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Most bass heavy post-punk band
- Thread starter Phaidrus
- Start date
How does everyone define post punk? Some of the bands here I would have considered New Wave or even Alternative versus post punk, but I know these labels are nebulous and subjective moreso than anything definitive, so I'm not looking to "correct" anyone, just looking for your opinions.
Example - Joy Division are the essential post punk band to me, but New Order, even early New Order, I'd be more inclined to think of them as New Wave or Alternative. For me, I think it's a scale along how crafted a sound is for popular radio play, and timing. I also think the labels are more about a scene than a style of music, and that's where these labels tend to fall apart for me.
Late 70s-early 80s, dark themes, heavy sounds, and audiences composed of people who would have also attended punk shows a few years earlier - it's post punk. Joy Division is a perfect example.
Early 80s, some dark themed songs, some heavy sounds, but also some pop sounds with memorable choruses and an easy dancing beat - think The Cure - that's Alternative. Maybe I'd put New Order here - that's how people referred to New Order back in 1983 or so to my recollection. Maybe the younger siblings of the people who attended punk shows in the earlier 70s were attending early Cure shows. I don't know, I personally wasn't there.
Early 80s, mostly danceable music, some dark-themed lyrics, pop-style melodies, clothing and hair svante garde and very fashion-oriented, that's New Wave. Think Dep Mode, Devo, Flock of Seagulls. Bands that got mainstream radio play, and of course had popular music videos.
Example - Joy Division are the essential post punk band to me, but New Order, even early New Order, I'd be more inclined to think of them as New Wave or Alternative. For me, I think it's a scale along how crafted a sound is for popular radio play, and timing. I also think the labels are more about a scene than a style of music, and that's where these labels tend to fall apart for me.
Late 70s-early 80s, dark themes, heavy sounds, and audiences composed of people who would have also attended punk shows a few years earlier - it's post punk. Joy Division is a perfect example.
Early 80s, some dark themed songs, some heavy sounds, but also some pop sounds with memorable choruses and an easy dancing beat - think The Cure - that's Alternative. Maybe I'd put New Order here - that's how people referred to New Order back in 1983 or so to my recollection. Maybe the younger siblings of the people who attended punk shows in the earlier 70s were attending early Cure shows. I don't know, I personally wasn't there.
Early 80s, mostly danceable music, some dark-themed lyrics, pop-style melodies, clothing and hair svante garde and very fashion-oriented, that's New Wave. Think Dep Mode, Devo, Flock of Seagulls. Bands that got mainstream radio play, and of course had popular music videos.
Getting anyone to agree on a definition of 'post punk' would probably take 20 pages of debate here and end in a series of heated disagreements.Some people here apparently think postpunk is just music that occurred after punk.
Elvis Costello?
That era of music blurred a lot of genre lines. I like a lot of the bands from that era but I gave up trying to categorize them a long time ago.
Pop/punk/post-punk/new wave…. at a certain point it just came down to what record labels wanted to call things for marketing purposes. What was fIREHOSE? Heck if I know…
Spike, not so much. This Year's Model, yes.Some people here apparently think postpunk is just music that occurred after punk.
Elvis Costello?
Drive Like Jehu. Some of the tones on Yank Crime are huge and zesty.
I don't know if I would really call big boys post punk, but their funky stuff is very bass driven.
I still can't decide whether "post-punk" simply refers to chronology, or if it's become an actual genre (in which case, shouldn't it be spelled with upper case letters?)
Sorta like "prog-rock" -- which is just a contraction of/shorthand for "progressive rock" -- versus "Prog-Rock" -- which is a genre that doesn't necessarily have to be at all progressive, so long as it includes some of the touchstones of the original "progressive rock" music.
And then there's "Post-Punk Progressive Rock" ...which I always assumed was a genre, because if it simply referred to chronology it would be kinda stupid. Or stupid-ish.
Anyway, here's Bill Laswell thrashing the hell out of an Ibanez 8-string bass circa 1981. I think this fits both definitions of "post-punk"
Sorta like "prog-rock" -- which is just a contraction of/shorthand for "progressive rock" -- versus "Prog-Rock" -- which is a genre that doesn't necessarily have to be at all progressive, so long as it includes some of the touchstones of the original "progressive rock" music.
And then there's "Post-Punk Progressive Rock" ...which I always assumed was a genre, because if it simply referred to chronology it would be kinda stupid. Or stupid-ish.
Anyway, here's Bill Laswell thrashing the hell out of an Ibanez 8-string bass circa 1981. I think this fits both definitions of "post-punk"
You miss spelled Scratch Acid
Others that haven't been mentioned yet:
Pop Group
ESG
Liquid Liquid
Liquid Liquid RULES.
And…it defies catagorization as it(as well as many of his other projects)includes musical contributions from players tagged as "progressive" or "jazz". Much like the Golden Palominos stuff, which of course Laswell was also involved in.
Still thinking about this.. DNA also had very prominent basslines,
but that may have been largely due to Arto Líndsay's more experimental approach to guitar.
And i think Meat Puppets and Cardiacs are also worth mentioning.
but that may have been largely due to Arto Líndsay's more experimental approach to guitar.
And i think Meat Puppets and Cardiacs are also worth mentioning.
Check out AFI's new album. It's awesome. It's like they completely switched from punk to post punk.
Despite my more modern earlier post, I'll say that Andy Rourke is the king on this topic. So many of his basslines were perfect for what the Smiths were doing. RIP
Someone's gonna come along and tell you Smiths were Proto-Madchester or some nonsense.
Agreed. I mean, Paul Weller was in an important Punk band. He still releases records but no one calls those "Punk". Even Mods get old, if they're lucky. Elvis Costello made his bones on the post Pub-Rock Punk circuit on Stiff records. He just grew up.
I debated on this, but…
Not counting the early line-up of the band, the "Dirk" era which fits the post-punk description best(and those guys went on to Bow-Wow-Wow), on just the Kings Of The Wild Frontier album, Kevin Mooney provides some up-front low end….
Unfortunately he got fired from the band soon after, Gary Tibbs taking his place.
Not counting the early line-up of the band, the "Dirk" era which fits the post-punk description best(and those guys went on to Bow-Wow-Wow), on just the Kings Of The Wild Frontier album, Kevin Mooney provides some up-front low end….
Unfortunately he got fired from the band soon after, Gary Tibbs taking his place.
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