them
him
Ah, yes. These guys. The keepers of my heart and by far the most insightful, dark and intelligent men in music – still. I’ve done everything I could to stop loving them. You see, when you love band like this, you’re setting yourself up for a fall. This is why:
1. Your love for them will be lost amongst the mainstream idiots who treat their music as the equivalent of prescribed reading when they decide that they want to be a part of some sort of scene
2. Their records are hard to find. Which means that you’ll no doubt end up in a physical tussle with a horribly spotty and equally depressed teenage boy next to the boot of some stranger’s car at a flea market
3. Should the tussle not happen, you’ll enter into a bidding war, in which you’ll throw away all the money you were going to use to eat for the next few weeks. You’ll do this because you have to – because you won’t be able to stand the thought of those records going home with someone else
4 You’ll spend a lot of time lamenting the fact that Ian Curtis is, in fact, dead. You’ll ask yourself over and over “WHYYYYYYY?”, and you’ll become internally resentful towards Bernard Sumner and/or Debbie Curtis for not walking in on him just as he was having his wicked way with the clothes line
5 You’ll curse the field of medicine for not being able to soothe his epilepsy properly, and thus, remove some of the emotional strain of being, well, Ian Curtis
These are just a few of the things that happen to me/will happen to you if you’ve ever become attached to this band.
I keep banishing Joy Division from my iPod, only for them to find their way back onto it time and time again. I must be doing this in my sleep. It must be my alter ego.
And it’s probably my alter ego that’s providing you with this right now.
Happy suffering.
Musically & spiritually, no one has touched me as deeply as Bjork and The Mars Volta. Bjork being my light. TMV being my darkness. There is no middle ground with me.
I feel the same way about Neurosis. I want people to get them with all my heart and understand why I’d give my left nut to see them live, but alas, it is generally a losing battle. Although on the flip side I don’t think I’d enjoy the masses name dropping them like some scene band, I’d rather someone unworthy say “ah they’re kak, how can you listen to that” and snigger at them and their foolishness. I enjoyed someone’s comment on last.fm about a band, “appreciating celestial greatness has to be earned.” Joy Division are awesome by the way
I’ll always remember the day when someone very special introduced me to Joy Division.
Great day.
Great band.
Brilliant band……closer & still……..I almost wept the first time I heard “love will tear us apart”. Dark and tortured stuff – a sound that perfectly captured the damp, depressed atmosphere in the UK in the early 80′s. When I think of those days my memory comes back in shades of metallic grey, dark brown and navy blue. Thatcher and the Tories where castrating the Scottish nation, the Unions were being trounced and race/social riots were flaring up all over Britain. Furious days!!!
However, I was a much bigger fan of New Order- Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner inspired my crazy-confused-troubled adolescent years and Regret will always be a top 5 for me. Call me lightweight but Joy Division were a just phase for me.