Talking Heads

Screening of the 4K restoration followed by a live Q&A with David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison, moderated by NBC News and MSNBC journalist John Heilemann.

At the moment, only members can purchase tickets, but it's possible it's already sold out. Still, ticket prices are $55, $45 and $35 - I saw Byrne present a pristine print of the same film at a better movie theater (the Walter Reade at Lincoln Center) for like $15. I'd love to see them all reunited too, but it's just a Q&A for crying out loud.

(should clarify, the above is a screening in Brooklyn at the BAM Harvey Theater)

I first heard Talking Heads thru my parents; Little Creatures got a lot of rotation in our house at the time.

I also bonded with my dad over Stop Making Sense and Little Creatures was quite popular in our house as well. Stay Up Late came out when my brother was a baby and I was 10, so it was very relatable. Pretty sure my mom and I went to see True Stories in the theater multiple times, possibly Stop Making Sense as well.

Byrne was a great rhythm guitarist and an often great lead guitarist.

His rhythm guitar performance on the Fun Boy Three's version of "Our Lips Are Sealed" is next level. I had admired it for years before discovering that it was Byrne's handiwork.

isn't he on "Kiss Me Again" as well?!? (Dinosaur)

yep!! so good

https://www.discogs.com/release/95382-Dinosaur-Kiss-Me-Again

Inspired by Alfred's social media post, I listened to (part 1) of the Bandsplain Talking Heads episode and enjoyed it very much. It was mostly history and context and quips and comments, and in fact, what little song-by-song rock crit commentary they offered I thought was entertaining but pretty boilerplate and/or sometimes just kind of half-assed. But the rest was overwhelmingly a fun, occasionally perceptive time.

As I listened, it got me thinking a lot about some similarities between ('70s) Talking Heads and the Pixies. You've got four kind of random people getting together in New England, ostensibly of a scene but pretty much unlike the other bands in the scene. You've got a remote and somewhat prickly but utterly original songwriter tackling unusual, often surreal subject matter in an unusual manner. You've got a feud between the singer and the (female) bassist, with the bassist eventually launching a concurrently, even competitively successful spin-off career. You've got an almost immediate cult impact and long-tail influence that continues to grow. You've got a singer that embarks on a prolific but still weirdly inconsequential solo career, with the rest of the band kind of going journeyman.

"Dig For Fire" is totally a late Talking Heads song too.

Good observation!

TIL Byrne plays guitar on “our lips are sealed” and “kiss me again”

I used to associate THs w/the Modern Lovers (and not just for the obvious reason) and early Unrest, for very specific reasons relating mainly to lyrical concerns; I saw these three bands as kind of a triptych across three different scenes/eras. But this notion probably doesn't hold up to much scrutiny.

Oof

According to Pixies frontman Black Francis, the song was "a bad Talking Heads imitation."

Sheesh, probably my favourite Pixies song. Be bad more often then, Frank

Dig For Fire verses are essentially Once In A Lifetime

Didn't realize this happened, but back in 2010, Crowded House did a show at the Bowery Ballroom, and after they launched into a note-perfect cover of "Once in a Lifetime," the crowd got a massive surprise when they heard David Byrne's voice singing the words:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0oOyqibGPY

Alternate view that isn't so jittery:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEDilVWvrno

https://consequence.net/2023/08/jerry-harrison-talking-heads-healing-experience/

don't get my hopes up like this jerry!

For their sake, I hope so, but I don't want them to reunite, let alone write new material.

You don’t want to hear “Coyote 2023”?

I only recently realized that the 1999 reissue of "Stop Making Sense" is also remixed and edited to fit in 80 minutes. So aside from a laserdisc mentioned upthread, the audio tracks found on the Blu-Ray is the way to go to get what matches the movie (with some minor editing apparently).

My favorite of theirs is the one where they go “James Redd, James Redd.” Oh wait.

James Blecch, James Blecch

Just learned about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbgzXFrFmRQ

don't know if this concert was shared before, I definitely haven't seen it until now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldwpwrW6tno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-2CfqA9P0Y

Colbert loves Talking Heads. I sensed David Byrne was consciously letting Chris Frantz take the lead in talking

did Frantz start randomly yelling 'james browwwwwn james browwwwwn'

That was really fun, kinda music nerd-y for a general interest TV talk show.

If I didn't know Byrne well enough already, I'd think, "Boy, what a weirdo" watching him laugh at the wrong parts of Frantz's anecdotes.

I think you can still think 'what a weirdo' even when you do know him well enough, because he is

did Frantz start randomly yelling 'james browwwwwn james browwwwwn'

No, but Tina did a little bit of her "Genius of Love" dance when they came out.

the best part

Colbert showing knowledge of Modern Lovers

Very nice to see them being civil to each other…but for the love of god don’t reform

It would be cool if their reunion lasted for 20 years, like the Pixies...except instead of playing music, all they do is show up on talk shows and introduce movie screenings together, etc.

lol I can imagine them doing the festival circuit, except each set is just them on stage answering questions about "Stop Making Sense."

That would a bizarre reversal of bands who reform as a live unit but otherwise avoid each other like the plague

That's kind of like the surviving Beatles after the mid-'90s, when the Anthology patched things up further and George was more aware of his mortality due to his struggle with cancer. All three got together quite a bit, but it wasn't really seen in public.

But yeah, I hope they don't tour. Just look at them on Colbert and compare them to, say, the HOF induction. They've really aged, and even in the HOF performance, you can tell they're not quite where they were as a band performance-wise.

Maybe if they do what Byrne does (and what Harrison did on this Remain in Light tour) and surround themselves with a lot of younger performers, I could see them pulling off an enjoyable show, but it really wouldn't be the same.

I don't see faked bonhomie in these clips. Byrne has never struck me as someone who would laugh at Chris "James BROOWWWNNN" Frantz's anecdotes unless he genuinely found them funny, and Frantz-Weymouth need him more than he needs them.

Of course HOF performance they clearly had barely rehearsed, like they would for a tour

I don’t think they have plans of doing a tour, they sort of dodged the question about it happening and made clear they just want to promote “stop making sense”.

It’s probably for the best, at this point any new material would probably be subpar and the chemistry is probably too fractured to withstand the pressure of touring. And yeah, they are too old too and touring requires a lot of energy, specially if you haven’t played those songs as a band in decades.

Maybe I can see them doing a very small tour 10 concerts max in big venues but I don’t know. They don’t seem interested in it.

They do seem genuinely amicable to each other, at least in low doses.

Byrne, Weymouth and Frantz introduced the film at Alamo Drafthouse tonight in Brooklyn - pretty cool they’re still doing all the promo together (and they didn’t need Harrison as a “buffer”)

awwww, nice.

New A24 SMS Blu-Ray coming..

https://shop.a24films.com/products/stop-making-sense-collectors-edition

https://www.billboard.com/business/touring/coachella-wanted-talking-heads-reunion-1235593270/

they were unsurprisingly approached with offers for reunion shows and turned them down

Turning down a 80 million dollar offer for a few gigs is insane or even 10M for Coachella alone. Must be nice to be able to turn them down, good for them.