Robyn Hitchcock/Soft Boys: Classic or Dud?

I was at the show. Tremendous. I was struck how Ira ended up being Hitch's perfect foil on guitar. He really brought home the noisey bits. The entire band was completely up for the task. Highlights included a triplpy version of Lizard, great falsetto vocals and heavy groove on Do Policemen Sing? and a jaw-dropping version late in the second set of Let There Be More Darkness with Hitch nailing the creepy "Kevin, Supper's Ready!" bit. No Lucifer Sam encore but we also got "I often Dream of Trains, which is always a treat. I'd love to hear a recording of the show. It was a special night.

Noooooo they did let there be more darkness??? Fuuuuuuuuck

ha, that must be a first? man, Invisible Hitchcock is such a good collection.

This might be hyperbole on my part but I think I'd give Tuesday's whole show for that

Many years ago I saw Hitch play it solo. But this was a different beast altogether.

New album strikes me as one of the best things he's done in years. Also, I didn't know about his father, and am now noticing references to him all over the place. Virginia Wolf is the early favorite, but a bunch of strong and rocking stuff on this one.

Is his latest the one that starts with that Psych Furs cover? Ghost in You that's it. If so I wasn't too into it. Also had a new take of his old classic The Ghost Ship. Seems to be short on material. Anyway, love him as a human regardless. And am positively nuts for The Soft Boys. A longtime intense favorite of mine. Up there with The Fall and Pere Ubu in my personal pantheon. And the origin of my convoluted screen name. A Can of Bees being my favorite lp of theirs. But really I dig it all.

No, there's a new one that just came out. Released as Robyn Hitchcock. Much more like his older days.

Let's see if I can do this without screwing up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R843CEIBntQ

Well whattya know? Pretty damn good. Thanks for that. Is that YLT backing him or Venus 3 or ?? In any case I enjoyed that very much. Sylvia Plath saw the world as it is. Love that. And it's nice to hear Hitch equating being dead with being "alright". It is more like his classic era stuff and I certainly welcome it.

It's out? I thought it was gonna be released in late may

came out on friday ... i like it! a couple of throwaways but that is par for the course. some great robyn electric guitar action.

After a couple of listens, definitely his best since the Venus 3 work. I was afraid his new squeeze would negatively impact it but that's not the case.

My emusic credits just refreshed, I'm buying this tonight.

think my fave is "raymond and the wires" -- the kind of weird/beautiful song only Hitchcock could write.

It's also a pretty rare (or maybe not) straight song by Robyn. I've gotten fascinated by the influence of his father on his work lately. His dad did in fact have a bad leg, and the song sounds pretty autobiographical.

Raymond Hitchcock. Author of "Percy" (Kinks) and "Venus 13." Died in Winchester. Etc. There's an article to be written there, if it hasn't already been....

yeah it does seem that way -- i imagine a lot of his songs are obliquely autobiographical, but this one is obviously pretty direct.

There's a whole book to be written about rh but do I have to do it?

wasn't there some kind of hint about robyn writing his memoirs at some point?

There was??? That'd be amazing

With all due respect to one of my favorite artists, he needs a good editor. A really good one. A bio of him could be amazing or horrible. I don't want to read about crepuscular crabs and longings for margarine. I think he's going to get one shot at a bio, and I kind of pray that someone else is in charge.

first listen is happening now. this is great. doesn't sound quite like any other rh record. he has to tour this electric!

'oh god you were beautiful' on mad shelley's letterbox is one of those simple yet odd expressive hooks only robyn can locate that instantly give you life-chills

and the guitars behind that phrase, my goodness TOTAL BYRDS ORGY

Nice post re Demme:

https://twitter.com/RobynHitchcock/status/857259489510252545

Huh, that's odd. Thought it would have autolinked.

always appreciated that Demme took his Oscar cachet and made Storefront Hitchcock, which obviously was not going to be a huge box office smash. nice to have such an artfully made document of Hitchcock at that point ...

I also like that he cast him in a couple of fictions, though demme cannot address the yawning lack of a Robyn-as-Dr-Who TV movie.

Aw man and me clicking on neds link is me learning demme has passed

"autumn sunglasses" is so nice

yeahhh, the whole record is really strong! i think that opening tune is the only one that doesn't click for me, actually (which is weird, since he's usually pretty great at choosing openers).

it's damn good electric robyn album

any signs of him touring w/band?

Saw this on tv last night. I probably shouldn't be surprised by things like this, but I was:
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/w6Kr/subway-sweet-onion-teriyaki-destroy-song-by-the-soft-boys

I begrudge no artist for making a little cash and exposing their music to more people.

they feed your pride with cold cuts and then lead you on to more

My buddy cried a tear on this a couple weeks ago and I said "Rew gave the ad world 'walking on sunshine, surely a greater offense to decency, though a far lesser song. '" 40 years of preservation is enough for this return imo.

Hahaha well done unnamed aging hipster ad guy

I am not offended by this ad at all

For sure though this AIN'T the song I would have predicted for Robyn's first ad windfall

NB I also really like subways sweet onion teriyaki sandwich

haha, yeah, i have absolutely no problem with robyn getting some cash so that he can keep on keepin' on.
on twitter, he said: "Oddly my first-ever US meal was a Subway in NYC, w/ Soft Boys in 1980. Chicken Teriyaki wasn't invented yet but we did play 'Destroy You'"

Isn't it time for an odds, sods, outtakes, etc collection from Sir Robyn? Would it be any good is the real question...

You mean a career spanning one or one that sweeps up the odd stuff from the last ~ten years?

His odds and sods tend to be among his best stuff. One of the best things if the a&m albums ever get remastered is that those fantastic b-sides would likely be on there

Those Yep Roc box sets from a few years back are pretty comprehensive regarding the non LP Hitchcock stuff. They are still available. Also, the Invisible Hitchcock LP is tremendous. It collects his very early non-LP stuff. He actually pulled out a few gems from this when he did Black Snake Diamond Role shows in NYC last year.

Well, his last oddities collection was 2008's "Shadow Cat", so the last 10 years would be covered. I wonder if there's any Venus 3 outtakes?

Better yet would be a set of the many live-only songs he's done.

yeah, i was wondering if his slower pace of releasing albums in those years means he is also writing slower and producing less outtakes/less chips from the workbench. Could be there just aren't that many odds lately!

i wouldn't mind hearing (if they exist) the demos for Love From London ... I feel like there might be some good songs lurking in there, I just kinda can't stand the overall sound of that record.

otm

there are some good songs there, i can affirm

the sound picture of it is the worst bedroom DAW vaporishness (somewhat reminiscent of the awful sound of very late Prince records)

yeah, just sounds very much "in the box" if that makes sense ... think i've heard a live version or two where I've thought "hey this isn't terrible!"

in other news, i listened to black snake diamond role three times over the weekend. what a great record!

you are making me bitter all over again about having gone to the 'wrong' Robyn/YLT Black Snake show (ie the one where they didn't play Let There be More Darkness)

BTW: were you spinning the LP with the saxes or CD without?

w/ the saxes!

(this is what my 1981-centric saturday morning looked like)
https://instagram.fapa1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/vp/70a74e79381c153ebbfac61c93770f69/5B32FBC0/t51.2885-15/e35/29093386_212974649257650_3805667218432196608_n.jpg