Robyn Hitchcock/Soft Boys: Classic or Dud?

The Guardian podcast is what I'm listening to; might be signif diff excerpts on quietus

Boy do I love his Quietus commentary. Seems like the background music should be "Tell Me About Your Drugs" as he seems to bring it up for each artist. I hadn't realized he was straight-edge though it's always been clear he didn't need drugs to see the weirdess of life.

Monday, February 25th with Irene Trudel 12-3pm: On the eve of a brand new album, a tour and a significant birthday, Robyn Hitchcock is dropping by some of his favorite radio stations with solo performance sessions. In advance of the new album, Robyn will be ensconced in WFMU's Love Room to play songs from his newest disc, "Love from London," to be released in early March.

But I don't see anything NYC in his tour dates. If anyone hears of a short notice nyc show adjacent to this radio date please lemme know!

guess the new one is on itunes now?

you can pre-order it. Not out until next month.

ah, ok i don't think i even knew you could preorder something on itunes...shucks, i was excited to hear it!

One track streaming, and Webster Hall NYC 4/26 with the Venus 3 announced:

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2013/02/robyn_hitchcock_8.html

Peter Buck solo is the opener. I hope this doesn't mean the date is about to sell out on presale, because I am so broke I can't preorder a ticket for another 2 weeks at least...

It has been awhile since NYC has seen a proper Hitch/Venus 3 show. I bought pre-sale tickets for this. I have a feeling that old school REM fans are going to snatch these tickets up quickly.

venus 3 has never come near me, annoyingly, but i was surprised when my brother told me the show he saw in san diego was not particularly packed. seems funny that the guitarist from one of the biggest bands of the last few decades would not be that much of a draw...but i guess if he's doing his own set, the rem die hards will come out.

tylerw, I think that's because your average lo-information hardcore REM fan probably has no idea Buck is in the Venus 3 but...I think when they hear he is opening this show solo they will arrive in droves. I could be wrong though.

yeah maybe -- REM is such a weird band in that there's really no superstar in the group. obviously stipe comes close, but i don't think anyone is clamoring for a stipe solo album? and it's pretty difficult to imagine any of them playing REM tunes in a solo setting.

But I could see Hitch hopping on stage w/him to maybe give one or two of them a try.

yeah i think i've heard hitchcock doing electrolite with buck, berry, mills?

or maybe not berry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmrTGPB2aaw
kind of a cruddy vid, but hey

listening to him on the bbc NOW. "pink dress" (i think?) sounded awesome, kinda element of light-y.

Went to the 60th birthday show last night - very good! Mostly reverse-chronological, lots of guests, ended up banging through Where Are The Prawns?/Kingdom of Love/Pigworker/Give it to the Soft Boys with Morris/Kimberley/Paul Noble. Also played Heaven with Green Gartside on backing vocals, Clean Steve with Nick Lowe etc etc.

Kimberley Rew's hair is a bit scary these days though:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8235/8516316753_2e1b61c773.jpg

Jealous!

On first listen the new record didn't grab me much. There are a few songs that intrigue and a few that seem like clunkers, so I'll have to see where it settles. Weirdly dated in places too.

he started with Be Still last night, which didn't do much for me, but the final encore of End of Time was surprisingly good. Haven't listened to the record yet though.

I couldn't wait for my disc to arrive in the mail so acquired it early. "End Of Time" is definitely one of the highlights. I like "Be Still" better on the record than on the live rehearsal video he put out so I'm not too surprised it was a bit of a damp squib live.

Wow Kim has abandoned his muppet 'do! It's been decades! I'm not so sure about this new jeepers creepers look. I'm sure he's still the king of body vibrato though.

Happy 60th, Mr. Hitchcock.

He was on Weekend Edition this morning, with good excerpts from the new album; comments incl. other, all w with that wry suave Brit male thang (declares he wrote songs for ten years before they were any good)Can download it too:
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/03/173317537/robyn-hitchcock-rock-n-roll-is-an-old-mans-game-now Scroll down to the bottom of this page for another download: his and Joe Boyd's Tiny Desk Concert (23 minutes and change). Boyd reads from his UK folk-rock memoir, RH plays "songs from and inspired by the era." Or if you wanna go directly to that 'un:
http://www.npr.org/event/music/137702245/joe-boyd-and-robyn-hitchcock-tiny-desk-concert

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

nice!

set list

"Side 1": Jenny, Paul & Stephen on all tracks unless otherwise stated:

BE STILL Jen & Lucy – vocals + a few others?
OLD MAN WEATHER Jen & Lucy - vocals
ORDINARY MILLIONAIRE as above + Terry - horn
GOODNIGHT OSLO as above + Kimberley - guitar
MUSEUM OF SEX as above + Terry - other horn
SOMETIMES A BLONDE
AMERICA Jenny, Paul, Stephen, + Terry on trumpet
NO I DON'T REMEMBER GUILDFORD Jenny, Paul, Stephen, Kim + Tim on guitar + Jen & Lucy - vocals
BEAUTIFUL QUEEN as above
WRECK OF THE ARTHUR LEE as above minus Kim & Tim
SO YOU THINK YOU'RE IN LOVE Nick Lowe – acoustic, harmonies, Morris - harmonies & percussion, RH - acoustic
CLEAN STEVE as above + Mark Ellen acoustic, harmonies (Note: Mark Ellen is mentioned in the lyrics - H.L.)

