This was my first time seeing IAN MACKAYE in a live setting since I saw both nights of a 2-night stand that the now “on hiatus” FUGAZI played back in 1993. This show reminded me of just how intense and moving MacKaye often is, even when sitting down and strumming an acoustic guitar while only being accompanied by the drumming and vocal harmonies (and occasional lead) of AMY FARINA.
A far better record than their debut (when they were just known as THE ORIGINAL SINNERS), this is actually a completely different band from the one that played on the first album. Don’t get me wrong. I like their first record as well, as this band is by far the best thing Exene has done musically since X’s uneven but occasionally brilliant 1987 album See How We Are (and I’m counting X’s 1993 effort Hey Zeus!, her various solo albums and her short-lived AUNTIE CHRIST project as well). However, the show I saw on the tour for their first record was uneven at best, with the band playing the songs too fast. Little did I know that the lineup was about to break up (which explains the sloppiness of the show I saw) and that Exene and her husband, guitarist JASON EDGE, would recruit a new rhythm section and put out this corker of a record a few years later. Highlighted by the excellent “Born Yesterday” and a cover of the GUN CLUB classic “Ghost on the Highway”, this is also the closest that Exene has come to sounding like 1980-1983 X on a studio record since, well, 1983. Her and Edge’s harmonies recall those of her one-of-a-kind harmonies with JOHN DOE and mixing their punk with rockabilly and country proves a shrewd move, as this record further separates them from modern, generic Cali punk. While of course the original lineup of X still plays shows occasionally (if you get a chance to see them, don’t miss them as they’re still incredible live), it’s good to know that Exene is still capable of new material this strong and enjoyable.
I know very little about the origin of this release as the insert tells very little about the musicians involved, but when I saw what it was (a Latin-flavored KRAFTWERK covers album), my interest was piqued. It’s easy to classify something like this as a novelty record purely because of its content, but it’s a fabulous listen on its own regardless of its source material. With that said, it’s humorous to hear these Kraftwerk classics (ice cold and clinical in their original versions) recast as salsa and merengue numbers. What’s most surprising, though, is how much it fits together and how much it works.
When I was driving through central New Jersey late at night en route to my parents house at this time last year, I heard this CD played on WPRB (Princeton University’s college radio station) and I was completely enraptured. As the title indicates, it’s a recording of this great German band’s performance in the Swiss capital. Only one piece (“Ein Wordiger Abschlus”) is performed and it takes up the entirety of this disc (about 54 minutes). While that may scare some off, this is truly mind-bending stuff for those of who like that sort of thing. There are parallels to some of BRIAN ENO’s ambient pieces as well as other German artists of the time like CAN and NEU! because of the repetitive nature of the music and its use of space, but on the other hand this is a totally different beast. The piece starts off quietly, then builds up over the course of time, culminating in a vicious rave-up before fading out again. The best modern parallel I can come up with in terms of its structure (though definitely not its sound) is the recently released 45-minute, iTunes only LCD SOUNDSYSTEM track that Nike commissioned. Again, if you’ve never heard this and you’re into this sort of thing, it’ll blow your mind.
I don’t remember if this came out last year or this year, but if it’s this year then it’s a candidate for reissue of the year! This is a 25-track retrospective of this great and underrated DC punk band. In the liner notes, Big Takeover favorite JOHN STABB compares them to THE HEARTBREAKERS (the JOHNNY THUNDERS version, not TOM PETTY’s band, obviously) and I can’t say I disagree except that they were louder, faster and more in line with the hardcore punk of their contemporaries without ever really crossing over into that category. The first 11 tracks here, all recorded between 1980 and 1983, are by far the standouts here, as some of the later material is a bit too hard-rock influenced for my taste and lacks the power and energy of the earlier material. Regardless, all of it is worthy of listening (though it’s a bit bitter in shorter bursts than all at once) and the first half of it make it absolutely essential.
One of the year’s best records, it’s also as consistently strong a record as they’ve ever made. Their record of excellence is unparalleled, as they’ve produced five excellent albums in a row under the Pernice Brothers moniker. One day, people will speak of Joe Pernice in the same hushed tones that they mention more famous and popular singer-songwriters like his (and my) hero ELVIS COSTELLO in.
When I first heard this album, I was a bit disappointed in it because the production (courtesy of former PULP member STEVEN MACKEY) is a bit slicker than their earlier singles and also because I’d already heard about half its songs, which were released in different versions on previous singles. Further listening makes these points moot, as Mackey’s production (particularly on the excellent “Giddy Stratospheres”) lifts The Long Blondes out of the garage and into the same glam/post-punk/disco territory that ROXY MUSIC, Pulp (fittingly) and more recently FRANZ FERDINAND have all occupied. As a whole, it really works and the newer songs (particularly the closer “A Knife for the Girls”) are excellent as well.
The second album by the duo of IAN MACKAYE and AMY FARINA is a folk-punk protest album that addresses the Bush administration as well as other social issues such as gentrification that are of particular concern to the band’s Washington, DC home base.
Not only is JOE PERNICE a great songwriter, but he’s a terrific author as well. Part of the 33 1/3 series where an author examines an individual album (in this case THE SMITHS’ excellent second album), this volume is a more personal nature, much like COLIN MELOY’s similarly affecting take on THE REPLACEMENTS’ Let It Be. Instead of a critique of the album, Pernice tells of the travails of his Catholic high school and how Meat is Murder, along with other albums like THE JAM’s All Mod Cons, served as his escape from what was going on around him. He claims that it’s a work of fiction, but it has such a strong autobiographical feel that I have a hard time believing him. Nevertheless, if The Smiths helped you survive high school, this is a highly engaging read.
