Before I serve the meat, I wanted to toss a few potatoes on your plate: I’m pleased to report that Rock Sellout has been asked to be BreakThru Radio’s “Blogger of the Week”. This is the first of five posts that will appear on their site this week. Stop by and check them out, specifically our friend Jack Rabid’s (The Big Takeover) show. Fair enough?!
Joy Division fans will once again have a reason to dance (and celebrate the irony). The biographical film Control will hit store shelves on June 3rd. If that wasn’t enough of an Ian Curtis fix, you can get your hands on the Grant Lee directed documentary Joy Division on June 17th.
Did that news create a smile big enough to push the cheeks off the sides of your face? Maybe this will: I have a copy of each DVD to send to one lucky winner!!
What you’ll win:
1. Control DVD: Fighting a personal battle with epilepsy, romantic troubles with his wife and girlfriend, and the overwhelming success of the band, Ian Curtis, the enigmatic singer of Joy Division, commits suicide at the age of 23, the night before embarking on an American tour.
2. Joy Division DVD: Interviews with band members Bernard Summer, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and other individuals, blend with archival footage and more to offer a chronological account of the influential late 1970s English rock band Joy Division.
How you can win them: Share your favorite Joy Division memory in the comments section…I’ll pick my favorite comment and send the DVDs to one lucky reader. Easy enough, right?!
I’m looking for creativity here, kids. Don’t tell me the song “Love Will Tear Us Apart” changed your life and expect to win. Tell me where you were when you first heard it, how you were feeling at that particular time, etc. Get the picture?
As much as it hurts to write this: US entrants only. Contributors of Rock Sellout and BreakThru Radio are not eligible to win. Contest ends Sunday, June 1st (12pm CST).
Download: Joy Division - “Warsaw”
Download: Joy Division - “Leaders Of Men”
May 27th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
I will be honest, I got into them way too late. In fact I knew who New Order was long before I ever knew of a Joy Division. But I had three very cool and very Bauhausian friends in high school. And I used to scan their pencil cases and binders for band names I’d never heard of. (hey we all actually drew our favourite bands logos in those days our school books - not just copied and pasted them to a Facebook profile)
While I was still knee deep in the world of metal… the kind spelled with umalots, I couldn’t help but notice the names of these weird bands my goth punk friends were into. Skinny Puppy. Echo & The Bunnymen. The Exploited. And Joy Division.
Fast forward through highschool and move on to my university years. Long since bored of metal and almost tired of grunge. I got into bands like Helmet. Quicksand. Fugazi. These hardcore bands for lack of a better name with incredibly smart musicians who were revered in their own right. And they all seemed to have something in common - they cite The Joy Division as an influence. I figure there must be something worth looking into.
And then I find this band I like called Girls Against Boys. And in scouring for songs by them, I uncover a track by them, from a compilation celebrating the songs of the Joy Division. They covered, “She’s Lost Control” on the album ‘Means to an End: The Music of Joy Division’. I actually found the track on 7 inches of glorious vinyl. From the moment I got it on the record player I think I played that song over and over like fifty-jillion times. That first groove was so wickedly cool. I was in it hook, line and sinker.
So that week I go to my favourite record store, and buy “Permanent”. I play it, and realize what I had been missing all those years. And I realize why so many bands, people and artists were influenced by them. Its really good. Ian Curtis was worth listening to. And The Joy Division, while lightening in a bottle on an extra short fuse, they definitely made a worthy place in the history of music in a very short time.
I may have been way too many years late to the game, and got into them too late to be considered anything less than a poseur, but quite honestly I don’t really care. Because when I put on their music, and it goes in my ears, galldarnit, I really friggen love it.
May 30th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Joy Division are the soundtrack to my deepest darkest desires, dreams and fears. I remember discovering Joy Division on a trip to Dallas when I was younger. I had one of their cassettes and I was very ill listening to Ian Curtis. I was soc sick that I was hallucinating, shivering in the back seat of my Papi’s car. I was scared, sick and felt alone and out of place. But someone Ian spoke to me and guided me as my Papi drove through this Manchester, England-esquse warehouse district. it was as if for a moment in time I was back in the streets where Ian grew up and I was visualizing the world that inspired the words I was hearing that moment.
Ian is more than the voice of the depressed. He’s our sonic confessor. He sings the words we are too frightened to utter ourselves. It gives me and the rest of us and escape for the deep thoughts we may be unwilling to share. By giving me and the rest of us this outlet he gives the space within the music of Joy Division to release the tension of chaos and disorder in our lives. He lived and experienced the darkness for us. He broke through to the other side so we don’t have to. He lives today inside of me and all of us and is the epitome of the quote “the road of excess leads to a palace of wisdom.”
I feel more connected and within myself because of the voice of Ian Curtis and Joy Division. Sometimes you have to look inside the darkness of our shadows to appreciate the light of our lives. Ian and Joy Division continue to do this for me with a sound that is timeless and reflection of the heart and soul of human nature that burns within us all.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:35 am
John has been selected to receive the prize giveaway!