Post Punk

[Granny Gremlin]

So we've got the classic rock represented, here's a spot for the the stuff that really turned me/the younger members among us on as we developed musically.  Very loose defenition of postpunk.  The only rule is that nobody, under any circumstances, post Love Will Tear Us Apart, or Synthpop generally.

I'll start it off with some German stuff Uwe is ashamed to have turned me on to accidentally, and then a few other things to get the ball rolling. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmpPV-AX_qU&feature=kp

Obviously, we need some Hooky in here:



Severin (and as a drummer, Budgie; for his work with The Banshees as well as with the Slits):



Speaking of the Slits, Tessa Polit totally took the torch of women holding it down while the guitard wanks off and vocalists spread their ass feathers from Kaye and Quatro.  Uwe, I expect a translation of that (I am just making an educated guess here) gibberish at the beginning.  RIP Ari.






Can't leave out Gallup:



Mani:



The song that made me think that fretless might be cool after all (session guy in studio, obviously; these dudes usually had synth bass parts):



... And cap it off with one of my favorite contemporary local groups.  The only way to experience these guys was getting tossed around in front bumping into the vocalist and getting hip checks from the bass player.  I dunno why they always recorded their stuff so oddly dryly; but most live vids sound hilariously bad even by iphone standards - an absolute shame you can rarely hear the bass at all - or I would have chosen a different song (I'm in the vid at 6:04, holding a beer next to the dude who didn't have the foresight, as I did, to remove his glasses... which was obviously after the show pictured at 6:39, where I have my glasses on and learned my damn lesson.... lol at 7:05 and the Toronto FD at 7:58; who the fugg made this vid? Those were good times):



OK I lied, I'll post these local dudes too (recently signed to Geffen, I think) just because an old band of mine used to play a lot of shows with them and the dude rocks the snot out of a Gibson RD Artist:

[Granny Gremlin]

Aw sheeeet; an actual high quality live vid of Anagram.  I think this was their last show before breaking up (and basically reforming under a new name a few months later).

[uwe]

Not sure what you mean with "younger members" - an alien concept here - but, wot, no Smiths/Morrissey or New Model Army?!!!

I loved these guys, a New Model Army spin off:



And them - who never escaped the "poor man's Simple Minds with a little Billy Idol rolled in":



Does New Order qualify? Liked this here too:



Oh, and her or is she too Canadian to be post-punk?



Plus another Neue Deutsche Welle goody:

[Granny Gremlin]

Not sure what you mean with "younger members" - an alien concept here - but, wot, no Smiths/Morrissey or New Model Army?!!!

I was teasing you Gerries.  ... and as much as I dig The Smiths, the bass playing (and especially tone) had nothing to do with it (for me). ...but where do you dig this stuff up, dude - never heard of her... though points for Interzone. 


Also I totally meant to include these guys in my OP, but got sidetracked with nostalgia and forgot:



Not a fan of the bass tone, but these guys are so Joy Division gets funky during a Dr Who cover that I have to let it slide.

[westen44]

I've got a friend who talks about post-punk a lot.  He used to be in this New Zealand band in the 80s.  Maybe this is post-punk, or maybe it isn't.  I've honestly never fully understood what post-punk is even supposed to be.

[Granny Gremlin]

  I've honestly never fully understood what post-punk is even supposed to be.

That's probably the point, actually. 

Those guys remind me of the Monks (not the 60s band, the 80s one; both are good).

[Pekka]

Wire were post-punk almost before punk. This is one of their greatest pop songs:

[uwe]

"I've honestly never fully understood what post-punk is even supposed to be."

The conventional wisdom to this is that it means "adding a fourth bar chord after you have learned to tune".


Ok, ok, 'twas in jest!!!  I had the Ramones debut one or two weeks after it came out, the NME hymns about it practically forced you to buy it  (and I liked it) - that was when Jake's parents hadn't even met yet, much less conceived the talented young man!!!

[westen44]

"I've honestly never fully understood what post-punk is even supposed to be."

The conventional wisdom to this is that it means "adding a fourth bar chord after you have learned to tune".


Ok, ok, 'twas in jest!!!  I had the Ramones debut one or two weeks after it came out, the NME hymns about it practically forced you to buy it  (and I liked it) - that was when Jake's parents hadn't even met yet, much less conceived the talented young man!!!

I had a vague idea, but maybe a little too vague to be considered precise.  I think a few more blanks have been filled in now.  I may have been around it a little more than I realized, though. 

[westen44]

That's probably the point, actually. 

Those guys remind me of the Monks (not the 60s band, the 80s one; both are good).

That also gives me some more perspective.  Interesting. 

[Dave W]

"I've honestly never fully understood what post-punk is even supposed to be."

The conventional wisdom to this is that it means "adding a fourth bar chord after you have learned to tune".


Ok, ok, 'twas in jest!!!  I had the Ramones debut one or two weeks after it came out, the NME hymns about it practically forced you to buy it  (and I liked it) - that was when Jake's parents hadn't even met yet, much less conceived the talented young man!!!

You jest, but it sounds like you don't have a remote idea of what's considered post-punk. It's not the Ramones.

[westen44]

I found a list of post-punk bands.  I'm not sure if this helps much or not.  Now I'm seeing what are called post-punk bands which I might think of as alternative rock bands.  Also, there seems to be a link between post-punk and alternative, complicated by the fact that alternative rock can also be an umbrella term for anything that isn't mainstream. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_post-punk_bands

[slinkp]

Oh Granny you've got me started!  This is my stuff.  Must show some restraint....
okay first off, missing from the many great English bands you posted:



Burma!



Husker Du ... somehow they got called "hardcore" before that became an orthodoxy... to me they had more in common with the bands in this thread than with anything labeled "hardcore", but eh it's all just labels... :


And... Watt!  With the Minutemen... what a drummer George Hurley is/was.


A little more obscure ... Agitpop, one of my favorites, who apparently left behind little to no decent live footage.


Going a different direction... if you slow down the Husker Du wall of noise and make it spacey and psychedelic enough it might turn into My Bloody Valentine... there are live clips but they are, erm, challenging to listen to.


And... love 'em or hate 'em... I will love them forever:


As for what is and isn't post-punk:  it's a catch-all for a lot of disparate things, most of whom probably never thought of themselves as "post-punk", so it's pretty meaningless to debate what the boundaries are.  I think of it as a historical label more than a musical one... underground music that evolved out of the punk scene and laid the groundwork for what later became called "alternative",  which was more or less the same thing.

[fur85]

I picked up this 7" in 1980 and have always thought of this as post-punk.

[uwe]

You jest, but it sounds like you don't have a remote idea of what's considered post-punk. It's not the Ramones.

Duh, Dave!  I was attempting to get across that I listened to punk even before post-punk, the original as opposed to the 2nd generation. Philosophically, I was trying to impress "it's ok to like Post-Punk, I even listened to what spawned it". I will from now on accompany all my postings with a manual of explanation and deciphering.

I owned both New York Dolls albums already (and liked them, especially In Too Much Too Soon)  when they were still regarded as a glam-hard rock band. Two years later they were all of the sudden the grandfathers of punk.

Post-Punk, hard core style, is to me probably something like the Dead Kennedies or Black Flag, is that an accurate assumption?