such a narcissistic sense of beauty, is the main reason why he is nicknamed the "Prince". -Junya Shimofusa

Representative albums "Origin of Symmetry" (2001, photo) Muse "Absolution" (2003) "Black Holes and Revelations" (2006)

Jack White When the White Stripes first appeared on the scene, the simplicity of the band's formation - just a drummer and guitarist - was quite shocking, even in the garage rock revival, when guitar sounds directly connected to amplifiers were at their height. It was Jack's superb guitar playing that made this possible. “Falling Love With a Girl” distorts elements of his biggest influence, the blues, with ferocious fuzz, "Seven Nation Army", is a one-idea riff turned into a killer tune. And 2007's "Icky Thump", which strengthened the influence of 70s hard rock from Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and others, and also incorporated flamenco into their own style. However, the way he plays a series of creative riffs in a restricted space makes him truly the Jimmy Page of today. Jimmy himself has praised him as 'the best guitarist of recent times', and his popularity as an artist is extremely high. His sound, which is based on a thoroughly subtractive aesthetic, is a clear counterpoint to the post-rock/electronica that dominated the underground at the end of the 1990s and to the cheap guitar sounds of the mainstream. The impact of his music, along with that of The Strokes, defined the atmosphere of the 00s. -Hitoshi Sugiyama

Representative albums "White Blood Cells" (2001, photo) The White Stripes "Elephant" (2003) "Icky Thump" (2007)

Translator's Note: Well, this is the highlight. We've finally reached it. But we're not at the end yet.

[mezmer]

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ Mezmer Music Ask Extravaganza ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

Please share 🙏 and have fun <3 ⋆｡ ˚༘ ♫

1. first song that comes to mind

2. song you would impress a potential mate with

3. song that sounds better in the car

4. song that you cried to in middle school

5. song that you like from a genre that you really hate

6. least favorite song by your favorite band or artist

7. song you would have played at your funeral

8. song you loved as a child

9. favorite classic dad rock song

10. song with a number in the title

11. song that you're embarrassed about liking

12. song you like that gets radio play

13. favorite breakup song

14. favorite love song

15. song that reminds you of spring

16. song that reminds you of summer

17. song that reminds you of fall

18. song that reminds you of winter

19. song that reminds you of home

20. a song your parents or a family member showed you

21. a really goofy song

22. song you would choose for your wedding dance

23. favorite song from 70s

24. favorite song from 80s

25. favorite song from 90s

26. favorite song from 00's

27. favorite pop song

28. song by an artist from your region

29. song you used to love, NOT anymore

30. song you wish you could make somebody listen to who isn't in your life anymore

31. most emotional song you can think of

32. song that used to be you and somebody's "song"

33. extremely underground song, that probably nobody's heard

34. song with an amazing music video

35. song that you listen to when you need to relax

36. song that you think changed your life in some way

37. song with a lyric you think about often, would maybe get it as a tattoo

38. song you like in a language that is not your native language

39. song that is musically technical (difficult to play)

40. song you listen to while inebriated

41. song that AMAZES you :)

42. if the world was ending and you had the ability and time to just play one song, what song would that be

43. song that gets you energized! when you need to get a chore done

[slavghoul]

Short interview with Joe & Tobias from Rolling Stone l’Hebdo n°113

They've been listening to each other for years, but Joe Elliott (Def Leppard) and Tobias Forge (Ghost) only recently met to record a new collaborative version of the hit 'Spillways'. The connection was immediate. The two musicians show that despite the generation that separates them, their passion and talent are in tune.

Joe Elliott: The intro to "Spillways" reminded me of "Jane" by Jefferson Starship or "Hold The Line" by Toto. That's what I like! When I joined my band, I had the whole legacy of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, who had the rock in them, but they never forgot the melody. "Spillways" is for me the perfect hybrid of what people expect from Ghost and what they don't.

Tobias Forge: I was partly formed with underground extreme metal, where the music is more atonal, loud, brutal and fast, that's why Ghost has this evil aura about it. But I also grew up with AOR. Ghost combines those two elements. I wanted Ghost to be like a 70's band trying to create music that was futuristic and scary at the same time. I love "Jane" by Jefferson Starship. I play it on the drums as part of my gig prep routine.

