Rush vs Joy Division

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Rock denied the Dionysian. The 70s get closer to the 80s and adolescent genres of distorted riff-rock become (maximalist vs minimalist) pop-song-as-architecture when filtered through Kraftwerk/new wave synths and studio-over-band supremacy and severe precision-rhythm. Paeans to the solitary male protagonist. "Limelight" vs "New Dawn Fades" - motion and density are engineered through [shifts from riff to jangle to soloing]/[resistance in unique and (maximalist vs minimalist) precise rhythm section lines]. Solos like rays of fluorescent light soaring over a computerized grid. "Spirit Of Radio" vs "Transmission", etc.

― sundar subramanian, Saturday, 29 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Never heard Rush so maybe that's why I can't undestand a word of what Sundar is saying.

― Julio Desouza, Saturday, 29 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

haha also shadowplay of dodgy/daft rightwing philosophy in certain songs?: "day of the lords" vs "the trees"

― mark s, Saturday, 29 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ayn Rand would have been proud. Too bad I.C. never got to grow out of his youthful love for jackboots and discipline. Maybe he would have discovered Krishnamurti and the hacienda would have been all sitars and opium."Working Man" is adolescent Randian epic. Don't know what to make of "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" though.

― Scott Seward, Saturday, 29 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mark: Yes! And science fiction fixations as well.

― sundar subramanian, Saturday, 29 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ian Curtis went far, far out of his way to render Joy Division a three-piece, in order to facilitate future comparisons.

― Matt Riedl (veal), Saturday, 29 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice that love, love will tear us apart again.

― brg30, Saturday, 29 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Julio, FUCK man, didnt we giv eyou Rheostatics cdrs? Now we have to find you copies of Moving Pictures to help you renounce your british musical citzenship.

― Mr Noodles, Saturday, 29 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

People (especially myself) bag on prog for substituting silly sci-fi epics for 'emotionally direct' lyrics. Sometimes though a weird trick of light happens where the original kernel of feeling that inspired the song before all the swords and sorcery were piled on it show through. Like the 'beam of light' in "Jacob's Ladder". But in this case I'm talking "Xanadu". See, around a decade or so I led a dull- but-comfortable life in a d-but-c place, and like an idiot I left. Curiosity threw the fucking cat in the spin dryer. Now I've basically seen everything I wanted to see and frankly I wish I hadn't bothered because the consequences of my youthful curiosity are obvious - a total unredeemed wreckage of a life, alone, bitter and twisted and waiting for the end of the world so it would just stop. (Maybe "Xanadu" was written on tour? Recent interviews they talk about the 260-shows-a-year 70s as a "time tunnel", a horrible ordeal, etc. Whatever, it really affects me as a song about having your life taken a disastrously wrong turning with the best intentions in the world.) OTOH maybe that 'weird trick of the light' is just THC

― dave q, Sunday, 30 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I mean my life was manageable about a decade "AGO"

― dave q, Sunday, 30 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

''Julio, FUCK man, didnt we giv eyou Rheostatics cdrs? Now we have to find you copies of Moving Pictures to help you renounce your british musical citzenship.''

Sean has already played some Sloan, cramps, early MBV (which is how we got to the cramps)...my knowledge of the rock is very poor.

But yes...UK indie is just such a dead end that I am ready to give it all up for Canadian Heavy meatl. Man, it's 'new' and 'fresh'.

― Julio Desouza, Sunday, 30 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ian Curtis went far, far out of his way to render Joy Division a three-piece, in order to facilitate future comparisons.

This is really really funny for all the wrong reasons.

― mmesker, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

eleven years pass...

Bumping this because of sund4r's great intro post and some classic Dave Q. I'm on a Rush bender lately, and it's been years since I've listened to Joy Division with much frequency. The me of 11 years ago when this thread began would be confused about this state of affairs.

― Clarke B., Monday, 24 February 2014 15:53 (twelve years ago)

Pretty sure this thread is exactly what "Hemispheres" was written about.

― Spaghetti Sauce Shampoo (Moodles), Monday, 24 February 2014 15:57 (twelve years ago)

Cygnus, God of Balance, calls for synthesis between maximalism and minimalism, "Limelight" and "New Dawn Fades," "Spirit of Radio" and "Transmission", etc.

― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 24 February 2014 16:30 (twelve years ago)

Rush

― joe perry has been dead for years (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, 24 February 2014 16:54 (twelve years ago)

Joy Division is maybe more influential, whereas Rush is just better

― Spaghetti Sauce Shampoo (Moodles), Monday, 24 February 2014 17:33 (twelve years ago)

Joy Division is like a perfectly preserved wooly mammoth permanently frozen in ice. Rush is like a living, breathing wooly mammoth stomping around. Both are pretty great, but only one will make you shout "awesome!" At least for me these days.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 24 February 2014 17:43 (twelve years ago)

what the arrow said

― thuggish ruggish brony (contenderizer), Monday, 24 February 2014 21:58 (twelve years ago)

Joy Division = wishing to seem

― Clarke B., Monday, 24 February 2014 22:43 (twelve years ago)

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