How was said quite several times for me pub rock were the basis and above all the catalyst for punk rock. The music of the bands that belong to this genre reduced their music to the basics. Based on the old R&B they played simple hand-made music again. Most of them learned how to play in front of the audience. Some bands were able to join the new music that would be played in the mid 70s. The best example were The 101ers with Joe Strummer. At the end of this little series I would like to feature Eddie and the Hot Rods. A band that started with playing cover versions of classical 60s cuts is for me the link from pub rock to punk rock. Their single Do anything you wanna do is for many of my mates a classic punk rock song. I think this song has both: the new power of punk and the classic influence of R&B. According to my opinion their first publications are very good examples how pub rock sounded like over 40 years ago.
Luscious Jackson was an American indie-rock band based in NYC. They were close to other new acts in the 90s like Beastie Boys or Cypress Hill. I loved their first EP In search of Manny with their female harmonies. Their following records were good as well. It is a disgrace that this group has never had the success which it would have earned. But anyway it's worth to remember them with a soft ballad from their third record.
Most of the songs I posted in this series are very old and nearly forgotten from the 50s and 60s. Today's song was from a musician who can celebrate his 70th birthday today. He formerly played blues with his band Love Sculpture and reworked classical pieces like Khachaturian's Sabre Dance as a speed-crazed rock number or Georg Bizet's Farandole. After the split of the band he worked at the wall of sound in memory of Phil Spector. Then in the early 70s he turned into classic Rock and Roll. Since this time he publishes records in those he acts as the keeper of classical rock music. On his records he played a lot of twanging tunes. This one is a cover of Bill Murray's Trouble Boys, released in 1978 on Trax on Wax 4.
Enjoy and happy birthday Dave Dave Edmunds - Trouble Boys
I think it's time to post another song by Paul Weller. This song is from his 1995 record Stanley Road. In my opinion one of his best albums. With this song he shows once again his qualities to interpret ballads in his only kinds of manner. I have chosen this song while I was thinking about to post a new song on This Is My Jam.
It seems like it will be another comfortably and relaxed Sunday. I am sitting on my sofa, drinking another cup of coffee, typing this post and listen to a record which I have not belonged for a long time any more. Withered Hand is an alter ego for Don Wilson a Scottish indie rock musician. The songs are from his first record from 2009 and are arranged mainly economically. The songs were carried by his impressive voice. I think I will check out his newest release New Gods soon.
All in all, this was an unspectacular year with one highlight. Nevertheless, the future already throws her shades ahead. At the middle of the year it was officially announced what many of my colleagues have already supposed. We will merge with another bank and put our arithmetic system completely on another base, in addition, still next year. This means for me that I must invest a lot of time in the preparatory works for a free from problems crossing on the new arithmetic system. Namely after my regular work. With this background we have decided, to visit my sister-in-law who lived at this time in Japan. Presumably we would never have visited Japan if not a part of the family lived there. And we have not regretted it. We have seen a fantastic country with so many places of interest. Thanks Kerstin that you could show us so much from this country. There are some things I will never forget: One of them was the onsen, a Japanese term for hot springs. It's located in the countryside and describes the bathing facilities around hot springs. If you ever get the chance to see it check it out and take a bath in the hot springs. The other are the Pachinko halls. Widespread all over the country you can find them halls filled with a lot of slot machines. From far away you hear the noise from inside the halls and you thousands of flashing lamps which are supposed to animate one to play and spent your money. Another thing you don't have to miss when you visit Japan is to go to a local pub for eating and drinking. I've never seen so small bars filled with so many people drinking their beer and sake and eating yakitori.
Some remarkable records were released in 2007:
Tocotronic - Kapitulation: I follow this band since their first record
Feist - The Reminder: Softly breathed songs of a wonderful singer
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible: Indie-rock at it's best
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver: Simply fantastic
Pantha du Prince - The Bliss: Electric music on a high level shows us the future of this kind of music
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank:
Richard Hawley - Lady's Bridge: I simply love to hear him sing
Kings of Leon - Because of the Times: Their third record - great as before
With these songs I connect this year:
300: Another great move based on a comic
No Country for Old Men: The Coen brothers made a fantastic movie again
Hot Fuzz: This kind of movie can only made in Britain
The Bucket List: Nice story about two old men
Some headlines from 2007:
European heat wave: approximately 200 wild fires broke out in Greece // The Nepalese government announces that the 240 year old monarchy will be abolished in 2009 and a new republic will be declared // Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated by a bomb blast at an election rally // Mine disaster in eastern Ukraine kills more than 100 people
Another great record from Modest Mouse. Already their last publication Good news for people who loves bad news was splendidly they reach with this record their next level. Johnny Marr joined the band and you could hear his guitar on some spectacular riffs. The new album of Modest Mouse differs only some from his younger predecessors. However, it is present not in the least boringly. Since another quality the volume was always to be sounded them, thus richly, variably and essential as usual only a few. Also by often obsessed, broken voice of Isaac Brock which fits usually well to the music of his tapes. It is just no catchy pop music which Modest Mouse characterises. It is the miraculous wide world of the tricky rock music whose borders the tape as usual no other has plumbed. A world whose discovery needs time. Modest Mouse are and remain the Hobos from the province of the American northwest, and Johnny Marr has been incorporated only without further ado. He has become the Hobo and has completed the unbelievable talent this Trucker-Lookalikes.
Just two months ago I have written in this series about the so-called Hamburg school. And Dirk has rightly asked, why I have mentioned Tocotronic with no word in this connection. The reason is easy: Tocotronic are worth to be written it only about them. They released their first record nearly 20 years ago and I have to agree to Dirk that this one is a masterpiece.
They are angry young men of the German Indie pop, the model boys of the so-called Hamburg school - Tocotronic count to the most important German tape of the 90s.
In the end of 1993 the Hamburg punk musicians Jan Müller (bass guitar), Arne Zank (percussion) and the guitarist incurred from Freiburg and singer Dirk von Lowtzow found Tocotronic (named after a Gameboy precursor) and begin with it a pop phenomenon of nearly British magnitude. The Hamburg music scene numb at that time in selfreference celebrates the first concerts the volume like a revelation: The unconventional hairstyles, the corduroys, sportjacket-style, the politeness of the announcements are appreciated and admired.
The tape publishes published by the author Rock-O-Tronic a single whose title line "I Would want part of A youth movement being" short time later on house walls and in a Blumfeld song finds again. Over Blumfeld head Jochen Distelmeyer originates the contact with the label L'Age D'Or which takes over the distribution of the single and accompanying T-shirts.
In the beginning of '95 the debut album appears 'Digitally Is better' and puts a landmark in the German-speaking Indie pop history: Trashy Post-Grunge à la Dinosaur Jr., moving-melancholy snapshots of the youth everyday life provide with identification-donating texts, partly punkiges Sloganeering, partly. The pop-intellectual press cheers at the expression of a new generation and this time the generation sees also in such a way: A 2-week club tour carries the name Tocotronic about the town borders of Hamburg in the consciousness of young, furious people.
For me her political statements were far less important than her music. About the years away the tape has developed steadily and has added to her formerly guitar-oriented sound a melancholy mark.