Joe Elliott: I remember when I discovered this song. In the UK, as a young adult, we didn't have rock on the radio, apart from a show on Friday nights between 10pm and midnight when no one was listening, and on Sunday afternoons when everyone was away at the football match. "Jane" made the top 40, not many rock songs have had that. As well as being a great single, "Jane" is an exemplary vocal performance!

Tobias Forge: I never saw myself as a singer, I became one by force of circumstance...

Joe Elliott: Me too!

Tobias Forge: Of course, I love punk and other less vocally demanding music, but one of the things that makes AOR stand out from the crowd is the incredible talent of the singers, whether it's bands like Journey, Foreigner, Kansas...

Joe Elliott: It turns out that my favourite singers aren't really singers, but they get their talent from their interpretation of the lyrics. Steve Walsh from Kansas could sing the phone book, but my favorites are the ones that make my hair stand on end, like lan Hunter, Joe Strummer, Michael Monroe... These guys may be screamers, but they know how to interpret the lyrics. When "School's Out" came out, people wondered if Alice Cooper was singing or barking. When asked what I wanted to do, I said I wanted to be somewhere between Phil Mogg, Bon Scott, Phil Lynott and Gary Holton, with influences from Alice Cooper and Johnny Rotten. We can't all be Freddie Mercury. When I listen to myself on the album On Through The Night (1980), I hear a guy drowning. He does his best, but he doesn't have it all together. Mutt Lange later helped me to find my voice, and from then on I was on my way, it just took me longer than most singers. But you Tobias, you can sing! To hell with humility!

Tobias Forge: I think half the work comes from being comfortable with your voice. I've learned to love working with it. My "hit radar" doesn't always work, sometimes there's that magic moment when a song screams that it's going to be a hit. This was the case with "Spillways" or "Square Hammer". But "Cirice" wasn't originally intended to be a hit, I wanted to make it more progressive. When I played it to my daughter, she said it was her favourite. That's how the song was redesigned as a single, which got us a Grammy! Success is very hard to determine when you're writing, it's the audience that decides. On the other hand, I couldn't understand why "Mary On A Cross" didn't do so well. But in the end, it just took it a little longer.

Joe Elliott: We all say to each other in Def Leppard, "In a parallel world, this song would be a hit". It turns out that nowadays, hits don't happen the way they did in our time. It used to be that you'd make a single, it'd get picked up, played on the radio, and then you'd make a video for it and it'd be on MTV. Everything has changed since then. It just so happens that the Bank Of Dave movie has completely resurrected our song "Kick". When we did that song, we knew it was going to be the first single from Diamond Star Halos. We felt the same way about "Fire It Up" (on the same album) and "This Guitar". We've never questioned our songwriting skills, which get better with time. Some of our big hits still leave us confused! (laughs) As Tobias said, we play some of our songs to our kids and if they say "play that one again", we're onto something. They know better because they have the heart, they don't calculate anything.

Tobias Forge: That's what I say to people who tell me they can't write a song. It doesn't matter, it's what you feel that counts. The Ramones wrote some very direct songs, but a lot of them weren't that successful. While ABBA wrote some pretty technical songs, a lot of them are pretty hard to play. They made their songs accessible, especially with the vocal melodies. A lot of people in pop say "don't make it too complicated". Yes, do make it complicated if the song demands it! You have to follow your instincts.

Joe Elliott: We musicians are a special breed. As soon as we started talking it was like we'd known each other for ten years. I also hope that one day we can sit down with our guitars and a bottle of wine and see what comes out.

[niuniente]

Saw your little thing about ask you anything, and I'm sure you've been asked this before but I haven't seen it... HOWEVER, what pieces of media do you think have inspired you the most to make your ocs and the comics that go with them?

A though question. I don't think I have anyone as a direct inspiration as "I want to draw like this artist" or "I want to create stories like this author". I'm certain that the majority of my inspiration is subconscious or runs around certain favorite tropes or themes, like punk and cyperbunk, as well as lots of music, too.

