Like that
TV mechanical bunny, some of the Class of '77 (more accurately, 1976-1978)
keep going and going ad nauseam - and that can be a mixed blessing,
sometimes. The Mekons and Wire, for example, are as good/great (&
in some instances better, esp. the Mekons) now as then. The
Buzzcocks, the UK combo that helped invent punk-pop (and give
many mediocre US bands a template, but that's not the 'cocks fault)
and gave the world more classic singles than you've had hot breakfasts
this or any year, reunited in the mid-1990s. The recorded results were
spotty, until a year or so ago when their self/no-titled disc came out
(on Merge in the US), and that platter was consistently ON (read: strong,
unremitting, consistent in quality) as was A Different Kind of Tension.
Their latest FPP is a trip back to Spottytown (make a sharp
left at Funkytown city limits). The Buzz-boys still have those plaintive
harmonies, grinding guitars (although they grind when they used to pierce
'n' glisten), charming melodic hooks, and throbbing, hard-thumping bass
& drums, but their songwriting is starting to feel a bit…rote.
"Sell You Everything" has a nifty chorus, but, like "Credit,"
the prosaic subject matter is [gasp] consumerist culture! My god, I
had no idea! "They" are trying to sell us stuff "we"
don't "need!" Further, some of Steve Diggle's background "oh-ooh-OOHH!"
choruses sound…like they did when he sang 'em in the early 80s.
Yeah, I know, I'm hard to please - if you're a recent convert to the
Buzzcocks and/or have not played Singles Going Steady to death,
the sleek, snappy, hook-laden FPP will sound rather very good,
but…[sigh] time was…
However
- the Buzzcocks LIVE is another matter entirely. On a stinking-humid
Saturday evening, Chicago's Double Door club was packed with two or
three generations of punk-rock fanboys & fangals, and even a few
who looked like hippies (aging and neo-). Receding hairlines, expanding
waistlines, furrowed brows and cheeks, and graying or gone hair mixed
freely and without violence with youths with multicolored/sculpted hair
and far too many tattoos and piercings - it was glorious. As for the
band, they shredded!!! The 'cocks played a few songs from the new disc,
and then it was Night of The Living Greatest Hits
'til the
end, and they played them like they do on disc - one song into the other
with nary a pause for applause. "Fiction Romance," "I
Don't Know What To Do with my Life," "Orgasm Addict,"
and even "Oh Shit" - it would've been PERFECT if they did
"You Say You Don't Love" and "Boredom," but they
played darn near everything else. Their trademark conciseness undimmed,
they played with mucho drive, correctness and oomph, and while Pete
Shelley (who, at 51, is starting to resemble Paul Simon...not
that there's anything wrong w/ that) seemed focused in a businesslike
way, Diggle was playfully making with the rock-concert guitar-moves,
smiling almost constantly, and at the show's conclusion, he slapped
five, ain't-no-jive with arms-outstretched audience members. The live
sound was a little muddy at times but the Buzzcocks magnificence shone
brightly nonetheless. SEE THEM, they deliver.
Like that
TV mechanical bunny, some of the Class of '77 (more accurately, 1976-1978)
keep going and going ad nauseam - and that can be a mixed blessing,
sometimes. The Mekons and Wire, for example, are as good/great (&
in some instances better, esp. the Mekons) now as then. The
Buzzcocks, the UK combo that helped invent punk-pop (and give
many mediocre US bands a template, but that's not the 'cocks fault)
and gave the world more classic singles than you've had hot breakfasts
this or any year, reunited in the mid-1990s. The recorded results were
spotty, until a year or so ago when their self/no-titled disc came out
(on Merge in the US), and that platter was consistently ON (read: strong,
unremitting, consistent in quality) as was A Different Kind of Tension.
Their latest FPP is a trip back to Spottytown (make a sharp
left at Funkytown city limits). The Buzz-boys still have those plaintive
harmonies, grinding guitars (although they grind when they used to pierce
'n' glisten), charming melodic hooks, and throbbing, hard-thumping bass
& drums, but their songwriting is starting to feel a bit…rote.
"Sell You Everything" has a nifty chorus, but, like "Credit,"
the prosaic subject matter is [gasp] consumerist culture! My god, I
had no idea! "They" are trying to sell us stuff "we"
don't "need!" Further, some of Steve Diggle's background "oh-ooh-OOHH!"
choruses sound…like they did when he sang 'em in the early 80s.
Yeah, I know, I'm hard to please - if you're a recent convert to the
Buzzcocks and/or have not played Singles Going Steady to death,
the sleek, snappy, hook-laden FPP will sound rather very good,
but…[sigh] time was…
