'Just Rewards (2)'
There's a lady plays her fav'rite records/On the jukebox ev'ry day/All day long she plays the same old songs/And she believes the things that they say/She sings along with all the saddest songs/And she believes the stories are real/She lets the music dictate the way that she feels.
Feel better soon, Joe.
I'm glad to know the Bruno book is good -- his enjoyably thinky blog is named after a Walter Benjamin manuscript and, of course, he's the self-describedly "inessential but, I hope, not entirely irrelevant" keyboardist for the Mountain Goats (his posts on the parts of the tour he played with are here [link] ), so it'd be a real letdown if the book sucked.
Trudy, until Joe comes along, I'll toss out some more classic punk titles. All of these are five star classics.
Singles Going Steady - The Buzzcocks. Perfect catchy little songs all revved up and full of more quizzical angst than anger. Still punk though!
Wild Gift - X. Literate beat-derived lyrics set to hypercharged rockabilly riffs.
Damned Damned Damned - The Damned. The fastest, hardest most purely exhilirating.
The Clash s/t. The only question is whether to get the UK or US versions. The UK is more coherent as an album. The US includes some of their very best singles and rockers. 'Tis a conundrum.
Go Buzzcocks! Choose Buzzcocks!
What Jon said.
Agreed. "Why Can't I Touch It" popped up on the iPod last night, reminding me that the Buzzcocks were the catchiest damn band with chainsaw guitars outside of The Ramones.
The Damned album is great, too.
The Buzzcocks are excellent!
Somebody earlier mentioned Wire's "Pink Flag" -- I love that album. (But is that more post-punk?)
I love the Undertones too.
Ooh, and X-Ray Spexs.
Pink Flag is 1977, baby. That's ground zero.
And it's chockful of juicy songs. Everyone should have it.
The first time I ever heard Wire was when my roommate played Pink Flag. I was so impressed by almost every song that I assumed it must be a "best of" album.