Feelin' Kinda Free def paved the way for it.
― Simon H., Monday, 7 May 2018 18:56 (six years ago) link
Gareth and Fiona's official line is that the other Drones members had loads of side-projects and they wanted one too...but hearing Gareth calling all his old stuff 'wank' I'm inclined to believe they wanted a new project and that this might be it for The Drones for now. Talk of a second TFS record already in the works and an incendiary live show. I think they're onto a winner here - much more scope for following their weirder (yet strangely more direct) urges. And besides, I See Seaweed was so great...they were never going to be able to put out anything to match it, really, it has the feel of an unconquerable moment. FKF was a rebellion against having to follow up ISS, and TFS is the glorious realisation of that rebellion imo
― imago, Monday, 7 May 2018 20:11 (six years ago) link
The Tropical Fuck Storm record is so great
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 25 May 2018 00:49 (five years ago) link
My copy of the CD just arrived. Great cover to go along with the fuckstorm of music.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 25 May 2018 02:11 (five years ago) link
I'm assuming there's never gonna be a stateside physical release for this?
― Simon H., Friday, 25 May 2018 12:45 (five years ago) link
I got the CD for typical US cost via Amazon.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 25 May 2018 15:07 (five years ago) link
Fuck - the Tropical Fuck Storm record is amazing! I loved Feeling Kinda Free, but this is even noisier, hookier, and just... exciting. Also ordered via amazon.
Australians: has this made much of an impression locally?
― paulhw, Wednesday, 4 July 2018 02:14 (five years ago) link
It hasn't surpassed "Feelin Kinda Free" for me yet but it feels like a natural extension.
I played it for a mate who dug it, he subsequently played it for some of his 20-something workmates and they dug it, too. People just need to hear it!
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 5 July 2018 00:16 (five years ago) link
I would fucking kill for them to tour Canada.
― Simon H., Thursday, 5 July 2018 00:21 (five years ago) link
i would say good solid interest and support but not quite the firestorm of enthusiasm the music deserves? which i guess is the case for the drones also
i went to one of the pre-LP TFS shows and it was really great but i hadn't at that point got a good sense of this as a project distinct from the drones - definitely an extension of the Feelin Kinda Free sound (as mentioned above) and quite a few Drones songs in the set
real keen to go again now the project has hit its straps
totally love the way Gareth and pals have managed to elude worthiness and pursue something more bent
― umsworth (emsworth), Thursday, 5 July 2018 00:57 (five years ago) link
related: the new Harmony album is out today - TFS' Erica Dunn is a member, and they sound a bit like a much more depressed Drones/TFS. The new album is very good on first contact.
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Friday, 20 July 2018 10:50 (five years ago) link
This is excellent. I should reaaly check out The Drones too
― . (Michael B), Monday, 3 September 2018 23:49 (five years ago) link
you haven't? omg
start with the newest one and work backwards maybe. actually fuck it start with 'i see seaweed' it's one of the best albums of the last 20 years
― imago, Monday, 3 September 2018 23:51 (five years ago) link
agreed
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Tuesday, 4 September 2018 00:11 (five years ago) link
excellent new TFS tune on this split single with Liars:
https://famousclass.bandcamp.com/album/lamc-18
They're currently opening for Modest Mouse on some US dates.
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Monday, 17 September 2018 17:31 (five years ago) link
Thanks for the tip! More TFS is always welcome. Definitely doing everything I want from music these days.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, 17 September 2018 21:37 (five years ago) link
in advance of the year-end poll and campaigning I've been trying to think of how to explain to non-initiates the singular appeal of the Tropical Fuck Storm record, so forgive me as I blather on for a moment.
there's been a lot of discussion re: the 1975 and their attempt to represent "the present moment" and whether that's even desirable. to my mind, while the zeitgeisty lyrical moments on "a brief inquiry" are sometimes amusing, sometimes cringey, the actual sonics feel extremely au courant but not actually in touch with the zeitgeist in terms of the constant unease, the nerviness, the elusiveness of any feasible next move, that I think or assume most of us feel. imo a laughing death in meatspace not only captures that feeling, in runs off in several dozen different directions with it and find a set of colors and variations and headspaces way out of most bands' reach. some of the reasons they're able to do that are a product of Gareth Liddiard's evolution as a lyricist, vocalist and guitarist, and others are specific to this band configuration. Gareth has a motormouthed intensity in order to cram his syllable-dense lines in, occasionally reaching for rap-like cadences. his vocals now have about a 75%/25% bilious/tender split. his lyrics are more coherent and less fragmented than ever, but dense with Aussie-specific slang (esp in "you let my tyres down") and he's not afraid to get incredibly goofy in dogged pursuit of a conceit (the hilariously technophobic "future of history"). he's sneering but not superior, angry but not without good reason, rant-oriented but never long-winded. (the only mark against the album is there's no lyric in here as cathartic as the last Drones album's "why you think the whole world's gotta be like you? / fuck Western supremacy!") his guitar playing has come so far since the early Drones record; he seems to have grown bored with chords entirely, and now mostly plays in weird diagonal patterns and screeches and scrapes that intersect beautifully and weirdly with the sci-fi synths.
