The Music Blog of the Infonistacrat!

First, my apologies for a bit of an outage yesterday. Seems some wanker did something that screwed the database on our server, and the whole server needed to be rebooted. So for about 45 minutes, the whole site was unavailable.

Today I’m starting with Bonnie Prince Bille, an indie rock artist who has a rather interesting sound. Kind of raspy and tired, and filled with a lifetime of pain, the dude can really bring it home. The first song, Cursed Sleep, is his best known. The other two are collaborations with Tortoise, and some might say fall into the wall of sound genre. The cover of the Elton John song Daniel, though, might be the best song I have heard in ages…slow, gritty and powerful, and the way the song should have been done.

I know some people think of Minutemen as punk, or even hardcore punk, but I tend to see them as more of a post-punk band in the Fugazi vein. Thats not to take anything away from these guys…they are flat out great and know how to drive it home, trust me! Give a listen to History Lesson II, and you’ll see what I mean. Great song, well done, and very literate, but definitely a punk song.

Mission Of Burma is another post-punk that roared out of Boston in the early 80’s, and became a mainstay on American college radio, and an underground favorite. Someday, I have to do a post about the 80’s Boston scene, but for now, there is Mission of Burma. Academy Fight Song is a classic song, pretty typical post-punk stuff really. Lots of punk elements, but filled with just enough garage rock and new wave to punt it squarely into the post-punk genre. Same with Nicotine Bomb and Wounded World. I can just see Black Francis and Joey Santiago sitting in a dorm room in Boston in the mid-80’s listening to these guys, and the Pixies being born. Mission Of Burma is a band that has to be on any music lovers playlist.

The Breeders are, I guess, a supergroup at its core. Kim Deal from the Pixies, along with her twin sister Kelly and Tanya Donelly from Throwing Muses resurrected Kim’s old band, and added Josephine Wiggs of Perfect Disaster as bassist. I still remember the first time I heard Cannonball. It was just different enough from the Pixies to stand on it’s own, and really was a classic from the early 90’s alternative scene. The irony of it all is that The Breeders had more commercial success than the Pixies…in fact, most casual Breeders fans probably never knew Kim was in the Pixies!

I save the best for last! The Jam, largely unknown in America except to those of us who live and breath punk rock, were, next to the Sex Pistols and the Clash, the best punk band to come out of the punk77 movement. True to the punk ethos, they refused to compromise and adjust just to have a hit in America, instead becoming wildly huge in the UK. Our loss for sure, because Art School is one of the finest punk songs you will ever hear, and this band is so powerful and straight up. If you’ve never heard them before, your in for a treat. If you have, welcome home brother and sisters, welcome home.

1. Bonnie Prince Billy - Cursed Sleep
2. Bonnie Prince Bille - Daniel
3. Bonnie Prince Billy - It’s Expected I’m Gone
4. Minutemen - Political Song For Micheal Jackson To Sing
5. Minutemen - History Lesson Part II
6. Minutemen - Shit From An Old Notebook
7. Mission Of Burma - Academy Fight Song
8. Mission Of Burma - Nicotine Bomb
9. Mission Of Burma - Wounded World
10. The Breeders - Cannonball
11. The Breeders - I Just Wanna Get Along
12. The Breeders - Divine Hammer
13. The Jam - Art School
14. The Jam - Aunties And Uncles
15. The Jam - In The City