Killing Joke - Classic Or Dud, Search And Destroy

Teeheehee. I was briefly in a band called Requiem once and we were every bit as awful as you'd imagine a band with a name like "Requiem" would be. I bet you can't guess what KJ song we used to cover....

Anyway, this would be, uh, first album ish - maybe late 1980 / early 81 and I thought they sounded like the early Banshees with a mad bloke singing. Thats not a bad thing, in fact they were quite good but a bit limited and one dimensional.

The support band were called Boots for Dancing and I liked them loads.

Oh and KJ were great doing The Empire Song on TOTP the week of the Falklands.

After a hellish afternoon of dragging more of my shoddy belongings into a crypt-like storage space way the hell over on the far-flung frontiers of the West Side of Manhattan, I sluggishly popped into "Rebel Rebel," an age-old record store in the Village just on the slight, unlikely chance that....maybe.....possibly...just a lark....maybe in a blue moon fluke....

HOLY SHIT, THEY HAVE IT!!!!!

I am now the very happy owner of THE UNPERVERTE PANTOMIME?, and am thoroughly bedazzled by its comparitivley crystaline sound (I can now retire my long-suffering cassette edition of the original bootleg) and *ABSOLUTELY STRIKING* packaging (battle-helmets off and fists raised in righteous exhortation to the estimable Sir Michael of Coles!!!!). AAGGHH! I haven't been this excited about a disc acquisition in more time than I care to think about. Where do I begin?

Visually:
Well, for a start, for those of y'all out there who want the skinny on ever last detail, the back cover (....as I'm assuming everyone has seen the front cover by now)...features the illustration that graces the cover of the bootleg (or at least the copy of the boot I have), that of a despondent jester massaging his furrowed brow in a leafy glade. The inner booklet is designed in much the same collage motif as graces the inner sleeves of LAUGH?I NEARLY BOUGHT ONE and WILFUL DAYS compilations, featuring many candid shots of the band goofing around (yes, there is indeed a shot of Youth taking a leak) and a couple of shots of Jaz sporting some truly dubious facial hair. Any regular peruser of Mike Coles Studio C site will recognize some of the live shots contained herein, the band all looking much younger and fresher than they invariably do today (Geordie...not just with hair, but LOTS of it, Youth in a stylish UNKNOWN PLEASURES t-shirt, Big Paul with a can of....er..Colt 45). There is an enticing account by Alchemy mainman Carlton P. Sandercock (a surname I'm guessing he caught a handy amount of grief about in his school days) which I'll let you discover on your own (as I'm not about to type it out), but it closes with the entirely welcome post script: "Oh Yes, there is More!"

Sonically:
I'm only on the my first spin-through, but suffice to say, to hear some of these tracks (previously only filtered through poor quality tape hiss or compressed like freeze-dried foodstuffs into a comparitvely stifling MP3 format) is a glorious revelation. The Capital Radio session of "Are You Receiving?" positively crackles out of the speakers as if it was recorded yesterday and the Malicious single version of "Pssyche" sounds like an almost different track from what I've been used to. I'm only waist deep into it, but so far I cannot stop grinning maniacally. Today may finaly be the day I push my neighbors' collective patience over the edge as I cackle amidst the infernal din, "WELCOME THE NEW ERA! HONOR THE FIRE, YOU FUCKING HERETICS!"

GO FETCH IT AT ONCE!

Oh, shit, now I have "This Corrosion" in my head.

How much were they charging for the CD? I actually saw it somewhere, but I forget where. And laughed to myself, thinking about this very thread, like a total asshole.

I was saying that very thing yesterday to some doubting jizzlobbers on the Gathering who were writing off Andy's gang as talentless Zep-wannabes (fuckin' AS IF!). I believe they had him confused with the Mission.

The disc was nineeteen bucks & change......and I also picked up the new Kitchens of Distinction compilation, but that won't see the inside of my player for many, many angry red moons, I fear.

This is basically my opinion too.

There's a new Kitchens of Distinction compilation? Where the fuck have I been? I am so out of the goddamned loop these days it's not even funny.

Well, they certainly did on "Youth of the Nation," but I'm not familiar enough with the rest of their work to crucify them for it (although aren't they big ol' Christians? In which case, I'll go get my nails and hammer!)

Although the compilation is inexplicably missing "Smiling" from their Death of Cool album.

That's all I'm going on, too.

Alex in pro-Satan shockah! What is up with all these bands being raving Christians these days, by the way? If you imagine me saying that in Jerry Seinfeld's voice, it's funnier.

I think we should page Anthony Miccio to thread, I bet he knows a lot about P.O.D.

Tour Line up:

Bass - Raven
Drums - Ted Parsons

You know the other usual suspects.

There is a promo tour lined up prior to the release of the new album, titled Killing Joke 2003, and Raven has been asked to join. This is not slated to be a concert tour, but rather a press tour...as it stands now.

Release date, though it may change, is set for late July. After the 20th.

Open dates for touring, though none are set as of this date, are from early August through late October.

This week, the album will go through final mix, then it is off tp pressing. The band members also signed the confidentiality agreements, meaning it will not be MP3'd, or released in any way with out authority
from the label.