"Side 2": Kim, Morris & Paul on all tracks unless otherwise indicated:

FREEZE
UNSETTLED
AIRSCAPE
MR. KENNEDY
HEAVEN - Morris & Green harmonies, RH acoustic
FURRY GREEN ATOM BOWL - Green, Jen, Lucy, Terry, Tim, RH + Adam Buxton vocals
BRENDA'S IRON SLEDGE - Kim, Morris, Paul + Jen & Lucy
KINGDOM OF LOVE - Kim, Morris & Paul
THE PIGWORKER - as above
WHERE ARE THE PRAWNS - as above
GIVE IT TO THE SOFT BOYS - as above + Jen & Lucy vocals + Jenny, Tim, Terry
Encore:
VICTORIAN SQUID - RH solo
THE END OF TIME - Jenny, Paul, Stephen + cast

Ah, happy 60th. We're all getting older and as the man said to NPR, "when you think about how much time you've got left you just want to get on with it"!

Much better B side than A side. I'm feeling everything from 'Strawberries Dress' onward.

I just got myself a hard copy today so I'll see if that changes my initial thoughts. I agree that the record ends well.

By the way, his cover of Nick Cave's "Parasite" which is streaming at Stereogum might be the best thing he's put out in some time.

http://stereogum.com/1283782/robyn-hitchcock-parasite-nick-drake-cover/mp3s/

By the way, why the hell would Yep Roc put in a download code in the CD case for a 192kbps copy of the album? I thought it might be bonus tracks or something but no, just a copy of the album you could easily rip for yourself in higher quality. Weird.

I guess if you have MacBook Air and can't rip CDs?

Good show from a week ago for free downloading or streaming:

https://archive.org/details/robynhitchcock2013-03-09.Pike1957-16bit-flac

checkin' it out!
guess he's doing another b-day thing in LA this coming may. the dreaded amanda palmer is making an appearance! ick! otherwise, probably a good time.
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/884513_558542197512274_1058812647_o.jpg

Oh well, we had to suffer through his associations with the Presidents and the Decembrists, we'll live...

The production on the new LP is dreadful, esp. the dated sounding drum machine. Hard to believe Robyn couldn't find a proper drummer. There are some great songs on here but I fopund myself mostly distracted by how sterile it sounds.

I hear you loud and clear. I went on at length over here so I'll link instead of pasting it in:

http://lightbulbhead.tumblr.com/post/45857127871/robyn-hitchcock-love-from-london-ive-been

Really nice 35 minute SXSW solo set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2xlyniZWms

cool, thanks! yeah, haven't given the new one enough attention, but the production isn't super appealing. seems to have kind of drowned out a lot of robyn's guitar? which is one the main things, you know? have a feeling i'll probably like live versions of these songs more than the the studio versions.

"Be Still" is almost redeemed by the solo version in that set. Almost, but not quite.

Thanks for that link EZ. This is great so far. Gonna rip it to my computer later. Unless it turns up at archive.org first...

I just got the vinyl box of Luminous Groove from my local record store, which I had been openly coveting for more than a year. wow, these records are great. I had only heard Gotta Let This Hen Out and some of Fegmania, the Element Of Light stuff and the giant bunch of demos/outtakes/live extras is totally new to me. just like the first box, this demands total immersion, you can just swim around in the profusion of material for weeks.

I envy you. Helluva thing to delve into with fresh ears.

"The Crawling" is rocking my world right now!

Nice!

I just got the Record Store Day album, "There Goes The Ice", which collects his Phantom 45s plus 2 new tracks and these odds and sods are way better than "Love From London"! I hope this is made available elsewhere down the road.

"LfL" is half-good, but way down towards the bottom of his albums for me.

My local was sold out but a text to a friend in Maine got me one. Will be a long time before I can hear it because I still have no record player.

Included download codes are your friend.

sweet find

cool.

solid recent show here: http://archive.org/details/robynhitchcock2013-04-27.aud.flac.16
the love from london tracks are mostly improved upon by the venus 3.