LUX

musings by

shaun lawton

If punk is the music of rebellion, Brian Eno is the ultimate punk.  His music rebels against form itself. Having debuted on the glam side of the rock scene playing keyboards on Roxy Music's first two albums, then moved on to establish the proto - template for alternative music in his first four solo albums Here Come The Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy, Another Green World, and Before And After Science, all of which expanded the parameters of rock, punk, new wave, and progressive, with a sort of hybrid neo-jazz avante-garde ambient dynamic of sound which clearly identifies Eno as potentially being the ultimate crossover artist of all time.   His work with luminaries across the field including collaborating on David Bowie's integral 70s electronic period albums (Heroes, Low, Lodger) as well as 1995's overlooked audial serial killer masterpiece OUTSIDE in addition to influencing more extreme artists such as Bahaus, Eno produced both Devo and the Talking Heads before attaching himself to the mid-career phase of U2's sonic development (and yes U2 started out much more of a punk band than anyone today may care to realize). Nevermind what people think has always been about as punk as you can get. Today I bring you music off Eno's 2012 ambient installation album LUX, which I've been listening to this afternoon reflected off the lovely black grooves of my LP vinyl edition, hoping for a lullaby.  

If it weren't for the artistry of Brian Eno, I honestly couldn't tell you where my mental state would be today, nor even if I were to have survived this long.  That last bit may be a bit of hyperbole but after all, who would want to live in this world without music, and furthermore, who out here alive today that loves music would want to do without the luminary work of Brian Eno such as Music For Airports or Discreet Music, or any and all of it, for that matter? There are some things best not imagined. All of his music has been cathartic for my soul along this road I've been traveling since discovering the power and beauty of modern rock music, to whom I owe Aerosmith a tip of the hat for having introduced me.  LUX is so punk it doesn't give a fuck what you think of it.  And neither do I.  And that is much more precisely in the bull's eye territory of what the original American rock and punk movements were all about, real people expressing their true selves in an original manner they could call their very own, with rock and roll instruments, or whatever they could get their hands on. In Eno's case it was a four-track recorder, the rest is history. Whether it's Iggy and the Stooges, David Bowie, Brian Eno, Lou Reed, the Velvet Underground, Bad Brains, Harold Budd, Black Sabbath, Boogie Down Productions, Crime, N.W.A, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Mystifier, the Accused, Patti Smith Group, Jim Carroll band, The Sugar Hill Gang, Parliament Funkadelic, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Judas Priest, Peter Murphy, Suicidal Tendencies, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Merzbow, the Melvins, Mogwai, Metallica, Exodus, Possessed, Kreator, Kraftwerk, the Avengers, the Nuns, Sex Pistols, Fear, Germs, Dead Kennedys, Cryptopsy, the Violent Femmes, X, the Buzzcocks, Joy Division, Rudimentary Peni, X-ray Spex, Venom, Negative Trend, Flipper, Motorhead, Sado-Nation, Bauhaus, Siouxsie & the Banshees, the Pretenders, the Distillers, the Screaming Abdabs, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Laurie Anderson, Frank Zappa, the Misfits, Samhain, the Plasmatics, the Pretty Things, New York Dolls, Blue Cheer, Snot, the Crumbsuckers, Cancerslug, Nausea, Acid Bath, Korn, Dax Riggs, Nine Inch Nails, Alice In Chains, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Tom Waits, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Bob Dylan, Rage Against The Machine, Hank III, Tomahawk, Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Leviathan, Ibex Throne, Terra Noir, The Obliterate Plague, Moon of Delirium, Gravecode Nebula, Odium Totus, Iconoclast Contra, TSOL, Tool, A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, Pigmy Love Circus, King Crimson, Primus, Ministry, Skinny Puppy, System Of A Down, Scissorfight, the 13th Elevators, 45 Grave, Wurm, Voivod, Monster Magnet, At The Drive In, Jane's Addiction, the Mars Volta, Antemasque, Mono—it's all punk rock to me. \m/

TOO LATE I'M DEAD

Here's a song for my Funeral Mix ~

To Be Played At Maximum Volume.
If I could only choose one—song to play at my funeral—
then this one's good as any.  
  

