Track Listing: 1. Breakdown 2. Time's Up 3. Boredom 4. Friends of Mine
I bought this 7 inch at Eastside Records on my birthday, last October. I kind of splurged on it ($14.99 bucks for a single!!) but I've been looking for a copy and they stated it was a second pressing, so I went for it...
...In the end I think I was swayed by the price tag that had the happy little tooth on it! So cute! Nothing like my angry teeth!
This is of course, the Buzzcocks legendary debut...Notable at the time for being self-released, which helped established the DIY ethos in the punk scene...It's also their only release with Howard Devoto (later of post-punk group Magazine) on vocals...
Growing up, I kept reading that the Devoto-lead Buzzcocks were a different animal than the Pete Shelley incarnation, but I was surprised to hear they pretty much sound exactly the same...Ridiculously energetic, pop songs with helium-voiced hooks and snappy drumming...John Maher is easily one of my favorite punk drummers of all time...I'm certain I've already raved about his fast and clean style in a previous post, but I honestly don't think I can rave on enough...This guy is fantastic!
My favorite track has to be the opener "Breakdown," which I originally encountered in a Shelley-sung version on the "French" live album...
Am I sure this is Howard Devoto? This sounds like Pete singing, but the cover only credits him as guitar and backing vocals....Huh...Anyway. it sounds like British Invasion pop on speed: Mouth foaming and anxious to get off the stage so they can read some book on existential french philosophy or something, and "Breakdown" exemplifies this style more effectively than any other track in the band's repertoire.
"Boredom" is another drop-dead classic that's remained an enduring entry into the Buzzcocks canon . Listen to them sing about boredom like it's the most exciting thing on Earth! Their boredom must be a lot more fun than mine...
My boredom usually involves some sort of Power-Point packed meeting or maybe a particularly long DMV line....That's why I usually try to have some Buzzcocks music on hand to help their boredom alleviate my boredom...
Hmm, I was about to end this post, but it feels too short...It's kind of hard to do a lengthy post on a single..I guess I could mention the other two songs..."Time's Up" has some pretty amusing response vocals...and "Friends of Mine" is all right...
Man! Still too short. How can I make this seem longer?
Ahhh, I know...Here's a 40 minute powerpoint video about Marketing...This should feel like an eternity...
Okay, here's "Breakdown" by the Buzzcocks...You've earned it...
Track Listing: 1. Orgasm Addict 2. What Do I Get? 3. I Don't Mind 4. Autonomy 5. Fast Cars 6. Get on Our Own 7. Sixteen 8. Fiction Romance 9. Love You More 10. Noise Annoys 11. Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) 12. Operators Manual 13. Nostalgia 14. Walking Distance 15. Nothing Left 16. ESP 17. Promises 18. Lipstick 19. Everybody's Happy Nowadays 20. Harmony in My Head 21. You Say You Don't Love Me 22. I Don't Know What to Do with My Life 23. I Believe 24. Are Everything 25. Radio Nine
A 1991 compilation...Now that I think of it, this would be their first greatest hits album, since "Singles Going Steady" is actually just a collection of A-Sides and B-Sides..."Operator's Manual" collects all those A-sides (and a good number of those B-sides) along with album tracks....
This provides a pretty accurate overview of their work actually...Although known for their pop-perfection, they also had an adventurous side, which this compilation doesn't shy away from...This is best represented by the inclusion of deep-album cuts like "Sixteen" and "I Believe."
But for the most part it's friendly, catchy punk...I've covered most of the highlights already, but there's a few I haven't...The strongest being their transitional 1979 singles "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" and "Harmony in My Head."
"Everybody's Happy Nowadays" finds the chirpy Pete Shelley sending up the band's image:
"Life's an illusion,
Love is a dream..."
He sings the downer lyrics in the happiest voice possible, and the arrangement is ambitious as hell...Lots of stops,starts, drop-outs and Interesting guitar textures..."Harmony in My Head" follows this same formula, but gives it an angrier punk tone...Now these are great punk singles...
The 1978 "Promises/Lipstick" single is cool too...Very catchy and modern...The b-side "Lipstick" is notable in that the riff is also used in ex-Buzzcock member Howard Devoto's song "Shot by Both Sides"...
