Occupation: Art Director
I’m a graphic designer who collects music, your best entertainment value! How novel! I like to make the CDs that The Man won’t willingly sell to me. REVO is my personal reissue label. It’s short for “Revolt Into Style,” after the Bill Nelson song/George Melly book.
Where did the Post-PunkMonk name come from? A friend of mine [chasinvictoria, actually] saw one of my Boxed Sets Of God® and compared my efforts to a monk making an illuminated manuscript. He didn’t realize just how close to the mark he was on that! When you’ve spent five hours attacking noise transients in a single waveform out of the 30-40 tracks in such a collection, you might as well be duplicating manuscripts by hand! When I was fishing around for an angle after deciding to begin blogging in 2010, I remembered his comment and thus was born the Post-Punk Monk.
“Please do not ask me for a copy of any project that I write about making. It’s not within my capacity to sell or otherwise distribute these discs.”
I blog generally every weekday. When I made the decision to do this, I didn’t want to encroach upon the scant personal time that I have to do important work – the kind that results in CDs to listen to or DVDs to watch. So I realized that my lunch hour at work was the perfect time to blog. I never blog at home, though I may respond to comments there. Speaking of comments, every new comment needs admin approval by me, but after you have a single comment approved, you are free to post anything at any time.
The politics of blogging [with apologies to Re-Flex®]. I take umbrage at that notion of this wacky social media world where large corporations are making money off of human nature and turning us all into metrics for sale. So, you won’t see my Twitter feed or Facebook page cross referencing my blog in an effort to gain eyeballs. I don’t have such accounts. I will go so far as to leave a calling card when I comment on other blogs/forums if the hosted comment software doesn’t recognize my WordPress/Gravatar login.
Interests
- remastering from vinyl
- compiling Boxed Sets of God on CD
- designing DVDs
- collecting music
- discographical research
Favorite Movies
1950s:
- A Face In The Crowd
- A Touch Of Evil
1960s:
- Dr. Strangelove
- Danger Diabolik
- The President’s Analyst
1970s:
- Network
1980s:
- Blade Runner
- Brazil
- Buckaroo Banzai
- Choose Me
- Something Wild
1990s:
- Ed Wood
- The Big Lebowski
- Rushmore
- Being John Malkovich
2000s:
- High Fidelity
- Lost In Translation
Favorite Recording Artists
| ABC | Flat Duo Jets | New Order |
| Act | John Foxx | Niagra |
| Isabelle Antena | Frankie Goes To Hollywood | The Nits |
| Arcadia | Frazier Chorus | Nitzer Ebb |
| Associates | Freur | Gary Numan |
| Virginia Astley | Gavin Friday | OMD |
| Bananarama | Robert Fripp | Pet Shop Boys |
| Basia | Fuzzbox | Prefab Sprout |
| B.E.F. | Peter Gabriel | The Primitives |
| Black | Peter Godwin | Propaganda |
| Blow Monkeys | Nina Hagen | Pulp |
| The Blue Nile | Jerry Harrison | The Revillos |
| The Bomboras | The Hate Bombs | The Rezillos |
| David Bowie | Heaven 17 | Jonathan Richman |
| Sam Brown | Rupert Hine | Roxy Music |
| Claudia Brücken | Holly & The Italians | Sapho |
| The Buggles | The Human League | Shakespear’s Sister |
| Cabaret Voltaire | Ian Hunter | Pete Shelley |
| Carmel | Icehouse | Shriekback |
| Sheila Chandra | Inxs | Simple Minds |
| China Crisis | It’s Immaterial | Siouxsie & The Banshees |
| Cocteau Twins | Japan | Southern Culture On The Skids |
| Hugh Cornwell | Jesus & Mary Chain | Spandau Ballet |
| The Cramps | Killing Joke | Spoons |
| The Creeps | King Crimson | The Stranglers |
| Etienne Daho | Klark Kent | Suede |
| Dick Dale | Kraftwerk | Swing Out Sister |
| The Darling Buds | Kissing The Pink | David Sylvian |
| Dash Rip Rock | Annabel Lamb | Thinkman |
| The Delusionaires | Lava Love | Toyah |
| Devo | Level 42 | Transvision Vamp |
| The Dickies | The Lilac Time | Ultravox |
| Dip In The Pool | Lio | Midge Ure |
| Dr. Robert | Lene Lovich | Colin Vearncombe |
| Anna Domino | Luxuria | Visage |
| Stephen Duffy | Billy MacKenzie | Voice Of The Beehive |
| Duran Duran | Magazine | Scott Walker |
| Electribe 101 | Man…or ASTROman? | Was (Not Was) |
| Eurythmics | Martha & The Muffins | Webb Wilder |
| The Exotic Aarontones | Mecano | Mari Wilson |
| Fashion | Mel + Kim | The Woggles |
| Bryan Ferry | Monsoon | XTC |
| Fiction Factory | Bill Nelson | Yello |
| Firesign Theatre | New Musik | Warren Zevon |
Review a large chunk of my music collection here, on Discogs.com
![REVO Remastering: Spandau Ballet – Canon boxed set [REVO 045]](https://postpunkmonk.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/spandau-ballet-canonbsoga.jpg?resize=200%2C200)
Post-Punk Monk 
Hi there Monk
Just wanted to say how much I’ve been enjoying your writing – I arrived via the New Wave Outpost and have been regularly lurking over the last few weeks.
