Killing Joke - Classic Or Dud, Search And Destroy

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whoops, that shoulda been Ted Parsons *OF* Prong (Ted Parsons ON Prong sounds worryingly sexual). Ted Parsons also played in an early incarnation of the Swans, if that sort've cred means anything to you.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 1 October 2002 13:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

**sharing bass duties**

That's nice.

"Your turn, Raven"
"No it is thine, Youth. For your mighty bass doth conjour a magick most strange and mysterious"

(Jaz) "Come on you guys, decide! I said I'd be home by 9. Mum gets awfully worried if I'm late"

Dr. C (Dr. C), Tuesday, 1 October 2002 13:46 (twenty-one years ago) link

thanks for the insults, Alex.

somethign tells me this thread has not really persuaded Dr C (or perhaps several silent others) that KJ have more to offer than some over-serious music hall post-Black Sabbath heebie geebies..

post-1981, I feel somewhat similar.

jon (jon), Tuesday, 1 October 2002 14:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

thanks for the weblink, though. Time was when Id've pored over every syllable. Now it just confirms that somethign went badly wrong in the early 80s.

But I agree that the words to Butcher are extraordinary.

jon (jon), Tuesday, 1 October 2002 14:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

Supposedly, Jaz renounced all that stuff the aptly named "An Irrational Domain" around 1991, but he's probably gone onto reverse himself since then and wholeheartedly espoused some other equally dubious perspective. Still....what a dull world we'd live in without manic, wide-eyed harbingers of doom like ol' Jaz.

And, Jon, calling you a cretin for qausi-disrespecting the Joke is hardly an insult. Wait `til I really get rolling (i.e. when a frothing Killing Joke zealot insults you.....YOU'LL KNOW IT!)

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 1 October 2002 21:16 (twenty-one years ago) link

Alex - ta. somehow I feel obscurely honoured.

I'm going to get out my battered old pope-and-nazis t-shirt tonight and write 'qausi-disrespect the Joke' on the front. Surely a mantra to live by.

jon (jon), Wednesday, 2 October 2002 07:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

Cheers!

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 2 October 2002 13:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

"I have seen 'the bastards' live, Nicholas, which was as dispiriting and boring as any gig I've ever been to."

Dr C. - was that in Reading when Sub-Active supported them?

If so, are you sure you didn't get confused and leave after the support band?

(former lead vocalist of Sub-Active....)

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 4 October 2002 21:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ted Parsons also played in an early incarnation of the Swans, if that sort've cred means anything to you.
Dude, it means EVERYTHING. Prong? Pah.

Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Friday, 4 October 2002 21:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

My two pennorth, fwiw:

I mentioned The Joke on another thread about bands I used to love but just don't listen to any more.

This is true, but I feel I should make it clear that the reason I don't find myself wanting to listen to them any more is because I hear their influence ALL THE TIME; reproduced, corrupted, distorted and diluted in every pompous, over-blown goth-rock / industrial band that's spewed out it's ill-conceived drivel in the last 20 years.

It's easy to mock them as a combination of metal and punk - but let's not forget that Nirvana have been put on a pedestal for doing PRECISELY THAT, a full 10 YEARS later (I defy anyone to listen to "Bleach" and deny the Killing Joke influences at work there, presumably before Mr Cobain had encountered The Pixies!).

The influence of Killing Joke is enormous and largely unheralded.

Fwiw, I don't listen to Nirvana these days either, because of the hordes of unisnspired second-rate they too have inspired.

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 4 October 2002 22:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

I think it was later than that Stewart - round about 'Love Like Blood'. I also saw them at Stafford Futurama I think.

More important point - isn't it odd to avoid a band *because they inspired some crap*. I mean, why not avoid the crap instead? Someone start a thread!

Dr. C (Dr. C), Saturday, 5 October 2002 15:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

Search: "Multitudes"

Paul (scifisoul), Saturday, 5 October 2002 16:48 (twenty-one years ago) link

"More important point - isn't it odd to avoid a band *because they inspired some crap*. I mean, why not avoid the crap instead? Someone start a thread!"

It's not that I'm consciously avoiding KJ, just that I very seldom find myself actually wanting to listen to them any more.

I think the issue is that my taste for that type of music has been diminished by all the crap.

