Tony Wilson & Joy Division

I just watched a movie on Comcast On Demand called 24 Hour Party People. It was about Tony Wilson, somebody I had never heard of, who started Factory Records, was involved with promoting Joy Division, and had a famous club in Manchester called Hacienda, which I had never heard of.

Joy Division

What was really striking to me in the movie was the scenes in the beginning showing clips of bands performing music in the late 1970s that was not in any way the music I associate with the 1970s. And yet, it was in the 1970s that these bands began. In 1977, Joy Division was playing a kind of music that I associate with the 1980s. I mean, in 1977, the music in my world was all that big, artsy amphitheater rock like Boston, Kansas, Styx, and Queen, plus harder rock outfits like Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin. But while that was all the new music I knew at that time (in terms of rock, anyway), on the other side of the big pond in a town called Manchester, a whole new music scene was emerging that I would not become aware of until 1982.

I think there are two particularly memorable periods in pop music, two 5-year periods when the pop music scene was bubbling with astounding creativity. The first was 1964-1968. The second, which occurred when I was in college, was 1979-1983. I wrote a blog article about that period, called “1979-1983: From The Death Of Disco To The Rise Of Alternative.” It was amazing all the new sounds that came out during that time.

I knew Joy Division existed in the late 1970s, but I was not familiar with any of the band’s music, so it never stuck with me. Tonight in the movie was a clip from Siouxsie and The Banshees, a group I didn’t discover until 1988. In the 1990s, I bought a CD of theirs, a greatest hits from the late 70s to early 80s, and that’s where I learned they had been around that long. I have a record by The Human League from 1980, but it wasn’t their first album, so they were making music in the 1970s too. There were other bands mentioned in this bit of the movie that I knew, but had never thought of as existing in the 1970s. It really struck me how this new kind of music that I didn’t discover until 1982 was already in existence when I was completely oblivious, in my world of what is now called classic rock.

After the lead singer of Joy Division committed suicide in 1980, the band re-formed under the name New Order, still recording for Factory Records, which Tony Wilson founded. I got my first New Order album, Low-Life, in 1985, when I was living in the coal mining hills deep in eastern Kentucky. In 1988, I got their double-CD compilation of 12” singles called Substance. I also have six 12” singles by New Order. It was interesting to see in the movie tonight some history behind this music I’ve enjoyed for years.

The Hot Summer's Effect On Music

Hey, that last posting was absolutely painless. It was easier than doing the writing directly in Blogger. I like this MacJournal program already!

Here in Michigan, a lot of summers are basically two months long--from mid-June to mid-August. But this has been a long, hot summer already, with hot weather arriving in May. There is music I tend to play during the hot months of July and August, but this year I was playing it in May because it had already been hot awhile.

My hot weather music tends to be shoegazer, that lazy, floating music with fuzzed out guitars and ethereal vocals. I got started with this back in 1991, with music by Curve, Lush, My Bloody Valentine, and Slowdive. (Not all of that is shoegazer, technically, but I tend to listen to them with each other.) Another band I discovered that summer and still associate with summer is Throwing Muses.

Last decade, my main summer music consisted of Broomtree, Miss Angie, Morella’s Forest, Royal, and Viva Voce. Of those artists, only Viva Voce are still around. So as much I loved those bands, I can’t buy any new music by them, and I’ve played them to death. Also, lately I’ve been having trouble finding new artists (a topic for a future entry).

So what I’ve decided to go back and buy some of that old music from the early 1990s. This week I bought a My Bloody Valentine album I never got back when it was popular. I got the EP Tremolo in 1991, which has one song from the album Loveless, but never the full album, so at last I now have the whole beautiful album. I also bought a Curve album I haven’t had, their 1998 Come Clean.

But there is one recent one that I’ve bought, which is of a similar style of music. It’s the third album by Asobi Seksu, the 2009 release Hush. Their second album, Citrus, was my #2 album of 2006, and still mesmerizes me, but it will be nice to have another set of songs to listen to by them.

I’ve been very poor this year. Normally I purchase CDs regularly throughout the year, but this year, this is my first CD purchase, and that was done by getting money from selling something on eBay. I guess I’ll need to find more things to sell. I can’t believe I didn’t get my first new music of the year until July!

Coming Back

Coming Back

I see I haven’t posted on this blog for almost a year. I now have a new blogging software program (MacJournal), so I’m thinking I will get into the groove on this blog. This entry is mostly a test entry to see how MacJournal will work with Blogger. I know virtually nothing about either MacJournal or Blogger, so if it doesn’t work, I’m sure it’s my ignorance more than anything else. Okay, here goes...let’s see if this posts.

My Website

Like my blog, my website has things from a lot of different topics.  But in my website is a section on music.  I have some links there to my annual music awards (last completed one is 2005, unfortunately), my favorite CCM albums of the 1980s, and my "Music Hall Of Fame," which lists some of my favorite musicians.  Until I get this blog going, the website should give you some idea as to what my musical tastes are.

Also, I am a member of of MyCCM.org, which was started for fans of CCM magazine, then they killed the magazine (go figure).  Well, technically the magazine still exists, but it's online only now, and I don't like the online version at all.  The community was pretty decent when the magazine still existed because they tied the online content to the magazine.  Then they scrapped the MyCCM site and replaced it with a Ning platform; ever since, participation has not reached critical mass--there are only about 1000 members.

I never listen to the radio.  I rarely like anything mainstream enough to reach the radio airwaves. I have plenty of my own CDs to play, so I can always play something to fit my mood.  If I want new music, I use the web to find new stuff.

So anyway, that's a bit of random stuff about me and music.

My New Music Blog

I've been blogging for years, but my blog has always been about whatever topic comes to mind, which I have discovered tends to limit the audience to people who know me.  So now I am setting up this blog on one topic--music--and whenever I want to write about music, I'll put it here.  I just signed up so I will come back when I have something to write about music.