Don't Tell Me

DIE UNBEKKANTEN


I first came across this band back in 2001, when an acquaintance of mine via the pleasures of musical dorkdom online sent out a CD of war themed songs on a comp about how we were doomed as of 9/11. THe cover was the Time magazine cover of the impalling Twin Towers of NYC. The comp started with The Zounds track WAR.

In the midst of many bands on this compilation was this very lo fi sounding one with this almost metronome like drum machine beat, that had a very analogue similarity to early Sisters for me. Who are these Unbekannten folks? No one I knew in the musical dork scene of the time knew. I just knew I had this pretty neat song that was so simple but so catchy that I really liked it utterly so.

Add a few years to that, and after sending the song along to another friend, he acquired the ep, and sent back to me these songs ripped from vinyl. Yippee, now I had more; hope it sounds good. I really like the lead track Don't Tell Me. Its but a quick 4 tracker, but its a good little cocktail / appetizer for the satisfaction of the listener...at least I think so.

Considering I am becoming increasingly bitter about this war I am taking the moment to reflect in spirit and in time that which 9/11 spawned and has not rectified. So lets donate here for the ears of others, something that the government hasn't had a hand in destroying....our ability to share amongst those who share a universal enthusiasm to hear music and to be of like minded individuals who feel the same about it.

Surely there can be one element left that officials cannot deny us. Since they are aiming to fuck everything else up....

LINK : {Allegiance For A Future Where Everything's Nice}

And In Contrast

I can confess, when I was a little girl on Long Island growing up, I thought Stevie Nicks was super cool. Because honestly folks, we didn't start off the bat listening to this uber obscure shit. I can admit my silly adorations of youth...like when I was 8. I thought her outfits in this video were awesome and that was half of why I thought this song was so great. I want those dresses.

Stevie's kinda goth in her own way...we all know it. Come on she was a coke addict, that's 50% of it right there! ha!

Perhaps its the synth and the beat that hooked me as I was listening to Depeche Mode at this age too, so anything programmed sounded neat-o. Don't know, but just feeding a hankering that came out of no where...since I can't have cookies until Friday. I know, woe, is me.

Did the choreographer of this video...was it the same guy who did Michael Jackson's "Beat It?"
BUT PLEASE WATCH THIS!!!! Honestly Stevie Nicks is cracking me up... :)

Simplest Perfection

[OFFLINE]
Tones on Tail- You The Night and The Music
+
Tones On Tail- Rain

no more. moment. delicate.
. graceful divine .

2 years overdose=Twice

TWICE A MAN

The partnership known as Twice A Man, ie- post Cosmic Overdose, is a great synthesis, dare I say, that created one of the pivotal synth pop albums of the 80's I would say. If not in actual recognition, but perhaps sound alone that to me truly reflected what the early 80's sounded like to me, when they weren't utter commercial synth pop. The first official release by Twice A Man, Music For Girls is one that reminds me of how interesting this music was to me and how it sounded so cold and strange to me when I was little, but still poppish. I dont think I actually articulated it in that way, but mostly I was/still am, and overly visual person and it would make me think of desolated shopping malls, or giant grey rooms of people dressed in black and white with floors of black and white all moving about with very little sound, while music like this played and pantomime ensued in the event of necessary communication.

Kind of like how bedrooms were adorned with those porcelain or ceramic masks that hung from the wall. Something magical but a bit creepy at the same time. Synths to me, have always given this sound of otherworldlyness to me. Not in the Dead Can Dance effects of the Im in the Sahara, but in that video game digital analog and bleak minimal world. Like being stuck in a life version of an Atari game on a black and white set.

For that essence I would acknowledge the tracks, Breathe the Air, Battle (especially) and Decay (god bless that little repeat in there that everyone has blundered in the "did the record skip?" ergo overdubbing in my head). Then there are the outright 80s reflective electro dance pop hits that are just so obvious to anyone who listens to this lp, Dance and In My Mind. Personally, my favorite song on here is Threat, and while I think the lyrics are totally cliché, the music is the eeriest on this one with the string-like setting on the synth, that it resonates the most with that empty oddity world that I felt and conjured in my head as a young one. Gentlemen, I like the piano element to it, but it does get a bit monotonous in tone to me after a while. I still sware this was used in the soundtrack in "Fast Times At Ridgemont High." I can firmly say that Russian Tractors is not my favorite, that anthemic keyboard in it just makes it cheesy and I don't care if its because its totally dated in sound, I would have found this cheesy in the early 80s also...kind of like Ultravox's "Life's Great Adventure."

