Public Image Ltd. (PiL) new album

[J Dog]

New album "What the World Needs Now" coming next month.

[Len Cnut]

Was gonna make a thread about this myself actually but i didnt think anyone'd be interested. Gonna go see em in October

[J Dog]

Are they planing on touring the US or just over there? I wouldn't mind seeing Rotten.

I like that Double Trouble. Has a good little groove. Sounds surprisingly fresh. I'm going to check the album out for sure.

[Len Cnut]

It's about an argument he had with his wife about fixing the toilet

My favourite PiL interview

And yeah, they definitely will be touring the states.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Len B'stard

[denin]

The Metal Box is a great album and Rise is a good single. Overall, I find PiL discography uneven, but Lydon's entertaining.

Here's an infamous 1980 performance, where PiL simply refuses to adhere to the strict stipulations of the show. The players goof around with their instruments, underlining the fact that the music is playback. Lydon strides around the stage, occupies the hosts podium (a big no-no at the time) - violating it with his mic - and involves the audience in his own special way.

Vintage Rotten, it is

[Dan H.]

Nice! Hope they tour here

[dalsh327]

So far the tickets posted on Ticketmaster for 2 of the venues are in the 30 dollar range.

I don't know if Voodoo is livestreamed but that one also has Ozzy and Friends (Geezer, Tom Morello and Slash). 75 dollars a day, 175 for a 3 day pass.

http://worshipthemusic.com/lineup/

10-31 New Orleans, LA - Voodoo Music + Arts Experience Festival

11-01 Memphis, TN - New Daisy Theatre

11-03 Athens, GA - Georgia Theatre

11-05 Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Culture Room

11-06 St. Petersburg, FL - The State Theatre

11-07 Orlando, FL - The Plaza Live

11-10 Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall

11-11 Philadelphia, PA - The Trocadero Theatre

11-12 Pittsburgh, PA - The Altar Bar

11-14 Montreal, Québec - La Tulipe

11-15 Toronto, Ontario - The Opera House

11-16 New York, NY - Best Buy Theatre

11-18 Chicago, IL - Concord Music Hall

11-20 Denver, CO - Gothic Theatre

11-22 Vancouver, British Columbia - Vogue Theatre

11-23 Seattle, WA - The Showbox

11-25 Las Vegas, NV - Brooklyn Bowl

11-27 San Francisco, CA - The Chapel

11-28 Sacramento, CA - Ace of Spades

11-29 Los Angeles, CA - The Fonda Theatre

[J Dog]

Thanks Dalsh. Got about 3 shows I can choose from. Gonna make at least one of them. I really need to go to a Voodoo festival. They always have a great lineup.

My favourite PiL interview

And yeah, they definitely will be touring the states.

Classic. I swear Johnny and Pac give the best interviews. I started clicking on vids after it finished and found this one. He had Snyder on edge

Edited August 22, 2015 by J Dog

[Len Cnut]

He's clearly off his tits on speed in that Snyder video, classic fuckin' whizz-freak As for the Check It Out video, John gets all the credit but it's actually Wobble who does most of the work, when you turn it on the first thing you can hear is Wobble going 'well tell him for fuckssake, open your mouth and tell him!' and then after John walks off Wobble sounds is behaving like he's just about to smack the interviewer

Wobble: Tell you what, how about you try asking an intelligent question, try and think of one, if you ever asked one in your life.

Interviewer: I think we'll end this here.

Wobble: Yeah, i think you should!

I'd be interested to know what he was saying when he took that mic off, that was one long bleep The interview is kinda truncated too so it makes it look like John had a moody over nothing but in the full length thing the interviewer was basically asking him how he felt about the fact that members of The Angelic Upstarts said they were sellouts or something...now what kinda question is that to ask someone thats come on your show?!?

[J Dog]

Yeah I was thinking, who gets on someone about selling out right out the gate. I love how the interviewer is trying to talk in the beginning and the whole time Wobble and Johnny are having their own conversation (what you're talking about) like fuck you. And yeah, that was long ass bleep. He must have just been rattling off some major shit talking. They don't make em like that anymore.

Are these the same guys in PiL now? Or is it like a Johnny solo band?

[Len Cnut]

Yeah I was thinking, who gets on someone about selling out right out the gate. I love how the interviewer is trying to talk in the beginning and the whole time Wobble and Johnny are having their own conversation (what you're talking about) like fuck you. And yeah, that was long ass bleep. He must have just been rattling off some major shit talking. They don't make em like that anymore.

