Something I Learned Today

Punk Rock and Other Assorted Bullshit

Joy Division Covers

May 20th, 2005 | Posted by: Eric | Category: Mix Tape

This past week (May 18th to be exact) marked the 25th anniversary of the suicide of Ian Curtis. Here we are a quarter century later and the influence of Joy Division can still be heard in various dosages dubbed as the newest and freshest sounds of modern music. Each phase of Joy Division’s short career has seemingly left a mark, from the early post-punk sounds of Warsaw through to the dark and desolate soundscapes of Closer. While all of the bands below are “guitar” bands the material runs the gamut of the Joy Division catalog. (though earlier is more prominent, sure) In the realm of Joy Division covers I know of at least one tribute, A Means To An End, which I have not heard it in it’s entirety. Curious as to who has covered the band? Here is what looks to be a pretty detailed list of known JD covers. In my collection:


from 2003’s Switchblade Tongues, Butterknife Brains
New Bomb Turks - The Drawback.mp3 

from 1998’s When My Blue Moon Turns Red Again
Bassholes - Interzone.mp3

a demo version. Appears in more polished form on Grippe
Jawbox - Something Must Break.mp3

from Wine is Red, Poison is Blue
Poison 13 - Warsaw.mp3

from the Destruction of Squaresville singles comp
Jack O’ Fire - No Love Lost.mp3

from 1994’s Mystery of Kustomized
Kustomized - Dead Souls.mp3


So, which of your JD favorites did I miss? I should note that when I originally thought this up a couple of weeks ago I had planned on including the Effigies version of “No Love Lost”. I substituted the Jack O’ Fire version instead 

22 Comments so far

  1. rich May 20th, 2005 6:22 pm

    You forgot Yat Kha’s version of Love Will Tear Us Apart.
    When Yat Kha sings a song, it stays sung forever.

    http://yat-kha.blogware.com/download/music/ReCovers/Albert_Kuvezin_Yat_Kha_Love_Will_Tear_Us_Apart.mp3

  2. Eric May 20th, 2005 7:49 pm

    Well that was creepy and weird. The Motorhead cover on their site is even better.

    For those looking for a straight up cover I have a live one from NoMeansNo:

    NoMeansNo - Transmission.mp3

    live in Slovakia, 1988 or there abouts.

  3. Simon May 20th, 2005 9:02 pm

    Some great tracks there Eric, I’d like to add a couple of my faves that never got posted on my JD jaunt a while back…

    I have no idea why i didn’t post this, it’s pretty bloody good.

    Los Planetas - Disorder

    and of course not forgeting…

    Frank Sidebottom - Indie Medley

    I have far too many Frank albums than I’m sure is completely healthy…

    I thank you….:)

    Great post Eric, was a sad day.

    Simon
    x

  4. Simon May 20th, 2005 9:08 pm

    Oh, and the Jack O link isn’t working, (bizarre as it’s the only one i haven’t got… freaky) i tried adding .mp3 to the end but with no luck.

    Simon
    x

  5. Eric May 20th, 2005 9:20 pm

    Simon… some great tracks in different ways. I will have to investigate Los Planetas some more. And the Sidebottom medley cracked me up.

    I fixed that Jack O’ Fire link. Blogger has issues when creating a link with apostrophes. I should know by now

  6. Courtney May 20th, 2005 10:48 pm

    Eric, I read your blog every day, and never made the Granary connection. Found it when you posted the HD Christmas song, on my annual hunt for odd Christmas music (I believe I even posted one of my mixes to the board once upon a time). I miss the Granary board; I had some fun and met some great folks on there.
    Keep up the good work with this site.
    Courtney

  7. keith May 21st, 2005 2:56 am

    i’m playing too! http://sickoffood.com/index.php?p=1296

  8. G May 21st, 2005 2:15 pm

    Gotta go with Warsaw, great song and great band. Black Halos did a really good version of it also.
    The Covers Project lists Sister Ray as the only cover JD ever did.

  9. Scott May 21st, 2005 4:51 pm

    This post proves once again that I love every cover the New Bomb Turks ever did. I’m afraid to hear Boy Division’s cover of “Love Will Tear Us Apart”. Their name gives me the shudders.

  10. timsum May 23rd, 2005 6:45 am

    Have you heard the Jah Division Dub Will Tear Us Apart ep?

    Somewhere between shockingly bad, very funny and not to bad dub.

    p.s. Shall I post the songs in the comments?

    p.p.s. I found out recently Ian Curtis went to the same hellhole school as me in Macclesfield - no wonder he topped himself…

  11. rich May 23rd, 2005 7:11 pm

    errr…
    As much as I’m loathe to mention it, Nine Inch Nails covered ‘Dead Souls’ on The Crow soundtrack.
    sorry.

  12. Eric May 24th, 2005 3:25 pm

    tim… post a link here or to your site, whichever you prefer

  13. Eric May 24th, 2005 3:26 pm

    Rich… Never heard the Crow soundtrack, though I always was intrigued by the idea of Pantera covering Poison Idea (The Badge)

  14. jan May 24th, 2005 4:18 pm

    although i’m not that much into the music of JOY DIVISION (dunno, i somehow was never interested in that kind of music) i thought i might point out that there’s a coverversion of “love will tear us apart” by UNBROKEN. i personally think that the choice of that covertune by that particular band makes sense to me since UNBROKEN were always a very depressing and ‘dark’ band, if you know what i mean… oh well… i like the cover…

  15. timsum May 26th, 2005 10:01 am

    Kind of funny in that first 30 seconds way:

    Jah Division’s

    Transmission Dub

    Dub Will Tear Us Apart

    Kind of reminds me of conversations with In/Humanity when they were in the UK about starting a Reag-goth band “Bela Lugosi’s Dub” etc.

    But I prefered our idea of starting an em-oi band but we only got as far as covering/ subverting Blitz - “Someone’s Gonna Cry Tonight” & another pint…

  16. Thomas June 4th, 2005 7:15 pm

    You missed the Warsaw-Cover by SWING KIDS (pre-Locust, as most will know).

  17. bendy June 20th, 2005 4:35 am

    This seem like a reasonable place to plug my own band’s cover, a Warsaw-era song:

    Blackstrap-

    Matt August 4th, 2005 5:01 pm

    Two good covers are:

    Swing Kids - Warsaw

    and

    Unbroken - Love will tear us apart

    Definitely check those out. I love those JD covers.

  18. Andy August 4th, 2006 2:17 pm

    Another good one is The Frames cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart.

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