The Adverts, Crossing The Read Sea With The Adverts, 1978

The Adverts were an English punk rock band who formed in 1976 and broke up in 1979. They are mainly remembered for their singles “One Chord Wonders” and “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes”. “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes” reached the UK top 20 in August 1977.

This was  The Adverts' 1978 début album, which featured the UK hit single “No Time To Be 21” which made number 38 in the hit parade in February 1978. It was recorded at Abbey Road and produced by John Leckie. Their first gig was to support Generation X, on January 15, 1977 at The Roxy in London; their last was at Slough College on October 27, 1979. When the Adverts finally split up, T.V. Smith continued with Tim Cross forming as TV Smith's Explorers, then Cheap, and finally through the 1990s to date performing as a solo artist.

Despite having released some more well-regarded singles, the Adverts were not able to maintain the momentum and their career stalled after the release of their second album. The band members at the time were also threatened with lawsuits by former members Rod Latter and Howard Pickup, who objected to the band continuing to use the Adverts name without them. They split up shortly after the accidental death by electrocution of their manager, Michael Dempsey. Their last gig was at Slough College on 27 October 1979. After the band split up, T.V. Smith continued with Tim Cross as T.V. Smith's Explorers, then Cheap, and finally from the 1990s to date performing as a solo artist.

The Adverts’ guitarist Howard Pickup (Howard Boak, Born 1951) died in 1997 of a brain tumor.

 In regards to their legacy, critic and author Dave Thompson argues that "nobody would make music like the Adverts and nobody ever has. In terms of lyric, delivery, commitment and courage, they were, and they remain, the finest British group of the late 1970s". This one illustrates the historical transition between punk and post punk in my opinion.

 Tracklisting:

1. One Chord Wonders
2. Bored Teenagers
3. New Church
4. On The Roof
5. New Boys
6. Bombsite Boy
7. No Time To Be 21
8. Safety In Numbers
9. Drowning Men
10. On Wheels
11. Great British Mistake

Listen

John Maus, We Must Become The Pitiless censors Of Ourselves, 2011

   

FREE mp3 available NOW for "Quantum Leap":
http://bit.ly/quantumleapmp3

John Maus - Quantum Leap (Upset The Rhythm / Ribbon Music)

We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves track listing:

01. Streetlight

02. Quantum Leap

03. ...And The Rain

04. Hey Moon

05. Keep Pushing On

06. The Crucifix

07. Head for the Country

08. Cop Killer

09. Matter of Fact

10. We Can Breakthrough

11. Believer

Love is Real by John Maus was an understated gem from 2007, which reflected his love for gloomy lo-fi pop with a distinctly melancholy hue to it. It’s taken four years, but Maus finally has a follow-up record ready bearing the excellent title We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves.

The album will be released on the Ribbon Music label, which is a subsidiary of Domino, on June 28, and it’s being previewed by the track “Quantum Leap,” which you can hear in the Sound cloud clip below. Check out the full track listing below the audio file—can’t wait to hear the song “Cop Killer.” 

JOHN MAUS lives in his birthplace of Austin, Minnesota. Whilst working towards his PhD in Political Science he also composes music that taps into melancholic fantasy and affirms that we are all truly alive. Questing synthesisers, tensely strung bass lines and chasing drum machines providing the perfect backdrop for John's deeply resonant reverb-drenched vocal. Born in the decade of synth pop and sharing his birthday with George Frideric Handel, John started making music when Nirvana posters went up on every teenager’s wall. It’s this curious conflux of influences that partially helps to describe John’s music. It’s a world where the Germs jam with Jerry Goldsmith, Cabaret Voltaire relocate to Eternia and Josquin des Prez writes a new score for RoboCop. The confrontation of punk, the fleeting poignancy of 80’s movie soundtracks, the insistent pulse of Moroder and the spirituality of Medieval and Baroque music all find salvation in John Maus.

