Suicide are a band hailing from New York and consists of Alan Vega and Martin Rev. While not achieving much critical acclaim in the late 70’s and early 80’s, their stock has risen significantly these past few years and they no longer remain within the depths of the underground scene. You can read more about the band here.

Suicide were first brought to my attention after seeing a Bruce Springsteen acoustic show here in Dublin a few years ago in The Point. I think it was when he was on tour promoting the Devil’s and Dust album and it was the first time I had seen him sans the E street band. Anyway the reason I’m telling you this is because Bruce closed the show with a brilliant rendition of another Suicide song called Dream Baby Dream. A fan in the audience kindly pointed out to me that it was a cover of these guys and that is how I got listening to Suicide – Better late than never as they say…

The song Frankie Teardrop is taken from their first studio album, incidentally also called Suicide and is the 6th song on that album. Coming in over 10 minutes long, the song is a lot longer that what I would normally listen too but believe me it’s worth it. The song deals with a young man’s struggle to survive in a bleak world and support his wife and kid. In the end it all got too much for him and he kills his 6 month old baby and his wife before finally pulling the gun on himself.

If the above sounds disturbing and distressing to you then wait until you hear the song ! it’s the most agonising and tormented ten minute song you will ever hear. Frankly if your not prepared for it or if your alone listening to the song for the first time, it will scare the bejaysus out of you – no joke. To give you an idea of the song and how minimalist the lyrics (and the music for that matter)  is, check out the lyrics below

Pointed at the six month old in the crib
Oh Frankie
(scream)
Frankie looked at his wifeShot her
(screams)
“Oh what have I done?”
Let’s hear it for FrankieFrankie teardrop
Frankie put the gun to his head
(screams)
Frankie’s dead

What’s great about the entire album is that it was released around the time in New York and also the UK when punk was the big time in music. This album is nothing like a punk album, even the length of this song will tell you that and must have, in some way, led to the whole synthesizer explosion in popular music that occurred in the 80’s maybe not as much as kraftwerk has but it must have had some influence. I mentioned earlier that Bruce Springsteen often plays one of their songs live (song is not on this album) so he’s obviously a fan, I wonder if the song state trooper and a character called Frankie in that song has its origins in this song? Here is a video of the song

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Johnny Rotten/John Lydon is a bit of a tool, really. Isn’t he? I mean, look at this interview with Tom Snyder, and this nasty little PR junket. While he might have had a bad experience with the Sex Pistols, he’s since shown a bad habit of firing his band while at a creative peak. That said, he did have Malcolm MacLaren for a mentor. Must have been hard.

But I digress. He’s made some brilliant music, from ‘Anarchy in the UK’ and ‘No Feelings’ with the Sex Pistols, and also with Public Image Limited (known as PiL). In fact, PiL are criminally underrated, when in my opinion they put out some of the best music in the post-punk years, up there with Joy Division, Gang of Four, The Jam and whoever else.

While their first album exorcised the demon of the Pistols, via the excellent ‘Public Image’ single, second album Metal Box is an altogether darker and weirder affair. Whatever drugs these people were on at the time (large quantities of speed, LSD and heroin by all accounts), this album is brilliant. And ‘Careering’ is a definite highlight on this album.

Over a steady drumbeat and Jah Wobble’s how-can-that-go-so-low bassline, Lydon intones a tale of tragedy and ugly ambition, most likely set against the background of the Troubles in Northern Ireland:

A face is raining
Across the border
The pride of history
The same as murder

Keith Levene, one of my favourite guitar players (and a huge influence on The Edge), cuts across the rhythm section with his guitar and synth, veering from echoey guitar chops to drilling, headache-inducing noise. Over a sparse rhythm, Levene adds space like a painter works on a canvas, and creates an unique soundscape here.

Here’s a great performance of the song on The Old Grey Whistle Test: John Lydon, bulge-eyed and vigilant, fronts the only post-punk supergroup.

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Social Distortion are long running west coast rock/punk band from the west coast of America.  I initially found out about them by reading music articles about other bands who would throw in the name Mike Ness while being interviewed. It came to the stage where I had seen the name so often that I inquired about who the guy was from friends until I was informed that he was the guitarist / lead singer for a band called Social Distortion. 

