As I dive once more into the 80s music nostalgia, one band I plan on checking out is Ultravox. I’ve always heard great things about them (both the John Foxx and the Midge Ure years), and I even owned the greatest hits and Vienna albums, but I never actually sat down to listen to them very closely. Chalk it up to being one of those bands I’d hear on the radio or MTV but could never find their stuff at the mall. [And when I did see them at the various record stores, often I’d be reserving my money for something else I was looking for.]
This past Christmas I finally got their box set The Albums 1980-2012 (aka the Midge Ure era), and during our visit to southern California this past weekend, I stopped in at Amoeba to pick up the John Foxx era box, Island Years. These cover all but two 90s albums (Revelation and Ingenuity, essentially keyboardist Billy Currie with a newer lineup) and only the latter box contains single sides and ephemera, but th0se are easily acquired online if I’m further interested in completing the discography.
I do love the career-spanning box sets, especially the ‘album collection’ ones, as it gives the new listener — or like me, the once-passive fan who wants to hear more — the ability to check out a band’s discography at a relatively decent price. I’ve bought quite a few of these over the years: Roxy Music’s The Complete Studio Recordings, Nilsson’s The RCA Albums Collection, Lloyd Cole & the Commotions’ Collected Recordings 1983-89, and The Boomtown Rats’ Classic Album Selection, to name a few. Not all of them are complete (there’s often a few items missing, like a cover or a live track or a b-side), but they’re complete enough to provide an excellent overview. Sure, they can be expensive, but sometimes you can find a great deal. Some are even available as mp3s, cutting the cost almost in half sometimes.
I’m looking forward to listening to these two Ultravox boxes!
Every time I think I’m escaping the rabbit hole of 80s college rock and moving on, I end up slinking back in again! Well, this time I’m not working on a related writing project…I’m just enjoying the music this time out, while I wait for new releases to come out.
Plus, I get to listen to some of my radio mixtapes from back in the day! It was a little over thirty years ago that I decided to put a blank tape in my Jonzbox and let it record 30 to 45 minutes of whatever WMUA was playing that evening, just to get a taste of their playlist. I’d just bought a six-foot retractable antenna for the radio, which boosted the signal considerably, so I could go nuts at any time of day. Soon I’d expand to other stations, with WAMH becoming my home base for the rest of the decade.
By early 1987 I’d changed things up in my bedroom. It had gotten a new coat of paint, I’d gotten rid of some furniture I’d grown out of, and my radio had moved across the room to the top of the bookcase, where the few books that I had were slowly being shoved out to make way for my growing cassette collection. I was hanging out with the Vanishing Misfits gang, which meant that a goodly amount of my collection at the time was borrowed albums dubbed onto tapes of questionable quality and age. But hey, as long as I had the tunage, that’s all that mattered!
Interestingly, I only made one college radio tape that year, but I think it was because all my hard-earned money was going to buy albums down in the Pioneer Valley! I did make a few mixtapes that year, though, mainly commercial radio stuff, but by the end of that year I was itching to make more. I had one of my buddies who was into the hardcore punk/metal scene (he also introduced me to Slayer’s Reign in Blood…at catechism class, no less!) make me a mix on the back of a cassette dub I had of The Sisters of Mercy’s Floodland (my favorite album of the moment and possibly my number 2 favorite of the year, just under Music for the Masses).
Thinking back, 1987 was definitely a sea change year on multiple levels for me. Changes in friendships, tastes in music, personal and emotional outlook. My writing was still crap, but it was better crap than what I’d been writing just a few years earlier. Hell, I was even changing the way I looked, letting my hair grow longer (no more 80s spike, thank god), wearing concert tees and pins of alternative bands. Taking myself a bit more seriously. Sure, I had a hell of a lot more growing up to do, but that was the year it took hold. I was no longer the annoying nerd trying to fit in. I was the kid with the Walkman, listening to bands you’d never heard of. I was the kid who spent his study periods in the library, writing away in a notebook. It was the year I’d finally figured myself out and didn’t give a shit what anyone thought about it.
