Some of you may remember me telling this story before, but I’ve never had the chance to tell it as I plan to do now. You may want to click on the following song as you begin reading this tale. It’s a pretty number that sets the initial tone of Psychic TV’s 1983 release, Dreams Less Sweet. Go ahead, check out “The Orchids”. It’s really pretty.
OK. Now some of you may recall that I have a taste for Throbbing Gristle. Talk about your killer album covers and album titles! The day freshman year in college I saw their “Greatest Hits” collection subtitled Entertainment Through Pain I had to take a leap. I dug the mix of purposefully annoying, creepy, subterranean garage music and hypnotic synth workouts. I dug the evil humor. Throbbing Gristle would be one of those bands the young me wear as a badge of hard-earned honor when trying to make my way into tougher, more advanced rock circles.
The whole freaky side of the members of Throbbing Gristle and leader Genesis P-Orridge’s next venture, Psychic TV, never appealed to me – the tattoos, the pierced genetalia, the hints at Nazi imagery, the sex change operations. I was never a fan of KISS growing up, so I wasn’t about to give in to shock-rock theatricality in my college years. It was the true evil within the grooves that interested me. It still does regarding my Throbbing Gristle albums, but I had to rid my life of Psychic TV’s Dreams Less Sweet.
By now I hope you’ve heard side 1’s track 2, “The Orchids”. Lovely, wasn’t it, if creepy? That day I first drew the shades and laid on my bed to hear this Psychic TV album for all it was worth I also drew from my fresh stash. As Dan Rather might have said, I was “loaded for bear.”
I was getting all the requisite dreamy creepiness out of the album I could have hoped to get, and then came a song on side 2 that started with an ominous whooshing sound. At this point I encourage you to click on “In the Nursery”. You’re probably not on your bed in a dark room, but you may get the idea.
I’ve got a high tolerance for psychologically scary things. Gore’s not my bag, but psychological terror is usually a blast. I was probably 4 minutes into the song when I did the unthinkable: I freaked out and I lost it! I finished out the song, listened to it again to make sure I didn’t overreact, and then promptly filed the album away, under T.
Over the next few months I’d try to enjoy what I could from the album, but inevitably I’d peek “In the Nursery”. Finally, I had to sell the album. I wasn’t willing or able to cross this line.
I fully intend to reply more thoroughly when I can read this with the score provided. Just now I’m ripping the original score to Snow White (all the underscoring, the whole schmere, remastered beautifully) I took out of the library today. Really neat stuff. And funny to hear while reading your post. But not the effect intended. Meanwhile, I must defend, or deride, KISS, as mentioned in your post. Comparing them to a young Psychic TV is like comparing vintage vaudeville to… well, to Psychic TV. KISS never scared anyone, and they never led anyone to belive that they were (or wanted to be) women. It brings to mind the [possibly apocryphal] quote attributed to Laurence Olivier, speaking to Dustin Hoffman on the set of Marathon Man, when Hoffman would show up not having slept or bathed, paranoid, having lived his part, method style, for days. Olivier supposedly said, “Why don’t you try *acting*, dear boy?!” KISS was merely acting. Indeed, the evil to which you refer lent further interest to the primitive minimalism of TG. But any hint that they never took off their make-up, so to speak, only depressed me. years ago I spent a numb half-hour staring, off and on, up the skirt of Cosi [of Throbbing Gristle] at a show at Revival, like a puppy gazing into the eyes of a basilisk. Although it could merely have been that she sat spraddled on a chair in a short skirt and high heels as a sort of die-cut album cover distraction to lessen the realization that she cannot play the trumpet beyond a fourth-grade level. Either way, entertainment was achieved, though my being creeped out was no insignificant part of that transaction. Still, do not think me ingenuine if I paraphrase W. C. Fields and say, “On the whole, I’d rather have seen a trumpet player.”
When I have more time to respond to your post and the excellent points you raise, General, I will. Great stuff. I trust that the rest of you are planning on doing your work and digging in on the multiple issues that present themselves. It’s a rainy night in my neck of the woods. All the better for cranking up these Psychic TV tracks!
Dig. Here’s what I was trying to get at: I didn’t go for rock theatrics when I was young, and although I don’t doubt that the horrifying sideshow aspect of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV was anything but sincere, it was not that aspect of them that attracted me as much as it was the dark humor and plain darkness of their music. I did like aspects of the twisted image of TG, especially when they were set in photos wearing swingin’ ’60s clothing yet looked liked they had unspeakable acts with chickens on their minds. Once drawn in by the cover for their Greatest Hits album, I needed no further imagery to “get” them.
One big difference between TG and Psychic TV, though, seemed to be that Psychic TV lost its sense of humor. P-Orridge became obsessed with milking that Brian Jones-Satanic-Magick axis. In TG, there was a sense of humor behind a lot of that grating stuff, or at least it was done in a less self-conscious manner. Once P-Orridge, or anyone for that matter, started sticking a “k” at the end of “magic” something was lost.
I regret not having attended that Chris and Cosey show (wasn’t it?) with you.
Did you ever think it might have been the ‘bear’ that drove you over the edge?
Nice piece, sir. I’ve been meaning to check out this album for a few months. A band you may or may not know of, Califone, covered The Orchids on their lp, Roots & Crowns, last year. It definitely got my interest up.
that califone lp is a winner btw, be on the lookout for it, though I really don’t think it’s up your alley, to be quite honest…
who knows though, right?
I’ve seen the name Califone, but I haven’t heard anything about them. I’ll keep an ear open. Anything in particular about them that you may think will keep them away from my alley?
guys keep in mind I like Califone, but it sometimes sounds like they’re playing in the junkyard with broken instruments.
the emphasis is more on atmoshere than songwriting. Sometimes it feels like the lyrics are just there to complement the music. I have 4 of their albums, but can’t really think of one memorable hook. That’s normally what I depend on.
lots of sounds of random guitar twangs. almost like they’re trying to break the strings. It sounds like when your kid knocks over one of those little kiddie guitars and starts beating on it with the remote control while randomly plucking strings.
Ha, that’s their sound PERFECTLY!
But…
It works for me.
So, in your Califone description, am I hearing the overtones of Tom Waits’ stuff since Swordfishtrombones? That may not be the worst thing.
BTW, I got a new, black “waffle”-style winter jacket for knocking around that’s gonna kill in our coffee shop! Keep an eye out.
Tone your sonic expectations down about a notch, and think of a more experimental acoustic folky junkyard band, with a singer who is nowhere near as distinctive as Waits, and you’d be getting close.
I’ve been giving an awful lot of thought to that coffee shop lately, I heard a few interesting things there this afternoon while I sipped on my Highlander Grogg and played on the laptop…
Me too. Today I started listening to the new Deerhoof album. Initial impressions: It’s weird and suprisingly catchy. It holds some appeal to me for it’s art rock leanings (a little King Crimson and Art Bears), but it’s totally softened, like REM slipped into the mix. Heavy jangle/pretty underpinnings which, of course, scare me.
I also picked up a Detroit Cobras album and downloaded some Hellacopters. In both cases, it was cool to hear some newer garage stuff that actually sounded like rock ‘n roll played in a garage rather than 8th-rate Chocolate Watchband played in a vintage clothing store.
I’ll dig in on these albums and more in the coming week and report back.
Jim