by Roni Sarig
DISCOGRAPHY
Spiral Scratch EP (New Hormones, 1977; Document, 1991); a rare first release, the only recording that features original vocalist Howard Devoto.
Another Music in a Different Kitchen (United Artists, 1978); the band’s classic debut, full of energy and unforgettable pop-punk songs.
Love Bites (United Artists, 1978); a second record that branches out stylistically but remains catchy.
A Different Kind of Tension (United Artists, 1979; IRS, 1989); the band’s final studio release, which shows the band’s fatigue but still offers a set of terrific songs.
Singles Going Steady (IRS, 1979); the essential release, a definitive collection of their great singles and B sides (many not available on the three studio albums).
Lest We Forget (ROIR cassette, 1988); live recordings taken from 1979 and ‘80.
Live at the Roxy Club April 77 (Absolutely Free, 1989; Receiver, 1990); more live recordings, not available domestically in the U.S.
Product (Restless Retro, 1989); a box set featuring the original albums and singles (though not Spiral Scratch), which sparked new interest in the band and led to the reunion.
The Peel Sessions Album (Strange Fruit, 1989; Strange Fruit / Dutch East India Trading, 1991); an extended version of the original EP from 1988.
Operators Manual: Buzzcocks Best (IRS, 1991).
Alive Tonight EP (Planet Pacific, 1991); a reunion release that revealed the potential for starting up again.
Entertaining Friends: Live at the Hammersmith Odeon March 1979 (IRS, 1992); a previously unreleased live recording.
Trade Test Transmissions (Castle Communications / Caroline, 1993); a promising return; the first new Buzzcocks album in 13 years.
French (IRS, 1996); a live album taken from a post-reunion tour.
All Set (IRS, 1996); a second post-reunion studio album.
TRIBUTE: Something’s Gone Wrong Again: The Buzzcocks’ Covers Compilation (C/Z, 1992); featuring covers by Alice Donut, Porn Orchard, Naked Raygun, Lunachicks, and others.
THE FALL
Carla Bozulich, Geraldine Fibbers:
The thing that blew me away about the Fall was there didn’t seem to be any rules or formulas. Random mishaps that could occur during the songs were okay, sort of expected as part of the music. Mark E. Smith cracks me up because he’s such a raw nerve, a spoiled pudding. A bratty, upset person; it’s wonderful. I interviewed him once for Ben [of Dead Lime], and the interview went so poorly we didn’t print it. My friend who was with me asked if he was aware of Pavement, and if he felt they were knocking him off. And he got really angry about it; he said something like, yeah, these scags go around just blatantly ripping me off year after year!’ Total bitter tirade. He’s right, but I think they mean it as a complete tribute.
The Buzzcocks were the first major band of the punk era to emerge from the northern industrial city of Manchester, but the Fall were the true forerunners of Mancunian rock music of the ‘80s and U ‘90s. Proudly regional in a way that indie rockers would later become, the Fall created a twangy post-punk sound it called “Mancabilly.” It’s even rumored that one of the best known Manchester groups, the Smiths, took their name in tribute to a local hero, the Fall’s irascible leader Mark E. Smith. The Fall’s influence stretches far beyond its hometown. By drawing as much on German bands like Can and Faust as on punk rock, the Fall provided a blueprint for the most significant indie rock bands of the ‘80s and ‘90s, including Sonic Youth and Pavement. Their love of obscure references, peculiarly detailed lyrics, odd song titles, ramshackle collage album art, deadpan singing, and jagged guitar work all show up in countless groups who came later. With Fall leader Mark E. Smith’s patented smarter-than-thou indie attitude, the Fall may be the first distinctly post-punk college rock band.
Steve Wynn, Dream Syndicate:
We were ripping off the Fall as much or more than the Velvets. People were less familiar with the Fall and didn’t catch that as much. A lot of things on [the Dream Syndicate’s] Days of Wine And Roses I was trying to make sound like Hex Induction Hour, Slates and stuff like that. We were really into the way they would just find a groove and stay on it forever. We liked doing that too.