Here, you can hear from yourself...Here's "Lipstick" by the Buzzcocks....
...and here's "Shot by Both Sides" by Magazine...
Speaking of Howard Devoto, they should have used something from the "Spiral Scratch" ep...Maybe "Breakdown" or "Boredom"...
It would have given a fuller view of the Buzzcocks' development, but that aside, the song selection is dead-on...I don't know what I would have done differently, really....If you lean more towards pop immediacy, "Singles Going Steady" is probably a better introduction, but man, "Operator's Manual" is incredible...I say take the plunge on this...You can usually find this in any record store for a reasonable price...
But before you head off to the record shop, let's check out "Harmony in My Head" by the Buzzcocks...Enjoy...
Track Listing: 1. Paradise 2. Sitting Around at Home 3. You Say You Don't Love Me 4. You Know You Can't Help It 5. Mad Mad Judy 6. Raison D'etre 7. I Don't Know What to Do with My Life 8. Money 9. Hollow Inside 10. A Different Kind of Tension 11. I Believe 12. Radio Nine 13. Are Everything 14. Strange Thing 15. What Do You Know 16. Why She's the Girl from the Chainstore 17. Airwaves Dream 18. Running Free
This is another twofer CD...It collects the classic line-up's final album "A Different Kind of Tension" and the posthumous 1981 singles collection "Parts 1-3" which features the final three singles not included on "Singles Going Steady."
1979's "A Different Kind of Tension" is an interesting record...For one thing, the group's signature pop-punk is almost gone (the exception being the catchy and angst-filled "I Don't Know What to Do With My Life"and "You Say You Don't Love Me."). They replace it with a darker, post-punk sound...The droning title track, "Money" and "Hollow Inside" are all cold and repetitive...They still manage to get lodged in your head, but more like robotic mantras than catchy choruses....
Guitarist Steve Diggle also gets a much larger share of the vocal duties this time...His tracks are more gruff and aggressive..."Mad, Mad Judy" and "You Know You Can't Help It" are almost hardcore..
The best moment on the album though, is closer "I Believe" which works as a fitting finale to the Buzzcocks...They later re-united, but that doesn't dilute the song's impact...First off it's 9 minutes long...That might seem like peanuts on a Grateful Dead album...
...but a 9 minute pop-punk song? It's a feat rarely matched...An especially wounded Pete Shelley outlines his disillusionment with the world over a careening punk backing...
"I'm skippin' the pages of a book that takes ages for the foreword to end,
Triangular cover concealing another aspect from view,
My relative motion is just an illusion from stopping too fast,
The essence of being these feelings I'm feeling, I just want them to last..."
But the most surprising moment comes when Pete endlessly repeats, "There is no love in this world anymore!" Sure, that's a sentiment you've heard a million times in punk and metal, but coming from the eternally optimistic and romantic Pete Shelley, it's actually kind of shocking...His voice eventually twists itself from the normally twee and tuneful voice that we know and love, into an anguished snarl that recalls Johnny Rotten...Boy, it wasn't surprising that these guys broke up shortly after this record...
Amazing final track...
That wasn't quite the end though...They still had a couple singles in them...1981's "Parts 1-3" includes these last three singles and their b-sides...
As much as I love these songs, there's no denying it...The party's over...The joy is gone...When you listen to "Are Everything" and "What Do You Know?" the band coldly goes through the motions while the producer piles effects and overdubs onto everything...Surprisingly this technique works and the group's transition into post-punk is complete...Hell, if you told me "Airwaves Dream" was Joy Division, I'd probably believe you...
You really only glimpse the catchy Buzzcocks of old on "Strange Thing" but even that is drowned in a sea of echo...The record ends however, with the clear-headed and hopeful "Running Free." A lovely song that makes great use of new-wave keyboards...I would have loved to see them do another record in this style, but it was not meant to be...
In the 90's. Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle rejoined forces to resurrect the Buzzcocks name and continue on until this day...Their sound shifted away from the experimentation of the band's late 70's-early 80's work and they now mostly stick to power-pop I've owned a couple of these records at one point or another, but I've slowly given them away or sold them off...
I did always have a soft spot for 1996's "All Set" though...The song "Playing For Time" in particular...