Have also explored some of your older posts as well which has been very interesting. My tastes are pretty similar to yours, not that I always agree with your take on certain bands, but as I’ve learned over the years we arrive at our particular taste position through a complex mix of factors as I think you sum up in much of your writing. I’m not holding myself out as any expert, but I have done a bit of writing here and there and find your style very enjoyable, it’s great reading articulate music coverage that’s not got any hipster agenda, there’s too much of that online!
My only complaint is you’ve prompted me to spend even more money on music, but as you say it’s the best value purchase:)
Anyway, just wanted to say hi and keep up the good work from here in England.
Regards
Simon
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Simon H – Welcome to the comments! Thanks for finding worth among the hasty scribblings that often typify PPM. The 40 minutes a weekday I spend typing furiously are often the only parts of myself left after work, work, and more work conspire to whittle away my sense of self-actualization that has no place in the New Serfdom. That kindred souls can find a fellow music lover who gets it [just like they do] and possibly enter into a dialogue is reason enough for doing it.
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With you there on the issue of precious time…getting the opportunity to indulge in vital music listening is one of my constant challenges!
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I’m sure you will probably be aware of this already as i know you’re a big fan of the Blue Nile and no doubt you read this blog too but i will link it anyway just in case……………
http://theseconddisc.com/2014/01/22/blue-nile-peace-at-last-expanded/#more-24014
sorry if the words’ suck’ and ‘eggs’ spring to mind…….
N
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Nick A – Actually, I’m by no means omniscient. Thanks for the tip, but I’d really have to think long and hard before I could ever buy any copy of that album again. I’ve warned friends who loved the first two off of it, telling them to proceed directly to “High” and to just pretend they didn’t know about it.
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that bad eh ??? I’m sure i’ve had conversation with you before about Blue Nile, maybe not ! I think i’m one of the few [ certainly on discogs] with that annoying awful cd promo of ‘Downtown Lights’ in a hat box with straw inside. If I decide to donate you’d be the first on the list along with the ‘Der Amboss’ promo 12
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NickA – Wow! So you’ve never heard “Peace At Last?” By all means give it a pass. You can keep your “Downtown Lights” promo, too. Sell it off to the hard core. In fact, I’ve sold off all of my Blue Nile promos lately without breaking a sweat. I had several DL variations, plus the US “pop-up sleeve” version of “Hats.” All gone to fund my Golden Rocktober Tour® of last year. But thank you kindly for your offer of “Der Amboss!” I would have no problem accepting your generous tithing in that case!
