Oh, Manchester, So Much To Answer For

I find it surprising, amusing even, that whilst the rock press whips itself into a frenzy over this supposed "new breed" of d.o.r. (dance-oriented rock, a term largely constructed to help yanks deal with new wave in the early '80s), e.g. out hud (who are sensational; I hope to write something about them soon), vhs or beta, the rapture, et.al., everyone's forgetting one of the real trailblazers in this regard: big audio dynamite. mick jones was in two great bands, folks. and with b.a.d., he took the clash to its inevitable (musical) conclusion, upping the dub and reverb quotients, tossing in lots of synthesized junk, even playing with turntables. his partner-in-crime, don letts (who just won a grammy sunday, for directing the clash longform vid westway to the world) could do anything - design, music, videos - and did with b.a.d. their first album, 1985's this is big audio dynamite, is a marvel of tape loops, f/x, and all of the above. its followup, no. 10, upping street, is almost as good. "e=mc2"! "the bottom line"! "c'mon every beatbox" (which took a page from the malcolm mclaren book of white brits getting into hiphop, and rewrote it)! "badrock city," a b.a.d. collage which got played on major r-and-b stations in '86, for pete's sake! yes, strummer was great. but jones was no slouch, either - and frankly, made more interesting music post-clash (unless you lurve that billy bragg-via-paul weller "grand old man of punk" thing - and you can have that). that's my bottom line.