Reflecting Pool: Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes

It took 10 years for their debut album to make platinum status. They became darlings of the Indie scene in the 90s. And they have fallen off the face of the Earth.
I'm gonna go back and give the Femmes a more than cursory listen.



Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes - 1983 (iTunes - Amazon)

I was at a poker game a couple years ago and the question of what was the most influential album of the 80s was posed.
I know that many people wanted to lobby for Thriller. But I think that the residual effect of Thriller is nothing more than mercenary saleable Vegas pop and I said so here.
For my money the definitively influential album of that sad decade has to be Violent Femmes' debut.
Just firing up The Builders & The Butchers 2007 debut album reminded me of how fresh and contemporary the Femmes' sound is.
The sparseness and simplistically punk sound can be found on Okkervil River's album, The Stage Names.
Gordon Gano's warbly, angst ridden voice laid the groundwork for Rivers Cuomo.
The DIY nature of the record pervades the entire CD and is the precursor to the age of "anyone can make a record".
The story of the Femmes has been told often. In a nutshell they were discovered busking near the theater where the Pretenders were performing by James "Honeyman" Scott. They were invited to play in between opening act and the main Pretenders show.
They got signed to (one of the greatest labels ever) Slash Records.
Their debut never charted but managed to move over 1,000,000 units by, basically, college word of mouth over the course of more than a decade.
Oh yeah! They were the band that practically INVENTED alternative college radio in the 80s. If you were in college in 1984 and you hadn't heard Violent Femmes you weren't "in the know".

About 7 years ago Beth and I were driving across country with Liz in tow. We had our CDs in the player and we were cranking, I mean CRANKING, "Blister in the Sun" and singing along. After it was over, my 10 year old daughter turned to us and said, "Dad, can we stop listening to oldies now?".
I wanted to die.

So, how does the record hold up?

It's perfect. Gano's singing, warbling, desperation plead-singing serves every song. Brian Ritchie's basslines are air-guitar worthy. He's the unsung Entwistle of the 80s.
Blister in the Sun is an anthem of the baby emos.
The sing-a-long of medication on Kiss Off is still fresh.
Add It Up has been a staple on modern rock radio for 25 years and it's still deserving. You could play this for an 18 year old and say it's a new Indie Band from the Pacific Northwest and they wouldn't know the difference. In fact, Gnarls Barkley's cover of Gone Daddy Gone is almost note for note the same song. A quarter century later just why are the Femmes so contemporary?
They weren't part of the machine that was squeezing overdub, anthem drums and big hair sound. They slipped in under the radar. They were punk AFTER punk. They were New Wave after new Wave was gone.
Sure, the record gets a little flabby around the middle with "Confessions". But after a second listen you realize that Gano has his finger on the pulse of danger, foreboding, unease. And that is made even more evident with the tortured "To The Kill".
Thankfully, if you buy the album now you get the singles, "Ugly" and "Gimme the Car". The former could be perceived as the band's genuflectingly absurd attempt at a single and that's fine. It's catchy. And Fun.
But the real crowning achievement is "Gimme the Car". A song so desperate and full of what a teenage boy really wants, needs, craves that it should be required listening for every 15 year old girl.

Grade A+
A Side: Blister in the Sun, Kiss Off, Add It Up, Gone Daddy Gone
BlindSide: Gimme the Car, Promise.
Downside: Are you kidding?

It should be noted that almost ALL of these songs were written when Gano was in high school. No wonder he has teenage angst down so well.

Sonic Youth

Killed this blog.

Listening Post: Sonic Youth - Dirty

I've got to be missing something.......




Sonic Youth - Dirty - 1992 (Amazon - iTunes)

I do admit, from the opening strains of 100 Percent, it really feels like Sonic Youth has traveled well afar from their noise-only early days. Then the most amazing thing happened.

I woke up.

And the record was over.

Sonic Youth puts me to sleep. It's just white noise after a while.

Honestly, I had to go back and remind myself of what I was listening to.

And if I never have to listen to "Why are you so meano" on Swimsuit Issue I will be just fine thank you.

Grade D
A Side: 100 Percent, Purr
BlindSide: Nothing. It's everything one would expect from the masters of atonal noise rock.
DownSide: Swimsuit Issue...well, anything that Kim Gordon is singing on on this piece of atonal crap.

