The Minutemen - Doctor Wu

The Minutemen were such geniuses in their own right, I feel a bit guilty that their first appearance here is with a cover (of a Steely Dan song, of all things). I suppose the reason for that is that much of their music is the kind that I cerebrally appreciate without necessarily enjoying, if you know what I mean. Though lumped in with the LA punk scene, it would always be more accurate to describe them as post-punk - and even within that genre they were unique, drawing on jazz and funk influences to a degree almost unheard of by their contemporaries. Unfortunately, not being a fan of either jazz or funk, I couldn't really get into a lot of their stuff. But I always felt kind of bad about it.

In any event I did love this one, first of all because I thought it was brilliant that they covered it in the first place - an '80s punk band covering Steely Dan? Seriously? - and secondly because I love what they did with it, the dual vocals where one person sounds like he's trying to do a faithful version and the other is clearly taking the piss. As I said...geniuses.

It's from their 1984 (third) album Double Nickels on the Dime.

Full Sun - Anxious

Here's some very lo-fi punk-pop from what appears to be this band's second release, Bare Floor, from earlier this year. The first release was called High Ceiling. I'm sensing a pattern here.

They're from Indiana and have a bit of a late 1980s Homestead Records feel to them, though with a bit more melody. This one's dead catchy, anyway.

Rites of Spring - For Want Of

This is a little bit, well, quite a bit heavier than most of what gets posted on this blog and I don't expect it'll be to all readers' tastes. Maybe I'll post something ultra twee tomorrow, just for balance, like.

Rites of Spring anyway were sort of the original "emocore" band, bursting out into the US (specifically DC) hardcore punk scene in the mid-1980s with performances that allegedly left their audiences in emotional smithereens. Their lyrics were unusually personal and introspective and it's hard to imagine your average combat-boot-wearing spikey-Mohawk-head getting much out of them, but somehow they managed to spawn the development of an entire punk subgenre - quite unintentionally, I'm sure.

This was always my favourite of theirs and plus, it contains what is probably the defining emo lyric: If there's nothing here, then it's probably mine. Genius.

 

SOA - Public Defender

Been a while since I've posted any '80s punk, so here's a classic bit of harDCore from an early Dischord band featuring one Henry Rollins on vocals. He was still going by Henry Garfield then.

This isn't an official video, if you couldn't guess.

 

The Radiators from Space - Television Screen

You'd never know it from looking at most British accounts of the era but there was more to 1970s Irish punk than the Undertones and Stiff Little Fingers. Dublin had a thriving scene too, and the Radiators from Space were probably the best known, or at least they're the best remembered now. They were one of (if not the) earliest Dublin punk bands, formed in the pub rock era. You can hear that influence on this song, which was their first single, in 1977.

They've reformed in the past few years (hasn't everyone?) and just released a new album. I haven't heard it yet but it's been pretty well-reviewed.

Fatal Microbes - Violence Grows

I haven't posted any anarcho-punk for yonks now, so here's a classic from the genre. Fatal Microbes were a London band that included two children of the Poison Girls' Vi Subversa - amazing that she was old enough to have two children in their own band in 1979 - who later went on to form Rubella Ballet, the resemblance to whom is quite noticeable. I don't think the Microbes ever recorded anything after this, so they're pretty much the epitome of the one-hit wonder. Except it wasn't really that much of a hit, except among anarchist punks. Which I never was, incidentally, though I did find a lot of their music interesting.

If you're here solely for the indiepop, and don't like anything harsh, discordant or screechy, this isn't the one for you.

The Clash - Safe European Home

One of the more controversial Clash songs, due to the...erm...unfortunate ambiguity of Joe Strummer's intentions in writing it. Just try to ignore that (I do), because it is, really, a tremendous track in every other respect.

From 1978.

Nuns - Wild

Another great tune from the Nuns' classic self-titled debut album. This was "punk" in 1980. I love it.

Generation X - Kiss Me Deadly

Gen X's reputation as a cartoon-punk band isn't entirely undeserved, but at least a few of their early songs have stood the test of time as solidly memorable punk-pop hits quite apart from all the nonsense that surrounded them. This one in particular - from their 1979 self-titled debut, not the 1981 dud that bore its name - really has to be seen as a true classic, and one of the most authentic-sounding teenage rebellion anthems ever recorded. It certainly triggers all my own memories of misspent youth every time I hear it.

Plus, it's just a deadly (sorry!) tune.

Stiff Little Fingers - Barbed Wire Love

While I'm in a nostalgic mood, here's a great track from Belfast's finest. Some of the puns in this song are the stuff of genius; others... not so much.