This song was released in 2005 as the B-side of their 1st single without Brian "Head" Welch Twisted Transistor (from their seventh studio release SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE, an underrated and overlooked sonic masterpiece from my vantage point).    I'm listening to their fifth album UNTOUCHABLES right now on my record player, and it's a pretty dope example of "Doom Pop," or some sick crossover music incorporating a strange amalgam of styles well-blended enough to defy strict categorization.  I added this Bakersfield quintet too my list of death rock bands since I saw them on that first tour in '95.  Saw them 10x w/Head 

Quintessential examples of crossover music, KoRn may in fact end up having scrabbled to the top of the heap by the time it's all over.  Who knows? Brian "Head" Squelch, Batman! 

Let's just hope these guys release a parachute soon from their jet-fueled getaway racing car. Fame will do funny and tragic things to a person, it doesn't matter who you are to begin with.  I think all the guys in the band today including their current drummer are just about the most balanced family individuals with a lifetime of rocking experience you could ask for. Give it up for KoRn still going strong after all these  years, and with only one member changed.  So what else is new.  They're  sure to keep on rocking in the new world for many years to come.  Nevermind what any one of us thinks of this band.  I've seen em nineteen times live and they delivered each time.  When they first dropped their debut I thought to myself, "This is some weird off the hook grunge hip hop skate punk hybrid kinda,"—little did I know then it was five tweakers barely out of their teens on a dark mad psycho frenzy freak out.   It's a great thing that they're all alive and thriving today and (mostly) reunited. 

The Wings I Must Cut

The Mars Volta's fifth (of six) studio album, 2009's OCTAHEDRON

This magnificent album I feel lucky to possess, it comes in white die hard 

limited-edition vinyl, get yours while you still can.   A sonic experiment

which goes far beyond crossover, the eight tracks on this octahedral listen

will surely keep you spellbound for a lifetime.  

Originating from the post-punk alternative band At The Drive In, it's altogether appropriate that the Mars Volta should find their way into this blog.   

See, I decided that, even though I'm going to go through all my punk albums alphabetically here (and we haven't even gotten to Bad Brains yet) every once in a while or every so often I'll interpose with whatever I happen to be listening to at the time.  

That way it keeps the blog more varied, updated, and interesting; and also let's you die hard core punks know what sorts of stuff I'm sneakin' in and getting away with.  Just keepin' it fresh.  

This is a brilliant band who left their mark between the years 2003 and 2012,

nine years interlaced by six albums whose impact has probably only been felt

by the die hard fans because it's that far ahead of its time.  Encoded with star-

flung brilliance through and through, this music is sure to boomerang back with

a vengeance, generations after my generation's all long buried.   

p.S.

I first saw the Mars Volta perform live when they toured with A Perfect Circle.
Lucky for me I always get GA/Floor (even if stuck with a seat, ever heard of bumrushing the floor).

In any case all the unfortunate peeps stuck in the rear bleachers walked away with the (faint) impression the Mars Volta sucked live, well that's because by the time their Sound reached those ears, yeah I can imagine it would have muddied up a bit.  Well I at least can testify that right up directly in front of the band, the sound we were enveloped in was nothing short of an astonishing amalgamation of every sort of pre- and post-musical expressionism chaotically brewing together into a preliminary maelstrom of rock'n'roll fusing into what I like to think of as a 'punk blues' sort of thing.

There's really no other band out there like 'em.  I'm pretty ascertaining of myself when I suggest there will be a three-stage period of time now while we mourn their passing which, at the completion of, you may rest assured they will return in a resurrected glory for a seventh album, mark my sigils.

Grinning Like An Undertaker

My fourth slab of Accused vinyl:   

the 1990 album  Grinning Like An Undertaker.  Some call it an EP, but even if it's short & brutal, its got fourteen cuts so I consider it a real album, like a shank into your side.  Cuts quick and deadly.  

 

This vinyl copy I scored a few years ago is also a Promo Copy.  

I still have the original cassette that this album came out on. 

I love listening to these old cassettes while driving our car. 

Side two of this killer punk record starts out with a bang on the song 

M is for Martha

I don't know the lineup on this particular album, but it was recorded , manufactured, and distributed by NASTYMIX RECORDS 800 Tower Building Seattle, WA, USA 98101.  

© 1990 Locked-up Music  

The second song -  called Room 144 -  is an instrumental.  It sounds pretty sick. 

The Accused are awesome.   These are essential punk albums for me.  So I'm glad they start off my collection, even though they appear alphabetically before ACID BATH.   I always consider When The Kite String Pops to be the ultimate crossover album.   Any good A to Z comp could just as easily begin with Acid Bath rather than the Accused.   The question remains, which band should end it?