11. Gang of FourEntertainment!
This one is also a favourite of Flea from The Red Hot Chili Peppers, a real slap-bass hunk if ever there was one.
There’s no actual slap bass on it though. That’s the problem. Something can appear funky with none of the constituent elements being in and of themselves egregiously funky. There’s something about slap bass. You’ve got a possible pass there for Mike Watt, although is that slap bass or bass from another planet? The funk element of Gang Of Four is to do with a groove about the way the music all fits together as opposed to, in effect, screaming "FUNKY, AREN’T I? FUNKY, AREN’T I?" the whole fucking time like a guy who literally cannot keep his pants on.
Anybody reading The Quietus has got Entertainment and it feels fucking ridiculous even saying it like it was very difficult for me to think of anything to say about Public Enemy. Any functioning adult with a social conscience and decent record collection has got every Public Enemy record. It’s the same with Entertainment. Everybody picks that or one of the first three records by Wire but you’ve got to have it in there. If you play guitar in anything approaching an alternative rock band and you don’t like Entertainment by Gang Of Four then I suggest you’ve probably got issues and not any of them good issues you can monetize.
