Let's Say We Take A Break From Shaming Lowlifes?

And return to the music?

It would be so predictable to post "New Years Day" right now, wouldn't you say? How about U2 at their finest, performing "Seconds" at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in 1983.

Happy New Year my friends!

Just A Quick Public Service Announcement.

For those of you not in the blogger business, and especially those of you not in the blogger business who have cut your hair short to try to look more youthful but have failed miserably, let's have a lesson on Site Meter: "Site Meter is a service which provides counter and tracking information for Web sites. By logging IP addresses and using JavaScript or HTML to track visitor information, Site Meter provides Web site owners with information about their visitors, including how they reached the site, the date and time of their visit, and more."

So if you come to my website 6 times per day, I know about it. I especially know about it if you come to my website 6 times per day and you have cut your hair short to try to look more youthful and have failed miserably. On one of your 6 visits on Sunday you lurked for 14 minutes and 44 seconds, so you must have learned by now that I am one of the nation's most beloved new wave music scholars with thousands of readers, and not some lowlife that kicks it with the same lowlifes that you kick it with. My Site Meter tells me your IP address, your operating system and your browser, and after being in the blogging business since February 2004 it is very easy to know just by the statistics when someone is stalking my site.

So piss off or I will publish the hateful and ridiculous messages that you sent to me. You haggard looking lowlife. If you ever again choose to contact me in any message or mail-type forum you will find yourself in the following position, so eloquently spoken by Dooce: "If you feel that you must send me something hateful I reserve the right to publish your entire email and your email address on this site. This is a personal website, and while I understand that you may disagree with me on many topics, there is an obvious difference between disagreement and hate."

Material: wikipedia.org

From Our Street To Yours.

 

Merry Christmas from the staff at Waist High! 

Photo: The Waist High Collection

Goodbye 1983!

Before the final "Happy 25th Birthday" of 2008, Waist High would like to say "Happy 25th Birthday" to the great 1983 releases that we were just not able to get to: Colour By Numbers, Let's Dance, "Electric Avenue," The Alarm, Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), War, "Don't Talk To Me About Love," You and Me Both, Reach The Beach, Porcupine, and the ever fabulous "Shiny Shiny."

Greatest of all, 1983 was the year Construction Time Again was released. The third studio album from Depeche Mode, "saw a dramatic shift in the group's sound, due in part to the introduction of the Synclavier and Emulator samplers," in addition to the band's previously-used analogue synthesizers.

Contruction Time Again was the first Depeche Mode album with Alan Wilder who joined after the departure of Vince Clarke. Alan was known as the band's "only trained musician." The non-album single "Get the Balance Right!" was "Wilder's first musical contribution to the band."

Depeche Mode are one of the longest-lived, most successful and influential bands to have emerged from the New Wave era. They have had 44 songs in the UK Singles Chart, and it is estimated that they have sold over 91 million records worldwide.

In 2007, all 10 of Depeche Mode's studio albums were released as part of THE REMASTERS series.

"The first CD was remastered and (except in the USA) was released on a CD/SACD hybrid. The bonus DVD includes the B-Sides in addition to the single and B-Side for 'Get the Balance Right,' a one-off single recorded a little bit before the album. The album is released the way it was originally intended and doesn't include the bonus extended mix of 'Everything Counts,' but it does keep the reprise, and gives it its own track like the original. On some CD releases, it was a hidden track after 'And Then...'"

The Construction Time Again "DVD includes a documentary on the album. The double-documentary discusses both 'Get the Balance Right' and Construction Time Again, its two singles, the making of the cover, the lyrics, and the sampling aspect of the album. It also discusses Alan Wilder and Gareth Jones, a new member and a new engineer (respectively) and their impact on Depeche Mode's new sound. It also includes footage of the Construction Time Again tour. The documentary also has excerpts from the music video for 'Get the Balance Right,' which has so far been unreleased."

Material: wikipedia.org, waisthigh.net, & depechemode.com

No Comment.

Back By Popular Demand! (Kind Of)

For the first time since 2006, Waist High would like to proudly announce the (possible one-time) return of "Living In The Eighties News," a once very popular feature here at the world's most beloved new wave music blog. The return is prompted by the rash of new WH converts, including one now full time reader linked here from his Google search listening+to+The+Fixx+feel+my+nuts shriveling, but also because there is just too much going on. The Specials are reuniting for God's sake (kind of).

