It seems that rock music has a 20-25 year latency period after initial popularity before it is revived by the next generation and resold as homage-to or under-influence-of the originals. Sadly for me, when I was in my late teens, crap from the late 60s was being regurgitated, so I had to endure bad psychedelia and classic rock rip-offs in massive quantities. Ugh. I have my biases, but it is a bit of a treat to hear so much of non-retro the music of my youth I DID like now being redone and synthesized into other forms in a way that does right by the originals. The New Wave stuff of recent vintage is often either spot-on in homage (check the backstory of Holy Ghost’s I Will Come Back single and video, for example), or even better than the original stuff was.
PIL's Metal Box
Naturally, alongside all the plundering of the past are the revivals of many long-defunct bands who just now are putting their reunion projects together, or are establishing new eras in their band’s history. This week we will cover a good number of reunions from classic New Wave/No Wave 80′s/90′s alt rock outfits, plus some of the other big releases either now in stores or on the way.
Public Image Limited – Of all the defunct New Wave/120 Minutes-era bands to influence modern music, few could be said to have had a bigger impact than John Lydon and his post Sex Pistols project, PiL. While the Pistols reunion shows sporadically surface, the first PiL shows in nearly 20 years finally took place in the UK this past December. No wider release from the reunion is in retail stores per se, but official, multi-disc concert recordings from most of the shows were put online almost immediately. While I personally would have loved to see an early lineup reunion, the current PiL leans toward the Happy?/9 lineup. From the look of the setlists and sound of the arrangements from the shows, this revival’s aesthetic will skew that way as well. While we wait to see what fruit will be born of the reunion, there is very noteworthy re-issue of PiL’s classic Metal Box album on CD. This album has been reissued in several formats as both Metal Box and Second Edition through the years, but this issue is the first attempt to faithfully recreate on CD the original packaging and format of the original albums-in-a-can vinyl.
This Metal Box reissue splits the album over 3 CDs, much like the original vinyl was split over 3 discs (the first Metal Box reissue and all Second Edition reissues fit on one CD.) It is a bit gimmicky since there was an audio fidelity rationale for splitting the vinyl over 3 discs at 45rpm instead of 2 discs at 33rpm (the rationale was BASS – the only rationale ever needed, really), and no such fidelity gain is to be had from using 3 CDs. The Indie Rock Object Fetish rolls on! Let’s just hope the youngins picking up this disc spend as much time focusing on the supreme awesomeness of this seminal release (in my top 3 albums of all-time, and on occasion, the #1.)
Killing Joke – While Killing Joke has said their Last Goodbye several times before, the “Death And Resurrection Show” carries on as they now have their original lineup reunited and prepping an album for early 2010 release after playing a few reunion shows over the last year or so. The major news in that is the return of original drummer Paul Ferguson and bassist Martin ‘Youth’ Glover , who after leaving Killing Joke, went on to become one of the top-tier producers of the 90′s and Oughts (he produced The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony and U2′s under-rated cover of Night And Day, among others.)
Youth takes over after the untimely death of KJ’s second bassist, Paul Raven, who also played on the original reunion albums (both excellent, including the inspired stick work of Dave Grohl who sat behind the skins on the self-titled disc from 2003.) As sometimes happens, if you don’t know Killing Joke’s catalog, and approach it now, it may not leap out like it did at the time since their work has been so thoroughly co-opted since their initial prime (Nirvana’s Come As You Are is simply a slowed-down run on KJ’s Eighties, as far as I’m concerned). That shouldn’t dissuade you from going back and working your way through the catalog as a warm-up for their next material. Their melding of reggae and punk with the big tribal beat and angular guitar riff is really something no one has been able to touch, and not for a lack of trying.
Swans – While head Swan Michael Gira took to the web to trumpet the fact that THIS IS NOT A REUNION, it is tough not to think of new Swans material as just a continuation. While some of the late-period, less noisy and confrontational Swans stuff is, and has been, out of print for a long time, much of their material has remained in print and has aged quite well (check what used copies of Love Of Life and White Light go for on Amazon, y’all!) The most interesting aspect of the next-mach Swans is the absence of icy chanteuse Jarboe, who was key to the sound of the last albums of Swans’ original run. Fans of Gira’s Angels Of Light will likely find some continuity with the next stuff since the new Swans lineup shares a few members with the final Angels lineup. Hearing the nightmare contra-bass of Michael Gira propelling Swans material again is something a wider audience might be ready for. Certainly if Gira’s promotion of Devandra Banhart and Akron/Family is any indication, tastes of a wider audience may have finally caught up to his.
Xiu Xiu – Speaking of Michael Gira and wider audiences, one of the (rare) lighter moments to be found on the last Xiu Xiu album was his duet on the cover of Queen’s Under Pressure. With Gira playing Bowie to Jamie Stewart’s Freddy Mercury, their surprisingly faithful run at the old rock nugget might prove a foreshadowing of the upcoming Xiu Xiu release, Dear God I Hate Myself, which – despite the overwrought title – is said to be as close to accessible as Xiu Xiu has yet come. I myself cannot imagine them ever really breaking through as they have been historically, but from the sound of the first MP3′s from the new disc, it is possible they may be seen as more approachable by those with a sense of adventure. Xiu Xiu’s catalog can be a bit of work to break through with, but if you can hang with it, there are usually significant rewards. I still think Boy Soprano to be one of the best songs of the Oughts.
Out this week: Two big releases this week worth a listen…first is Teen Dream from Baltimore’s Beach House. Said to be a branching out from their first two (excellent) albums, this release’s first single Norway shows them still in top form and well-suited to the addition of organic drums and bass. Perhaps not the most upbeat band in the world, but their music has that rare ability to be rewarding as background material and close-up in headphones and given full attention. Seek out their free and legal MP3s for a taste and see if you can move ahead with them. Also out is a new album, Realism, from indie pop alpha’s Magnetic Fields.
Their last album Distortion was a most-faithful homage to the Jesus And Mary Chain’s stone cold alt.classic Psychocandy, whereas this plays as a counter-point to Distortion, relying entirely on organic instrumentation. For you conservative-types, you might have a tough time balancing your feelings here since their excellent leader and head songwriter Stephen Merritt is gay, yet also, he has been the object of a PC smear campaign in which – for nebulous and ultimately unconvincing reasons – he has been labeled a racist by East Coast Media Elites. Tough call. If you care to just focus on the music, homeboy writes excellent pop songs that will earworm you before you know what happened. By most accounts, the new album is up to form.
