Speaking of punk/funk hybrids, consider Gang of Four–contemporaries of the Clash and spiritual antecedents to Fugazi’s brand of political bass-heavy punk fury. Continue reading
post punk
Record #210: Interpol – Antics (2004)
Interpol made one of the truly greatest records of their era. Turn on the Bright Lights was a tour de force that brought post punk into the modern era–a breakthrough that is still going strong today (Neon Trees does nothing but put Interpol songs through a top 40 machine). Unfortunately, that sort of impact would cast a long shadow on the rest of their career.
Record #207: Hot Hot Heat – Make Up the Breakdown (2002)
If you don’t think this record is great, you’re wrong. It caught my ear upon its arrival when my family had cable and Fuse still played music. I was a tenth grader with Dashboard Confessional, Finch, and Thursday in my CD player when I first saw a crazy music video by a bunch of moptops called Hot Hot Heat playing a song called Bandages.
Record #204: Heavenly Bodies – Celestial (1988)
Sometimes, it’s possible to predict how a record will sound using context clues. And judging by the band name, song titles, astral-philic record cover, and release date, it’s easy to tell what Heavenly Bodies’ sole release would sound like.
Record #163: The Faint – Danse Macabre (2001)
If you’re unfamiliar, the Faint makes the sort of gloomy, anti-corporate-America, synth-heavy post-punk revival that you’d expect from labelmates of Conor Oberst (who was a founding member, though he was no longer in the band at the time of this record). Sometimes, it’s exactly what I want.
Record #133: DIIV – Oshin (2012)
It’d be incredibly easy to write DIIV off as too trendy to be worthwhile. After all, their formula of Real Estate + Joy Division x Krautrock is tailor-made for Pitchfork’s Best New Music designation. Pitchfork also featured them in their Rising column when their name was still Dive, months before they had even finished this, their first LP. And inevitably, when this album finally dropped, the hype Pitchfork created around them culminated with the coveted “Best New Album” stamp on the top of the review (a portion of that review was featured on one of the stickers on the shrink wrap around the record when I bought it).
Record #102: Cocteau Twins – Treasure (1984)
If my incredibly enthusiastic reviews of Atlas Sound and Beach House haven’t already given it away, I love dream pop, and Cocteau Twins are nothing if not pioneers of the genre.
Record #43: Billy Idol – Rebel Yell (1983)
I don’t know what it is about the flirting 80s pop did with post-punk, but I love it. Billy Idol just about flies in the face of everything Joy Division/New Order was trying to accomplish with their music, with a tuff-guy haircut and permasneer, strutting without a shirt with an unironic machismo that would have made Ian Curtis blush.