Brian-Joy Division/New Order Cover Project Plus Factory records Goodies

(scott)- Another fab covers project from Brian who works dillignetly on them.......once again another awesome one, I'll be surprised if the numbers aren't HUGE for this one.

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It's COVERS MONTH, GUYS! About a year ago, I started doing these comps, and you guys seem to dig 'em. Over the next few weeks, I've got several different projects coming, but I wanted to kick things off with this one, which I'm really proud of!

This has been brewing for quite a while. I remember I first attempted it last fall, and I didn't get very far. Don't know why, really; just two weeks ofWORK putting it together this time. And oh man, did I find some great covers!

I shouldn't have to break down Joy Division or New Order to anyone who reads this blog. Suffice to say, they were two of the most influential groups ever. Their stamp has been all over music ever since Unknown Pleasures came out. I knew I'd find good covers of both groups. I was thinking it would be half and half, but it's more a 2/3 split leaning towards JD. I think I sequenced it pretty good, spacing out the New Order songs.

Things start out with Luis and The Wildfires' version of "Digital". They're an old school rock(abilly) band, and I think this track helps show JD's ties to 50's rock, believe it or not. The Killers add a nice bit of alterna-glitz to "Shadowplay". Low do an aenesthitized, crawling cover of TRANSMISSION" that I like a lot. The Trouble are a band from Chicago, and their cover of "Insight" rocks like hell!!! (don't tell anybody, but I think it's better than the original).

The Girl and The Robots' version of "Perfect Kiss" is faithful to the electro-pop aspects of New Order's, even down to theVIDEO of the live performance I've taken this audio from. Look 'em up on YouTube. Greg Laswell's great version of "Disorder" might even be more lost and wistful than JD's original. Neurosis - a fave metal band of mine - effectively grind their way through "Day Of the Lords". And you haven't lived 'til you've heard Grace Jones's robo-reggae version of "She's Lost Control"!

Bush's sensual, dreamy cover of "In A Lonely Place" is from the Crow: City Of Angels soundtrack. I've loved it for a long time. R•diohead's amazing cover of "Ceremony" is from a 2007 webcast. It's a good rarity some of you might not have. Crimson Scarlet's version of "Interzone" is ripped from a YouTube vid of a cassette tape of theirs. I think it's unbelievably good! The Horrors' cover of "No Love Lost" carries the same guitar crunch as the original, while also adding some new touches. The Canvas Waiting's "Bizarre Love Triangle" is a nice, poppy update. Damn, this stuff is good!

Codeine's warmly sad cover of "Atmosphere" strongly bears their stamp. I love that guitar tone! From the White Birch sessions. Telekinesis' version of "The Drawback" is a great garage rock raveup. Nice to see the Warsaw songs don't get ignored. Nine Inch Nail's cover of "Dead Souls" is from the original Crow soundtrack. It may seem an obvious choice, but it's here because thatTRACKis singlehandedly responsible for me being a Joy Division fan. I've always thought it sounded like it was from the Broken period, especially since he'd done some other covers at that time.

The acoustic version of "True Faith" that is here is from an Unknown Artist. The MP3 was listed under an album by Dashboard Confessional, though I don't think it's them, especially as the singer is female. It's a beautiful take, though. Therapy?'s cover of "Isolation" really fucking rocks! Nine Inch Nails returns for a killer live version of "Twenty Four Hours", with Peter Murphy on vocals! Really good.

English indie-folksters Comet Gain deliver a great "Love Vigilantes", alleviating some of the sadness of it. I originally thought I'd put Moby's version of "New Dawn Fades" here - long a favorite - but decided to go with this faithful goth cover by Sun Devours Earth. And one more obvious choice: Orgy's cover of "Blue Monday". Sorry, but I've always thought this song sounds better with crunchy guitars!

The Envy Corps' "Age of Consent" is as breezy and racing as the original. And we're ofCOURSEgonna end the comp with "Love Will Tear Us Apart", undoubtedly JD's most covered song. There were many versions to choose from (including that one Yat-Kha did that I gave you before). I ended up going with this great one by Calexico. You guys are gonna LOVE this comp!

Covered In Substance

1. Luis & The Wildfires - Digital

2. The Killers - Shadowplay

3. Low -TRANSMISSION

4. The Trouble - Insight

5. The Girl and the Robots - Perfect Kiss

6. Greg Laswell - Disorder

7. Neurosis - Day Of the Lords

8. Grace Jones - She's Lost Control

9. Bush - In A Lonely Place

10. R•diohead - Ceremony

11. Crimson Scarlet - Interzone

12. The Horrors - No Love Lost

13. The Canvas Waiting - Bizarre Love Triangle

14. Codeine - Atmosphere

15. Telekinesis - The Drawback

16. NIN - Dead Souls

17. Unknown - True Faith (acoustic)

18. Therapy? - Isolation

19. NIN & Peter Murphy - Twenty Four Hours

20. Comet Gain - Love Vigilantes

21. Sun Devoured Earth - New Dawn Fades

22. Orgy - Blue Monday

23. The Envy Corps - Age of Consent

24. Calexico - Love Will Tear Us Apart

---Factory Comps

I don't remember which post it was, but someone had asked about a rare item from Factory Records. While I don't have what they asked for, I do have these three things I want to slide your way, and a link to a boxSET....

