Killing Joke's First Two Albums Live

Stinky is on a secret mission this week.  While he's away, I'm stealing one of his best ideas: the Homemade Live Album!  Thought I'd take my first crack at it with two of my favorite records from one of my favorite bands, Killing Joke.

This was also prompted by the recent shares of Killing Joke concert recordings at Floppy Boot Stomp and the Voodoo Wagon.  I bow in the general direction of SilentWay, Jobe, Draftervoi, and the rest of the folks who keep things running at those two fine blogs (three, if you count their VIP lounge!)

Killing Joke formed in 1979 and was active for over four decades, until the 2023 death of founding guitarist Kevin "Geordie" Walker.  The debut self-titled album was released in 1980, followed in 1981 by What's This For...!.  Those two albums meant a lot to me and my baby brother.  We didn't know it in 1980, but Killing Joke was laying a cornerstone for industrial music (not the phrase used by Throbbing Gristle, but the abrasive yet danceable style adopted by Ministry and other Wax Trax artists a few years later).

But the sound of Killing Joke wasn't just industrial.  There was post-punk in there (with John McKay as an influence acknowledged by Geordie, and Public Image as neighbors in Ladbroke Grove).  There was heavy metal in there; there was dub; there was a dance beat.  Synth punk was also part of the early Killing Joke sound, courtesy of singer Jeremy "Jaz" Coleman's keyboards. 

The best Killing Joke music (to my ears) was made by the four original members before Martin "Youth" Glover left to start a more commercial group called Brilliant  -- and before Jaz and Geordie went off to Iceland, predicting the end of the world (as the story goes). But hey, even a broken clock is wrong 22 hours a day!  

After the world failed to end, Killing Joke regrouped and found commercial success with the 1985 album Night Time.  Then they sacked drummer Paul Ferguson, “one of the best in the world,” according to Alex Paterson (that bloke from The Orb).  Strange things happened in the mid-80's. Ginger Baker and Steve Vai joined PiL, for god's sake. Strummer & Simonon fired Mick Jones. Even the Gang of Four went soft with "Hard".  "Whatever happened to those heroes?"

Anyway, here's a Homemade Live Album with all the songs from the first two LP's (plus "Pssyche", a 1980 b-side that is a fan favorite and a staple of Killing Joke setlists). Live albums can get monotonous, and Killing Joke was not a band given to improvisation or solo features ("Big Paul on the drums, ladies and gents!")  There are very few Geordie guitar solos, even on the studio records.  

On a serious side note, a round of applause for Mike Coles, who does the band's visual art and runs the Malicious Damage record label.  His graphic style and retro-dystopian themes sometimes recall Winston Smith's work for Alternative Tentacles.

My goal was to assemble a Homemade Live Album of diverse performances, ranging from very early (1979's semi-official Unperverted Pantomime) to the excellent Honour The Fire, the final show of the last Killing Joke tour in 2022.  SilentWay recently reposted an excellent live set from Tokyo in 2008, the first two nights of a worldwide tour by the four original members.

At the end of the last song here, Youth thanks Jaz, Paul, Geordie, and his childhood friend Alex Paterson.  According to Wikipedia, Paterson would DJ at early Killing Joke gigs, as well as singing "Bloodsport" with the band.  It's a nice "full circle" moment to end my Killing Joke live album.

ELSEWHERE ON THE BLOG:  a multitude of Homemade Live Albums from Stinky. PLUS an exclusive inside scoop on the Killing Joke singles "Eighties" and "Change".  Think Nirvana stole from Killing Joke?  Read our earthshaking investigation into the truth behind the myth inside the legend!

ELSEWHERE IN THE BLOGOSPHERE:  Khayem and Nathin Nothin have penned eloquent odes to Youth.

Beat That Dead Horse One More Time: Punks Got Soul Vol. 10

Here it is -- again -- and it's called... PUNKS GOT SOUL 10! (Saw you in a mag, kissing a man, saw you in a mag, kissing a man, smoking a fag, kissing a man, saw you in a mag, PUNKS GOT SOUL 10!)

Really the only punk song on here is the last one (by Snuff), although I suppose that some of these geezers used to be punks.  There's the Clash, Red Rockers (the "American Clash" back before they went new wave), and Johnny Thunders.  Alex Chilton, if being sloppy drunk in the studio counts as being a punk. 

At a stretch, you could add Hazel O'Connor and Elvis Costello.  Maybe even Mick Hucknall (that ginger bloke out of Simply Red) -- he was once in a punk band.  Divine probably out-punked them all in terms of attitude and REAL rebellion against social norms.  Grace Jones, too. They were punks before you or I was a punk.

