First in a series of erratic and possibly insane musical geniuses with the name Joe.
Joe Meek was a kind of early Nurse With Wound, only without more surrealism, a touch more insanity, slightly more musicality and much less precision. 'If it sounds right, it is right' was his motto and it's hardly his fault that his ears needed a good ten gallon syringing.
He wore great suits.
He rocked, he rolled, he raved. He fought the system, the studio executives, his friends. Joe was one of the first musicians to recognise that the studio was an instrument in itself, recording atmospheres, found objects and blending them all into an occasionally inspired stew.
He was wrong for his times and would be wrong for ours.
I had a dream last night
He's all mine
My Baby's coming home
Untitled - over the backing track of his massive hit Telstar (which was apparently Margaret Thatcher's favourite song: lunatics think alike I guess)
Many many more of Joe's songs can be found at
Archive.org
and the very wonderful Comfort Stand Records - a great source of weird MP3s
Also, try Easy Dreamer a blog full of inspired ranting and nonsense links to a whole world of crazed musical (and other) talent.
If all that's a bit twee and the 'future-is-retro-man' then try these cute little fellahs:
Lightning Bolt are an American voice / drums / bass duo who sound like a car crash heard from inside the car and specialise in inarticulate rage.
They apparently suffer from acute stage fright (they play, but not on stages). Maybe that's what they're mad about. Whatever, the lack of a stage is integral to their music; no distancing and no escape. You wouldn't want to touch these people.
The bass playing has to be seen to be believed (apparently; i haven't seen them yet and i don't believe a word of it - they said the same thing about Tackhead live anbd they were shit); not so much playing as throttling, with tune-sparks flying all over the place and the drums thudding like the sound of small nerds heads being jammed into the lockers at school.
The nearest bands I can think to reference are NOXAGT and maybe the more ferocious moments of Flipper (though I saw them play with a full-strength 'You made me realise' era My Bloody Valentine at some melting hole in South London and the gentle MBVs blew them away)
See what you think:
Dracula Mountain
13 monsters (i see a theme here...)
Diet of grape and nuts (...maybe not)
These are all courtesy of Load Records - hope they don't mind.
There's also a shed load of live MP3s from the Lightning Bolt website here.
And if you haven't heard NOXAGT then Load Records sounds page does the business.
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