Over the band’s 20-year (and ongoing) career, members have joined, quit, been fired, returned, and left again. The one constant has been Smith, the group’s founder and vocalist. In 1977, 30-year-old Smith quit his office job to explore his musical fascination with krautrock, rockabilly, and, of course, punk. Taking an unapologetically intellectual perspective, he named his band after a favorite existential novel by Albert Camus. The Fall’s original lineup included guitarist Martin Bramah and drummer Karl Burns, though within two years, more than 10 instrumentalists had come and gone, leaving Smith the only original member. Smith, a curmudgeon with a sullen (if darkly humorous) take on life, was not easy to get along with.
Despite the revolving-door membership, the Fall developed quickly and earned the attention of Mark Perry, leader of the cult punk group Alternative Television, who signed them to his Step Forward label. Both the three-song debut EP Bingo Master’s Breakout and the first album Live at the Witch Trials revealed a band with much more to offer than three-chord punk rock. The music was bleak and minimal, and drew on everything from British skiffle bands to the Velvets to Teutonic art rock of the ‘70s. The ambitious Witch Trials, which the band recorded in one day in 1978, was an early indication of how much further punk could be stretched when freed of the limited style that had defined it.
Marcellus Hall, Railroad Jerk:
It was totally amazing to me when I heard the Fall. I was really impressed that you could speak over music in an authoritative way, it had a real power to it, and I realized we could use that too, talking through a song in an urgent way. We do it all the time: “Ballad of Railroad Jerk,” “Talking Railroad Jerk Blues,” are directly from the Fall’s declarative singing (and Woody Guthrie type talking blues of course).
From the start, Smith emerged as a distinctive vocalist, with his cool monotone, pissed-off talk-sing, northern drawl, and curious habit of drawing out the final syllables of lines. Among the most successful earlier Fall releases is 1980’s Grotesque, where Smith focuses on Manchester as a subject, with both fondness and scorn, in songs like Mancabilly and The North Will Rise Again. With 1982’s Hex Enduction Hour, another fan favorite, the Fall added a second drummer for a more intricately rhythmic sound.
Personal and personnel changes put the Fall at a crossroads in 1983. Smith’s partner Kay Caroll, who served as the band’s manager, ended her involvement with Smith and the Fall, and guitarist Marc Riley, a key Smith collaborator since he joined in 1978, left as well. At the same time, Smith met American guitarist Laura Salinger, who under the name Brix would join the Fall and eventually marry Smith. More than any other past or current Fall member except Smith himself, Brix would exert a huge influence on the band. With Perverted by Language, the first Fall record featuring Brix, the band took a distinct turn toward a more accessible, pop-oriented sound. Despite a tribute to krautrock band Can’s lead singer (I Am Damo Suzuki), 1985’s This Nation’s Saving Grace showed Smith more willing to sing – however flatly – than ever. Still it wouldn’t be until their cover of the Kinks’ Victoria on 1988’s Frenz Experiment that the Fall would score their first U.K. hit.
Mac McCaughan, Superchunk:
The Fall was my favorite band, I probably have more Fall records than any other band. I really like the Brix period. They were still weird, with a great rhythm section, heavy basslines and drums, but also getting really poppy, with catchy songs. And they still make good records, that’s why I like them so much, they’ve managed to stick around for 20 years and still do interesting stuff.
While the band was experiencing its first taste of mainstream success, it was also pushing its music further. In 1986 Smith wrote music about papal politics, and in 1988 the group composed the score to a ballet called I Am Kurious Oranj. By 1990, though, Smith had alienated his closes
t collaborator, and Brix left both their marriage and band. Smith soldiered on with Extricate, which featured production work by British dub guru Adrian Sherwood and techno wizards Coldcut. The record was a clear indication that, after a decade and a half, Smith still had plenty more areas to explore.
As young bands who were clearly informed by the Fall’s music emerged in the ‘90s, it looked as if Smith and company would cash in on its reputation and influence. 1991’s Shift-Work provided the Fall – now streamlined down to a four piece – with its biggest U.K. hit yet, and two years later the band released the first of two records for influential American indie label Matador Records (the label of Fall devotees such as Pavement and Railroad Jerk).
Scott Kannnberg, Pavement:
A lot of the vocal delivery that Steve [Malkmus, Pavement singer] does, and I do in some songs, comes from Mark Smith. A song like “Forklift,” the talk-singing and using language not found in most songs. We tried to get Gary [Young, original Pavement drummer] to do that weird, syncopated drums, too. “Condo for Sale” is a total Fall rip-off, and Two States.”
