Day 0851 - Homework

 Daft Punk "Homework" (1997) 

DP grew from the ashes of the guitar-based band 'Darling'.  One critic slagged them off as "Daft, punky trash" which at least set up Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter with a name for their subsequent band.

The duo moved away from guitars and into synthesizers, drum machines and samplers.  The duo released singles "Da Funk" and "Rolling and Scratching", they went back into the studio to record some more singles but came away with enough material to constitute an album.

The band leaned reasonably heavily on funk sounds, nice deep bass grooves and catchy wah-wah synth hooks.   The tracks definitely follow the dance music format of slowly building on repetitive loops, but the music is catchy, memorable and creative beyond that.

 

Day 0810 - Better Living Through Chemistry

Fatboy Slim "Better Living Through Chemistry" (1996)

Norman Cook was the bass player for an indie rock band called the Housemartins.  Following the breakup of that band he formed the electronic group Beats International, Cook already had a few years of clubbing and DJing under his belt by then.

Cook then adopted the moniker Fatboy Slim to begin his solo career proper.    

This first Fatboy Slim album features tracks already recorded and released by Cook at different times throughout his career, but, despite this and the mix and match of sounds, it's a fairly cohesive collection of fun and funky big-beat tracks.   It already has that Fatboy Slim feeling of mixing a little bit of old with a bit of new to create something fun enough to dance to, but universal enough it its appeal that non-dance fans can get in on it too.   

Pretty sure I recognised "Going out of my head" from different tv shows and/or commercials.   I'm guessing that that commercialism may have earned Cook some criticism.   Accusations of 'selling out' and all that.  Who cares though, when the music is good.

Day 0536 - Out of Step

Minor Threat "Out of Step" (1984)

Minor Threat, a band that only produced around 50 minutes worth of music yet heavily influenced modern punk rock and, through their song "Straight-edge" helped to both christen and kickstart the lifestyle movement of the same name.

This album has all the aggression and speed associated with the hardcore movement, but also the sense of humour and ability to laugh at themselves that bands like the Dead Kennedys displayed.

The band released one more EP after this and then split, leaving Ian McKaye free to form Fugazi and continue his musical explorations.

Day 0516 - Duck Rock

Malcolm McLaren "Duck Rock" (1983)

Having become well known through his involvement in the punk scene (in particular, his management of the Sex Pistols); McLaren was keen to translate that notoriety into pop stardom for himself.

McLaren teamed up with producer Trevor Horn, who was given a reasonable amount of creative control due to McLaren's lack of musicality and specific direction for how the album should be.  The book states that such was McLaren's lack of musical ability that he had to have Horn slapping him in time to the beat of the music to keep his vocal delivery in time.

Music from various nationalities was brought into the mix along with McLaren's interest in the nascent hip-hop and turntablism scene.  The resulting tracks could be seen as a precursor to the world music craze that would later arise.

Day 0486 - Damaged

Black Flag "Damaged" (1981)

Wow, that is an in-your-face punk album!  According to the book, the first few BF recordings had been in a much less intense 70s punk vein.  This album (the first with raging new singer Henry Rollins) slit that vein and spewed forth angry hardcore punk rock, almost crossing into metal in places.  There's not a lot of melody on show here, but it sorts of feels like too much melody would take away from the intensity of the music.

The band were early proponents of the DIY punk scene.  After their record label decided not to release the album, (claiming it was immoral) the band released it themselves.   The band then jumped in a van with their gear and a roadmap to tour the album off their own bat.

Day 0466 - Group Sex

Circle Jerks "Group Sex" (1980)

14 tracks in 15 minutes... it doesn't get much more punk than that, motherfucker!

Keith Morris had left Blackflag to form his own band which he did, forming Circle Jerks with Red Kross guitarist Greg Hetson.

The songs are raucous party tracks and pretty much set down the blueprint for every party punk band to follow e.g. NOFX.

Day 0463 - Ace of Spades

Motörhead "Ace of Spades" (1980)

Lemmy, having been kicked out of Hawkwind for taking too much speed, went on to start a band that seems like the musical equivalent of that drug.

I quite enjoyed the band's slightly less intense self-titled debut album, but it's hard to deny the power and immediacy of the lightning fast riffage, crazed intensity and throat tearing yells of these tracks. One of the initial building blocks of metal, but also beloved by punks at the time.

