[kj] (no subject)

[jpwhkj at aol.com]

Early (pre-1st-album) Joke is *very* reggae/dub influenced.  Nuclear Boy and Animal are the prime examples.

The problem with trying to pigeonhole the first album is that although you can hear all sorts of influences, it just doesn't fit.  I'd say the most obvious genre for it is the one that didn't exist then but which it influenced so heavily - industrial.

Speaking of influences, I'm listening Baby Come Back off the free Mojo CD right now.  It's great.

Jamie

PS Darren - that's a great line about copping off with members of the audience.  Made me laugh!


-----Original Message-----
From: Darren A. Peace <dpeace at bigfoot.com>
To: 'A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)' <gathering at misera.net>
Sent: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 1:31
Subject: Re: [kj] (no subject)




Never heard any Matt Stagger stuff (nor do I particularly want to, if I’m honest), but there is, to me, a clear reggae/dub feel to the Nervous System EP. Drums and bass particularly, but the scratchy guitar too. Youth has always liked his dubby basslines – I remember a review of the first album (in the NME?) that has remained with me, that said that he knew when not to play. Since I played only bass at the time, that made me rethink how many twiddly bits I kept pumping into our songs. Resulted in at least two numbers when I didn’t play anything at all, and was able to cop off with audience members mid-set.

 

I think “quasi-metal” is not too far from how I see parts of the first album, although it’s punkier than the description would suggest. However, I’m not sure I give a shit how it’s described – it’s what it sounds like that matters. I once worked with someone who was very keen to either appropriate or invent a genre for any music he listened to, and he was infuriated by my saying that I liked any music “as long as it’s good”. Far too unblinkered for him, although my attitude has since changed and there are whole genres of music I now absolutely reject. Any female divas squealing as though they’re being eviscerated in a Saw film; ANY music now described as R&B (my eldest daughter and I often argue about that one, but I’m secure in my conviction that it’s all irritating bollocks). ANY rap. Never got rap; always seemed silly. Absolutely any record whose melody depends on a massive sample from an older record. Gary Numan seems a particularly rich vein for this, but there was that vile Police one, and that one using the Psycho film score, and God help me that Robbie “shoot-me-now vacuous waste of fucking oxygen” Williams “You Only Live Twice” one. And I’m straying off topic, so I’ll now shut up.

 

But not without first mentioning that Jaz gets several mentions in a podcast I’ve just been listening to – the Andrew Collins and Richard Herring one, episode 3, where Collins says that the chap playing “Fate” in those Godawful dating website ads that thankfully seem to be dying out (the Cupid & Fate ones) looks like Jaz, in that he’s “swarthy”, “dark” and “sweaty-looking”.  I suppose I can see his point – 5th picture down on http://commercial-archive.com/node/142283 . Just needs a stupid sombrero and a 4” diameter cigar. I actually rate the podcasts, as they’re blithely offensive (I can see the value of a terrorist atrocity taking place on the 24th of July so that people will stop bloody saying 24/7 all the time).

 

Darren

Hungerford, UK

 



From: gathering-bounces at misera.net [mailto:gathering-bounces at misera.net] On Behalf Of Bette Dillinger
Sent: 28 April 2008 00:07
To: A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)
Subject: Re: [kj] (no subject)



 

Oh, Alex, you are so silly.  Reggae is the genre they are always classified under (The Matt Stagger Band I am referring to).....
Don't get your panties in a bunch ;0  I didn't say Jaz was doing covers of "One Love" with BPF.
 
To anyone interested in the Matt Stagger Band, it is easy to find on the web.....the first hit had this intro:
 
"Heavy and slow, Killing Joke (at least early in their career) was a quasi-metal band dancing to a tune of doom and gloom. They eventually became less heavy and more arty (the latter seems almost impossible) -- more danceable even -- but early on they made some urgent slabs of molten dynamite that oozed with the power of thick guitars, thudding drums, and over-the-top singing. The origins of Killing Joke lie in the Matt Stagger Band."
 
NOW......was KJ a "quasi-metal band" when they started?  No.  
 
But people love to play with words.....

RASTAFARI!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Bette



From: vassifer at earthlink.net
To: gathering at misera.net
Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2008 07:01:25 -0400
Subject: Re: [kj] (no subject)


 



The Matt Stagger Band -- I'm not sure I'd call them a proper "reggae" band, from what I've heard about them.



 



Alex in NYC



 


 


On Apr 26, 2008, at 10:44 PM, sade1 wrote:



 ..I wonder how Jaz looked with dreads?...



 




> I mean, Coleman and BPF were members of a Reggae band before KJ.  You can't make





> that stuff up!




 



=:~o



 



Wow, that's the first I hear of this. What reggae band was this?



 




Bette Dillinger <bettedillinger at live.com> wrote:



Just my two cents......
Everything is related, and every musician starts out as a fan.  I mean, Coleman and BPF were members of a Reggae band before KJ.  You can't make that stuff up!
 
So I guess that means nothing is "new and fresh".  However, today's current environment encourages homogenization, which is a completely different animal, IMHO.  But everything is
subject to.....
CHANGE!!!!!!!
-Bette





From: sneakypete at uwclub.net
To: gathering at misera.net
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 15:26:27 +0100
Subject: Re: [kj] (no subject)



Its always been like that though, hasn’t it ?



 



I can think of very few bands that have come along who have truly



sounded like noithing else



 



Peter




-----Original Message-----
From: gathering-bounces at misera.net [mailto:gathering-bounces at misera.net]On Behalf Of folk devil
Sent: 25 April 2008 16:27
To: A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)
Subject: Re: [kj] (no subject)



Funny how, when a 'new' band is mentioned, they're related to one from the past...




 



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