Anyways, here's the tenth in a series that I never thought would go this far, and a series that has been relatively popular in terms of downloads.  Collect them all!

Pixeldrain seems to be working at the moment, but (as always) if you ask politely, we will upload new links to another host. ("Any help?" is a comment that I deeply dislike.  Get some help from Ella Jenkins or Miss Manners, you impertinent punk!) 

Today I replaced a number of dead Krakenfiles links from 2022-23, including my MKE 80 comp of singles and EP's released by Milwaukee artists in 1980.  

There are a dozen songs on my laptop in a folder called "Punks Got Soul v11", and I'm opening up the request line.  So if you're having a good time dancing with your baby, pick up the phone and ask (nicely), "Hey Mr. DJ, can you play that song..."

THE BEST OF WAZMO NARIZ Chicago's New Wave Geniuses Check Out The Checkout Girl!

THE BEST OF WAZMO NARIZ 

I was turned onto WAZMO NARIZ through a 1981 compilation: I.R.S. GREATEST HITS VOLS. 2 & 3.

Trouser Press said this about it:   This double album has its musical ups and downs, but it’s a well-assembled sampler by a label that, at the time, had a phenomenal roster. A lot of these bands have since made better records than the items included here; still, it fulfills its appointed mission skillfully, and does contain a lot of good material.

It was also my introduction to Skafish, another Chicago band that shares a lot of similarities.  Both were decidedly uncool, oddball, & original.  There wasn't a pretty boy in either band, both shared their name with the stage name of the lead singer, and both were early 80’s new wave bands.

Of WAZMO, Trouser Press journo Steven Grant wrote: Despite a wealth of talent and wild humor, Nariz fell between niches — too bizarre to be pop, too pop to be avant-garde — and the band dissolved amid financial worries & critical apathy.

But their successes certainly stirred some envy in their peers.  Their first single Tele-Tele-Telephone was picked up by STIFF Records—and was one of the label’s first UK releases.  After releasing an EP, the band caught the attention of I.R.S. Records’ founder Miles Copeland who put them on tour with his brother’s band THE POLICE.  Two songs from an appearance opening for them at Santa Monica Civic Center are included here.  

They were prolific songwriters.  None of the songs on their EP were included on their debut album.  To my knowledge, they didn’t record any cover songs.

Lead singer Wazmo Nariz (Larry Grennan) was an early host of MTV’s Cutting Edge.  Wazmo/Grennan went on to work with Stan Ridgway, and his drummer Bruce Zelesnik was a member of Ridgway’s band.  Grennan popped up in several national commercials back in the day.

Doug Stone reviewed their lone I.R.S. release: This inaugural LP spurts Bryan Ferry trilling trapped in bouncy Oingo Boingo biscuits. Skinny-tie before skinny ties made the scene (hence Nariz' trademark of two wide ties) and new wave before new wave crashed on the shore, Nariz and his Wazband are undeniably talented but strikingly odd. If you like your '80s pop off-kilter and kooky, chances are you'll dig Things Aren't Right, which sets the standard for standing apart.

A shout out is in order to (friend of the blog) ViacomClosedMeDown.  He posted the lion's share of the tracks contained here on his blog.  While I had some of the tracks on CD, I used his rips so it would have the warm crackle of vinyl throughout--except for of a couple of live YouTube videos I converted.  Check out VCMD's Wazmo post here: Down Underground

The New P0rnogr@phers Are 26 Years 0ld

I still remember the excitement of hearing "Mass Romantic" on college radio for the first time.  The New Pornographers sounded so different to my ears from other indie rock of 2000. It was a maximalist form of pop music, jam-packed with novel lyrical and melodic ideas, plus vocal arrangements that recalled groups like The Turtles. If you need a reminder of what was popular that year, check out Allmusic Loves 2000 or the Fluxblog 2000 Survey mix.

To be fair, I hadn't heard Zumpano (Carl Newman's former band), and it was a few years before I bought King James Version (Harvey Danger's remarkable 2000 album, which also featured elaborate vocal harmonies and clever lyrics).  Who but The New Pornographers could rhyme "set the scene" with "Byzantine" -- or create an irresistable chorus from the phrase, "Nobody knows the wreck of the soul the way you do"?

The liner notes to their debut announced, "We are The New Pornographers. This album is the second creation of The Blue Curtain," begging the question of what The Blue Curtain was, and what its first creation might have been.  I suspect it was Blaine Thurier's film The Low Self-Esteem Girl (which featured his bandmates Carl Newman and Dan Bejar as actors).

