Sparks - C ou D

I'm surprised to find out that people don't like Big Beat. I'm not big on the production but I like the feel of it - like Sparks does the Cars (though the Cars wouldn't come around for a few years)

My top 5 would probably be Kimono, Hello Young Lovers, Propaganda, No. 1 in Heaven, and Li'l Beethoven, in some order, honorable mention to the s/t and Big Beat

I'll have to give Seduction another listen at some point.

Big Beat just doesn't have that many memorable songs on it, the only one I usually put on playlists/compilations would be I Bought The Mississippi River. I think the other problem is the albums it followed, such an amazing run of albums then Big Beat just sounded flat in comparison. That one and Introducing aren't bad albums just quite forgettable.

'Indiscreet' is the masterpiece for me, I've listened to it a zillion times. I will have to check out the more recent once; I did listen to 'Hello Young Lovers' and there were some genius moments though nothing compares to the early stuff for me....the first 5 + 'Number 1 in Heaven' are just INFALLIBLE.

Indiscreet would make my top five records by anyone ever. There are at least 4 or 5 others that are legitimately great.

I am apparently the only person that doesn't like Lil' Beethoven. I keep going back to it, hoping this will be the time it finally clicks...nothing yet. It's weird because there's no other band that I love so much with an album as universally revered as this that just doesn't resonate with me at all.

I was like that about Lil, like also I was like that re: Paul's Boutique.

but hey

That one definitely took a while to fully appreciate. It's definitely the most atypical Sparks album and outside of "Ugly Guys with Beautiful Girls" it doesn't really have that Sparks sound the way the following two albums did.

As for Big Beat and Introducing - you gotta love "Occupation", right? I dunno I feel both albums are let down a bit by the production but they're both pretty good. I was surprised by how much I wound up liking Introducing Sparks after being thoroughly confused on the first listen

Introducing's best incarnation was the live performance that was part of the 21 x 21 series in London a few years back. They could seriously swap out that performance for the studio recording and everyone would think it's one of the best albums ever.

so where's the 21-disc box set capturing all this? (only half-joking, btw)

There were rumors of a DVD set but so far nothing...

I'm listening to Introducing Sparks right now and "Big Surprise" just cut into "Baby Blue Sedan" by Modest Mouse after 50 seconds, then to some crappy later-day ELP tune after 20 more, my iPod is seriously acting weird

I don't mean the track skipped, I mean this is what the track is now

the song was "Better Days". then it cut into one second of "Me! I Disconnect From You" by Gary Numan. wtf is going on here

hidden message from yr iPod, it seems.

lol it just cut in more Black Moon-era ELP and then some Uriah Heep , what are you trying to tell me

ok now "Over the Summer" got mixed into "Foil" by Autechre. I'm done with this.

Heads up, new album fully announced for September, Hippopotamus. Song titles:

1. Probably Nothing
2. Missionary Position
3. Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)
4. Scandinavian Design
5. Giddy Giddy
6. What The Hell Is It This Time?
7. Unaware
8. Hippopotamus
9. Bummer
10. I Wish You Were Fun
11. So Tell Me Mrs. Lincoln Aside From That How Was The Play?
12. When You're A French Director
13. The Amazing Mr. Repeat
14. A Little Bit Like Fun
15. Life With The Macbeths

They played some new songs tonight in Glasgow for the 6 Music Festival -- here's the title track:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e368gw/videos/p04x13b3#p04xylv0

And here's "What The Hell Is It This Time?" via an audience member:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMa-0eaZQUo&t=193s

Album preorder page, etc. etc

https://sparks.tmstor.es/

The single is pretty good!

They've done this thing so many times now where the opening line of a song is so, so corny, I think "OK, they've finally lost it," but they consistently spin this stuff into gold. Unreal.

Almost fifty years on and they just still have that indefinable 'it' in that regard. Spectacular.

The backing band is mostly made up of the guys from Mini Mansions, which is Queens of the Stone Age bassist Michael Shuman's side project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc8b8_qhvSY

there's a fairly detailed 5-star review up on RYM already that's pretty hilarious (and obviously fake)

We get another mash up with Sparks re-imagining New Orders "Love Triangle" as "Stitch Me Up, Patch Me Down" (Peter Hook garnering a co-writing credit), before we get seriously operatic with a gazillion Russells chorusing "When The Fat Lady Sings (I Can't Get Laid)" as our lover boys sexual anguish builds up to derail our Diva's onstage performance. A certain Katherine Jenkins, for freaks sake. Sparks then go Japanese heavy in a manner only really PiL have been able to do, ("Ease" from Album) again Dean Menta's crashing chords against some outstanding Asian wooden drums playing (synth) from Ron in "Geisha Boy, Geisha Girl (I MILFed Your Mama)" then its a colossal, uplifting instrumental that could have been borrowed from Classical Chill. Ron's weaving a Stravinsky ballet with some subtle percussion, leading to an outstanding guitar solo, "(D)Air To Behold" one of Sparks's loveliest pieces for some time. We finish with a couple of slower numbers "The Man Who Put The "E" Into Whiskey" mourning a lovers breakdown late in a bar (the obvious successor to "T*ts") and "I Mourn You" a soul wrenching struggle concerning the death of ??? It remains unclear.