In short, the album is all done, going to press, and we will all have it in our hot hands in just about 2 1/2 months, with a tour starting shortly after.

He's even unwittingly gotten me into them. Well, to "Night Time", anyway. I actually went out of my way to a different music store each day last week to search for that album, even going so far as to go 20 miles out of my way to a funky little music store that I thought might have it. It's damned hard to get around here, it seems.

Damn you, Alex. ;) It would only be fair for you to do a similar hunting thing for a band I adore. Maybe The Cure, or the Psychedelic Furs, or Duran Duran, or Japan, or Yellow Magic Orchestra, or Ultravox, or Visage, or A Flock of Seagulls, or... er. I think I have the reason behind the first two sentences in this post here.

Seriously, though, it's admirable that you would be so committed to a band that you would want to sing their praises on a constant basis. Very good.

V/A Wild Dub (Select Cuts) cd 15.98
Subtitled "Dread Meets Punk Rocker Downtown" this is a brilliant collection of dubbed out and reggaefied punk and new wave b-sides circa '77-'81, demonstrating the Jamaican dub influence on the youth culture of music and rebellion in England and elsewhere, back in the day. The underground dancefloor avantgardists of today can cop these styles, but this is the real deal, with tracks from well-known acts like The Pop Group, Killing Joke, The Slits, PIL, The Clash, Grace Jones and Stiff Little Fingers, plus some more obscure bands as well, like Red Beat, 4 Be 2, and Basement 5. Some cuts are actual echoey dubs, others are more about the Jamaican influence, and the dub concept of studio as instrument. All are pretty cool.

The Ruts' "Jah War" starts things off in deceptively ordinary fashion, pretty much straight up reggae (not a dub), though it does succesfully demonstrate this comp's thesis about the regarding the influence of reggae on punk (with The Ruts eventually becoming Ruts DC, subject of an anthology on Select Cuts we recommended a while back)... That's followed by Mikey Dread's dub version of The Clash's "Bank Robber" which of course sounds pretty much like The Clash, but dubbier. It's with track three, "Wild Dub" from Generation X, purportedly the first punk dub ever cut, that the punk-dub collision starts to get really interesting. And if Billy Idol's old band's dub attempt is cool, you can only imagine what more some of the more out-there groups came up with. For instance, dig the bizarre sounds of The Slits, whose disjointed dub of "Typical Girls" comes off like Italian 'rock concrete' deconstructionists Starfuckers by way of Jamaica, all cut-up and sparse and loopy. Definitely a highlight. Meanwhile, you've got The Pop Group setting an example for current acts like Out Hud/!!! to emulate, 4 Be 2's weird Irish hoedown skank, the throbbing "Turn To Red" by Killing Joke (from a super-rare 9" record), and Grace Jones' 1980 Chrissie Hynde penned dance classic "Private Life" with bass and drums from Sly & Robbie. And more... Former Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten is a ubiquitous presence, in addition to PIL's quintessential "Death Disco", there's a bunch of other John Lydon productions on here, including a great track from Vivien Goldman ("Private Armies") dubbed up by Lydon and Adrian Sherwood. Goldman, former singer with the Flying Lizards and reggae writer for the punk weekly Sounds, contributes the disc's liner notes, with an enthusiastic, informed, she-was-there-then-and-cares-deeply-about-it-now perspective. So, totally, recommended -- everyone who loved those great Disco Not Disco and/or In The Beginning There Was Rhythm compilations will want to check this out for sure!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2532426003&category=1572

http://www.killingjoke.com

THE LEGENDARY FIRST POST! From such small acorns...

Killing Joke at Webster Hall 10/22/03

Killing Joke at Slims on 11/13/03

this is the thread where we talk about how much Living In The 80's by Killing Joke rules.

This is a thread where Alex in NYC can post EVERY SINGLE Killing Joke-related picture he has

Killing Joke 2003: the Album (c'mon, ya knew it was coming!)

Killing Joke - Outside the Gate.: Can ANYONE defend this?

TS: Adam And The Ants' "(You're So) Physical" vs. Killing Joke's "Requiem"

Grohl with the Joke -- for Aja

Killing Joke Album Review (For Alex In NYC)

Killing Joke question (for Mr. Killing Joke)

Alex in NYC - Let's rave about Geordie from Killing joke

killing electroclash joke

Ok, Killing Joke's playing in a club next week, should I go?

TS: Killing Joke's "War Dance" v. XTC's "The War Dance"

26 days til KILLING JOKE hits vancouver....

new killing joke/grohl resume entry

Fire Honours Itself

Anyways, I just finished watching this TV pilot for my work, which features a scene with a young girl giving a guy a mix CD. As she hands it to him, she says "it has all the hot new stuff on it -- The Darkness, Handsome Boy Modeling School (?), Killing Joke..."

Maybe there's one main set dresser/cred consultant lurking in TV land who's a big Joke fanatic...?

My head just exploded.

does this phenomenon have it's own thread? (not that it DESERVES it, I realize, but that hasn't stopped me before...)

Words fail me.

http://www.studio-c.co.uk/maliciousdamage/graphics/chaos.jpg

http://www.maliciousdamage.co.uk/