this was prompted by conversation last night re: making a porn version of... freaky friday. what a great movie.
ok.
in the mid 60s zappa and beefheart are introduced via pamela later of gtos to russ meyers, who asks them to form a band for one of his movies. this they do [the "imploding penis edible" show], with zappa adding musique concrete noise to beefheart singing blues updates in a psychosexual style. they also bring in a mexican girl singer for a few tunes and much needed glamour. after two albums the tensions force a break and beefheart leads the mothers to a more gentle, classic style, and zappa's first few solo albums are similar - he eventually becomes known as much as a producer; eventually beefheart quits the mothers too and goes on to a rather amazing 70s career filled with great songs mingled with visionary noise the height of which is a collaboration with gender-bending futuristic superstar wendy carlos. the 80s and 90s sees him treading water, tentatively getting back together with zappa, etc. and he is gradually recognized by tastemakers and musicians to have been a sort of godfater to all that is "alternative"; zappa's crucial role remains rather obscured.
meanwhile for whatever reason reed and cale never form a band together, and without cale's gravitas and rigor reed's velvets play mainly for shock value, lacking substance though the songs are amazing pastiches and ambitious in their way. eventually reed finds a niche in 70s a.m. radio and in the 80s becomes notable for his top forty hit "jersey girl" and ridiculous bids for acceptance as a serious composer. cale very quickly paints himself into a corner style-wise but his strange records, an uncanny amalgam of folk music and experimental noise drones, though proverbially difficult to listen to, gradually develop an obsessive cult. though he retires in the early 80s, almost immediately tom waits veers into a watered down cale-derived style which proves to be very popular with critics, and later still countless noise bands seem to have no discernable influence at all but early cale.
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david byrne shockingly jumps in a brazilian volcano on the eve of talking head's appearance on american bandstand for take me to the river, which [starkly and beautifully produced by martin hannet] becomes a sort of touchstone of doomed love. the remainder of the band reforms as tom tom club, and becomes an amazingly popular dance-pop unit with lyrics so trite they're just right. genius of love becomes the best selling 12" of all time. meanwhile in manchester joy division collaborate with brian eno who emphasizes their nascent dancy qualities; the side project "new order" never gets too serious but their semi-hit "blue monday" gets covered by a rap group for a credibility boost. by the time ian quits the division in the late 80s, it's not a moment too soon.
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nick drake joins fairport convention for a bit, neil young commits suicide... what would nick's "trans" be like?
mark smith and marc riley are hired by michael nyman before starting the fall, and neither marc nor brix ever quit; sonic youth form early in 77, lee quits in 82 and eventually winds up in radio, kim divorces thurston, etc.
― mig, Sunday, 13 July 2003 17:23 (twenty-two years ago)
How fun! Okay: vocalist Dave Conway of My Bloody Valentine eventually tires of wingy guitar noises and sacks guitar player Kevin Shields, who -- after a tragic bicycle accident -- lives for a decade off of a disability pension before becoming a minor figure in the hardstep scene. My Bloody Valentine spend a few years sounding very much like the Darling Buds and scoring a few top-10 hits, on the basis of which Conway is able to recruit two young guitar players for his intended "return to rock" -- Rob Dickinson, cousin to Iron Maiden's Bruce, and a one-time New Romantic prettyboy named Gavin Rossdale. This arrangement falters right up until the explosion of grunge, a sound that meshes near-perfectly with Dickinson's fondness for metal. My Bloody Valentine are surrounded with attention, charting in both the U.S. and UK with their first four singles. There is much conflict, however, between the burgeoning egos of Dickinson and Rossdale, and the band near-immediately implodes. Dickinson hires four men from Oxford, formerly gigging as "Radiohead," and quickly rises to prominence with two records full of clangily dramatic Britrock; the ensemble later relocates to the U.S. and, struck with suddenly spacier, glossier leanings and heavily influenced by the sounds of American hip-hop, spawns a genre called "New Metal," after the title of their successful summer-festival tour with upstarts Linkin Park and Orgy. Rossdale, on the other hand, spends the mid-90s in Tibet becoming heavily involved in Buddhism. His return to the West, however, begins with a truly awful guest vocal on a Tricky single.
― honestly (nabisco), Monday, 14 July 2003 21:32 (twenty-two years ago)