LILYS - Classic / Dud + Search / Destroy

More later when I'm more awake... sorry.

That is all.

(that's probably the wrong word, but you know what I mean, anyway)

The album came out in the US with the original mix, but after Nanny In Manhattan appeared in a UK commercial there was enough of a buzz that Kurt was able to remix and beef up some of the tracks. The two versions also have slightly different tracklistings.

Precollection sounds utterly forgettable (and almost like mixing was never finished) on first listen, but it's a real (albeit slow) grower.

"February 14th"
"Claire Hates Me"
"Periscope"
"Touch the Water"
"Elizabeth Color Wheel"
"Threw a Day"
all of Brief History of Amazing Letdowns
all of Eccsame the Photon Band

"Ginger" and "Claire Hates Me" are two of my favorite songs ever. Several others of theirs aren't far behind.

But, much to my guilt, I simply don't much like Lilys' second half. The Kinks thing just really doesn't do it for me--I liked them so much better even when they were just ripping off MBV. So I guess destroy everything post-Eccsame, except:

"You Win"
"A Nanny in Manhattan"
"The Perception Room"
"Precollection"

maybe one or two others. This band breaks my heart.

Sorta my take on them, really. Yeah, the MBV knockoff is bemusing and all but otherwise, no. I forget the exact nature of the withering comment I delivered after their yawnsome set at Terrastock V, but whatever it was was sufficiently cold and dismissive enough (and involved a negative comparison to Richard Ashcroft's solo work...which I hate) to surprise even Elvis Telecom. Kurt Wossname is a fine and excellent fan of many good records and sounds who should never be allowed near a recording studio.

If only it ended better!

http://www.diamond.ssl.physics.ncsu.edu/lilys/

they are a thousand times better than the shins. but pas/cal is making the songs i wish the lilys would make now.

the manual blissout is better than the lilys blissout.

http://www.rainbowquartz.com/albtnails/rqtz102.jpg

I hadn't heard the original album in a while, so I can't tell the difference w/the remixes...whatever the changes are, they don't smack you in the face. The sequencing is better than on Precollection.

Glad I stuck with Lenola, then!

if you've got a moment, folks should check out this philly band called THE A-SIDES [http://www.a-sides.net/]. they started off as this rudimentary garage / 60's throwback on their first single but their recently released full length is as close as you're going to get to the second coming of classic lilys. and the thing is, when i listen to the record, there's no blatant ripping off of heasley's style -- its just got a similar vibe to the classic records. best local release of the year, hands down.

he certainly does. actually a lot of people do. he's the twee nigel godrich.

"ginger" from A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns" is catchy as hell. I can see Ned's complaints about their more-MBV sounding stuff. They aren't all that great at it (which, given the setting, is what you saw at that Terrastock set you mention upthread?). As dlp9001 sorta points out above, trying to do too much in some songs, not enough in others. When their songs are pop-y, they're quite fun.

i would listen to 'in the presence of nothing' before either mbv album any day of the week

Eccsame The Photon Band is an excellent album.
That split with a Aspera Ad Astra is smart too.

Moving away from the MBVisms to the Kinks - I thought that 'Better Can't Make....' was wholly listenable for want of a less boring description.

I love me some Lilys. Talented geezer.

They aren't all that great at it (which, given the setting, is what you saw at that Terrastock set you mention upthread?).

I honestly can't remember. We're talking six years ago now!

Def. The Three Way, which is the most Zombie-like. "Socs Hip." I don't have that record anymore and can't find it anywhere.

I still listen to Zero Population Growth on occasion, but now I honestly can't remember much of their other albums.

Some of the through-composition on The 3-Way is ridiculously impressive; I think it let itself get written off as a pastiche record, but it had that great pastiche-record quality where having heavy inspiration lets you make something a million times more complex and ornate and ambitious than a lot of the stuff you're drawing on.

There's a song on Eccsame called "The Hermit Crab," which I listened to once on a listening station in 1996 or so. I didn't buy the record, but the song stuck with me enough that I spent years afterward trying to re-write it myself, a bit, from bad memory: I'd try and write a song something like this great song whose details I couldn't begin to remember. I dug the song up, recently, and it was a bit weird to listen to: every other hook, riff, or melody has some distorted misremembered cousin in songs I've written since then. (Even one three-word snippet of lyrics!) I suppose a decent amount of the original wound up embedded deep in my head, and kept coming out without my realizing it.

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/lilys-kurt-heasley-talks-brief-history-of-amazing-letdowns-reissue-lots-more-in-bv-interview/

[This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.]

I love Kurt!

2021 is the year of the homepage!

http://l-i-l-y-s.com/

A Brief History Of Amazing Letdowns is so good! Sounds even better now than it did back then.

https://frontierrecords-lilys.bandcamp.com/album/a-brief-history-of-amazing-letdowns

Evil Knievel no longer canon!!!

