78 from '78 (for my GenJones peeps)

Well, we've covered 1979 rather extensively, so why don't we wind it back to 1978?  Here's a sampling of the kind of music you would have heard if you were lucky enough to live near a great FM radio station - WBCN in Boston, WPLJ in New York, WMMS in Cleveland, WLUP in Chicago and more...

Nightmares in Velvet

The Velvet Underground are generally seen as one of the original punk rock bands, but they were too literate and cultured for that. 

And the Underwhelming 1982 Follow-Ups Just Keep on Coming!

Just when I thought I was out, 1982 pulls me back in. So as a follow-up to the epic post on Underwhelming 1982 Follow-Ups, here's a new batch of disappointing LPs. I just hope you aren't underwhelmed by this post...

Nostalgia for New Wave Nostalgia

Back in my rock critic phase, I used to write reviews on spec for Classic Rock. But as far as I remember, none of them ever got published. I think because they were a little too Eighties-centric for the Seventies-centric glossy. Such is life.

Gang of Four: Don't Eff with the Chemistry

Here's some secret history for you...

Chris Cornell: Bitten by the Black Dog

There's a free article up commemorating the seventh anniversary of Chris Cornell's death.

Check it out here: https://thesecretsun.substack.com/p/bitten-by-the-black-dog

"Bribes, Levitation and the Occult"

Dig in.

Then dig into this.

The Last Gangs in Town: The Bloody Days of LA Punk

What people stupidly call "Punk Rock" today is a fetid puddle of bloodless, sexless schoolmarms -- beyond weak, beyond sad, beyond pathetic. Like so much of the rotting corpse of pop culture in general, come to think of it.

Happy Trails to Mike Peters

 

Rock 'n' Roll is filled with some of the absolute dregs of humanity - but then again, Rock 'n' Roll also gave us Mike Peters. The Alarm (and former Big Country) frontman passed on after a decades-long battle with lymphoma and we are all the worse off for the loss. 

Mike was a great musician, and from all accounts a real stand-up guy - the anti-Bono, if you will. He certainly came off as such on his podcast and in various interviews. Mike always genuinely seemed happy and grateful to outlive a death sentence, and made sure he made the most of every day he beat the Reaper.

I saw The Alarm in 2007 when they were in their Stiff Little Fingers phase and it was a terrific show, full of the punk rock power and energy the Eighties' version of the band hinted at but never quite pulled off.

Even so, a lot of their older music has truly stood the test of time, so take a break today and enjoy this classic show from 1986.

The Muses Choose Broken Vessels

The Secret History of Rock n' Roll was a situation in which I told the editors I needed at least 100-120K words and if I didn't get it the book would suffer for it. 

Marshall Stacks & Rayon Slacks: 1979's Disco-Rock Dionysians

 

1979 was a liminal year, so it's only appropriate that musical boundaries would be breached by the short-lived but still-resonant Disco Rock movement. The two styles inhabited two entirely different spaces, with Disco a distinctly urban music and Seventies rock ruling the suburbs, but with the record companies gasping for economic air and Disco peaking commercially it only made sense to merge the two. 

Yes. Punk is Dead as a Hammer.

This dude comes from my old neck of the woods and I could tell right away, on account it takes an old Masshole to recognized another. His vid here goes into how and when punk rock was castrated by the record companies, and turned then into a safe space for the kinds of weenies who wouldn't be caught dead near a hardcore show back in the day.

Everything lives and dies, that's just life. But seeing the corpse of punk dragged around as an amen corner for Big Pharma (and the Globalist cause in general) is just too much for this former punk rocker to stomach.

(Follow-Up to) 1982: Year of the Underwhelming Follow-Up LP

Well, three years ago I promised to follow-up on the post "1982: Year of the Underwhelming Follow-Up LP," but as usual my attention was captured by something else (which I can't even remember at the moment - Oh, OK, it was Stoner Metal).

1980 on 45: You Had to Be There

In 1977, The Clash famously sang "No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones." Two years later their obvious yet unspoken agenda was "absolutely nothing but Elvis, Beatles and Rolling Stones," and tons of other old-timey favorites.

It's Winter, but it Feels like Strummer.

Today is International Clash Day, which was started by KEXP-FM to give middle-aged milquetoasts an opportunity to tell us how London Calling changed their lives, on whatever social media platform they're stinking up these days. 

Punk Floyd

I was in a bit of quandary trying to decide which Wire album to focus on for this blog. This is a band that's been around practically forever and has made quite a lot of quality music all along the way. 

David Lynch: Forever Chasing the Siren

David Lynch may not have been as obsessed with Elizabeth Fraser as I am, but then again, maybe he was. He certainly spent a lot of time and money chasing that sweet, sweet Fraserly dragon...

1980 on 45: Pretenders Calling

It’s hard to imagine in this day and age, but the very first month of the Eighties saw the release of some of the most important and influential records of the decade.

Bowie: The Starman Return(ed) to the Sky

 

Note: this was originally posted on The Secret Sun, the day after Bowie's death. It's reposted here in honor of his birthday.

The Legend is now complete. The story has been told, its ending could not have been more perfectly constructed or executed. It's said that the great ones know when to leave the stage; The Greatest also know how.