Ultimate Battles: Public Image LTD Vs. Magazine

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― Michael Costello, Sunday, 15 January 2006 18:35 (twenty years ago)

We should do the Swell Maps vs the Homosexuals instead.

― kfjkfj, Sunday, 15 January 2006 18:38 (twenty years ago)

PIL pwns
homos over swell maps by a little

― don't start a RYE-OTT! (plsmith), Sunday, 15 January 2006 18:42 (twenty years ago)

i REFUSE TO CHOOSE. they both serve their purpose in my life quite well.

― yvette yreka (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 15 January 2006 19:01 (twenty years ago)

Peter OTM!

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 15 January 2006 19:04 (twenty years ago)

as for homosexuals vs swell maps -- i feel like i should prefer the homos but the swell maps just make me happier.

― yvette yreka (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 15 January 2006 19:05 (twenty years ago)

I think picking The Homosexuals over Swell Maps is obscurist bullshit, which is a funny thing to say in the first place considering what we're comparing. I like them fine, but Swell Maps were infinitely a better band.

I've got four words for you: "Jane From Occupied Europe"

― hector savage, Tuesday, 17 January 2006 00:41 (twenty years ago)

I'm struggling to decide what will be the wankiest rock-fuck answer, and I don't give a shit. There's nothing between any of the 4 proposed agruements, but MAgazine was my first introjection to discardment. Devoto's falling-down-the-stairs-false-etto oober allies.

― Sinister Oink Kingpin (noodle vague), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 00:46 (twenty years ago)

OTM, hector savage, OTM!

― nerve pylon (flat_of_angles), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 02:05 (twenty years ago)

no way, Homos over the Swell Maps! They may not have been as consistent, but their peaks of brilliance shine over and beyond all other music.

and sorry to seem so contrary, but Magazine over PIL.

But all 4 have well-deserved spots in my personal post-punk pantheon.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 02:12 (twenty years ago)

PiL over magazine by a country mile. swell maps over homosexuals by a smaller but definite margin.

― baby, disco is fuck (yournullfame), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 02:14 (twenty years ago)

let's see.....my favorite magazine album is "the correct use of soap"
my favorote PiL album is "flowers of romance"
out of those 2 i choose magazine.

oh, and we've already done the SM's vs. Homo's
Swell Maps vs. the Homosexuals

swell maps win.

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 02:26 (twenty years ago)

I've listened to Secondhand Daylight more than any PIL record. So Magazine it is.

― D. Bachyrycz, Tuesday, 17 January 2006 04:08 (twenty years ago)

Definitely PiL, for Metal Box/Second Edition alone. It's the finest album from either band's catalog, amongst some strong competition. And I love Magazine, but it has to be PiL.

(And Swell Maps- they had more personality, more range, more invention than The Homosexuals)

― jsoulja, Tuesday, 17 January 2006 04:17 (twenty years ago)

more range and invention then the Homos? I really don't see that! There's more range in a song like Total Drop then I hear in the Swell Maps entire catalog.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 04:30 (twenty years ago)

I honestly don't think I could pick between these two -- they served such different purposes in my own musical writing and listening development, both interjecting a hard dose of postmodernism at different times in my life. I just can't.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 04:35 (twenty years ago)

Magazine > PiL > Swell Maps > Homosexuals

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 10:33 (twenty years ago)

PiL over magazine by a country mile

Indeed but, having heard it on Sunday for the first time in years, "Shot By Both Sides" is possibly the greatest debut single of all time.

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 10:39 (twenty years ago)

It certainly has one of the greatest guitar riffs, albeit one that shelley kept for the buzzcocks b-side lipstick. this could be the battle of the debut single riffs: shot by both sides vs public image

― dr x o'skeleton, Tuesday, 17 January 2006 10:47 (twenty years ago)

As for Swell Maps and the Homosexuals - don't see many points of contact apart from occasionally doing fairly weird stuff in a lo-fi manner. The Maps were very much inspired amateurs, which certainly isn't true of the Homosexuals (the amateur bit not the inspired bit).

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 10:48 (twenty years ago)

Magazine >>>>>> PiL.
Drama, passion, humour, despair, resignation, anger, great lyrics, great musicians (McGeoch, Adamson and Formula in one band!), 3 perfect albums, best debut single ever, sorry...best SINGLE ever, great B-sides etc etc. PiL were good, but come on, no contest really.

