My friend Marty turned me onto The Optic Nerve last year, I had just gotten out of the bath, I was preparing to record a session myself that day, I think it may have been my own 'Time Will Tell' session and Marty goes "Hey Paul, you'll dig this, it sounds kind of like you and I feel you'll love it"... the album in question that day was the album pictured above, The Optic Nerve and their brilliant long-player 'Lotta Nerve'.
I will do a blog post on the history of 'The Optic Nerve' and their albums at another time later on.... Right now I however just wish to make a post about one of their songs and write about it, purely because I feel the song is totally genius and one of their best songs, it's my favourite song from the tracks I have so far heard of theirs.
'Like It Was Before' is an amazing track, it's not on either of the bands two albums and is only available on Youtube, it is a live recording of the group from an infamous New York music venue called 'The Dive' way back in 1985 (the year of my birth).
Basically I dream of one day writing a song like this and admit that this song has influenced me greatly with my own music, it's perfect folk-rock styled garage punk, the mood and vibe is totally heart felt and meaningful, it's a personal song and I guess relates heavily to my own frustrations and mood at the moment, this song has been my 'song' of 2011, purely because the vibe of it reflects so much to me and my life, heartache ain't too fun, but you have to just deal with it I suppose?? thankfully there are others who get it and write hip songs like this.
I really dig the lyrics in this song.. "I think about you all of the time, both day and night you're on my mind, I wonder if you feel the same? but lately you don't even know my know!"
The desperation and urgency in the deliverance of this song, is true, raw and heartfelt.... I really dig it!!!
Bobby Belfiore is a genius songwriter and The Optic Nerve are amazing players, I guess as a group of musicians, I wish I can have a group the same as these guys one day.
Enjoy the track and please be sure to check out more of The Optic Nerve, they really are one of the most underrated bands of the 80s, if not ever!!!
Most folks who know me, know that I love music and that I am forever searching for music that will evoke strong feelings and raw emotions in my soul, even to some degree take me above the mundanity of every day life and out into the astral realms beyond the reality of body and mind.
Music which challenges my consciousness is the music that intrigues me the most and within a contemporary setting I have found that Rock 'N' Roll,German Krautrock and Psychedelic music has moved me and my mind in such a manner as expressed above, beyond the contemporary music genres such music as Jazz, Classical and various traditional world music's from the Far-East and India have really bended my mind, infact most indigenous music's do have very mind altering scales, patterns, instruments and sounds which are hypnotic and other-worldly in their nature.
I have a huge love for such Jazz musicians as Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor and Thelonious Monk (more posts to come of these guys' at some stage later), what these Jazz musicians did in their music was magical, they used rhythms and sound textures to create a vibration and mood which alters the listeners mind set and head-space, to some degree's it even has the power to control it.
Experimental music is also a huge musical genre which I am interested by, the genre is the bridge between jazz and classical music, one of the pioneers of minimalism within the Experimental music field was La Monte Young.
I adore the pieces of music that La Monte Young composed, they are really very interesting and in my opinion are some of the best and most honest experimental pieces of music out there, also some of the most wonderful and mind expanding stuff I have thus far heard, to put it poetically, I consider it to be like being kicked in the head by an angel.
La Monte Young has taken influences from prior experimentalists such as Stockhausen mixed it with the jazz of artists' such as the ones mentioned above, mixed in a bit of indigenous traditional music influences from all over the world and also added a bit of mind altering substances and you pretty much have what La Monte Young's vision in music and sound was.
Like Picasso and his paintings, La Monte Young brought music back to it's most barren, barest and most primitive essence, he brought sound back to the zero point, he brought it back to drone, and inside that drone many wonderful worlds opened up, many textures eclipsed and danced around with each other, creating some of the most brilliant and some of the most perfectly human music in the world. If Blues music was an aspect of the soul of man and if early Gospel was the soul of a people and community.... then La Monte Young's minimalist experimental music is the soul of vibration itself.
