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End of a shitty summer playlist
Iggy Pop & David Bowie live in Cleveland 1977 (bootleg)
Twelve song live performance from Mantra Studios. Iggy begins the show after a brief introduction of his backing band: Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Ricky Gardiner, Tony Sales and his brother Hunt Sales by saying, “YEAH alright I’m Iggy Pop and this is my band.” They then cruise through interesting versions of “TV Eye”, “Dirt”, “Turn Blue”, “Sister Midnight” and end on “China Girl”. Pretty blistering performance considering the circumstances and the performers. There’s another great show from this experiment taped at The Agora Ballroom that same year featuring the same line up (possibly slightly intoxicated) where they rearrange “1969” and “I Need Somebody” and all but destroy “Dirt” to a plodding crawl. Bowie mentioned this experiment in his biography, but he kind of glazed over it. It’s definitely worth checking out.
Crispy Ambulance – Unsightly & Serene (Factory)
Criminally underrated early 80’s UK post-punk band that experimented with all kinds of styles (albeit with mixed results) who often merged jazz/disco rhythms with jangley-guitars ala The Byrds and Three O’Clock, but delivered them with a British stoicism that is extremely bleak and sickeningly sober. Depending on your taste (and the song), they have the duel ability of being able to completely make your day or destroy your mood and reduce you to a bleak depression in minutes.
Pink Floyd – Live Rare Tracks 69-73 (bootleg)
Three disc set of intense early Floyd, available all over the web. Includes some unreleased gems like “Moonhead” and “The Labryinths of Auximenes” and a bunch of live material, mostly from the 1970 tour when they were trying to figure out what to do after amicably splitting with the now non-fuctional Syd. Some of it really works, and some of it (particularly “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast”) is a bit indulgent, even by beard rock standards. For diehard fans this is a must-have, and you’re into the 70/71 era I would also recommend the unreleased Zabriskie Point recordings. Before the director of the movie came along and demanded they re-record and re-sequence the soundtrack, Floyd had already recorded an eight song LP that began with the epic track “Heart Beat, Pig Meat” and offered early sketches of the instrumental tracks that would bookend the final released version of the record, “Country Song”, “Fingal’s Cave”, etc. Much better than the official product if you ask me. People say “Gilmour looked mad when he has to sing Syd’s songs”, well duh, they were all starting from scratch again. 1970 and 1971 for Floyd were THE crucial years of both improv performing and songwriting. Their singles they wrote after Syd departed were abysmal failures (“Point Me at the Sky” and “It Would Be So Nice”), so they HAD to develop and innovate into these new places. If you read Mark Baker’s great book, “Inside Pink Floyd”, David and Roger both discussed these years very openly and honestly. Gilmour even says, “We did soundtracks for movies as a back up plan. Just in case being a rock band didn’t work out.” You have to respect that decision even if you hate the band because sticking it out is hard work, breaking up is easy as pie. Nobody’s writing any books about Rambunctious Youth, at least not anytime soon.
Bathory – s/t LP (Black Mark Production)
Debut recording from this black metal outfit from 1984. I know I make fun of a lot of metal bands, but honestly this is one band I really love. Everything about this record is great. I love the font, the artwork, the drums, the distorted & peaked vocals, the lo-fi guitars and cheap amps. When that intro “Storms of Damnation” comes on, my muscles tense up. They tense up because deep down inside the fibers of the tissues, on a macroscopic level the cells know that “Hades”, (possibly one of the sickest black metal songs ever written) is about to start. It’s all very medical. And the entire record was written, recorded and performed by one person, Thomas Forsberg of Vällingby, Sweden. Conceived way before Garageband and iPods all these bedroom rockers stole their first Nick Drake riff, and it’s probably better for your soul and your brain than most of that junk anyway.
Cave In – Perfect Pitch Black (Hydra Head)
Probably one of my favorite band of the 1990’s, well in my top 10 of that somewhat ridiculous decade. I’ve seen Cave In live over 20 times and am well versed in the sheer awesomeness of their dynamic range. This record from 2005 occupies kind of a weird space, it was made directly after their contract with RCA expired and the endless tours in support of “Antenna” where they were obviously burned out and tired of their own material (and maybe each other), chewed up and ejected like some kind of underpaid, not-famous Radiohead. And just when it couldn’t get any more depressing and desperate for them, something really weird and unexpected happened. They went back the studio and made the most mindblowing, fuck-you-mother-fucker record ever and the songs were actually further expansions of their sound, not just rehashed metal riffs or stale indie pop. Sometimes hitting the bottom has nice side effects, like forcing you to remember why you’re there in the first place. And for the audience, forcing you to play “Juggernaut” again.
Hjertestop – Vi Ses I Helvede LP (Hjernespind)
Straight forward punk rock predicated on early hardcore and Discharge singles, but there is something kind of primal about their sound, something very European. Something maybe threatening and stupidly dangerous that is missing from our watered down version of punk. It’s hard to describe. Anyway, I remember hearing them for the first time and then getting this LP, at the time they were booking their tour and one of my roommates basically forced me to look at their Myspace profile, which had like 3 pictures, the first of which was Hjertestop standing in some basement all covered in blood.
Ritual Tension – I Live Here (Sacrifice Records)
Some days I do live here, how terrifying. Their 2nd LP from 1987, imagine being attacked by an untuned Live Skull under a shroud of paranoia and psychotic drug abuse. It’s like The Dwarves, only this band isn’t masquerading or remotely funny, take that as you will. The screams and guitars on “I’m In Trouble” and “House of Pleasure” are sublimely perfect. Essential for fans of Pain Teens and Lydia Lunch.
Suicide Commandos – The Legendary KQRS Concert (bootleg)
23 song live radio show from 1976 from this proto-punk bar band from Minneapolis. Absolutely mindblowing. Essential. Not sure why this band is so drastically different on record, they released an EP called “Emission Control” that same year, followed by a two song 7” called “Mark’s a Terror” in 1977, but neither of those capture the energy and speed of the band live.
X – Live in Chicago 1983 (bootleg)
Nineteen song set from the Park West, taped right after the release of their classic “More Fun In The New World” LP. Soundboard recording, unbelievable setlist and a giant, loud appreciative audience make this a really great find. Listen to those drums and the background vocals by John Doe, both are unstoppable. By this time, he’d discovered all new harmonies and melodies to old classics like “White Girl” and “Johnny Hit And Run Paulene”.
Sun City Girls – You’re Never Alone With a Cigarette (Abduction)
Compilation CD from 2008 that collects some odds & ends and compilation tracks from this permanently weird and seemingly never ending band. Generally speaking they are pretty subdued and muted, but in that arena they accomplish what (I imagine) every quasi-folk band wants and never achieves: an open line of communication with their audience. If you’re not familiar with SCG, this may be a good place to start. If you are familiar with them, then this should fill in any gaps left in your record collection. “Sev Archer” and “Plastic Cupids Falling From the Ceiling” both capture the band at the tail end of the 1980’s in their full, beautiful and unhinged glory.