"Living In The Eighties News," as originally announced on 4/13/2005: "After a long and exhaustive selection process, Waist High would like to reveal the first of two replacements for the now permanently retired, much loved, crass, and extremely hateful 'Kern County Drunkard Watch.' Waist High, no longer wanting to GO TO HELL, would like to present: 'Living In The Eighties News,' which 1. Begins today. 2. Promises to keep you up to date on everyone from Haysi Fantayzee to Waist High pal Dave Wakeling. 3. Will steal it's material almost exclusively from Remember The Eighties News, on a weekly basis."

And so we find ourselves here at the end of 2008, back together again, let us begin with the band responsible for the 4 greatest words ever written, "Living+in+the+Eighties."

KILLING JOKE will release Duende - The Spanish Sessions in January 2009, the "fantastic live session recorded with the original Killing Joke line-up back together for the first time since 1982."

About the release, lead singer Jaz Coleman said, "Can you imagine it, the original line up hasn't been in the same room since 24th February 1982 and I am waiting for Paul to arrive here at Youths studio in Granada, Spain at any moment. Like most preconceptions the reality is always different. The door opens and there he is, we embrace, still the same athletic build, the same impeccable manners, the same fire in his eyes. Inwardly I am delighted for I feel we have truly transcended any petty differences of the past.

"As most people are aware there have been many incarnations of Killing Joke over the years, however the original line up bears no comparison to later line ups, neither socially or musically. For example there are always two people moving in opposite directions. In the present tense this manifests as Youth insisting that we write some new songs for the tour whereas my concern is learning five hours of music (ie two sets) always the revolutionary and the reactionary, simultaneously.

"Our conversations and debates follow a similar pattern. As for the sound it is far from polished to put it mildly but when it locks in it is both emotional and devastating. For me, my life seems strangely complete with these characters (who, when all is said and done, are family). We started as teenagers together. Killing Joke was our further education and now we are all approaching fifty!"

Tracklisting:
1. Requiem
2. The Wait
3. Tomorrows World
4. Bloodsport
5. Psyche
6. SO36
7. Millenium
8. Tension
9. Primitive
10. Are you Receiving
11. Whiteout
12. Pandemonium
13. Eighties
14. Love Like Blood

JERRY DAMMERS condemns The Specials' 2009 Reunion tour. The keyboardist, who is one of the group's founding members, said he was surprised to hear about the reformation - and was "deeply shocked" to have been left out.

He also claimed that he had never been extended an open invitation from frontman Terry Hall to join the group's 30th anniversary tour next year, as the singer has previously claimed.

"The prodigal sons came home, kicked me out, and have left the door open, great," Dammers said.

A statement, released on the keyboardist's behalf, continued: "These claims also contradict lawyers' letters stating that former members have resolved to go ahead without him, and that Jerry is not to speak to any of them.

"Attempts to imply that any proposed tour has Jerry's 'blessing', at this stage, are also highly misleading. These seem to be part of a wider attempt to rewrite the whole history of the band, in order to try and justify what is currently going on.

"Jerry does not wish to go into too much detail at this point, except to say that for over 25 years he had dreamed that his former bandmates might come back one day, and was deeply shocked to find that when they did, for some of them, it was apparently to kick him out."

The statement claimed that Dammers was not invited to a meeting where the band discussed their plans, but "Jerry turned up anyway and played the music he had started recording, and suggested starting serious rehearsals, but was subjected to a severe dressing down from people who had barely spoken to him in 25 years.

"Apart from the recording, Jerry wanted to try and aim for a proper reunion and 30th anniversary celebration, including (performing) the best part of both Specials albums, The Ghost Town EP, and a small amount of new material, in proper concerts, in venues worthy of the band's status and legacy."

The statement added Dammers saw the "whole thing as a takeover, rather than a proper reunion... At the moment this is not the proud reunion and 30th anniversary celebration Jerry had hoped for."

As previously reported on gigwise.com, The Specials will play six dates around the UK next year as part of their reunion.

MORRISSEY AND JOHNNY MARR are to reunite. The Smiths are said to be on the verge of reforming after Morrissey and Johnny Marr settled their past differences.

The band, who split in 1987, would likely embark on a series of live shows in 2009.

A music industry source told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "The very fact that they are talking again is the most hopeful thing in years.

"A lot of people think of them as the best thing since The Beatles. They'd fill stadiums many times over."

In October, similar claims suggest the group were in talks to headline next April's Coachella Festival in California.

A reformation of the band's original line up would mark the first time Morrissey, Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce have performed together since 1987.

