#Shriekback is back with their 19th studio album! They’re crowdfunding it once again, and it’d be awesome if any of you kicked in a few quid to make it happen!
Their last, Monument, was quite good so I’m hopeful that Things With Heads will be deep and wide!
brewing in my head for a while:
it's happened a few times in my life that i've heard an album and been like,
`well that changes something and i like it'
here's a personal and incomplete overview:
(0) look here come the wormies (nomeansno, 1980)
extremely limited edition and how the HELL did it get to prince george. proof that DIY works.
(1) soul mining (the the, 1986)
woke up in the middle of a winter night and had to walk about. the sky was intense, glowy. ran into an acquaintance walking home from the bar, who was like "YOU HAVE TO COME WITH ME AND LISTEN TO THIS THING I GOT" and damn wasn't he right. the beat will get to you and you are worthy. i got to see them live, they was some stunning.
(2) sacred city (shriekback, 1992)
absolutely a concept album, from the band that brought you singalongs rhyming with `parthenogenesis'. humans decided to make cities, and also decided they would not be of fixed form. the consequences are all around you still. made by producers who *finally* understood both that on a CD there is no practical limit to the low frequencies but home amplifier design, and also that that aspect should not be tested continuously.
(3) throwing copper (live, 1994)
it's a bold move for a rock band to open an album with a funeral...dirge is the wrong word. banshee audition? but as muhammad ali said, it ain't bragging if you can do it. at least one song made top 10, and is still heard occasionally on the radio. still, you'll want to strap in for this rollercoaster of love, loss, faith, poverty, and one too many wrong books. but don't worry, it's not quite like the hip where you need english degree to understand everything that's happening.
(4) good news for people who love bad news (modest mouse, 2004)
the introductory transition from world at large to float on is the slickest thing since david bowie. seamless. everything is exactly the same, but it's different. i'm still not sure how it works. aside from that, the music is top-notch, the writing is mostly inspired, and `bury me with it' outlines exactly why the kids are justifed in stabbing every billionaire they meet.
(5) loveless (my bloody valentine, 1991)
i first heard this at the insistence of jeff, who i'm still trying to convince to join us, in 2007. what can i say, i was busy in the 90s. it sounds exactly like the inside of your head /after/ a nomeansno concert.
(6) shapeshifting (young galaxy, 2011)
saying they're from montreal can't hide the lyrics describing living in vancouver's west end perfectly. oh, it turns out they *are* from vancouver originally, and i'd bet on something like robson/denman four blocks from stanley park. i'm not sure i'd describe them as new age, wiccan, or thelemite, but they seem intent on asking 'who am i really' in a beautiful way. warning: you may end up asking yourself the same question just before the black swan event.
#NoMeansNo #TheThe #Shriekback #Live #ModestMouse #MyBloodyValentie #YoungGalaxy
#AlternateFridayMusic for May 8 2026 the theme is "energized"? Okay sure
Artist: Shriekback
Album: Oil & Gold (1985)
Song: Malaria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBg5SoHajoI
I guess we doin' a different kind of prompt now? w/e
There are many reasons that "Oil & Gold" is still top of my albums list after all these years, and one of them is the 1-2-3 punch that kicks off the album, kinetic songs propelled mostly by Dave Allen's basslines and Carl Marsh's near-shouted vocals. It's a close call between this one the the second track, "Everything That Rises But Converge". (I guess maybe "Fish Below The Ice" sinks to mere "menacing" levels.)
I'm living in a neon house! I'm living in avalanche road! I'm living in hangover city!
Remembering Dave Allen from Gang Of Four and Shriekback
(December 23, 1955-April 5, 2025)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jam_Science
Pumping
Gushing
Running
Hiding
Pull tighter, pull tighter --
Wait one damn minute!
Fires inside,
Expressed in molotovs,
<<klick-klack>>
"No pictures!"
Make mine Kalashnikov!
from "Nerve" (more or less), by Shriekback
(If the boys wanted me to get the lyrics right, they should have worked on enunciation in the 80s.)
I'm listening to the 2014 release of "Jam Science".
The tapes were lost, so this is apparently remastered from a recording of an old vinyl that they found -- authentic vinyl noise available in all digital formats!
Nerve isn't actually on the "Jam Science" album, but it is on this collection.
(And I'm not replacing the lyrics that I've sung for thirty years, just because the internet says I'm wrong.)
Will be following with "Oil and Gold", "Big Night Music", and "Go Bang" -- regardless of potential complaints about "Go Bang" from the adjoining offices.
#NowListening #80sMusic #NewWave80s #Shriekback #Shrieks #BarryAndrews
Stephen Foskett
The Colorado Sound Playlist
rooney (not the famous one)
Aaron V. Humphrey
AeschTunes
Quasit
Elliot Shank
trew