I remember when U2’s breakthrough album The Joshua Tree came out, because it wasn’t just the usual music nerds like me that were eagerly awaiting for it; most of the guys I knew on my high school football team couldn’t wait to get their hands on it! That was certainly a change. Usually the jocks’ tastes in music and my tastes never crossed paths at all.
It could be that the teaser single, “With or Without You”, was such a huge hit that resonated with pretty much everyone. I think there was also the fact that their previous releases — the atmospheric The Unforgettable Fire from 1984, the excellent but far too short live album Under a Blood Red Sky from late 1983 and the amazing War from earlier that same year — were big favorites on MTV and rock radio. And that classic performance at Live Aid in the summer of 1985 had given them a big ol’ boost as well.
I remember not being overly excited about the release at first. Sure, I loved U2, but I wasn’t a hardcore dedicated fan yet. In fact, I was more focused on the new Siouxsie & the Banshees cover album (Through the Looking Glass) that was released around the same time. But I went ahead and bought it anyway, ordering the cassette from the BMG Music Club, and deemed it worthy of repeated listens.
It wasn’t until that summer, around the release of the third single “Where the Streets Have No Name” that the album really clicked with me. I’d started hearing more deep cuts from the album being played on WAAF, WAQY and other New England radio stations as well. The drifting beauty of “One Tree Hill”, the barely restrained anger of “Bullet the Blue Sky”, the pastoral melancholy of “Red Hill Mining Town” (the last of which reminded me of the dead-end feeling I was having about my home town at the time).
The album kicked off such a storm of excitement that their tour ended up being THE EVENT TO SEE. Sadly, I would never get to see them live until nearly ten years later for the PopMart Tour, but my sisters did get to see them down in Worcester for this tour, much to my extreme jealousy. Numerous parts of the tour stops were filmed for what would end up being the documentary Rattle and Hum, released in 1988 complete with soundtrack and new songs recorded on the road. And a little over ten years later, they’d resurrect and re-record one of the b-sides for “Streets” and release it as a single for one of their greatest hits mixes:
I’d revisit the album numerous times over the years: a constant soundtrack during my post-college writing years and even more during the Belfry years; talking with my then-girlfriend about how the album was sequenced into a specific flow of sound and mood; a constant replay when the band released their (almost) entire discography on iTunes; while working on my Walk in Silence project. I’ve never grown tired of it.
*
Thirty years on, this album is still considered a classic. U2 themselves are celebrating its anniversary with a tour of North America and Europe, playing the album in its entirety. I doubt I’ll be going when they stop by Santa Clara in late May, but I’m sure it’ll be a fantastic show. [For a brief moment I thought hey, maybe they’ll come to Outside Lands!…and then I realized they’ll be wrapping up their European leg about the same time so I doubt they’ll be in the mood for trekking all the way back to California by that time. Wishful thinking, though!]
I just recently finished reading my first book of the year, Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run. It’s quite the lengthy tome, and if you’re familiar with his music (particularly his early epic-length songs like the one above), you’ll feel right at home with his life story. His long-format musical storytelling fits right in with his literary storytelling.
I’ve mentioned it here before, but one of the most common threads I see in a lot of music biographies is the musician’s moment of how the hell did I get here?, especially when they’re put in an unexpected situation. In Johnny Marr’s book Set the Boy Free, his moment was when he was jamming and talking personally with Paul McCartney about the breakup of the Smiths (Macca’s words of wisdom for him: “That’s bands for you.”). For Bruce, it was the moment he was on the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame stage, with Mick Jagger on one side and George Harrison on the other, singing ‘I Saw Her Standing There’. And the most interesting part of that tale thread is that, more often than not, they didn’t climb up their Marshall stack and yell ‘Top of the World, Ma!’. They just smiled and laughed stupidly at their incredible stroke of luck, and kept doing the only thing they know how to do best, and that’s play music.
Bruce Springsteen has always been the Champion of the Working Man sort of singer, and Born to Run makes sure you know that. A sizable portion of the book — at least half –is dedicated to repeated returns to New Jersey to see old friends, visiting his sisters and parents, and bringing up three kids. He may not be the Troubadour that people make him out to be, and he frequently reminds the reader that that’s not his aim, to be the next Pete Seeger or Bob Dylan. He’s just a storyteller who knows how to tell a good story about the blue collar man and woman, the people he grew up with and still connects with to this day.
