SOFT CELL

 

Hot on the heels of Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, SOFT CELL were already deep in the well documented throes of consumption by the time The Art Of Falling Apart was released in 1983. An incredibly adult synth pop record - a parade of upbeat dancefloor bangers with Almond's sweet lilt delivering legitimately dark tracks like "Loving You, Hating Me," "Forever The Same" and "Numbers," an incredibly introspective assault on consumption and promiscuity. Listening to this record in real time (or in the years after its release when I was a young teen discovering and devouring UK synth and new wave) it was just another collection of songs....I am a middle aged man now and my ears, head and heart are different. The Art Of Falling Apart is a mature and real collection of songs anchored by a tortured two verse title track. Makes me want to dance like I'm too young to drive and can't identify with any of this. Don't dismiss SOFT CELL, they're (far) more than a kitschy cover tune. 

THE ART OF FALLING APART

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I'm skilled at the art of falling apart

It's the holding together, together forever

Trying all of the vices is what's doing the damage 

All the good things are bad things 

And I'm paying the prices

ARMOR

 

They do shit different in Florida. You surely know this, but rarely have you heard a better example than this ARMOR demo from 2019. It's the hardcore that you love, just delivered with a murky, dangerous, desperate edge that makes it clear that ARMOR are....different. Mayhaps no better example than "Age Of Machine," a full on juggernaut of galloping fury that slides into the down low crouch and squirm of "Daydreaming" that puts the whole thing to bed. You know these sounds, you just don't know them like this. Not yet. 

ARMOR

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SENSUAL WORLD

 

I love everything about this - the urgency, the WIPERS caliber drive, the....songs. This is the shit that you need/ed then but it's still here for you now. You're welcome. Punk rules, ok?

REHEARSAL #2

FASLE TRUCE

 

There is perhaps no better example of Covid Creativity than Austin's FALSE TRUCE. From the isolated mind of Chris Pfeffer (STORM THE TOWER, SEVERED HEAD OF STATE, CRIATURAS, SIGNAL LOST, THE ALTARS, J CHURCH, MEADOWLARK, OBEDIENCE....need I continue?) came eight doses of urgent and force-filled BLITZ-influenced punk with subtly dark undertones. The aptly named MMXX sounds like we felt; full of joy and determination in the face of uncertainty and deceit. It had been a while since I visited these tracks....and of course they're just as powerful today as they were then. When it comes down to it, we're in the same world we were in then.

MMXX

FALSE FLOWERS

 

Saw FALSE FLOWERS last weekend at Bottom of The Hill, opening for two other bands whose names I can't remember. After their set those other bands didn't matter. After their set, nothing mattered - because their set was perfect. It's hard to apply monikers like "goth punk" to FALSE FLOWERS because these punks are elevating every subgenre they touch, and their performance was a master class. Listen to the chaos that closes "Another Lullaby" and know that dark punk done properly should never be relegated to a novelty genre. Listen to "Unsafe Numbers" and know that dark punk is just fukkn punk - this shit is literally everything. Watch FALSE FLOWERS live and know that punk can be better....that it is better. 

That show was really fucking good - this band is really fucking good. 

FALSE FLOWERS

ALABAMA

 

The first non-country concert I saw: STRAY CATS @ Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. 
The first real punk show I saw: THE DEAD MILKMEN w/BABY M in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 
Perspective is wild, because there were probably less than six years between these two events.

The first record I bought with my own money: CHARLIE DANIELS BAND Million Mile Reflections.
The first cassette I bought with my own money: ALABAMA My Home's In Alabama. 
The first punk tape I acquired: Tough call, but I traded Nikki Jorgensen my copy of BON JOVI's Slippery When Wet for her copy of SUICIDAL TENDENCIES' self titled debut in 1986. 

Notable: 
• Several country concerts pre-dated the benchmark gigs - RONNIE MILSAP, KENNY ROGERS, HOYT AXTON, WILLIE NELSON, DOLLY PARTON and others. Living in Austin had its perks, even though I could have been seeing DICKS and BIG BOYS if I had been a couple of years older. 
• I read a review of HÜSKER DÜ's Flip Your Wig in an issue of Creem that I picked up from the magazine rack in Safeway; it inspired me to shoplift a copy of Candy Apple Grey a few weeks later when I was on an orchestra field trip to Oklahoma City and we went to the mall (because shopping malls were a novel treat to us small/er town kids). Shit blew my mind. 
• My step-cousin visited in 1987 ands saw that I was getting close. She bought me Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death, Never Mind The Bollocks and X's See How We Are and helped me bleach my jean jacket and paint the evil dude from ST's Join The Army on the back. I am eternally grateful, and will always remember how disappointed she was with that X record. 
• Two shows I wish I could revisit now that I know more things: GRIMPLE @ Kelly's Bar & Grill in Norman, Oklahoma (1992 I think) and BORN AGAINST in Cudahay, Wisconsin (1993). They were both milestone gigs, but I was clueless.

Really though...I still am.

THAT FIRST TAPE
My mother cleaned some shit out of my sister's room recently, and handed me a small bundle of tapes that survived the decades. Not quite ready to listen to the tapes of her talking and singing yet, but I was very happy that she held onto the shit from my younger years. I've listened to this tape hundreds of times - but last week I popped this physical copy in a deck for the first time in thirty years was truly special.

DJARABI SONGS

 

A gorgeous collection of upbeat West African love songs from artists that will be new to all but the most studied TE visitors, which is typical for Little Axe compilations. Contributors include WASSOLA FANTA, TATA DIAKITE, MAMOU SIDIBÉ and others, closing with a lament to the Sahel from IMMA BABA COULIBALI. Many things in and of this world are very ugly - these sounds are beautiful. 

DJARABI SONGS