Tag: Music (page 2 of 10)

“Shoegaze(r)” is more than an early-1990s English pop music genre. Come with me and explore the late 1980s and early 1990s on DDN-808AM … where shuffly beats, baggy trousers and fey looks are provided, plus complimentary NME.

23 February 2020 / 0 Comments

The herculean task of remembering all the 1990s UK indie band names ever

Back in 2011, I took one of my many trips down Amnesia Lane. A little bit like this one, in fact. I decided to create a list of all the great UK indie bands from the early 1990s. The problem was, I wasn’t an expert at all, and I’d never lived in the UK.

But who needs Wikipedia? I had a whole bunch of friends on Facebook who were all alive at the time. They were also going through more-or-less the same stages of sentimentality and nostalgia. Why not ask them?

A detail from the original Facebook post. I invited friends to nominate their favourite early-1990s UK indie bands. Over the course of several hundred comments, the standard of the nominations deteriorated. Then again, given that Cud came up so early, you could say the entire exercise was a fail from the outset.

So, I opened up the comments on a Facebook post, and together we came up with a list of over 100 bands. 100 is too big a number for what was an obscure moment in musical history.

Besides, many of the bands nominated were not actually indie, UK-based, or active in the early 1990s.

Others were shit so I excluded them with no regrets whatsoever. But, in the interests of scientific objectivity, I am reproducing the entire list here. Perhaps, one day, someone will come up with a more detailed and informative version. Oh, wait.

A screenshot from a 2011 Facebook thread in which users listed UK indie bands from the 1990s.
A screenshot from a 2011 Facebook thread in which users listed UK indie bands from the 1990s. Anonymised to protect the not-so-innocent.
23 May 2019 / 0 Comments

‘Guard these moments well’: the lyrics of Chris de Burgh

Let’s just for a moment pretend that Chris de Burgh never wrote ‘The Lady In Red’. Let’s also pretend that ‘Don’t Pay the Ferryman’ was never recorded, let alone ‘a minor hit in the states [sic]’ as alleged on his official website. Indeed, let’s go so far as to say that Chris de Burgh never existed at all.

Okay, perhaps that’s taking things a bit too far.

However if, like me, you grew up on Chris de Burgh’s records, you can probably understand why I get frustrated when people mention those two songs as if that’s all Chris de Burgh ever did.

For the benefit of the vast majority of the world’s population, therefore, I’d like to set the record (no pun intended) straight. In fact, an analysis of Chris de Burgh’s early albums shows that he was already a formidable songwriter. The lyrical prowess demonstrated on ‘Don’t Pay the Ferryman’ was no fluke.

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16 October 2018 / 0 Comments

Preoccupations: ‘Disarray’ (Toronto, 2018)

The story of how I recently missed seeing Preoccupations playing live in Toronto, Canada, began in Amsterdam in 2009.

On 27 May 2009, to be exact, I watched a Calgary band called Women (actually four young guys) wipe the floor with an Atlanta band called Deerhunter (same) at legendary Amsterdam venue Paradiso.

At the time, I was particularly struck by the energy with which Women’s drummer, Mike Wallace, attacked his task. The band were clearly having a good night.

Women broke up in October 2010, reportedly after an onstage fight between brothers Matt (vocals, bass) and Patrick (vocals, guitar) Flegel.

On 21 February 2012, Women’s guitarist, Chris Riemer, passed away in his sleep. Matt Flegel and Mike Wallace then formed the nucleus of a new band.

Perhaps unfortunately, they named their new band Viet Cong (also four guys, none of them Vietnamese). The band sounded pretty similar to Women, although with maybe a little extra edge.

Then Viet Cong rebranded themselves as Preoccupations. They began pursuing a musical trajectory that I was slowly beginning to appreciate. They released a self-titled album in 2016 and a second album, New Material, two years later.

In early 2018, to prove that I still had that indie ‘edge’, I booked a ticket to see the band. They would be appearing at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern on Queen Street, Toronto, in April 2018. Coincidentally, I would be in town for a conference. Our two worlds were destined to collide.

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7 May 2018 / 2 Comments

I remember Australian music in the 1980s

Do you remember Australian music in the 1980s? Is your worldview permanently coloured by the music videos from that profoundly day-glo era?

How, then, to sum up that era in just seven songs? Well, listen and learn fashionistas.

The 7-day 1980s Music Challenge began, for me, as it always does: with a sultry smash hit from my final year of school, 1989.

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28 June 2017 / 9 Comments

Netflix series request: ‘You’re Killing Me’

In 1989 a Stockton, CA, band known as Pavement self-releases its first E.P., the angular Slay Tracks: 1933-1969. Opening cut ‘You’re Killing Me’ sets the tone for the band’s entire recorded output. Lead singer Stephen Malkmus (played here by Kyle MachLachlan of Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet fame) cheerfully screams lyrics about killing, murder, mayhem and death.

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This is [d/dn], the home of David Prater, a writer and editor currently living in the third person.

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