A Factory Sample was a 2x7 inch release put out by the label in 1978.OPENING with Joy Division's "Digital" and "Glass", it's one of the strongest statements of intent by a record label, ever. Also features two tracks each by Cabaret Voltaire, John Dowie, and the Duritti Column. Some of this music you have already, but this is still a cool configuration to have around. Includes full art.

(Palatine Cover)

Palatine - The Factory Story Vol. 1: With Tears In Their Eyes was part of a four volume series that came out in the early 90's. I can't get ahold of the other three, but I've had this one for a long time. Shows off other great groups that were on the label. In this folder with Sample and Palatine, I also put an MP3 of the video version of New Order's "Perfect Kiss". I've always preferred it over the album version.

And the last goodie I wanna give you is their live album "Les Baines Douches". It's long been a favorite of mine, and it's pretty damn rare, so have at it.

If anyone wishes to dive headfirst into the four disc Factory Records: Communications boxSET, feel free to go to this blog entry -

http://oneman1001albums2.blogspot.com/2015/11/various-factory-records-communications.html

And if you wanna fill any other holes in your Joy Division discography (including some boots), go here -

http://oscurasobriedad.blogspot.com/2013/07/joy-division.html

That blog has sturdy Mediafire links. If you get the "Permission Denied" prompt, just keep trying.THE FILES are there.

Well, there's a pile of Joy Division stuff for ya. Happy digging! One love, everybody...

All you can do is watch the shells......

Life, as they say, is what you make of it...to so many of us, being successful in the music business would be the ultimate. Of course, we know that many a great artist is "tortured", rarely is it, in my case at least, that the art of someone who never suffered a moment of their life is something that is going to have a real lasting effect upon me.....but of course, there are those among us, and we ALL know them, for whom life is just TOO difficult.....just to inventory the names that I have known for whom life was too difficult and too sad would take me quite a few minutes. Most memorable among them was a friend fo mine named Jon....he was a classmate of mine, Class of 1979. I ran into Jon in 1980 at a used record store, locally, called "Warehouse Records" (a local legend of a vinyl smorgasbord that was with us for far, far too short a time), we were both regulars there who would get our pay, and go in and stock up on a stack of one or two dollar LP's....Jon was a rock n roller like myself, maybe a little more mainstream, I remember on that evening in 1980 one of the albums he was buying was a Kiss album, something I never would have been doing.....likely I gave him a "shot" about it, likely he retalliated about some Buzzcocks or something that I was buying and we shared a laugh......our final one...because two or three days later, I read Jon's obituary in the local paper....it was a suicide, he did the "car in the garage" thing, left a note telling his parents and his girlfriend that he just couldn't go on.......I've never forgotten that last meeting of ours, and I always think about WHY was he buying records days before he planned to end his life? Maybe he didn't "plan" it, he was after all, one of those guys, "the last guy in the WORLD you'd ever expect to take his own life"....anyway, I still think about Jon often, we were NOT especially "close", but we had rock n roll that bonded us, and we taunted each others' tastes the way only teenage boys can do, when the "better" between Kiss and the Buzzcocks seems as important as an economic crisis or an impending alien invasion....so this post is for Jon....no Kiss, I'm afraid, but I'd like to pay tribute to three individuals who, like Jon, just found life too difficult a task.....I hope that all of them (especially Jon) are at peace with whatever demons they couldn't overcome. Life is so sad for those of us who remain here, it must be unbearable for those who feel they must check out early.....

First up, I wish to touch on Elliott Smith.....now, Smith was NOT, to my way of understanding, anyway, NOT a typical "you'd never guess HE would do it"-type.....I remember a poll once, "What is the Saddest Song You Know?", and what was bizarre were the volume of DIFFERENT Elliott Smith songs that made the list. Just a small sampling of his work and I think you'd know that this man was tortured and depressed. I post here, for your enjoyment, the very fine "From a Basement on the Hill", his final work, which for me, served as a suicide note, every bit as much as the one that Jon left in the car in the garage that night. The album ends with a song entitled "A Distorted Reallity is Now a Necessity To Be Free", seemingly a fitting ending statement, but I prefer to focus on two other tortured tracks, "Pretty (Ugly Before)", and, especially, "King's Crossing".....it's not something I plan to do, in general, printing entire lyrics to the stuff I post here, but in this case I feel it is appropriate. Without further ado, then, Elliott Smith's "Kings Crossing":

