Last night a DJ ruined my life: a Valentines Day playlist
Posted: February 13, 2012 Filed under: Playlists | Tags: amy winehouse, bush tetras, einstürzende neubauten, electro, industrial, magazine, playlists, pop, postpunk, pulp, punk, Rhian E Jones, robots in disguise, super furry animals, the slits Leave a comment »My resolutely unromantic Valentines Day playlist this year consists of:
- Robots in Disguise, ‘Chains’
- Einstürzende Neubauten, ‘Jet’M’
- The Bush Tetras, ‘Too Many Creeps’
- The Slits, ‘I Heard it Through the Grapevine’
- Amy Winehouse, ‘Back to Black’
- Pulp, ‘Bad Cover Version’
- Magazine, ‘Permafrost’(apocalyptic version off one of their Peel sessions)
- Super Furry Animals, ‘Juxtapozed With U’
It can be listened to here on 8tracks, if you like.
Subtle Subversion: how I learned to love The Raincoats (a bit)
Posted: December 13, 2011 Filed under: how i was made, Rambling, Raves | Tags: 1990s, albums, ana da silva, bad reputation, gina birch, greil marcus, how i was made, kurt cobain, music as politics, music journalism, postpunk, punk, Rhian E Jones, simon reynolds, the clash, the raincoats, women in music Leave a comment »Written for Bad Reputation.
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“So, I’m supposed to buy her some noodles and a book and sit around listening to chicks who can’t play their instruments, right?”
– 10 Things I Hate About You
As a twelve-year-old in a post-industrial backwater, I discovered punk a long time after the fact, but when I did I took to it like a mohawked and safety-pinned duck to water. With the snobbery and omnicognisance of youth, I quickly developed a doctrinaire approach whereby if ‘punk’ songs weren’t short, sharp, and shouty, I didn’t want to know. Man, did London Calling fuck with my head, with its rackety punk take on reggae and soul and funk and lovers‘ rock and, god forbid, jazz. When I first heard London Calling I swore never to listen to a good two-thirds of it again because it clearly wasn‘t Real Punk. Like all teenage girls, I was insufferable. Read the rest of this entry »
The Raincoats, Odyshape
Posted: September 26, 2011 Filed under: Reviews (recorded) | Tags: albums, ana da silva, gina birch, patti smith, postpunk, Rhian E Jones, the raincoats, the slits, women in music, x-ray spex Leave a comment »Written for Wears the Trousers 26.08.11
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The wave of musical experimentation which took place in the wake of punk generated many new and startling sounds, some of which endured and grew in influence while others became lost to musical history. The Raincoats, a London-spawned, ever-shifting collective based around the partnership of Gina Birch and Ana Da Silva, are now firmly in the former category. Their self-titled debut was described by Vivien Goldman as “the first woman’s rock album” to emerge, its lack of musical or vocal hierarchies or focus-pulling solo virtuosity pioneering an arresting and persuasive kind of rock without the cock. In 1981, Odyshape continued to shift the rules of the game. Read the rest of this entry »