JC's Godlike Genius #1

[naughty boy]

You know what I like about this? It's basically rock and roll - 4/4 beat, strong, elemental guitar riff - but all the wild stuff they add actually improves on that old template. They go in the right direction.

I swear I've been addicted to the song ever since I first heard it 30 years ago, and every time I hear it I want to throw things up in the air.

I mean, yeah, Pere Ubu had a career and multiple albums and they're still going, and DT did all that avant-garde wailing sailor solo shit - but this, in all its thrashing, keening lunacy, is really something close to genius.

[Dayodead]

Their first two albums are must haves...(The Modern Dance, Dub Housing)

[Goat Boy]

I bet they wouldn’t play it if they were headlining a festival though

[naughty boy]

They didn't play it when I saw them a couple of years ago...

[Darkness_Fish]

That's the best track off their debut album, no doubt, but there's just a little something lacking about it for me, that stops it being properly great. I think there's all the elements there, but I think I just want Dave Thomas to go that bit wilder, or that synth backing to really push out and go somewhere. It just feels like they restrained themselves a touch.

[Rayge]

You know what I like about this? It's basically rock and roll - 4/4 beat, strong, elemental guitar riff - but all the wild stuff they add actually improves on that old template. They go in the right direction.
I swear I've been addicted to the song ever since I first heard it 30 years ago, and every time I hear it I want to throw things up in the air.
I mean, yeah, Pere Ubu had a career and multiple albums and they're still going, and DT did all that avant-garde wailing sailor solo shit - but this, in all its thrashing, keening lunacy, is really something close to genius.

Yes to all of that: I would lob in some of the Hearthan singles, too, as signs of genius, but I do tend to see most bands as getting their best stuff out early in their careers: speaking of which, John, I expect you're familiar with that Rocket from the Tombs double – some storming, raw, early versions of some songs that turned up on The Modern Dance.

[fange]

It is genius. Totes amazeballs.

[Snarfyguy]

Early singles, collected. Probably their finest moment(s).

[fange]

That's the best track off their debut album, no doubt, but there's just a little something lacking about it for me, that stops it being properly great. I think there's all the elements there, but I think I just want Dave Thomas to go that bit wilder, or that synth backing to really push out and go somewhere. It just feels like they restrained themselves a touch.

You know what, I think that's where the genius lies with something like 'N-AP' - it treads that line between wild and out there and traditional rock and roll sounds and structure PERFECTLY. Any fuckers can push the board into the red, go nuts with sound effects or try and be a whacky Chick Corea on the keys, but keeping it all dialed in and serving a great tune and songs - that's hard.

[naughty boy]

Precisely.

[naughty boy]

You know what I like about this? It's basically rock and roll - 4/4 beat, strong, elemental guitar riff - but all the wild stuff they add actually improves on that old template. They go in the right direction.
I swear I've been addicted to the song ever since I first heard it 30 years ago, and every time I hear it I want to throw things up in the air.
I mean, yeah, Pere Ubu had a career and multiple albums and they're still going, and DT did all that avant-garde wailing sailor solo shit - but this, in all its thrashing, keening lunacy, is really something close to genius.

Yes to all of that: I would lob in some of the Hearthan singles, too, as signs of genius, but I do tend to see most bands as getting their best stuff out early in their careers: speaking of which, John, I expect you're familiar with that Rocket from the Tombs double – some storming, raw, early versions of some songs that turned up on The Modern Dance.

Yeah, love it all. I don't play it too often tho' because the sound quality is pretty bad. And that stuff's important.

[Darkness_Fish]

That's the best track off their debut album, no doubt, but there's just a little something lacking about it for me, that stops it being properly great. I think there's all the elements there, but I think I just want Dave Thomas to go that bit wilder, or that synth backing to really push out and go somewhere. It just feels like they restrained themselves a touch.

You know what, I think that's where the genius lies with something like 'N-AP' - it treads that line between wild and out there and traditional rock and roll sounds and structure PERFECTLY. Any fuckers can push the board into the red, go nuts with sound effects or try and be a whacky Chick Corea on the keys, but keeping it all dialed in and serving a great tune and songs - that's hard.

Listen, sunshine, what did I say about wanting your opinion?

I'm saying the genius isn't in pushing the dials into the red and going nuts with the sound effects, but just opening up more when you have a traditional song structure. I'd give X Ray Spex's "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!" as a good example of where not having such a good tune, but pushing the boundaries of taste a bit more create something great.

[Matt Wilson]

Another vote for the early singles and the first two albums. Nobody else really sounded like Ubu, did they? Every time one of those songs comes up on my iPod I gotta crank it.

[joels344]

That’s a brilliant track. I love those first two albums with my favorite being Dub Housing (don’t hate me).

[Goat Boy]

Yes to all that. It’s very much part of a rock n roll continuum. Futuristic, weird, definitely but very definitely still rock ‘n’ roll. It’s not something you hear these days of course. I get something similar from Roxy. What was that Ian MacDonald line? Retro rock from the future? You can hear the eternal wildness of something like Surfin’ Bird in there plus some 70s factory noise and cobwebs.

Great song. Fabulous album. One of those goto records for kids who want the power and electricity of rock n roll but with added lashings of weird. As Monty Burns would say, “excellent”.

[yomptepi]

Modern dance is an American classic very much in the same mould as The Modern Lovers, Blank Generation and Marquee Moon. peerless records. It never ceases to thrill.

[Matt Wilson]

Michael, how come you give the Americans a pass with all that punk stuff, yet condemn the Clash and Pistols?

[naughty boy]

Blank Generation

[Matt Wilson]

I thought you liked that album, John.

[Penk!]

I thought you liked that album, John.

He does. It's just a Pavlovian response: when presented with any list or group of things, he feels compelled to seize upon something and label it shite.