"The king's crossing was the main attraction/Dominoes falling in a chain reaction/A scraping subject ruled by fear/Told me whiskey works better than beer..../The judge is on vinyl decisions are final/And nobody gets a reprieve..And every wave is tidal - if you hang around ,You're going to get wet

I can't prepare for death any more than I already have....All you can do now is watch the shells/The game looks easy, that's why it sellsFrustrated fireworks inside your head/Are going to stand and deliver talk instead/The method acting that pays my bills/Keeps a fat man feeding in Beverly Hills/I got a heavy metal mouth that hurls obscenity/And I get my check in from the trash treasury

Because I took my own insides out....It don't matter 'cos I have no sex life/And all I want to do now is inject my ex-wife/I've seen the movie and I know what happens

It's Christmas time, and the needles on the tree/A skinny Santa is bringing something to me/His voice is overwhelming, but his speech is slurred/And I only understand every other word/Open your parachute and grab your gun/Fall down like an omen, a setting sun/Read the part and return at five/It's a hell of a role if you can keep it alive

But I don't care if I fuck up/I'm going on a date with a rich white lady/Ain't life great?

Give me one good reason not to do it..(Because I love you) So do it

This is the place where time reverses/Dead men talk to all the pretty nurses/Instruments shine on a silver tray/Don't let me get carried away/Don't let me get carried awayDon't let me get carried away "

Not exactly "Rock n roll all night and party every day", eh?

Elliott Smith passed away from, so they say, a SELF INFLICTED STAB WOUND on 10/21/03....I cannot think, at this moment of a more physically painful method of termination.

TRACK LISTING (Link in Comments section)

01 Coast to Coast/02 Let's Get Lost/03 Pretty (Ugly Before)/04 Don't Go Down/05 Strung Out Again/06 Fond Farewell/ 07 King's Crossing/08 Ostriches & Chirpping/09 Twilight/10 A Passing Feeling/11 Last Hour/12 Shooting Star/13 Memory Lane/14 Little One/15 A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity To Be Free

Now, making Elliott Smith look like Jerry Lewis, we have Ian Curtis....if you were familiar with Joy Division at their peak, you'd likely question how Mr. Curtis, so obviously miserable and tortured, had not ended it as of then.....it would be frightening indeed to wander too much into the pained mind behind this music, I will offer up "Closer".....guys, for the uninitiated, this is NOT "good time party music"....."Atrocities Exhibition" is the one that always did it for me, but pretty much any track here can take that smile off of your face and out of your soul. Rather than participate in Joy Division's scheduled tour in 1980, Curtis opted to hang himself prior to its onset....health problems (epilepsy) and marital troubles combined with the pressures of the first Joy Division tour of the USA seemingly were more than he could take. His tragic life ended May 18, 1980.

TRACK LISTING (Link In Comment Section)

01 Atrocity Exhibition/02 Isolation/03 Passover/04 Colony/05 A Means to an End/06 Heart and Soul/07 Twenty Four Hours/08 The Eternal/09 Decades

Our third suicide was not such an "obvious", although of course she was just as tortured....Wendy O Williams never SEEMED too depressed while blowing up cars and taking chainsaws to instruments while fronting the Plasmatics. I loved her and thought of her as a taboo sex Goddess, it was with incredible shock that I would read of her termination of life years after her performing career had ended (1998)....of course the Plasmatics cartoonish punk-metal was not all that great at the time AND has aged badly, but nonetheless I offer up "New Hope For the Wretched" as a tribute to Wendy.....It saddens me that her life was as unhappy as it must have been, and I hope that, wherever she may be, it might put a small smile on her face to know that she really did add to the joy of living, for a few brief minutes at least, of one Ohio coming of age "adult".

Seemingly she struggled for years with her decision, her suicide note read, in part, "I don't believe that people should take their own lives without deep and thoughtful reflection over a considerable period of time"......

An odd coincidence: One of Wendy's best known recordings was a duet with Motorhead's Lemmy on the Tammy Wynette country standard "Stand By Your Man" (I can't find it right now, maybe I'll post it if I find it and there is interest).....anyway, Wendy's life ended from a self-inflicted gunshot on April 6, 1998....Tammy Wynette's own death (from natural causes) occurred on the same day, April 6, 1998.

TRACK LISTING (Link in comment section)

01 Tight Black Pants/02 Monkey Suit/03 Living Dead/04 Test Tube Babies/05 Won't You/06 Concrete Shoes/07 Squirm (Live)/08 Want You Baby/09 Dream Lover/10 Sometimes /11 Corruption 12/Butcher Baby