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Hey PPM – I’m an occasional and enthusiastic reader of your blog. Knowing you’re a fan of Icehouse and YMO, I was wondering if you were aware of the collaboration between Yukihiro Takahashi and Iva Davies on the former’s album ‘Wild and Moody’? There were at least two tracks in their collaboration, as I remember another one getting airplay in Australia at the time. All I remember about that other track is that it was it was strong and catchy while also stylistically very much of its own time. Here’s the only collaborative track online I can find – it’s a very tight and well composed number, very pop, in the Bill Nelson meets Icehouse vein: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFuTQwVZZD0
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Andy R – Welcome to the comments! Yes, “Wild & Moody” is very much Yukihiro Takahashi in the Bill Nelson meets Icehouse vein exactly! The track “Walking To The Beat” is a lost gem for Icehouse fans to mine. Alas, though I’m familiar with this album, it’s not in my Record Cell. Only “Neuromantic” from Takahashi is. If you can believe it, I only have three YMO records and two of them are singles [albeit spectacularly cool US promo singles]. I’m more of a Sakamoto guy, though I have nothing against YMO or Hosono/Tahakashi. It’s just worked out that way! If a large cache of inexpensive YMO came my way, I’d take it like a man!
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Pingback: Obsessive or Pragmatic: Which Kind Of Collector Are You? | Post-Punk Monk
Gosh I wouldn’t mention your views of Peace at Last to anyone here https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=the%20blue%20nile%20-%20the%20music%20of%20paul%20buchanan%20pj%20moore%20and%20robert%20bell for whom the 4 albums are a cross between the Holy Grail and the Bible/Koran (all versions)
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Marc Glinert – I always felt that Satan was behind “Peace At Last” since the band were cast from Paradise on that one. Turns out that Roseanna Arquette is actually Satan. I thought that Peter Gabriel lost it when he began trysting with her as well. I liked “High” but it was still fighting back from the low that “Peace At Last” was. I thought that the last Buchanan album was terrific! But yeah, the first two Blue Nile albums were some of my favorite music ever. Third? Not in the least.
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Very late night here in Folsom listening to tracks by Robyn Hitchcock for some odd reason. I recommend his cover of Eight Miles High.
Anyway I look forward to exploring your recording artist list which has some nice esoteric stuff, thank you.
But seriously how can you exclude The Cure and/or The Smiths? Is that just too obvious for you?
Movies — Lost in Translation— Yes! 1960s, consider The Hustler which to me defines a place in time like no other movie
Take care.
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Chicago Tommy – Welcome to the comments! I like The Cure. I don’t think the sun rises or sets on Robert Smith. From 1985-1991 I basically bought every single. I stopped listening to them in 1992. The last three albums I bought were all overlong CDs and bored me before they were done. Haven’t missed them. I never liked The Smiths. Morrissey always stuck in my craw as a singer and person, though I will rate him as a songwriter. It was not until I heard covers of Smiths songs that I could actually listen to them. And they are great songs. But his singing drives me up the wall. His melismatic injection of his voice into every nook and cranny of the song rubs me raw. We won’t even go into his trollish personality. Never saw “The Hustler” as I was never a fan of Jackie Gleason, though he’s against type in that one, so it could be good.
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I found your website after searching for The Invaders. You have a great article about the band and my question is – do you have any idea what became of Slavko Sidelnyk, the lead songwriter of the band? When I lived in London in 1979 I saw The Invaders live a few times and learned that Slavko is Ukrainian as am I. I can’t find him on Facebook or elsewhere. Thank you.
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Bohdan – Welcome to the comments! The whereabouts of Slavko/Sid Sidelnyk is one of those things that have been lost in the intervening decades. His traceability in the Discogs.com database ends with The Invaders. I’m sorry I can’t be of further help. At least you got to see this fine band! I enjoyed them but only have their album to show for 40 years of fandom. The singles are very difficult to obtain in The States. And the album took nearly a decade to find.
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Thank you for your reply. I saw an internet discography refer to Slavko Sidelnyk/Sid Sidelnyk. I sent a note years ago via Facebook to Sid Sidelnyk asking if he was Slavko and he did not reply to that query.
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Okay, I’m Victor, and I worked the door for the Love Tractor show at Murmur. Who are you?
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Victor Hastings – Welcome to the comments! I am known as Jim, a regular customer at Murmur from 1983 to the Alobar years. I can’t say I recognize your name. I remember a lot of Edgewater High School students in the store all the time. I got a review or two in the last two issues of Dogfood and basically followed Mr. Gilliland’s record stores as he pulled away from the Record Mart empire and went solo. I contributed the first Murmur logo that went quickly by the wayside. There was a period in 1987 when I shopped daily at Murnmur since it was a block from my job!