About a year ago I then got my hands an album of theirs and today’s song is taken from that fourth studio album of theirs called Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell. I haven’t yet had the chance to check out any of their other albums so I can’t qualify what type of they are but from listening to the above mentioned album I just think that they are a high tempo, old fashioned rock and roll type of band although I have seen them being described as punk (I can hear some of that on the album), hardcore punk, rockability (what does that mean?) etc, I hope to get my hands on other albums of theirs soon and find out.

I don’t think this song on the album is any better or worse than any of the other songs on the album but for some reason this song just stuck in my head more than any of the others. I think the reason for this is the lyrics in which he talks about coming to the realisation that the girl he’s seeing is no good for him. Below are the lyrics to the first verse:

‘I believe I was wrong but baby know I know.
You and your evil ways gotta go.
Take the key and break away these chains of love,
And I’ll thank the good Lord above.
The radio’s playin’ a sad song…
Bye Bye Baby yeah yeah X2′

In all honesty I just like the way Ness sings Bye Bye Baby repeatedly over some thumping guitar work. Check out a video of the song , it would be a good choice of song to get a party going…

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Having seen Control there for a second time, I’ve come to the conclusion that Joy Division are possibly the best English band of them all. Certainly, they’re a huge influence on all those bands like Franz Ferdinand, The Editors, and…spleh, I can’t remember any others, but there’s loads. Any band that uses metronomic drumming, angular guitar riffs and a singer who peddles in a vague sense of impending doom – they’ve followed the Joy Division path.

Anyway…Joy Division only had two albums and a few singles before Ian Curtis departed this life of his own hand. ‘Transmission’ is one of those singles, and it’s always been one of my favourite JD tunes. It’s not on either album (not sure why that is, but The Jam and The Beatles had non-album singles too), so you’ve got to hunt it down on a best of. It’s well worth it.

A ghostly burr opens up proceedings, before the bass gets stuck into the riff. When the drums come in, spacey and echo-y yet precise, there’s an almost military march feel. The guitar riff is one of the first bits of guitar-jiggery that I learned, way back in the mid-‘90’s. Curtis’ voice is, as ever, perfect. “Dance, dance, dance, dance to the radio”. Indeed. Here’s a great video (with a quick John Cooper Clarke poem beforehand) one of the few I’ve seen of Joy Division, performing ‘Transmission’ on a TV show. If you like it, check out their two albums, Unknown Pleasures and Closer. Word of warning: don’t listen to the last few songs of Closer if you’ve been drinking gin. Apart from that, knock yourself out.

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Well What can one say about the legendary band Sonic Youth
that hasn’t be said already? Going for more than twenty five
years, they are one of the longest running independant
bands ever. Another husband and wife team in the same vein
as other long running indie bands from the US including
Yo La Tengo and Dead Moon et al.

Drunken Butterfly was the fourth single from the album
Dirty which was released in 1992 and the first album to
be released for the DGC label. It’s mad to think that Sonic
Youth were going for well over a decade at this stage.

From the very start, the song is packed with heavy,
distorted and feedback laden guitar work that both Thurston
Moore and Lee Ranaldo are famed for and have at this stage
made an art form out of.  Kim Gordan takes  care of the lead
vocals on this and the main reason I like this song (apart
from the guitar playing) is the way Kim belts out the lines

‘I love you, I love you, I love you, what’s your name?
I love you, I love you, I love you, what’s your name?’

Outside of these lyrics, I really don’t know what the song is
all about but taken them lines into account and the word
Drunken in the title I am always reminded of nights out on
town in the golden days (and maybe nowadays too )
chatting up girls, trying your best to get off with them.  Liquor
was never very far away from the scene of the crime.  Check
out a live video of the song from New York.

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I always liked ‘Psycho Killer’ and ‘Once In A Lifetime’, probably Talking Head’s signature tunes. Being into Bowie, and especially his “Berlin trilogy”, I was bound to check out Brian Eno. While I can take or leave Eno, his production touches on Talking Heads’ Remain In Light album is something else. I was going to write about the album opener, ‘Born Under Punches’, but my brother recently got me into ‘The Great Curve’, which is even more danceable.