but it's the vocal interplay supplied by Erica Dunn (who has been a major part of two other albums this year, one with Mod Con, produced by Liddiard, and the other one with the excellent and Google-proof Harmony, which has the unfortunate distinction of being called Double Negative in 2018.) and Fiona of the Drones. They act as a sometimes mocking, sometimes sympathetic, sometimes furious counterpoint to Gareth, occasionally taking over for a verse at a time. (Erica takes the lead on their fearless, skronky non-album cover of "Stayin' Alive", which you can find on Spotify and I am too lazy to link right now). their cascading vocal lines combine with Gareth's serpentine guitars, the eerie synth washes, and Lauren's sometimes-live, sometimes-programmed (and not always easily distinguishable) drums make for a rock record that actually swings with something approaching...funk?
and like a lot of the rock records I really like, it gradually loses its mind. starting with its most rock-leaning material and gradually getting weirder and weirder, until you reach the convincing ambient soundscaping of "shellfish toxin" and the doom ballad title track, and you start to wonder how in hell you even got here in the first place. but it's "rubber bullies" that I think gets across in six tidy minutes what these guys are so good at. it's one of my most-played songs in years. working with a steady, slinky rhythm, Gareth details in typically dense verses just how the odds are stacked against the righteous, in terms that should be familiar to anyone who's ever been involved in a likely-to-lose campaign, while incorporating what might be the first example in rock history of a letter-ordered list seamlessly integrated into a verse:
discreet wet dreams and nightmaresseclusion, side by sidethe world’s way too connectedand all anybody does is fightstaging their crypto inquisitionsall in multiple choice, like: Anything that screws you’ssurely sured up by its bulk and...A: better organized?B: better mobilized?C: getting monetized?D: can’t be criticized?
after about five minutes there's finally the release of a proper dramatic build, complete with a key change (I think?), the first real release in over a quarter of the album. it ends the album hauntingly on an anecdote where even a holiday turns tragic and frightening, with an acquaintance winding up iced by one of Rio's Pacifying Police Units:
just take me on a holidayand put me on an aeroplanewhere we going now?to that terrace over Riowith a bougainvillaea vineswhere the heat finally nailed meso we stayed the extra nightand the guard up in the watchtowercharged with keeping out the fightingjoked the difference between sexesall boils down to their handwritingwhen we checked out the next morningwe were on a first name basisbut then he had the kind of featureswhere you can’t recall his facebut it wouldn’t have been that much later he saw God’s‘cause he died staring up the nostrils of a UPP shotgun
― resident hack (Simon H.), Tuesday, 18 December 2018 04:27 (five years ago) link
tl:dr, this is a fucking kickass rock band that relies on very few typical kickass rock band tropes in favor of an approach that's both more cerebral and less studied, somehow
― resident hack (Simon H.), Tuesday, 18 December 2018 04:49 (five years ago) link
excellent stuff simon!
― imago, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 08:37 (five years ago) link
yeah both posts otmmy favourite rock album of the year by far. very excited to go see them next year when they'll be coming to europe
― willem, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 09:01 (five years ago) link
Didn't know about the new band, sounds real good, will give it a go to consider for my year end
― abcfsk, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 09:32 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_9fLIiSaRQ
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Tuesday, 18 December 2018 09:42 (five years ago) link
― resident hack (Simon H.), Tuesday, 18 December 2018 04:49 (nine hours ago) Permalink
This.
Also using the Carducci Metric, you can tell TFS is a great band cuz no one is talking about them
― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 14:49 (five years ago) link
Gareth lyrically doesn't always stick the landing, for me anyway, but when he does, it completely fucking flattens me
"I See Seaweed" by the Drones is probably the best rock record of the last ten yrs
― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 14:51 (five years ago) link
I possibly agree
― imago, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 15:00 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdrip6k3g74
whoa that stayin' alive cover rules
it's kinda wild that the drones' debut came out 16 years ago and gareth is only getting better and better. great post simon
― ufo, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 15:03 (five years ago) link
hoping for more Erica lead vox on the next album
and yeah the early Drones albums just seem so...basic now, outside of a few undeniable jams
― resident hack (Simon H.), Tuesday, 18 December 2018 15:06 (five years ago) link
his guitar playing has come so far since the early Drones record; he seems to have grown bored with chords entirely, and now mostly plays in weird diagonal patterns and screeches and scrapes that intersect beautifully and weirdly with the sci-fi synths.
