If I had to list my favorite genre’s of music, I guess my top three would be punk, post punk, and new wave. Looking back, I honestly don’t post near enough post-punk. Or maybe I do. Sometimes it can be hard to distinguish between post-punk and new wave. I guess it’s a little like that famous definition of what constitutes porn…I can’t tell you what it is, but I know it when I see it. By the same token, I can’t really explain the difference between post-punk and new wave, but I know it when I hear it! For the most part. See what I mean? Add to the fact that a lot of bands that called themselves post-punk actually turned out to be new wave bands, and it gets even more blurry. Still, I think today’s list is a pretty good collection of post-punk, and shows the range of that genre. All that, and not a single Joy Division song!
So a few of my favorite bands are here, including Bow Wow Wow. I know…99% of the world thinks they were a one hit wonder, and that I Want Candy was all they ever really did. To be sure, I Want Candy is a decent song, but it’s not even their best song! I really love Go Wild In The Country, and the playfulness of it. Probably for the same reason I really love some of The Cure’s stuff, like Why Can’t I Be You, or Love Song.
And yes, before there was Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, there was The Birthday Party. The Birthday Party was a band I discovered late, mainly because once I discovered and started listening to the Bad Seeds, I never really bothered to look further. So imagine my surprise the first time I heard a Birthday Party album. WHOA! Talk about dark…it make midnight look like a sunny day! But you know, I really loved it, and eventually started to listen to it as much as the Seeds. Nick Cave is to post-punk like Richard Hell is to punk. A pure legend.
The best of the rest is Adam and the Ants Zerox. If you thought you knew what Adam Ants sounded like, be prepared to be pleasantly surprised. In the 70’s, Adam and the Ants had a sound that was as far away from the 80’s Adam Ant that you could get. Zerox is flat out a great tune. The Alternative TV tune Action Time Vision is another one of my favs. Alternative TV is just one on many bands that never really got the attention they deserved. Finally, the Chrome tune will really get your motor running!
Me? Well, I made it Pittsburgh just fine. Then I drove an hour west to a town called Vandergrift. Seriously, I thought I was gonna see Robert DeNiro and Christopher Walken come strolling down the street. I seriously thought I walked right onto the set of The Deer Hunter. Crazy, huh? And if your too young to have seen the Deer Hunter, you seriously need to go grab that movie and see it. It will blow your mind! And plus, then you can see where I’m hanging out this week! Enjoy!
- ABC - Be Near Me
- Adam and the Ants - Zerox
- Altered Images - Happy Birthday
- Alternative TV - Action Time Vision
- Bauhaus - The Passion Of Lovers
- Bow Wow Wow - Go Wild in The Country
- Cabaret Voltaire - Dead Man’s Shoes
- Chrome - Return To Zanzibar
- Clock DVA - 4 Hours
- The Associates - Party Fears Two
- The Au Pairs - Come Again
- The B-52’s - Legal Tender
- The Birthday Party - Jennifer’s Veil
- The Blue Orchids - The House That Faded Out
- The Cure - Why Can’t I Be You
7 responses so far ↓
1 The Fourth Bardo // Feb 26, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Have you read a book called ‘Rip It Up’ by Simon Reynolds? Without doubt the best book on post-punk, and what happened immediately after-going up to a 1984 break-off point. Essential reading for anyone remotely interested in that era,with Reynolds claiming it matched the mid/late sixties for innovation and ideas. And you know what? He’s right.
2 Infonistacrat // Feb 26, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Rip It Up And Start Again! It’s kind of my Bible, actually. If you take a peak at Simon Renyolds website, you can find some excellent extract from his book. Your spot on, it is THE authority on the whole post-punk movement. And yeah, it not only matched the 60’s, it exceeded. In my mind, the 60’s stuff was just the logical off shoot of blues based rock. Post punk was a whole new kind of music, and 30’s years later, the music from 77 to 84 is still influencing rock in a major way. Great call on the book, thanks!
3 Jim // Feb 27, 2008 at 12:41 am
Boy, that hits the nail on the head. Post-punk was the musical equivalent of post-modernism. The bands I (still) love now were doing something totally new.
What’s weird now is to see college students where I work listening to bands that sound like old U2, Joy Division, New Order, Cure, etc. But when they hear the originals, they’re just killed by how much better they sound. With a few exceptions.
Well yeah. They weren’t trying to “sound like” someone else. That was the whole point, wasn’t it?
The nice thing is the newest wave of bands are reaching to where they could do something new — if the majors “allow” it.
4 Infonistacrat // Feb 27, 2008 at 8:21 am
Jim, your right about younger music fans embracing bands that sound like the bands we all love from the 70’s and 80’s. A perfect example is Interpol, a pretty good band who I really enjoy listening to, and a band a lot of younger listeners are huge fans of. Interpol, especially on their Turn On The Bright Lights album, sounds an awful lot like Joy Division. And it works, because Joy Division was fresh in the 70’s, and sound just as fresh when you listen to it 30 years later. Interpol takes that great sound, and adds their spin to it, and does a pretty nice job of it.
5 Infonistacrat // Feb 27, 2008 at 8:25 am
BUT, the majors will kill mainstream music by insisting on pushing garbage out at us, like Janet Jackson. How many damn times can that tired old mid-80’s sound be retreaded? Whats next, a new Micheal Jackson album being hyped to the max on MTV? Mainstream music is in a shambles. It reminds me a LOT of 1990, just before the Seattle scene broke huge. Tired 80’s pop dominated, with empty sounding generic hair metal bands. That was broken wide open by Dave Grohl shouting Alxe Rose’s name over and over after Nirvana gave a once in a generation performance at the MTV awards in the early 90’s.
6 Jim // Feb 27, 2008 at 10:02 pm
That’s why I’m getting excited about music. It reminds me of that period too. That was some excellent music for a couple of years…
7 Infonistacrat // Feb 27, 2008 at 10:32 pm
I hope we’re both right! Imagine a burst of great music like the early 90’s. Yeah, I could handle that. I need to go say my prayers that somewhere, the next Cobain is writing the song that will blow the lid off this sucker.
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