Song of the Week: Anchorage

I assume the rest of the music blogosphere is replete with coverage of the lives and influences of Ian Fraser "Lemmy" Kilmister (who passed away shortly after Christmas) and David Bowie (who passed away this past Sunday), especially with the latter's release of Blackstar the Friday prior which is thick with themes of death and life hereafter. So instead of adding more to what better minds have already tackled, I'll share a simple discover from one of my favorite bands. Australian post-punk powerhouse The Church released their 23rd album, Untitled #23, in 2009 which featured this song with simple, poignant poetry and somber, abrasive melody which was the closest I've ever heard the band getting to "mainstream" alternative.

"Anchorage" by The Church

Living here in the future,
Kelvin

Let's get happy!

Norah: This is amazing. You are literally like my musical soul mate! It's unbelievable. Except for all The Cure.
Nick: What's wrong with The Cure?
Norah: There's nothing wrong with The Cure, actually, but just the name. You know, The Cure? What are they The Curing? Get it? They should be called The Cause, right?!?

A joy divided against itself cannot band

Depending on who you talk to, Joy Division is either a band that nobody has heard about or that everybody has heard about. A major force in the underground music scene, Joy Division first formed under the name Warsaw in 1976 and were gig-hoppers in Manchester before getting the attention of bigger names. To avoid legal issues with the band Warsaw, they renamed themselves Joy Division in 1978 after the prostitution wing of a Nazi concentration camp.

A typical night on the Interweb

Yesterday, whilst procrastinating, I had the spontaneous urge to learn "Just What I Needed" by The Cars. With the help of tabs, I learned all but half the solo and thought that be enough for one day. Then I decided to look up some info on The Cars from my #1 music-discovery resource, Wikipedia. As I suspected, the band didn't make it past the 80's and what followed their 1987 album Door to Door were a slew of compilation records.

The last record that Wikipedia lists is The Essentials from 2005. Then I thought I might as well check out what Wiki has to say about "Just What I Needed." To no surprise, it's a heavily covered song; I was already aware of the version by Poison, but was intrigued by one by a band called Replicants. What caught my eye was just their name: it had an edgy punk feel like Rancid while having a sci-fi vibe like aliens pretending to be humans or mercenary clones. Moreover, the album was self-titled, so I just had to check it out.