My favorite band - Yahhhh.

/Now go hang yourself.

Pansy Division were better.

I cried when their lead singer, Ian Astbury, shot himself and his girlfriend in New York.

Meh, I don't go for that sugary corporate pop music mush. I'm sure it's fine for you, though.

Hit me with your rhythm stick. Hit me!

/wrong Ian?

Let's dance to Joy Division,
And celebrate the irony,
Everything is going wrong,
But we're so happy,
Let's dance to Joy Division,
And raise our glass to the ceiling,
'Cos this could all go so wrong,
But we're just so happy,
Yeah we're so happy.

/Just saw "Control" on DVD and was a bit disappointed
//Not worth buying a Zune for, though

Control wasn't a documentary. And it was bloody good.

Do you want me to get off of your lawn, subby?

I know of them and they're terrible. No talent hacks. If their lead singer hadn't killed himself no one would care about them.

And if you don't know this band, hang your head in shame

You give the rest of us JD fans a bad name with douchebaggery such as this.

They were okay.

I know them...one good song and a dickhead singer who killed himself.

love will tear them apart again

Please don't talk about Joy Division, my wife forgot to lock up the razor blades.

Submitter,
You're a douche.

KTHNXBYE

Never heard of them that I can remember, but then again I haven't listened to a music radio station in 10 years (or more). From the little I do hear I haven't missed much.

Er, Control is a biopic film.

This documentary has been out a while. There are others like Joy Division: Under Review, and another by the BBC, but this Joy Division Documentary 2007 is a very good addition. It has Curtis's girlfriend in it for one. Not too sure about the arty farty slow motion and excessively long held shots though.

I don't know this band and I hold my head high. I would be ashamed if I didn't know who Sonny Boy Williamson or Son House were.

Yeah, Joy Division pretty much rocked.

Sorry subby, I don't listen to popular stuff, but only because it's popular and I'm so much better than that.

for good or for awesome: Yeah, Joy Division pretty much rocked.

Gwar for 6th graders.

Joe Moneybags McBigCock: Never heard of them that I can remember, but then again I haven't listened to a music radio station in 10 years (or more). From the little I do hear I haven't missed much.

Ian Curtis died over 25 years ago. Damn us kids and our modern music, eh?

I love Joy Division, but I can see why many people wouldn't like them. His voice takes some getting used to.

/ Warsaw > Joy Division > New Order

attractive and successful African-American.

meh the smiths were so much better.

I thought 'Control' sucked

suggestive_eye_movement: They were okay.

This. They're massively overrated, but not bad.

I will stick with the smiths
/could you say they were a major influence for nirvana, or at least for kurt
//was that insensitive... so shoot me...

I don't get all this "you should be ashamed if you don't know' stuff. You Joy Division fans should take this opportunity to tell those not in the know what is so great about them.

I absolutely love when I meet someone who doesn't know an artist I think is great. What is more fun than turning a friend on to something you love? Music evangelism -- the only kind I really give a crap about.

So... all you people... don't be ashamed. just bring your iPods over to The Dynamite Monkey. I got the fix fer what ails ya.

Fresh Air had a lengthy piece on Control yesterday. I think you can get the podcast here (linky). Worth a listen.

Back in the day would get home from the club put on Closer for a little "mood" music....Farked to that album many times....

Also a very good band, there would be no Smiths if it were not for Joy Division.




BTW..I see your Son House and Sonny Boy Williamson, and raise you Leadbelly, and Robert Johnson.

Well, they're no Interpol.

awfulperson: Well, they're no Interpol.

ZING!

They were the original Emo band

/still guiltily listens to Unknown Pleasures once in awhile

I wonder if Ian would have turned into an aging, pudgy crooner like Morrissey. Maybe he just saw the future...

I might be losing my mind, but I could have sworn that when I saw this doc at SXSW (the one directed by Grant Gee), it was called "Control."

But now it seems that "Control" is the title of the Anton Corbijn movie, and the Gee film is simply called "Joy Division."

The Gee documentary is superb, by the way, regardless of what it's titled.

I kept calling them Sub-Division.

vevolis
I kept calling them Sub-Division.

"Subdivisions
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
Subdivisions
In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Conform or be cast out
Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth"


/Joy Division rocks
// but so does Rush
/// LOL

many average bands are somehow catapulted into a greatness they don't actually merit because someone in the band died

7of7:

I know of them and they're terrible. No talent hacks. If their lead singer hadn't killed himself no one would care about them.


