saturday mixed bag

{Blade Runner-The Final Cut comes out Tuesday, December 18! Just sayin'.]

Here's a grab-bag of ten cool toons I felt like sharing.

I remember being recommended Big Black's "Atomizer" by a clerk at Wax Trax! Records in Chicago. Once I got home and slapped the vinyl on my turntable, I remember my brother and I looking at each other as the first notes came rumbling out of the speakers like nothing we'd ever heard. The crushing bass rattled my brother's alarm clock off a nearby shelf and no more than ten minutes later, my dad came in from mowing the lawn to tell us to turn the damn music down because he could barely hear the lawnmower. Okay, I made that last part up, but you get my point. Big Black was Bad Ass and we became huge fans.

Bad Penny and Kerosene (live)



I've always dug John Waite. There, I said it.

There were moments on those early Babys records where the band approached greatness, but I personally favored the band's two final albums, "Union Jacks" and "On The Edge". Tunes like "Midnight Rendezvous", "Too Far Gone", "Jesus Are You There" (cheesy opening synth riff aside, that tune rocked), "Sweet 17", and "Turn & Walk Away" are timeless rock favorites in my universe.

Having said that, I also dug the crap out of Waite's overlookd first solo album, "Ignition". There was an intensity, a desperation that crackled like a New York City summer night (which is funny because Waite was broke and living in NYC when the album was recorded). His next one included the mega-hit ballad "Missing You", which changed the direction of his career forever (for better and worse), but the one tune I dig most of all from the "No Brakes" album was the punk-fueled "Saturday Night". It was truly the last time Waite would show that musical side of himself.

Saturday Night (live)



That first Lords Of The New Church record was an amazing thing. Featuring ex-members of the Dead Boys, the Damned, the Barracudas - bands I only kind of liked - I remember thinking there was no way the music could live up to the hype that had been circulating about this so-called "punk supergroup".

Thankfully, the record wasn't just another loud 'n' snotty punk record. Instead, the band set a sublimely pummeling juggernaut in motion and confidently built the tension with angular guitars and chanted backing vocals that complimented Stiv Bators' snarly whail. Songs like "Holy War" and "Russian Roulette" were in HEAVY rotation in my bedroom for months on end.

Sadly, the Lords' story was one of quick descent, as drugs and alcohol took priority over everything else. Stories of the band's debaucherous ways were legendary, making thetaudry antics of any Sunset Strip metal band seem pedestrian by comparison. By the time I saw them live in '86, the wheels had started to come off. Bators was incoherent (even moreso than usual) and guitarist Brian James was an angry mess.

In '88, the band was Bators, James, Dave Tregunna, and a couple of ringers who had the look, but not the intensity. The band had parted ways with longtime manager Miles Copeland, lost their I.R.S. deal, and were playing total dives.

It didn't look...or sound good...and soon Stiv was gone.

Happy Birthday and Becoming A Nuisance (live '88)



Anyone who's bothered to read this blog knows my love for Material Issue. Here's a live acoustic version of "Next Big Thing" that I taped off local Chicago TV show JAMTV.



Killing Joke have always been a menacing musical presence and I've always thought a key to that sound was the growling bass lines that propelled many of their best songs. The best example, in my most humble opinion, is "Love Like Blood", which also packs a catchy chorus and proved once and for all that these guys were more than just an "Eighties" band.