[If I had one complaint, his writing does hint just a tiny bit at being a newbie, as I can see some of the usual writing habits that nag us all when we start out. He relies on hyphenated phrases, ellipses and ALL CAPS more than he should. That said, however, I’m not going to shoot him down for it. I’m just as bad in my rough drafts.]
It’s definitely a fun read, though. Well worth picking up!
Side note: I chose the above music and title, as it’s one of my favorite early Bruce tracks from his second album. It’s a lovely piece, and I used “Mad Dog’s Promenade” as the name of my radio show my sophomore year in college. I also put that there to note that there’s more to Bruce than just the hits we all know, and he’s one hell of a solid musician and songwriter…the deep cuts from his albums are often just as fascinating and imaginative.
The one downside to listening to new things this early in the year is often that there isn’t anything new out to listen to. So I’m often bouncing around my music collection, throwing on whatever happens to pop into mind at the time.
As usual, I’m writing this just before my evening writing/editing session, and I was in the mood for a bit of Porcupine Tree — a band I’d discovered while at HMV (their 1999 album Stupid Dream had just been released) and one that would often be a go-to for my writing sessions during the early 00’s. In this case, 2002’s In Absentia came to mind, so I popped it on. It’s a lovely album, recorded at the point where they’d decided to morph from dreamlike, guitar-based prog rock to a more prog-metal influenced sound. [Note: lead singer/band leader Steven Wilson would be the first to slap me for labeling them prog, as he quite loathes the term. But I digress.]
I’ve posted numerous times before about some of the key album releases over the years that influenced, or at least gave a soundtrack to, the Bridgetown Trilogy. This album, Dishwalla’s And You Think You Know What Life’s About, Mansun’s Six, Beck’s Sea Change, and so on. They’re all great albums that I’ll still throw on now and again while I’m writing or editing.
Does music distract me from my work? Well, yes, sometimes it does. Especially if I hear a song like Silversun Pickups’ “Panic Switch”, which often sends me across the room to pick up my bass to play along with it. But more often than not, just as it has since I was a scruffy teenager first attempting to write novels, it serves a dual purpose: it’s background noise to help me focus on the task at hand, and it’s also a sound that, if I choose correctly, influences whatever it is I’m working on at that moment. I’ve listened to music for so long, and for such long stretches, that if I don’t have anything playing while I’m working, I kind of feel naked in a way. The silence makes me self-conscious.
But you know, that’s why I have such a large collection as I do, and why it’s 99% digital now. I have a library of sound that helps me through the day, in whatever I’m doing, whether it’s writing, editing, or the Day Job.
This year provided some great tunage to keep me busy and entertained while I Edited All The Books or worked at the Day Job. There was a great selection to choose from, so much so that my year-end mixtape took up four ‘tapes’ this year instead of three!
Same as the last years I’ve been doing this, the rule was to create four 90-minute mixes that could be split into two 45-minute sides. The easy part was gathering up a tape’s worth of music, the hard part was shuffling everything around to get a good flow. There were a few “oh, this one needs to go first/last” and a few tough decisions to keep it from being lopsided, but I think it worked out well!
The hyperlinks are to the YouTube videos, which will open in a new window. Hope you enjoy listening!
Thinking about some of the great musicians we lost this year, I realized that Bowie, Prince, and George Michael all had career-changing releases in 1987. It was probably the last year I paid any significant attention to commercial rock and the countdown charts before I sold my soul to college radio, but I still kept my ears (and eyes) open for the big names at the time.
David Bowie’s Never Let Me Down (released 27 April 1987) was a big seller but had a mixed reaction from its critics. Having spent most of the 80s recording catchy but less-than-adventurous chart rock, after this album he’d work with Reeves Gabrels and Hunt and Tony Sales to form Tin Machine — an often maligned side project, but in my opinion a much needed boost to his creativity. He’d follow up in the 90s with much stronger albums and critical success. It took me a while to warm up to this album, as I too felt Bowie had fallen into a bit of a rut and was going through the motions, but in retrospect it’s still a solid album.
