The Legacy of Joy Divison

[unleasHell]

I seem to recall a few threads talking of current bands that carry on the early Factory traditions (set forth by Joy D., Section 25, Durruti Column, The Sound, The Wake, Crispy Ambulence, etc).

Anyway, over at Middle Piller (www.middlepillar.com) I found the following:

IN MITRA MEDUSA INRI: Darkness Between Us $18.00
Description: Similar in style to The Cure, Joy Division and New Order, this is an album full of despair, longing and rage. Contains 2 video tracks.


ENDRAUM: Herzklang Spiegelt Am Strassenrand $18.00
Description: Dreamy male vocals, poetic lyrics, piano, soft percussion and melancholic darkwave in the vein of the "Atmosphere/Love Will Tear Us Apart" -period of Joy Division.

SPIRAL OF SILENCE: Leap $20.00
Description: Good euro goth rock from this Belgium four piece. Very much in that post Joy Division way for more than a couple cuts; the other cuts are even better. Nothing heavy here, or dancy - just classic sounding dark rock

SPIRAL OF SILENCE: Decandent $22.00
Description: Belgian darkwave band's (with former members of Theatre of Pain) latest outing is old-school goth with psychedelic atmospheres, dynamic guitars, and subtle electronics reminiscent of Joy Division and the Cure. The dark but honest vocals are at times unashamedly Ian Curtis influenced. All tracks are very melodic, simple and catchy. Includes a very well done cover of Joy Division's "Dead Souls" plus 3 extra bonus remixes

I actually ordered these two below. If anyone wants to hear (or get a cd-r) about how they sound just let me know. Also if anyone orders any of the CD's listed above, I would really like to get a cd-r of them...

Rasp: Rasp $8.00
Description: Simple melodic keyboard lines from the Cure, rock elements of the Cult, the malaise of Joy Division with added male and female vocals give this debut release a great moody feel.

Hellpop: Penny Dreadful $8.00
Description: Excellent band from ex-Reality Inversion singer, dark pop rock in the vein of Chameleons, with powerful soaring vocals and effected guitars tell an anti-morality tale of following your inner demons. Lead vocalist Babbo is now the main songwriter and guitarist for Middle Pillar Presents recording artist The Mirror Reveals.

[Jefferson]

Personally I believe that in the punk/post punk era and beyond you can make an argument that Joy Division was the single most influential band to date. Sure you can mention others, and maybe some of them truely were/are as influencial. But for my money and particularly my taste in music Joy Division and Ian Curtis are icons.

On another note, I don't really like the fact that so many people these days consider Joy Division to have been a Goth band. Early Goth acts may have taken cues from them but that doesn't make JD a Goth act. Bauhaus was a Goth band, JD were a differing shades of grey post punk band. I'd also state that IMHO none of the Goth acts can hold a candel to Joy Division. The closing tune on Closer , the breath taking Decades is easily one of my favorite songs of all time. In fact it even ranks above The Killing Moon in my personal pantheon of favs.

[unleasHell]

We agree there Jefferson, after reading some of your previous posts I was hoping to talk with you. Having been there (21years old in 1979)) I know there was NO SUCH THING AS GOTH when Joy Division was around, the term was GLOOM band (or music). Joy Dicision did not get real popular in the US (if they ever in fact were) until (about) the second New Order LP was issued.

All in all I have no problem with all the Goth bands considering JD as the first, and I agree with you... Joy Divison influenced hundreds (thousands?) of future bands, I read an early 80's Robert Smith (Cure) interview in which he stated the Cure's main influence was JD.

Do you know this story? The first Duritti Column LP entitled The Return of the Durutti Column, the very first 1000 copies (or so) had sandpaper glued to an LP cover, Factory records did not have the money to have it professionally done, so they hired members of one of their bands to glue the sandpaper on at the Factory studios,,,, and that band was Joy Division, so if you can find one of those LP's( they are quite rare), you have avery good chance of holding something that Ian Cutrtis once touched.....

[Jefferson]

We agree there Jefferson, after reading some of your previous posts I was hoping to talk with you. Having been there (21years old in 1979)) I know there was NO SUCH THING AS GOTH when Joy Division was around, the term was GLOOM band (or music). Joy Dicision did not get real popular in the US (if they ever in fact were) until (about) the second New Order LP was issued.

All in all I have no problem with all the Goth bands considering JD as the first, and I agree with you... Joy Divison influenced hundreds (thousands?) of future bands, I read an early 80's Robert Smith (Cure) interview in which he stated the Cure's main influence was JD.

Do you know this story? The first Duritti Column LP entitled The Return of the Durutti Column, the very first 1000 copies (or so) had sandpaper glued to an LP cover, Factory records did not have the money to have it professionally done, so they hired members of one of their bands to glue the sandpaper on at the Factory studios,,,, and that band was Joy Division, so if you can find one of those LP's( they are quite rare), you have avery good chance of holding something that Ian Cutrtis once touched.....


