Vinyl Vednesday 9/7/2011

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it usually turns out that way. As always, e-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: Black Flag’s My War (1983) on black, The Cure’s Disintegration (1989) on black, and Galaxie 500’s On Fire (1989) on, again, black.

Place of Purchase: Philadelphia’s Repo Records across the board.

Thoughts: Full disclosure: I’m wearing a My War T-shirt right now. There’s just something so satisfyingly primal in early Black Flag that I cannot deny. Even though the second half of My War goes off the rails a little bit. Even though I now see the lyrics as juvenile. Even though I should probably be listening to Fugazi or Strike Anywhere instead. My War’s title track is the penultimate “me against the world” fight song, a song so full of rage that you can hear Henry Rollins blowing out his voice and forcing the vocal track anyway.

Operating at the opposite spectrum of Black Flag, howsabout The Cure? I’ve been listening to Disintegration a lot lately. It’s just this monolithic, swirling haze of melancholy that’s ideal for autumn. Sure, it’s got one of my favorite love songs, “Lovesong,” but the tune I’ve been really gravitating towards lately is the title track. The Cure is pretty closely associated with keyboards, and the lines on that track play off of the driving drumbeat so well. It’s a little goth pop symphony in my head. Of course, hits like “Pictures of You,” “Lullaby,” and “Fascination Street” help as well. This is one of those records I can play anywhere – at work, on the road, in my bedroom – and it always carries me off.

Thanks to Venice is Sinking, I have fallen in love with Galaxie 500. I first got into the group via “Tugboat,” a Today cut which ViS covered, but it’s 1989’s On Fire that really set me off. That record frequently flits between shoegaze and dreamy indie rock. It definitely reminds me of acts like ViS, Nada Surf, and Mazzy Star. Fire is a little more rock-oriented than Today which suits me fine, opting for surreal slice of psychedelia. The band even throws in a great cover of George Harrison’s “Isn’t It a Pity,” from All Things Must Pass. The trio jams out the tune, turning such a sad song into an epic chorus rolled over and over. On Fire is a record that I can connect to a ton of indie rock material released in the ’90s and ’00s, but it outshines them all.

Igloo Tornado - 'Henry & Glenn Forever'

It should have been a comedic goldmine. Henry & Glenn Forever, by the artistic collective Igloo Tornado, takes two of hardcore’s most famous icons and pitches them as “special friends” living in an Odd Couple-style arrangement. Their neighbors are Hall and Oates, who for whatever reason are cast as Satanists. This book should satirize all of the homoeroticism/homophobia inherent in hardcore, not to mention the alpha male images of Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig, while occasionally sprinkling in the occasional Hall and Oates joke about “Private Eyes” or something.

Instead, Henry & Glenn plays out like a punk rock Will and Grace, with surface level gay jokes. This book is skimpy to begin with, but the writers still saw fit to use the same bit where Danzig asks Rollins if his butt looks big in his black pants like three times. Rather than tell a cohesive story, the book settles for single page gags – hell, mostly single panel – about two queer guys. The art fluctuates wildly, which would be fitting for a collection if some of it didn’t look like ass.

Henry & Glenn had such huge potential, and perhaps a sequel could tackle the idea more thoroughly. But as is, the book doesn’t hit hard enough. The gay jokes get old fast. I’m a big Black Flag fan and I love his spoken word, but even I can admit Rollins is ripe for mockery. Have you seen his movies? Yet the material rarely taps into his bravado or affinity for violently over-the-top imagery. Danzig proves easier for Igloo Tornado to handle, although the humor blurs into typical goth stuff. The quips about Danzig’s book collection are still solid though.

What the book amounts to is a cash-in on other people’s celebrity. The humor derives entirely from the reader first being aware of Black Flag, the Misfits, etc., and then laughing at the idea of two dudes making out. It’s a fleeting, juvenile joy. Yeah, that cover, featuring Rollins giving a tearful Danzig a massage, is funny. But inside the book lies little else.

Vinyl Vednesday 8/18/2010

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be
a dick-measuring contest, but it usually turns out that way. E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com
with your own big finds!]

Records: Black Flag’s Damaged (1981) on black, The Go-Go’s’ Beauty and The Beat (1981) on black, and Propagandhi’s How to Clean Everything (1993) on black.

Place of Purchase: Damaged and Clean were purchased at Siren Records (I really only shop at like two places…). Beauty and The Beat was inherited from my parents.

Thoughts: There are a handful of ’80s hardcore bands I stand by. Minor Threat, Husker Du and early Replacements have been running through my ears a lot in the last few years, and while a lot of ’80s stuff doesn’t hold up as I get older (sorry Adrenaline O.D., most of the bands on Dischord 20), I still come back to Black Flag over and over. Damaged is primal, at times deceptively simpl. Fourteen of the 15 tracks focus on hate, directed both internally and externally. The other song, “TV Party,” is a joke track about getting shitfaced and watching That’s Incredible! and The Jeffersons. Guitarist Greg Ginn got such a gritty sound of his instrument; mix him with Tony Iommi and you get grunge.

It’s weird to think that I.R.S. released amazing albums from acts like R.E.M., Concrete Blonde, and The English Beat, and also The Go-Go’s, but it happened. Then again, the gals from that group came from a punk background – lead singer Belinda Carlisle was even in The Germs. Each side of the record opens with the band’s biggest hits, “Our Lips are Sealed” and “We Got the Beat,” although there are some other pretty good pop rock numbers like “This Town” and “Can’t Stop the World.” Yeah, some its embarrassing (“Skidmarks on My Heart.” Yeah…), but overall it’s a way better album overall than most ’80s pop releases.

My girlfriend is primarily a fan of sensitive lyricists and ’90s rockers. Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, Postal Service, and Smashing Pumpkins were her favorite bands when I met her. Then I found out she had a punk side when she put on Propagandhi’s How to Clean Everything. I’d heard of the band before, but I’d never heard their songs until that fateful car ride. It blended goofy, abrasive humor (“Ska Sucks,” “Stick the Fucking Flag Up Your Goddamn Ass, You Son of a Bitch”) with NOFX-style riffs and political insight (“Head? Chest? Or Foot?”). Bassist/back-up vocalist/future Weakerthan frontman John K. Samson seems a little out of place – his poetic lyrical and musical style does not mesh with frontman Chris Hannah’s more abrasive spit takes at all – but their duet on “Showdown (g.e./p.)” is still pretty awesome. Propagandhi and Weakerthans both went on to release better albums, but I still come back to How to Clean Everything all the time.