If I narrow this down to media which has really inspired me when I have encountered it the first time, then the inspiration list will be the following:

Comics by Petri Hiltunen. Some of his works have been translated to English, like Anabasis. I can't remember anymore what happened in the comic Asfaltitasanko (An Asphalt Field) but I remember that it really hit me the right way when I was 13.

Sláine series by Simon Bisley. It's still running and I read every new book. This is actually a feminist barbarian comic, which is a great combination and you will see echoes of that in Alrick.

Hob Gandling's story in The Sandman series. Oh I wish I could experience again the time when I read the story for the first time. I was mind opening for a 13 year old.

Vintage manga from 70's and 80's, as well as anime from 90's and early 2000 (like Slayers Next below). Expressions were very prominent back then and I do generously use that whenever possible. I was SUPER happy when I started watching Jujutsu Kaisen and it had those really big expressions!

I think that from anime, I should perhaps mention Bleach, because Grimm is inspired by Bleach series Grimmjow. Who is, by the way, also a cat (a panther).

Alrick, the whole premise of Death-Head Organization and the generous use of black, solid masses gets all its inspiration from a manga Sun-Ken Rock. Especially from the protagonist Ken Kitano, who is the best positive masculine example in any media I have ever encountered. Also, Algoth looks is inspired by Ken's right hand man, Benito Armani:

For the animals and animal parts of the characters in DHD, I LOVE kemonomimi! For other series, inspiration comes from game series Bloody Roar and from a comic series Blacksad. Rena is inspired by Bloody Roar's Mitsuko the Wild Boar.

We simply can't forget fashion! Metal, punk, cyberpunk, kinksters, and other dark dressed underground people. I'm asked at times why everyone seems to dress up the same and my answer is that since the comic is black and white, with black outfits I get to add some contrast to it. Alexander McQueen is awesome!

Other mentions to practice keeping mind open, which allows stories to be formed without judgment or thinking that I have no base for this: - Jeffrey Burton Russell's books about the Devil and religious history - Conspiracy theories (as what kinds of things people believe in and how they find evidence for it to support their views, including opposing conspiracy theories like Moon landing was fake VS Moon landing did happen but we haven't gone back because of aliens on the Moon) - Quantum physics

I'm certain you can pick up more things which have inspired me from my stories and drawings. But, if we speak ONLY about Death-Head's Deal, then underground fashion, Sun-Ken Rock, 80's and 90's vintage manga&anime, and Blacksad are the ones.

[marcussour]

Sadly, yesterday chilean music icon Cecilia passed away at 79 years old after a sudden illness, and I wanted to take a moment to write something regarding what an important figure she was to chilean music and culture in general.

Mireya Cecilia Ramona Pantoja Levi, known just as Cecilia -nicknamed “la incomparable” (the unmatched)- was a jewish chilean singer. Even though she started her career in the 50′s in her hometown of Tomé, she rose to prominence and stardom in the early 60′s as part of a movement that was known as the chilean “new wave”, that was basically a bunch of artists that took the rock n roll and twist anthems of the 50′s and 60′s and made versions in spanish (often more softened or “tame” versions of the most sugestive songs), that was part of a bigger movement of the same name that happened in almost all of Spain and Latin America.

But Cecilia was special because she always distanced herself from her peers, first by making her own music, and second, by singing songs made famous by spanish and italian artists, instead of usamerican or british ones. Those songs were also more romantic and sad than was the norm back then, to the point that now she’s known as an icon of the “cebolla” music (”onion music”, basically sad songs that made you cry). 

She was also special because of her looks: she had shorter hair and she mostly wore pants or suits similar to the ones Elvis wore in the 60′s and 70′s, all of this at a time when chilean society was even more conservative than today, to the point that her looks and her onstage dancing (that included her signature move, called “beso de taquito”, where she basically sent a kiss flying by doing a move similar to a football heel kick) brought her outrage and criticism from chilean society (there’s a well known episode where she performed at the Viña del Mar’s festival, the most famous music event of Chile, and they tried to censor her).

