the fall - slates / a part of america therein, 1981 (1981 / 1982).

leave the capitol
exit this roman shell !

Playing vinyl has become a rare, near-sacred occurrence for me - my record player (which now lives in my bedroom, the most likely place I'll be able to use it) has CDs piled atop it, in my neverending quest to find space for them all.

Some time ago, I picked up a 10-inch copy of The Fall's Slates, because I wanted to have something that felt...well...real. I hadn't yet warmed to early Fall material though, and coupled with my inability to get around to using my record player enough, I never really listened to it.

In yesterday's purchasing (which I haven't mentioned here out of sheer guilt), I picked up the CD release of said EP, which also has A Part of America therein, 1981 tacked onto it. So I've finally been able to get around to appreciating the still-youthful exuberance of leave the capitol, an older lover etc., prole art threat, and so on. It's all fairly raw and mean, but that's what we're here for - Steve Hanley's relentless basslines coupled with Mark's half-intelligible rants.

white collar hits motorway services
it's the Hip Priest.

then there's the live album, A Part of America therein, 1981. I haven't felt a particular need to go and collect all of their live albums (there's a lot of them), but this is pleasant enough. Well. Perhaps "pleasant" isn't the right word for sneer-happy Mark E. Smith, is it ? If you've got May's issue of The Wire, you'll get to see a great photo of young Mark, one hand in his jeans pocket, the other grabbing the microphone, as part of an article about the beginnings of the band. As he says at the end of the live version of Hip Priest here, "that usually clears the halls...".