Dan Bejar had released Destroyer's Thief album in 1999, and Neko Case released Furnace Room Lullaby in 2000, adding to the impression that The New Pornographers was an indie supergroup, or a collective.  Dan's contributions to New Pornographers' albums gradually diminished as Destroyer flourished, and he left after 2014's Brill Bruisers.  

Neko Case has also had a successful solo career, and she collaborates with many other artists.  I'm pleased to report that Neko is still a New Pornographer and can be heard on the new album The Former Site Of.  She harmonizes beautifully with Carl Newman, but she is lead vocalist less often than she was back in the early 2000's (on songs like "Letter From An Occupant", "All For Swinging You Around" and "Mass Romantic").

John Collins was a founding New Pornographer, and he balances his work with Destroyer and other projects. Todd Fancey joined as lead guitarist in 2003, and he maintains a solo career as well as his membership as a Pornographer in good stead.  The same is true of Kathryn Calder, who joined in 2005 and also leads the group Frontperson. Wikipedia has a helpful chart of the New Pornographers' membership over the years.  Ironically, a drummer was recently fired after an arrest for child pornography.

Here's a CD-length "best of" The New Pornographers, starting with a song from the new album and working backwards to 2000.  The New Pornographers are touring North America through October 2026.  A word of advice, if you're going: I've seen Neko have audience members thrown out for recording cell phone videos.  

Buy The Former Site Of 

Buy tickets to see The New Pornographers

Elsewhere On The Blog: Neko Case's sister from another mister, Kelly Hogan

Best Of Johnny Gimble Vol. 1 BOB WILLS Merle Haggard GEORGE JONES Ray Benson

Best Of Johnny Gimble Vol. 1

Johnny Gimble was one of the most important fiddlers in Western Swing from his early days as a member of BOB WILLS & HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS to his work with the greats of country music.  On this collection, he performs with BOB WILLS, GEORGE JONES, MERLE HAGGARD, CHET ATKINS, WILLIE NELSON, & RAY BENSON & ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL.

He was born in Tyler Texas, and played on his first recording in Corpus Christi in 1948.  A year later, he joined BOB WILLS & HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS, & toured with them for the next decade.  He & his wife settled in Dallas & Johnny began doing television shows including THE BIG D JAMBOREE--a competitor of Nashville’s The Grand Ol’ Opry & California’s Town Hall Party.  Gimble rejoined Bob Wills in 1953 & played with him until the early ‘60s.  He hosted his own TV Show in Waco Texas JOHNNY GIMBLE & THE HOMEFOLKS which featured a young bass player named WILLIE NELSON.

After moving to Nashville in 1968, he backed the cream of country music, including Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Lefty Frizzell, Ray Price, Marty Robbins, & Chet Atkins.  He toured with Willie Nelson from 1979-1981 & appeared in Willie’s movie Honeysuckle Rose.  He also played his old boss Bob Wills in Clint Eastwood’s Honky Tonk Man.  Merle Haggard featured Gimble's instrumental wizardry on his 1970 album, A Tribute To The Best Damn Fiddle Player In The World (Or, My Salute to Bob Wills).

Of course he appeared on HEE HAW, but the show he appeared on the most (holding the record for most appearances at one point) was AUSTIN CITY LIMITS.  He was also a frequent guest on Garrison Keillor’s PRARIE HOME COMPANION radio show.

He’s a member of both the ROCK HALL OF FAME, and THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME, and was nominated 15 times for Instrumentalist Of The Year by The Country Music Association.  An interesting bit of trivia; Gimble & his wife Barbara were divorced twice and remarried twice!

DIE IDIOTEN: An Iggy Covers Album

 

It's Bandcamp Friday!  One new item that caught my eye is a single from The Art Gray Noizz Quintet with Lydia Lunch.  Together, they cover "Permafrost" by Magazine and "Mass Production" by Iggy Pop.  Here was one of the final missing pieces to complete a cover album project!

The Idiot was released in March 1977 and was followed six months later by Lust For Life.  Both albums were created during Iggy and Bowie's stay in East Berlin.  From their black and white covers to the musicians who play on both records, the two LP's are close siblings. Thus the title of this covers album, Die Idioten (The Idiots). 