The things she did and the music she sang kinda made her an outlier between the more tame artists on the chilean new wave. But it was also what made her stand out, not only as a musical icon, but as a feminist and countercultural one: she was friends with some of Chile’s musical legends like folklorist Violeta Parra and singer/theater director Victor Jara (she even made covers of popular songs of both artists). She also founded her own record label during Allende’s government.

Sadly, with the US backed coup of 1973 and the arrival of Pinochet’s dictatorship, Cecilia had to move to a more underground life, partly due to her perceived political sympathies (it’s a well known fact that in the 80′s she was accused of fraud and spent time in jail as part of a political prosecution by the dictatorship because she was seen as “a communist” due to her having a cover of Violeta Parra’s legendary song “Gracias a la Vida”, even though she always referred to herself as an “apolitical” figure). It’s also worth noting that most of the chilean new wave artists were figures that aligned themselves with Pinochet’s dictatorship, either by conviction or convenience, and she was one of the few that refused, which is one of the reasons why she was removed from public eye.

When Chile’s buoyant night life disappeared under curfews and the perils of the dictatorship, Cecilia moved to perform in underground nightclubs, where she became an icon and a cult figure for other audiences: queer people and sex workers (in one of her last interviews, she said she was “the queen of the gays and the ladies of the night”).

With the return of democracy, her figure grew in stature not only among older generations, but also the newer ones, who not only saw in her a music legend, but a feminist icon and an important ally of the LGBTQIA+ community (besides her express support for queer people, there has been speculation for years regarding her sexual orientation due to the fact that she never married, never had a public romance or partner, nor did she had children; even when asked about her sexual orientation, she always kept it hidden due to wanting to have a private life -she once said that even if she was a lesbian, that’s part of her privacy and not something for the public to know-).

Well known chilean artists like Mon Laferte (with whom she recorded a duet), Anita Thijoux, Álvaro Henríquez, Los Bunkers and Javiera Mena always expressed admiration towards her figure. She also received in 2016 the presidential music award, the official award where the chilean government recognizes musicians for their contributions to chilean society.

Even now in death, thousands of people have come to her wake to say their final goodbyes to a musical legend, usually by singing along their songs. It’s a fitting tribute, after all, she stated that one of her final wishes was that, after she died, she wanted to be remembered and celebrated like a party.

Here are some of her most well known songs:

Tango de las Rosas

Puré de Papas

Baño de Mar a Medianoche

Un Compromiso

[magspag]

I saw a thing that was wondering why people would spell 'folks' as 'folx' since the orginal was already gender neutral

At the end of the 1960s and te start of the 1970s there was a lot of pornographic comic books, and they spelled it as 'comix' with an X for X-Rated because that's how the 70s were.

Once the porn had established a market for adult focused comic, there was a bunch of other underground comics in the 70s and the X at the end became a signifier of the alternative press instead of a porn thing.

Two other big things in underground media were becoming huge in the 70s. Star Trek fandom mailing lists following the end of the show with serious compilation magazines patterned after 1967's Spockanalia, and punk rock hitting with its own scene sheets distributed in record stores to keep people aware of what was going on.

In 1982, Mike Gunderloy sought to create a periodically published directory of as many of the smaller self published periodicals as he could, mostly Sci-Fi and literary stuff at first because that's what he was into and connecting all of it into what would later be known as Zine Culture.

So the X at the end crept into zine culture from the comix scene, and you saw it used to make punk plural with phrases like "punx not dead" and "American HArdcore Up The Punx" and folks got turned into folx in the late 80s and the 90s (except in Chicago where it was used to distinguish just folks in general from the Folks Nation street gang as early as 75)

Whole lot of online queer culture has connections to riot grrl and riot grrl is very much a part of Zine Culture so that's how 'folx' got its way onto social media

[dankalbumart]

Wasted...Again by Black Flag SST 1987 Hardcore Punk / Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / American Underground / Post-Hardcore

[bubblesandgutz]

Every Record I Own - Day 813: Nomeansno Mama

I'm only home from tour for a few days before heading back out on the road, but I figured I'd try to squeeze one of these out before life gets hectic again. I just finished reading Nomeansno: From Obscurity to Oblivion, so I've been on a bit of a Nomeansno bender these last few days. So it feels like a good time to dive into discussing one of my favorite bands of all time.

Nomeansno originated in Victoria, British Columbia in 1979 as a two piece comprised of brothers Rob Wright (bass, vocals) and John Wright (drums, keyboards). After recording a couple of 7"s and gigging around Victoria and Vancouver, the brothers gathered up their resources and self-released 500 copies of their debut album Mama.

It's difficult to imagine what audiences thought of Nomeansno in those initial three years. The brothers had played music from an early age, giving them a musical adroitness more on par with prog bands than punks. But it was the tail end of the '70s and they'd been exposed to The Ramones, Devo, The Residents, and, perhaps most importantly, Vancouver's hardcore legends DOA. The power and DIY spirit of those artists spoke more to the brothers than the excess and panache of arena rock. But there's little on Mama that's reminiscent of punk and/or hardcore, even if the band would later come to be affiliated with those scenes. Maybe there's a little of Gang of Four's dance-punk leanings or Minutemen's jerking and skronking rhythm section and there's certainly some of Devo's spirit in their angularities and art-rock leanings. But if you're looking for distortion, three-chord anthems, and unmitigated rage, Mama is not for you.

According to the liner notes, the pressing plant who manufactured Mama went out of business and lost track of the masters, meaning that it wasn't possible to reprint more copies after those 500 initial copies sold out. Perhaps it was for the best---by the time the band returned with their next record, 1985's You Kill Me EP, they were a markedly different beast. The master tapes for Mama would be rediscovered nearly 30 years later, yielding this repress. Far from being some sort of classic in the band's canon, Mama became more of an interesting insight into how this pair of brothers from a small and sleepy town in Western Canada managed to morph into a pummeling, heady, sardonic, bass-driven force of nature that were one of the primary movers and shakers in the pre-Nevermind groundswell of the international underground.

This is where Nomeansno began, but it might not be the best entry point for the uninitiated.

[diceriadelluntore]

Storia Di Musica #293 - The Waterboys, Fisherman's Blues, 1988

And I am the Water Boy\The real game’s not over here. Nel 1973 Lou Reed pubblica Berlin, album seminale, oscuro, profondissimo e nella canzone The Kids compare il verso che ho appena scritto. Sarà lo spirito scozzese, così abituato alla poetica e selvaggia bellezza di quella terra, ma come per la vicenda dei Deacon Blue quel verso diviene una scheggia di passione che colpisce lo spirito di un giovane ragazzo di Edimburgo, che si appassiona alla musica. La capitale scozzese è tutt’altra città rispetto a Glasgow e ha dei particolari piuttosto noti a noi, dato che è attraversata da un fiume (anzi sorge all'insenatura (firth) creata dall'estuario del fiume Forth) e si sviluppa su sette colli (Arthur’s Seat, Calton Hill, Castle Rock, Corstorphine Hill, BVarids Hill, Blackford Hill, Craiglockhart Hill). Mike Scott è un poeta e cantante di Edimburgo, che per un po’ di tempo vive a Ayr, sulla costa occidentale della Scozia. Nel 1977 fonda una fanzine, una rivista autoprodotta dedicata ai propri idoli musicali, e il titolo, Jungleland, porta subito a pensare a Springsteen, Dylan, l’astro nascente in quegli anni Patti Smith. Istrionico, fonda un gruppo, gli Another Pretty Face e una etichetta discografica, la Chicken Jazz, che subito viene acquistata dalla Virgin di Richard Branson, che vedrà in questo ragazzo del potenziale altissimo, e non sbaglierà, dato che Scott sarà personaggio dai complessi risvolti e una delle figure più interessanti del panorama musicale degli anni ’80. Dopo varie esperienze, tra cui delle serate con Lenny Kane a New York, torna in Inghilterra e decide che chiamerà il suo gruppo The Waterboys proprio in omaggio alla canzone di Lou Reed.

