On February 17, 2014, Bob Casale died at the age of 61, in Los Angeles, California, due to heart failure. As with most musicians their legacy is both the influence and the music they leave behind, in the case of Casale what he accomplished with Devo is astounding.

The debut full-length album by Devo-“Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!” broke into the UK charts reaching a high of number-twelve, that set the chain reaction of legend.
Although released to mixed reviews, since then Rolling Stone has listed in amongst the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, it is also listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die-for a reason. It is the punk-electronic crossover, somewhere balancing between all-out rage and novelty recording. Produced by Brian Eno and David Bowie on the back of their experimental Berlin-trilogy, Devo became the perfect project.

“This is the band of the future”-David Bowie on Devo.

The strangest album-title comes from the lead single, released this month in 1978-“Jocko Homo" introduced the call-and-response "Are we not men?-We are Devo!". Indeed that single charted in the UK’s top-100.
“Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!” broke down barriers as it reflected perfectly the state of rock-music. The death of glam, the cliches which were already falling into the punk movement and the heavyweight stadium acts who played for the money and not the audience is meshed into every inch of the album. It flung back the pretentious notions of the old-guard with a cover of The Rolling Stones “Satisfaction”, became spokespeople for the hippy-drug generation with “Too Much Paranoias”. In time Devo could be perceived as journalists, highlighting their perception of what the music business had become.

Bob Casale was intricate in the Devo sound, providing back vocals, keyboards and that sixties-based rhythm guitar sound. Though his later years was spent in the field of soundtracks to movies such as - Four Rooms, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, the past would always reach for him in the form of reunion shows from 1996 until 2007.
Along with bands like Kraftwerk, Talking Heads, and Pere Ubu, Devo hailed a new era of electronic based compositions that set the trajectory for much of modern music. Looking deep with the modern framework of music points directly in the sound of LCD Soundsystem, Radiohead, even in Arcade Fire, you frequently find strong traces of Devo.

[KB]

On this day Bebruary 16th in 1981, today 45 years ago, The Sisters of Mercy played their very first live show, supporting The Thompson Twins, marking the beginning of what would become one of the most influential careers in gothic rock. The debut performance took place on February 16, 1981, at the now-legendary Alcuin College, part of the University of York in England.

Formed in Leeds in 1980 by vocalist Andrew Eldritch and guitarist Gary Marx, The Sisters of Mercy were initially conceived as a project to hear their own songs on the radio. What began almost as a lark quickly evolved into something far more significant. By the time they stepped onto the stage at Alcuin College, the band had already begun shaping the stark drum-machine-driven sound and dark lyrical aesthetic that would define their legacy.

The early lineup featured Eldritch on vocals and Marx on guitar, accompanied by a Boss DR-55 drum machine that would later become famously known as “Doktor Avalanche.” The stripped-down setup gave the performance a raw, mechanical intensity that stood in sharp contrast to the post-punk scene of the time.

Though the audience that night could hardly have predicted it, this modest university gig laid the groundwork for a band that would go on to influence generations of alternative and gothic musicians. Throughout the 1980s, The Sisters of Mercy built a devoted following with releases such as First and Last and Always and their later anthems “Temple of Love” and “This Corrosion.”

Forty-five years on, that February evening in York remains a pivotal moment in gothic rock history — the night The Sisters of Mercy first brought their dark vision to the stage.

"The Telephone Call / Der Telefon-Anruf" by the German band Kraftwerk was released in February 1987 as the second single from their ninth studio album, Electric Café (1986). The single became Kraftwerk’s second number-one on Billboard Hot Dance Club Play and stayed two weeks at the number-one spot. Although the unsettling black-and-white video suggests Wolfgan Flür is singing the lyrics It’s actually Karl Bartos Vaclas that can be heard!

The remixes on the singles were done by François Kevorkian.

