FYI: Truth Attack - All Genres Of Music That Have Ever Existed Contain Awesome Music In Them, And If You Write Off A Whole Genre Of Music You Are Being Closeminded And Dumb

I like to hear what Geir has to say.

OK, here is Geir making a "positive" hip-hop post :-)

1. All Eyez On Me - Tupac Shakur
2. Speakerboxx/The Love Below - Outkast
3. Doggystyle - Snoop Doggy Dogg
4. The Chronic - Dr. Dre
5. 3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of... - Arrested Development
6. Hipocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury - The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
7. Regulate..The G-Funk Era - Warren G
8. The Marshall Mathers LP - Eninem
9. Miss E...So Addictive - Missy Elliott
10.Stankonia - Outkast

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, February 12, 2004 5:36 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Even I would be able to pick 10 hip-hop-albums (even discounting trip-hop) that are decent enough to mention, I think:

1. 2 Pac: All Eyez On Me
2. Outkast: Speakerboxx/The Love Below
3. Snoop Dogg: Doggystyle
4. 2 Pac: Me Against The World
5. Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy: Hypocricy Is The Greatest Luxury
6. Eminem: The Marshall Mathers LP
7. Dr. Dre: The Chronic
8. Arrested Development: Three Years, Five Months And Two Days....
9. Outkast: Stankonia
10.De La Soul: 3 Feet High And Rising

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, September 22, 2006 5:37 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

how did this become the geir discussion thread?

It's ILM

geir's clearly-defined musical standards >>> lex's wilful ignorance

― 100 tons of hardrofl beyond zings (Just got offed), Wednesday, October 22, 2008 12:12 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

u crazy

I actually like most of the music Geir tirelessly pimps for — and largely for the same reasons he likes it. It's just not the ONLY music I care for.

He was bitching about latter day Talk Talk the other day.

<GASP!!>

Seriously, I've actually grown so weary of your pimping for Talk Talk, Nick. In 1997, the argument that those records were forward thinking resonated — today virtually everyone agrees. Enough already.

But Geir's bitching about SoE and Laughing Stock made me realize what he's missing, exactly: that they're pop records that fuck with the idea of time. By stretching them out the way Hollis and Friese-Green do, you can see cracks you otherwise couldn't in three minute pop songs. If Geir spent some time with them, rather than being put off by the fact that "the bridge with the minor chord" or whatever appeals to him about pop songs doesn't show up for 5 minutes, he'd realize that those records say something meaningful about the pop constructs he so cherishes (McCartney-esque ones, even).

That's more than I've written about Talk Talk in a looooooong time, Matt; I only mentioned that Geir had mentioned them as an example of a; him bitching about stuff other than r&b and hip hop, and b; him bitching about something I like. How you've "grown so weary" of me tirelessly not talking about something very often, I don't know.

Nick, you saying you haven't been posting about Talk Talk recently is like the Pillsbury Dough Boy not laughing much of late.

similies: FAIL

http://www.funnyforumpics.com/forums/This-Thread-Delivers/1/thread_delivers-yon.jpg

I mean, dude put together is "20 favourite rap albums" list once, I doubt he'd do the same for, y'know, punk or whatever

I definitely could. Lots of great punk: Clash, Generation X, early Jam, Ramones, Buzzcocks etc. I don't like Sex Pistols, and I don't like some of what the punk movement resulted in. But there are a lot of pop qualities in a lot of punk.

I guess the one genre (discounting non-"pop" music) I would really struggle to put together a list of would be a Top 10 or 20 metal albums. At least if I am not allowed to include "softer" hard rock acts such as Van Halen, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath or AC/DC.

And "Spirit Of Eden" is OK. I think it would have worked better with an electronic sound though. Plus they were sophisticated enough by "It's My Life" and didn't benefit from getting more "out there". But it's not that I hate any of their stuff. Not even "Laughing Stock" which I am struggling to get much out of at all.

geir talking melodies here have you ever heard cardiacs

coz i think you'd sort of explode or something

Trying to put together a list of my all time Top 20 soul/R&B albums, it would probably look something like this (not including reggae by Bob Marley or jazz by Herbie Hancock):

1. Fulfillingness First Finale - Stevie Wonder
2. Bad Girls - Donna Summer
3. Songs In The Key Of Life - Stevie Wonder
4. Talking Book - Stevie Wonder
5. Purple Rain - Prince
6. Can't Slow Down - Lionel Richie
7. Thriller - Michael Jackson
8. Sign "O" The Times - Prince
9. I Am - Earth Wind & Fire
10.Parade - Prince
11.The Dude - Quincy Jones
12.Once Upon a Time - Donna Summer
13.Tropical Gangsters - Kid Creole & The Coconuts
14.Control - Janet Jackson
15.Lionel Richie - Lionel Richie
16.Around The World In a Day - Prince
17.1999 - Prince
18.Rhythm Nation 1814 - Janet Jackson
19.Innervisions - Stevie Wonder
20.Hearsay - Alexander O'Neal

These are all really marvellous albums that I really love. And in addition there are great albums by the likes of Bob Marley, Herbie Hancock and 2 Pac which would have gotten into the list if I had not chosen to define them as non soul/R&B in this case.

geir talking melodies here have you ever heard cardiacs

Not sure. If they are big on melodies, I will probably like them if they are not extremely low-fi or extremely "left of middle" in other ways of approaching music. Like, for instance, I hear great melodies in Pixies and The Replacements, but I do have a serious problem with the way they are approaching them.

