C86 Up Yours!
November 23rd, 2007 | 5:00 pm est |
Welcome to the next installment of “Kicking Them When They’re Down — The Brit Box Story.” In this thrilling adventure, we’ll investigate the claim by liner-note author Andrew Perry (who used to write for Select) that the bands who followed in the indie-pop wake of the Jesus and Mary Chain and Smiths were “dire” and “fey” and that the C86 scene (go here for more info) was “responsible for giving ‘indie’ a bad name.” Alright, OK… there were some dire and fey bands involved who didn’t do much to further the cause, but it’s flat-out boneheaded to dismiss an entire scene in a single snotty stroke. Especially when many of the groups involved were either influential, respected, or responsible for creating some of the best music ever to be called “indie.” The compilers of the set seem to agree with Perry as there is hardly any C86-derived indie-pop to be found. Adding any of the following songs would have made The Brit Box a slightly less pedestrian experience.
The Pastels - Nothing to Be Done (Chapter 22, 1989) 
The Sea Urchins - Pristine Christine (Sarah, 1987)
The Pooh Sticks - Teenage High (Fierce/Sympathy for the Record Industry, 1990)
Heavenly - Our Love Is Heavenly (Sarah, 1990)
The Wedding Present - Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft (Reception, 1987)
The Vaselines - Slushy (53rd and 3rd, 1989)
The Field Mice - September’s Not So Far Away (Sarah, 1991)
The Orchids - If You Can’t Find Love (Sarah, 1989)
When checking the final readings on relative direness scale (write in for the exact calibrations), all of these songs rate far above the tracks by Hurricane #1, Silver Sun or the Dylans that made the final track listing. In fact, if you look at it a certain way, you might even be glad none of them has to sit nestled in amongst the chancers, hangers-on, and duds that made the final cut. Well, that’s it for this edition. Join us next time for “Pop Will Eat Itself: The Unsung Heroes of Grebo.”
(Thanks to Tweenet for discograhical information.)
It’s just as boneheaded to dismiss an entire box because it doesn’t play like the biography of an era.
I know, I know… the statement of purpose is on the front cover and they missed the mark by a foot or two. Or three.
The songs are still good. It’s not unlistenable.
The metal box was at least twice as bad on all fronts and I don’t remember every member of staff qeueing to take a stab at that one.
Ever since I’ve discovered this site Tim Sendra has carried the torch for indie pop and I’m sure he was doing it even long before that. With that being known it is quite obvious as to why he is so upset with the fact that a genre such as C86 was totally ignored by a box that was supposed to be all encompassing for several kinds of British rock. I agree with Steve that it isn’t a terrible collection of songs, but it does seem quite incomplete.
The truth is, most of the C86 stuff was pretty fey and dire. I like to compare it to what was going on in similar circles five to seven years earlier in the UK, because that movement served as the C86 generation’s primary reference points, and a fair comparison to display what went wrong.
What were the differences between earlier postpunk bands and the C86 bands?
1) Well, nearly any sort of experimentation disappeared. There were some vaguely more esoteric acts, such as those on the Ron Johnson label (Stump, A Witness) but, rather perversely, they weren’t as interesting or commercial as (say) the Fall or the Nightingales.
2) Nearly all musical influences from beyond the white suburban milieu just disappeared. You wouldn’t hear the funk of the Pop Group or the afro-reggae of the Slits or the wide range of Slavic / reggae / Romani / Indian influences found on a single Raincoats album (”Odyshape.”) No ethnic or non-pop-derived influence at all.
3) Women mostly disappeared. Some survived to play a sub-Clare Grogan role as vocalist, and a few band had women musicians (such as the Pastels, although they were more of a bridge group between these eras than a C86 one.) Feminism was mostly a thing of the past, too.
4) Politics, gone too. And literary influence. And any sense of the lyrically avant-garde. The earlier postpunk bands were replete with mad allusions, statements on the state of the world - and they offered a more complete representation of reality than the C86 bands. If you look, you may find the odd C86-era band who offered up something like the weltanschauung of This Heat’s post-everything claustrophobia or Scritti Politti’s deconstruction of pop music or even something as esoteric as the Blue Orchids’ quasi-Gurdjieffian constructs. Well, not really!
5) No push for the mainstream. Believe it or not, many of postpunk’s odd acts flirted with mainstream success - Magazine, “Metal Box”-era Public Image Limited, the Slits, the Gang Of Four around the time of “Entertainment!” (et al) . . . and they did this without “reducing” their strangeness. This ambition was strange, compelling and the subject of endless debate. C86 bands were mostly content with their indie ghetto. This sounds commendable, except that their lack of ambition spread to encompass a lack of musical, lyrical and philosophical ambition as well. A pity.
A representative reality:
One of the ur-C86 groups is Orange Juice - although they existed in the earlier postpunk era. Their Postcard recordings were great and still sound great today. Why? Because they channeled not just the heroes of a few years earlier, like the Buzzcocks - but also the Velvet Underground, Chic, the Slits, the Subway Sect, Al Green, Love, Joe Meek - and many more. Out of this amazing assemblage of influences, they put together something fresh and compelling.
