Post-punk pantheon

[CTC Command]

They were, by definition, misfits. They were artists who truly could not be pigeonholed by the schlockmeisters pushing Styx and REO-Speedwagon product like used-car salesmen, because their music was unlike anything that came before.

When alternative rock was a genre yet to be coined, when underground was truly subterranean, while MTV beckoned with piles of cash, these artists blazed new trails, created new paradigms, and ignored commercial prospects.

They were a handful of inspired mavericks who created the raw materials for an alternative future.

The setting for all this was the 1980s, a decade in which the demographic fragmentation following the punk rebellion took hold, leaving a great cultural and commercial chasm between the underground and just about everything else.

Of course, it wasn’t all as serious as that may sound. The bands and artists who made a difference in the ’80s weren’t afraid to poke fun at themselves and others, or, at times, to be sophomoric idiots. It’s no accident that so many of them, tongues firmly in cheek, covered classics they’d grown up on, recasting songs like Kiss’s “Black Diamond” (the Replacements) and Peter Frampton’s “Show Me the Way” (Dinosaur Jr.) as sources of genuine inspiration, even as they took the piss.

Ultimately, the inmates took over the asylum. Alternative rock found a place in the mainstream, and indie labels like Sub Pop, Matador, Merge, and Epitaph became training grounds for commercial success. We know that now. But before 1991 and the Nirvana juggernaut, none of that was clear.

One of the albums that embodied the spirit of the ’80s hodgepodge movement, Sonic Youth’s 1988 double-LP Daydream Nation, has over the past year finally started to receive the attention it was always due. In 2006, the Library of Congress honored the disc by placing it in the National Recording Registry. This year, Daydream Nation was re-released as a deluxe two-CD set, and Sonic Youth are celebrating by playing the entire album live, start to finish, in a US tour that begins this weekend.

With that in mind, we’ve reopened the vaults and gone back to Daydream Nation and nine other seminal albums from the ’80s underground. The parameters are narrow. The 10 albums we’ve chosen are part of a narrative that’s cohered over time — a narrative inspired by the increasing acceptance of Daydream Nation as part of the larger rock canon. (A parallel tale that deserves its own chapter, of course, is the rise of hip-hop.)

These are the 10 albums that generated the right conditions for the rock that would follow. But they weren’t mere stepping stones. Each has its own story, suggesting other albums and artists that have a place somewhere in the rock pantheon. As Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo explains in the 33-1/3 book devoted to Daydream Nation, “We were learning from and being inspired by bands from around the country in this really cool, secret indie world that the mainstream media still doesn’t know anything about. What was really happening in the ’80s — no one has captured any of it. What happened on MTV and what happened in the clubs was totally different. Everyone was drawing from the Velvet Underground and Captain Beefheart and Iggy and the Stooges and Television. . . . That part is lost so far.” This is our effort to find it.

Read the rest here

[DudeAsInCool]

Do you agree with their list?

Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation (Enigma, 1988)

Dinosaur Jr., You’re Living All Over Me (SST, 1987)

Hüsker Dü, Zen Arcade (SST, 1984)

The Jesus and Mary Chain, Psychocandy (Warner Bros, 1985)

Joy Division, Closer (Factory, 1980)

Minutemen, Double Nickels On The Dime (SST; 1984)

Pixies, Surfer Rosa (4AD, 1988)

R.E.M., Murmur (IRS, 1983)

Replacements, Let It Be (Twin/Tone, 1984)

The Smiths, Meat Is Murder (Sire, 1985)

[CTC Command]