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Saturday, 5 October 2002 20:46 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Not since The Cure unleashed Pornography has psychotic power felt this multi dimensional and visceral extreme" ...

HA! HA! HA! - That's farfuckingoutasite funny. And to think I always thought that band had all the earthshaking power of the last time Noel Coward went on a bender, smudged his lipstick and smashed a Waterford goblet or two. Thanks for the correction.

Jawohl, dem Nordic pagan fire eaters, dey so visceral extreme, nicht wahr? And dat Jaz Boorman mit der dingdang fiery spear of destiny: no mark begets a lineage of village oaf no marks. Big fucking deal.

Roll Over Adorno ... and tell Tanya Headon that lines like this inspire me to hate all music too. If not that, well, hating all music fans is a good place to start.

But to contribute to this very constructive thread, I hasten to mention that my favorite Killing Joke songs have always been "Saucy Jack", "Deutschland über alles", "My Ding-a-Ling" and "We Didn't Start The Fire" - in that order. Leni Riefenstahl I find to be the sexiest member of the group. She so visceral extreme to the utmost methinks; not to mention being approximately half the age of Jaz Boorman.

Fiery Flying Roller, Sunday, 6 October 2002 20:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

two months pass...
This thread is great. It's like the "origins" issue of a superhero comic!

Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 13 December 2002 22:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

ALEX IN NYC

Stan Lee • Jack Kirby


http://www.nbak.tierranet.com/pixs/alex-v.jpg
SPECIAL DOUBLE ORIGIN ISSUE

Tom Millar (Millar), Saturday, 14 December 2002 00:13 (twenty-one years ago) link

Now, was that really necessary?

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 December 2002 00:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

slap on a Pixies or Cheap Trick album and celebrate the meaningless and banal.

I cant speak for Cheap Trick, but Pixies lyrics are some of the best in rock history.

David Allen, Saturday, 14 December 2002 01:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ah, David, but do they *MEAN* anything?

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 December 2002 01:31 (twenty-one years ago) link

Alex, if that pic is really you, I'll happily go out and buy even "Outside the Gate".

donut bitch (donut), Saturday, 14 December 2002 01:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

No, here's an actual picture of me:

http://216.127.66.72/a/albums/albun09/aab.sized.jpg

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 December 2002 02:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

What are those things bookending the logo? Green onions?

donut bitch (donut), Saturday, 14 December 2002 05:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

the irony is that after Bjork, Damon Albarn and Sigur Ros, Iceland will be the LEAST safe place to be if the rapture comes.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 14 December 2002 19:36 (twenty-one years ago) link

Alex I love Killing Joke more than the average bear but their lyrics are just slightly above-par, not loaded with meaning or anything...c'mon now. We can honour the fire without pretending like it's hotter than it actually is.

J0hn Darn13ll3 (J0hn Darn13ll3), Sunday, 15 December 2002 20:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

I don't maintain that their lyrics are categorically flawless (I can think of some real cringe-worthy zinger-of-a-couplets, notably in "America" and "Adorations," let alone "Tabazan.") My point was that invariably there was a message *BEHIND* each song (for the most part)...a theme, if you will, beyond mere typical angst-riddled banalities.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 15 December 2002 22:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ah, David, but do they *MEAN* anything?

yes, no, maybe so -- and that's an important part of what makes them good.

I'll take even midly evocotive nonsense over almost anything too pat and linear.

Aaron A., Sunday, 15 December 2002 22:37 (twenty-one years ago) link

Fair enough, but I'd never call Killing Joke pat nor linear, despite their conceptual agenda.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 15 December 2002 22:40 (twenty-one years ago) link

Fiery Fucking Roller's post, above, can be decoded into a an almost intelligent and clever little jab about the philosophical stance of KJ and its shared roots with Aryanism. I just realized this after reading about JRRT's background (and a rather nice comparison by the NYT writer between the armies in LOTR:TT and Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will.). Nietszche sure does get around these days.

Tom Millar (Millar), Tuesday, 17 December 2002 06:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

:::rolling eyes and sighing:::::

Please....I don't know where these allegations come from, but Killing Joke are **NOT** Aryan white supremacists. Maybe they're not the nicest guys in the world, but they're not racist rabble-rousers. You're thinking of Skrewdriver.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 17 December 2002 16:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

"I don't know where these allegations come from, but Killing Joke are **NOT** Aryan white supremacists"

The only possible reason I can think of off hand is a rather unfortunate photo shoot for one of the weekly music papers around the time "Revelations" came out, which involved the paraphernalia from certain freemasonry rituals....

