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OG Post-Punk Countdown: 1977-1984 #1 - Joy Division - Transmission (1979) (Spotify playlist link in first post) (1 Viewer)

#24 - Pylon - Crazy (1982)

Totally swamped at work so don't have the time to give Pylon the write-up they deserve.  Tough to pick a single song (and they likely deserved multiple slots - my bad).  I just started reading a new book on the Athens, GA scene where the band obviously plays a huge role.  I had no idea they came up with the name for the iconic 40 Watt Club - been lucky enough to see a bunch of shows there and it's an amazing place.  "Crazy" was first released as a single in 1982 and appeared on Pylon's second album from the following year.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPNGWUEgHEw

 
scorchy said:
#24 - Pylon - Crazy (1982)

Totally swamped at work so don't have the time to give Pylon the write-up they deserve.  Tough to pick a single song (and they likely deserved multiple slots - my bad).  I just started reading a new book on the Athens, GA scene where the band obviously plays a huge role.  I had no idea they came up with the name for the iconic 40 Watt Club - been lucky enough to see a bunch of shows there and it's an amazing place.  "Crazy" was first released as a single in 1982 and appeared on Pylon's second album from the following year.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPNGWUEgHEw
Click to expand...
One of my favorites in that genre, and my favorite of the Athens artists that included R.E.M. & The B-52s. 

 
scorchy said:
#24 - Pylon - Crazy (1982)

Totally swamped at work so don't have the time to give Pylon the write-up they deserve.  Tough to pick a single song (and they likely deserved multiple slots - my bad).  I just started reading a new book on the Athens, GA scene where the band obviously plays a huge role.  I had no idea they came up with the name for the iconic 40 Watt Club - been lucky enough to see a bunch of shows there and it's an amazing place.  "Crazy" was first released as a single in 1982 and appeared on Pylon's second album from the following year.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPNGWUEgHEw
Click to expand...
So good. Throw a dart and you'll hit a great tune on their albums. My fave is cool. I wonder if people discovering them now go crazy trying to figure out how they never got huge the way we all did back then.

Eta...great late oughts aussie band, love of diagrams, always sounded like they were covering them. I still get confused that this isn't a Pylon tune. Or maybe it is. 

 
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El Floppo said:
So good. Throw a dart and you'll hit a great tune on their albums. My fave is cool. I wonder if people discovering them now go crazy trying to figure out how they never got huge the way we all did back then.

Eta...great late oughts aussie band, love of diagrams, always sounded like they were covering them. I still get confused that this isn't a Pylon tune. Or maybe it is. 
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Thank for the link. Had never heard of Love of Diagrams. Great tune.

Funny how Cool was used in a Lexus commercial a few years back. Seems that the notion of selling out has totally died,* which I think is a good thing,  even if my 20-year old self (and 1981 Pylon I'm sure) would vehemently disagree.

* I guess it can't be officially buried until we hear Fugazi being used to market toothpaste.

 
#23 - The Slits - Typical Girls (1979)

The original iteration of The Slits was an all-girl punk band that famously couldn't even tune their own instruments. They played a lot of shows but never released anything. Between learning how to play and replacing their original drummer with future post-punk legend Budgie (of Siouxsie and the Banshees), the band shifted into something more interesting.  Their first record, 1979's "Cut" showed off dub and reggae influences to play against Viv Albertine's ragged guitar work and Ari Up's warbly vocals.  "Typical Girls" was the first single from the album.

https://youtu.be/W6HjEu-w7cw

 
#21 - The Au Pairs - It's Obvious (1981)

Last song before we hit the top 20 and at least what I'm thinking is a pretty major run of incredible bands.  Not to slight the Au Pairs or anything, whose lead singer Lesley Woods rocked her radical feminist bona fides almost two decades before the Riot Grrl movement hit.  Their first record, "Playing with a Different Sex" managed to mix in a little joy and humor to balance out the politics, and was a hit with critics and fans alike (reaching #36 on the UK albums chart).  The Au Pairs broke up in 1983 after their second record amid band tensions and poor sales.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XfuvGLB1Bs

 
scorchy said:
#21 - The Au Pairs - It's Obvious (1981)

Last song before we hit the top 20 and at least what I'm thinking is a pretty major run of incredible bands.  Not to slight the Au Pairs or anything, whose lead singer Lesley Woods rocked her radical feminist bona fides almost two decades before the Riot Grrl movement hit.  Their first record, "Playing with a Different Sex" managed to mix in a little joy and humor to balance out the politics, and was a hit with critics and fans alike (reaching #36 on the UK albums chart).  The Au Pairs broke up in 1983 after their second record amid band tensions and poor sales.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XfuvGLB1Bs
Click to expand...
Was hoping you'd include them- outside of a couple obvious choices, these guys are the epitome of the genre to me. Huge fan since I first heard them on my life changing album Urgh!!A music war, playing Come Again ("this one's about taking orgasms") live. Great X style harmonies...not sure which was first tbh.