John Maus’ debut album proper entitled ‘Songs’ was released in 2006. It was a record permeated with aching memories; a perfect testimony to lost romance and longing. It’s awe-inspired follow-up ‘Love Is Real’ (released on UTR, 2007) proved a more cohesive listen in terms of focus and emotional depth. Maus finally returned last year to the heavy snows of the Midwest to finish album number three, ‘We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves’, set for release this June.

This is the artwork for free track Quantum Leap which also appears on iTunes.

‘We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves’ breaks new ground for Maus. The shirt pulling and air punching of his impassioned live performance is finally captured in all its frenzied appeal alongside a tender inner space. ‘Pitiless Censors’ looks towards the future in all its absurdity. It’s a record where promise takes the lead for the first time, providing a counterpoint to John’s default existential calling. This is perhaps best shown with new track ‘Quantum Leap’ available through the link above and via iTunes as of now. ‘Quantum Leap’, a song full of dead zones, glancing slaps and oscillating solos. “Heart to heart, mind to mind, we are the ones who seem to travel through time,” intones Maus resolutely through the mist. John’s lyrics are as likely to touch upon themes of Cronenberg gore just as much as the musings of Jacques Rancière. It’s this no-brow approach that makes things interesting, casting Maus as a savant and allowing his music to startle us in ways whereby we open up to the unimaginable.

If that's wet your interest here's a list of John's impending live performances too at SXSW and throughout darkest Europe.

Check out info on this album and John Maus' LIVE Schedule:http://upsettherhythm.blogspot.com/2011/03/john-maus-we-must-become-pitiless.html
 

The Areola Treat fan video

I had once blogged about the Areola Treat ep. This is one female-fronted band I do like. Not simply because it is indeed female-fronted but because they come across as genuinely honest, not pretentious or trying too hard to replicate other 'in' artists you hear of nowadays, and have a genuine sensibility and technique I can relate to with respect to other types of music I have in my collection. And surprisingly underground! Sure hope they plan on keeping it that way. They're what I would call a no-fancy-nonsense, no-lacy-polish act, just meaningful, yet playful.

I am posting a live gig video that was taken by a fan, presumably. Whoever took it should really have got them from the front though, however,but no complaints seeing this is a better quality video of theirs I could find. On first listening,  the vocals on the Areola Treat ep reminded me a hell of a lot of Siousxie and the Banshees, Patti Smith, Malaria, Hagen, Nico, sometimes hints of  karen O, (although not really a fan) as well as some other interesting female artists I'd heard and loved. A band to watch out for and see live.

The Cramps , Discography, 1980 - 2003

... like this! - oh baby I see you in my frigidaire - yeah baby I see you in my frigidaire - behind the mayonnaise, way in the back - I'm gonna see you tonight for a midnight snack - but though it's cold you won't get old - 'cause you're well preserved in my frigidaire - yahhhhhhh.... ("TV Set") 

In the spring of 1976, The Cramps began to fester in a NYC apartment. Without fresh air or natural light, the group developed its uniquely mutant strain of rock’n’roll aided only by the sickly blue rays of late night TV. While the jackhammer rhythms of punk were proliferating in NYC, The Cramps dove into the deepest recesses of the rock’n’roll psyche for the most primal of all rhythmic impulses -- rockabilly -- the sound of southern culture falling apart in a blaze of shudders and hiccups. As late night sci-fi reruns colored the room, The Cramps also picked and chose amongst the psychotic debris of previous rock eras - instrumental rock, surf, psychedelia, and sixties punk. And then they added the junkiest element of all -- themselves.

1979 saw The Cramps opening for The Clash in New York and undertaking a second tour of the West Coast. Their gig at Keystone, Palo Alto, CA, being broadcast live by KFAT. Around this time the band came to the attention of Miles Copeland III who signed them to his IRS/Illegal label. He set The Cramps up with a British tour with The Police and in June gave their Vengeance singles a release as the Gravest Hits EP (UK Indie Chart #41, 2 wks). In July they went back to Sam Phillips' studio in Memphis with Alex Chilton to begin work on their first album, Songs The Lord Taught Us, which was not released in March 1980 (UK Indie Chart #18, 18 wks), much to the band's displeasure, and included covers of Jimmy Stewart & His Nighthawks' Rock On The Moon, The Sonics' Strychnine and Little Willie John's signature number,Fever, which was released as a single in June 1980 (UK Indie Chart #12, 9 wks).