Young has composed music since the early 50s and continues to make music to this day, during 1960 Young moved to New York and became a pretty known figure on the avant-garde scene which was happening amongst various sects of artist and musicians. The Early 60s saw the birthof what would later become La Monte Young's defining and most notable works. Around this period Young wished to create what was donned the 'Dream House' a potential haven in New York where musicians could come each day and create music twenty-four hours a day. In wanting to create the 'Dream House' Young formed 'The Theatre of Eternal Music', this group featured Marian Zazeela, Angus MacLise, Billy Name and later featured Tony Conrad, Terry Riley and future Velvet Underground member John Cale (please see picture below of 'The Theatre' with Cale pictured far right playing viola)
Since 1966, 'The Theatre of Eternal Music' has had an ongoing line-up of people who come and go, just like the music that is being played there appears to be no beginning, middle or end.
The Search for the 'Dream House' has never ended and La Monte Young and fellow musician Marian Zazeela have had their 'Dream House' featured as an art installation in various semi-permanent locations around New York including The Guggenheim Museum.
La Monte Young's music and sounds will forever be important and that is what is far out, his sounds will never get old, never be considered new, never lost in time nor dated, because it is forever NOW and forever EXISTENT. I guess that is what is magical about experimental music... I guess you called call it Living Sound (whatever that may be??)
I found the music of La Monte Young via The Velvet Underground during my teens, reading books as a teenager on the Velvets and reading the ever so tiny bit of information about this endless drone music that John Cale was involved with prior to the Velvets was enough for me to go instantly searching to find the music that I was reading about, it wasn't until a few years ago around the age of 22 that I finally 'got' it and really started having a greater appreciation for the music that experimental musicians create, I can now listen to the likes of Stockhausen (even though his work scares the shit out of me), John Cage etc and various traditional music from around the world such as Gamelan, Gagaku, Middle Eastern and Indian Raga music, with an open and enjoying mind... In fact I crave to find even more traditional music's from around the world, which may blow my mind and send my consciousness to new levels.
Please see below a few of my favourite pieces by La Monte Young, prepare for your minds to be blown to shreds.
I still don't own any La Monte Young items purely because they are so goddamn expensive and have never really had any real cd reproductions worth any creedance.... thankfully I have known a few switched on individuals over time who have 'taped' me stuff and obviously Youtube has been a great help in hearing more La Monte Young which would otherwise remain in the hands of collectors or the extremely rich.... be warned even CD's have gone for hundreds on ebay.
Suicide in my opinion are one of the most important bands to emerge from the 70s New York Punk scene, in fact I'd even say Suicide are the most important group of that decade and also one of the most important during the 20th century.
Suicide formed in 1971 out of the New York bohemian art scene, the band consisting of Alan Vega - vocals and Martin Rev - Keyboards/Synths, originally formed more as an art project rather than a band, they were in the traditional sense more of a performing arts duo than a live musical band, however their stage show presence and powerful live performance, confirmed their place as an important New York City Rock 'n' Roll band and they are now considered to be one of the pioneers of the blossoming 70s New York Punk Scene - in fact Suicide were one of the first bands, if not the first to describe their music as Punk.
During 1971 through to 1973 Vega and Rev each lived in virtual poverty, they were the freaks of their social landscape, they were true outcasts who came together to create the most raucous, most frightening, yet most genius noise. They also created a very pure art not seen or felt since the Dadaist in the early 1900's. As a performing duo during this time they played shows at New York's infamous Mercer Arts Centre alongside glam-rockers like The New York Dolls. From 1973 onwards the group played the famous New York Clubs including CBGB's and Max's Kansas City again alongside early incarnations of New York punk bands which would later be more well known, these included Television, Richard Hell, Patti Smith, The Ramones etc.
Suicide continued as a live performance group and still perform together to this day however the year 1977 saw their self -titled debut album released and subsequently from that point on the history of popular music was changed slightly.
I purchased the Suicide album when I was about 14 years old, I remember the day well, it was sunny and I rode on my bicycle from my home at the time in Uxbridge (West London) all the way up to a small suburban town in North-West London called Eastcote, there used to be a rather cool record shop called Sellanby's (an axiom of the term Sell and Buy) which I went to and procured much of my early record collection (on cassette ironically). The Suicide album was one of these albums I purchased purely because of the front cover, with its mad insignia of the words 'Suicide' splashed across the front, seeing something like that as a young child is paramount to seeing the swastika, the intrigue of such a symbol draws you in instantly.