I couldn't find this album online (or any other covers of "Turn Blue"), so there is a live version from Iggy's US tour with Bowie on keyboards and backing vocals.  Otherwise it's all covers, in a surprising range of interpretations in various genres, including reggae (Trippynova), mento (The Jolly Boys), rockabilly (J.D. McPherson), country (Kelly Willis, having fun with Chuck Prophet and The Gourds), plus a track from Angkor Pop, the Cambodian tribute to Iggy.  The biggest surprise to me was David Hasselhoff's version of "The Passenger".  It's modern European dance music, but the Hoff doesn't go over the top.  His vocal is faithful to the original.  Best thing he's done since his Lords Of The New Church cover!

The lyrics to these songs are among the best that Iggy has written, although some of them are problematic.  Iggy's attraction to underage girls is evident on "Sixteen" and "Tiny Girls".  Check out Eugene Robinson's article Punk Rock Pedophilia for a thoughtful examination of this issue.  

Another problematic lyric is "Visions of swastikas in my head, plans for everyone/It's in the whites of my eyes." Of course, the China Girl tells the song's narrator to shut his mouth.  It was Ron Asheton (not Iggy) who collected Nazi memorabilia, and it was Bowie who foolishly flirted with fascism.  

There's a fascinating new book called This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika, and the Third Reich which explores this obsession among rock musicians.  Bowie, Lennon, Brian Jones, Keith Moon, Vivian Stanshall, Eric Burdon, Lemmy, Throbbing Gristle, Sid Vicious, Siouxsie, Mark E. Smith, Bernard Sumner, Richard Jobson, Spandau Ballet, Nico, Slayer, Kanye and many others are examined in music, word and deed.  

The author, Daniel Rachel, also wrote a book about 2-Tone and the Rock Against Racism movement; and in This Ain't Rock 'n' Roll he calls out RAR for being less focused on antisemitism than other forms of racism.  I would like to have read a chapter on the white supremacist and neo-Nazi connections to noise, neo-folk, and metal, but those troubling topics are explored here, here, here and here. 

Sorry for such a long and digressive post today.  If I may suggest one item to consider for purchase on this Bandcamp Friday, it's the new release from Atlanta singer-songwriter K. Michelle Dubois.  She was a founding member of Ultrababyfat, and on her excellent solo albums she collaborates with Dan Dixon and other members of Atlanta band Dropsonic.  

Dubois' new full-length, Served On The Half Shell, is a collection of originals and covers: All Tomorrow's Parties, Truth Hits Everybody, and The Culture Bunker by Teardrop Explodes!  Michelle has a compelling voice. I frequently return to her solo albums, and always try to catch her live shows (which are too rare). 

Her new record is a great introduction to her music, as it features both new originals and remixes of older ones like All Night Glamour (which really needs to be featured on the soundtrack of the next teen vampire movie.) I previously featured K. Michelle Dubois' music here on the compilation Georgia Women of Alternative Rock (GWAR).

Buy This Ain't Rock'n'Roll from Akashic Books

Buy other Daniel Rachel books from Bookshop.org 

Buy music from K. Michelle Dubois at Bandcamp

KNOW IT? I WROTE IT! Vol. 3 BILLY SWAN Mark James JIMMY SILVA Rod Argent

KNOW IT?  I WROTE IT! Vol. 3

It’s rare that we can claim to be posting anything by popular demand, but our visitors actually requested Volume 3 of KNOW IT?  I WROTE IT!  It's chock-full of songwriters performing songs they wrote--which are often associated with another performer.

Such is the case with BILLY SWAN’s Lover Please, a song he wrote when he was in high school, & got Clyde McPhatter to record.  MARK JAMES’ version of Suspicious Minds is a faint echo in most people's memory compared to Elvis Presley’s version of the song—but it’s pretty great.  Ringo Starr took HOYT AXTON’s No No Song & ran with it, but it his version didn’t boast cameos by Cheech & Chong!  JACK TEMPCHIN handed Peaceful Easy Feeling over to The Eagles, but turns in a really nice version here.  

Handing songs over to The Monkees was in BOYCE & HART’s job description, and Vol. 3 contains the duo’s demo for Words.  GRAHAM GOULDMAN similarly supplied hits to the stars throughout the ’60s, and here he reclaims his Heart Full Of Soul in front of a live audience.  DAVE ALVIN & BUTCH HANCOCK both wrote for their respective bands before they landed solo record deals.

Longtime Beach Boys associate BRUCE JOHNSTON probably penned I Write The Songs for himself, but it’s become much more closely associated with Barry Manilow.  Several other songs fall in that category like JACKIE DeSHANNON’s When You Walk In The Room, JIMMY SILVA & THE GOATS’ Hand Of Glory, & ED BRUCE’s Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys.