New Wave and Avant Garde

[page]

Ok I want two things.

1. New Wave, and im not talking about 80s synth rock, im talking about real "New Wave" , the good stuff. I dig bands like Television, Oingo Boingo, Rain Dogs era Tom Waits, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, 80s Crimso, Belew, Eno, Bowie , Echo and the Bunneymen, and the Psychedelic Furs. Are there any bands like these that I should check out? I think the main thing I enjoy about these bands is the quirk.
Ive heard good things about Richard Hell but have never heard any thing by him.


2. Avant Garde- I love weird music, be it jazz , rock, or whatever , just suggest some good avant garde, I dont care what style. This could be a broad genre , but just to give some ideas, some of the Avant Gardes I dig are : Miasma, Guapo, John Zorn, STGM, Idiot Flesh, Cuong Vu, Benevento Russo, Chevrueil, Pharoh Sanders, MIles, Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, Jacob Fred Jazz, and Marc Ribot.

Thanks folks. Please give a description of the artist if you suggest them, thanks.

[geshel]

In the first category:

Toyah - Sheep Farming in Barnett
Toyah - The Blue Meaning
New Order - Power, Corruption, and Lies
Dead Can Dance - self titled first album
Rush - Signals
Japan - Obscure Alternatives
Japan - Quiet Life
Arcadia - So Red the Rose
The Cure - Head on the Door
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Juju
Pale Saints - Comforts of Madness
Pale Saints - In Ribbons

You might also like the latest Nine Inch Nails album.

[geshel]

Oh yeah: generally, A Gang of Four, and Shriekback.

[Matt Till]

Have you given early Devo a shot? Are we Not Men is really cool... and produced by Brian Eno.

[Against Will]

Originally Posted by page

Ok I want two things.

1. New Wave...

The Fall, I Am Spoonbender, Einsturzende Neubauten, the Homosexuals and Swell Maps. I would recommend getting 'Blank Generation' by Richard Hell, it's a classic. His second album is good, but not as.

2. Avant Garde-...

Have you checked out Cecil Taylor? There's also Don Cherry, Alice Coltrane and Eric Dolphy. The Boredoms, Birchville Cat Motel, Alec K. Redfearn & the Eyesores, Barnacled, Animal Collective (not quite avant garde, but sufficiently weird). The Lounge Lizards, Jagga Jazzist, Prurient, Kites, Merzbow, Masonna etc.

[bassksun]

I don't know how to categorize these Albums but:

Zappa-Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt
Roxy Music-For your Pleasure, Stranded, Country Life
The Art Ensemble of Chicago
Leroy Jenkins-Space Minds
Kate Bush-(Jeez anything by her is out there! First 4 albums are best.)
Laurie Anderson-Mr. Heartbreak
The New York Dolls
Lou Reed-Legendary Hearts, Blue Mask (Fernando Quine on Bass!)
The Tubes-Young and Rich
Ornette Coleman-(anything with Jamaladeen Tacuma)
Roland Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society-
Nasty (1981)
Some extremely "difficult" folks- Meredith Monk, Eric Dolphy
Albert Ayler, Julius Hemphill, Abdul Wadud...
I could go on and on...

[6-3-2]

Probably obvious, but Talking Heads.

[Wrong Robot]

Check out 20th century composers of the serial and minimalist movements. A lot of whacky **** happened around then.

[Adam Barkley]

Henry Cow, Painkiller, Ruins, The Olivia Tremor Control, Dalek, John Zorn.

[geshel]

In the second category:

Torn / Karn / Bozzio - Polytown
Rieflin / Fripp / Gunn - The Repercussions of Angelic Behavior
The ProjeKcts Box set - King Crimson R&D "projeKcts" 1, 2, 3, and 4

[Freaky Fender]

second catagory:

I reccomend Sonic Youth's SYR series. They're about 5-8 bucks a piece, except for the 4th one, which is a collection of avant-garde compositions recorded by the band and friends, most of the compositions written for the band themselves.

The SYR series are collections of improvasations/songs that are really drawn old and use unique tones done by the band with friends. Also, check out Jim O Rouke. He's pretty much the new poster child of avart garde stuff.

[geshel]

Originally Posted by Freaky Fender

second catagory:

I reccomend Sonic Youth's SYR series. They're about 5-8 bucks a piece, except for the 4th one, which is a collection of avant-garde compositions recorded by the band and friends, most of the compositions written for the band themselves.

The SYR series are collections of improvasations/songs that are really drawn old and use unique tones done by the band with friends. Also, check out Jim O Rouke. He's pretty much the new poster child of avart garde stuff.

"really drawn old"? did you mean "really darn old"? I'm just curious - I like SY.

[SlavaF]

wouldn't The Mars Volta be avant garde? they're jazzy, rocky, and just plain psychedelic...

[page]

Originally Posted by SlavaF

wouldn't The Mars Volta be avant garde? they're jazzy, rocky, and just plain psychedelic...

I own both albums and They are only alright in my opinion. Nothing too great. They do have touches of jazz and psychedelia, but I Omar's senseless rambling guitar gibberish turns me off sometimes.

[The Owl]

Originally Posted by page

Ok I want two things.

1. New Wave, and im not talking about 80s synth rock, im talking about real "New Wave" , the good stuff. I dig bands like Television, Oingo Boingo, Rain Dogs era Tom Waits, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, 80s Crimso, Belew, Eno, Bowie , Echo and the Bunneymen, and the Psychedelic Furs. Are there any bands like these that I should check out? I think the main thing I enjoy about these bands is the quirk.
Ive heard good things about Richard Hell but have never heard any thing by him.