Listening Post: Cheap Trick - Cheap Trick

I saw them in concert in 1979. My mom took us. Radio City Music Hall. To this day I have no idea why. I know the hits, of course, and that includes The Flame. I really don't know much else except that for a while they were known as the American Beatles. Or something....




Cheap Trick - Cheap Trick - 1977 (iTunes - Amazon)

I don't get it. I really don't. Why is this considered a 5 star classic debut? Allmusic cites a lot of the songs' content: pedophilia, mass murder, etc but it's a snoozer. To me. (Shit, I'm gonna catch hell for this) but I found myself easily distracted, bored and unable to follow along. The melodies exist but they meander, there is nothing for me to grasp on to, and considering that this is a classic example of "power pop" this is a travesty.
I never really got the whole Cheap Trick thing. But maybe they will grow on me.
There's potential here but, all in all, it's a forgettable trifle.

Grade C
A Side: ELO Kiddies, Speak Now of Forever Hold Your Piece
BlindSide: He's a Whore, Oh Candy
DownSide: Taxman, Mr. Thief, Cry Cry.

Listening Post: Sonic Youth - Goo

After Daydream Nation, Sonic Youth finds itself with a big time record deal. What do they do with it?



Sonic Youth - Goo - 1990 Buy it(iTunes Amazon)

After almost a decade of headscratchingly embraced ear scraping followed by brilliance, SY was courted to DGC and came up with their most accessible album to date.
Moody, graceful, lyrical, sad. These are just some of the words that come to mind when listening to Goo.
For the first time Kim Gordon's contributions are tolerable. In fact, the Karen Carpenter tribute, Tunic, might be one of the most haunting songs I've ever heard, from the perspective of the deceased, wherein she is, dare we say it, almost happy? Truth is, this is a Gordon heavy record.And, good thing.
There are actual songs here. Like Mary-Christ and Kool Thing. Who knew they had it in them, really?
Disappearer seems to take the hand off from Teen Age Riot and run with it. And then there's Mildred Pierce, which, I guess is about Mildred Pierce, even though the only words in the song is the eerie, b-movie narrator saying, "Mildred Pierce". And the distorted car crash of horror at the end, of course.
In the end, Goo is a great place to start listening to SY. Or maybe you don't need to hear anything else. I don't know. I'm about to find out.

Grade A
A Side: Tunic, Mary-Christ, Kool Thing
BlindSide: My Friend Goo, Mildred Pierce.
Downside: Scooter & Jinx, Titanium Expose

Listening Post: Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation

Daydream Nation is considered an underground 80s classic. A true masterpiece. Is it?



Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation - 1988 (iTunes - Amazon)


About three minutes into Teen Age Riot I had a thought: Did Thurston Moore, et al, take a good hard look at the vomitorium of dischord they had put out, toss it to the side and just start listening to R.E.M. records? because it's painfully obvious that they were affected by that sound (as well as The Replacements, perhaps echo & the bunnymen, a little dash of The Records and a bunch of other mid-80s bands I am too addled to remember right now).
The edgy punk of Silver Rocket coming on the heels of Teen Age Riot is actually the second song IN A ROW that I could hear myself or audience members singing along to. Weird.
And The Sprawl is the first time that I feel Kim Gordon's wailing talk singing actually works. The "noise-scapes" exist here only in service of the song. Before Daydream nation I would be hard pressed to believe that anyone in that band can play any of the previous four albums' songs without having to get the record out first, as similar and indistinct (two words that mean the same thing) as they are. Now I might just have to buy the reissue with the live versions of every track just to enjoy them all over again.
The first true punk epic from Sonic Youth, the most accessibly neurotic, panic stricken piece of music is right here in the dustbowl/punk/horrorshow "'Cross the Breeze". A bloodletting of the first order.
"Total Trash" is almost poppy for god's sake. I'm impressed, I really didn't think they had this in them.
"Providence", a phone message from Mike Watt set to a background taht can only be described as "David Lynchian" is a real treat, believe it or not. It's almost a palette cleanser for the album's 2nd act. (although the halfway point would be somewhat sooner...) leading into the familiar but fresh "Candle".
There's a redundancy that sets in toward the end and into the "trilogy" but, ending with the Sonic Youth meets ZZ Top, Eliminator Z is inspired.
Absolutely the band's best work.
Brilliant.


