Postpunk
Here’s an oddity from the depths of my punk-era singles collection. It was only decades later that a friend picked this obscurity out and recognised two of the names on the sleeve – not as musicians, but as music journalists.
Here are The Slits, half of them anyway, with ex-members of The Pop Group and Rip Rig + Panic, in session for John Peel from 1981.
I love Snõõper’s description of themselves as “a band who, in a 33 ⅓ RPM world, make 45 RPM music they play at 78 RPM.” Alternatively, you can use the shorter term “egg punk.”
PIL’s 11th album End Of World finds John Lydon channelling his various contrary selves to come up with a curate’s egg of an album, says Tim Cooper.
There comes a time when old rockers begin to turn into a parody of their younger selves. For the artist formerly known as Johnny Rotten that time arrived a long time ago… (click image to read on)
This is rather marvellous. Youth Valley are a new shoegaze/postpunk band who come from Athens, like R.E.M. and The B-52s. But not the one in Georgia.
Fusing punk, funk and elements of avant-garde jazz, Ludus were one of the first, and most distinctive, postpunk artists.
Here’s wishing all my gloomy gothic friends in black all the very best for World Goth Day.. with the help of the patron saints of goth.
Oh how I love this single, from the opening keyboard run to that rat-a-tat-tat drum figure… and Julian Cope’s exuberant vocal. Then the breakdown with the burbling bassline and skittering hi-hats when he sings “It’s true.”
Buzzcocks had evolved far beyond the primitive proto-punk and two-note guitar solos of Spiral Scratch by the time they released their third album in 1979. A Different Kind Of Tension was a game-changer of two halves: the first side an unremarkable set of short sharp pop-punk songs.