Lets see, in 79 I would have been all of 19, and probably would have hit you up to buy me some beer. :D

I didn't get turned on to Joy Division until about 1981 or maybe even 1982. Shortly after moving to the big city I stumbled onto a used record store here in Jefferson City that was ran by a guy named Earl. He used to go on buying trips to Chicago and the east coast and bring back good quality used records of interesting stuff that you couldn't get here in those days. Anyway after buying a Bauhaus album and an arm load of various punk albums from Earl, he recomended that I try something by a band called Joy Division. He pulled out a copy of Unknown Pleasures and I was immediately taken by the cover. It's still one of the coolest album covers I've ever seen. Later I aquired a copy of Closer and for a long time after that it was my favorite album.

It was also about this same time that I discovered Echo & the Bunnymen, The Psychedelic Furs and Siouxsie & the Banshees.

A little later in the 80's I listened to a lot of U2 and REM but really don't care much for them now. Of all the stuff from those days, Joy Division and Echo & the Bunnymen are the two bands that have held my interest the longest.

I think both bands have had quite a bit of influence since their heydays, especially Joy Division, I can hear echos of Closer even today. I guess maybe they were my generations Velvet Underground.

[Jefferson]

......I have heard about the sandpaper cover but have never seen one. I also certainly didn't realise that it was the members of Joy Division that glued all that together for the label. That's truelt bizzare and I guess the product of a bygone era, can you imagine asking the members of the Strokes lets say to do something like that for another band? I can't.

[Jefferson]

I seem to recall a few threads talking of current bands that carry on the early Factory traditions (set forth by Joy D., Section 25, Durruti Column, The Sound, The Wake, Crispy Ambulence, etc).

Anyway, over at Middle Piller (www.middlepillar.com) I found the following:

IN MITRA MEDUSA INRI: Darkness Between Us $18.00
Description: Similar in style to The Cure, Joy Division and New Order, this is an album full of despair, longing and rage. Contains 2 video tracks.


ENDRAUM: Herzklang Spiegelt Am Strassenrand $18.00
Description: Dreamy male vocals, poetic lyrics, piano, soft percussion and melancholic darkwave in the vein of the "Atmosphere/Love Will Tear Us Apart" -period of Joy Division.

SPIRAL OF SILENCE: Leap $20.00
Description: Good euro goth rock from this Belgium four piece. Very much in that post Joy Division way for more than a couple cuts; the other cuts are even better. Nothing heavy here, or dancy - just classic sounding dark rock

SPIRAL OF SILENCE: Decandent $22.00
Description: Belgian darkwave band's (with former members of Theatre of Pain) latest outing is old-school goth with psychedelic atmospheres, dynamic guitars, and subtle electronics reminiscent of Joy Division and the Cure. The dark but honest vocals are at times unashamedly Ian Curtis influenced. All tracks are very melodic, simple and catchy. Includes a very well done cover of Joy Division's "Dead Souls" plus 3 extra bonus remixes

I actually ordered these two below. If anyone wants to hear (or get a cd-r) about how they sound just let me know. Also if anyone orders any of the CD's listed above, I would really like to get a cd-r of them...

Rasp: Rasp $8.00
Description: Simple melodic keyboard lines from the Cure, rock elements of the Cult, the malaise of Joy Division with added male and female vocals give this debut release a great moody feel.

Hellpop: Penny Dreadful $8.00
Description: Excellent band from ex-Reality Inversion singer, dark pop rock in the vein of Chameleons, with powerful soaring vocals and effected guitars tell an anti-morality tale of following your inner demons. Lead vocalist Babbo is now the main songwriter and guitarist for Middle Pillar Presents recording artist The Mirror Reveals.


I was checking out some of the stuff offered on that site and I don't know what to make of some of it. I mean I can't get a grasp on some of their discriptions. Just what would "neo-folk/industrial" be?

I was intrigued by this discription though......

Copies back in stock. The Astrovamps grew out of L.A.'s underground goth subculture, with influences by the melodic shades of Bowie and the Beatles, the macabre of Bauhaus and Joy Division, all held together by the aggressive riffs that reflect the raw power of the Misfits

Damn, I like all the bands they listed as influences, I dunno, why don't one of youse guys buy a copy and burn it for me. ;)

[MindGoneHaywire]

Jefferson:

I also certainly didn't realise that it was the members of Joy Division that glued all that together for the label. That's truelt bizzare and I guess the product of a bygone era, can you imagine asking the members of the Strokes lets say to do something like that for another band? I can't.

If you're talking about the Strokes, you're talking about a band that's first of all on a major label, and second of all didn't emerge from anything resembling a 'scene,' really. There are always garage rock bands in NYC, but there's been more of a seeming kinship in the past year or two, with bands like the Star Spangles, than there was 3 years ago when the first Strokes record was getting all the hype. There is something of a scene in Detroit, I suppose, where the White Stripes are the band that made it big but they have connections to other bands like the Electric Six & others, but it seems to me that the Strokes operate a little differently. Keep in mind the connections they have, some of their parents being big shots & all. They are known to be rich kids who didn't necessarily have to struggle in a scene like other bands. I realize you were just throwing them out as an example. But I don't think it's so farfetched. Take a look at a label that's along the lines of what Factory Records was at that time--a small indie. Ian MacKaye & Fugazi have always maintained & fostered something of a family atmosphere with Dischord, I believe, and if they wanted to get all arty I could see them doing something like that. This doesn't apply anymore, but I could've seen Sub Pop having something like that going on in the past. Or Sympathy For The Record Industry or perhaps Kill Rock Stars. I don't think something like that would be all that unusual.