These guys are one of those bands that I’ve heard about time and again over the years but never got into. Just checked their discography and their catalog is very prolific.
Any recommendations on where to get started or opinions on favorite albums?
Where to begin… I might not be the best person to ask as my predilection towards this band borders on pathological but here goes…
If you are just starting out Commerz the recent 2 cd compilation is a good place to start as it spans most of their 30 years, and has some not so obvious song choices that represent the band’s overall sound better than the singles do.
If you like the '80s industrial/Wax trax sound then Come Visit the Big Bigot/Dead Eyes Opened from 1986 is great. The Nettwerk disc combines the Big Bigot LP and DEO EP and is probably their most popular album. It is a nice balance between the tape loop noise and synthesizers. The three albums that came after Bad Mood Guy, Rotund For Success and Cuisine (With Piscatorial) have a similar sound.
Since The Accident from '83 is a personal favorite of mine. The band was a 3 piece here original member Tom Ellard with Garry Bradbury and Simon Knuckey both from the Wet Taxis joining. It is very rough and raw sounding, but also with some nice electronics.
If you like more ambient stuff their soundtrack to The Illustrated Family Doctor from 2005 is very good. Oddly enough it won an ARIA for best soundtrack that year. This 2 disc also includes a DVD of music videos as well as four albums worth of music as a slideshow.
In a lot of ways they were ahead of the curve with technology and were one of the first bands to have downloadable songs as early as 1996! Video has early on been an integral part of the band. Here is a short documentary from 1986 on their recording/video techniques.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX0goKMpB4Y
Tom Ellard maintains the sevcom website and there are several Severed Heads albums available there to download for free. Most everything else has been remastered and expanded with bonus tracks and sold as cdrs.
I still don’t get why he dropped the name. I mean, I read his reason, but… it seemed silly