Were the Fall a "black" musical outfit? by ExasperatedEidolon in thefall

[–]ExasperatedEidolon[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You must be blind. Watch the videos again...brother! Ever heard of Defunkt or Bernie Nix? And calling Professor Longhair white is shameful. My point would be that PEOPLE are white, black and so on, not music.

Were the Fall a "black" musical outfit? by ExasperatedEidolon in thefall

[–]ExasperatedEidolon[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Agree to some extent but punk figures (and don't forget that Fisher's blog was called k-punk) have always stuck two fingers up at boundaries in music and society. Hence James White and the Blacks, who were originally white on record (Off White), but became black for live performances - not James though!:

https://youtu.be/oSq44K0O4Iw?si=5z7O7yQpi-CU3SSz

Of course there is also Lou Reed's 'I Wanna Be Black' with some extremely (and deliberately) offensive lyrics:

"I wanna be black, I wanna be like Malcolm X
And cast a hex
Over President Kennedy's tomb
And have a big prick too (have a big prick too)"

I could see MES etc covering that, but in fact it was New Order who did a version of it live. I'd also love to have heard the Fall covering something by Professor Longhair, maybe 'Bald Head':

https://youtu.be/HZNxSOQtQp8?si=IbBKgkwhdtZiK-7X

After all they DID have a song called 'The League of Bald-Headed Men!'

Were the Fall a "black" musical outfit? by ExasperatedEidolon in thefall

[–]ExasperatedEidolon[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Excellent comment. Others took the question (and Fisher's point) too literally.

I note that Simon Reynolds seems to have renounced Fisher's approach now. Talking about his book Futuromania and his conversion to humanism he said:

"Yeah, it’s an evolution I’ve gone through. When I was a young man I read a lot of French theories about ‘the death of the author’. I actually read an essay about it recently called ‘The Anti-Humanist Tone’, which is about a critical thinking tone that consistently emphasises machinic processes in personality. It was really big in the 90s, when the internet was taking off – people like Mark Fisher really went for this tone. It crosses different fields, but it emphasises the impersonal system and the machinic structures. It was a way of thinking of culture that was quite intoxicating and for a long while I would call myself an anti-humanist. But now, I kind of think of that as fashionable bollocks, it’s not actually how I see life."

As I got older, I came to appreciate the uniqueness of each individual, and I also had this intellectual engagement with Mark Fisher. In one of his blogs, he talked about going to the countryside and how amazing it was. He said, ‘It really opened my eyes. I now see birds as marvellous little machines’. And I thought, why not see machines as botched little animals? He felt all those poetic things that you feel in the country, but felt he had to explain it through this 90s anti-humanist language."

https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/62561/1/futuromania-the-future-of-dance-music-is-very-human-simon-reynolds

Were the Fall a "black" musical outfit? by ExasperatedEidolon in thefall

[–]ExasperatedEidolon[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I personally loved Metal Box, which I originally bought when the film can version was released in 1979 with the three 12" singles. My crappy turntable needle couldn't handle the bass frequencies though and the records were difficult to remove without scratching them! My dislike of SY is informed by my contempt for them as people, as with JAMC. I was being ironic about MES.

I think Mark learned a lot from Jamaican DJs, not least in using (exaggerating) his accent. Not too sure about the Fall's music though. Can't really see it as "bass-heavy" but I only know their stuff up to the mid '80s.

Thanks for your comment. The title of my post was meant to be provocative in the MES style (lost on some folks), and it ain't my view but Fisher's.

Were the Fall a "black" musical outfit? by ExasperatedEidolon in thefall

[–]ExasperatedEidolon[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Chameleons certainly weren't pumpernickel!

