Events conspire to keep me from blogging for a little while longer. Working long hours with no lunch. Traveling for concerts. Getting sick. Getting conjunctivitis on top of getting sick. This is my universe. Still waiting for a good night’s sleep and a return to the relative calm of work and the holy lunch hour devoted to blogging. Until then…
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Last 7 Posts
- REDUX: Go-Go’s: Beauty + The Beat 30th Anniversary Edition
- REDUX: REVO Remastering: Jacqui Brookes – Sob Stories [REVO 074] [part 2]
- REDUX: REVO Remastering: Jacqui Brookes – Sob Stories [REVO 074] [part 1]
- Chris Cross: 1952-2024 [part 2]
- Chris Cross: 1952-2024 [part 1]
- Vicious Pink: Unexpected Pleasures Are Best Of All With New Album Of Unreleased Songs From The 80s
- Simple Minds Drop A Surprise Cover Album With The Biggest Surprise Of All – All Michael Been, All Of The Time!
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Post-Punk Monk 
Sorry to hear you are under the weather Sir,don’t worry about us,your mere acolytes.
There is a vast back catalogue of posts on your blog I still have not read,as I am a relative newcomer,so that always keeps me edutained.Get well soon!
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Gavin – I always aspired to be an edutainer!
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Take care of yourself PPM.
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The Swede – Hopefully within the week we should see some more traction. After all, I just saw the concert of my life and I’m fit to burst to drone on and on about it.
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Get well soon
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Tim – Well, I’m off work for four days minimum. Tomorrow will be day four. It would be lovely if I had sick leave, but at least this happened on the back end of the King Crimson trip. It would have killed me to have missed that gig!
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Ugh! You better rest up there, Monk. You are missed, but that will make your return all the more eventful :-)
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Shelf – Tell me about it! Didn’t I start the long-planned OMD Rock G.P.A. this year? We need to return to that thread with some renewed vigor, but all of these concerts are taking their toll. Fortunately, KC were so definitive, that I hope that there are no more gigs for this year. I’m still busy savoring last week’s Mother Of All King Crimson Concerts®.
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Ah yes. The eagerly awaited return to OMD of which I have lots of patience especially given your concert postings and health news (even before that). I just only recently received the PofL CD/DVD combo and the new Waterboys triple CD release (based on your recommendation). Now if you could only hit The Silencers tunes during your downtime as I read somewhere recently there you’ve never heard them.
PS Hoping our -18 celcius weather clears for Numan later this month.
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Hmm. Somehow the Dalek CD portion of my earlier comment got deleted. That was my purchase based on your recommendation.
Must be the cold fingers.
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KeithC – That makes more sense! I have never been a big Waterboys fan, though we were all impressed by the Dylan pastiche of “The Whole Of The Moon” on its release. I hope you enjoyed the Dalek i Love You disc!
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Yes, professor – your OMD masterclass went on hiatus just as you were really getting into it. Speaking of concerts, can’t wait to see the Liverpudlian legends again in March.
King Crimson were in Philly for two nights last week – alas, I did not attend :-( Lucky Monk you are!
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Shelf – I can only hope you were not of a Crimson persuasion if you missed the gigs. They are playing with a fire that is unsurpassed and this was Robert Fripp’s gift to us all.
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I cannot claim to be in their court, although methinks I should investigate the KC back catalog. Have always had great respect and appreciation for Fripp, though.
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Shelf – The first three are of a piece that defined Prog. Sometimes of the phantastical variety. Other times confrontational. Sometimes both at once. I think most of the debut is classic but “21st Century Schizoid Man” towers over it. Timeless industrial/jazz/metal with boundless moral force and outrage. My overall fave is the third album, “Lizard” which has strong jazz leanings Mel Collins on sax/flutes with Keith Tippet’s piano clearly pointing the way for Garson/Bowie two years later.
The fourth album, “islands” I never liked. It sounded like a stab at something best not attempted. I sold off my copy quickly but the material from this in concert was so strong I’m curious to hear the original again.
The next three albums are powerful and of a piece where the band ejected the early Prog DNA and headed into deep space. The core of the band remained as the percussionist and violin player fell away in time. Math rock begins here.
When KC re-appeared in 1981 it was for a very different approach. New Wave influenced Gamelan funk. Like Talking Heads 80 but coiled much tighter. Fripp working with a second guitarist allows the polyrhythms to get really dense when necessary. Three KC albums with the exact same lineup! A first. “Discipline” is my favorite KC album.
Another long break and the “double trio” lineup appeared 10 years after the last 80s album. Good but not better than its forebears. Then they lost a bass player and drummer and became a four piece again for the last two albums. But with a different rhythm section from the 80s lineup. By then bands clearly indebted to them were coming up [Tool] so this material was more like technical metal. KC are definitely interested in making complex, often aggressive music with room for some pastoral beauty for contrast.
The current band assimilates the freedom of jazz and the power of rock to achieve a thrilling impact. They have not recorded a studio album as such, but several live recordings [some with the audience airbrushed completely out] have been released since 2014. I give the just released “Live In Chicago” the highest of accolades. Fripp and Levin weren’t pulling our legs when they said that this was the one to get.
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A much appreciated career synopsis! Perhaps you would recommend the best compilation to serve as a proper introduction. “The Condensed 21st Century Guide To King Crimson” appears a likely contender.
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Shelf – Actually, my first recommendation would be “Sleepless – The Concise King Crimson.” It’s from 1993 and the best single disc overview even though “The Ladies Of The Road” appears there.
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Take good care good Monk! I prescribe some Funk to get you out of your physical Funk.
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Echorich – What a coincidence! This is my current reading:
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I read a similar book about Soul Train that I really enjoyed. Tablet is at home so I can’t give you the name. If you’re so inclined Alice Echols “Hot Stuff” is a great read as well.
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wishing you the best of health, and the all the time in the world to listen to and watch music. if you get to write about it for the likes of us, that’s just whipped cream. be well, dear sir.
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Taffy – Thanks for the good thoughts. The notion occurs to me that I should try to get a quick CD mastering project in today since when have I been able to do any of that? Since we’re still in Crimson mode that original “League Of Gentlemen” project beckons. Robert Fripp goes “New Wave Dance Band” with Sara Lee, Barry Adamson, and Danielle Dax.
Current breakfast listening after a good eleven hours of sleep? Stick Men’s “Kollekted” free sampler from the Crimson merch table. It’s Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto of KC with Markus Reuter of Centrozoon and sounds like a gentler offshoot but still definitely sharing those Crimson roots. In other words, complex music that doesn’t necessarily seek to pin the listener to the wall. Lighter with a jazz undercurrent achieving a subtler touch.
Dinner last night had “The Wild River” as accompaniment. I’m absolutely loving the Blow Monkey’s new opus. The ultimate review? When I played it the second time for my wife she asked to take it to work the next day to import into her iTunes! Lovely vibe.
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total agreement regarding The Wild River. my pledged copy arrived last week and it’s “stuck” in my CD player. indeed, good vibes for days.
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My driving listening for the past few weeks has consisted of The Wild River, Michael Head And The Red Elastic Band’s Adios Señor Pussycat and Ride’s Weather Diaries…3 astonishing albums.
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