The Telephone Call / Der Telefon-Anruf" (7")

A. The Telephone Call (Remix) 3:49
B. Der Telefon-Anruf 3:49

The Telephone Call / Der Telefon-Anruf" (12")

A1. The Telephone Call (Remix) 3:49
A2. Der Telefon-Anruf 3:49

B1. House Phone 4:54
B2. Der Telefon-Anruf" (Remix)

The Telephone Call - Lyrics

[EN]
I give you my affection and I give you my time
Trying to get a connection on the telephone line
You're so close but far away
I call you up all night and day

I give you my affection and I give you my time
Trying to get a connection on the telephone line
You're so close but far away
I call you up all night and day
You're so close but far away
I call you up all night and day

I give you my affection and I give you my time
Trying to get a connection on the telephone line
I call you up from time to time
To hear your voice on the telephone line
I call you up from time to time
To hear your voice on the telephone line

[DE]

Ich geb' dir meine Zuneigung und meine Zeit
Ich muß dich wiedersehen, wann ist es soweit?
Du bist mir nah und doch so fern
Ich ruf' dich an, ich hör' dich gern

Songwriters: Florian Schneider Esleben / Karl Bartos / Ralf Huetter
© Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

Today, exactly 47 years ago (14 February 1979) John Peel broadcast the first Peel Sessions, a studio live session performed and recorded by Joy Division at the BBC Maida Vale studios in London on January 31st, 1979.

Below the setlist of this recording & broadcast session.

Exercise One
Insight
She's Lost Control
Transmission

At the time of broadcasting, all performed songs were previously unreleased.

Later that same year, on 10th December, John Peel broadcast a second recording session by Joy Division

7 years later, in 1986, the first 'The Peel Sessions' EP, was released by Strange Fruit Records. The version of Transmission featured on this EP is one of the few recordings available where both Ian Curtis and Bernard Sumner played guitars at the same time.

The EP spent thirteen weeks on the UK Indie Chart, peaking at number 4.

The release of a second volume of the Joy Division Peel Sessions would follow in 1987.

Below you can listen to the original repeat tranmission broadcasted by John Peel on 5th April.

Discogs

Today, Peter Hook (Born Peter Woodhead) of Joy Division and New Order turns 70 years of age. Celebrating his career in music is near impossible with respect to the remarkable success he achieved with the aforementioned bands, however that moment in time at the start of his career may perhaps be the place that sums up Hooky the best. Something he has taken to revisit in recent years with his band Peter Hook And The Light, again touring the individual albums this year which will see him perform the albums Technique and ‘Republic’ in their entirety. Keeping the flame burning brightly as his own unique support act at all shows where he performs a selection of Joy Division numbers in his own faithful style.

Transmission

The pulsing bass , the thunder of the drums, the synthesiser and bass working perfectly as a unit, and then Ian Curtis singing in his low-larynx-gothic projection;
"When the routine bites hard
And ambitions are low
And the resentment rides high
But emotions won't grow",

'Love will tear us apart', perhaps one of the most memorable songs by Joy Division,their calling card,released posthumously after Ian's death.The lyrics a mirror of his frame of mind and his failing marriage to Deborah(Deborah Woodruff).

To say one song was all there was to Joy Division,that they can be defined by three minutes and eighteen minutes of dark thumbing brilliance or even their two studios albums of perfect surreal-starkness-,'Unknown Pleasures' 1979 and 'Closer' 1980.
The metamorphosis that happened with New Order does not define anything that happened before either.

Joy Division were a sum of everything that was good about Punk and 70s music in general. Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and certainly David Bowie and his Berlin era, with 'Low' and 'Heroes' an inspiration, after all pre-Joy Division were called Warsaw taken from the Bowie song of the same name.
But Curtis injected his own vision and distinctive voice to it, Joy Division have influenced so much about today's modern music from The Cure to Radiohead.

Manchester

One of the biggest influences on the Manchester scene was the infamous gig by the Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall on the 6th-of -June 1976 as part of the Anarchy tour. In the audience that night were, apart from Curtis, future members of the Buzzcocks were present, whose founder member Pete Shelley organized the gig and even opened for the Pistols. But more importantly to the story the two founders of Factory Records Martin Hannet and Tony Wilson. On a side note however. also present and influenced was Mark E. Smith of The Fall, Mick Hucknall of Frantic Elevators and much later Simply Red and one Steven Patrick Morrissey, who would form The Smiths. The influence that one night had on the late 70's and early 80's music industry is staggering.

The goth-injected, controlled passion of Joy Divisions second and final album 'Closer',is in essence a brilliant rock album, some have gone as far to say the best rock album of the-eighties. Released posthumously on July-the-18th 1980 almost two months after the death of Ian Curtis.
Unloved by Sumner and Hook, unhappy again with Martin Hannets mix, very hard to imagine why as Hannet, both genius and madman, has managed to merge the bands sound into a more positive and melodic experience than on 'Unknown Pleasures'.

Peter Hook and New Order exist as two separate entities now, but their sound is rooted as it always will be very much in the past.