2. Avant Garde- I love weird music, be it jazz , rock, or whatever , just suggest some good avant garde, I dont care what style. This could be a broad genre , but just to give some ideas, some of the Avant Gardes I dig are : Miasma, Guapo, John Zorn, STGM, Idiot Flesh, Cuong Vu, Benevento Russo, Chevrueil, Pharoh Sanders, MIles, Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, Jacob Fred Jazz, and Marc Ribot.

Thanks folks. Please give a description of the artist if you suggest them, thanks.

New Wave: Joy Division's 2 studio albums, "Unknown Pleasures" and "Closer" are brilliant and very innovative in terms of the production and songwriting in that context. These guys were heavily influenced by Krautrock bands like Neu, Can and Faust. plus, their bassist, Peter Hook played in a VERY distinctive lead-bass style all his own. TONS of bands copied them in the 80's.

Just one word of caution, don't listen to them if you're depressed or contemplating suicide.

GANG OF FOUR: Stomping politically-charged funk with dissonant shards of metal guitar and passionate vocals. The first two albums are classics ("Entertainment" and "Solid Gold"), after that, they got too slick and mainstream.

DEAD KENNEDYS - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables: CLASSIC punk/rock & roll album, complete with frantic and yet VERY tight drumming, melodic and active bass, guitar that brings together rockabilly, surf and hard-rock, and of course, one Jello Biafra's bitingly hilarious rants and politically charged psychodrama. It'll make you think and laugh at the same time, best cuts include "Let's Lynch The Landlord", "Drug Me", "Your Emotions", Police Truck", "California Uber Alles", "Stealing Peoples Mail", "Ill In The Head" and a cover of "Viva Las Vegas" that is SIDESPLITTING HILARIOUS! I often think of 'ol Jello as the Frank Zappa of punk.

Avant Garde:

Magma - Think Carl Orff meets Sun Ra and very early pre-Jaco Weather Report. The band also created its own language to sing it's continuing sci-fi story in. Characterized by mercilessly intense drumming, heavy roaring fuzz-bass, alien sounding vcocal choruses, spacy keyboards and layering passages.

Cartoon: Long defunct ensemble from AZ that was heavily influenced by music from Sat. Morning cartoons, very brilliant musicians

Thinking Plague: Mercilessly complex layered music with the plaintive vocalizing of one Deborah Perry over the top of it. Makes certain nods to Henry Cow

Henry Cow/Slapp Happy: Hard to describe outfit that originated a genre RIO (Rock In Opposition), characterized by very leftist politics, over-the-top vocals from Dagmar Krause and an instrumental bass that encompassd rock, avant-garde jazz and 20th Century classical music. Definitely an acqured taste.

Univers Zero: "Chamber Rock" might be the best description here, lots of modern classical sensibilities with tense rock underpinnings.

Can: German outfit that started in the late 60's, VERY wild, psychedlic and unpredictable, incorporating elements of Stockhausen, James Brown, psychedelia, collage music, found sounds, bizarre humor and other madness.

Faust: Similar to Can in the respect of combining far-flung sources and sensibilities yet sounding NOTHING like them, running the gamut from deleriously psychedelic to terrifyingly industrial.

Blast: Unviers Zero with a sense of humor

Forever Einstein: Anything's fair game with these guys, one minute it's demented surf music, next careening wildly into 70's cop show land then into God knows what. Very fun to listen to!

Dysrhythmia: Very creative guitar trio from Philly PA

Dr Nerve: Under the baton of guitarist Nick Didkovsky (sp?), this fluid ensemble mounts full-blown sonic assaults with a small horn section, Nick's psychotic guitar, mallet percussion, a merciless rhythm section and keys. Kind of like John Zorn, Stravinsky and the brutality of metal. Not for the faint of heart.

RUINS: A bass/drums duo from Japan, sort of like Magma meets The Minutemen.

MATERIAL: Bill Laswell's ongoing collaborative and ever evolving pet rpoject. My favorites are the early albums l9ike "Memory Serves" and "Temporary Music" which are like industrial funk with lots of experimental jazz and found sunds galore.

[Eywin]

Anja Garbarek - Experimental Electronics
Frantic Bleep - Experimental/Avantgarde Metal
Diamanda galas -Crazy Avantgarde Singer
Ulver - Symphonic/Electronic Music
Radiohead - Kid A
Captain Beefheart - Freaky Rock music
The Cure - Pornography

[Freaky Fender]

Originally Posted by geshel

"really drawn old"? did you mean "really darn old"? I'm just curious - I like SY.

I ment really drawn out. The 3rd installment is a quartet improvising for an entire hour.


In retrospect, that sentence could have been written better...

[Muzique Fann]

Medeski, Martin & Wood can get pretty 'out there'. I'd put them in avant garde somewhere (check out The Dropper if you haven't yet). Jacob Fred has to be one of the most original bands I've ever heard - check out Symbiosis Osmosis for some wild improv w/ a 'sax section' including Skerik and Brad Houser. Hell, anything with Skerik could be called avant garde - I'd throw the Dead Kenny G's in there too. On a super AG note, you guys have to check out the Electric Apricot if they ever play again! It's a Claypool thing all the way ...they all have fake names...he plays drums and goes by Lapland Miclovik aka "Lapdog" haha...I have one 'recording' if you could call it that - I think they made it up for some recent festivals - classic.

[Philbiker]

Only one mention of New Wave Pioneers "DEVO"? As far as I'm concerned DEVO is required listening when the words "New Wave" are invoked.

Are we not men? We are DEVO!

[mr. eff]

Avant Garde: Definately Boards of Canada. Check out Music Has The Right to Children, or Geogaddi. And The new one The Campfire Headphase...all very beautiful psychadelic songs.