See upthread a little ;)

I might have been the first one to order the vinyl when it went up honestly! Been excited about this.

lol, sorry, shows where's my mind's at.

"I was listening to Eccsame the Photon Band again (I've never stopped) this time really loud. It really hasn't aged at all. It could have come out yesterday. I was thinking of giving it a C or D thread just to see if anyone also felt that it was really special or at least very unique. Thoughts?"

Hi evan,I remember commenting under an YouTube video of Radiotricity,saying that turn up the volume to the highest you can take and be overwhelmed with it...I don't remember exactly how I said it and the video is now gone...I now feel that my phrases are really cliche and sentimental..

https://www.tablyricfm.com/artist-Lilys-tab-Lyric-fm

Does anybody have the resources for these unreleased songs:give a little distance,lire,imagination... etc?This site names many,but the songs are all unavailable.(or is it just my phone's problem?)
I see upthread but I don't have access to any of them😔

Hey Nancy,

You might like this, 'Send In The Subs' an unofficial CDR of unreleased tunes, much-discussed upthread.

https://www.discogs.com/Lilys-Send-In-The-Subs/release/12907117

D/L - https://www.fromsmash.com/bzqYTVCAan-bt

Thanks,Maresn3st,but send in the sub doesn't have the songs I talked about. I also wanna get the information on some untitled tracks from the only 1994 live show on YouTube,like what their names are.. :)

Hi Nancy! I forgot I made that post. I still feel that way! In a perfect world it would be looked back on as something way ahead of its time. It has since been reissued and despite my 2014 wishes it did not generate the mass revaluation I was hoping for. Maybe if it got a "Best New Reissue" treatment on Pitchfork or something. The existing cult remains. Oh, I did somehow get some friends to indulge it. That was a win, as our tastes are mostly growing further apart.

Thanks for bringing it up. Love talking about one of my favorite records of all time.

Eccsame might be the most underrated Lilys record, at times it's my favorite as well.

It's the only one that's really hard to describe and sounds the least of its time. All the others can be mostly boiled down to a short description because they are straightforward exercises regardless of how you rate them. The shoegaze one, the indie rock circa 94 one, Eccsame The Photon Band, the Kinks-y rebirth, the REALLY Kinks-y one, the indie rock circa 03 one, the poor man's Spoon one. Guess you could say "the space rock one" or something but it'll be the hardest to prepare a new listener for with that kind of simple label.

Funny, I've been listening to Eccsame (again) and Better Can't Make Your Life Better (for the first time) recently, both incredible. Can hardly believe the same person made them both, so close together. I was definitely having those "ahead of their time" feelings, too. Would they be considered a major band if they'd arrived 5-10 years later? Well, they were major.

A Brief History... and The 3-Way were both reissued last month, the former with some extra '94 era tracks, plus one never released called "G. Cobalt Franklin." Maybe that's one of the unnamed songs? I'll check it out later.

That song was previously one of the instrumentals on Send In The Subs along with the others that were instrumentals of the 4 songs from the Aspera Ad Astra split. With that, I think there is still one instrumental left on Subs that doesn't have vocals tied to it elsewhere.

All the others can be mostly boiled down to a short description because they are straightforward exercises regardless of how you rate them.

Haha, to me it's the "Talk Talk/David Sylvian/Japan" album.

That one instrumental left on send in the subs,I fight my urges to listen to it cause I wanna experience the otherworldly feel that I fail to describe when it was paired with vocals.

Do you guys know lilys fansite has an YouTube account?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCBizgeb6e7

it's "returns everymorning". no space between every morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_MpvIGlcOc
one of its videos

^^^That was a good tour. It was The Beachwood Sparks full band backing Kurt (which at that point in time shared a couple common members).

omg,I did not know that. I'd love to see live videos at this point in time. I find myself liking these band members' projects as well,beachwood sparks,the photon band...I remember once I was listening to a compilation and the only two songs I liked belonged to Beachwood Sparks which I only find out later was in connection with lilys.

Photon Band is very underrated! I like them

I need to revisit Beachwood Sparks... I have always been a HUGE Further fan, massive- but mostly for the California sun warped Dinosaur Jr tape vibes unique to that stuff in particular.

I love the photon band very much!It's my favorite side band.

I like peas

I don't know if this is common but it popped up on D1me@d0zen today, so I thought I'd share:

Lilys - 1991 xx xx Washington DC

Show note:
Very early Lilys show, featuring many unknown tracks. Any ideas?