Simon, you put into words what I've been trying to describe since I first heard "Feelin Kinda Free". 'Diagonal guitar patterns' indeed, Gareth's innovative approach makes most other bands sound boring to me. I'm desperate to find more in this vein!
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 15:12 (five years ago) link
great posts simon
just a fantastic band, this feels like this year's Thin Black Duke by Oxbow, a record that just kinda fell threw the cracks in favor of a bunch of buzz bands that offer far, far less
― No Smockin' (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 18 December 2018 15:12 (five years ago) link
ISS is one of those albums where no track is even approaching weak, and it's also one of those albums where the first half is amazing and the second half is even better. I probably said this already
― imago, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 15:14 (five years ago) link
Oxbow comparison on-point
― imago, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 15:15 (five years ago) link
yeah despite FKF getting us closer to the TFS sound, ISS is stronger overall, def their rockist apex after which point they had to start getting weird or implode
― resident hack (Simon H.), Tuesday, 18 December 2018 15:22 (five years ago) link
ISS expanded their sound a decent amount with a lot more keyboards and piano than before, helping pave the way for them really breaking loose with FKF
― ufo, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 15:27 (five years ago) link
apropos of nothing: "To Think I Once Loved You" is the best fake Radiohead song ever written
also if a mod could add "Tropical Fuck Storm" to the thread title that would be dope
― resident hack (Simon H.), Tuesday, 18 December 2018 15:59 (five years ago) link
it's a bit like the relationship between mcclusky & future of the left, similar aesthetic at the core but different versions of it
― No Smockin' (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 18 December 2018 16:10 (five years ago) link
Never listened to the Drones - I guess they just flew completely under my radar all these years. But I found that TFS record through the Quietus’s EOY list and was totally taken off guard. Not the record I thought I was looking for this year.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Tuesday, 18 December 2018 16:19 (five years ago) link
as much as this is a vocal/lyric band, "Shellfish Toxin" is a really amazing instrumental, almost reminds me of a post punk Robert Wyatt or something
― No Smockin' (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 18 December 2018 17:42 (five years ago) link
this feels like this year's Thin Black Duke by Oxbow, a record that just kinda fell threw the cracks in favor of a bunch of buzz bands that offer far, far less
― willem, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 18:45 (five years ago) link
They've always passed me by, especially at the ATP when I took a tactical nap during their set to avoid going back to the chalet, but the Oxbow comparison intrigues me because I fkn love Oxbow.
― Bimlo Horsewagon became Wheelbarrow Horseflesh (aldo), Wednesday, 19 December 2018 09:31 (five years ago) link
Oh I should say they don't sound anything like Oxbow, I just meant in the sense they seem to be chasing down their own thing, ignoring and ignored by the general zeitgeist
― No Smockin' (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 19 December 2018 12:39 (five years ago) link
You could just listen to her Mod Con album, mentioned upthread:https://poisoncityrecords.bandcamp.com/album/modern-convenience
Feelin Kinda Free was my #7 album for 2016.
― Fastnbulbous, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 16:30 (five years ago) link
yeah I linked that as well. it's pretty good but not as distinctive as TFS
― resident hack (Simon H.), Wednesday, 19 December 2018 16:38 (five years ago) link
i listened to and enjoyed the TFS album when it came out but this thread lead me to go back to it, so thanks all. it reminds me of the grinderman albums.
― na (NA), Wednesday, 19 December 2018 17:28 (five years ago) link
I like FKF a lot but the second side is significantly iffier than the first.
― resident hack (Simon H.), Wednesday, 19 December 2018 17:31 (five years ago) link
good closer
― imago, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 17:42 (five years ago) link
Yeah I hadn't listened to the TFS in a minute, man this is a great record
― chr1sb3singer, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 17:53 (five years ago) link
thanks for the ISS rec, i like it.
somebody posted this on a youtube video of the album audio:
The singer sounds like the dregs of a pouch of champion ruby found next to yesterday's coopers on the porch. It's wonderful.
does anybody knows what this means
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 18:19 (five years ago) link
refers to wine and expired cigarettes?
― imago, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 18:22 (five years ago) link
I have no idea but it sounds like a Gareth lyric so it fits
speaking of which, everyone also needs to hear Gareth's strange Tourist, his take on a solo folk record. endless songs full of bleak character studies. great winter album
― resident hack (Simon H.), Wednesday, 19 December 2018 18:24 (five years ago) link
Coopers is beer, Champion ruby is roll your own tobacco
― just sayin, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 19:09 (five years ago) link