This 1980 debut long player by the crystallized Lux Interior-Poison Ivy-Bryan Gregory-Nick Knox lineup was again recorded by Alex Chilton, this time at the Sam C. Philips Recording Studio in Memphis, in what has long since become legend material, in no small amount due to the historical/astrological coordinates at work, the Chilton/Cramps team up itself, inept studio hands being kicked out of the recording booth, Bryan Gregory´s "abrupt departure" before touring this album, take your pick.

Here we see the band having a larger go at, let´s say, scribbling down songs instead of grave robbing them from rock´n´roll´s pet cemetery - although "Tear it Up" (Billy Burnette), "Strychnine", (The Sonics), "Fever" (Eddie Cooley/John Davenport) and the very much "Psychotic Reaction" (Count Five) sound alike intro for "I´m Cramped" keep one foot firmly stomped on poverty row rock history for perspective.

A wonderfully rough edged studio noise trickery/fuzz/echo sprinkled affair that is a primordial part of what the eminent status this band holds is based on.

With this band it would be pretty minute to try and single out one album before any other for the new listener, except maybe the comps., so if you come across this in any form this should come as no disappointment for the discerning ghoul out there.

Text:   C-60 Low Noise : http://c-60lownoise.blogspot.com/2007/11/cramps-songs-lord-taught-us-1980.html



Tracklisting:
    1. "T.V. Set" - 3:12
   2. "Rock On The Moon"  - 1:53
   3. "Garbageman" - 3:37
   4. "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" - 3:03
   5. "Sunglasses After Dark"  - 3:47
   6. "The Mad Daddy" - 3:48
   7. "Mystery Plane" - 2:43
   8. "Zombie Dance" - 1:55
   9. "What's Behind the Mask?" - 2:05
  10. "Strychnine"  - 2:24
  11. "I'm Cramped"  - 2:37
  12. "Tear It Up"  - 2:32
  13. "Fever"  - 4:17
  14. "I Was a Teenage Werewolf (With False Start)" [Original Mix] - 4:48
  15. "Mystery Plane" [Original Mix] - 2:39
  16. "Twist and Shout" - 2:32
  17. "I'm Cramped" [Original Mix] - 2:37
  18. "The Mad Daddy" [Original Mix] - 3:15


Listen:
http://rapidshare.com/files/358808486/The_Cramps_-_Songs_the_Lord_Taught_Us.zip

Listen:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WZOLRD1Y

Wire, Pink Flag , 1977

 












Tracklisting:
01. Reuters
02. Field Day for the Sundays
03. Three Girl Rhumba
04. Ex Lion Tamer
05. Lowdown
06. Start to Move
07. Brazil
08. It's So Obvious
09. Surgeon's Girl
10. Pink Flag
11. Commercial
12. Straight Line
13. 106 Beats That
14. Mr Suit
15. Strange
16. Fragile
17. Mannequin
18. Different to Me
19. Champs
20. Feeling Called Love
21. 12XU
22. Options R (*)


Listen:
http://rapidshare.com/files/33422828/Pink_Flag.rar.html

Blondie, Plastic Letters , 1977

 

1. Fan Mail

2. Denis
3. Bermuda Triangle Blues (Flight 45)
4. Youth Nabbed As Sniper
5. Contact In Red Square
6. (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear
7. I'm On E
8. I Didn't Have The Nerve To Say No
9. Love At The Pier
10. No Imagination
11. Kidnapper
12. Detroit 442
13. Cautious Lip