When I got home, what can only be described as an attack to my senses took place, I knew instantly what I had picked up by chance was an important musical creation and Suicide's album was not only important in that it influenced future music genres such as Electronica, Techno, Drone Rock, Neo-Pysch etc but it was also important as it literally tore to shreds what music was all about at the time, In Suicide's world, music was minimal, bare absolute nothingness, primitive, scary and industrial, it was the sounds, energy and feelings of New York during the 70s and for me on a personal level to me it was the sounds of my suburbia and my own living-hell; the council estates, the bus depots, the train station, the factories, the schools, the narrow-minded people, the drunks, the boredom and the isolation. I still occasionally visit the place I grew up from time-to-time and every time I do re-visit, the soundtrack always in my head is Suicide.
For me the album also spoke to an inner version of me, it was the version which couldn't express itself and struggled to express itself and upon listening to Suicide's debut LP, I felt that within Alan Vega's crazy Elvis-like spasms of reverbed echo that there was a guy who was equally like me angry about the world around him and in Martin Rev's droning two-note keyboard there was a guy who was happy to escape in sounds and textures which is something I enjoy doing too... making Suicide therefore a huge influence for me and my life.
Below I am going to play three of my favourite songs on the album, even though as an artistic piece the whole album is genius and should be listened to throughout, I would recommend that it should be listened to as a whole piece of art and not as a rock 'n' roll album.
ROCKET USA is the track which kinda got me hypnotised, I love how the lyrical context is portrayed in such a minimal yet forceful manner.... I love the lyrics in Rocket USA ..."tv star riding round, riding round in the killer's car", "It's 19 hundred 77, the whole country is doing a fix".... these are pop-art slogans, they are art manifesto's in themselves and a great condemnation of the then unforeseen horridness which would later become our own modern society, comparing a tv star to a killer is genius in my opinion. Suicide were totally on the ball and ahead of their peers by at least 20 years.
GIRL - This track in its primitive and minimalist genius pretty much expresses the thought form in every red-blooded teenage boys' head. This song has the raw sexuality that Rock 'n' Roll had, but because it's been stripped back to its most primitive and raw, it makes it that one bit more real and honest. In 'Girl' Alan Vega just tells it as it is "Ohhh Girl touch me soft.... you know how I feel" . As a counterpart to the extreme desperation of the track, the repetition of drum machine and vox organ create mesmeric waves of joy underneath... the song is pure trashy sex and that it what is so genius about it.
FRANKIE TEARDROP - if one song could express the ill feeling, the dystopia of society, the horribleness in modern living, the absurdity in the world today, then it has to be this. During my first few listens of this track in my early teens, I genuinely was scared, it scared me deeply, it frightened me to my core and if music can do that, then it is pretty damn powerful... The only other music which has scared me in such a manner since, has been Stockhausen. I actually can't listen to Stockhausen purely cos I'd end up doing a Frankie Teardrop myself. I feel that every human being on the earth needs to hear this track at least once in their life, because it does speak to that part of our natural human nature that wants to kill, that wants to hurt, that wants to escape, that wants to scream, that wants to rape, that wants to set fire to shit and wants to put the gun to the head and make the blood hit the walls and ceiling.
Alan Vega again proves his genius right at the end of the song where he proclaims "We're all Frankies - we're all lying in Hell".... which we are, just take a look around you, it ain't all smiles and rose tinted glasses.
Anyway; I can't speak about how great this album is, you'll just have to trust me so please do yourselves a favour and purchase this amazing album.
My friend Marty turned me onto The Optic Nerve last year, I had just gotten out of the bath, I was preparing to record a session myself that day, I think it may have been my own 'Time Will Tell' session and Marty goes "Hey Paul, you'll dig this, it sounds kind of like you and I feel you'll love it"... the album in question that day was the album pictured above, The Optic Nerve and their brilliant long-player 'Lotta Nerve'.
'Like It Was Before' is an amazing track, it's not on either of the bands two albums and is only available on Youtube, it is a live recording of the group from an infamous New York music venue called 'The Dive' way back in 1985 (the year of my birth).