Smith’s guest appearance on Inspiral Carpets’ 1994 album indicated that a new generation of Manchester acts was acknowledging their debt to the Fall. But despite an ever-growing willingness of American acts to admit the Fall’s influence, the band remains as underground as ever in the U.S. Recent albums, which explore electronics and mark the return of Brix to the band (though not the marriage), have not even been released domestically. Recent internal fighting and legal trouble have put the band’s future in question.
DISCOGRAPHY
Bingo Master’s Breakout EP (Step Forward, 1978).
Live at the Witch Trials (Step Forward / IRS, 1979).
Dragnet (Step Forward, 1979).
Totale’s Turns (It’s Now or Never) (Rough Trade, 1980; Dojo, 1992).
Grotesque (After the Gramme) (Rough Trade, 1980; Castle Classics, 1993).
Early years 77-79 (Faulty Products, 1981).
Slates EP (Rough Trade, 1981); along with the Hex record, often viewed as the finest Fall material.
Hex Enduction Hour (Kamera, 1982); the high point of the Fall’s early period.
Room to Live (Kamera, 1982).
A Part of America Therein, 1981 (Cottage, 1982; Dojo 1992); live album, reissued with Slates EP.
Perverted by Language (Rough Trade, 1983); the first record to feature Brix, and thus the start of the Fall’s more accessible middle period.
Kicker Conspiracy EP (Rough Trade, 1983).
Fall in a Hole (Flying Nun, 1983).
The Wonderful and Frightening World of ... (Beggars Banquet/PVC, 1984).
Hip Priest and Kamerads (Situation Two, 1985; Beggars Banquet, 1995).
This Nation’s Saving Grace (Beggars Banquet / PVC, 1985).
The Fall EP (PVC, 1986).
Bend Sinister (Beggars Banquet, 1986).
Domesday Pay-off (Big Time, 1987).
The Peel Sessions EP (Strange Fruit, 1987); tracks collected from the band’s appearance on the British show, John Peel’s Radio 1.
The Fall in: Palace of Swords Reversed (Rough Trade / Cog Sinister, 1987); a fine compilation of early ‘80s stuff.
The Frenz Experiment (Big Time, 1988).
I Am Kurious Oranj (Beggars Banquet / RCA, 1988); featuring music written for a ballet to commemorate William of Orange’s accession to the British throne.
Seminal Live (Beggars Banquet, 1989).
Extricate (Cog Sinister / Fontana / Polygram, 1990).
458489 A Sides (Beggars Banquet / RCA, 1990); compilation of ‘45s from the ‘84-‘89 period.
458489 B Sides (Beggars Banquet / RCA, 1990; 1995); double CD of the B sides from A Sides’ singles.
Shift-Work (Cog Sinister / Fontana / Phonogram, 1991).
Code: Selfish (Cog Sinister / Fontana / Phonogram, 1992).
The Collection (Castle Communications, 1993); a U.K. compilation of early ‘80s material.
Kimble EP (Strange Fruit / Dutch East India, 1993); more Peel sessions, including cover of Lee Perry’s Kimble.
The Infotainment Scan (Matador / Atlantic, 1993); the first of two records made for U.S. indie Matador, home to a number of Fall-influenced groups.
Middle Class Revolt / The Vapourisation of Reality (Matador, 1994); the second and last Matador release.
Cerebral Caustic (Permanent, 1995); unavailable domestically in the U.S., the record marks the return of Brix.
The Twenty-Seven Points (Permanent, 1995), a double live CD with some demos thrown in.
The Legendary Chaos Tape (Scout / Rough Trade, 1995); CD version of Live in London cassette from 1980.
Light Users Syndrome (Jet, 1996); a recent studio album exploring new directions, such as drum ‘n’ bass, as well as old rockabilly styles.
Levitate (1998).
