Buzzcocks - A Different Kind of Tension [1979]

man oh man. just noticed we had the "self-financed debut" up here in the froxx, yet not the self-implosive masterwerk?! (eds note: beware, more question mark/exclamation point combos ahead). this here's another puppy i picked up back in SF last week. the deluxe reish. but rocky say, don't get lost in all the glorious extras, or the scintillating singles culled from the same period -- just go straight to the fracking album already and indulge in all the sweet remastered goodness of this mega-precious gem.

1979!? I'll admit, I first encountered this album courtesy Bob McGuire of West Chicago, Illinois, who was a year older than me and far hipper, at least in the year of our lord 1984. He gave it to me on one side of a high-metal II cassette, the other side of which held a dub of The Violent Femmes (not sure if you remember, but it was quite a "Blister in the Sun" summer that year).

Rosetta Stone or, 2001: Space Odyssey obelisk? Frankly my dear, I didn't know what to make of this album then, and I'm doubtless unqualified to commentate on it now, but damn if it did not stick with me, in my head, my craw, and ever since superbly resist all attempts at extraction.

Simplex, viral! Funny in retrospect to ponder that I got my way in to the 'cocks by way of their backdoor, moving from their late proto pop prog to their early primal prog pop, but, you know how it is -- the way we im-mediate most of our favorite groups is seldom via prescribed textbook transmissive means.

Raison D'Etre?! Natch, Eventually, I found my sorry way from here back into Scratch and Kitchen and Bites, and all places properly-car-commercialesquely Buzzcockian (at least as we know them from teevee today, sitting round at home), and thence ultimately forth settling onto everyone's mother's fave "album", Steady...

Recalcitrant!? Just because you know how the way that first taste always stays with you, well, this has always been the goose's bump pour moi.

Experience Tension!? [disc 1]


try MORE Tension!? [disc 2]


[as of December 1 2010: links removed per DMCA!

interested parties contact roxx directly for link]

The Buzzcocks - Spiral Scratch

Giving the 'Cocks some love while simultaneously tying into the Magazine post - That's what deadheads call a slipknot, or a reacharound or a dancing bear or a...a...a...something Right Sponge? I think.

Just try to love the drumming, the snottiness, the brains as much as this humble pos(t)er does.

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AMG: The Buzzcocks' self-financed debut is every bit as important as the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK" in the establishment of the U.K. punk scene. And playing those two cultural artifacts back to back two decades later, it is the Pistols' effort which sounds more like the museum piece. Spiral Scratch's hand-pressed, blurry black-and-white sleeve housed four tracks -- each one a uniquely compelling experience, marrying raw, youthful zest with belligerent intelligence. The EP's release achieved several things at once. It opened up the independent scene, making D.I.Y. labels the natural springboard for aspiring musicians. It gave the punk scene a second regional base in Manchester, and it expanded punk's vocabulary beyond the outright nihilism evinced by London bands. And, even at this stage, the band's musicianship was a joy to behold, particularly the uninhibited drumming of John Maher. This was also, bootlegs apart, the only chance to hear Howard Devoto front the band before he left to form Magazine. For more of the same, check out the Time's Up album, a classic bootleg of the group's early days which has seen official release.

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