4Ever Songs: Echo & The Bunnymen ‘The Killing Moon’

Echo & The Bunnymen are the very essence of 1980s post-punk cool. Throughout that decade, the Liverpool band released album’s like their 1980 debut Crocodiles, Heaven Up Here, and the record which won the group mainstream success, 1983’s Porcupine.

The group combined the poetic sensibility of Leonard Cohen with the gobby angst of punk to create a potent blend of new-wave and, in doing so, have left an indelible mark on UK music — and to think they were nearly called ‘The Daz Men’.

Recorded at Crescent Studio in Bath, Echo & The Bunnymen laid down arguably one of the great post-punk anthems of all time. While many have tried to define the song’s sound and the meaning behind the lyrics, the truth is that, according to its creator McCulloch, “It’s about everything, from birth to death to eternity and God – whatever that is – and the eternal battle between fate and the human will. It contains the answer to the meaning of life. It’s my ‘To be or not to be.’”

Best Covers: Echo & The Bunnymen ‘People Are Strange’

Carrying on the theme of  Echo & The Bunnymen providing tracks for Vampire related media and their propensity for delivering incredible covers, this take on The Doors single from 1967 suggests that McCulloch could easily have stood in for Jim Morrison on the band’s 2002 reformation, a part filled byThe Doorss Ian Astbury. This cover gained the band further cult status by association with movie fans and remains a classic late 80s cut.  Revel in the fuzzy VHS quality of the MTV clip.

Favourite Gig: Preoccupations

Preoccupations (formerly Viet Cong), to the rescue of post-punk. Disturbing and profound both for their forms and for their lyrics, Preoccupations await you in Barcelona today at La [2] of Apolo. They are a project that you should listen to almost by obligation. For fans of Savages, Clinic, This Heat, Liars, Deerhoof, Sebadoh, Echo & The Bunnymen or Pavement. We go back even further to see the flavors of bands from the 80s like Joy Division, The Church, or The Fall. They pick up their sober and dark style and place it today.

Local Bands: Polseguera

El mallorquí resident a Ciutat Vella Tomeu Mulet és un obrer del rock. Baixista i cantant de Beach Beach i membre de projectes extingits com Kana Kapila o Der Ventilator, enceta nova banda amb dos sospitosos habituals de l’escena de la ciutat: Verónica Alonso (Me and the Bees) i Sergi Egea (un dels fundadors del segell vigatà Famèlic). Abracen un postpunk agressiu en català i modelat per l’escola britànica d’Ian McCulloch (Echo & the Bunnymen). Després d’haver-se passat un any voltant per escenaris de tot el país, ja estan llestos per a l’examen discogràfic, que podrem escoltar les setmanes vinents amb una edició de 100 còpies en format casset. Portarà per nom ‘Sa mata escrita’.

Productora de Pardals: Inheaven

Once again mestre Bergman discovers an amazing new band from London: Inheaven. South London quartet Inheaven have already got Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas’ seal of approval, releasing their debut single ‘Regeneration’ on his Cult Records label in the US earlier this year (the track got a release on up-and-coming new label AMF Records over here). Now they’re following it up with an even more promising cut in ‘Bitter Town’. It’s a dose of gloomy ’80s-indebted indie rock, recalling Jesus And Mary Chain and Echo & The Bunnymen in its expansive atmosphere and echoing vocals.