Originally released on their 1979 debut Inflammable Material. Not sure when or where this performance took place.

X-Ray Spex - Identity

I had something else lined up for today but then I heard the news about Poly Styrene's untimely death. I cannot even begin to explain how much this distresses me. People always throw out words like "icon" and "legend" when someone dies but she really did fit those descriptions, particularly for awkward teenage punk girls like me (once).

I'd heard about her cancer but hadn't known it was so serious, so the news really came as a complete shock. It's a very small consolation, though, that she's trending on Twitter and over half the people on my Facebook friends list seem to have posted a tribute to her - so at least she's getting the recognition she deserves.

'Bye Poly. And thanks.

X - Come Back to Me

A lovely song about the untimely death of Exene Cervenka's sister in a car crash. Two other songs on X's second album, Under the Big Black Sun, were on the same subject. It obviously affected her deeply. It's hard for the listener not to be affected by this one particularly. If you have a sister, go hug her or something.

From 1982.

The Mob - The Mirror Breaks

Anarcho-punk bands were always famous for their willingness to experiment musically, which is one of the things I admired about them. This is a really good example. Musically it's practically jangle-pop; Marc's vocals are obviously a bit harsher than what you'd usually expect from that genre, and lyrically of course it's typical apocalyptic gloom. Still, not a million miles from what McCarthy would be doing in a couple years' time.

Buzzcocks - Airwaves Dream

The last song on the second-last single the Buzzcocks ever released, this sounds like nothing else in their catalogue - it's much darker and more brooding, despite the ultra-fast pace. I think it's one of the best things they ever did.

You can always tell disillusion is setting in when artists start writing critical songs about the media and sure enough, they broke up within a year of releasing this.

Buzzcocks - You Say You Don't Love Me

I'm too busy for a proper post today, so here's a song that really speaks for itself. Enjoy.

The Skids - Into the Valley

A truly classic '70s punk anthem. I always thought of it as just a kids-are-alright type of song but recently I read a quote from Richard Jobson where he said it was actually meant to be a commentary on disaffected local youth winding up as cannon fodder for the British Army in Ireland. Which raised my estimation of not just the song but of Jobson himself, who I always thought of as a bit of an eejit.

They had other good songs, of course, and one of these days I'll post another one.

Bad Brains - Pay to Cum

Just for a bit of variety, here's a classic piece of early American hardcore. A lot of people I know who are into this sort of thing reckon this is one of the greatest punk records ever released. I can't really argue with that.

Wire - Reuters

The very first song on the very first Wire album. Picture a teenager in 1977 buying Pink Flag, bringing it home and putting it on the turntable for the first time... and this comes out of it. I'm trying to imagine that teenager's reaction. As immense as it still sounds all these decades later, what must it have been like back then before we were all so thoroughly accustomed to punk and post-punk and apocalyptic war tunes? Sometimes I really wish I'd been around for that era - how exciting it must have been - but then again if I had been, I'd be even more of an old fart than I am now. So maybe it's just as well.

But janey mack, what a song this is. Still.

The Saints - A Minor Aversion

The Saints are best known for their debut single "(I'm) Stranded", one of the undisputed classics of the original punk era, but I think their second album Eternally Yours is the more interesting and the one that's best stood the test of time. It's still a punk record, at least in the way that term was understood at the time, but there are a lot of other things going on there too and you can hear the start of the progression that eventually took Ed Kuepper into Laughing Clowns.

This is a track from that album and is possibly one of the most biting, cynical songs ever written by anyone.

Mission of Burma - That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate

It was announced over on Thrill Pier this week that Mission of Burma are to play an Irish gig sometime in May, so that's as good an excuse as any to put them up here. MoB came out of the Boston punk scene in the early 1980s but took a much more experimental approach than their contemporaries, their music serving as sort of a bridge between the sounds of Northern English post-punk and the harder American "noise rock" bands.

Due to my young age at the time I discovered them only towards the end of their existence - when they were already planning to bail out, due to Roger Miller's tinnitus - and never got the chance to see them in their prime. They developed something of a legendary status, obviously helped by the fact that they didn't last long enough to make a bad record (or "sell out", as we used to call it), and I remember a tremendous hype around the 1990s reissue of their short catalogue on CD.

MoB reformed a few years ago - Miller now taking to the state in firing-range headphones - and have released a couple records, which I confess I haven't got around to listening to. This is probably due to my inherent suspicion of post-reunion material, which usually turns out to be cack, although in this case it seems to have been pretty well-received. Anyway, if you're in Dublin, get to that gig wherever it is.

This is one of their best-loved (and most-covered) songs, an atypically straightforward punk track from their classic 1982 album Vs.