elphenor

Pretty much the title gonna just share my fav stuff "obscure" is relative but it might be gems you missed for whatever reason

Starting off with what I find should be one of the penultimate standard setting songs in punk (though subway sect is usually associated with post punk because of their smarmy intellectualism)



Subway's Sect 1977 "Chain Smoking" weaves together an out of control full band yelled chorus with deliberate speak-sing lines delivered over chopped up chords culminating in the chanting of my all time mantra in music

Life

Is

Chain

Smoking

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The Batlord

What little I've heard of Subway Sect has been pretty cool, and they have pretty much the best name ever.

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Trollheart

Welcome to Journaltown! Always room for one more!

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elphenor

Will probably update this daily I know the anticipation is killing everyone

Now moving to a group I know I've only heard of





No but seriously these are two top tier Cure songs that are often overlooked.

17 Seconds is the best Cure album in my opinion being an exact balance between the spikey minimalist speed pop of their early years and the brooding gothic melodramatic excess of their later. s

Clocking it at about a half hour it maintains a cohesive style forming an atmosphere that the listener can get lost in without overstaying its welcome positively avoiding the pitfall of becoming "samey"

These two tracks are Bsides to this magnum opus and didn't make the album cut for an obvious thematic reason: They are just too damn funa

Basically this is Robert Smith letting loose his Hendrix influence that's apparent throughout the Cure's most apparently on "Foxy Lady" on Three Imaginary Boys

But what's superb about the tracks is that while the guitars are a cartoonish Hendrix the rhythms are bouncy post punk through and through ramping up the "groovy baby" to off the charts levels

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elphenor

Today I talk about this:



Scritti Polliti Early 1979

This is a collection of some of the most chaotic unstructured post punk tracks to ever be cobbled together by an alternative act and it was released by a band that was known for the type of gaudy sugarcoated synth pop to be played in Supermarkets for eternity. If you're searching through a record store you're likely to find a copy of this:



What you won't find is Frankenstein productions like:




And yet already there is the aptitude for pretty pop brilliance and it's the contrast of this through the cacophony sometimes even in the same song that makes for such an interesting listening experience

Confidence is a highlight track and one of my favorite tracks in the entire genre. Vocalist Green Gartside humorously depicts isolation and the expectation of manhood

"I was scared to tell my mother
and I'm scared to tell my mates
all the rotten smother and all the petty hates
who haven't got the nerve to break
Confidence"



Otherwise this is a pretty headache you're best left experiencing for yourself, highly recommended

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Zer0

The 'I'm a Cult Hero'/'I Dig You' single was released under the name Cult Hero instead of The Cure. It was Simon Gallup's first time playing with Robert Smith and was almost like his audition for The Cure.

They are cool songs though.

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elphenor

Damn that checks out you get a cookie I have them included in a reissue of 17 Seconds I had assumed they were Bsides rather than a separate tracks recorded during the same time period

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elphenor

Subject today will be a person rather than an album or tracks

Mark Berry



better known as "Bez" from the ecstacy-fueled punk/indie band Happy Mondays

Here you see his main, indeed only, contribution to the group... dancing... and not particularly well



Frontman Shaun Ryder said he played the important role of translating to the audience that this was Dance music and as such is to be danced to.

In true Factory Records socialist inspired manner Bez received the exact same share as every other member (and Factory records split all profits 50/50 with their bands). Considering Happy Mondays breakout success this possibly puts Bez among the highest paid professional dancers of all time.

Punk as ****.

But his odd accomplishments didn't end there he went on to win the third season of the British (and later American in a slightly different format) reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother netting himself a smooth 50k

Ofc that 50k went straight to clean his debts to the Tax Man because E heads are not particularly good with finances

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elphenor

Today: Legendary Pink Dots, a personal favorite artist of mine

Underground Gothic messiah Edward Ka-Spel occupies a space in music that's like Syd Barrett on his most nightmarish trip

Unlike most other gothic post punk acts who wore it almost tongue in cheek, The Dots do not play with irony, Ka-Spel is 100% submerged in his persona and the world's he's created everything is a part of the larger conceptual theater.

Shows open ceremoniously with the lighting of a candle on stage announcing that you've left your dimension and entered The Pink Dot's



Ka-Spel submerges the room in miserable synth and with vocals like the Grim Reaper as a flower child speaks Lovecraftian horrors into existence as all matter of instruments make surprise appearances



For an intro to their world I recommend listening to the rest of that show which was released under the title "The French Collection".



Legendary Pink Dots have one of the deepest and most eclectic discographies out there so it's easy to get lost. I'd also recommend The Maria Dimension:



Or

Asylum

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Mondo Bungle

I love SP

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