But Sonic Youth definitely owe R.E.M. a residual check.

Grade A
A Side: Teen Age Riot, Cross the Breeze
BlindSide: Silver Rocket, Providence
DownSide: nothing. Solid outing here.

Listening Post: Sonic Youth - Sister

The critics say that this is the first masterpiece by SY. Are they right?




Okay. I didn't get the memo. Because Sister made my ears hurt. I don't think it really helped that I was listening to it in the car. I don't think Sonic Youth is meant to be listened to while your driving. Because I drove over the median and smashed head first into an oncoming Prius and walked away, bloody from the scene and crawled home to write this review.
Well, that's what I WANTED to do.
This is the first time that I might dump out of a Listening Post before the halfway mark. Except for the Aerosmith reviews (I didn't get to the last two) I have slogged through some horrible shit to get to the end. (Bon Jovi, anyone?)
But, this could be the nadir of all for me. Because with Sister being listed as the 14th best album of the 80s by Pitchfork (I fucking hate Pitchfork.....) and NME rating it 80th of all time, I really think I'm missing something.

Okay. Screed out of the way. Truth is, Sister started out promising. I really thought the one-two of Schizophrenia and (I Got a) Catholic Block was pretty tight. And then it fell to shit for a while. In fact, the template of nausea/headache inducing odd guitar tuning, wall of noise is getting stronger and more concrete as a "sound" and I'm not getting it.

Certainly no one sounds like SY. I think that's good. Rating this highly mediocre melding of the move toward songs on Evol and dystopic dischordance of Confusion is Sex as a masterpiece is off. It's got moments. It's not brilliant.

I'm giving them one more. (It helps that the next one is Daydream Nation, their most heralded)

Grade C-
A Side: Schizophrenia, (I Got A) catholic Block.
BlindSide: Stereo Sanctity
DownSide:Beauty Lies in the Eye, Pipeline/KillTime, Cotton Crown

Listening Post: Sonic Youth - EVOL

Sonic Youth delivers an album with, let's call them songs. Why not?



Sonic Youth - EVOL - 1986 (iTunes - Amazon)

I'm not sure if someone had a little sit-down with Thurston and the gang but the first thing you notice from the opening strains of "Tom Violence" is that Evol might not be a travelogue of distortionary soundscapes but actually might have some promise.
The quiet desperation of "Shadow of Doubt" which builds to a nightmare is where I can tell that the band is secure enough in their storytelling and lyrics to allow the music to inform the song rather than the lyrics serving as a perfunctory necessity.
While Star Power goes on about a week too long, you don't really notice it. There is something, as I have said before, about the hypnotic nature of SY's music. It doesn't put you to sleep but it allows you to appreciate it and do other things at the same time.
The proto-punk beat poem In The Kingdom #19 by Lee Ranaldo is one of the best spoken word I've heard in a while.
I think special attention should be paid to the instrumental Death to Our Friends. A powerful and haunting, primitive and aggressive piece, I would like to see somebody choreograph something to it.
Lydia Lunch shows up again to co-write Marilyn Moore, easily the nadir of the album. But not even she can kill the glow on this offering.
The real gold is saved for the end. "Expressway to Yr. Skull" (aka The Crucifixion of Sean Penn/Madonna, Sean and Me)" is a post-punk, No-Wave rock epic. At 7 minutes it's a climb up Kilimanjaro and dive off into the great coral reef. Brilliant. Reeling. Slippery. Edgy.
Make no mistake. This is not a "rock album". It's barely a collection of songs. It's an evolution of the soundscape work the band has been mining for about a half decade at this point.
But, if you find yourself missing the old Late night radio show, "headsets." this is a great substitution. And a great place to start if you want to get into the Sonic Youth canon.

Grade A
A Side: Star Power, Expressway to Yr. Skull" (aka The Crucifixion of Sean Penn/Madonna, Sean and Me)
BlindSide: Shadow of Doubt, In The Kingdom #19, Death to Our Friends,
DownSide: Marilyn Moore

listening Post: Sonic Youth - Bad Moon Rising

When I was in college I had a short lived, Spinal Tap inspired punk band: Yeast Infection. We consisted of an ambient noise inducing guitarist (who is now an esteemed newspaper editor), a pair of dating male and female vocalists; the woman (an investigator of hate organizations now) would wail dischordantly) while the male (now a respected television and film director) warbled almost on tune, despite attempting not to. And me. I was the drummer who pounded on cardboard while shouting, "I'm Phil Collins!".
Why am I telling you this?
Because with just a little more talent, drive and direction, we could have been Sonic Youth.
Unless they are as great as their legacy.
They've been together since 1981 (holy smokes) and I only know their big album for DGC (Goo) and the song, "Teenage Riot" from the Rock Band video game.
Let's learn more, shall we?



