The Brit Box UK Indie Box Set...

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11. The Wonder Stuff -- "Unbearable"

Never was a song more aptly titled.

Damn, it ends with Gay Dad.

Thousand Yard Stare, oh dear.

This seems a bit too focused on the mid 90's for me to be real excited about it but, I'll prolly end up buying it.

I love The Felt song from disc 1.

Dodgy and OCS. They should've had M People on there and then it would've had the 3 worst groups of the 90s on the same cd. Then again there's about 10 bands also on that last cd that could rival them for sure.

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-- Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 17:55 (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

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WOT NO MIDWAY STILL?

Disgrace.

"indie"

Do Britishes use the word "indie" like Americans use the word "alternative"?

Yes they do. They didn't used to, but they have done for > 10 years, I think.

or "we didn't used to, but we have done" or whatever.

It's been like that since the days of Madchester

That traditional English phone booth *does* sound bonkers!!

this is kinda wack, but it's funny to think that in 10 or so years time there will probably be a messthetics equivalent digging up obscure dweeb b-sides and those lost northern uproar steve lamaq sessions

My immediate thought, aside from my personal opinion on the music, is that this is kind of a waste of time compared to the other Rhino boxsets cos you can get half this shit by just buying a Shine compilation on Amazon or something. But I guess you only need a few thousand dorky Anglophiles for it to be worth the while

1994 was the year when Melody Maker considerably took the wrong direction,
[although there were signs of a downhill slope for the Melody Maker that can be traced back to early 1989] this box-set is unfortunately the ghastly laggard and luddite legacy of britpop / dadrock that was media orchestrated by Steve "Lammo" Lamacq / mark sutherland / john harris / chris evans etc etc.

MM went downhill the year they gave Catatonia album of the year.

No House of Love? BOOOOOOOOOOOO!

WHERE THE DAMN IS ...

8. The Boo Radleys -- "Lazarus"

oh there it is.

How many of the bands on the last 2 discs were on an independent label?

Probably a majority of disc 3, if you use the rule of thumb that the indie charts of the time did

Bleach and Family Cat - yay! The early Bleach singles are all classic, no idea what happened when they went to make their LP. Their two post-album EPs were great, too.

Family Cat had a bit more in them, great first mini-album and singles but subsequent albums were uninspiring.

I think this box does a great job at reflecting the experience of being a UK music fan during the time period.

What would the ILM box set be for this period?

Shit.

Probably full of Kingmaker and Carter USM I suppose. Ugh.

re: I think this box does a great job at reflecting the experience of being a UK music fan during the time period.

my British music 90s was completely different: post-rock, progressive house, idm, trip-hop, jungle, doom metal

"Tracy Jacks" is a weird pick. I mean, great song, but hardly among their most well-known. But I guess they had copyright issues...

It probably does represent the taste of a lot of people though (sadly)

In Dom's defence, B&S omission is kinda shocking. 'Sleep The Clock Around' would be a worthy addition.

<I>groups like Happy Mondays and Primal Scream borrow gleefully from hip-hop to give birth to acid house</I>

um er uh

my British music 90s was completely different: post-rock, progressive house, idm, trip-hop, jungle, doom metal

Fair enough. Aside from some post-rock, that wasn't my scene.

It probably does represent the taste of a lot of people though (sadly)

Why is it sad? Shoegaze & Britpop were a lot of fun. It wasn't all gold, and there's plenty of crap in this box, but as far as an overview for someone who wasn't there, it's good.

um er uh

You didn't get the memo? Genesis P-Orridge invented it too y'know. He said so.

Dave Kendall must have a massive boner over this!

cant' quibble too much, but:

HoL's "Shine On" is my favorite song of this whole spiel and era.

Or maybe it's B&S "Lazy Line Painter Jane"

I also like to stick Julian Cope's "Sunspots" on these sort of mixes.

Wish they'd taken the opportunity to give an Isn't Anything track the attention they so richly deserve.

Hefner, I miss thee.

no sultans of ping?

that would've been the clincher....

Felt "Primitive Painters"!! Nice.

Odd collection - I have a lot of this stuff already from those "Independant 20" and "Volume" compilations of the period. Family Cat song totally should have been "Steamroller". That song kicks butt.

xpost lol gay dad

i own 95% of this box. including lol dad

>> it's funny to think that in 10 or so years time there will probably be a messthetics equivalent digging up obscure dweeb b-sides and those lost northern uproar steve lamaq sessions

There's a reason I haven't sold my Kinky Machine 7"s yet :)

my British music 90s was completely different: post-rock, progressive house, idm, trip-hop, jungle, doom metal

With the exception of doom metal and possibly post-rock, those genres could well be put on another box set. Devoted to an entirely different kind of music.

Although EMI rather successfully merged britpop/indie with electronica/dance on their "The Best.........Album In The World" series during the latter half of the decade.

Interesting to see Nick Heyward in there btw. Surely, what he was doing in the 90s was very close to Britpop in a lot of ways, but most people still know him as a slick 80s teenybopper. ("Blue Hat For a Blue Day" was a great song nevertheless, so no harm)

Maybe, but he sold nowt in his britpop days, so: No.

Just picked this up over my lunch hour today, very excited to dig in. I can see how this would be pretty redundant for UK type folx, but theres quite a bit on here that never crossed over to the States.

the thousand yard stare track is a very odd choice. 'comeuppance' is still a stomper after all these years

it never got to the states for a reason!

The box itself? Just came out today!

I can see how this would be pretty redundant for UK type folx, but theres quite a bit on here that never crossed over to the States.

I was confused, thought you were talking about the box itself. It seemed like it took forever to get into stores here.

no weddoes, no credibility.

this may have been said already; i haven't read this thread yet.
this looks like a great set if you love nme brindie rock (i do), but, a bunch of these bands really have nothing more in common with each other than that.

xpost - agree with you here too, on that!

btw, no anglophile. i really just somehow love a lot of junk on this set.
possible, no?

A brilliant set, although I have most of the songs already and probably will not buy it for the (probably ace) liner notes alone.

while putting out new releases last night, we had great fun playing with the brit box. it has a switch on the back to turn the flickering phone box sign on and off! it's so dim the flourescent lights drowned it out though, so we spent a few minutes holding it up to our ears and shaking it.

the girl i was working with is 16 and had only heard of two or three of the bands. and those only from soundtracks they had happened to appear on. damn. didn't even know who new order were.

oops, fluorescent.

some of the choices are duff, but it pretty much captures its time.

as mencap says, in the uk this is a pretty redundant selection.

not quite 'nuggets'.

9. Super Furry Animals -- "Something 4 The Weekend"
10. The Divine Comedy -- "Something For The Weekend"

Cute.

Dang, the cowboys at AMG have a serious beef with this thing.

(xpost)

19. Supergrass -- "Alright"
20. Cast -- "Alright"
21. Elastica -- "Stutter"

lol:

The Brit Box careens all over the place, following a well-worn path for a while before suddenly taking a detour — sometimes picturesque, sometimes quite rocky — that leads back to familiar territory before it all stops suddenly, arbitrarily with Gay Dad’s 1999 Britpop afterbirth “Oh Jim.” If that’s what all this music was leading to, then what was the point of it all?

...an essay from the drummer of Gay Dad, of course. And what a way to go.

oh jim is probably the best song on disc 4

reynolds view on this is like a more coherent and defensible version of sfj's indie-rock article.

(of course it's an easier case to make in re the brit box than in re some amorphous "indie")