Anyway, this closes out the classic Buzzcocks era...So let's check out "Running Free" by the Buzzcocks...Enjoy...
Buzzcocks: Another Music in a Different Kitchen/Love Bites
1978
United Artists Records
Format I Own it on: Compact Disc
Track Listing: Disc 1 (Another Music in a Different Kitchen) 1. Fast Cars 2. No Reply 3. You Tear Me Up 4. Get on Our Own 5. Love Battery 6. Sixteen 7. I Don't Mind 8. Fiction Romance 9. Autonomy 10. I Need 11. Moving Away from the Pulsebeat (Bonus Tracks) 12. Orgasm Addict 13. Whatever Happened To 14. What Do I Get? 15. Oh Shit!
Disc2 (Love Bites) 1. Real World 2. Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) 3. Operator's Manual 4. Nostalgia 5. Just Lust 6. Sixteen Again 7. Walking Distance 8. Love Is Lies 9. Nothing Left 10. E.S.P. 11. Late for the Train
"Another Music in a Different Kitchen" and "Love Bites" are actually two different albums...Both released in 1978 but they've been packaged together under one ugly orange cover and that's the version I have, so I'm doing both albums today...
Best known for their perfect run of singles, the Buzzcocks were easily the poppiest of the original 70's British punk bands...Hell, they just might be the poppiest band ever...There's rarely any outright anger or nihilism on those singles...Mostly just zippy, love-sick pop tracks...
To this day "Singles Going Steady" is the best entry to the world of the Buzzcocks and is definitely in the running for greatest punk album of all time...Oddly enough, I don't own a copy of "Singles Going Steady" anymore...I already had most of the tracks featured on the album, and gave it to the needy (someone who didn't own any Buzzcocks albums)....But yea...If for some reason you don't own any the band's music, then I can only tell you to put down whatever you're doing and pick up a copy of "Singles Going Steady."
Most of those singles appear on this "Another Music/Love Bites" twofer...But the band's albums were more experimental than the singles would indicate...
"Another Music in a Different Kitchen" is the band's debut record...It's the Buzzcocks album that most closely resembles "Singles Going Steady." Mostly composed of full-tilt pop-punk tracks like "I Don't Mind" (which is just a s smorgasbord of hooks) ...Pete Shelley has such a lovably high-pitched voice and John Maher's drumming is so tight and crisp...Pure pop craftsmanship. If you're not worshiping the ground the Buzzcocks walk on by the end of this track, then there's just no hope for you...
But in addition to all the pop songs you also get the krautrock-inspired closer "Moving Away from the Pulsebeat" and the martial noise of "Sixteen." A lot of folks seem to find "Sixteen" irritating, but man, I love it...That stuttering beat could go on forever as far as I'm concerned...The noise section in the middle works too...Suddenly the songs collapses and disintegrates before your ears for a minute or so, and then it all powerfully snaps back together, with the signature drum pattern sounding even stronger, as Pete Shelley yelps:
"And I hate modern music,
Disco, boogie and pop,
they go on and on and on and on and on,
how I wish they would STOP!"
Listening to this as a teenager who also hated modern music this rang so true to me...
Oh yea...This is a bit of a sidebar, but I was recently talking to someone about my disdain for current popular music...In my eyes, it's the laziest, stupidest and plain-ass worst it's ever been...I just can't take it....If you put on the pop station there's a 100% chance you're not going to hear anything even remotely intelligent or stimulating...But then I was countered with, "Popular music has always been bad...You just remember the good parts of every decade and block out the rest..."
I was thinking back and this might actually be true...Thinking back to the early 80's I can remember hearing a lot of terrible pop shit too...So I decided to do an on-the-spot comparison...I chose the 8th year of each decade just to keep it all in line w/ the Buzzcocks' albums listed above, so we're gonna do 1968, 1978, 1988, 1998, 2008, and 2018...
Wait...That doesn't work...2018 hasn't happened yet, so ...I don't know...Howabout 2012...That seems a little too close to 2008 to get an accurate picture, but screw it...This isn't rocket science...This is just me killing time on a Monday morning so, let's check out the top 10 hits from each decade since the 60's and see what era had the worst top 10...