Not entirely. I agree that Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. belong on there paired at the top, but I would have have paired Dino Jr's Bug with Daydream Nation instead of with "You're Living All Over Me"--I remember both albums coming out right about the same time in '88 and being struck then with how similar they were in sound and approach--both were in heavy almost non-stop rotation with me that year. It is nearly impossible not to have included Husker Du and The Minutemen either. And Joy Division. But the Pixies Surfer Rosa...as much as I loved it then and hate to say it now, the impact that album had at the time was not so much-- by the early 90's they had become a force and their records had more of an impression (and then would be compared back as not quite as good as Surfer Rosa then being seen as the masterpiece that is). But if this is a look at the 80's, there's other bands on the Honorable Mention list (see below) I would elevate first. Or some that didn't even make that . Like Primus first outing Suck On This--came out in 1989--totally spun the local college radio stations on their heads--nothing like the frantic energy of Suck was anywhere else. Or Mudhoney...same year, extremely influential band and incredible album, but not even on the Phoenix also-ran list. But then they put in...REM. No. No. NO! GOD NO!! REM's WAY too commercial to be in on this. Even in '83. I might mention Gary Numan here too, if we're going to delve into some commerciality with this--"Cars" after all was the big hit of 1980. But I digress. I really don't have a negative opinion against the others, like the Smiths or the Replacements. But skimming through the Honorable Mentions, I would have to bring some up which would toss these bands off. Steve Albini's noise outfit Big Black, for instance (I recently had one of their's on my weekly track "Kerosene"). Or Nick Cave's Birthday Party, rather than his later work with the Bad Seeds. And especially Butthole Surfers, though I would either go back to 1984's Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac or jump ahead to 1988 and Locust Abortion Technician. Rembrandt Pussyhorse is interesting, but they were still playing "Moving To Florida" (from the Cream Corn EP) on the college radio stations around here long after Rembrandt Pussyhorse came out and nary a thing off of RP--it's like it had no effect, at least in these parts. And Flipper? X? Meat Puppets? and especially Mission Of Burma?

I'd put MOB in the top 10 along with Big Black and Butthole Surfers. And not remove Dino Jr, Sonic Youth, Husker Du, the Minutemen or Joy Division to do it.

Honorable Mentions: Here are 25 other albums that helped bring the underground out of the basement

Bad Brains, Rock for Light (Caroline, 1983)

Big Black, Atomizer (Touch & Go, 1986)

Butthole Surfers, Rembrandt Pussyhorse (Latino Bugger Veil, 1986)

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, From Her to Eternity (Mute/Elektra, 1984)

Cocteau Twins, Treasure (4AD, 1984)

The Cure, The Head on the Door (Elektra, 1985)

Descendents, Milo Goes to College (SST, 1982)

Dream Syndicate, The Days of Wine and Roses (Slash, 1982)

The Fall, This Nation’s Saving Grace (Beggars Banquet, 1985)

Flipper, Generic Flipper (Subterranean, 1982)

Government Issue, You (Giant, 1987)

Gun Club, Fire of Love (Ruby, 1981)

Meat Puppets, Meat Puppets II (SST, 1984)

Melvins, Gluey Porch Treatments (Boner, 1987)

Minor Threat, Out of Step (Dischord, 1983)

Mission of Burma, Vs. (Ace of Hearts, 1982)

Moving Targets, Burning Acid (Taang!, 1986)

Naked Raygun, All Rise (Homestead, 1986)

Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring (Dischord, 1985)

Soul Asylum, Made to Be Broken (Twin/Tone, 1986)

Squirrel Bait, Squirrel Bait (Homestead, 1985)

Swans, Children of God (Caroline, 1987)

Throwing Muses, Throwing Muses (4AD, 1986)

Wipers, Youth of America (Park Avenue, 1981)

X, Wild Gift (Slash, 1981)

[CTC Command]

So, what's your call? :)

[DudeAsInCool]

So, what's your call? :)

What about The Germs or The Bangles? It was a lost era for me - I had stopped listening to rock music at that time and mostly listened to jazz or fusion. Somehow, I think NWA should be added, and maybe Prince...even though they aren't rock...if nothing else for, but the attitude. And wasn't Lou Reed still operating at that time...