{"id":168,"date":"2007-09-25T21:50:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-26T04:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=168"},"modified":"2019-10-31T12:15:09","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T16:15:09","slug":"music-hum-joy-divisionnew-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2007\/09\/music-hum-joy-divisionnew-order\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Hum: Joy Division\/New Order"},"content":{"rendered":"

The college I went to has a required course called Music Humanities<\/a>, but everyone calls it “Music Hum,” so that’s what I’m going to call my occasional music posts. Hopefully, my alma mater won’t try to sue my ass as a result! You know how uptight peeps are these days! If they want to sue me, they can go to the back of the line, because I owe money to a cast of thousands.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sam Riley as Ian Curtis in the movie poster<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

Anyway, I just saw a screening of Control<\/a>, a biopic about Ian Curtis<\/a>, the singer and songwriter for the band Joy Division<\/a>. Joy Division was one of many great British bands formed between 1975 and 1977. The Manchester music scene that the band was part of has already been the subject of the 2002 movie 24 Hour Party People<\/a>. Control is much more serious than 24HPP: Ian struggled with depression and worsening epilepsy (he even had seizures on stage) and hanged<\/a> himself in May 1980, shortly before his 24th birthday and right before the band’s first U.S. tour was due to begin. The band released only one album, Unknown Pleasures<\/a>, during Ian’s lifetime. The second album, Closer<\/a>, came out shortly after his death and included “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” which sounds as fresh today as it did back then (click here<\/a> for a sample of the song).<\/p>\n

Sam Riley<\/a>, who plays Ian in Control, looks remarkably like the real thing, and the always-stellar Samantha Morton<\/a> makes the most of the always-thankless role of the long-suffering wife. (Deborah Curtis, who married Ian when both were teenagers, wrote the book<\/a> the movie is based on and is a producer.) And Toby Kebbell<\/a>, who plays band manager Rob Gretton<\/a>, is a highlight.<\/p>\n

Here’s the trailer. In the movie, I loved the long shot of Ian looking professional in a jacket, walking to his day job helping disabled people find employment…all very serious until you see the word “Hate” is painted on the back of the jacket. How punk! You can see a few frames of that here.<\/p>\n

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Joy Division is on iTunes. If you’re going to go for a whole album, I suggest Permanent, which is a good “best of” type of experience. But check out this page<\/a> for a what-to-buy guide. Joy Division continued without Ian under the name New Order, and they’re on iTunes too. You MUST own “Blue Monday” by New Order if you don’t already.<\/p>\n

Here’s a clip of Joy Division performing “Transmission” and “She’s Lost Control” in 1979, and you can get some of idea of Ian’s unusual, almost seizure-like dancing style. I thought Sam Riley captured it really well in the movie.<\/p>\n

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And here are some Ian Curtis\/Joy Division\/New Order links for your reading\/viewing pleasure, presented in no meaningful order. There will be a test later. There’s always a test in Music Hum!<\/p>\n