Day 0458 - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

Dead Kennedys "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables" (1980) - got it

Contender for best punk album of all time, in my opinion... shockingly this was my first (second and third) time listening to this album from start to finish.

It combines everything that can be good about punk: there's anger and vitriol, but tempered with a sense of humour.  Blisteringly fast-paced music (but played with tight musicianship) that takes some sideways detours in places. Instead of being macho and body-slamming, or agro in vaguely white supremacist manner like some of their hardcore contemporaries; this music is almost spidery and angular with the bass overruling the guitar in a lot of places.

Jello Biafra's vocals sounds wild, frantic and slightly crazy but when you actually listen to him, you see that he's one of the smarter, more eloquent spokesmen for punk.

I was actually familiar with a lot of the songs, in part because I've heard several of them covered by other bands... always a good sign.

As you can see from the above - I have since picked up a copy of this one.

Day 0451 - Machine Gun Etiquette

The Damned "Machine Gun Etiquette" (1979)

Things that make you go "oooh"

Outside of a fairly rote cover of one of these songs by the band the Offspring, I was aware of the Damned by name only, including the names of its band members, who sport such spicy monikers as Rat Scabies and Captain Sensible.

This sounds like a Ramones album and a Kinks album got shoved in blender with glorious results. Snarling punk attitude one moment, eccentric British pop the next.  Most of the time it falls partway in between, in the form of high-velocity melodic punk with a decidedly British flavour and some great little lead breaks.

Fun fact: Lemmy from Motorhead and Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon from the Clash help out with some bass, backing vocals, and hand claps.

Day 0442 - Cut

The Slits "Cut" (1979)

The Cuts were a punk band who had been part of the Sex Pistols' inner circle, but they only managed to get their first album out after the Pistols' breakup.  They had evolved during that time from their punk origins to incorporate reggae and dub elements, and jittery rhythms.

German singer Ari Up sounds somewhere between Nico and Bjork and the ratty production gives the whole thing a unique and interesting sound.

Day 0439 - London Calling

The Clash "London Calling" (1979) - got it

From a ho-hum punk album on day 438 to one of the greats.  To be fair, the Clash were barely 'punk' by this stage.  The attitude remained, and some of the more direct, raw 'rock' tracks still reflect that side of their sound, but the band were pulling influences from all corners: rockabilly, northern soul, post-punk, ska, reggae... even hints of new-wave.

 With a run of 19 tracks, I do tend to get a feeling of 'track fatigue' with it.  Most of these tracks are good and I can pick out pretty much any one track and enjoy it, but it just seems as though 65 uninterrupted minutes of Clash is probably slightly too much in one sitting for me.

Day 0438 - The Undertones

The Undertones "The Undertones" (1979)

The diversity of the 70s musical landscape comes out again as we jump from a 'disco' album back into the seedy den of punk.

The Undertones are from Northern Ireland which then makes it odd that they didn't dip their wick into angry politics for their lyrics. Instead it's mostly about girls and Saturday nights and other such things young men might want to indulge in.

Not a lot to say about this one, it's a relatively 'clean' garagey punk band/album with a bit of melody thrown in for good measure. Not bad, but nothing I'd rush to listen to again.

Day 0430 - GI

The Germs "(GI)" (1979) - got it

 
The band kicked off their first show in 1977; lead singer Darby Crash was dead of a drug overdose 3 years later.  In that time they built up a fierce live reputation and recorded this stonkingly good punk album.

Darby Crash is like Johnny Rotten, Henry Rollins and the Ramones thrown into a blender and spat on, then spat out.  Venomous, yet cartoonish. Pat Smear's riffs are killer, and it's a pity that this side of his sound doesn't really come out with Foo Fighters, but then I guess that's "Dave's band".

A great punk album, full of attitude, noise and... interestingly enough turns out it was produced by Joan Jett!

Favourite track "Richie's Dagger's Crime"

Day 0424 - Germfree Adolescents

X-Ray Spex "Germfree Adolescents" (1978)

I was quite interested in this one, partly because I think the cover is kind of groovy. Plus the lead singer sounds like a kind of an interesting lady. She went on to renounce punk after having a religious vision, and made a couple of more mellow albums under her own name. Then she left music altogether to focus on her Krishnan studies.

The music is pretty enjoyable punk rock.  The saxophone adds an extra flavour to the mix.  All in all it's like a mix of Roxy Music, the Runaways and the Stooges.  It's full of raw aggression, and Poly Styrene has a hell of a yell on her.

