Shop our Big Takeover store for back issues, t-shirts & CDs
Follow The Big Takeover
A more experimental Lp than their previous one (2005’s Fall Heads Roll), this one features a completely different band from the one who that’s played with MARK E. SMITH for most of this decade until last year’s infamous bust-up/tour abandonment with the exception of Smith’s wife, keyboaridst ELENA POULOU . Poulou even gets to sing “The Wright Stuff”, a song that reminds me a lot of “Hotel Bleidel”, a song on the 1983 masterpiece Perverted by Language which was sung by Smith’s then-wife BRIX SMITH . That’s not the only change, however. The new band members (most of whom were recruited from the Los Angeles band DARKER MY LOVE ) contribute an almost ethereal element to some of the material that really suits it well. The standouts are “Reformation,” “Fall Sound,” “My Door is Never” and “Systematic Abuse”, which like “Reformation” has been a live staple for about a year now. Not all of it is on the mark, however. The 10-minute plus “Das Boat” is simply tedious and almost torturous to get through more than once and fans will be skipping this one much like “Revolution #9” or “Less than You Think” from WILCO ’s last album. In between, though, are more interesting and successful experiments like “Insult Song” (which seems self-referential and celebrate Smith’s new band members despite the title) and a cover of MERLE HAGGARD’s “White Line Fever” which is reminscent of the cover of “F’Oldin Money” on The Marshall Suite. Overall, after only a few listens I don’t know where this record will fit in with the rest of The Fall’s incredible back catalog, but I am enjoying it thus far despite my inclination that it would’ve been better had they waited to write more good material.
One of the leading lights in DC’s incredible late ‘80s/early ‘90s post-hardcore/emo scene, Swiz are yet another band (like IGNITION, SOULSIDE, GRAY MATTER and others) who made some of the best records I’ve ever heard, but never really got their due. This essential CD collects all of their recorded material (including 3 7” EPs, a 12” EP and their sole Lp, 1989’s Hell Yes, I Cheated) and since the vinyl is long out-of-print, this is really the easiest way to hear Swiz in this day and age. Highly recommended, especially if you want to explore the roots of emo before it was just a code word for diluted mall-punk.
I picked up this reissue last weekend and boy was it worth it, even with the $18.99 price tag. Not only does it contain a newly remastered version of the best Comsat Angels album (and one of the finest debut albums of the early ‘80s), but there are more bonus tracks than on the 1995 reissue (which was long out-of-print and fetching high prices on ebay and what not). The remastering, like with Renascent’s reissues of THE SOUND catalog, is done really well. My only complaint is that the great version of “Ju Ju Money” that appeared as a bonus track on the 1995 reissue isn’t on this CD for whatever reason, but I’m hoping that they put it on the Sleep No More reissue instead. With that said, I think I’ll be buying that one soon as well as their recent reissue of Fiction.
A great $3.99 pickup from Other Music last weekend, this is the classic debut album from The Misfits, which was never officially released until 1997. Bits and pieces of it, however, were released on compilations like Legacy of Brutality which were long available before this album’s eventual release almost two decades after it was made. “Hybrid Moments” is my favorite song on here, but just about all of it is terrific.
Another fine Lp (that’s 4 in a row now) from Edinburgh’s finest, this is also their 1st on new label Sanctuary. This one is a deliberate step back from the more mellow and subtle tones found on 2005’s Warnings Promises and on singer RODDY WOOMBLE’s folk-influenced solo album from last year My Secret is My Silence. While not a return to their thrashiness of their debut Hope is Important or their high-water mark (2000’s 100 Broken Windows), it does remind me quite a lot of 2002’s The Remote Part except with fewer slower to mid-tempo songs. In fact, it’s as if every song had the tempo of songs from that record like “Out of Routine” or the raucous “A Modern Way of Letting Go”. I’m not sure if the material is strong enough to warrant comparison to that underrated record, but so far I’m really enjoying it.
