Thursday, February 16, 2006
Love - Two Days Late
OK, so Jeannine bought me an iPod for Christmas. And it is awesome, I love being able to listen to music on my daily commute. One of the things I am doing is trying to put ALL of my CDs on the iPod to clear up shelf space in the house. And to get the CDs away from the hands of my ever-curious children. And to enable us to take our CD collection in the car with us on long trips. So, I am methodically going through my CD collection, loading the CDs into iTunes and then downloading them onto the iPod.
I’m Type A. Hardcore Type A. My CDs are organized alphabetically by artist’s name and then chronologically within a band. And there is a soundtrack section, a sampler section, a classical music section, etc. I mean, it isn't "High Fidelity" organized (that guy was crazy, I'm not) but it is pretty organized if I do say so myself. Some may say “That isn’t Type A, that is perfectly reasonable.” If you are one of those people, welcome to Type A. Have a seat.
Anyway, I’m through the “C” section of my endeavor. The other day I listened to “Love” by The Cult. Hot damn! What a GREAT record (album, disc, whatever)! I was seriously rocking out to good old (and I mean old, have you seen this guy lately?) Ian Astbury. This disc has held up considerably better than some of its mid/late 80s contemporaries. As an example of a disc that has NOT held up well without hesitation I point to “Brighter than a Thousand Suns” by Killing Joke. This is as bad as “Love” is good. “Brighter than a Thousand Suns” is so bad I was apparently compelled to write a negative review on Amazon. Twice. Two years apart. And when I was writing the second review I had apparently forgotten about the first review. If you compare the two you’ll see they say darned near the exact same thing. So, I’m consistent in my evaluation of that piece of crap. But I digress…
Back in 1985 when "Love" was released I was a college freshman as was our fearless Bitter Buffalo in Charge. Bill here had one of the original beige Macs. By original I mean 512K memory, an 400K floppy drive and a mouse the size of a brick. I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. And it had MacPaint. One day I stopped by Bill’s dorm room (we lived down the hall from one another – the beginning of one of my longest and most cherished friendships) to see what was going on. He had his nose INCHES from the 8” monochromatic screen and was moving the mouse Ever. So. Slightly.
“Whatcha’ doin’ Billy?”
“Drawing this album cover in MacPaint for a cassette tape,” holding up the record sleeve.
I’ll be damned if that wasn’t EXACTLY what he was doing. This goon had determined what dimensions he had to work with to make his own cassette sleeve and was reproducing the entire cover in MacPaint. The whole thing. The customized font used in the title and track listings, the wings on the front cover, and even the little runes you see festooning the front and back covers. The whole damned thing. And remember, this was in 1985, before $80 scanners, digital cameras, and the like. He was doing it pixel by pixel. I was in the presence of greatness. Or evil genius. Or a guy who didn’t want to do his reading for “History and Politics of the American Workplace” one of our core courses. (I later came to realize that it was the latter of the three. After being roommates for two years I learned that Bill is – or was - a master of procrastination. A Master with a capital “M” as is his due.)
The point of this? If you haven’t dusted off your copy of “Love” I suggest you do so soon. Turn the stereo up and bask in its loudness. You know you want to.
I’m Type A. Hardcore Type A. My CDs are organized alphabetically by artist’s name and then chronologically within a band. And there is a soundtrack section, a sampler section, a classical music section, etc. I mean, it isn't "High Fidelity" organized (that guy was crazy, I'm not) but it is pretty organized if I do say so myself. Some may say “That isn’t Type A, that is perfectly reasonable.” If you are one of those people, welcome to Type A. Have a seat.
Anyway, I’m through the “C” section of my endeavor. The other day I listened to “Love” by The Cult. Hot damn! What a GREAT record (album, disc, whatever)! I was seriously rocking out to good old (and I mean old, have you seen this guy lately?) Ian Astbury. This disc has held up considerably better than some of its mid/late 80s contemporaries. As an example of a disc that has NOT held up well without hesitation I point to “Brighter than a Thousand Suns” by Killing Joke. This is as bad as “Love” is good. “Brighter than a Thousand Suns” is so bad I was apparently compelled to write a negative review on Amazon. Twice. Two years apart. And when I was writing the second review I had apparently forgotten about the first review. If you compare the two you’ll see they say darned near the exact same thing. So, I’m consistent in my evaluation of that piece of crap. But I digress…
Back in 1985 when "Love" was released I was a college freshman as was our fearless Bitter Buffalo in Charge. Bill here had one of the original beige Macs. By original I mean 512K memory, an 400K floppy drive and a mouse the size of a brick. I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. And it had MacPaint. One day I stopped by Bill’s dorm room (we lived down the hall from one another – the beginning of one of my longest and most cherished friendships) to see what was going on. He had his nose INCHES from the 8” monochromatic screen and was moving the mouse Ever. So. Slightly.
“Whatcha’ doin’ Billy?”
“Drawing this album cover in MacPaint for a cassette tape,” holding up the record sleeve.