I can't believe the name of Track #11

Jim O'Rourke singing karaoke of Sparks lmao https://youtu.be/h_yuTYi4xpM?t=22m55s

And we got new single/video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC0rzv1j8Zc

its already stuck in my head

Man, that sounds like Sparks.

I don't really like that at all. It doesn't have the same charm as anything from Lil' Beethoven or Hello Young Lovers. I hope there's better to come from them.

That was a great track and you're high.

American tour dates announced, shows on sale Friday

🇺🇸 U S A✨
Get ready! Ron and Russell are finally bringing the Sparks Hippopotamus Tour home this October!

Tickets on sale this Friday. pic.twitter.com/amtXWwTAwH

— SPARKS (@sparksofficial) July 25, 2017

(And hint, tickets actually on sale now -- MISSIONARYPOSITION is the code. See you at the 7 pm SF show...)

thanks for the tip!

Second NYC show added, IIRC. Also, new interviews abounding -- good one in the Quietus:

http://thequietus.com/articles/23002-sparks-interview-2

Which has this detail:

The way you ended up working with Giorgio Moroder was thanks to...

Russell: ...a lie. As is our wont.

Ron: It wasn’t the first time and won't be the last.

Russell: We’d been doing an interview in LA with a German journalist and she said, “What’s next for you guys?” And we said, “Oh, we’re going to be working with Giorgio Moroder on our new album” and we hadn’t even made any contact with him. It was something we wanted to do. She said, “Oh really, that’s great, Giorgio is my good friend”. We went, like, “Oh shit”. We owned up and said, “We haven’t actually approached him but we would like to work with Giorgio” so she said she would introduce us. No one knew what that album was going to be like. There was an intimidation factor because he was knowledgeable about electronics; at that time we didn’t have any knowledge of that - we’ve since learned. And the other thing was he was used to working with Donna Summer who’s this great singer, so it was intimidating for someone like me coming from a band world with these stylistic eccentricities. In the end, he really embraced it and we think [No.1 in Heaven] was a really special record.

And re Morrissey:

It is true that you used to always communicate by fax?

Russell: Yes, we did. We have all the fading messages which we’ve kept. By fax and in giant letters, and even more recently - several months back - on my doorstep. I didn’t hear him. I was working at home, and I go outside and there’s an album propped up against the door and it’s a Morrissey album with the Ameba Records sticker still on it which had just been purchased there obviously, and it had been inscripted by Morrissey saying “Russell, you have to record ‘Windy Day’” - which was a demo we made in the Kimono My House period that was recently released in a repackaging of Kimono with various tracks that were demos at the time. And he said that, and it was just left there, and he was gone in the wind. He didn’t want to speak, so there’s this odd relationship from a distance. It’s intriguing and nice.

funny, I just listened to Introducing Sparks for the first time in a while yesterday. I agree with them on that album and Big Beat - good songs, execution maybe not so good. Big Beat sounds like it was recorded in a closet. funny he should mention "Goofing Off"...that's one of my favorite Sparks tunes. also love "Occupation", it reminds me of a couple songs my 2 year old likes

la lala la lala la la la la
la lala la lala la la la la
la lala la lala la la la la

also wanna point out that Big Beat is the one time where the lyrics seem to go from funny to downright cruel in a few spots. well that and "Tips for Teens". Sparks sorta get a pass on this but I kinda wonder what the fallout would be if someone wrote a song like "Throw Her Away And Get a New One" today

You read that story about the guy with six 'pre-interview' dates at almost the same time the other day? If anything that song is now a documentary.

"Don't Shoot Me" is in the ads for the Get Shorty tv show and got me to revisit Whomp That Sucker. So thanks, Get Shorty tv show.

listened to ONE random track from the new Scooter album and guess who it is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DksxoFhm-os

you probably shouldn't listen to this

well that was fucking nuts

Blocked in my country due to copyright reasons.

The new album definitely needs cutting down a little bit, but there's some great stuff here. I Wish You Were Fun and So Tell Me Miss Lincoln Aside From That How Was The Play? are my current favourites.

Okay, it's out:

https://sparks.lnk.to/hippopotamusFA

this is their funniest album in a long time, isn't it? kinda feels like the sharp sense of humor that went wayward sometime around Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat is back. some real great tunes too. I don't think it needs to be cut down...every song on this seems pretty good to me!

Yeah, I was thinking you'd have to go back to the '80s to find the last Sparks album that was this overtly fun/funny. At the same time some of the last album's more melancholy side is there too -- feel like they've really perfected that balance.

Livestream of their Berlin show happening now:

https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/078567-001-A/berlin-live-sparks/

Oooooh, thank you!

ok I'm dying at the video for "missionary position"

Btw I find the idea that they haven't been funny since the 80s bizarre. Good morning, lighten up morrissey, collaborations don't work