Sonic Youth - Bad Moon Rising - 1985 (iTunes - Amazon)

This is NOT Creedence Clearwater Revival.
This is not even Yeast Infection.
This is what you get when you are left to your own devices and ego and told that you're brilliant and listen to way too many goddamn Residents records.
I haven't heard a worse sophomore record since U2's Gloria.
There is nothing to review here. It's more ambient than the former record. But, it's sooooo obsessed with being "haunting" that it has no soul. It almost feels like a record by The Velvet Underground, if they were all dropped acid, forgot how to play, dropped the tuning on their instruments, ate a lot of turkey, fell asleep, took a crap and then woke up to see what they recorded and though, "Oooh, no one's done anything like this since.....since...Duck Stab!

There is a song called "Satan is Boring". And that sort of sums up the whole record for me.
I hate this. I never want to hear it again. I can't wait to delete it from my computer.
Hold on a sec.
There. Done.
Not even backed up.

Grade D
A Side: Death Valley '69
BlindSide: I'm Insane, Intro, Brave men Run (in my family)
DownSide: Society is a Hole, Ghost Bitch, Satan in Boring,

Listening Post: Sonic Youth - Confusion is Sex

When I was in college I had a short lived, Spinal Tap inspired punk band: Yeast Infection. We consisted of an ambient noise inducing guitarist (who is now an esteemed newspaper editor), a pair of dating male and female vocalists; the woman (an investigator of hate organizations now) would wail dischordantly) while the male (now a respected television and film director) warbled almost on tune, despite attempting not to. And me. I was the drummer who pounded on cardboard while shouting, "I'm Phil Collins!".
Why am I telling you this?
Because with just a little more talent, drive and direction, we could have been Sonic Youth.
Unless they are as great as their legacy.
They've been together since 1981 (holy smokes) and I only know their big album for DGC (Goo) and the song, "Teenage Riot" from the Rock Band video game.
Let's learn more, shall we?



Sonic Youth - Confusion is Sex - 1983 (iTunes - Amazon)

In the past Listening Posts I have always tried my damnedest to give the benefit of the doubt to any band's debut offering.
Nothing's changing here.
Confusion is Sex is listed in various places as "No Wave". I understand that moniker but it made me start to think about New Wave and it's quitessential poster children, The Cars. I've been playing some songs by The Cars on Rock Band, and I enjoy switching over to Bass to really hear what Orr was playing. The more I think about it, there was nothing truly New Wave about The Cars. Orr's basslines are simple and, heck, rooted in 50s rock n roll. Ocasek's quivery voice and Hawkes' keyboards are the only thing futuristic in the slightest. The Cars weren't New Wave. They were Old School dressed up in neon.
Sonic Youth is the New Wave of waves. Lo-Fi to the point of being obnoxious, every track is strangely hypnotic. SY is the only music I have ever found myself getting lost in AND being able to read a novel while listening at the same time. Classical demands that I pay attention, Rock, jazz, etc, all call on the listener to distract themselves. You can listen to Sonic Youth and love it, or you can put it on as background music. Either way, it works. I've never heard anything like that.
Ambient to it's core, Confusion is Sex is a groundwork, a culmination of the beginnings of ideas.
Tracks like Protect Me You could be the soundtrack to a Killer Orphan Slasher Movie. In a good way. Whereas Shaking Hell ALMOST sounds like a song. But it's not, really. It's an audition to score some NYU Experimental film.
Some songs, like Confusion is Next, are actually worse than Yeast Infection's and that's saying something.
There is a lot of value here, though. Along with Laurie Anderson and Glenn Branca and others, this is what the post-New Wave art sound was sounding like in the early 80s. A great time for music, when you think about it.

Grade C
A Side: She's in a Bad Mood, Making the Nature Scene
BlindSide: The World Looks Red
DownSide: Confusion is Next, Freezer Burn/I Wanna Be Your Dog (Live)