Joy Division

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I am ready and willing to pronounce Joy Division as the greatest band of all-time.

My "favorites" will be Hall and Oates or Crowded House, but in terms of what we can all agree is the BEST? I'm thinking perhaps it's Joy Division.

This is the point where I would load some Youtube videos, so some filthy Saxon dogs would say how much it sucks. I won't do that here. Damn does this band make me want to start a band again though!

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That is the worst opinion I have ever heard about anything.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Welcome to Jolt Country Music! Music done right!

Joy Division was a band that was active from 1976-1980. I guess the thing that sort of amazes me about them is that, in their own right, each piece of the four-member band can play their instruments:

1) Well
2) In the classically-trained style that you hope for
3) In ways that nobody else was doing

The one thing I really don't know about them is where the name came from. Lots of their music is about depression, isolation and a desire to end it all... weird that they made up "Joy Division" for it, haha!

[Tdarcos]

I am ready and willing to pronounce Joy Division as the greatest band of all-time.

That is the worst opinion I have ever heard about anything.

No sir, that's reserved for every time you type on a keyboard or open your mouth.

I think his opinion is bullshit, but that doesn't make it the worst opinion ever. "The world is flat," "The sun revolves around the earth," "Stomach ulcers are caused by stress," were all stupid opinions, many held by otherwise intelligent people. And those opinions were much worse.

Aerosmith, Duran Duran, Journey, Tears For Fears, ABBA, ELO, The Moody Blues, Hall & Oates, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, (and going back to the 1950s) Bill Haley and the Comets ("Rock Around the Clock" was one of the biggest selling records of all time until Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (single and album) blew every prior record (pun unintentional) away), among others, are almost certainly much better bands than this brand-new group I've never heard of, (and never heard).

[Tdarcos]

Welcome to Jolt Country Music! Music done right!

Joy Division was a band that was active from 1976-1980.

Stop right there. You have no business calling a band that only lasted four years "the greatest band ever." I would say a band has to be around (lots) longer than that to be considered a great band, or has to produce awesome material consistently over a shorter period to fall in that range. It's like "best of the best," which means 90th or 95th percentile, depending on whom you ask.

Just like with software packages, especially open source, most of these projects only get really good after they've been out in the world being used and banged on, and regularly updated to fix bugs, add features, and improvements, for at least ten years.

I guess the thing that sort of amazes me about them is that, in their own right, each piece of the four-member band can play their instruments:

1) Well
2) In the classically-trained style that you hope for
3) In ways that nobody else was doing

The one thing I really don't know about them is where the name came from. Lots of their music is about depression, isolation and a desire to end it all... weird that they made up "Joy Division" for it, haha!

Here's one of their songs, an official video from Rhino Rwcords. It's not bad, it's okay and parts of the song remind me of others. (The "whistle" part, about 18 seconds in, reminds me of "Where the Streets Have No Name") hey're probably a reasonably good band but no where near a "great" one.

[youtube][/youtube]

Organization names can come from anywhere. I was going to create a company that provided quality certifications of cleanliness, and I filed the paperwork for "Restroom Inspection Commission of Northern Virginia, Inc," Unfortunately the State Corporation Commission informs me the name isn't acceptable because private organizations can't use the word "commission" in their name. So thinking of the patch Spock put on Kirk in the Star Trek film "The Undiscovered Country," before he and McCoy beam down to be tied on Klingon over the murders, I resubmitted a new name, "Viridian Development Corporation," and that's where my company got its name. (Technically the word "viridian" is a shade of green.)

Lipps, Inc. (most famous for "Funkytown") was going to call itself "Lip Sync," but someone else was using that.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Aerosmith, Duran Duran, Journey, Tears For Fears, ABBA, ELO, The Moody Blues, Hall & Oates, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, (and going back to the 1950s) Bill Haley and the Comets ("Rock Around the Clock" was one of the biggest selling records of all time until Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (single and album) blew every prior record (pun unintentional) away), among others, are almost certainly much better bands than this brand-new group I've never heard of, (and never heard).

They're the best brand-new group in the world right now! Leaving you hanging for more!!!

[Flack]

My friend Justin was my "new wave/goth" friend when we first met. I was raised on and still listen to lots of different genres of music, but hadn't been exposed to that music yet when Justin and I first met in the early-to-mid 80s. While I was all into heavy metal with a little rap and a lot of pop music still blasting from my boombox, Justin was into bands I had never heard of: Bauhaus, Love and Rockets, The Cure, Roxy Music, New Order, and yes, Joy Division. Some of those bands I got into (specifically the Cure and Love and Rockets) while the others became bands I wish I liked but never got into.

I'm going to use this thread as a sign to go listen to all the Joy Division albums. I'll report back soon.

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Leaving you hanging for more!!!

Ehhheh. Eehhhhehhehehe.

Eehhhhhhehehehehehe.

Eheh.

[Flack]

By the way, I just wanted to point out that in one single response, Tdarcos managed to go from Joy Division, to the length of time a band must be together to be considered great, to how long open source software packages must be around to "get really good" (at least 10 years), to posting a Joy Division video, to determining that Joy Division is a good band but not a great one based on one video (specifically "the whistle part", which reminds him of a U2 song), to the time he had the original name of his company rejected and then, based on an episode of Star Trek, used the word "Viridian" instead, and then wraps it up with a joke about Lipps, Inc.

Say what you will. The man's a genius.

[gsdgsd]

They're one of the bands that I (unfairly) dismissed when I was a teenager, because I was an angry little punk rocker and had no time for anything I (without hearing) thought was new wave/goth/whatever. So I didn't get into them til my 30s, and immediately felt stupid for blowing them off.

(other bands in a similar boat: the Pixies and Killing Joke. Robb, if you like JD, give Killing Joke's first album a try.)

Perhaps because of the aforementioned punk days, I like the earlier stuff -- "Warsaw" and "An Ideal for Living" -- the most, but overall, yeah, Joy Division were pretty keen and I was a big dork for ignoring them for 15 years!

[AArdvark]

Still listening to the discography, results to follow.

[Vark not logged in]

They can write, I'll give them that. There's something about the recording quality that makes them sound...demo-ish. Kinda really high end amateurs. Like Duke Jupiter before they became mainstream. At least as mainstream as they got, anyway. I listened to the discography but skipped through some of the boring songs.

I give them 3/5 ants overall


THE
BIG EARS
AARDVARK

[ICJ]

I feel like there are similarities in singing between Ian Curtis and my friend who was the vocalists for Beaver.

There are also differences, namely that the last time anyone saw my friend it was with him enjoying a ballgame with his wife and kids rather than him rocking back and forth over a kitchen table chair.