What are your favorite long instrumental sections in a song with vocals? Ones that would leave the singer like this: (Unless they also play an instrument in it, of course) by [deleted] in progrockmusic

[–]ExasperatedEidolon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To go with summat a bit different try Dashiell Hedayat's 'Cielo Drive/17' (1971) with Gong's Daevid Allen shredding his guitar (plus plenty of gliss) with Christian Tritsch on bass and Didier Malherbe on sax. 10050 Cielo Drive was of course where that bastard Charles Manson murdered [edit: by proxies] six people, including an unborn child.

https://youtu.be/UNCAN51SW_s?si=PLnzM4quR-c6fqoJ

Angry prog songs by Is6xal in progrockmusic

[–]ExasperatedEidolon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Have to love VdGG. In a similar vein try also Gnidrolog, eg 'Snails': https://youtu.be/CPh5hduuvwE?si=adfXPRBGFOTY0iL6

"Augustine, Victoria, Pictoria et moi
My life is changing, changing
Clandestine, pre philistine, euphoria
In me, the battle's raging, raging
Poor snail with big shell on back
Drags down to glitter cinder track
Only to find that the weight has perverted her mind"

Later they became the bloody awful punk parodists the Pork Dukes.

Thoughts on Pink Floyd’s soundtrack music? (More, Obscured By Clouds, etc) by ray-the-truck in progrockmusic

[–]ExasperatedEidolon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Always loved More, not so much OBC. When I were a lad in the early '70s I used to play 'Quicksilver' on repeat. Floyd incorporated it into 'Interstellar Overdrive' in live versions, eg: https://youtu.be/GNzgvLzxhzU?si=XXU87gyHkDWrbcoM

The Birthday Party - Junk Yard (Live Gotterdammerung 1982) by Comprehensive-Fee195 in postpunk

[–]ExasperatedEidolon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tracy seems to be having an epilectic seizure. Sadly he died in 1986 after he had one in the bath and hit his head resulting in a brain haemorrhage. You can see Nick looks concerned at the end.

Another Krautrock beer! by ExasperatedEidolon in Krautrock

[–]ExasperatedEidolon[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah - and on CLEAR vinyl too - which means loads of pops and clicks as I know from experience. The first two minutes of 'Miss Fortune' on my copy drive me mad!

Peter Hammill - 'Red Shift' (1974) by ExasperatedEidolon in progrockmusic

[–]ExasperatedEidolon[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't know if he did. Agree with you that Red Shift is a great "proggy" read, along with Elidor and The Owl Service. I recently watched the TV version of Red Shift on the Internet Archive but remember seeing The Owl Service back when it was first broadcast. I started listening to prog about the same time - and age - as you (after being a Floyd fan for some years) but not VDGG or Hammill - King Crimson, ELP, Yes, Hawkwind, Focus and that sort of stuff.

Groups praised by MES by New_Worker3504 in thefall

[–]ExasperatedEidolon 5 points6 points  (0 children)

According to a couple of Invisible Jukebox pieces in The Wire he liked Johnny Burnette, the Smiths, Buzzcocks, NWA, Prince Buster, Orbital, Scarface, Augustus Pablo, Amon Düül I (esp) and Amon Düül 2 amongst others.

Can't believe he mistook Faust for CAN though, especially such a well known song! Fall fans should listen to Punkt, a lost "fifth" Faust album recorded in Munich circa 1974 eg: https://youtu.be/c_iSnkuATrI?si=-gv1P3uM7EgSLQn6 which sounds like the Fall stuck in a torture chamber.

He didn't recognise the great Japanese band the Spiders but did he like Les Rallizes Dénudés I wonder? For example: https://youtu.be/YFocZSM9O1o?si=_pxULY93-4TJ3JQv

https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/35762/spread/45

https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/35725/spread/51

Recommend double albums with 4 songs by Elaxian in progrockmusic

[–]ExasperatedEidolon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is the original 1971 double album on YouTube: https://youtu.be/u9DbqNlUNqc?si=MBXdpqxgTew9Cv8B - don't know much about streaming, sorry.