Well, you've certainly got me pegged. See, way back in 1980, I got into my time machine and leapt ahead far enough to learn that Ian Curtis had hung himself. When I got back to "real" time, myself and a friend immediately booked flights from Houston to NY to make sure we would be there to miss one of their first American appearances (shows that were cancelled, obviously, circumstances being what they were). Because, of course, we only cared about the band due to the fact that we already knew that the singer was dead.

mrEdude
many average bands are somehow catapulted into a greatness they don't actually merit because someone in the band died

*cough* Nirvana *cough*

The Dynamite Monkey: I don't get all this "you should be ashamed if you don't know' stuff. You Joy Division fans should take this opportunity to tell those not in the know what is so great about them.

I absolutely love when I meet someone who doesn't know an artist I think is great. What is more fun than turning a friend on to something you love? Music evangelism -- the only kind I really give a crap about.

So... all you people... don't be ashamed. just bring your iPods over to The Dynamite Monkey. I got the fix fer what ails ya.

A thousand times this.

Joy Division, and later New Order, like them or not, are 2 of the most influential bands of the past 30 years. However if you want to see a movie partly about them that is full of awesome see 24 Hour Party People.

oh boy oh boy oh boy
i just bought and watched Control last night
oh boy oh boy oh boy

Fresh Air had a lengthy piece on Control yesterday. I think you can get the podcast here (linky). Worth a listen.


Thanks very much for that link, flaEsq. Huge added bonus (for me, anyway): there was an additional link on the page for a bit about a new documentary on saxophonist Albert Ayler, someone I was already quite a fan of when I was first exposed to Joy Division.

Monotonous, overrated trash. Thank you, and goodnight!

I know of them and they're terrible. No talent hacks. If their lead singer hadn't killed himself no one would care about them.

Fixed

ramell: A thousand times this.

Thank you.


DrBenway: there was an additional link on the page for a bit about a new documentary on saxophonist Albert Ayler, someone I was already quite a fan of when I was first exposed to Joy Division

I know Ayler also committed suicide -- but there are rumors he was murdered, and that when they pulled him out of the east river he was tied to a jukebox. Morbidly fascinating urban legend stuff.

sickb0y: Joy Division, and later New Order, like them or not, are 2 of the most influential bands of the past 30 years.

Came here to say this. Joy Division spawned the post-punk scene. Countless bands - The Smiths, The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen and Siouxsie, to name a few - were influenced by them. Equally so with New Order, which ushered in synth-based cerebral pop.

The Dynamite Monkey:

I don't get all this "you should be ashamed if you don't know' stuff. You Joy Division fans should take this opportunity to tell those not in the know what is so great about them.

I absolutely love when I meet someone who doesn't know an artist I think is great. What is more fun than turning a friend on to something you love? Music evangelism -- the only kind I really give a crap about.


The flipside of that, unfortunately, is the phenomenon of people with such a fervor for denigrating a band like this -- not just to say "I don't get it" or "I didn't like them" but (just from perusing this thread) "I know of them and they're terrible," "No talent hacks," "one good song and a dickhead singer who killed himself," and "Monotonous, overrated trash." Did someone in the band fark your dog and kill your sister?

I'm old enough to have listened to this particular band as their records were being originally released -- the newest batch of imports arrived and we would snag them. For me, they were one of a number of new bands appearing at the time that exposed me to ideas I had not considered regarding the possibilities that were out there for creating, performing and recording music. Consider that that was a dynamic very much in flux at that time. These were people who, like myself, my friends, and a lot of other folks, were winging it; in essence, your ideas were out-pacing your skill set, and what you were learning to play was constantly having to catch up with the ideas and sounds in your head. Over the years to follow, an awful lot of new music (some good, some admittedly not so good) came out of things that happened in that brief period.

To my thinking, comments like those I noted above betray an ignorance or at least a failure or refusal to appreciate how whole new sounds and genres of music come into existence. And in my book, that's a very lazy way to listen to music of any type.

Was that passionately geeky enough for you?

The Dynamite Monkey: ramell: A thousand times this.

Thank you.


DrBenway: there was an additional link on the page for a bit about a new documentary on saxophonist Albert Ayler, someone I was already quite a fan of when I was first exposed to Joy Division

I know Ayler also committed suicide -- but there are rumors he was murdered, and that when they pulled him out of the east river he was tied to a jukebox. Morbidly fascinating urban legend stuff.

Like the urban legend that Joy Division singer Ian Curtis hung himself while standing on a block of ice; slowly strangling while it melted...