Eppure musicalmente ci sono delle profonde differenze rispetto a quel disco mitico: Scott è affascinato da una certa idea di folk con contaminazioni rock, già fatta da gruppi leggendari come i Fairport Convention di Richard Thompson negli anni ' 60 e ’70. Il primo nucleo dei The Waterboys era composto dal sassofonista Anthony Thistlethwaite, Norman Rodger al basso, Karl Wallinger alle tastiere, Preston Heyman alla batteria oltre a Scott che suona la chitarra, il mandolino e altri strumenti. Con questa formazione si presentano ad una famosa Peel Session nel 1983 alla BBC, dove suonano il loro primo successo, A Girl Called Johnny, brano tributo a Patti Smith che entrerà a far parte nel luglio dello stesso anno di The Waterboys: già c’è la miscela interessantissima di musica in bilico tra folk e rock, equidistante da Van Morrison e dal rock epico post new wave. Più rock è A Pagan Place, del 1984, famoso per un brano, Church Not Made With Hands. Scott è ancora alle prese con una sua definizione di musica, anzi di una “big music”, che si leghi sia alla tradizione, ma che abbia un tocco personale unico e distintivo. Si ritira ai Park Gates Studio di Hastings, celebre luogo di una battaglia, ed inizia a pensare alla sua visione della musica, che parte sempre dal misticismo caledonico di Van Morrison ma stavolta vira con decisione verse le tinte fosche dei Velvet Underground, fino alla musica minimale (Scott dichiarerà di essersi ispirato a Steve Reich). This Is The Sea (1985) seppur con brani registrati in presa diretta, è un sottile gioco di strumenti e voci sovrapposte, in una rielaborazione in chiave celtica del wall of sound spectoresco, con l’aggiunta di testi profondissimi, che affascinarono un’intera generazione di musicisti. Il risultato è splendido. Ma Scott è tipo lunatico e quando sembra sul punto di spiccare definitivamente il volo, si prende una nuova lunga pausa dove, spostandosi a Dublino, inizia a rielaborare i suoi capisaldi. Si tuffa nella musica popolare e tradizionale di Scozia e Irlanda, e con l’aiuto di nuovi innesti, centrale quello di Steve Wickham al violino, nel 1988 pubblica il capolavoro atteso, uno dei dischi più belli degli anni 80.

Fisherman’s Blues è un album folk, ma che dalla tradizione si muove con estrema eleganza verso sonorità fresche, nuove, in un connubio che solo la genialità di Scott poteva costruire. L’apertura con la title track già da sola è euforia e classe, come la lunga e ipnotica We Will Not Be Lovers, tutta giocata su un riff di violini (canzone iconica). Le onde dell’oceano, le colline verdi, i muretti di pietra a delimitare i pascoli, i colori selvaggi e accesi sono sempre lì, tra una strepitosa cover di Sweet Thing di Van Morrison (da Astral Week) e addirittura il folk politico di This Land Is Your Land di Woody Guthrie. La musica da pub irlandese esplode nella stupenda And A Bag On The Ear (che è l’equivalente irlandese per un bacio sulla guancia italiano) che parla di un amore nato sui banchi di scuola. E come non adorare il sottile andare di When Will We Be Married. Se non si è ancora sazi di colline verdi smeraldo, atmosfere con l’odore tostato di birra stout, dell’affumicato di un single malt torbato e di semi di lino da sgranocchiare, c’è il colpo di grazia: un duetto tra Scott e Tomás Mac Eoin, uno dei più famosi cantanti di Sean-nós, che è un particolare stile di canto gaelico irlandese, che recitano e cantano William Butler Yeats nella indimenticabile The Stolen Child. Scott registrò così tanto materiale che solo nel 2006 ripubblicò l’album con la sua intera idea, che comprendeva ancora cover di Dylan, traditional e altre piccole meraviglie (tipo Let Me Feel Holy Again o l’altrettanto strepitosa You In The Sky). Scott, chiamato da attese spasmodiche, ritornò con lo stesso stile musicale nel 1990 con Room To Roam, che nei piani del cantante, risponde appieno all'attuale percorso musicale, che in onore al traditional The Raggle Taggle Gypsy Scott definisce raggle taggle music. Poi, inaspettatamente, virò verso un suono quasi hard rock (Dream Harder, nome omen, del 1993). E dopo una virata così inaspettata, ecco che, nella sua migliore tradizione personale, scioglie il gruppo e si prende l’ennesima e stavolta davvero lunghissima pausa, un decennio fino al 2000 quando ritorna a scrivere insieme ad altri musicisti nuovi capitoli di una saga nata 20 anni prima. Un geniale lunatico.

