LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS

So seriously.
Have you listened to Van Der Graaf Generator lately? You fucking should, dawg.

I had always chosen to dwell on the first couple albums, for whatever reason; however, I have been listening to Still Life and Godbluff nonstop for days now. There is a certain amount of piss and vinegar in those two that just grab you by the back of the neck and throw you around the room. There is just something about this band that is so sinister but smart and so evil but peaceful. It certainly doesn't hurt that Peter Hammil writes endlessly about the endless futility of modern life, albeit often through some sort of sci-fi allegory.
For whatever reason this band has never rang more true or sounded better to me than right now. Maybe it's caused by this second attack of winter making me want to doom and gloom it up a little bit more, or maybe its my general morose mood as of late, but this band is destroying my right now.

Also...
For those of you into the unfortunate format that is CD (and for those of us who download more music than we should) a few of their finer records just got a recent re-mastering with bonus tracks... and are worth hunting down as they sound WAY fucking better than the first gen CDs that are out there.

In Closing...
Apparently I am not the only one in the midst of a VDGG mindfuck. I opened up the newest issue of Wire and there is a great multi-page interview with Peter Hammill. Odd how these things line up sometimes...

PS: Were you aware that Charisma records was basically founded so that VDGG wouldn't get screwed over by another label (re: mercury).