― Dr.C (Dr.C), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:27 (twenty years ago)

Pretty much exactly what dr c said. Not much of a contest for me, even though I like PiL's singles loads.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:29 (twenty years ago)

Magazine - too pompous for my tastes

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:35 (twenty years ago)

*Magazine - too pompous for my tastes*

i know what you mean, but some of that is satirical in intent. take a song like motorcade, all that drama in the music, emptiness at the centre. it pre-dated reagan and dubya but seems to be about them!

― dr x o'skeleton, Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:42 (twenty years ago)

"I am angry I am ill and I'm as ugly as sin,
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking"

vs.

"I could be wrong, I could be right,
I could be black, I could be white"

― naranjito (Koens), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:43 (twenty years ago)

I like Magazine more now, in retrospect, than I did then.

I'm not going off on one again about Metal Box, but there are other PIL albums available.

PIL for me.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:45 (twenty years ago)

"Magazine >>>>>> PiL."

I'm with the Doc. Even if you distilled the best of PiL's work over 15 (?) years and 8 (?) studio albums down to a comparable amount, it still wouldn't compare with what Magazine achieved between 1978 and 1980 on Real Life, Secondhand Daylight and The Correct Use Of Soap.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:48 (twenty years ago)

Definitely PiL, though in fairness I'm not sure I've heard as much of Magazine's output as I have of PiL's.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 12:07 (twenty years ago)

I tend to think Lydon had pretty much said all he had to say before Metal Box. That's not to say that it's not a good, interesting album - it is. Obv Levine and Wobble are stellar and whole locks down really well as a cohesive whole. But Devoto was in full flow throughout the the first three albums - on Real Life taking it all in, observing; on Secondhand he's in the thick of things, angry, in motion; and on Soap, tired, resigned, nearly defeated (You Never Knew Me), but still hopeful (I Want To Burn Again). I still don't know where I stand with Magic, Murder and The Weather.

― Dr.C (Dr.C), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 12:54 (twenty years ago)

"I still don't know where I stand with Magic, Murder and The Weather."

A couple of halfway decent tracks ("About The Weather", "Suburban Rhonda") but not a patch on the first three.

Or (Howie's solo album) Jerky Versions Of The Dream.

Or either of the Luxuria albums.

Or Buzzkunst.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 13:05 (twenty years ago)

Well yes, MM&TW has some good tracks. I like About The Weather, This Poison, The Great Man's Secret's, The Garden...in fact it's all good. But I'm not sure that Howard is as engaged with the whole thing as he could be, and of course McGeoch is missed. I wish they could have kept Robin Simon in as JM's replacement - on the live LP he is *on fire*!!

The solo record is genius. I haven't listened to the Luxuria recds for about 10 years. Buzzkunst was good, but a little disappointing.

― Dr.C (Dr.C), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 13:25 (twenty years ago)

2006 will be the year i dig out my magazine records and listen to them again. i bought a few bits and bobs second-hand many years ago, and i don't think i ever appreciated them properly. time for a reassessment.

in the mean time, i'll quietly posit the opinion that section 25 pwn them both. but, of course, i don't expect anyone to agree.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 13:29 (twenty years ago)

Pete in correctitude shockah!

― ZR (teenagequiet), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 14:57 (twenty years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000005JAC.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

c'mon, no contest

― dar1a g (daria g), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 16:00 (twenty years ago)

Someone upthread acted like citing Metal Box is a crime. I don't know why. Yes, it's not the only PiL album, but it is my favorite of them, Please do not subscribe to that tired "the second it becomes mainstream/popular, it sucks" mantra.

I know it's annoying. I know. I found it really fucking annoying when I walked into an Urban Outfitters the other day and saw ten copies of Unknown Pleasures being sold at the counter.

But it doesn't take away from how I felt about either record when I discovered them almost twenty years ago, and the fact that some corporate wank like UO is playing them gives me some hope for the future. If Starbucks started playing PiL and Joy Division, I might even do something in there other than use their bathroom and steal their sugar.....

― jsoulja, Tuesday, 17 January 2006 16:33 (twenty years ago)

PIL in a walk. Homosexuals over Magazine, too. Prolly Swell Maps too, but I only have one record by them...

I'm of the controversial opinion that Metal Box is a good record.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 16:50 (twenty years ago)

xpost. No, it was because I've said enough about Metal Box, and end up arguing with Pash most times about it, so didn't want to do that again.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 17:01 (twenty years ago)

I don't recall ever arguing with you about "metal box" mark!

I wasn't aware that there was any kind of anti-type consenus about it. For me it's one of those records that you feel you should like for some reason, but I don't, I think it's too long, and grey/boring. "Death Disco" is gr8, "poptones" & "Careering" good - the rest, eh, take it off & put the first album on again, that one's FUN.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 17:07 (twenty years ago)

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