[meat-wentz]

you mentioned you were indie sleaze, can you talk more about that scene from the 2000's? i want to get into the scene but don't really know where to start and i don't trust tiktok lol.

omg of course. so to preface this i wanna say that there is a natural emo to indie pipeline that existed from around 2006-2008 and i was fully a part of that pipeline. there's a lot of crossover especially as emo evolved into scene and as scene evolved into party scene into indie sleaze. musicians like shiny toy guns, dev, cobra starship, amanda blank, hyper crush, etc were all like natural transitional bands that held little emo hands as they transitioned into indie sleaze. for instance, does he look familiar? well, he's the dear boy from sugar we're going down.

indie sleaze was a mixture of nihilism and hedonism, a general mindset of nothing fucking matters let's destroy ourselves and fucking party. it was like this huge embrace of self-destruction and effacement, but also like a huge embrace for being young and saying fuck it and partying your face off. it glorified the unpolished, ripped stockings and hazy drunk eyes, hair plastered across your face with sweat, smudged makeup, looking like you've made out with everyone in your path and you probably have. it was body paint and underground hipsters and red bull chasers and ketamine bumps and perfect cocktails of pills. it was a bunch of jaded young people rejecting 9-5's and blending the party culture of raves with the rock and roll underground of sleazy clubs in nyc. there's a good documentary on this that follows some of the most notable bands in the nyc scene called "meet me in the bathroom" and it's available on showtime right now. they were the "new" club kid. there was a notable genre exchange, it was super eclectic sonically, ranging from techno and electronica to twangy bass riffs and dirty guitars to more folksy or preppy sounds (you'll see more prep aesthetics leak in particularly towards the latter half as indie sleaze evolved into millennial indie in the late 2000's and early 2010's, like vampire weekend, metronomy, two door cinema club, and chester french). aesthetically, flash photography became huge, rejecting the gloss of the mainstream. decade clashing was huge, drawing inspo from 70's vintage athletic wear, sleek 60's mod, 80's punk, vintage shopping was huge, neon and bright colors and american apparel basics, ironic t-shirts were huge, actually irony laid into the aesthetics and sound HEAVY, because irony indicated you didn't care but you were still fun.

photographers like the cobra snake super well documented the scene and all its most notable scenesters, and misshapes would throw these massive celebrity scattered parties with all the who's-who of musicians. they're two really good places to look into what and who and why and how. you might also want to look into kitsune maison compilations, urban outfitters playlists via the web archive, and ed banger records. soundtracks for shows like gossip girl, skins, and misfits were literally soooooooo influential to me as well.

perhaps the prime examples of what the scene looked like and what parties looked like:

and here are some of my personal favorite indie sleaze mvs that i feel really encapsulate sort of the aesthetics and the draw:

not an official video but literally so influential, my friends and i would pregame to this edit of babel so often its literally embedded in my bloodstream:

here's some gems you might not find in any research:

my favorite musicians at the time were mgmt, metronomy, css, crystal castles, uffie, lcd soundsystem, yeah yeah yeahs, young love, the rapture, hot chip, girls, electric six, bloc party, bright eyes, the virgins, the teenagers, peaches, friendly fires, gorillaz, the xx, franz ferdinand, neon indian and kenna. i do actually have a musical archive @sleazeandscum where i just post songs every once in awhile from the time period. i hope this helps and ty for this question lol it was literally SUCH a formative period in my life and also the beginning of my time as a blogger.