Remain In Light has been called a “white funk” or a “minimalist funk” album, and a lot of it was very out of step with what the new wave and post-punk groups were doing in 1980. Wikipedia refers to “funky African polyrhythms”, which to me is an extremely pretentious way of describing it. Either way, it’s a very dance-friendly album, but in a very arty, self-conscious way.

This affected, ironic knowingness is abetted by David Byrne’s lyrics, which throughout the album conjure up images of distance, ill communication, powerlessness in the face of grand schemes, systems out of sync…in short, a world that isn’t working quite right, with ghosts in the machine.

‘The Great Curve’ is a great example of Byrne’s worldview circa 1980:

“The world is here but it’s out of reach
Some people touch it…but they can’t hold on”

Behind lyrics that describe one woman’s effect on this esoteric world – the gyration of her hips causes it to spin on its orbit – is some of the best late-70s/early-80s music you’ll ever hear. With lots of “mickey guitar” (def: very low-slung, with chords played at the higher end of the register, in a very funky way), a propelling tribal drumbeat, and lots of shouting and harmonising.

Yes, another one of those tracks that are better heard than read about. Here’s the studio verion on YouTube and here’s a blistering live version from 1980, also on YouTube. If you like it, check out the Remain In Light album – a really good listen.

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Possibly a strange song choice given the rant that’s about to ensue: it’s hard to support the Irish football team. Good Lord, when did a 1-0 home win against Cyprus (win percentage of 12.3% in all competitive fixtures, never qualified for a major tournament) constitute a good result? Playing two holding midfielders, especially as inexperienced as Gibson and Whelan, is ridiculous when you come up against a side like Cyprus. If 1-0 at home against them is a good result, what’s a good result away against Italy or Bulgaria? </rant>

Anyway, ‘The Queen Is Dead’ is my choice of song for today. I think The Smiths are only alright really, but they’ve got some good songs and this is up there with the best. The song begins with an homesick World War I-era English woman counting off the traditional favourite ‘Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty’ (I’m sure most of the Irish squad sang it after the game last night), before the drums and Johnny Marr’s always excellent guitar chime in. Morrissey’s first lines are among his very best lyrics:

“Farewell to the land’s cheerless marshes,
Hemmed in like a boar between archers,
Her very Lowness with a head in a sling,
I’m truly sorry but it sounds like a wonderful thing”

While the song denounces the Queen of England and all that she (being Irish, I don’t feel compelled to capitalise the “s” in “she”) represents, the archaic language and symbolism of the boar between arches contradicts Morrissey’s progressive leanings. This makes the song, to my mind, much deeper than the Sex Pistols brilliant ‘God Save The Queen’. Morrissey also questions his place in the scheme of things, almost echoing the decrepid old Tory MP who backs up the royal line:

“Oh has the world changed, or have I changed?
some nine year old tough who peddles drugs
I swear to God, I swear I never even knew what drugs were”

Morrissey always was a great lyrics-writer, but my problem with a lot of The Smiths stuff was the dated ’80s style – much of it was just a cut above crap like Bronski Beat. But Marr’s guitar work on this is amazing, a mix of glam rock (robbing Bowie to pay Suede) and Led Zeppelin-type posturing. It’s hard to decide whether the lyrics or guitar are the best part of this, but you can’t deny that both are top-class.

Here’s a video for the song made by Derek Jarman, a famous British artist of the ’80s. And here’s a live version of the song from Nottingham, which comes across as a hell of a lot punkier. Enjoy, and apologies for the rant on the Irish football team, but I was definitely more measured than Dunphy (epic rant by the man himself on a different subject) was on RTE last night.

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With John Lennon barely cold in the grave, this single was released in 1981 by his oft-ridiculed concubine Yoko Ono. Dismissed by many as a cash-in by a lot of people who don’t know their music, this song actually stands up very strongly.

A distant relative to Joy Division and Gang of Four’s mechanised post-punk, and not dissimilar to Bowie’s Scary Monsters… album, this song was also a big influence on current bands such as The Rapture, !!!, LCD Soundsystem, and a host of other “new new wave” (or whatever it’s called, all those bands that sound like Television) groups.