 
scorchy said:
Jealous!  How does that happen?  Can you just by tickets to the HofF concert?  Have you posted the story on here before?
Click to expand...
Yeah, you just buy them. My wife is a huge Cure and Stevie Nick's fan, so I got them for her birthday. The Cure were amazing, as we're Stevie's stories.

I know I posted about it here somewhere...I think there's a concerts thread. As middle aged geezers, I've never felt so young as in that geriatric crowd.

 
#19 - Wire - I Am The Fly (1978)

One Christmas in the mid-80s, my parents bought me a Trivial Pursuit rip-off board game called "Rock Trivia."  I listened to the radio non-stop back then and would crush the questions whenever we played, except for one category: Art Rock.  I'm sure a lot of the bands listed in here were answers at some point, but Wire - a band that my friends and I had never remotely heard of - was such a common one that it became a running joke.  Don't know the answer, just say Wire.

A few years later after we had stopped playing Rock Trivia, a Wire video debuted on 120 Minutes.  I don't remember the song, just Dave Kendall saying "And this week's #1 on the college charts is Wire - A Bell is a Cup Until it is Struck."  He had to have been exaggerating his British accent because his inflection when pronouncing the album name was completely comical.

It was until Elastica starting ripping them off that I dug into old Wire records and I totally saw why the makers of Rock Trivia loved them so much.  After the perfect minimalism of debut album "Pink Flag," follow up "Chairs Missing" added some melodies to complement the icy soundscapes.  "Outdoor Miner" was the single, but for me, "I Am The Fly" is the standout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnIXXe83fe4

 
El Floppo said:
Yeah, you just buy them. My wife is a huge Cure and Stevie Nick's fan, so I got them for her birthday. The Cure were amazing, as we're Stevie's stories.

I know I posted about it here somewhere...I think there's a concerts thread. As middle aged geezers, I've never felt so young as in that geriatric crowd.
Click to expand...
Nice.  That's always a funny feeling, especially given that it's usually the opposite.  Like being the one dude at an Indigo Girls show back in the 90s after seeing both Rush and Anthrax shows the week before.

 
#18 - New Order - Ceremony (1981)

I really struggled with only putting a single New Order song in here.  Maybe it's because of that "other" band who unsurprisingly will be getting two slots, or it could be because after their first album, New Order quickly evolved into electronic/synthpop.  Whatever my reasoning, "Ceremony" itself is a gorgeous slice of post-punk gloom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi33-cITS0s

 
scorchy said:
#18 - New Order - Ceremony (1981)

I really struggled with only putting a single New Order song in here.  Maybe it's because of that "other" band who unsurprisingly will be getting two slots, or it could be because after their first album, New Order quickly evolved into electronic/synthpop.  Whatever my reasoning, "Ceremony" itself is a gorgeous slice of post-punk gloom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi33-cITS0s
Click to expand...
As a JD fan, I knew I wasn't supposed to like Movement- but it's one of my favorites. Ceremony is a fantastic song...was hoping you'd put something in from them.

 
scorchy said:
#18 - New Order - Ceremony (1981)

I really struggled with only putting a single New Order song in here.  Maybe it's because of that "other" band who unsurprisingly will be getting two slots, or it could be because after their first album, New Order quickly evolved into electronic/synthpop.  Whatever my reasoning, "Ceremony" itself is a gorgeous slice of post-punk gloom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi33-cITS0s
Click to expand...
I think of it as more of a JD song than New Order, but their version is solid. There’s no way it couldn’t be. 
 

ETA: If you want to hear an interesting cover (I really like it), check out Galaxie 500’s version

 
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scorchy said:
#19 - Wire - I Am The Fly (1978)

One Christmas in the mid-80s, my parents bought me a Trivial Pursuit rip-off board game called "Rock Trivia."  I listened to the radio non-stop back then and would crush the questions whenever we played, except for one category: Art Rock.  I'm sure a lot of the bands listed in here were answers at some point, but Wire - a band that my friends and I had never remotely heard of - was such a common one that it became a running joke.  Don't know the answer, just say Wire.

