Chasing the long tail of new media
Album: Metal Box
Year: 1979
“We’re not a band, we’re a company”
In late 1979, Public Image Ltd released their second album, initially called Metal Box after the packaging, and later called Second Edition when it was released in a slightly more, er, accessible format. They also made two amazing appearances on American TV; one somewhat expected, and the other so far beyond the pale that it still defies explanation.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1680: Public Image Ltd – “Poptones”
Album: Public Image: First Issue
Year: 1978
. . .
After the Sex Pistols broke up following their U.S. tour — wait, that’s not right. Start again.
After Johnny Rotten left the Sex Pistols following their U.S. tour, he almost instantly formed a band while his former bandmates caroused with bank robbers, made films and did smack, desperately trying to get their focus, which, of course they never did. Because they’d lost it.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1679: Public Image Ltd – “Public Image”
Album: Fear of a Black Planet
Year: 1990
. . .
You can use a lot of words to describe the music that Public Enemy made on in the late 80s & early 90’s — “hard,” “revolutionary,” “banging” all come to mind — but “catchy” probably isn’t one of those words. For the most part, they didn’t worry about people singing along with their songs; they’d much rather have them chanting those songs while marching in the street.
But “Brothers Gonna Work It Out,” which was essentially a duet between Chuck D and Flavor Flav, is well and truly catchy, deploying all kinds of vocal samples the same way, say, Prince would deploy guitar and keyboard riffs, my favorite one being:
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1678: Public Enemy – “Brothers Gonna Work It Out”
Album: Fear of a Black Planet
Year: 1990
. . .
Now they’re just showing off.
With every single measure, every single beat utterly exploding from your speakers, “Welcome To The Terrordome” just might be the pinnacle of the art of the Bomb Squad, the insanely creative production team that featured Chuck D, Eric “Vietnam” Sadler, and Keith & Hank Shocklee. It’s not so much a wall of sound, but a wave of sound that forces you to either ride or drown. And either one is cool.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1677: Public Enemy – “Welcome To The Terrordome”
Album: Fear of a Black Planet
Year: 1990
I still remember going to see Do The Right Thing during an empty matinee at the UA at Barstow and Blackstone. At the time, there was a clearly racist hysteria that the film’s incendiary ending could somehow instigate rioting, but there certainly wasn’t any reaction but minds being blown.
Or at least mine was: I’d enjoyed She’s Gotta Have It and watched School Daze, but Do The Right Thing was a complete and utter leveling up, a smart, funny and morally ambiguous look at race, class, capitalism and everybody going crazy from the fucking heat.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1676: Public Enemy – “Fight The Power”
Album: It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back
Year: 1988
. . .
“Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic.” That’s the name of the Isaac Hayes song — from his 1969 album Hot Buttered Soul — from which the piano sample that fuels what is probably my favorite rap song: the titanic “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos.”
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1675: Public Enemy – “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”
Album: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Year: 1987
. . .
Holy fuck, this song!!
Public Enemy’s second single in the run-up to It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back as well a cornerstone of the Less Than Zero soundtrack, “Bring The Noise” is so chock full of great lines and great beats it’s actually kinda overwhelming. I’m tempted to just quote the lyrics, and let it go at that.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1674: Public Enemy – “Bring The Noise”
Album: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Year: 1987
. . .
The first single from the monumental It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back came out only a few months after their debut album, Yo! Bum Rush The Show!, but it was already light years ahead, an early example of the production technique of The Bomb Squad, who along with Sonic Youth on the rock tip, completely changed music in 1988.
Or at least changed me. I was never the same after those two records, neither of which I actually fully heard until they finished 1-2 in the 1988 Pazz & Jop critics poll, and so in early 1989, I knew that I had to give them a shot or ignore the critical conversation for the rest of my life.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1673: Public Enemy – “Rebel Without a Pause”
Album: All of This And Nothing
Year: 1988
After the major disappointment of Mirror Moves and the misbegotten re-recording of “Pretty in Pink,” I didn’t even bother with 1987’s Midnight to Midnight, especially after I heard the single, “Heartbreak Beat,” a synth-drenched wannabe anthem that proved to be their highest-charting single here in the U.S., which means that some of you might remember it fondly. I do not.
I had completely disconnected myself from the music The Psychedelic Furs made in the mid-1980s, and in my own youthful arrogance, I figured that was that.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1672: The Psychedelic Furs – “All That Money Wants”
Album: Mirror Moves
Year: 1984
. . .
It’s not a hard-and-fast rule, but in general, beware the album by a band that with a cover that features only the lead singer. Especially when their previous records always featured the full band. For example, the first Rolling Stones album to to have just Mick Jagger on the cover was Goats Head Soup, nobody’s pick for the best Rolling Stones album. Obviously, there are exceptions — there are always exceptions — but outside of (ironically) Tattoo You, I can’t think of any.
So in retrospect, the fact that Mirror Moves features only a frowning, posing Richard Butler on the cover and the other two Furs, Tim Butler and John Ashton — Vince Ely having left in the wake of Forever Now — was probably the first clue as to the album’s un-goodness. The second clue was, of course, on the inner sleeve, as well as the record label: “Produced by Keith Forsey,” who at that point was primarily known for smoothing out Billy Idol’s punk sneer with a pop sheen, and, oh yeah, Flashdance.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1671: The Psychedelic Furs – “Heaven”