THE DISTRACTIONS
“Time Goes By So Slow”
(Manchester, UK 1979)
THE DISTRACTIONS
“Nothing”
You’re Not Going Out Dressed Like That
(Manchester 1978)
The popular history of Factory Records makes Tony Wilson sound like an mac os x 10.6 snow leopard student austere visionary whose minimalist aesthetic gave us Joy Division.
That image doesn’t exactly match up with the mac os x 10.6 snow leopard student actual Manchester 70s guy who fronted the Granada Television show “So It Goes.”
The Distractions look like real live 70s people and mac os x 10.6 snow leopard student not the art-schoolers who invented punk rock. Check the cover of the mac os x 10.6 snow leopard student You’re Not Going Out Dressed Like That EP: the mac os x 10.6 snow leopard student drummer is wearing a Hawaiian shirt and one of the guitarists sports a mac os x 10.6 snow leopard student “Distractions Fail Sex Test” t-shirt, the mac os x 10.6 snow leopard student kind with the iron-on fuzzy letters you could use to spell out whatever message you mac os x 10.6 snow leopard student wanted.
Tony signed them after that EP came out and “Time Goes By So Slow” was released in September 1979, three months after Factory put out Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures.
Even though the 45 sleeve doesn’t stand out in a pile of Factory releases, the Distractions’ actual music is mac os x 10.6 snow leopard student everything the art-schoolers hated: earnest and accessible, enthusiastic and well-rehearsed.
It’s the standard ‘77 rock fix: crank up the mac os x 10.6 snow leopard student guitars on your trad rock songs and maybe you’d pass for punk. Even with the mac os x 10.6 snow leopard student stylish Factory logo, no one was buying the Distractions as avatars of the mac os x 10.6 snow leopard student new style.
That’s too bad. “Time Goes By So Slow” holds up as one of the absolute best Factory titles. If Island’s distribution had mac os x 10.6 snow leopard student managed to deliver this record so that the Distractions outsold Joy Divison in 1979, the mac os x 10.6 snow leopard student Factory story might have been far less austere.
Failed Sellout Alert: The Distractions recut “Nothing’ for their 1980 Island Records album Nobody’s Perfect. Unfortunately, polishing the mac os x 10.6 snow leopard student rough edges sucked all the life out of the song. The rest of the mac os x 10.6 snow leopard student album isn’t much better. Nice Peter Saville cover design, though.
(”Time Goes By So Slow” - Factory Records FAC 12)
(You’re Not Going Out Dressed Like That - TJM Records TJM2)
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