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If you’re going to play it out of tune, then play it out of tune properly.
Mark E. Smith

(Source: dustedmagazine.com, via slang-king)

Click for high-res photo
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Yeah, [James Brown] just lays it down. Yeah, that is what I do. And to get back to American musicians. That’s what they’re really good at. If you say that to a British musician they just go ‘Err, what? What key’s it in?’ And I say ‘I don’t know the fucking key, just play back what I just whistled to you. Just do what I’ve fucking told you. And do it this way or that way and they just don’t get it. It’s Noel Gallagher syndrome. If it doesn’t sound like The Beatles, they don’t get it.
Mark E. Smith

The Fall - ‘L.A.’

My 82 Favourite Punk Rock Singles ‘77-‘79

#26 The Fall - ‘Rowche Rumble’

“Roche rumble / For thousands of wives around the world / Are given out by doctors, to feed their little girls / The doctors need prescriptions / The wives need their pills”

Rather an anomaly in the early Fall catalogue, this single’s riff is actually somewhat conventionally catchy (not to say that there aren’t loads of catchy songs by The Fall, because there are, but this one seems poppier, at least by the standards of their fairly abrasive ’70s output), and the lyrics seem to almost make sense. The song would appear to be essentially an attack on the pharmaceuticals industry (the title is a play on the name of the drug company ‘Roche’), and valium in particular. It is also, in my opinion, one of the few songs released prior to Hex Enduction Hour in which the band truly transcend their influences (Can, Captain Beefheart, garage rock, etc.) and develop a really original sound. Highly recommended.

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‘There is no culture’ is my brag!
The Fall - ‘The Classical’

My 82 Favourite Punk Rock Singles ‘77-‘79

#36 The Fall - Bingo-Master’s Break-Out!’

“A hall full of cards left unfilled / He ended his life with wine and pills / There’s a grave somewhere only partly filled / A sign in the graveyard on a hill reads: ‘Bingo-Master’s Breakout’”

I feel like there’s only limited use in describing a single by The Fall - these are visceral songs, to be experience, rather than read about.

Regardless, this is a an excellent single (although its b-side ‘Repetition’ is possibly even better), much heavier and bass-heavy than what ended up on Live at the Witch Trials. Mark even sings the verses, which is fairly rare.

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Whether it’s a return to form or the last hurrah, Your Future Our Clutter is the best Fall album in over two decades.
Popmatters (It’s really not, though, is it? Ah, hyperbole.)

The Fall - ‘Blindness’

My 82 Favourite Punk Rock Singles ‘77-‘79

#57 The Fall - ‘It’s the New Thing!’

“We have never sold out / Spent hours on a clever act / Phoney advertising quotes / That make you buy some / Raise your hopes”

Well, it’s a single by The Fall, so it’s awesome. It’s of the Live at the Witch Trials era, so you know what you’re getting: scratchy guitar; a tinny, incredibly cheap-sounding, but incredibly catchy organ riff; and surprisingly comprehensible but typically nonsensical vocals from Mark E. Smith (note, however, that the lyrics of this single are far more coherent than almost any other song released by the band). Not much else to say really…