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Murmur Records – now that’s a fine memory!
I was a regular customer in the mid-80’s on the way to Visage on Friday nights.
Quan was our go-to guy & friend there.
Glad I stumbled upon Post-Punk Monk while searching for the address of Vinyl Fever when it was located on Dale Mabry. My all-time favorite still has to be The Alternative Record Store just because it was home-base for many years of my being involved with the Tampa side of the scene thingy.
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ruuudy – Welcome to the comments! Thanks so much for stopping in! So you knew Quan @ Murmur? Nice guy! The Alternative Record Store…Wow! I had forgotten about that one! They were that Tampa store I seem to recall shopping at several times. Can’t remember where the store was but I seem to remember the vibe. But I had forgotten about it for decades until you mentioned it!
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Post-Punk Monk,
How do you feel about:
Peter Murphy
Gary Myrick and the Figures
Clan of Xymox
The Charlatans UK
Thanks from the Haj
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Haji Moto – Welcome to the comments!
I like Peter Murphy from Bauhaus to Dali’s Car, through the first three solo albums. The first Bauhaus album is my favorite and each one afterward got weaker, though I like them all. I vastly prefer “Should The World Fail To Fall Apart” to anything he did afterward, though “Love Hysteria” and “Deep” are both good albums. I could not stand “Holy Smoke.” I bought it when it came out and hated it and got rid of it immediately. I tried again 7-8 years later and the result was the same. I’ve not heard anything after “Holy Smoke” though we did see the “Cascade” tour. We next saw the tour for “Ninth” in 2011 and musically it was wanting, but in terms of comedy Murphy was on fire!
I never really recall being moved by Gary Myrick + The Figures. I remember hearing “She Talks In Stereo” to little notice.
Clan of Xymox – An Interesting band that I never really investigated. I used to have the “Phoenix Of My Heart” CD single but sold it off since it was the only Xymox I had.
Charlatans UK – I ignored them. They didn’t seem interesting at all to me. I probably saw early videos from the first album on 120 Minutes on MTV back when I still watched TV. I didn’t want to hear music from the early 70s again.
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A fan of Klark Kent AND The Rezillos/Revillos, too? Along with Dee Harris’s Fashion, we seem to have a lot in common! I saw the Revillos’ debut gig at the still standing Glasgow Pavilion. Six months or earlier, I’d caught the Rezillos last gig (probably) across the road at the Glasgow Apollo AKA Green’s Playhouse. Queuing outside the Glasgow Pavilion waiting to see the Revillos, the crowd parted to let a Messerschmit bubble car enter the side street parallel to the venue and out popped Eugene Reynolds and Fay Fife! A great gig and not long later, their 1st single came out which I recognised instantly! Watching old videos of Where’s The Boy For Me is like an adrenaline shot to the heart… so much energy! Anyhoo, loving your blog and I’m getting the Fabrique box set for Xmas this year so, toodle pip!
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McRonson – What an entrance! That would have put me ’round the bend! Does life get any better than that?! I say thee, “nay!” At least I saw The Rezillos in America in 2002 with the original lineup [save for Simon Templar]. Surely an event I could not have predicted in 1980! On the face of it, Klark Kent + the Revillos/Rezillos are cut from similar cloth, but the Venn Diagram that overlaps with Fashiøn is a lot less cut and dried. So if we’re that much alike, let’s form a club.
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Greetings,
I love your taste in music. I was in the “club scene” from approx. ’76 – ’02. DJ’d since ’82. Srarching for some info on My favorite vocalist Lene Lovich brought me here. I’ll look forward to checking out the artists on your list that I’ve never or rarely heard of!
I enjoy discovering old ‘new’ music.
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David Zaintz – Welcome to the comments! Sounds like you share our mission statement. With over 2500 posts here∞, strap in. There’s a lot to sift through.
∞ truth in labeling laws require us to disclose that OMD/Simple Minds posts may account for up to 10% of the content here…
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Firesign Theatre!! The next 3 words in Turkish!
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schwenko – “May I see your passport, please?”
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