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 17 December 2002 16:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

You must mean this highly unfortunate photo. Nice `tache, Jaz:

http://music.dartmouth.edu/~dupras/kj/d.gallery/d.band/d.lrg/KJ.NME.1982.lrg.jpg

Maybe I don't know enough about Freemasonry, but I gathered it had more to do with the occult than with Aryanism/white supremacy.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 17 December 2002 20:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

I never quite understood how that was supposed to work myself to be honest Alex, although the Freemasons were definitely on Hitler's list of undesireables (something to do with their roots going back to the Crusades and the Knights Of St John I think) and they have a tendency to get a bit hysterical and start making all sorts of accusations when (they think) people are attacking them.

Honour The Set Square And Compass.... and those nice little little aprons!

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 17 December 2002 21:43 (twenty-one years ago) link

I didn't say they were Aryan white supremacists. I said they shared phil. roots w/ Aryan thought, basically two different readings of Nietszche - this conversation's silly. Never mind.

Tom Millar (Millar), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 01:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

three weeks pass...
Dr C you've had almost 2 years now of living under a 7 year curse - how's it going?

Tom (Groke), Friday, 10 January 2003 14:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

Bloody awful - i got a flat tyre on the car this very morning, for example. That's the curse at work! AND there was no milk in the fridge when I got back from the tyre place. My life is a misery!

With the weather like it is at the moment - I'm busy honouring the fire.


Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 10 January 2003 15:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

Dr C = honour the fire extinguisher

Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 10 January 2003 15:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

"We can honour the fire without pretending like it's hotter than it actually is."

Editor place acronym for LAUGHING OUT LOUD here.

Paula G., Friday, 10 January 2003 15:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

In the many moons since this initial debate, Dr.C has long since gone on to distinguish himself as a man of knowledge and taste, thus his lack of appreciation for Killing Joke is hereby overlooked, and all hexes, curses, fatwas and prices on his head have been lifted.

Paula G., meanwhile, has done nothing of the sort, and continues to spout whistle-headed nonsense (not least accusing the Joke of being Goths), so PISS OFF!

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 10 January 2003 17:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

they are techno-goths, as all agree

mark s (mark s), Friday, 10 January 2003 17:04 (twenty-one years ago) link

http://www.an-irrational-domain.net/images/jaz/jaz35.jpg

Uncle Jaz (vassifer), Friday, 10 January 2003 17:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

Thanks Alex - is it safe for me to leave the house now? The REAL Dr. C will now appear at future FAPS, instead of that drunken imposter I've been sending in my place.

Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 10 January 2003 17:16 (twenty-one years ago) link

I have come here just to post something because I feel a compulsion to post on the Iggy vs. the Corrs thread and I know that I mustn't

ooooooh stop me

J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Saturday, 11 January 2003 04:48 (twenty-one years ago) link

I like "Stay One Jump Ahead". Bassline is FUNKEE!

donut bitch (donut), Saturday, 11 January 2003 06:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

Seriously, I do like the song. I don't know why.

donut bitch (donut), Saturday, 11 January 2003 06:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

It's probably the best song on the album (really not saying much), but the "extended mix" (featuring a "rap") was enough to make me question the real merit of continuing on with life.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 11 January 2003 07:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

Alex - your last post was for me the most hilarious conclusion to this monster thread. Much appreciated.

paulc, Monday, 13 January 2003 21:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

No charge.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 13 January 2003 21:54 (twenty-one years ago) link

You know, after all of this, would it be foolish to admit that I for one am actually not very familar with Killing Joke? Is this what they call dishonoring the fire? Or am I simply ignorant of the fire?n

I just got Psychopharmacology though, Alex. I love it.

Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Monday, 13 January 2003 22:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

Glad you like Firewater, who -- I feel -- are criminally underheralded (they shit from a great, splattery height on other NYC bands like The Walkmen and the like).

Killing Joke wise, I'm not going to get all winded about it. Seek out the first album......

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc300/c309/c309332s0t8.jpg

....and if that doesn't grab ya, don't bother pursuing it further.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 13 January 2003 22:13 (twenty-one years ago) link


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