1968
1 "Hey Jude" The Beatles 2 "Love is Blue" Paul Mauriat 3 "Honey" Bobby Goldsboro
4 "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" Otis Redding 5 "People Got to Be Free" The Rascals 6 "Sunshine of Your Love" Cream 7 "This Guy's in Love With You" Herb Alpert 8 "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" Hugo Montenegro 9 "Mrs. Robinson" Simon & Garfunkel 10 "Tighten Up" Archie Bell & the Drells
The Beatles may be skewing it a bit for me, but 1968 seemed like a pretty good year, musicwise...There's the godawful melodrama of "Honey" which is just as horrible and dumb as any Young Jeezy song, but other than that (and perhaps the couple of muzak songs) I'd be alright with hearing any of these on the radio...The Beatles, Cream and Otis Redding? Hell, yea...Art and commerce co-existing...Read it and weep...
1978
1 "Shadow Dancing Andy Gibb 2 "Night Fever" Bee Gees 3 "You Light Up My Life" Debby Boone 4 "Stayin' Alive" Bee Gees 5 "Kiss You All Over" Exile 6 "How Deep Is Your Love" Bee Gees 7 "Baby Come Back" Player 8 "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" Andy Gibb 9 "Boogie Oogie Oogie" A Taste of Honey 10""Three Times a Lady" Commodores
Holy shit! What the hell happened? Apparently the Bee Gees happened!
Whoo...Disco, the Gibbs and their jiffy-pop jackets absolutely slaughtered the charts that year...The disco era Bee Gees aren't my favorite band or anything, but I maintain that most of these people still had talent...Man, you try playing disco sometime....It's hard as hell to do...Still better than the programmed shit we have nowadays...Once you listened past disco's plastic sheen, you could still faintly hear the blood and sweat of musicians underneath it all...
It's a 100% fact I can (and do) program music on my computer that sounds very close to current top 10 music, but I've struggled to record a disco song...Still, none of this is music I ever listen to in my free time...That said, I've probably listened to the Saturday Night Fever ten billion times throughout the 90's...I went through a huge disco phase where I just found it endlessly entertaining for some reason..."You Light Up My Life" really is an abomination though...
1988
1 "Faith" George Michael 2 "Need You Tonight" INXS 3 "Got My Mind Set on You" George Harrison 4 "Never Gonna Give You Up" Rick Astley 5 "Sweet Child o' Mine" Guns N' Roses 6 "So Emotional" Whitney Houston 7 "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" Belinda Carlisle 8 "Could've Been" Tiffany 9 "Hands to Heaven" Breathe 10 "Roll with It" Steve Winwood
I don't know what to say about this...Some of this is way better and some of this is infinitely worse than the 1978 list...I can take the George Harrison, and Steve Winwood's entries...The Belinda Carlisle song isn't my favorite or anything, but there's no denying there's some talent there...But Rick Astley is the worst entry we've seen yet!
(It's official...The Friday Night Record Party blog has been Rick Rolled...)
1998
1 "Too Close" Next 2 "The Boy Is Mine" Brandy and Monica 3 "You're Still the One" Shania Twain 4 "Truly Madly Deeply" Savage Garden 5 "How Do I Live" LeAnn Rimes 6 "Together Again" Janet 7 "All My Life" K-Ci & JoJo 8 "Candle in the Wind 1997" Elton John 9 "Nice and Slow" Usher 10 "I Don't Want to Wait" Paula Cole
Huh..,.I guess the 90's is pin-pointedly where it all went irreversibly to hell...Not a single thing even approaching a good song...Pure pandering shit...
"Truly Madly Deeply" is just truly, madly and deeply bad and "Candle in the Wind 1997" is a waste of everyone's time...Can it possibly get any worse?
2008
1 "Low" Flo Rida featuring T-Pain 2 "Bleeding Love" Leona Lewis 3 "No One" Alicia Keys 4 "Lollipop" Lil Wayne featuring Static Major 5 "Apologize" Timbaland featuring OneRepublic 6 "No Air" Jordin Sparks featuring Chris Brown 7 "Love Song" Sara Bareilles 8 "Love in This Club" Usher featuring Young Jeezy 9 "With You" Chris Brown 10 "Forever" Chris Brown
Yes it can! Introduce Auto-Tune to the whole mess! Man, shit like T-Pain and Lil' Wayne really pisses me off...Why does it exist?! I'm willing to pay three whole dollars to anyone who can provide me with a single piece of evidence that T-Pain or Lil' Wayne has anything even remotely resembling a shred of musical talent...And I don't call "marketing" musical talent...If that was the case I would be declaring the Fiery Taco Bell Doritos Locos Taco the album of the year...
