One of the better noise rock bands' catalog is free for download...

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Sorry for the lame title. With all the threads about Sonic Youth on ilm, it's only fair for the Dustdevils (largely forgotten competitors of our aging heroes) to have a moment in the sun.

I know free downloads aren't news, but a lot of the Ddevils stuff never came out on CD and thus isn't so easy to find. Head Ddevil Michael Duane resurfaced recently and has posted most of the band's catalog for download here: http://mog.com/dustdevils.

He's also put up a pretty good album by Cha Cha Cohen, the post-Dustdevils group formed by his former bandmate/girlfriend and a guy from the Wedding Present...not sure if he has permission for that one.

Anyway, fans of 80's guitar skree might want to take advantage while the getting's good. Highlights are the cover of The Fall's "Hip Priest", the cover of "Mobo" (originally by Rick Rubin's old old old band Hose), and the not-on-CD "Gutter Light" album. "Struggling Electric & Chemical" is the classic album that (for my money) renders SY's entire career disposable, but it may take years to appreciate this.

dlp9001 (dlp9001), Sunday, 22 October 2006 21:51 (nineteen years ago)

Hey, nice. I always liked the one album with the Fall cover, but that's all I'd heard.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 22 October 2006 21:54 (nineteen years ago)

That's "Struggling." Probably the best one, though Gutter Light is very good.

dlp9001 (dlp9001), Sunday, 22 October 2006 21:59 (nineteen years ago)

digging the first few releases. they sound like they coulda been on 4AD!

Login Name consigliere (consigliere), Sunday, 22 October 2006 22:09 (nineteen years ago)

maybe they were for all i know.. .always meant to check out the one album on teenbeat/matador ned spoke of, but sonic youth comparisons only scare me away.

Login Name consigliere (consigliere), Sunday, 22 October 2006 22:10 (nineteen years ago)

It's a sloppy comparison, to be sure, but kind of inevitable...

dlp9001 (dlp9001), Sunday, 22 October 2006 22:13 (nineteen years ago)

thanks dlp! I only have Rheinyard's Grin...

sleeve version 2.0 (sleeve testing), Sunday, 22 October 2006 22:55 (nineteen years ago)

"Struggling Electric & Chemical" is the classic album that (for my money) renders SY's entire career disposable, but it may take years to appreciate this.

Cliched rock-crit hyperbole in this vein is a pet peeve of mine. I fall for it 1/2 the time and am usually quite disappointed. One of the reasons I like ILM is that the participants are more lovers of music than critics, and so I'm not usually sold a false bill of goods on a band. (I'm not saying that you don't sincerely love SE&C, but there's a Hoover hawker somewhere in th' house.)

However, in this case, I bring a solid familiarity with the DDs to the table: I bought SE&C when it was released -- I had and still have the other DDs releases on vinyl -- and while it's a good record, it's inferior to most Sonic Youth albums prior to its release (i.e., SE&C is better than Evol). In my estimation, a better target for comparison would be Live Skull, but regardless, taking a cheap shot at the big kid on the block for the sake of critical puffery is transparent and annoying.

Shoes say, yeah, no hands clap your good bra. (goodbra), Monday, 23 October 2006 01:56 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe I should have used "in my opinion" rather than "for my money" for better clarity, but to be honest I've got enough time under my belt w/both bands that I'm comfortable sticking w/my guns.

Not sure ILM needs any more discourse on SY, especially given the number of different eras of fans of that band, but I find that SY's impact continues to diminish over time, while SE&C doesn't. No doubt production and drumming are large factors, but not the only ones.

Live Skull is definitely there, esp. on the pre-Gutter Light stuff, but I've never much liked Live Skull, so go figure.

dlp9001 (dlp9001), Monday, 23 October 2006 11:03 (nineteen years ago)

i think tom from jomf is on sum ddevils tunes..he was helpful in bringing in treats for rehearsals as well

dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Monday, 23 October 2006 12:48 (nineteen years ago)

oops..im wrong it was railroad jerk,same party different record

dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Monday, 23 October 2006 12:49 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

After all these years, video finally surfaces on youtube:

Appropriately enough, its hard to make out much of anything. Ok, I have heard their stuff enough that I can pick out the songs, but realistically its unwatchable for any normal person. I'm trying to figure out if that is Wharton Tiers studio, which I've only been in once.

dlp9001, Friday, 20 March 2009 20:00 (seventeen years ago)


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