Are these the same guys in PiL now? Or is it like a Johnny solo band?

They're not those members but they are some of the longest serving members, at least with Lu Edmonds in there. i think part of the idea of 'we're a communications company, not a band' was that...a company can work with anyone right? But no, when Johnnys solo it's clear it's him solo i.e. the album Psychos Path that he released under his own name, this band are very much PiL and not a case of just being the Johnny roadshow. Lu Edmonds was with The Damned early on but he's just a crazy multi-instrumentalist guy.

Wait til you go see em and they turn the bass up on the song Religion, i literally saw people leave the fucking gig and/or just cover their fuckin' ears, they just kept turning it up and up and up, i swear my teeth were vibrating, it was fantastic They did something similar in late 79 and ended up breaking windows and causing the stage to collapse There must be a vid of it online but i don't suppose you'd hear much cuz normal speakers ain't gonna translate that kinda bass obviously. Crazy.

[Len Cnut]

Thats me having a discussion with John regarding the brandy

Me: Can i have some please?

John: If you want a drink there's a bar over there, dip into your own pockets and don't come here to sponge off me like a dirty fuckin' parasite!

Me: I'm skint!

John: It's bad enough you get half price tickets but free drinks as well?!? Liberty!

[J Dog]

Yeah I was thinking, who gets on someone about selling out right out the gate. I love how the interviewer is trying to talk in the beginning and the whole time Wobble and Johnny are having their own conversation (what you're talking about) like fuck you. And yeah, that was long ass bleep. He must have just been rattling off some major shit talking. They don't make em like that anymore.

Are these the same guys in PiL now? Or is it like a Johnny solo band?

They're not those members but they are some of the longest serving members, at least with Lu Edmonds in there. i think part of the idea of 'we're a communications company, not a band' was that...a company can work with anyone right? But no, when Johnnys solo it's clear it's him solo i.e. the album Psychos Path that he released under his own name, this band are very much PiL and not a case of just being the Johnny roadshow. Lu Edmonds was with The Damned early on but he's just a crazy multi-instrumentalist guy.

Wait til you go see em and they turn the bass up on the song Religion, i literally saw people leave the fucking gig and/or just cover their fuckin' ears, they just kept turning it up and up and up, i swear my teeth were vibrating, it was fantastic They did something similar in late 79 and ended up breaking windows and causing the stage to collapse There must be a vid of it online but i don't suppose you'd hear much cuz normal speakers ain't gonna translate that kinda bass obviously. Crazy.

Oh I hope they crank it up like that. I love it when bass is so deep you can hardly breathe. Like that feeling when you're in the backseat with a couple of 12's or 15's in the trunk. Thanks for the info. See the bold part, that had Snyder all fucked up he couldn't wrap his head around that.

Thats me having a discussion with John regarding the brandy

Me: Can i have some please?

John: If you want a drink there's a bar over there, dip into your own pockets and don't come here to sponge off me like a dirty fuckin' parasite!

Me: I'm skint!

John: It's bad enough you get half price tickets but free drinks as well?!? Liberty!

You are fucking legend homie! Good shit!

[Len Cnut]

See the guy standing off the side of the stage? Thats Johns mate Rambo, i went to see them at this nightclub under Charring Cross station and i swear to you, little guy though he is, i saw him take on three big bouncers...and iron all three of em out. They got into some disagreement with him, i think they thought he was just some guy trying to sneak backstage or something, i even got in on it like 'what the fuck are you doing, he's Johns mate' and the bouncer just turned around and make a throat cutting motion at me like just cut it out, back off, we've got this. Fuckin' amazing though, only a little guy but all the heart in the world.

P.S. i was fucking skint that day too I had to jump the barriers at the train station just to get home!

Edited August 22, 2015 by Len B'stard

[denin]

 

They're not those members but they are some of the longest serving members, at least with Lu Edmonds in there. i think part of the idea of 'we're a communications company, not a band' was that...a company can work with anyone right? But no, when Johnnys solo it's clear it's him solo i.e. the album Psychos Path that he released under his own name, this band are very much PiL and not a case of just being the Johnny roadshow. Lu Edmonds was with The Damned early on but he's just a crazy multi-instrumentalist guy.

