This album is not a regular release from the group. Joy Division only released two albums. This is a compilation/live album. It is a double LP recording. The first LP is rare studio tracks and the second is live recorded music that is also consists of rare tracks recorded at their last concert. The album was released in 1981. I went to one of my favorite used record stores reciently and found a copy of the original vinyl set for 30 bucks. I couldn’t pass this up. The records are in great shape and just needed a good cleaning. I only recognized the one track called Dead Souls from the studio recorded songs. Yes, I already have this song on the greatest hits CD that I have but I love to have the music on the intended format or original release (how ever you choose to look at it). The copy that I picked up is an original Factory Records pressing. It was pressed in Portugal as there is a sticker on the back that says Made In Portugal. This is a rare find in my book. This is mostly all new music for me with the exception of the regular album tracks and the cover of the song Sister Ray by The Kinks, also a live song. This is the version of the album with the bonus track on side three called Twenty Four Hours. I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I don’t know how many pressings had this. I do like to have extra music though. I will say that the songs were left off either of the two albums for a reason. They were not that great. I will say that there are some real cool sounding bass guitar parts on these songs though. The bassist for the band tends to play more in the middle of the neck of the bass so the sounds are easier to hear in my opinion. It is to bad that they will never be given the chance to be the great songs that they should be. If you don’t know the story of Ian Curtis there are a few options available to you. You could check out the Wikipedia or you could look up either the documentary or the movie that was made about the group. I purchased the documentary as I did not like the movie as much. I rented both of them at my local Blockbuster before they went out of business. Soon after I rented them they went on sale to purchase as used DVDs. I made the clerk help me find the movie since they only had 2 copies of it when it was available to rent. We searched the whole building in order to find it. I only paid five bucks for the DVD. I felt bad for making her go through the whole store just to find a documentary but I really wanted to own that one. I think that I have watched it twice including the time that I rented the movie. It is done so well and I learned so much about the band though. They were not portrayed in a bad light even with what Ian had done with his life. It is the movie that really why I got into the group. I had memories of the single Love Will Tear Us Apart but it was the doc. that got me into more of the music.
Death Cab For Cutie – Codes and Keys
This is the seventh studio album from the group. It was released in 2011. It is their latest release. I purchased this album in advance on vinyl. I got the record and was very disappointed to find that the album did not come with a download code. Also, when I listened to the album the first side has some noises on it. I really hate it when a new record has blemishes on it. I did like that it was a double vinyl set with only a few tracks on each side. The album was mainly written by the lead guitarist, Chris Walla. He said that the songs were written mainly based on a feeling and trying to put that feeling into music. This is how I tend to write music my self. They always try to recreate the band with every album but also try to keep the vision of what Death Cab For Cutie is all about. I think that they accomplished that idea very well. They did not do a OK Computer to Kid A like Radiohead did in 2000 for example. The album has the sounds of the previous album but it seems to be a happier album than Narrow Stairs is. This could be because of the recent marriage that the lead singer had recently. The group also took cues from the Brian Eno album Another Green World. The group would take two weeks at a time to record parts of the album. This was done mainly because Ben Gibbard and Chris Walla both have families to think about. To just move out to a recording studio for months at a time would be unrealistic in their eyes with those families waiting. They also recorded in multiple different studios for this album. This is abnormal for the group but with the need to work around the family thing the norm needed to be changed. The first single from the album is called You Are A Tourist. The song is about loving someone with that desire, that emotional drive that is so hard to say no to. This is really a good album. There are some great drum beats along with some great vocals. It is a more key board driven album than their past albums but there is still the cool guitar sound on the top of the songs. If you need indie guitar based music you may fall a little flat with this one. But there is still the few songs that have that distorted guitar sound, so you will not be let down.