Prince’s Sign o’ the Times (released 30 March 1987) is one of my top favorite albums of his, and its creation story is even more fascinating. Known for creating multiple side projects that may or may not come to fruition, Prince took the best parts of his Camille project (recording under a different name, an altered voice, and an even more androgynous image), the last dregs of two aborted projects with the Revolution before he ended that group (Dream Factory and Crystal Ball), and filled it out with his own solo tracks to create a fantastic double album full of funk, pop, psychedelia, rock, and even a few of his patented weird psych-outs. I always felt this album was the point where he’d left his over-the-top 80s pop persona behind and became more serious about his music. He’d hit a few more roadblocks and make a few more wrong turns, but by the early 90s he’d hit his stride and become an even bigger star. I still listen to this album, it’s that damn good.
I remember hearing American Top 40 premiering George Michael’s “I Want Your Sex” single in the summer of 1987 and being blown away by it — the lite-pop production of Wham! was long gone (it had started slipping away with his “A Different Corner” single from spring 1986) and replaced by HUGE sounds and a hell of a lot of funk, and I loved the sound of it. Radio and fans wondered what he was going to do next, having completely shed the goofy fun of his previous band. His solo debut Faith (released 30 October 1987) was the result: mature, intensely creative and absolutely amazing. I chose “Father Figure” here (even though the single dropped in January of 1988) because it’s my favorite song from the album…it’s a gorgeous and stunning ballad and I love the sparse-yet-cavernous sound of the production.
And finally, here we are at the last quarter of the year!
Phish, Big Boat, released 7 October. The band is positively perky on this album, full of bounciness and silliness that I haven’t heard since Billy Breathes twenty years ago. It’s also more cohesive and catchier than Fuego, their previous outing. And there’s some amazing harmony going on with this track right here.
Green Day, Revolution Radio, released 7 October. Another excellent album from the boys from the East Bay. While it may not be as radio friendly as American Idiot, it’s just as angry and in your face.
BT, _, released 14 October. BT is a fascinating musician in that you’re never quite sure what his next sound is going to be like. He’s a great remixer and his electronica stretches from glitchy to sublime. And then there’s this album, which is essentially an electronic classical album of sorts. It’s stunning and lovely and rates right up there with the work of my favorite new composer, Mason Bates. And of course this got a ton of play during writing sessions.
Bowling for Soup, Drunk Dynasty, released 14 October. BfS is up to their goofy, punky best as always with this Kickstarter-funded album (you should check out the KS page just to watch the video where they forget they’re trying to sell the album and talk about–you guessed it–drinking beer). It’s a strong and solid album all the way through, and a hell of a lot of fun.
Jagwar Ma, Every Now and Then, released 14 October. This album, interestingly enough, reminded me of Primal Scream’s Screamadelica, in that it’s a flawless mixture of melodic indie rock and blissed out dance grooves. And “O B 1” is definitely my Track of the Year, with its ticking ambient/chunky riff mix and infectious beat. The album itself is up there in my top ten as well.
American Football, American Football, released 21 October. WOO! New American Football! Given that their previous album was 17 years ago, that’s a long wait, but it was quite worth it. These guys were part of the original laid-back, wistful, math rock sound that included Low and early Modest Mouse back in the late 90s, so it’s great to have them back.
Jimmy Eat World, Integrity Blues, released 21 October. Glad to see these guys are still going strong after all these years, and still writing songs that stick in my head for hours. A solid album all the way through.
The Radio Dept, Running Out of Love, released 21 October. Yet another Wait–they have a new album out?? release for 2016, and it’s excellent. Dark and weird and groovy and twitchy all over the place — which is what makes me like them so much. Really dug the production on this one a lot.
Sleigh Bells, Jessica Rabbit, released 11 November. I really love their Wall of Crunchy Guitar sound (it’s great for headphones when you’re on a plane or at the gym), and I love the way they slip around their melodies, making them playful and in your face at the same time.
A Tribe Called Quest, We got it from here…thank you 4 your service, released 11 November. YES! Another ATCQ album finally arrives, and it’s a stunner. It might be their last one they release, but it’s a hell of tight one.