The CD86 bands who worshipped at the altar of Orange Juice were (and remain) much less compelling. Why? Because instead of distilling the essence of myriad influences, they mostly ripped off Orange Juice! (Or just the Buzzcocks. Or just Josef K. Or just the Young Marble Giants. You get the idea.) Rather than a distillation of many, with a flash of their own brilliance, these bands too often tended to be a diluted version of just one or bands, and rarely did they display much of their own personal grooviness. Many didn’t have any, musically speaking.
I worked with many of these bands, from postpunk to C86-era until now. And there’s a lot of great C86-era music - good tunes with fine melodies, and energetic, inspired performances. The practitioners of these songs are among the most lovable folks on Earth - I know many of them!But the limits of this music are palpable. One might read the whole thing as a movement against the seriousness and maturity of postpunk, and that’d be fine. A band like the Ramones are legendary for pursuing much the same impulse. But unlike the Ramones, the C86 generation sought out only a limited array of “perpetual prepubescent” interests. It’s not called “twee” without a reason, and as much as anything, this obsession with the things most important to 12 year-olds is what doomed it all. It was just too stupid, and the fanbase of these artists reacted in such a way as to make the music self-constricting, until it was a self-parody.
When one looks at the astounding amount of “C86″ (for lack of a better term) records which were released, what’s astonishing is how few of them hold up (beyond a few songs) in the outside world. What I mean by that is this - postpunk had so much going on that it was inevitable that the artists would end up all over the place. Some went on to become more commercial and have hits or work with hit acts. Some of this stuff is good (I love Terence Trent D’Arby’s “Wishing Well” and Neneh Cherry’s stuff, and I laugh when I think of the roots their music has in bands like the Slits or Rip Rig & Panic (in which Neneh was a member) or how guys from the Pop Group and Essential Logic largely made TTD’s debut what it was) and some of it got dire (”disco” Gang Of Four or bar-band Public Image.) Some people kept plugging away, continually adding works of genius to their respective canons - like the Fall or Robert Wyatt. Some, like the Fire Engines’ Davy Henderson, reinvented himself again and again while retaining a high quality output. You get the picture. It was a genre of ideas and creativity and explosive brilliance.
Some of the C86 bands are still around, but with nothing like the same level of movement. The C86 stuff was a kind of dead-end music from the start. That gave it one nice advantage over the earlier postpunk stuff - one could wallow in it without having to worry about being challenged much or without having to really think or form any new opinions about the music.
Again, there’s a lot of C86 stuff I like. And the new CD86 compilation is full of great moments. But it’s tough for those of us who really like to explore the many strands of music we encounter to get excited about this music as a complete genre. It was too often “dire and fey” and too often without imagination and originality.
Oh, for chrissake, enough Brit Box bashing already. Sure, it misses some good songs. And it doesn’t represent the scene as well as it could have. But it also isn’t as outright horrible and unlistenable as you’re making it out to be.
There is good music on there, and you’re potentially turning people away from some very good music.
It does appear to be quite largely flawed.
can’t wait for pwei!
What about the Dentists? “I Had an Excellent Dream” was for me the highlight of the CD86
comp. and would be a striking addition to this one…
Also “Lips Like Sugar?” I understand they were compelled to put the big hits on the box, but
for the uninitiated, it kind of misrepresents the bunnymen
Assembling this type of compilation was undoubtedly a daunting undertaking for Rhino. The exercise itself begs for discussion and constructive criticism. While it is easy to quibble with some of the song selections (”Regret” v. “Love Vigilantes” or “Killing Moon” v. “Lips Like Sugar”), there were some glaring omissions of artists from the compilation, especially when one notes the number of one hit wonders and marginal bands that were included.
Assuming that there were no licensing issues that confronted Rhino, classic examples representing each of the genres were omitted:
Shoegaze-Slowdive(perhaps the second most important shoegaze band after MBV), Biff Bang Pow (Alan McGee’s band), Mojave 3
Early Britpop-The Housemartins, Curiosity Killed the Cat, The The
Classic Britpop-The Longpigs (of which Richard Hawley was a member), The Levellers, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci (joining Super Furry Animals as Welsh representatives)
Early 1980s postpunk-Comsat Angels, The Chameleons, Television Personalities, Gang of Four, Public Image Limited, Durutti Column, Josef K
Mid-to-late 1980s bands-The Wedding Present
the Wedding Present (one of Peel’s favorite bands), Soft Boys/Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians
Goth-Bauhaus, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Sisters of Mercy
Other Strange Omissions-The Vaselines (especially since Eugenius is included), Orange Juice, Love and Rockets, Japan, Art of Noise
One word about “turning people off to good music.” Will anyone buy such an extravagant box who is not a pop obsessive and familiar with much of the British music in question?
As an introduction, what struck me is the dearth of Scottish material: no Belle & Sebastian (licensing problems?), but also some comparatively hungry bands who wouldn’t have minded the exposure or retrospective glory (Vaselines, Josef K, Pastels). A ‘British’ box might have been more generous with Irish material as well, e.g. Virgin Prunes.
A world without dire, fey music is not one I want to live in. Nice post, Tim.