I’ll be damned if that wasn’t EXACTLY what he was doing. This goon had determined what dimensions he had to work with to make his own cassette sleeve and was reproducing the entire cover in MacPaint. The whole thing. The customized font used in the title and track listings, the wings on the front cover, and even the little runes you see festooning the front and back covers. The whole damned thing. And remember, this was in 1985, before $80 scanners, digital cameras, and the like. He was doing it pixel by pixel. I was in the presence of greatness. Or evil genius. Or a guy who didn’t want to do his reading for “History and Politics of the American Workplace” one of our core courses. (I later came to realize that it was the latter of the three. After being roommates for two years I learned that Bill is – or was - a master of procrastination. A Master with a capital “M” as is his due.)
The point of this? If you haven’t dusted off your copy of “Love” I suggest you do so soon. Turn the stereo up and bask in its loudness. You know you want to.
posted by Anonymous, 3:30 PM
3 Buffaloes were bitter enough to post comments:
I'll have more tomorrow, but I just went to Amazon...
Dude, you're oh for fourteen! Nobody liked your review(s) (except, me, because I totally see where you are going, though I would give Bt1000S three stars, methinks, if not, say, three THOUSAND stars!)!
Even I am six-for-six (hint: Jonathan Demmme's best film, IMO) at Amazon.
Wait... now you are one for fifteen!
Huzzah!
Dude, you're oh for fourteen! Nobody liked your review(s) (except, me, because I totally see where you are going, though I would give Bt1000S three stars, methinks, if not, say, three THOUSAND stars!)!
Even I am six-for-six (hint: Jonathan Demmme's best film, IMO) at Amazon.
Wait... now you are one for fifteen!
Huzzah!
OK, I spent some time this morning listening to Brighter Than A Thousand Suns (hereafter abbreviated as Bt1K*, which is almost as difficult to type as the full name, but just plain reeks of technocool), and you're absolutely right, Matt: Bt1K* is not a good record. But I am not sure it's an absolute lack of quality that sets it back, so much as it's just so painfully dated. And to think it was released in 1986, just a year after the KJ "classic" Night Time (which included the anthemic and now overused "Eighties," and which is, upon recent reflection, not that good, either)...
The impression I get from the first six songs on Bt1K* is that KJ was trying to out-Alphaville Alphaville. Perhaps they aspired to be big in Japan. Who knows? In any case, the washing synths, drum machines, and echo-y production are hallmarks of the time. KJ can be accused of nothing more than trying to make an album that sounded like all of the other records that were selling millions of copies at the time -- think back to the shit we played on our radio show: Alphaville, A-Ha, Animotion (and that's just the 'A's). Remember, KJ wanted to be a "dance band" from the get-go ("Wardance," anyone?). What they didn't seem to realize when they made Bt1K*, was that abandoning their signature big guitar sound meant abandoning any pretense of originality. Those first six songs are some of the worst KJ ever recorded (though I recommend you look at all of their stuff -- this band has recorded some pretty bad stuff over the years).
But from "Victory" onward, Bt1K* isn't all that bad. The painful production is still there, but the songs are better. Almost like what we expect "vintage" Killing Joke to sound like: anthemic, slightly menacing and (dare I suggest it again?) danceable (as opposed to recent KJ, which is much less danceable and much more menacing).
Now Love, on the other hand... absolutely no such reservations. It kicks ass (I am listening to it now), and I thank you for reminding me of its virtues.
The impression I get from the first six songs on Bt1K* is that KJ was trying to out-Alphaville Alphaville. Perhaps they aspired to be big in Japan. Who knows? In any case, the washing synths, drum machines, and echo-y production are hallmarks of the time. KJ can be accused of nothing more than trying to make an album that sounded like all of the other records that were selling millions of copies at the time -- think back to the shit we played on our radio show: Alphaville, A-Ha, Animotion (and that's just the 'A's). Remember, KJ wanted to be a "dance band" from the get-go ("Wardance," anyone?). What they didn't seem to realize when they made Bt1K*, was that abandoning their signature big guitar sound meant abandoning any pretense of originality. Those first six songs are some of the worst KJ ever recorded (though I recommend you look at all of their stuff -- this band has recorded some pretty bad stuff over the years).
But from "Victory" onward, Bt1K* isn't all that bad. The painful production is still there, but the songs are better. Almost like what we expect "vintage" Killing Joke to sound like: anthemic, slightly menacing and (dare I suggest it again?) danceable (as opposed to recent KJ, which is much less danceable and much more menacing).
Now Love, on the other hand... absolutely no such reservations. It kicks ass (I am listening to it now), and I thank you for reminding me of its virtues.
I do find myself cranking XM whenever the Cult comes on - they were awesome, even though I don't own anything by them.
As for Purdy, well let's just say that the template he created for his BBCD club disc is used often by me. Heck, my brother and I are even using it for Split Nerves the Movie!
Evil genius indeed!
As for Purdy, well let's just say that the template he created for his BBCD club disc is used often by me. Heck, my brother and I are even using it for Split Nerves the Movie!
Evil genius indeed!