BONUS TRACKS

14. Once I Had A Love (aka The Disco Song) (1975 Version)
15. Scenery
16. Poets Problem
17. Detroit 442 (Live) Recorded live 11/6/78 at the Walnut Theatre in Philadelphia

Rapidshare Link:

http://rapidshare.com/files/11093254/Plastic_Letters_1977.rar

The Call , Modern Romans , 1983

 

Walls Came Down

Turn a Blind Eye
Time of Your Life
Modern Romans
Back From the Front
Destination
Violent Times
Face to Face

All About You

Rapidshare Link:

http://rapidshare.com/files/399192711/1983_modern_romans.rar

The Areola Treat , EP , 2008

 

I saw The Areola Treat live in a club in Brussels and was drawn to the vocalist right away (hah!). The whole band is good, and the drums and vocal work was art. Rare to find a female-led post punk band I actually care for these days.

The Areola Treat are a Maltese rock band, formed in Malta in 2007 by original band line-up Adrian Mizzi on guitars, Chris Busuttil on drums Lisa M.Grimaud on vocals, and Matthew Cuschieri, until the addition of Steve Shaw on bass in late 2010. Below is some relevant band info.

Inspired by UK-based, late 1970s post punk, punk and rock and roll, besides the burgeoning punk and post punk revival, The Areola Treat are arguably a definitive art punk or punk ensmble, mostly due to their richly detailed tightness in sound, their screaming and growling female vocals and punchy guitars in the first few years of the band being formed, and more recently with their punchy, yet somewhat more subtle and
situationalist political stance.

Their first self-entitled studio ep, The Areola Treat, was published in 2008 and met with enthusiasm, under the Belgian label Kinky Star.

The band has played in a handful of independent artists' clubs and venues, primarily in Italy and Belgium besides their home country.

The band's first studio album 'Pleasure Machines', to be released in April 2011, is a reflection of pathways the band has travelled down and alleys it has progressed through, both musically and physically, and a hint of a slightly noticeable change in direction and drive. The guitars are still loud and the riffs are still punchy, yet there is something strikingly different about the shape it's taken. Some tracks are moodier, perhaps slighly more sombre and harsher on the ears than the previously-recorded ep, while others are vibrant and bright, the guitars appearing richer and even more piercing and shaken.

The band is currently working on new material as well as playing gigs and shows. The new direction is once again darker, moodier, stripped down in parts and then enriched dramatically in bursts of energy and enhanced walls of sound.

Tracklisting:

1. 16

2. Sibbi
3. Kerouac
4. Booby Trap
5. BLV Werewolf
6. Disco party
7. Second Coming

Rapidshare Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/282572251/The-Areola-Treat-2008-The-Areola-Treat.rar

Joy Division - The Best Of - 2008

For die hard collectors of the band. For he that has all albums Joy Division, here is a recent release to complete his shelf.

Disc 1
1. Digital
2. Disorder
3. Shadowplay
4. New Dawn Fades
5. Transmission
6. Atmosphere
7. Dead Souls
8. She's lost control
9. Love will tear us apart
10. These days
11. 24 hours
12. Incubation
13. Isolation

Disc 2
1. Exercice One (John Peel Show 31 Jan 79)
2. Insight (John Peel Show 31 Jan 79)
3. She's Lost Control (John Peel Show 31 Jan 79)
4. Transmission (John Peel Show 31 Jan 79)
5. Love Will Tear Us Apart (John Peel Show 26 Nov 79)
6. Twenty Four Hours (John Peel Show 26 Nov 79)
7. Colony (John Peel Show 26 Nov 79)
8. Sound of Music (John Peel Show 26 Nov 79)
9. Transmission (Recorded live for Something Else 4 Sept 79)
10. She's Lost Control (Recorded live for Something Else 4 Sept 79)
11. Ian Curtis and Stephen Morris Interviewed by Richard Skinner


RapidshareLink:
http://rapidshare.com/files/102871570/yoj.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/102872216/yoj.part2.rar 

Megaupload Link:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FIVBPPFR
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RLMEJNOG