 

Yeah, it's more or less the Happy? album lineup from '86. What saddens me is that John McGeoch is no longer among us. An absolutely wicked guitarist, who served with PiL from the mid-80's all the way to Lydon disbanding it in '92. McGeoch had by then already done excellent work with bands like Magazine and Siouxsie and the Banshees, and his output is definitely worth tracking down.

It's cool that Lydon is still genuinely trying with PiL, as he apparently sees it as his legacy more than the Sex Pistols. It's easy to understand why. The Pistols were ultimately a lightning in the bottle, the band element oft overshadowed by all the brouhaha and Malcolm McLaren. PiL is more a serious endeavour for Lydon and much more of a musical journey, given their decades of activity.

One caveat for me. With McGeoch gone, why not call Keef Levene? He's still active as a solo musician and would prolly be happy enough to be there. It'd be real interesting to see where he'd go with John after all these years - besides the courthouse, that is.

[Len Cnut]

Originally Wobble and Levene were tapped up for these reunions but there were issues. I think Wobble wanted more money than was being offered and required 'didn't want it to be a tour of Apollos and Forums and O2 Arenas' and wanted to do something different and unique. And Levene i just think they never even got close with.

Then when the reunion started Wobble and Levene took it upon themselves to start touring with the leader singer of The Sex Pistols Experience tribute band as PiL...which some say is what led to the new PiL album, or the last one being called This Is PiL.

I think there's faults on both side personally, them putting high wage demands in is a bit weird, I mean he's self financing this shit from the butter adverts, self releasing, everything, no record label...so it should've been clear from the get go that it weren't gonna be super lucrative.

Thing with John is he's previously always been in bands kinda fuelled by acrimony, The Pistols, early PiL...at 50 something i don't suppose you want that shit always, y'know?

[J Dog]

It's cool that Lydon is still genuinely trying with PiL, as he apparently sees it as his legacy more than the Sex Pistols. It's easy to understand why. The Pistols were ultimately a lightning in the bottle, the band element oft overshadowed by all the brouhaha and Malcolm McLaren. PiL is more a serious endeavour for Lydon and much more of a musical journey, given their decades of activity.

I can see it. He always seems to talk about the Pistols like, not just a band with a great album, but more like, a happening or a thing or a movement. Like they had something they felt they had to do, they did it, and that was that. I still think he feels the Pistols are a huge part of his legacy, but PiL is more of a band in the traditional sense, as far as creating music goes.

[Len Cnut]

My favorite song off the new album so far

[Black Sabbath]

Good lord. Song in the op is awful.

Do these guys have anything that's not terrible?

[Len Cnut]

Good lord. Song in the op is awful.

Do these guys have anything that's not terrible?

Nope, it's all horrible

See?

[Black Sabbath]

Yep, you're right

[J Dog]

My favorite song off the new album so far

It's out already? How is it?

[Len Cnut]

Its a lot of things man, it has mood bits, feels like vamping at times and it benefits from it, its really really funny, some suprising poppy chorusey bits even, i really like it, that song up there is the last track and its like demented dance track, last album was like that with in the woods, which is a dance track too, about a confederate soldier, of all fucking things for Johnny Rotten to write about, like crazy string bit which sounds like duelling banjos-ish sometimes and persian other times.

PiL are like my favouritest band, definitely the band i seen the most time live, best active band i can think of in fact, its always different one album to the other, Metal Box and Flowers of Romance is some of the greatest music full stop, that i ever heard of any genre, as inventiveness goes its fucking incredible, Metal Box is like deep heavy dubby basslines, Levenes guitar lines sound like breaking glass, Lydon warbling alternatively like a speed freak or these deliberate slow spacey deliveries...to like a dancey beat or a kind of offbeat clattery beat, just crazy shit all thrown together but it just comes out delicious.

Flowers of Romance is crazy too i think it has no bass to it at all and very little guitar, its just John, drums and Keith Levene on a synthesiser and all kinds of electronic shit, its in parts Arabian sounding but then kinda gothic, its like paranoia inducing too, then theres bouncey stuff, lyrics about England being a shithole, these Nazi ring wing references...but musically its just so fuckin' severe, music with no bass is a fucking challenge to me if I'm honest, speaking about popular music here, its some crazy shit. I think bands like this help music forward, more people need to fuck around and mix and match cuz some great shit comes out.

