I mention all this now because I'm experiencing it yet again with No Joy's "Ghost Blonde" album (Mexican Summer). No Joy purloin from the same artists (fill in the blanks!) as Ringo Deathstarr so won't satisfy those searching for the merest glimmer of originality in their music but, as with RD, they do make a very pretty noise. A noise that when it hits high gear is more than a little exhilarating such as when the drummer bludgeons his kit to death about 1 minute and 26 seconds into "You Girls Smoke Cigarettes?" or during the rampaging first couple of minutes of "Hawaii". I suspect that the 21 year old me would have haughtily dismissed both groups (and probably their labels, too) but I'm not 21 years old any more and I don't really need each new record I buy to be the saviour of music. I guess, to some extent, that's due to my having a bit more disposable income and knowing that if I buy a stinker or even just a pleasantly average record, I won't have to sit and stare at it resentfully for ages before I can afford to buy another one. Mind you, in retrospect, I did buy the entire recorded output of Secret Shine, so even as a 21 year old I wasn't averse to a bit of MBV plundering! I guess what all this rambling is trying to say is that I like No Joy and Ringo Deathstarr while being fully cognisant of their historical debt*.
* - heh heh...just to illustrate that you can't trust anyone..I whipped the phrase 'historical debt' from this l.p.'s title
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