The Boys Next Door

It took me a few years but I finally, in the last year or so, have learned to appreciate the genius of Nick Cave. I'm still a little unsure about my feelings concerning his later period solo work (as well as grinderman) but The Birthday Party has quickly become one of my favorite bands, which in turn has lead to me falling in love with their first album released when they were still called The Boys Next Door. For those unfamiliar, "Door Door" was released in 1979 and features a very different side of the band. Here you'll find no awkward rhythms, no squaky guitar and no dark howl and tortured vocals from Cave that became such a large part of their sound just a year later with the release of their second album, instead you see the band at its most poppy playing post punk with (relatively) straightforward songwriting full of poppy hooks coupled with a more subdued (yet still incredible) Nick Crave crooning away. Yes, its definitely not The Birthday Party which may upset some people but i think that's what makes it so great, its one of the better examples of (some incredibly written) 70s punk/post punk.


I can't recommend this album enough, download it now!

DOWNLOAD!

Io

For me personally, the mid 2000's were an incredible time for music in Pittsburgh,PA, for three reasons (bands) 1. Pikadori 2. He Taught Me Lies 3. Io. They were all creating interesting and amazing music with alot of thought and plenty of interesting things to say. I was lucky enough to get to tour with and become closer friends with Pikadori and He Taught Me Lies, Io on the other hand i was only able to see twice and despite them being in the same group of friends, i never got to hang out with them much or become very close friends, despite all that i think their limited discography is one of the finest things to be bestowed upon my ears in the last 10 years or so. What we have here is a mix of frantic mid 90s emotive hardcore (ala bands such as mohinder) and thrash (their drummer jd, was also in crucial unit) with great trade off vocals and personal/political lyrics. (im actually quite terrible at describing things and im certainly not giving them their due credit here)

included in the two links below you'll find their lone full length "The Willow Snag" as well the 4 song demo that predates that (and has earlier/more raw versions of songs to be featured on the full length) as well as the track from the "Go Down Fighting,Come Up Smiling" (which was also re-recorded for the full length) in the other link you'll find their 'final songs' 7" which was recorded right before their last show but remained instrumental until about a year a half later when lyrics were written and recorded and the 7" was released at an Io reunion show in 2005 (in my top 3 best shows ever). Enjoy


the willow snag,demo,comp track
final songs 7"

A Review of "The Willow Snag"

Local Article/Interview with Io from 2002

first post, make it count.