The bass line is snaky, one of the best bass lines I’ve heard in a while. The percussion sounds like drumsticks being slapped together, while the familiar post-punk guitar slashes and chugs are buried deep in the mix. I was stunned to read that it was John Lennon playing guitar on this – it sounds unlike anything he had done before. Surprisingly new wave and dancy, Lennon was apparently very excited about it during the final few recording sessions (he was clutching a copy of the mix when he was shot). 

Ono’s lyrics deal with how life is down to chance to a great extent, and how “the throw of the dice” can decide one’s fate. Lennon’s murder of course rendered these lyrics extremely poignant. The disillusionment of these lyrics is obscured (or rendered more pointed, depending on how closely you’re listening) by the danceability of the track- I’d say this was a club favourite back in the day.

Listen to the song here on YouTube, and marvel yet again at the comments underneath by ignorant people. Most of the comments are about how ugly she was, and others bemoan the fact that Lennon’s dead. Although one poster is slightly more charitable: “I saw worster [sic] women”.

Ah, YouTube.

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I find it hard to know whether I really like the New York Dolls or not as I roll back and forth on the topic. To me The Ramones eptiomised the New York rock scene at that time even though the Dolls are more glam rock than punk rock. They recently reformed again and I got to see them perform on the Jonathan Ross show and to be honest I really didn’t think much of their performance.

I’ve only ever really loved three songs of theirs and to an avid fan of the band they are probably the most obvious songs – Looking for a Kiss and Personality crisis both from their first album New York Dolls while the third song is Chatterbox from their second album Too Much Too Soon. I can’t honestly say why but i think my interpretation of the lyrics of these songs had more a resonance with me than other songs which brings me onto today’s song which I take as the band comparing being in the limelight to having a Personality Crisis as you may have to be somewhere or behave in a certain way when being in the public domain.

I’ve written about this topic before on a previous post about a Devendra Banhart song here. While Devendra was singing specifically about his life or the life of a well known musician (I don’t like to use the word famous) the Dolls seem to incorporate friends with a reference lady:

‘Well we can’t take it this week
And her friends don’t want another speach
Hoping for a better day to hear what she’s got to say‘

and further into the song friends are also referenced:

‘ That personality everything starts to blend
Personality when your mind starts to blend
Personality impression of a friend,
Of a friend, of a friend, of a friend, of a friend
Personality wonderin how celebrities ever met
(Look and find out on television)‘

As expected the tempo of the song is really high merged with power chord driven guitar work and some nifty keyboard work to ever so slightly mellow the song out. Check out a live version of the song.

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The first single from 1988’s Daydream Nation, ‘Teen Age Riot’ is also the song that got me into Sonic Youth. Now their album-long ‘Sister Ray’-alikes don’t always do it for me, and some of their stuff is just plain turgid, but when they hit the high notes they succeed spectacularly. Given that this was the late ’80s, when synthesiser ties, Rick Astley and stock exchange crashes were all the rage, ‘Teen Age Riot’ is seriously out of step with the times.

Starting off with some low-key, ghostly guitar and Kim Gordon reciting some childlike phrases (”Say it, don’t spray it”) and generation-specific predictions (”We will fall”), the song seems to be drifting before it’s even begun.

And then Thurston Moore’s distorted guitar kicks in, and you realise why the song’s axe work (did I just say that?) is so highly rated. You’ll certainly have heard this riff before – it’s influenced Pixies, Nirvana, and God knows how many other grunge bands over the years. But here it sounds fresh, energized, and in a huge hurry. Perfect for air guitar, if you live in a trailer and own a dog named Skeeter.

The lyrics are almost a DIY lesson in how to get ‘the kids’ on your side, if you’re a band wanting to make it big. Hero adulation, “Marshall stacks”, platform shoes, “teenage leather and booze”…it’s effectively a song about how to be ‘the next big thing’. As unfashionable as this was at the time – a time when, in the US, teenage girls with big hair tearing up shopping malls with karaoke pop – it’s had a tremendous influence on all of the bands that followed from the US.

The Daydream Nation album is a good listen, and I’ve been told that Sister and Evol are worthy albums too. While a lot of Sonic Youth’s affected Velvets/13th Floor Elevators/Stooges schtick can leave me feeling cold, ‘Teen Age Riot’ is a song that will always bring a smile. Here’s the official video which, again for the ’80s, is extremely cool. Notice Mark E Smith in the middle?

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