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Today in rock history: on this date in 1981, following the demise of British post-punk pioneers Joy Division, three of the band’s remaining members released the first album under their new moniker, New Order, entitled Movement. Consisting mostly of new material, the album started a brand new chapter for Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris. After the decision was made to end Joy Division after lead singer Ian Curtis’s suicide in 1980, the three former members wrote and recorded a new batch of songs for their first album, yet included their version of a song entitled “Ceremony,” which was actually part of the set list of the very last concert Joy Division ever performed and “In A Lonely Place,” a song Joy Division had experimented with in recording studios but never actually released. The record was met with minimal fanfare and reviews were lukewarm at best; it wasn’t until the band continued to consistently create its own blend of popular electronic based dance music that this fine record was truly heralded as the enormous achievement it truly is.
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Today in rock history; Ian Curtis commits suicide, Miami Pop Festival is bornand more
Today in rock history: on this date in 1978, after paying their dues as part of the original British punk rock explosion, Siouxsie and the Banshees released its groundbreaking debut album, The Scream. Now considered a post-punk classic, the album found the band experimenting with sounds and styles that far exceeded the confines of the punk rock sound from which it hailed. Lead singer Siouxsie Sioux had already gained the reputation of being an intriguing, enthralling performer and on this, her very first album, proved her appeal was as vibrant on vinyl as onstage. The critically acclaimed record contained Banshees classics like “Metal Postcard” and “Jigsaw Feeling” as well as an inspired cover of the Beatles’ foray into hard rock, “Helter Skelter.”
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Today in rock history: on this date in 1977, Canadian-born singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen released his fifth studio album, Death of a Ladies’ Man. Cohen, who’d normally utilized a simpler, less complicated production style on his previous albums, this time enlisted the assistance of wall of sound producer Phil Spector, which made the record sound radically different than his prior works. Critics and fans alike were confused and confounded by the sound Cohen put forth on the record; reviews for the album were poor as the music press felt that the style of the record was a major misstep for the normally highly-regarded and respected artist. Songs were co-written with Spector and although the record contains the epic title track, the songs on the album were largely ignored by Cohen and rarely performed live in concert. Read our review of Cohen's 2013 set in Tampa here.
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Today in rock history: on this date in 1987, pioneering goth rock group The Sisters of Mercy released its second studio album, Floodland. A massive underground hit, the record helped to solidify the band’s place among the leaders of the genre it helped create. The full band had fallen apart after the release of its debut album, 1985’s First and Last and Always, but founder Andrew Eldritch continued the band’s name alone with the help of a drum machine and the addition of bassist and vocalist Patricia Morrison. Enlisting Jim Steinman to co-produce the album (who was best known for his work with rock singer Meat Loaf), the Sisters successfully created a record that became a late 80s dark wave club classic thanks to the inclusion of the dancefloor hits "This Corrosion," "Dominion," "1959," and "Lucretia My Reflection." On the same date, three years later, the band followed up the successful Floodland with its third and final album, the more rock-oriented Vision Thing. Ex-Generation X and Sigue Sigue Sputnik bassist Tony James was added to the band’s lineup and, although not as warmly received as its predecessor, the album did include the alternative, underground hits “More,” “Doctor Jeep” and the hard rocking title track.
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This article appears in Nov 9-16, 2017.