R.E.M. – Lifes Rich Pageant
This is R.E.M’s fourth album. It was released in 1986. I took a foray into the Amazon third party market. I was looking for this album and found a seller with a high percentage approval rate with a good description of the condition of the record and at a reasonable price (12 bucks). This album is hard to find in my area for some reason. I have found most of the other albums from the group through the local used record stores but I couldn’t find this one for some reason. It is not like this one was a rare pressing by any means. Any way, when I got the record it was in great condition. There was little wear on the outer sleeve, a little record wear and one corner fraying just a little bit. I cleaned the record and was good to go after that. The record is very clear, no pops or clicks at all. The album was intended to be a more upbeat idea to the previous record, Fables of The Reconstruction. The title of the album is a reference to a English idiom but more specifically to a line in an Inspector Clouseau movie called A Shot In The Dark. The lines go like this:
Inspector Clouseau opens car door and falls into a fountain.
Maria: "You should get out of these clothes immediately. You'll catch your death of pneumonia, you will."
Clouseau: "Yes, I probably will. But it's all part of life's rich pageant, you know?"
The apostrophe is left off on purpose as all R.E.M. songs and album names do not have them. The top of the album cover is a photo of Bill Berry, the drummer and the bottom is a picture of a pair of bison. The bottom of the cover alludes to a environmental theme and to Buffalo Bill. I had never seen the cover of this album until I started looking for R.E.M music a couple years ago. It was at this point that the group was gaining fans that were outside of the college rock scene. The first single from the album is called Fall On Me. I remember this song being on the radio. This does show that they were getting more fans outside of the college rock arena. The second single is Superman. This is actually a cover of a song written in 1969 by The Clique. This cover of the song was one of my favorite R.E.M songs. I was too young at the time to go out and buy the single at the very least.
Man or Astro-Man – Your Weight On The Moon
This is the first 10” EP from Man or Astro-Man? The album was released in 1994. The vinyl was released in 4 colors; black, pink, silver-grey and glow-in-the-dark. I got my copy in silver-grey. I would love to get a copy in glow-in-the-dark. It was hard enough finding the copy that I have so I don’t know if I will ever find a copy of the glow-in-the-dark. There are 10 tracks on this album and it still only lasts for just over 26 minuets. The songs are classic MOAM? The music is the hearty surf rock that they are famous for. If you like the surf rock sound then this may be an album for you. If you are a sci-fi geek and like music then this is a group for you. The names of the tracks are even in a sci-fi theme.
Man or Astro-Man – 1000X
This is MOAM?’s second 10” EP. It was released in clear or black vinyl. My copy is black. I don’t think that clear is that great but it is better than black. I am just a little bit disappointed that my copy is not clear but I will also not make efforts to find a copy that is clear. This EP was put out in 1997. It follows then that the songs on this EP are a bit more on the experimental/alternative sound. I found my copy of this EP sealed. What an exciting moment that was. Most of my MOAM? material was found after the music was out of print, so to find a copy of any of this still sealed is always an exciting experience. There is only seven songs on this album. The EP is only about 20 minuets as well. This is mainly because the songs are a little bit longer than the groups strictly surf beginnings. From all of the reviews of this band from other fans they always seem to compare them to Devo. I don’t understand why this is. They are nothing like the electronic punk group. There are a very few songs that even use lyrics. There is one on this EP and one on Your Weight On The Moon. That is four out of 17 tracks between the two EPs if you get my meaning. I like both groups quite a bit but I would never think to compare them. I like this EP for its alternative music roots. It has a style that MOAM? did their best to avoid. That style was what ever was popular at the current time (alternative genre). I think that is why these songs were collected together and not put on a regular album. I think that this should be an EP that is only heard after you have heard the earlier works. It puts a different spin on what they were after and what is changed.
Here is a list of the song titles from both EPs.
Your Weight On The Moon
Rocketship XL-3
Special Agent Conrad Uno
Electrostatic Brain Field
Shockwave
Taser Guns Mean Big Fun
F=GmM(moon)/R2
Space Patrol
Happy Fingers
Destination Venus
Polaris
1000X
The Miracle of Genuine Pyrex
Specify Gravity
Like a Giant Microwave
Man made of CO2
Universe City
100 Individual Magnets
With Automatic Shutoff
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