Friday, May 11, 2018

Something to Smile About

I have less than two years left in my 40s, Turns out, according to Jonathan Rauch in his new book The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50, although I'm probably sinking to the very bottom of my midlife slump right now, things will start looking up at 50 and continue in that direction until I'm 80. So, I've got that going for me.

Then there's this. I'm at that age when I should be weeping for the future, but I just can't because I'm hearing a multitude of whippersnappers realizing Wire is one of the greatest bands to ever grace this planet. Here are a couple of bands that aren't afraid to take a ride in the wayback machine. Blues Lawyer may not be from London, they are from Oakland, actually, but this band will make you want to dust off your copy of 'Chairs Missing'. Give "Unstable" a listen. It's even shorter than "Outdoor Miner"! You can pick up 'Guess Work' from Blues Lawyer here. Eureka California's influences are all over the place, and the boy-girl duo of Jake Ward and Marie A. Uhler aren't shy about turning it up an extra notch, but "Threads" has me thinking about the loudest moments on 'Pink Flag'. Fourth album turns out to be the charm for these two from Athens, Ga. 'Roadrunners' needs to be on your shelf.



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4 comments:

The Swede said...

These are both right up my street Brian and I'll definitely be checking out the rest of the respective albums over at Bandcamp. I've been heavily digging an album myself just recently that I think might be your cup of tea. I'm struggling to find much spare time just lately, but I'll try to put up a post about it next week.

May 11, 2018 at 4:55 PM
Brian said...

You always know exactly where to send me, Swede. I’ll keep an eye out for that.

May 11, 2018 at 5:14 PM
C said...

Good stuff, I particularly like the sound of Eureka California, thanks Brian. Apologies if I've mentioned it before (now that's a symptom of being over 50 that I've noticed - not remembering who I've said what to!) - but I was lucky enough to see Wire in February 1978 at the tender age of 14 at my local tech college and it was a really buzzing night. My friends and I even got up on stage with them at the end (I cringe now but hey - young and daft). I wasn't to get Pink Flag until a few months later for my birthday that Summer but I had faithfully taped their Peel session off the radio only a short time before the gig and so couldn't wait to hear more. Who would have thought then they would be such an influential band - and over so long a period of time? It really fucks with my head actually to think of all that now!
I was also reading about that book you mention and thougt it sounded very heartening. I hold onto the idea that surely we're supposed to wise up a bit and get a broader perspective as we age, to be more at ease with ourselves and more philosophical - there has to be some point to it all! Just a shame we don't realise all that earlier ;-)

May 11, 2018 at 5:17 PM
Brian said...

C,
If you signed in anonymously and asked me to guess who you were I would have nailed it.
You always have the best show stories... especially from the golden age of punk and post-punk. Wish I had a story like that. Actually, I was very late to Wire and didn’t get hooked until the late ‘80s. I didn’t have the pleasure of listening to Peel like that either. If I lived over there I would have taped his shows too. Most of our blogging pals did that. I didn’t get to listen to Peel until I lived in Japan in the mid-‘90s when I had my shortwave radio tuned to BBC World Service. Stay happy!!

May 11, 2018 at 8:40 PM

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