1 Tra-La La-la
2 Elizabeth Colour Wheel (early)
3 Any Several Sundays
4 Unknown Track 1
5 Unknown Track 2
6 Salad Bar
7 Unknown Track 2
8 Unknown Track 3

https://www.fromsmash.com/aRZlCy5Wqf-bt

im kinda gobsmacked, this band ticks every little tickbox on my chart, even with all the variations, even the kraut techno, and i know beachwood sparks, and apples quite well and i thought i knew all the shoegaze erwhere, and like...all that shit. but i've never listened to lilys once. or was even aware of how obviously perfectly i am made for their stuff. i will say my first listen, thanks to ilm threads was bcmylb, and my initial reaction was 'this good,' and my second was 'this is kevin barnes singing the kinks. it's kevin barnes, right'? since then i'm just mainlining every rabbit hole. huh.

That’s great! What’s your thought on the period just before the kinks transformation? Namely Eccsame The Photon Band

i really like eccsame, but i've listened only like 2 times. i will update once i've listened more. i DLed like some rarities collection from thread, and that any several sundays track is awesome. there's so much to hear. it's great. my buddy who's a huge bjm fan hit me with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epwvysOIk9U and now i'm just convinced i like whatever this guy does pretty much.

Eccsame still hasn’t soaked in next-level enough for me to comment, but the bcmylb and 3 way stuff is so in my head all the time for now…i’m like obsessed with trying to know all the things in a fanboy way.

first time i’ve ever seen heasley interviewed, and i at least get his charisma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCm94bDG_FU

(Getting obsessed with great great talented almost-stars is def my style, prev jason falkner, where I end buying japan only releases and shit, or bid and monochrome set, in which i’m like, “i’m gonna have to go to UK to see this legend, but how? 🤷🏻‍♂️)

I DLed the import Precollection from above. this is fucking great. Bits of eatb (esp guitar attack) and teardrop explodes and VU, all with his usual shit and great memorable melodies. the songs, the songs.

idg the dislike on it i’ve read at all. I dont think its ever pastiche, it’s just…everything, while it sounds fantastic. To me. This guy blows my mind on merit, and also by having escaped my notice.

BCMYLB at its best (e.g. Tennis System) is like the song-form equivalent of babbling. Verbose lyrics that never come up for air, chord changes on every other beat that sometimes aren't repeated, and no dynamic range, with only vertical leaps in the melody to break up the monotony. I admire the audacity of disguising this super weird songwriting style as a British Invasion throwback record.

“never come up for air” 🤷🏻‍♂️

Heya Hunt3r, so good to read about your enthusiasm for Lilys, have you heard this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8ITut57JiA

Timely thread revive

all aboard pic.twitter.com/oUFNpdYHf6

— l i l y s (@theLILYS) January 7, 2022

I thought that's why the thread was revived!

Anyway, count me among the people that missed out on the band more or less entirely. In my case I think I was always confused by comparisons to both the Kinks *and* shoegaze. At the time my brain could just not make that compute.

They have covered a lot of ground, even the differences between BCMYLB and The 3 Way (arguably in the same stylistic genre) are noticeable.

It definitely started off very beholden to MBV, before that 1966 feel crept in.

But even ETPB, which came before, is the most wonderfully unusual, soporific gaze record, slowly edging toward those 1960s elements.

I think I always got them mixed up with the Swirlies, too.

maresn3st, thanks. i had not heard that, i like it a lot-- edgy retropsych, sounds like from bcmylb era

I like peas

"I think I was always confused by comparisons to both the Kinks *and* shoegaze. At the time my brain could just not make that compute."

after listening to two alt takes of Any Several Sundays, then just now hearing the version off the Selected ep for the first time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOKeNxAxzfM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxuJUDCykGk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R4NdGAIE0U

Lilys
2022-01-20
Starlet Lounge at Harlow's
Sacramento CA

Setlist

00 intro [7:48]
01 The Hermit Crab [4:01]
02 Threw A Day [4:10]
03 There's No Such Thing as Black Horchids [5:40]
04 Coby [6:04]
05 High Writer at Home [6:57]
06 Ginger [6:01]
07 Overlit Canyon (The Obscured Wingtip Memoir) [4:53]
08 Claire Hates Me [4:43]
09 Tone Bender [3:28]
10 Day of the Monkey [4:49]
11 Elizabeth Colour Wheel [7:34]
12 Radiotricity [3:33]
13 Your Guest and Host [4:58]
14 Dandy [7:40]

15 Will My Lord Be Gardening [3:48]
16 Elevator Is Temporary [2:48]

https://www.fromsmash.com/6x42yu76ZN-bt

Hunt3r sorry I’ve not been engaging more with your Lilys dive I think it’s awesome though and glad you’re enjoying all of the phases!

Wow that’s a very overwhelmingly 1995 era setlist. Cool!

No worry at all— also, this thread has enough volume and depth that the education available is pretty nice.

Nice, the Harlow's recording was done by me. Used Zoom H1n with built-in mics.

Here's a more permanent link to the lossless version:
https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=kZuhJrXZu2sel87QYNJcd9moKYsap7QYUiay

TY!