A Post Punk Tumblr

Pylon - Gyrate

Making good on the promise of Gyrate Plus, the 2007 reissue of Pylon’s debut album, the DFA released Chomp More last week. The band’s music occupies a nice space between the punk-funk of Gang of Four and more groove-oriented acts like ESG or Liquid Liquid.

LCD Soundsystem - Bye Bye Bayou

somethingfortheladies:

I have an unhealthy relationship with the lyrics of James Murphy. I can shamelessly recite the words and declare the impetus of each and every single LCD Soundsystem track and effectively alienate anyone who couldn’t give a shit (basically everyone). I almost wept in joy when Murphy announced that he’s working on his new record, and again when I saw that his first release since the announcement was a cover of a track by one of his biggest influences, Alan Vega of Suicide.

Big Black - Bad Penny

merlin:

Rock ‘n roll, my friends. Fucking rock ‘n roll. This is the same performance that’s on Pigpile.

I’d been pretty into punk and hardcore for 3 years when I first heard Big Black, and they still scared the living shit out of me. Great band.

I think I fucked your girlfriend once….maybe twice, I don’t remember. Then I fucked all your friends’ girlfriends—now they hate you.

Manchester (via yvynyl, mediaeater)

The Wipers - When It’s Over

Loving this Wipers song. Total guitar epic, high drama from a bunch of punks who weren’t afraid to fucking rock out. This has Rock Band written all over it. NO WAIT I’VE GOT IT: when they do the eventual Guitar Hero: Nirvana, they had better include all those bands that are known for being Kurt’s favorites: Vaselines, Wipers, Young Marble Giants, Meat Puppets, Beat Happening, Pixies, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, etc. Actually, that sounds kind of awesome.

They Might Be Giants - We Want A Rock

[Here’s a post I contributed to tuneage—SYNERGY! The song really just came to me after a stretch of forced insomnia, and in that mental state, the lines about rocks and strings just articulated something ineffable and profound to me, and I became consumed by the song and listened to it a million times. That’s all I really wanted or needed to say in the post, but you can’t do those kinds of pitches these days.]

Earlier this year, They Might Be Giant’s commercial breakthrough Flood was certified platinum, just shy of the album’s 20 year anniversary this coming January. To mark the occasion, the band has recently began doing performances of the album, and I accordingly decided it was time to revisit the album. The big hits—“Birdhouse In Your Soul”, “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”, “Particle Man”—remain charming and satisfying, as do “Whistling In The Dark”, “Twisting” (dB’s namedrop!), and “Someone Keeps Moving My Chair”. The album provides a great snapshot of the offbeat pop that would eventually evolve into something called “alternative” music.

That is all good, but it’s “We Want A Rock” that really floors me. The wonderful melody and accordion performance transform the inscrutable lyrics—“everybody wants prosthetic foreheads on their real heads”—into something with a resonating sentiment. It only took a couple plays for me to identify with the song’s people who “want a rock to wind a piece of string around”. Although the lyrics seem silly and nonsensical, the meaning of the song, according to John Linnell, is quite simple:

This sounds really abstract, but in order to begin wrapping a piece of string around itself, you need something to start with. Like a rock. I guess you can make a ball of string starting from nothing if you just make a tiny loop at the end of the string. But it seems theoretically impossible. It’s a metaphor for getting started.

Okay, I don’t think I would have thought of that metaphor after 20 years, but that’s not going to stop me from joining a rock-and-string sing-along.

Images for Xex - Group: Xex

XEX - Kitty

Minimal synth meets barbershop vocals with a helping of Tom and Jerry-worthy cartoon violence for good measure—oh the adventures of searching for “post punk” on Youtube. XEX were a minimal synth band from New Jersey who released only one album, 1980’s group:xex. (For more info, see this super extensive biography.)

I can hear strains of the American weirdoism Devo or B-52’s but musically we’re in a totally different realm. The out-of-place, out-of-time quality of the music has added to Xex’s mystique, and group:xex has appreciated accordingly—I’ve seen “classic” thrown around a few times, whatever that means for a genre like minimal synth. (And since there’s no way to buy the 2004 reissue online: Mutant Sounds.)

Felt - All the People I Like Are Those That Are Dead

desnoise:

It’s better to be lost than to be found.

Discogs: Images for Daisuck & Prostitute

Daisuck & Prostitute - Mutant Pub

Japanese no wave circa 1981—improbable or inevitable? I hope there’s a whole scene of this stuff just waiting to be assembled in a killer compilation. Kudos to the crate-diggers at Mutant Sounds for unearthing this noisy mess.

Plexifilm » Things I’ve learned from Dean Wareham part 1

Galaxie 500 - Listen, The Snow Is Falling (Yoko Ono cover)

Here’s Robert Christgau’s presciently trenchant review of 1990’s This Is Our Music:

Look, all you young white people, I know fate has dealt you a shitty hand. Rent stabilization is a joke, safe sex isn’t a joke, pollutants can really get you down, and forget the economy. Not to mention the decline of civility on our city streets. So if you just want to sit around and mope about it to each other, we understand. But if you’re looking for a helping hand, you’re going to have to reach out a little yourselves—that’s just human nature. Show some get-up-and-go, crack a few jokes, like on the first song. As my grandpa used to say: “Laugh and the world laughs with you/Weep and you weep alone.”

somesongsconsidered:

Just a heads up as a follow up to the “Punk Rock Girl” post from over the summer

Giorgio Moroder - Chase (via musichistory)