Metallica, Hardwired…to Self-Destruct, released 18 November. Ending on a surprising note, considering I’m not much of a metalhead at all, but this is one hell of a great album, the best they’ve done in the past few years. They still have a few songs here and there reminiscent of the more radio friendly Load/ReLoad era, but they’ve returned (finally) to some the best axe-wielding they’ve put on record in quite a while.
*
Coming up next week: The End of Year Lists! Favorite songs, and my year-end mixtape!
No, not having any technical difficulties with the PC today, but it is computer related. I’m getting a laptop refresh for my Day Job! Which means I’ll be busy getting caught up with my outstanding work, and then spending an hour or two making sure everything that’s on my old laptop gets moved to the new one.
Hopefully I’ll have the next music post up and running later on today, or tomorrow the latest.
Blink-182, California, released 1 July. I’ll admit, I’m still a Blink fan partially because Travis is such an insanely great fast-speed drummer. This new album feels like a return to their happier, punkier days of the late 90s-early 00s, and it’s a lot of fun to listen to.
The Avalanches, Wildflower, released 8 July. When was that last album of theirs? 2000? 2001? Far too long. They’ve lightened up on the sampling (a bit) for obvious financial reasons, and their songs aren’t nearly as weird and goofy as the ones on Since I Left You, but on the other hand, they’ve excelled at creating groovy vibes and insanely catchy tracks like the above.
Lou Rhodes, theyesandeye, released 29 July. Lamb’s lead singer released a lovely solo album featuring some of her best work outside that band. Her style of singing works well in a non-electronic atmosphere here, and she also does a hell of a great job covering The XX as well.
Dog Party, ‘Til You’re Mine, released 5 August. One of my favorite local bands releases their fifth album — the first after drummer Lucy’s high school graduation (!!) and as always, it’s all kinds of fun to listen to. Short econo punk that would make the Ramones and Fuzzbox proud.
De La Soul, …and the Anonymous Nobody, released 25 August. So happy to see these guys back at it…one of the best hip-hop groups around. I’m also impressed by the DIY nature of this album as well: the samples used were recorded using live musicians (their jamming would be recorded and various bits used for the samples), and the entire project was funded via Kickstarter. Even a lot of the non-music packaging and post-production was done either by them or by friends and acquaintances.
Banks & Steelz, Anything But Words, released 26 August. Who knew that the dark, driving alt-rock of Interpol would fit so perfectly with the blistering delivery of RZA? And that these guys met up frequently to play chess? This match-up delivers one hell of a strong punch from both sides and it’s one of my favorites of the year.
The Wedding Present, Going, Going… released 2 September. The Weddoes are back! Another Kickstarter-funded album that was well worth the wait. Full of their trademark dreamy and crunchy riffs on top of lovely melodies.
Wilco, Schmilco, released 9 September. Wilco has always been just this side of weird, and their new album proves once again that they can pull it off and still be fun and enjoyable to listen to. Definitely a band off in their own universe, but they’ve become quite comfortable and agile within it.
Bastille, Wild World, released 9 September. I wasn’t quite sure how they were going to top their fantastic debut album from a few years ago, but they’ve pulled it off by being bigger, stronger, and more experimental with their sounds. They’ve also injected a bit of humor into the mix this time out, which makes a lot of the songs that much more fun to listen to.
Preoccupations, Preoccupations, released 16 September. The band formerly known as Viet Cong returns with a new album that sounds straight out of 1985-era goth that you’d expect to hear on Homestead Records, and it’s a fascinating listen. [Also, the above video perfectly fits with early era 120 Minutes, doesn’t it?]
Against Me!, Shape Shift with Me, released 16 September. One of their most melodic releases that I can think of, and some of their best work as well. The songs feel freer and livelier. Another frequent player during the Day Job as well as writing sessions.
Beach Slang, A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings, released 23 September. Another album that sold me on first listen, even before the album was done. Equal parts Replacements and Dinosaur Jr, there’s a hell of a lot of great pop-punk going on here. Definitely in my top ten of the year.
*
Next up, the final quarter of 2016….and of course, I’ll follow up with the lineup for the end-of-year compilation mix and my Top Albums and Songs of the year!
Walk In Silence 