A few years later after we had stopped playing Rock Trivia, a Wire video debuted on 120 Minutes.  I don't remember the song, just Dave Kendall saying "And this week's #1 on the college charts is Wire - A Bell is a Cup Until it is Struck."  He had to have been exaggerating his British accent because his inflection when pronouncing the album name was completely comical.

It was until Elastica starting ripping them off that I dug into old Wire records and I totally saw why the makers of Rock Trivia loved them so much.  After the perfect minimalism of debut album "Pink Flag," follow up "Chairs Missing" added some melodies to complement the icy soundscapes.  "Outdoor Miner" was the single, but for me, "I Am The Fly" is the standout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnIXXe83fe4
Click to expand...
Love this song. I am so happy I finally got to see them live in Atlanta last March,  :thumbup:

 
#17 - Echo & The Bunnymen - No Dark Things (1981)

So this one was really tough for me.  I badly wanted to include "The Killing Moon" - probably in the top 5 - but it's just too big and too polished and too perfect.  By 1984, Echo & The Bunnymen had, like U2, left post-punk in the dust, and I couldn't include their best song anymore than I could include U2's "Bad."  I'm probably wrong, but I went with my favorite track off their second album instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00eef8XDjlk

 
Thurston Moore's Leave me alone is one of my favorite covers ever. Doesn't change it up much at all, keeps what makes the song so great, but somehow adds his own thing...and made me fall back in love with the tune in a new way.

 
scorchy said:
Nice.  That's always a funny feeling, especially given that it's usually the opposite.  Like being the one dude at an Indigo Girls show back in the 90s after seeing both Rush and Anthrax shows the week before.
Click to expand...
I went to a few Indigo Girls shows in the '90s. There were dozens of us! Dozens! 

 
scorchy said:
Just one more set after these 5:

#10 - Stellastarr* - No Weather - 2002 (Saw them at the old Khyber in Philly in 2003.  An unknown band called the Killers opened.  I loved Stellastarr* at the time, but it was pretty obvious even then that the bill needed to be reversed.)

#9 - Viagra Boys - Research Chemicals - 2015 (Not everything from Sweden sounds like ABBA or Roxette.)

#8 - Le Tigre - Deceptacon (DFA Remix) - 2001 (Not that she would care, but I have this love/hate thing with Kathleen Hanna.  I really dig some of her music, but when I listen to her talk, I'm torn between being captivated and supremely annoyed.  Regardless, hearing the DFA remix makes me want to dance like I'm under 30 again.)

#7 - Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control - 2003 (This still sounds as good now as it did in 2003.)

#6 - IDLES - Danny Nedelko - 2018 (I'll let Floppo handle any IDLES comments).
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The last of the PP revival countdown-within-a-countdown.  I fully a expect a more complete and informed list from @El Floppoin the coming months.

#5 - The Horrors - She is the New Thing  - 2007 (Debut album Strange House was love at first listen.  This track is a stomper.)

#4 - Parquet Courts - Dust - 2016 (Hard to pick a favorite.  But I'm OCD about dust, so my wife has claimed this as my theme song.)

#3 - Interpol - Obstacle 1 - 2002 (Making 2002 sound like 1979.)

#2 - The Walkmen - The Rat - 2004 ("When I used to go out I knew everyone I saw.  Now I go out alone if I go out at all.")

#1 - Bloc Party - Banquet - 2005 (Tough to argue with Bloc Party).

 
#15 - Mission of Burma - Academy Fight Song (1980)

Before the "Signals, Calls, and Marches" EP, before the "Vs." full-length, there was this brilliant single.  Must admit that I've gone over the lyrics a zillion times, and I still can't decide if it's the best song ever written about boarding school or just a metaphor for something that completely escapes me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXkZI7WZWOo

 
scorchy said:
#15 - Mission of Burma - Academy Fight Song (1980)

Before the "Signals, Calls, and Marches" EP, before the "Vs." full-length, there was this brilliant single.  Must admit that I've gone over the lyrics a zillion times, and I still can't decide if it's the best song ever written about boarding school or just a metaphor for something that completely escapes me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXkZI7WZWOo
Click to expand...
Hell yes.

 
Really enjoyed going down the You Tube rabbit hole that the post about The Cure led me to. The Rock N' Roll HoF clips are golden. That they're still able to do that -- and that Robert Smith is still capable of singing that way -- today is remarkable.

Also love the modern selections. I have to think that if Fontaines D.C. had released this year's "Televised Mind" back in '79, it would be a top twenty selection in the actual countdown. 

Lol at the questioning of metaphor vs. actual fight song for MoB. I can't say I investigated the lyrics to that one to ever find out, really.  

 
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