Manchester Music by Mara

“Manchester Music” was an impulsive theme, but it comes from a place of long-established admiration, devotion and the fact that gloomy Manchester is fitting for the beginning of October. The bands on this mix represent bands that, in my opinion, pioneered punk, absorbed the energy and transformed it into something revolutionary. They helped me fall in love with music. I remember many of the instances where I heard these songs for the first time and the almost ecstatic energy that I felt, like nostalgia for something that I was never even around for (I wasn’t born until 1988 and the bands on this mix span from 1976 – 1984, some of my favorite years for music). Many of these bands have been with me during a multitude of emotional experiences and helped me to grow, challenged me as a person, and brought new perspective to tired situations. I love them all dearly and I hope that Greg, my October mix buddy, enjoys some of them, too,

The bands on this mix go in chronological order as to when they formed. I also have never doubled up on a band before, but I really wanted to include two songs by The Fall and Buzzcocks because I’m playing favorites and also because things become really electronic-y and dance-y in Manchester after 1984, when the scene became Madchester. I also had to make it to 12 songs somehow. 

1. Joy Division - "Digital"

2. Buzzcocks - "What Do I Get?"

I’ve always admired Pete Shelley (lead singer) due to the fact that he constantly, and ambiguously, wrote about love in all its nasty and pleasurable forms. The man was perennially love sick, which was kind of uncool in punk rock. In general many of their songs go from casual sex to heartache to angry accusations to passionate, bordering on insane love declarations in very quick succession. Buzzcocks brought sincere emotion to punk rock. 

3. Buzzcocks - "Love is Lies"

4. The Fall - "Hit the North, Pt. 1"

5. The Fall - "Couldn't Get Ahead"

6. Magazine - "Sweetheart Contract"

7. New Order - "Blue Monday"

8. The Chameleons - "Mad Jack"

9. The Smiths - "Rubber Ring"

10. Morrissey - "Everyday is Like Sunday"

11. Inspiral Carpets - "This Is How It Feels"

12. The Stone Roses - "She Bangs The Drums"