DirtyBloodMachine » Music

Favorite Bands of My 20’s

admin — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:32:55 +0000

The Top Ten Favorite Bands of My 20’s (late eighties to late nineties), in more-or-less chronological order of my liking them (allowing for discontinuities and overlaps):

Love and Rockets

Camper Van Beethoven

The Fall

Pixies

The Birthday Party

Sonic Youth

Butthole Surfers

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Pavement

Grifters

Alternative, post-punk, no wave, lo-fi, indie, eclectic, psychedelic/experimental/acid, underground/garage, soul/folk/blues/punk, art/noise rock with cryptic, expressionist, surreal lyrics, screeching, off-beat melodies and thumping repetitive rhythms. Abrasive, misanthropic, religiously tormented, sinister and brooding, comically absurd, aggressively innovative, eccentrics…wide range of styles…cult following…taking over…extremely…percussive influence…key in the emergence of later…chaotic and disturbing…loose concept…inspired by…changed dramatically…returning to second guitar…references to mental instability…ironic…tension…handful of minor…in disgust of…vital part of…disliked the purism…during rehearsals…darkest work…moved away…continued…dense…treated…sense…headed…rawest…hardcore…problems…drugs…changed…ousted…strong…affiliated…

Musical Roots, part 2

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:07:49 +0000

Then I heard David Bowie. A friend of mine was telling me about hearing the song “Space Oddity,” and soon we each had a copy of ChangesOne. It was interesting listening to this music, and there was something very attractive in it for me and also something different, that I had not heard before. I was compelled to buy another of his records, and I decided to try his most recent release: Scary Monsters. It was 1981; I was 14, and wanting to find something I could absorb myself in that sounded fresh. I found it in Scary Monsters. I was so happy on hearing this album I shed tears while dancing around in ecstasy. I couldn’t believe how the music wrapped around me, feeling so new and comfortable at once. I started collecting all his previous releases back to The Man Who Sold the World. I was so fascinated by his creativity. There was something in his process and execution that stirred an artist inside of me. I still think he has the most incredible output of a musician over that decade (‘70 – ‘80), over those albums. I responded well to all that work, but I have to say, the stuff that really got me, that really stuck and went in deep, is the work done between ‘76 and ‘80, when he had the rhythm band of Carlos Alomar on guitar, George Murray on bass, and Dennis Davis on drums backing him up. Those guys laid down a solid groove for Bowie (and whoever the lead guitarist happened to be, and anyone else who might have appeared on the track) that was moving and tight and bouncy.

Another thing that listening to David Bowie did for me was get me ready for the coming new wave British explosion, which started for me in 1982 when one afternoon I picked up my first two 12” singles: “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell and “Let’s Go to Bed” by The Cure. What followed over the next few years was a musical inundation by a range of these new bands, including: Soft Cell, The Cure, OMD, Visage, Japan, New Order, Depeche Mode, The Thompson Twins, Blancmange, Thomas Dolby, Bauhaus, Cabaret Voltaire, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Adam and the Ants, Public Image Ltd., Shriekback, Tones on Tail, etc. I started to go to dances, and got into spinning records a bit myself. And that’s the stuff, the early 80’s synthpop and post-punk stuff, that made the indelible impression on me. That was the music I was obsessed with when I learned to drive, experimented with intoxicants, started having sex, graduated from high school…

And it was a period that was for me ushered in by David Bowie. And even though I wasn’t so fond of his new look and popularity after his move to EMI and the release of Let’s Dance, I feel that I learned a lot from him creatively, and through him I also became acquainted with other groups that would be important for me, like Iggy Pop (and the Stooges), Brian Eno (and Robert Fripp), and The Velvet Underground… Something of the spirit of David Bowie struck a deep chord in me that still resonates today.

Musical Roots, part 1

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:57:37 +0000

The first record I ever owned was The Originals by Kiss. It was a new, special package containing their first three records, the self-titled debut, Hotter Than Hell, and Dressed to Kill, and some stickers and stuff. These records changed my life. It must have been around the last part of 1976, when I was nine. Over the next couple of years I obtained all their albums, excitedly picking them up as they were released, including Alive 2, the solo albums, etc… I played my Kiss records hundreds of times, actually wearing out several of them. The band and their music invaded my dreams. On several occasions I performed their songs with friends. We made costumes, painted our faces and acted to their music in front of audiences. My favorite members were Ace Frehley (the spaceman) and Gene Simmons (the demon). These two characters were deeply appealing to me in an archetypal way. I saw them play at the Forum in L.A. in 1980, the original members, still in make-up, and experienced it in a state of awe.

But after a couple years, I had grown through them and was ready for another band. By 1978 I had heard Led Zeppelin in an undeniable way. Where I’d been skipping more and more of the Kiss songs, Led Zeppelin captivated me with every track. My first albums were Led Zeppelin II, and the forth one, with the symbols. I can’t describe the impact these had on me. Soon I had the rest of their records. (This was before In Through the Out Door had been released, and when they were still a band). I felt that their music realigned my adolescent consciousness. Especially those electric guitar riffs of Jimmy Page. They activated something in my blood. I was upset when Bonham died. I felt like I had lost a friend with the demise of Led Zeppelin, I had grown so psychically close to them. But in a way, it might have just cemented my bonds with them more, and at least a half dozen of their records played in my mind consistently for a couple of years.

I was also into Pink Floyd at this time. My experience with Led Zeppelin was more overpowering, but at times I would slip into some intense states listening to Wish You Were Here, or Animals, or Meddle, or Dark Side of the Moon, and when The Wall came out it was my favorite album of the year.

There was a period around 1980 when I was also listening to Yes. I had some different albums between Fragile and Drama, and I would play them when I went into these weird and dreamy moods. It’s hard even to recall the experience of listening to them, because of the quality of these meditative moods.

These were the first bands that I attached to, that shaped my young mind, these classic, 70’s, blues-based hard rock/heavy metal and progressive/psychedelic bands, with their theatrics and magic and angst and trippyness, with their imagination, and intensity, and evocative sonic journeys.