Blonde Redhead / The Pre-4AD Years

Blonde Redhead

Per a request for Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons, I thought an overview of Blonde Redhead's early work was in order. If you're more familiar with the later "4AD" years, you'll see the seeds of their future planted here... These earlier recordings are also where they were penned as the second coming of Sonic Youth (they shook that comparison off by 2000).

Blonde Redhead / Blonde Redhead
Released 1995

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Recalling the no wave movement of the late '70s, the self-titled debut of New York City's Blonde Redhead is a glorious piece of dense, art-damaged noise, with songs that move from drifting melodicism to raging aural assaults in the course of a few measures. Taking their cues most directly from Sonic Youth (Steve Shelley produced the album), Blonde Redhead revel in noise and create vast sonic landscapes out of which songs naturally emerge. The focus here tends to be on atmospherics, and yet there is never the feeling of utter chaos; instead, the album functions like a work of controlled mayhem, referencing a wide range of musical approaches. The opening track, "I Don't Want U," starts off like jazz-rock, building momentum until it erupts in a blast of indie rock noise, anchored throughout by a steadily rolling bassline. "Snippet"'s quite-loud-quiet dynamics are offset by the driving rock of "Mama Cita," and the album's closer, "Girl Boy," comes across like delirious dream pop. The entire album is drenched in dense, multilayered feedback, with a rhythm section that works to keep the guitars in control, underpinning the attack. Blonde Redhead have created a great record, especially for fans of experimental rock: difficult, noisy, and exhilarating. - Brandon Gentry, All Music Guide

Blonde Redhead / La Mia Vita Violenta
Released 1995

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With their second release, La Mia Vita Violenta, Blonde Redhead maintain their organically low-fi aesthetic and continue to prove themselves as one of indie rock's real triumphs. Even after the departure of guitarist Maki Takahashi, they still make more noise with three people than most bands could make with ten. Guitars tear into the songs -- pointed, direct, and tough -- while the vocals of Kazu Makino and Amedeo Pace weave tightly into drummer Simone Pace's impeccably precise backing. Timing is everything, and Blonde Redhead certainly have it. They're dirty when they need to be and crystal-clear when the situation calls for it. Never angry, the trio plays hard and fast to the point where the instruments seem to play themselves with the deftest of precision. The production is so skillful that even with the most Spartan of recording gear, guitars end up sounding synthetic, in that painting-looks-like-a-photograph kind of way. And the volatile changes -- from sweet acoustic strums to drilling power chords -- make this album a whirl of unexpected surprises. La Mia Vita Violenta is math rock without the nerdiness and art rock without the pretentiousness. - Ken Taylor, All Music Guide

Blonde Redhead / Fake Can be Just As Good
Released 1997

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It seems like New York trio Blonde Redhead have been dogged with Sonic Youth comparisons since the day they formed years ago, taking their name from an old song by No New York faves DNA. Such yakking only grew louder when the group, then a quartet, signed with Steve Shelley's Smells Like label in 1994 for a pair of LPs, and then let the Sonic Youth drummer produce them. Three years down the road, it's a resemblance still firmly in place on Fake Can Be Just as Good, despite the group employing producer John Goodmanson and switching labels to Chicago's venerable, powerful Touch & Go. But if this stubborn outfit of two handsome Italian-Americans and a pretty Japanese-American doesn't care about being branded copycats, and it seems they don't, then neither should anyone else. Improving with each release, the solid, crashing duo of guitarists (and alternating singers) Kazu Makino and Amedeo Pace may borrow an ethic, an anti-pop stance, and atonal tension that's super-familiar, but the clean sound, direct attack, and straightforward, tense delivery are all their own. Moreover, there's plenty of room for further exploration in these dark, forbidding, tempest-ridden post-punk seas. In fact, when Makino and Pace get cold, claustrophobic, weird, wired, and chilling (with help from borrowed Unwound bassist Vern Rumsey) is when they also nearly explode in deep undercurrents: see the best things here, the quietly terrified "Symphony of Treble" and "Bipolar." And unlike 95 percent of all bands based on the New York noise tradition, Blonde Redhead never just grind like nails to chalkboards -- their well-produced sound is never annoying or unpleasant -- nor forget that music is supposed to have hooks, no matter how much it eschews obvious pop melodic conventions. Far from mere protégés of any band or scene, Blonde Redhead are a unique sub-branch all their own on a fertile tree. - Jack Rabid, All Music Guide

