Killing Joke

Snow Dog wrote: Blacksword wrote: Ok just looked up the Strangers.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stranglers Agree with most of it, I guess. They didn't consider themselves punk, not because of keyboards, but because they wrote intelligently..like Killing Joke... Sorry to stray off topic..I'm good at that.. short attention sp.. I never considered the Stranglers punk. You prabably know that from other threads.

Yeah, I remember. I always did, somewhat foolishly I guess. Whenever there was programs on telly about punks the Stranglers semed to get a mention. They were lumped in with the Mohican brigade because of their agression and raw sound, I suppose.

If you think about it intelligently, they are obviously NOT punk...

Blacksword wrote: Sorry to stray off topic..I'm good at that.. short attention sp..

No, I like that. It makes things more interesting.

Wikipedia is really good most of the time but did you hear about the time when a man was falsely linked to the JFK assassination on the site?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4520678.stm

The entry for neo prog wasn't very complimentary either.

Now who's straying off the topic .... and it was my topic as well.

Bob Greece wrote: Wikipedia describes Killing Joke as post-punk ... one of the bands that tried to make punk more complex, a strange concept when you think about it. One of the reasons why they couldn't be called punk is because they use keyboards.

So did the Stranglers..

I'll have to see what Wikipedia says about them, not that Wikipedia is gospel..

Syzygy wrote: I only know their early stuff, but I used to really enjoy them - the combination of punk attitude and pretty good musicianship was a winning combination for me. Gigs were intense, and the audience were a lot scarier than the band themselves from what I recall. Youth is a spectacular bassist, and went on to work with Steve Hillage in System 7 (among many other interesting projects) so maybe they were peace loving hippies underneath all the camouflage make up and brutal rhythms.

From what I've heard, Jaz Coleman's main job these days is composing classical music. He only reformed Killing Joke in 2003 because he was angry about the Iraq war. He must be still angry because there's another Killing Joke album in the pipeline this year.

What kind of person goes to a Killing Joke concert I wonder?

Bob Greece wrote: Hemispheres wrote: im a big post punk fan and i heard there first album and i thought it was ok but not great is there any better albums by them I think that they really started to get good from 1985 onwards. Here are the albums I would recommend: Night Time (1985) - containing their one hit single Love Like Blood Brighter Than a Thousand Suns (1986) Extremities, Dirt & Various Repressed Emotions (1990) Pandemonium (1994) Democracy (1996) Killing Joke (2003) - their heaviest album. Intense.

Night Time I think is superb , but for me ,surprisingly , Pandemonium is the pick of their albums . Surprising I say because I like punk music and though all their material would go well beyond simple punk ( I think KJ have often been described as Industrial music ) , Pandemonium is powerful but also uses a lot of technology and style punk would never approach .At their best , these can be brilliant , even their early stuff stood out from the run of the mill punk stuff .

Jon The Impaler wrote: I think Jaz once referred to them as a punk band , in their very early days ....but they do defy definition into any one category . After The Stranglers , these are one of my very favourite bands . Their mid 90's material is very much worth a listen  , very powerful . It tends to be the drumms more than anything that make the KJ sound ....the beat they have is unique to them .

Nice to hear from you again Jon! Who or what is Jaz?