GANG OF FOUR
Flea, Red Hot Chili Peppers [from the liner notes to the Songs of the Free CD]:
Gang of Four is the first rock band I could truly relate to, the first to make me want to go crazy and dance and fuck and feel tike I was part of something cool... It completely changed the way I looked at rock music and sent me on my trip as a bass player... I hear their influence on really great bands, too, like Fugazi and Jane’s Addiction... Not Great Men is the first thing I put on my turntable to show somebody what shaped the sound of the rookie Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The English group Gang of Four turned funk inside out and melded it with punk polemics, taking George Clinton’s great funk dictum “free your ass and your mind follow” to a whole other level. With music that simultaneously made listeners dance and think, the band created a “politics of dancing,” where crowded discos become social movements and regimented dance steps subtle forms of solidarity. And with the gray economic climate of early-‘80s Britain, dancing – even as an escape from everyday frustrations – was political in a very real way.
While some of the issues Gang of Four addressed may have faded, the group’s influence is more apparent than ever. Their agit-prop lyrical style has been adopted by bands such as Fugazi and (somewhat clumsily) Rage against the Machine. Musically, the stark punk-funk of jerking guitars and walloping bass can be heard in many of the major “alternative” bands of the past decade: the Cure, U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails.
Tom Moreilo, Rage against the Machine:
When I first heard [Andy Gill] play I thought it was the most atonal crap I had ever heard. Only later did I realize the genius of those jagged rhythms, unpredictable honks, and unapologetic stutter-funk grooves. His deconstructed playing perfectly offset the band’s neo-Marxist politics, [from Alternative Press, November 1996]
Gang of Four took its name from the radical post-Maoist Chinese political faction that was still recent news when the band formed at Leeds University in 1977. Though punk was in full bloom throughout Britain by then, from the start the group’s reference points included funk and R&B as well. “We were happy to be part of any movement we felt would bring about change in England, but I wouldn’t have felt comfortable being called a punk,” bassist Dave Allen says. “We didn’t follow the punk fashion or lifestyle, but we thrived on the energy of it all because it was knocking down lots of doors.”
The group became politicized, partially, in reaction to the growth of ultra-nationalist skinhead groups in England, particularly in depressed northern cities like Leeds. Through their camaraderie with outspoken black groups such as Steel Pulse (both bands later toured as part of Rock against Racism), the influence of reggae and dub music seeped into the Gang of Four’s sound. Gang of Four gigged their way through ‘77, ‘78, and much of ‘79 before putting out a full-length record. This allowed the band to blend its many influences into a cohesive sound that hit with maximum intensity when they finally put out their first album, at the end of 1979.
Bono, U2:
Hard, angular, bold... Andy Gill’s chin is the very black hole of ‘80s music we should have all disappeared into... a dimple
atop the body pimple, a pimple on the arse of pop. A Gang of Four metal gurus, a corporation of common sense, a smart bomb of text that had me “at home feeling like a typist.” [from the liner notes to Songs of the Free]
Entertainment! captured the band’s spare, uptight live sound perfectly. The alienation expressed in the lyrics to songs like At Home He’s a Tourist and Damaged Goods, the tightly-wound rhythms of Hugo Burnham’s drums and Allen’s bass, with Andy Gill’s irregular chainsaw-jerking guitar, conveyed a profound discontent. It shredded funk into a joyless grind, amassing as much tension as it released. This was dance music that had been clawed through by punk, a symptom of British decline, and unlike the punk music of other angry English kids, vocalist Jon King’s lyrics were smart enough to explain it all.
Michael Stipe, R.E.M.:
Entertainment! shredded everything that came before it. The Gang of Four know how to swing. I stole a lot from them, [from the liner notes to Songs of the Free]
While Gang of Four were not the first band to confront problematic social issues with intelligence rather than anger, they did it better than any punks before them. And they backed up their uncompromising words with actions: the group’s commercial potential was permanently damaged when, after refusing to excise the word “rubbers” from a song, their debut performance on the British television show Top of the Pops was canceled.
Following another two full years of touring, both with Rock against Racism and on their own, Gang of Four returned in 1981 with a long-awaited follow-up entitled Solid Gold. They employed an R&B producer to smooth out the sound, and Solid Gold is more polished and mature than Entertainment!, certainly a worthy successor. Where Andy Gill’s guitars seem to have eased slightly from their trebly assault, Dave Allen’s bass takes on a heavy dub sound and becomes more disorienting than ever on songs like Paralysed.