If you have no technical musical talent you should at least have something original to offer, or perhaps something interesting to say...But check out these retarded (and extremely derivative) lyrics:
"Shawty want a thug
Bottles in the club
Shawty wanna hump
You know I love to touch her lovely lady lumps..."
Man, are you serious?!?! When you're a rapper, your lyrics are pretty much all you got...To come out with something that pointless and lazy is inexcusable...
I also have to point out that Chris Brown is to the 2008 charts what the Gibbs were to the 1978 charts...
I guess the world just couldn't resist Brown's cutting edge, woman-battering charms...The best thing I can say about this list is that the Black Eyed Peas aren't on it...
2012
1 "Somebody That I Used To Know" Gotye featuring Kimbra 2 "Call Me Maybe" Carly Rae Jepsen 3 "We Are Young" Fun featuring Janelle Monáe 4 "Payphone" Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa 5 "Lights" Ellie Goulding 6 "Glad You Came" The Wanted 7 "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" Kelly Clarkson 8 "We Found Love" Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris 9 "Starships" Nicki Minaj 10 "What Makes You Beautiful" One Direction
Ehhh, equally horrendous as the 2008 list...But again, not a lot of time has passed between the two...Still dominated by artists that would be strippers if it wasn't for auto-tune...Remember when they used to just dance in the background of videos? Apparently someone relaized that people were watching those videos just to look at the strippers and decided to cut out the middle-man and hand the strippers the mic...
I'm still stumped why people actually listen to it though...I can maybe see watching a Nicki Manaj video to jack off to it, but why actually put yourself through the torture of loading it onto an ipod? I guess I'll never understand....
So, in the end I guess I'll partially agree...Popular music has always been bad (except for in the 1960's where some of the best artists of the day also happened to enjoy commercial success) and it's been downhill ever since...But I do have to say those lows are getting lower...
(See Alan Thicke's "Blurred Lines" for evidence)
Woah, I forgot I invited you here to today to talk about the Buzzcocks, so I guess I should tie it back in or something...But it feels wrong to even mention Robin Thicke and the Buzzcocks in the same sentence, so I'm just gonna jump back into the "Another Music in a Different Kitchen" write-up with no transition whatsoever...
Here we go...
The "Another Music" disc also comes with 4 bonus tracks, which include the classic "Orgasm Addict" and "What Do I Get" singles and their corresponding B-sides..."What Do I get?" is right up there with "I Don't Mind" as their most infectious moment...
Before we cover the "Love Bites" disc, let's check out "I Don't Mind" by the Buzzcocks...
Alright,let's move on... "Love Bites" was the band's second album and it shows the band getting even more experimental, but no less poppy...On some tracks, like "Nostalgia" and "Operator's Manual" they manage to bridge the gap, resulting in a unique style of post-modern pop...But "Late for the Train" jumps headfirst into the avant garde in a way they only hinted at before...Five and a half minutes of repetitive krautpunk...This probably could have worked on a Neu! album...
Another big surprise is the sprightly, acoustic rocker "Love is Lies." It sounds almost exactly like "Days" by the Kinks, but I like it nonetheless...
If anything, pick up this album for "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" which is possibly their best song...Three minutes of the finest pop longing you'll ever hear...If you've ever felt the soul-crushing ache of unrequited love you'll love this song for getting the feeling so right, while simultaneously cursing it for making the hurt even worse...So great...
The fact that they followed up "Another Music in a Different Kitchen" so quickly, and with an album that is possibly even greater, is something to be applauded...If you ever see this twofer, pick it up without any hesitation...If you're buying them individually, either one will do...Both well-deserving of the legendary status they've achieved... Irresistibly catchy and forward thinking...You don't get that too often...
So, let's check out "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" by the Buzzcocks...Enjoy...