This is one of my favorite records of the last 5 years. Since listening to her recently released live album from the Austin City Limits show, I’ve revisited this one, as I do every few months or so. It’s simply a stunner. I have no idea why her newest studio album Fox Confessor Brings the Flood is considered better. Sure this is a bit more ramshackle, but songs like “Deep Red Bells, “Pretty Girls”, her astonishing covers of “Running Out of Fools” and “Look for Me (I’ll Be Around)” and especially “I Wish I Was the Moon” just devastate the heart with their stunning power, melody, simplicity and beauty. However, this album is still best listened to in its entirety. Furthermore, this album is notable because it marks the beginning of Case’s journey away from the country leanings of her 1st 2 albums and into something more unique, which is her own combination of indie-rock, soul and country, highlighted by her remarkable voice.
Of Husker Du’s 2 1985 albums, New Day Rising is generally higher regarded than this one. I’ve always preferred this one, however. Side 1 is simply flawless. BOB MOULD and GRANT HART trade off stunner after stunner, with the absolute peaks coming with Hart’s “Green Eyes” and Mould’s side-closing “Games”. This music is so powerful that it almost makes tears come to my eyes, but I suppose that’s partly because records that really hit you at 17 (like this one did for me) stay with you for life. Anyway, side 2 is more of a mixed bag, with experiments like “The Baby Song” and 2 closing instrumentals, but “Flexible Flyer” and “Private Plane” maintain the catchiness of the 1st side (if not the overall quality) and side opener “Find Me” is the true highlight. Overall, though, the disparity between the two sides showed both Husker Du’s absolute peak as well as the fact that they were slowly but surely running out of steam.
Back in the pre-internet days when I was in high school, I used to trade tapes with people all over the world. One of the many records I heard via this medium was this West German peace punk band’s 1983 album Make the Future Mine and Yours, though I’d never heard any of their other records after that. Lo and behold more than 15 years later, I see a blog post with someone offering a cd-r of this long out-of-print album, so I jump on the offer. I finally received this in the mail today after weeks of waiting and boy is it great. It’s fast, thrashy, early ‘80s punk but fortunately the melody and catchiness isn’t sacrificed, though it’s still righteous and furious stuff. With song titles like “Government Wins,” “Yellow Press” and “Bombs of Peace”, you pretty much know what you’re getting, but that doesn’t stop it from being a lot of fun to listen to if you’re into this sort of thing as the music has held up remarkably well over the years.
Before GIRLS AGAINST BOYS, 3 of its members played in this excellent DC post-hardcore outfit between 1986 and 1990. They released 3 Lps and a 7” single and everything they released aside from their 1st Lp Less Deep Inside Keeps (which was reissued by Dischord in the early part of this decade after being out of print for many years) is on this excellent CD. I’m a huge fan of this band and this particular period of DC punk rock, so I can’t recommend this CD enough.
The Y Rock radio show on WXPN
Since its debut last August, this great radio show has thrilled both me and my girlfriend on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights. Like a Philadelphia version of KEXP that we can actually listen to without streaming it on the net, the playlist is just astonishing. For example, within an hour I heard TALKING HEADS’ “Born Under Punches”, THE CURE’s “Close to Me”, SONIC YOUTH’s “Sugar Kane”, TV ON THE RADIO’s “Wolf Like Me” and the new BLOC PARTY and SHINS singles. DJ JIM MCGUINN has had bands like VIVA VOCE play live on the air as well.
While that playlist may seem pedestrian to some of you, the fact that it’s being played on terrestrial radio and that I can turn on the radio and actually enjoy what I’m listening to is the astonishing part. For a format (terrestrial radio) that I’ve long viewed as dead and irrelevant, listening to this show makes me remember the days when I’d listen to stations like WHTG (106.3 in Eatontown, NJ) in high school, before it started going downhill in the mid ‘90s.
