It was only a question of time until Gang Of Four will issue a statement on the current situation. Given their nationality and their own frontman, there’s obviously a certain irony in the fact that they’re now chanting No Kings Here! The song is snappy and catchy, with a strumming style that’s as energetic as it is funky, and it sets the stage for lyrics that are unambiguously direct, delivered with more fire than one would have expected from the band. Word has it that a new album is also in the works. In that sense, this song leaves you wanting more.
Yesterday's post has tempted me to once again Urgh! A Music War, a film from the eighties. Director Derek Burbridge's concept is simple in principle: go to concerts in London, New York and elsewhere and film the current punk, wave and reggae scene.
The result is a fantastic overview of this music from both sides of the Atlantic. I can still remember having to drive to the next bigger city with some friends to see this film. Some of the artists were known to us by name, but very few of them performed in southern Germany at the time.
After this film, each of the three of us had a band that we particularly liked and bought a record from them as quickly as possible. For me, it was Echo and the Bunnymen and Gang of Four, who I have followed faithfully ever since.
What also makes the compilation of concert recordings special is that it features musicians who were far removed from the normal clichés of punk, such as John Cooper Clarke and Klaus Nomi.
While the British bands are still holding back, The Cramps and Dead Kennedys show us the true and raw energy that characterized punk.
And finally, some film documents of bands that have unfortunately been forgotten, such as Au Pairs and Alley Cats and bands like Magazine and XTC, who played a major role in shaping new wave and punk.
Leeds has always been a melting pot for rock groups of all kinds and is unique in its own way. Gang of Four, The Mekons, Wedding Present and Soft Cell have made history with their music. Whether English Teacher will succeed in doing the same is not certain, but given their talent, not unlikely. The band is fronted by Lily Fontaine, a magnetic vocalist who infuses her guitar music with influences ranging from post-punk to 80's indie pop and beyond. She doesn't sing her songs, but it's a kind of chanting that also suits her ambitious lyrics. Sometimes it seems like Dry Cleaning have extended their material. The centrepiece is Mastermind Specialism, a dreamy piece of folk with mumbled indie-pop that, once heard, never lets go.
But the fact remains that English Teacher revitalize post-punk, indie-rock/pop with strong guitars and bass lines. An album that is sure to appear on a year-end list.
Cherry Red is the record label releasing fantastic
compilations since many years. Now they released Where Were You? Independent Music from Leeds 1978-1989 a compilation of Leeds based bands from the early punk/new wave era until the days shoegaze turned into the new next big thing. Many bands are well know on this three CD's but with less known songs; others are new to me. Anyway it is another opportunity to step back to these days. Listening to these songs many memories returns and made me grab out other records from this decade.
My musical taste in the early 80's was stamped by many bands of the new wave/post punk ear. Nearly almost new bands came from Great Britain and I asked myself why I know less bands from across the Atlantic ocean. Maybe because the papers didn't noticed them, the record shops didn't had them or just because I ignored them. One of these bands are Romeo Void formed in San Francisco at the end of the 70's. They only released three albums and disbanded in 1983. Their music is somewhere between Joy Division and Gang of Four and dominated by Debora Iyall's vocals and Benjamin Bossi's saxophone. The could be famous when they record company would have promoted them more in Europe.
One of the best albums released in 2017 was Nadine Shah's Holiday Destination, a superb produced complex and insistent record I used to listen often during the last years. Now she announced her new album for the end of June. And still she convinces me with her velvety voice over a guitar funk sound Gang Of Four could have written. Looking forward to the release.
One year ago I used to listen to Working Men's Club first single Bad Blood from time to time but forgot them later this year. Now this song shuffled up on my mobile phone early last week and I have to admit that this song has still something special. Maybe it is the mixture of stolen sounds by Talking Heads, Gang of Four, a Mark E. Smith guitar or just a post-punk bass-line at the beginning that made me listen to this several times. Anyway, it is good that new bands were taught by my old heroes.
Another forgotten band from the early 80's is Bristol based post-punk band Maximum Joy. I remembered them a the recent days when I listened to Silent Dub again after a very long time. Someone described their music as The Slits backed with Gang Of Four and this wasn't totally wrong because it is female vocals over a fantastic bass lines, complex percussion and some horns. And I have to admit that I forgot them by releases of many other bands in this decade and after. But listening to their songs feels like a time travel back into the days when real music was made and a lot of people had open ears for new sounds.
In 1981 Barry Andrews formerly XTC and Dave Allen formerly member of Gang of Four formed Shriekback a band that had a little success on the dancefloor charts. They made a unique sound stamped by post-punk and mashed it up with the upcoming sound of dance music. I didn't listen to them for a long time and almost forgot that they ever existed until this song shuffled up a few days ago on my mobile phone. It is still a classic song that showed how post-punk and new wave could work when you turn into a danceable sound. What did we need more than a great bass line and some chanting vocals in a song in these times? Best of both worlds still after all these years and worth to be remembered after all these years.
If I open the in-box on my laptop, there are daily dozens mails of some agencies who offer new music which I should promote. Like Jim I extinguish the large part of all e-mails because I do not have the time to listen to everything. Now and then I cannot resist, nevertheless to have a look at an offer. In this way I have bumped into Shame. Shame is a Bristol based band with a heritage stretching for The Clash to Fat White family and beyond. It is an area long-marked by diversity, political unrest, squat culture and more recently, gentrification, giving iit an infamous reputation as a creative hub and a kind of haven for misfits like someone said about them in the internet. For me it is an example of a young band knowing their roots in post punk, learning much from Gang of Four and giving me some jittery and fury guitars on a solid rhythm base. The best new band I listened to for longer times.
Today we celebrate the German reunification the started back in 1989. We were all happy about the peaceful way it happened. Looking back what happened since then something went totally right but there are also some things that make me angry. I still see the pictures from the early days of reunification when the mob marched upon the houses of contract workers in Hoyerswerda and Solingen burning down the houses and prey upon foreign people. We all thought that these days of the early 90's are gone forever. But it is too far out. Hatred is still alive especially in the eastern part of Germany. Main reason is the topic of the thousands of refugees coming to Europe to get a better life. People flocking together against these refugees is in the one hand - the other is vocabulary lot of people use. Many words I hear in buses, trains of pubs are used by the Nazis as well. Hatred, distrust and fear of loss of prosperity are the reason why right-leaded parties are successful these days. The ignorance of the popular parties to destroy fear and hatred is the other reason why fascists gets stronger day by day. History tells us that these are reasons democracy fails. Looking over the borders to Hungary and Poland were ultra right-wing politicians were on power makes me think about when we will have the same system. People like Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders and Nigel Farage are the new populists and their only words are 'my country first'. I don't know how to stop this development but talking to people.
I won't treat you too much with political analysis but sometimes I think that these words should be spoken when it gets too much. Anyway, I will spent the day for a longer walk in the countryside and finally support my team at their home-match.
