[kj] Music wanker poll

[Alexander Smith]

Ooh, toughie. Lots to choose from (and isn't THAT a dick comment?)

I'm going to go with the Modern Lovers. Arguably as influential as The  
Velvet Underground and the Stooges, yet hardly as renowned, the  
original foursome made only one set of demos (later "produced" by John  
Cale and released as an album years later by California indie label,  
Bezerkly), but those end results were as seismic in shaping punk as  
anything by Iggy or Lou.

The original line-up featured Jerry Harrison on keyboards (later to  
join Talking Heads) and Dave Robinson on drums (later to join The  
Cars). At one point in the proceedings, lead singer/strategist  
Jonathan Richman let his eccentricities hold sway and decided that he  
no longer wanted make music that would "offend the ears of children."  
As such, he told Dave Robinson to quit the drums and provide  
percussion by rolling up a newspaper and slapping it on his knee, to  
which Dave replied, essentially, "fuck that and fuck you, I'm out of  
here." That incarnation of the band -- unsurprisingly -- fell apart,  
and the blunt, proto-punky energy of the Modern Lovers vanished,  
replaced by Richman's bizarre penchant for childlike whimsy (a huge  
influence on later acts like Beat Happening -- WHO FUCKING SUCK -- and  
Jack White).

Richman's solo albums have their own merits, but in terms of a  
criminally undersung, yet wholly influential slab of vinyl by a band  
who should be a household name --  to my mind -- one is hard pressed  
to cite someone more significant than The Modern Lovers.

YOUR TURN!




On Nov 15, 2013, at 4:37 AM, bongo wrote:


> kitchens of distinction

>

>

>

>

>

> "due to a lack of trained trumpeters, the end of the world has been  

> postponed indefinitely..."

>

>

> On Fri, Nov 15, 2013 at 6:34 PM, Brendan Quinn  

> <bq at soundgardener.co.nz> wrote:

> Given that name-dropping Killing Joke (esp ‘early’ Killing Joke) is  

> the music-wanker equivalent of a triple word score in Scrabble, the  

> poll question is as follows:

>

>

>

> Which artist or band would you name-drop to get the highest possible  

> score at a music-wanker convention?

>

>

>

> Criteria include but are not limited to: lack of attempt at  

> commercial success / downright self-sabotage, uniqueness, humour,  

> social commentary, mental illness, artistic pain, substance  

> dependency, early / mysterious / humorous death, ability to use  

> ancillary wank-terms such as ‘musique concrete’, ‘the sound of the  

> earth vomiting’ and so forth.

>

>

>

> I’m going with ‘What is Pere Ubu?’

>

>

>

>

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