PiLs influence range is weird, its in dance music, DJs, Michael Stipe and free-form Jazz and art noise fuckin' music. At their best you cant tell what the fuck genre Metal Box or Flowers of Romance or This is What You Want This Is What You Get is.

[dalsh327]

I doubt the Pistols fans knew what to make out of PiL in the beginning.

[Len Cnut]

The thing i love most about PiL is that, really, there is no fuckin' real name for what they are doing. I mean take a band like The Clash or The Chilli Peppers, both bands i have a tremendous amount of love for, of even The Happy Mondays or The Stone Roses, they're messing with styles, making something different, i respect that, i want that out of music but it's always like 'Here we have The Clash doing Reggae, here we have them doing funk' or like 'Here we have The Chili Peppers mixing 'x' with 'y'' and thats good but at the same time, to listen to it, it just SOUNDS like those styles put together y'know? Almost a little maybe kinda disingeneous? Maybe?

With PiL I dunno what the fuck you call it, it doesn't sound like anything else, PiL have WAY too much integrity to immitate, people draw these conclusions in terms of like, influence or whatever like 'OK, they liked dub reggae, so that explains the deep extra heavy basslines'...but does it though? Are they really reggae basslines that Wobble is playing, no they're not. I don't know a guitarist that plays like Keith Levene...and all over dance music with the 'king of punk' having a fit over them, it's just...totally alien to me. I find that fucking amazing. You'll have like, a particular kind of rhythm, there's a fuckin' name for most of em...then PiL will come out with some kinda drumming or beat keeping thing that sounds like...disjointed...off-kilter, like the person playing it can't play something correctly...it's jarring initially but through the repetition over and over and over, listening to it, you start hearing these sub-rhythms through it and what you end up with is something that no ones ever fucking done before, i think thats how genres are fucking created, people playing like they feel instead of doing their take on blues or jazz or disco or whatever.

And then like, when they were 3 albums into this crazy fuckin' music they sort of totally flipped it, i think they perhaps there is a point where you can get too far into subverting stuff and twisting people and their understanding of sound and rhythm until you get out there that the whole thing breaks down. Kinda like when people say free-form Jazz is just like...charlatanism in a sense, they can't play traditional styles so to circumvent that they invented this genre for people who can't do a lot more than fuck around...so what do PiL do, they start making tightly wrapped pop music, almost as if to prove they could fucking do it...but then even within that they just twisted little things, if everyone else is doing these 3 note power riffs they'll do a two note drone riff that runs through the entire some, maybe strip down a particular kind of beat to it's basics, it's rudiments, til it sounds like those 'on the 1' type African beats...and but still keep it within that tightly wrapped format and make it work as a pop song...and they'll somehow manage to pull it off, it's fucking fantastic.

And then when thats done it'll be like, OK, i feel like making a rock album...and you'll see Steve Vai and Ginger Baker on there, it's crazy, whatever it is you expect from PiL you will not get it And it's not coming from a fuckin' nerdy studious contrived perspective, it's coming from a bunch of working class chancers (couldn't think of a better word but they are anything but chancers), makes it feel all the more effective and substantial. These things only become apparent upon like...serious close inspection, to be honest with you i had to read some of it to clock it, its not something you can just CLEARLY hear i.e. you can CLEARLY hear when The Clash or The Chillis are doing funk or reggae or whatever, it's not like that with PiL, like you said Dalshie i didnt know what to make of PiL when i first heard it, i just knew that i loved it and it was worth repeated fucking listening because it was just like nothing i ever heard before, just like The Pistols sounded to me first time. If the Pistols were offensive just for how they sounded PiL run through a similar vein because like...99.9% of people that hear PiL the first time are like 'what the FUCK is this?!?' and as many are like 'it's fucking awful!', i just love that response, I'm not exactly sure why, i guess cuz...I dunno, thats often the standard response for things that are unprescedented. Music is something that is supposed to be a comfort to us, thats we identify with it and it's rhythm and rely on those rhythms to evoke certain responses, i KNOW how a hip hop beat is going to make me feel or is designed to make me feel, same with...i dunno, something like Shake Appeal by The Stooges or I Just Seen A Face by The Beatles, we rely on them to lead us to these comfortable places we wanna go...PiL is like when the music won't co-operate with you Thats interesting to me, i wanna see where that goes.

And the look, early on especially, was so fuckin' brilliant, they looked like a bunch of space cadets, God bless em