This Is Still It

Really, really good post punk. Anyone into Television or the Talking Heads (or, hell, 6FS) should love this. Compilation of early releases and first-album cuts from the seminal long-disbanded (1979-1982) two-piece out of Athens, GA. Tangled guitars, crazed, exuberant & messy vocals, flickers of Gang Of Four, the Cramps, Devo. Brainiac, totally. Honestly, there’s even some Bauhaus in there. Vocals along the lines of David Byrne. Famous for being one of Peter Buck’s (R.E.M.) fave bands, they sparked the scene that birthed Pylon, the B-52s, etc. Really the most salient piece here is the completely uncanned, in the moment energy. Kids just don’t make records with this much gusto anymore.

try: 1, 5, 6, 11, 16
no FCCs

*1. rocky, jagged, upbeat popper that slips and slides all over the place. callout vocals.
2. clucky vocals. super-tangled sidewinder guitar lines. could be six finger satellite.
3. angular, clangy, discordant. sarcastic, smoldering lyrics. very warsaw-era joy division. ‘i can make up anything.’
4. bright and mellow summer chill song. lots of air. spare instrumentation. ‘you’re so pretty it makes me sad.’
*5. disco-tinged freak-out. screechy yodel vox. scratchy & busy guitar.
*6. a beat that cooks, super riffy speedy guitar. very gang of four. about... debauchery.
7. downtempo classic rocky majorly riffy guitar. (think: the kinks) as hard and heavy as you can get.
8. shrill needle-scratch speedster guitar riff and blow-bomb bass.
9. difficult time signature. needle-scratch guitar. lots of drum fills and diving treble bass lunges.
10. driving uptempo and ragged guitar that careens towards the slightly sitary. ‘i’d love to go nowhere with you.’ ends abruptly with 10 sec left.
*11. on the new wave / bowieish side. steelpan, muppet-like bass vox, very prominent tight drums. not unlike kermit doing kokomo.
12. diggery funk bass and super-sharp drum kit. layered messy echo vox.
13. busy clappy bass and whip drums. darkish. groovy and brief.
14. repeated broken-sounding clang riff on different chords. loose cymbals, lurching time signature and melody-less vox.
15. big loud hard deep drums. low blow-out vox. vacuum-bloop bass. ominous and gothy.
*16. borders on psych horror. driving yet unsettling beat that keeps changing feet. handclaps. hypnotic bass. kinda bauhaus. vox like wailing ghosts: “ca ca ca ca commotion”
17. plenty of busy warm-up noise before vaguely mid-east kitsch. disorganised. hand-drums, bells, chanty wails, what could be a sitar. less a song than an arrangement of sounds.
18. vibes... or steel drums? hilarious counterpoint of island hop and airy ghost-like falsetto vox. ragged melody-note bass.
19. piercing fast punkish beat. mostly just drums and slightly off-keel vocals. could be a tamer, slower ramones... if the ramones would ever vamp a chorus of ‘hi-hi-wooopee’.