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Hed Kandi: Disco Kandi 2000 House / Garage House / Nu-Disco

Good God, what a terrific pair of discs here from the ever-consistent dance comp label Hed Kandi. With this first ever installment in their Disco Kandi series, the UK outfit supplies a steady stream of ephemeral house bangers from the late 90s and 2000, with a lot of the selections sounding contemporary, but also managing to channel an invigorating old-school disco spirit too. And many of these glitz-glammy, high-quality productions also collectively continue to progress from the sonic tradition that first started in famed New York DJ Larry Levan's Paradise Garage nightclub in the late 70s, where he nurtured a more vocally soulful and R&B-rooted house sound into the late 80s that would come to be known simply as 'garage.' And after the Paradise Garage's closure, that garage sound would find popularity at a club in New Jersey called Zanzibar too, where Tony Humphries would continue to spin it.

Now, despite a few of these tracks having somewhat remarkably high YouTube play counts, all of them were and still are definitely underground; that is, except for one. And this particular tune that I'm referring to wasn't just mainstream, but it really managed to lace the hell out of a lot of US contemporary hit radio stations back in the late 90s, even though it only ended up peaking at #52 on the Billboard Hot 100, overall. Basically, if you tuned into your local pop or more dance-oriented station on anything close to a regular basis back then, there's almost no way that you could've avoided one-off supertrio Stars on 54's cover of Gordon Lightfoot's 1970 soft folk-rock classic, "If You Could Read My Mind," which saw Amber, Jocelyn Enriquez, and Ultra Naté teaming up to record a song for the soundtrack to the disco period flick, 54. Really classic radio gold right there that a lot of people probably haven't thought about in a long while.

And then just as you're finished reminiscing on whatever fond memories you might hold that are associated with that particular song, quite possibly the most impressive track of all within this two-disc set ends up directly following it: the Matthew Roberts and Richard Fite remix of Eclipse's "Makes Me Love You." This one has a big, sun-shining pool party vibe to it, as it combines lustrous disco strings, funkily plucked guitar, a fuzzy-thick corrugated bassline, and piano keys, all while employing a lovely filter technique, which is that really popular thing that house musicians got to doing around this time period, in which certain elements sound distant and submerged, and as they continuously loop, keep sounding closer and clearer, until they satisfyingly breach the surface and hit their glorious peak. And that's maybe my favorite type of house music in the whole world 😊.

So, a really enjoyable way to spend over two and a half hours here, with a hefty dose of  super sleek house tunes, a lot of which are on a nu-disco and garage tip. And it was collected by the always seemingly on point Hed Kandi label too, which has never steered me wrong before!

Highlights:

CD1:

Cunnie Williams - "A World Celebration (Mousse T's Party Lick)" Lovestation - "Teardrops (Joey Negro 12" mix)" Bini + Martini -" Happiness (B+M's new re-edit)" Paul Johnson - "Get Get Down (Dancefloor dub)" Fire Island - "There but for the Grace of God (Joey Negro mix)" Soulsearcher - "Can't Get Enough (vocal club mix)" Stars on 54 - "If You Could Read My Mind (original club mix)" Eclipse - "Makes Me Love You (Morning Star mix)" Darryl Pandy meets Nerio's Dubwork - "Sunshine & Happiness (Nerio's Dubwork mix)" Glaubitz & Roc - "Sunshine Day (extended mix)" Jaydee vs. Bo Horne - "Spank (Exit EEE's alternative mix)"

CD2:

The Lab Rats presents The Experiment feat. Lisa Millett - "Music Is My Way of Life (Lab Rats Main Experiment)" Choo Choo Project - "Hazin' & Phazin' (Lab Rat's Funkin' With Choo Choo)" Sun Kids feat. Chance - "Rescue Me (Bini + Martini 999 Funk mix)" Phunkie Souls - "The Music (Richard F "Defected" re-edit)" Z-Factor - "Make a Move on Me (extended 12" mix)" Michael Moog - "That Sound (Full Intention mix)" Novy vs. Eniac - "Superstar (Full Intention mix)" Duke - "So in Love With You (Full Intention mix)"