Hello...It's Been Awhile...Not Much..How About You? One Year of C-Funk--The Music Blog for People Who Hate Music



One for the Homies. So sexy it hurts.

 Tommy Stinson was right all along, when he said, "I hate music, it's got too many notes." I kind of hate music but I also love it pretty obsessively.

When I started doing this, I didn't think I would change the world in any significant way. But I was out of work in a recession and it was a way of keeping my brain from atrophying. I think it probably only slowed the process down a little. I had thought about doing this for a long time, but it wasn't until I went to the Big Takeover Magazine's 30th Anniversary shows in Brooklyn last July that I decided to brush off the powdered doughnut sugar from my sweatshirt and get to work. 80's music is being marketed as nostalgia now, and it's like we haven't learned anything over the last 25 years--they are rehashing the same lame playlists that they used back then. It seems so many talented artists of the past are still the black sheep of the musical world, and the powers that be would just as soon have them excised from the narrative.





Earlier, Arianna Huffington was on some program, and said, "if you are out of work, start blogging". Perhaps self serving advice to a degree, but for some inexplicable reason the voice coming from the TV shamed me a bit. That was probably my first impetus to do this. And those two night in Brooklyn at The Bell House, where I saw all these terrific bands that are not getting the attention they deserve. Why not be another person tapping out my opinions into cyberspace? Who knows? Maybe some person will discover a record or band that they might not have found out about otherwise? And now that I've been working all of this year fulltime, though blogging seems like work at times and I haven't posted as much, it still feels rewarding to me.

I try to mix things up here, not as successfully as I would like to do. I don't pretend to be an expert on everything I write about, but I if I like something, I want to share my opinions with whoever wants to visit here. I would like to thank friends, family, supporters, and all the people who have been kind enough to take a look at some of my posts. The response has been mostly positive. And as I said, I would like to think that maybe someone came here interested in a specific artist or recording came away finding out about something new that they hadn't come here looking for. I can't say yes or no to whether it has in fact happened. I'm not sure if anyone has looked at a few of my posts.



So, I'm gonna talk about some music here mostly, drop some art and poetry from time to time, review some book and movies too, and rant about the world as coherently as I can here and there. I will delve more into Scandinavia, Wales, The Antipodes, Africa, Canada, Brazil, Japan, and points yet unknown, describing interesting music I've come across. I'll probably throw some Jazz in the mix too. There's a lot of stuff out that ought to be heard. I have things on the burner and I'm still on the lookout for new and interesting things.

Purify Yourself In The Waters Of Lake Hüskertonka!! Hüsker Dü's Eight Miles High!!!

Celebrated Stunner

Except for the original single, this Cd Ep is the only place to get Hüsker Dü's fantastic cover of the Byrds Eight Miles High, which many consider to be the greatest cover ever done. Frankly, I could not disagree. If someone knows a better one, please share. I'd like to hear it. The song is destroyed, reinvented and celebrated on this monumental 3:56' of punk catharsis. The Clash may have sung about No Elvis, No Beatles, but the Hüsker's were the ones who finally dropped the Neutron Bomb on their elders. Critics may contend that the era of love and peace ended at Altamount, but Mould, Hart, and Norton brought the final end by spontaneous combustion.

That live-in-the studio blast by Hüsker Dü was part of the whirlwind recording period that gestated the classic punk concept double album Zen Arcade, and it completely rips the roof off of the studio. Molten guitar riffs, the bellowing emotional howl of Bob Mould, the possible sounds of people smashing furniture during the song.

The song ends so abruptly, but it felt like the world changed once my eardrums began to heal. A punk manifesto, a new world order.



A band so great, yet it is 2010, and there music has yet to get a proper issue. Just the old crappy sounding Cds, you can only here them properly on vinyl. But if you love great music, you need to have this, even if just for that song. Of course on this Ep is the decent thrashy Masochism World from Zen Arcade, plus Makes No Sense At All from the unbelievable album Flip Your Wig and the b side to that single, the Hüsker's take on the theme to the Mary Tyler Moore show.

Hüsker Dü are of course Bob Mould, (guitar,vocal), Grant Hart, (drums, vocal), and Greg Norton (bass). They are one of the most important American bands of the past 30 years along with Mission of Burma, combining the brutal power of punk and hardcore and blending it seamlessly with the melodies and harmonies of the 60's.

Bob Mould is an icon of American music, whether or not the industry deems to recognize him as such, or not. In England, he would be viewed as part of the same elite rock club with Keith Richards, Rod Stewart, Elton John. But things don't work that way in the old US. And in his Post-Hüsker career he has continued to distinguish himself, both as a solo artist, and as the leader of noise pop savants Sugar. (He also does a great cover of Richard Thompson's Turning Of The Tide on the Beat The Retreat tribute album).

So please check out Eight Miles High--things may never be quite the same.


P.S. Some further empowering music to reflect upon this holiday season......