FACTORY RECORDS are set to release a 30th anniversary box set. Whether off the lip of a name-checking record store clerk, through such feature films as Control and 24 Hour Party People, or by way of some of the label's flagship acts, you've probably encountered the hallowed words Factory Records at some point in your travels.

But there's more to the legendary Manchester imprint and music culture institution than Joy Division, the late, great Tony Wilson, the infamous Hacienda club, and the whimsical assignment of catalog numbers: there's the music, of course, something A Factory Box Set will positively teem with when it arrives January 12 in the UK, courtesy of Rhino, via idolator.com, (confirmed by publicity).

Spreading some 63 Factory favorites across four discs in rough chronological order, A Factory Box Set indeed includes a healthy sampling of Joy Division and New Order, as well as representative offerings from New Order offshoots Electronic, Revenge, and the Other Two. But the set also finds room for other post-punk heavyweights and lesser-knowns (Cabaret Voltaire, A Certain Ratio, Section 25, the Wake, Quando Quango), Madchester staples (Happy Mondays, Northside), and even a few folks who would go on to bigger things (OMD, James).

There through it all is perhaps the imprint's one true constant, the Durutti Column, who gets a track on each of the four discs. Factory buffs may notice the conspicuous absence in the tracklist of ESG, who are reportedly not included here due to licensing issues. A Factory Box Set commemorates the 30th anniversary of Factory Records' 1978 founding. No word just yet whether this thing will get its own honorary catalog number.

Photo: plastichead.com
Material: plastichead.com, gigwise.com & pitchforkmedia.com
"Eighties" lyrics courtesy Universal Music Publisher Group
COLEMAN/RAVEN/WALKER/FERGUSON

24 Christmases Later...

and still a WH favorite. Throw your arms around the world at Christmas time (Boy George said so!)

"I'll Remember You."

A second obituary 22 years later

(It is from Amy Langfield that I am going to briefly thieve material. The Amy Langfield who taught me everything I know about not thieving material from the internet.)

It's a rare bird who is honored to get more than one obituary. But that's what happened to my friend Michael Fencl.

A month before high school graduation his Vespa scooter with bad brakes was hit by a car. He was on life support and his family decided to donate his organs. The mere thought that someone else might live a little longer because of our tragedy served as an emotional rock to cling to.

And through a number of flukes, a few years later we found out where Mike went.

A 2006 story in the Seattle Times explains how back in 1986, 38-year-old Doug Hoxworth became the 34th person ever to get a heart and lung transplant at Stanford.

That 2006 story ends this way: Hoxworth was not told by doctors who his donor had been. But one of Fencl's friends knew he had been an organ donor, and she attended the same California high school as Hoxworth's daughter Lisa.

The friend told Lisa she knew the identity of her dad's donor. The Hoxworths arranged through a television crew doing a documentary on transplants to meet Fencl's mother. The family still remains close to his mother.

"I think about him all the time," Hoxworth says.

"I talk to him. I say, 'Thank you, Michael.'"

On Nov. 13 Stephen "Doug" Hoxworth died at the age of 61. He passed away after living "22 full years with organs that were generously donated from Michael Fencl by his mother, Marion."

No one that was privileged enough to know Mike has forgotten him or how he died.

I was in the intersection of New Stine Road and Wilson Avenue in Bakersfield, California just last month and it simply numbs the mind how what happened in that intersection on May 13, 1986, what feels like a lifetime ago, has reached so very far into the future. And no one has forgotten how what happened in that intersection on May 13, 1986 has touched so many others. And how you, Michael Fencl, saved another man's life.

I'll remember you.

I'll remember you
When I've forgotten all the rest,
You to me were true,
You to me were the best.
When there is no more,
You cut to the core
Quicker than anyone I knew.
When I'm all alone
In the great unknown,
I'll remember you.

I'll remember you
At the end of the trail,
I had so much left to do,
I had so little time to fail.
There's some people that
You don't forget,
Even though you've only seen'm
One time or two.
When the roses fade
And I'm in the shade,
I'll remember you.

Didn't I, didn't I try to love you?
Didn't I, didn't I try to care?
Didn't I sleep, didn't I weep beside you
With the rain blowing in your hair?

I'll remember you
When the wind blows through the piney wood.
It was you who came right through,
It was you who understood.
Though I'd never say
That I done it the way
That you'd have liked me to.
In the end,
My dear sweet friend,
I'll remember you.

Photos: The Waist High Collection & amylangfield.com
Material: amylangfield.com & Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman
Lyrics: Special Rider Music via bobdylan.com