Blonde Redhead / In An Expression of the Inexpressible
Released 1998

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The oft-used comparison to Sonic Youth doesn't really hold a lot of water, as Blonde Redhead's music has always been a bit less swirling, more spontaneous, and rougher around the edges. Further differentiating them from Sonic Youth is their bass-less approach. In an Expression of the Inexpressible, their fourth release, is as uncompromising as Fake Can Be Just as Good and La Mia Vita Violenta, but this time Blonde Redhead wanted to be produced by someone outside the band. The sound is fuller and more polished, and in the capable hands of producers John Goodmanson and Guy Picciotto (of Fugazi fame), they've never sounded quite as good. Still, Kazu Makino's high-pitched, Björk-ish vocals can get irritating at times, and the two guitars never quite reach a compelling level of interplay. Blonde Redhead, who sometimes are too clever for their own good, could, in fact, learn a great deal from Sonic Youth, since most of the tracks never come across with much urgency. - Matthew Hillburn, All Music Guide

Blonde Redhead / Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
Released 2000

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For a record produced by Guy Picciotto (Fugazi, Rites of Spring), Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons is a surprisingly quiet affair. Rarely do the cuts on Blonde Redhead's 2000 release get much louder than an electric guitar. With their fifth record, Blonde Redhead finally emerges from the shadows of Sonic Youth's post-punk legacy by avoiding the expected detunings, distortions, and shrillness of the genre. The three-piece manages to create a record that is subtle, tuneful, and sublime. On "Loved Despite of Great Faults," instrumentation mainly consists of acoustic guitar, piano, and percussion rather than an assault of power chords, yet the mood of the song is just as effective. While the record may be quieter, it still manages to move in several different directions. "This Is Not" tips its hat to Ric Ocasek with a new wave-inspired piece while the opening cut, "Equally Damaged," and "Ballad of Lemons" suggest an influence from Danny Elfman. Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons may not accurately reflect the full body of Blonde Redhead's work, yet it presents an easy place to start. - Yancey Stricker, All Music Guide

Blonde Redhead / Melodie Citronique
Released 2000

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Blonde Redhead's Melodie Citronique reworks three songs from its excellent album Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons and adds two songs that highlight the group's multicultural, multilingual approach. "En Particulier" is a straightforward French translation of Lemons' dreamy "In Particular"; "Odiata Per le Sue Virtu" is "Hated Because of Great Qualities" with an Italian makeover. "Four Damaged Lemons," a remix of "For the Damaged," makes the song even more fragile and delicately lovely by adding a looped piano, brittle acoustic guitar, backwards sound effects, and chiming keyboards. The bouncy, sing-song "Chi É E Non É" sounds a bit like one of the Pixies' poppier moments sung in Italian, while the version of Serge Gainsbourg's "Slogan" suggests that his slinky, sensual style has become almost as big an influence on Blonde Redhead's sound as Sonic Youth was previously. Though it isn't quite as big a step forward for the group as Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons, Melodie Citronique is an enjoyable companion piece to that album, as well as a further exploration of the group's softer side. - Heather Phares, All Music Guide

Blonde Redhead / Live at the Bottom of the Hill
Recorded in 2000

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A great recording on one of their best tours!

01 - Melody of Certain Three
02 - Hated Because of Great Qualities
03 - Futurism vs. Passeism Part 2
04 - Bipolar
04 - I Am There While You Choke on Me
05 - Loved Despite Of Great Faults
06 - Missile++
07 - Distilled
08 - In Particular
09 - Kazuality
11 - U.F.O.
12 - This Is Not
13 - Water
14 - For The Damaged
15 - Suimasen
16 - I Still Get Rocks Off

Blonde Redhead / Live on KCRW
Recorded 2004

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Another great recording...

01 - Anticipation
02 - Falling Man
03 - Misery is a Butterfly
04 - Melody
05 - Messenger
06 - Magic Mountain