Anyways, I suppose its synth day. I hope you enjoy this for your Tuesday!

LINK : {Some...One's...Toy}

Machine Musik

(is the counter on the top almost too perfect for the recording? am i THAT
much of a dork that i think it makes this cooler? probably.

This is where my head is today...Im scheming and dreaming and feeling fortunate. Electronic lapels? HOLY SHIT! ME WANT! One day, you all will be watching me on Youtube being all, electronic eyelashes? Who'd of thunk?
Each lash, flashes a cymbal crash! NIIIIICE!

An Ode...

:)

there's a space in what you know

Every band that one holds near and dear has a similar reason as to why, and for me it's the ebb and flow of how I relate my emotions and essences to a band. Does it cradle and pull at the heart and head strings? If it does enough that I fall victim to encapsulating myself into the songs then, by jove! ITS A KEEPAH!

Enter the Comsat Angels. A band that I knew, but didnt know, until I discovered them and didnt realize I knew them but thought I stumbled upon the greatest thing, without realizing I had always known them from a much longer time, but just not in this format. If that seems boggling, then perhaps if I said I knew the pop hit "Stay Tonite" by CS Angels, but didn't know that song was by the CS Angels, who were in fact the Comsat Angels, and while I knew this somg lyrically inside and out, and the track from "Real Genius". Back when I was like 8 years old. Many years later, at 22, I was given a mixed tape by a dear former friend of mine, I heard the song Total War from these sessions, and thought it was one fo the best things I had heard in a great while.

Who the hell were the Comsat Angels?
I must find everything by them and buy it, PRONTO!
So I made a mad dash to my computer, yes, it was only some 8 years ago this stumble happened, and I am quick to want than rest and wait, so I ordered "Waiting For A Miracle" and waited. I got it, listened and then jumped onto the computer and ordered "Sleep No More." Got it, listened to it and was beyond floored. How could there be so much bass in ones face and so darn perfect in every way. Where was this during my mopey teen years? It was everything that The Cure's "Disintegration" was incapable of delivering, but everything I wanted. I hailed Our Secret as one of the greatest gloom pop songs ever and noted the Comsat's as one of the greatest and most under appreciated bands.

Said friend of mixed tape, burned me off the b sides from the re-masters that came out in 2003, so I would have music for my flight to France, and also burned this initial version of the "Time Considered Sessions" and "Fiction" for me. I was Comsatted and ready to go!

Words alone are all I can use but I still have issues with the fact that no one ever mentions these guys as influential in the post punk era. However, in a regard I am also glad because in some way I treasure them soo that I dont want some piece of shit hipster who's on the bandwagon to be listening to them and not fully digesting how great they are, but saying something clever like, they are among his top bands like Suicide, Gang of 4, The Pop Group, Wire and Pere Ubu. I cannot have this. Yes Im a snob, get over it. (or has the reference list changed again?)

"Yeah Im really into those early demo sessions by Human League. THe Normal too....its amazing electronic stuff, really interesting. But I think it all goes back to Eno, but you know The Velvets and Floyd too, I mean you have to admit...."

Do you want me to strike a poseur?
ha! :)

This assortment of songs is grand. This band is amazing and Kevin Bacon, the profound one who is the "real" musician, is one of the greatest song writers and smooth bass players in rock. Give props! Im not sure in the combo who wins...I think I gravitate towards the Bacon more (haa haa thats funny) but then again, there's the Burgess...Its a Burgess v. Bacon....its a toughy, because they're very different and very similar. Its all in the delivery.

Our Secret still makes me feel dropped on my head and dumbfounded by just about everything in this world. But while it does this it makes me feel so assured at the same time. How!? HOW DO YOU DO THIS!!!!???? I also will notate that the greatest bass line ever dropped in musical history comes at the bridge of Independence Day, and you can't tell it so much in the sessions, but on WFM, its beyond amazing! Like getting kicked in the ass in the best way. If you are out there in hip hop land, take a lesson, that's how you drop it!

LINK : BBC Sessions