Day 0420 - Eternally Yours

The Saints "Eternally Yours" (1978)

Australian punk band who were swept up from Brisbane to London due to the record company feeding frenzy around anything vaguely punkish in 1977-78.

The band's songs have the pounding punk energy and are mostly pretty racous and noisy (without entirely sacrificing melody). With their overdriven bass, thrashy punk rock and melody they sound kind of like a halfway point between the Sex Pistols and the Strokes.

Day 0404 - Crossing the Red Sea with the Adverts

The Adverts "Crossing the Red Sea with the Adverts" (1978)

Hmm at first I was thinking this just sounded like another 'same ol-same ol' punk album.  Maybe it is, but turns out that doesn't stop it from being a good punk album.  It feels quite 'purist' punk too, fast and furious with plenty of attitude but not a whole lot of musicianship. Somehow though there is enough variety and strong songwriting to carry you through the album.

Musically it's not a million miles from early Arctic Monkeys, further reinforcing (in my mind at least) the musical links between the late 70s and the early 00s.

Day 0402 - All Mod Cons

The Jam "All Mod Cons" (1978)

The Jam had been signed in 1977 and within 12 months they seemed as if they were all dried up. Paul Weller's songwriting inpsiration seemed to have vanished. When the record company heard their new album they told the band to scrap it... That must be a harsh message for guys who were only around 20 at the time, and it worked to revitalise them as went back to the drawing board.

The book mentions Weller's well-sketched characters laid out in his lyrics, but as is often the case for me, I didn't really take much note of the lyrics. The music though is tight, it kind of has a punky Clash-esque vibe but with the bass even more prominent (which I enjoy) and a lot more melody.  It's almost as if the Beatles and the Clash had birthed a little pop/rock/punk baby.

There's a kind of stripped-down punk energy to it, but with a couple of tracks (including English Rose) actually being quite lovely and melodic.

Day 0395 - The Modern Dance

Pere Ubu "The Modern Dance" (1978)

Ooh, I'm only the opening track at the moment but I'm quite liking it already. Kind of punk but with a whole lot of melody and noise.

...the album seems to be continuing in that vein.  A punky sound and energy, but mixed with melody, humour and a heavy slice of avant garde, from musique concrete to just beautiful horrible noises being injected.

At times this sounds akin to a more interesting version of the 00s' indie music, like one song sounds a bit like Bloc Party... but like 'good' Bloc Party, not like the real Bloc Party...

Just when you think you've got a handle on the band, the penultimate track "Sentimental journey" takes you on what is more like a nightmare journey! With smashing glasses, outbreaks of noise in amongst ambient meanderings.

Highly recommend this one!

Day 0394 - Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols

Sex Pistols "Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols" (1977)

 
Well this one was really always going to show up, wasn't it. This album gets held up as one of the most influential, the one to really 'put punk on the map'.  Quite frankly though, with so many punk artists and albums around at the time, the 'revolution' would have happened whether this band released an album or not.

I can see why this one got seized on though: for a start, it was hugely publicised with the Pistols being assembled and marketed by Malcolm McLaren.  The band had gone on the Bill Grundy show and dropped the F-bomb.  But aside from all of that, where a lot of the other artists at the time, such as the Clash or Suicide or whoever were punk, mixed with other musical elements the Pistols seemed to be designed as some kind of punk shorthand.  The album has simplistic 3 chord songs played fast, noisily and with a large dose of sneery, smirking attitude.  There's not lot of variation so it almost reflects the later more "pure" underground and American hardcore punk that followed over the next decade or so. 

Day 0392 - Lust for Life

Iggy Pop "Lust for Life" (1977) - got it

Rawk! Since his days with the Stooges, the punk rock sound that they'd been chipping away at had come of age and started to find its way into the mainstream consciousness, which must have offered up some degree of vindication to Iggy.  This, mixed with his positive experience making "The Idiot" restored his confidence, and he felt comfortable shaking off the more prominent Bowie influences from his sound to produce another slice of gritty Stooges-esque rock but now with more of an underlying pop flavour.

The singles 'Lust for life' and 'the Passenger' feel like instant classics.  'Success' is a raging exorcism and 'Turn blue' is brilliant, drawn out bluesy jam.

The rhythm section for the album are brothers Hunt and Tony Sales, who would go on to become half of Bowie's (I feel unjustly) maligned Tin Machine band.