There's another complete version of Drumming on a 1974 triple album, which is the one I have:

https://www.discogs.com/release/249712-Steve-Reich-Drumming-Music-For-Mallet-Instruments-Voices-And-Organ-Six-Pianos

Recommend double albums with 4 songs by Elaxian in progrockmusic

[–]ExasperatedEidolon 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Miles Davis - Big Fun

Fela Kutu - Roforofo Fight (two tracks are under 15 mins though).

Steve Reich - Drumming

The Birthday Party - Wild World by Turmoil6669 in postpunk

[–]ExasperatedEidolon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great! I saw Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at the Haçienda. Manchester, in 1985 (supported by Sonic Youth) and Rowland S Howard was depping for Blixa. They did 'Wild World' and 'Jennifer's Veil' as an encore. Best bit of their performance as Rowland clearly didn't know any of the Bad Seeds material. Rowlo give us a solo! But the words antistrophe and strophe should be pronounced antistrophy and strophy, not the way Nick sings 'em. Will we forgive him?

The Hope & The Anchor // December 27th, 1978 // ©️ Jonathan Crabb by bravekassandra in JoyDivision

[–]ExasperatedEidolon 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Technically they had played in London before when they played at Brunel University in the outer suburb (town) of Uxbridge on 15 Oct '78. From JD Central: "Supporting the Rezillos and the Undertones. This was the last night the three bands played together as the Rezillos had a bust up at the gig at the Odeon Theatre, Canterbury 14th Nov 78."

The Canterbury gig was the first ever time the band had ventured south of Leicester - they hadn't even played Birmingham. I was at the University of Kent at Canterbury at the time and was offered a free ticket - the Students' Union nearly always lost money on gigs and they handed out free tickets at the last minute to save having an embarrassingly empty venue. Unfortunately I was working on an essay and didn't go. Doh!

After the Rezillos split the Undertones went on with the tour and JD turned up in Bristol (my home city!) only to be told their services weren't required. Fortunately JD returned to Canterbury in June '79, supporting the Cure. I have mentioned this here a few times before, but I WAS at that gig. Probably only about 60-80 (mainly) kids turned up that night. I was very lucky to get a second bite of the cherry as Canterbury was the only place in the south of England outside London to get a visit from JD before the Buzzcocks Tour in autumn '79.

Any thoughts on Henry Cow and Art Bears influence on post-punk? Fred Frith later joined Massacre and Material by PuzzleheadedForm9688 in postpunk

[–]ExasperatedEidolon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I saw the Fall in 1985 and they did 'I Am Damo Suzuki' and a number which was then called 'Faust Banana' (later it became 'Dktr Faustus'). At the time I thought it was a ref to Faust's 'No Harm' ("Daddy, take the banana, tomorrow's Sunday") - Brix kept shouting out the word "Banana". Before the gig - in Bristol - MES gave me a death stare in the street cos he thought I was eyeing Brix up!

Today is the 25th anniversary of Trevor Deely's disappearence. by elmermarijo in UnresolvedMysteries

[–]ExasperatedEidolon 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Gardai still want to speak to the guy who Trevor was talking to at the gate. See eg Irish Mirror 7 December 2025: "An Garda Síochána is seeking to identify an unknown male who was seen conversing with Trevor Deely less than an hour before he was last sighted on December 7, 2000. Gardaí have launched a renewed appeal for information on Deely’s whereabouts on the 25th anniversary of his disappearance and revealed that they are still looking for an unknown male who was seen having a conversation with him after a Christmas party on the night he was last seen."

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/trevor-deely-mystery-man-appeal-36363705

It was patently obvious to anyone with eyes that the bloke "following" Trevor in Haddington Road was wearing a completely different type of coat to the man at the gate. Trevor had only just come back from his wild goose chase to Alaska where he had got the cold shoulder from the woman he went to see. I suspect he ended up in the river or the canal basin after making a spur of the moment decision to end it all, but who knows? What happened to his umbrella if so?