Mark Stewart – The Lunatics Are Taking Over The Asylum
Wolfgang Press – Sucker M.F.
David Shrigley – What I Ate
Diagram Brothers – The Expert
Ian Dury & The Blockheads – This Is What We Find
Shriekback – Pointless Rivers
Stump – Kitchen Table
Blue Orchids – A Year with No Head
East River Pipe – All You Little Suckers
Only Ones – Fools
Auteurs – Idiot Brother
Wire – I Should Have Known Better
Wedding Present – Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft
Built To Spill – Goin’ Against Your Mind
thanks for posting this selection, Shoey, a fine if rowdy background to me cooking .. as for stupid .. I just broke electric chip cooker for the second time in a few months … rats ..back to mash
Slightly better diet than Mr Shrigley. Glad you & the dragon enjoyed.
A fine and rowdy selection indeed. Not as rowdy as saneshane’s playlist though, which has a great call on “Stupidity” by FLA wi AJ.
From Shoey’s list, Built to Spill and ERP best suit my mood this week.
Well,i don’t really do household chores, but i listened to this while photoediting. The Diagram Bros and the Blockheads made me laugh. Second set faves are Only Ones and The Auteurs.
Thanks, Shoey!
I did some laundry & cleaned out the cat’s litter tray.
Mark Stewart – The Lunatics Are Taking Over The Asylum
Wolfgang Press – Sucker M.F.
Shriekback – Pointless Rivers
Stump – Kitchen Table
Blue Orchids – A Year with No Head
Wire – I Should Have Known Better
Wedding Present – Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft
Built To Spill – Goin’ Against Your Mind
these tracks really hit the mark – the rest were also good – and the sign above is probably why the teams in Nottingham have had their balls burst.
hmm…we like opposite songs best.
I’m starting to formulate a theory about this – your mentions over on RR about Kate Bush songs is a case in point:
Wuthering Heights is too high pitched for me – whereas ‘Running up that hill’ and ‘don’t give up’ has her vocals – shall we say less shrill.
the simple thing could be:
I really like female vocalists – you are not so keen.
I listen first to words – you the music
I started getting obsessed with music in the 80′s – so the ‘machine’ recording sound is ingrained in my listening, but is jarring for listeners who grew up
with the more organic recordings sound of the 60′s – that style of recording is ingrained in what you want to hear.
So Wuthering Heights – even though it’s a shrill female vocal – not something you’d normal go for – is listened to because the end of the 70′s recording style of the music, overrules and connects with you better than the 80′s sound of Running up that Hill… and you are tuning in to the music (and it’s production era) not the vocal or lyrics.
I think this set of songs would have a similar feel to their recording, my first reactions are liking the more mechanical … which is why we seem so opposed – yet our venn diagrams of music would cross in a whole lot of cases because obviously those artists that inspire are usually interesting as a whole package of lyric/ idiosyncratic vocal style/ musical uniqueness. But it’s the feel of the recordings that jar because of the time they were produced… doesn’t change the quality or the artists song or music – but it does change the instant reaction from listeners, because of what they were first used to.
I’m working on this theory – what do you think?
Something for everyone, then?
I think there’s something to it, actually, now that you mention it. Last night i was working with my music-loving manager who’s very early 30′s (he also farts around with blues guitar). Dunno how we got talking about it, but he said something about my generation liking instrument music or something similar, and then he said, well, i don’t mean your generation really…
And i said, actually, yes you do, there is a difference. Between people my age (52) and even people in their early 40′s, who grew up on 80′s music, electronic stuff. I was a college kid when that stuff came out, not a teen. We were listening to Johnny Marr’s new album (which was pretty good, actually), and i said, you can still hear the Smiths in here, but minus the 80′s production.
Think that the production excesses today. are even worse than the 80′s – too many toys to play with unsupervised – where are the editors/producers?
There probably aren’t any. It’s a bunch of kids on Garage Band. Or at least a lot of DIY stuff out there in indyland. So it seems, anyway.
No money in editing / producing anymore. Only for Apple and Amazon.
this theory does continue into other decades – I have vinyl albums by The Cure, Arcade Fire and Dinosaur Jr. that were recorded during the 2000′s there seams to be a lack of peaks and troughs to the sound – it’s just muddy / loud, no subtlety; as you say – ‘too many toys to play with unsupervised’ – but I bet those listening to rock recorded in that era will exclaim it as the best ever too (not those old fogey bands obviously) but their taste.
I love 80′s Cure, Smiths, etc. I wasn’t a teen in the 80′s, but was around when MTV first came out and we got the first wave of 80′s Brit bands over here. It was at the same time as the college art rock bands here too – REM, Talking Heads, B-52′s, etc. So i have a lot of tolerance, and also love in many cases, for that sort of electronica. A few jobs ago i put 80′s on the satellite station, and the kids were like, Amy turn that shit off. We found common ground on 90′s grunge and old school hip hop. The next job it was classic vinyl, soultown, and deadjams we found common ground, that was what their parents listened too, so that’s what they knew and were comfy with.
My current boss is exactly my age and a musician too, we can play blues, classic rock, bluegrass, etc, even Nirvana Unplugged and Alice in Chains without complaint. But my 30′s manager said that the boss just has a block against 80′s stuff like the Cure, that stuff we can’t play. We’re not allowed to play Coldplay either. I don’t have a problem with this, but some of the college kids do.
I still don’t get Arcade Fire though.
If I don’t go home soon, I might get my balls burst.
…. and then the shoehorns cease.
Perhaps funny or mellower work better with photo-editing?
Yeah, i’m still kind of on mellow anyway after guruing. Just had a listen to the Ballboys album that Picture Show is on, it hit the spot.
ballboy are ace – glad it’s hitting the spot.
Mixed feelings about Bush – original, but a bit warbly & coffee table arty English middle class rather than rock & roll eccentric – not sure that it’s a great idea to base your big comeback on reworking an album that wasn’t much good in the 1st place. Think she spent too much time with Mr Gabriel
Bush like Bjork is best taken in small dosses (personal opinion) work really well in playlists but too much as whole albums – Ms. Bush’s single side concepts are brilliant (to my ears) though… better as a record than a CD length, over indulgence. Really believe they are fantastic artists though.
I think i’ve said my piece about art rock chicks before, i’m not big on them. Immense respect for Katie, Bjork, Laurie Anderson, etc, but not a whole lot of love. Except for maybe Patti Smith.
But as a yank i think we see the social class thing a bit differently than Brits do. It’s not really a factor here, whatever social class one might be here, you still have to bust your ass to make it. The Strokes are kind of an example our version of posh i guess, but they’re not making it or breaking it on posh, it’s sink or swim on the music alone.
I just listened to these for noodling purposes and one thing that’s very noticable with ‘modern’ stuff is the repetition. Once a groove/chord sequence has been established, it tends to carry on to the end (and modern production techniques make that easy, I imagine). There are many, many exceptions, of course, but it’s virtually mandatory in some areas. The ‘toys to play with’ problem tends to limit development but increase the ‘interesting sounds’ layered over the top. Horses for courses, at the end of the day.
Always admired Kate Bush’s determinatiuon to plough her own furrow. Never particularly liked the stuff that grew there.
David Shrigley is the cartoonist, isn’t he? I saw an exhibition of his stuff not long ago. Great in small doses; en masse, it gets a bit tiresome.