Regarding my soul/R&B list, the lack of anything pre-1970 or post-1990 is not a coincidence!

Geir, they're as big on melodies as it actually gets. No jokes.

DON'T listen to "Eat It Up Worms Hero", you will hate. Otherwise, go wild: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=2600990

A bit post punk-ish, maybe. It's OK, but a bit too weird it seems.

Hmm. There isn't anything from "On Land And In The Sea" or "Guns", which might be their most Geir-friendly records. But all I can advise you do is listen to some of their stuff on Youtube or something. I think they'll win you round. Well, I like to think.

They seem pretty experimental to say the least. A bit too "out there" for my taste, really.

Ah well. I tried. Maybe think of them as a souped-up XTC with even better melodies but a lot more weirdness? Nah. Ok, fair enough.

Early XTC is too weird already.

Ya but I prefer the later stuff too, by and large. IIRC you're one of about 3 other ppl on ILM who really bats for Nonsuch.

Cardiacs, to me, sounded way weirder than the strangest stuff on "English Settlement" tho. And I don't like "English Settlement" much with the exception of a few tracks.

And "Spirit Of Eden" is OK. I think it would have worked better with an electronic sound though. Plus they were sophisticated enough by "It's My Life" and didn't benefit from getting more "out there". But it's not that I hate any of their stuff. Not even "Laughing Stock" which I am struggling to get much out of at all.

Geir, I hear what you're saying. But those records weren't about "getting more 'out there'" for weird's sake or trying to make more perfect pop music. They were about exploring pop structures by breaking them down temporally. And by doing so with guitars, drums and the odd arrangement touch, you could also really zoom in on rock dynamics.

I just don't think the goal of these records was to make great pop songs -- but rather to explore what made pop songs great.

Even Nick would agree with that -- or might've many years ago. ;-)

that cardiacs myspace is a perfect reminder of how bands using Mr. Bungle or Sleepytime Gorilla Museum or Henry Cow as touchstones to state "look at us we're quirky" pisses me off.

they're fine and all, but fuck those comparisons. "dear weird music listeners look at us we are weird too lol, just a much more easygoing version of weird" is just such a fucking copout for actually describing what you sound like.

anyway, carry on

XP: What sticks with me is the arrangements, which are at times really beautiful. But I don't feel like they are growing on me. The first time I listened properly to it I thought that "OK, there is some interesting stuff that goes on here that I may really like once I get to know it better and gets it more into my head". But then, the next times I listened to it, nothing happened. I didn't comprehend any more, and I found it boring after a while because nothing stuck. Thus, I decided that it wasn't quite as interesting, because there was never anything to hang anything on.

Fair enough.

that cardiacs myspace is a perfect reminder of how bands using Mr. Bungle or Sleepytime Gorilla Museum or Henry Cow as touchstones to state "look at us we're quirky" pisses me off.

they're fine and all, but fuck those comparisons. "dear weird music listeners look at us we are weird too lol, just a much more easygoing version of weird" is just such a fucking copout for actually describing what you sound like.

anyway, carry on

oh DEAR.

a) they have been around since early 80's.
b) those are some of their easiest songs, ever. put up there doubtless because much else wd fry newcomers' minds. honestly. gentle intro then explore if you like what u hear.
c) mike patton is a huge fan of theirs, as i'd imagine are SGM.
d) that blurb wasn't written by them. it was written by some enthusiastic fans, at 'the organ' magazine.
e) you have just mortally offended my favourite band ever.

If you want to know what sorts of thing bandleader Tim Smith actually says, he has in fact some words highly relevant to the thread-title, words which mark him out as one of the true heroes of popular music: http://www.cardiacs.com/interviews/harmonie-magazine-france-may-2000/

A bit post punk-ish, maybe. It's OK, but a bit too weird it seems.

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, October 23, 2008 12:35 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Early XTC is too weird already.

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, October 23, 2008 12:48 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

what does 'too weird' mean, exactly? seems to just mean 'new and unfamiliar'. cardiacs seemed 'weird' to me at first, but now they just sound like a really great, clever, raging prog-pop band.

point being, the use of 'too weird' as a note of criticism signifies little more than an unwillingness to embrace the new on the part of the critic.

Not so. In terms of most broadsheets and magazines it's shorthand for "don't bother with this new music that is so difficult to listen to; stick with what you know and buy/download it again and again in all new formats forever." It's about placating and flattering the ignorance of their solvent readers and advertisers so that they can stay in business.

Geir what are your top 20 gabba tapes off UK market stalls?

i'm shocked control made geir's r&b list! i mean it's a classic obv but it does seem to particularly prioritise rhythm and club atmosphere over melody and harmony.

Maybe he enjoys Janet on other levels.

Wow, Geir actually came through with some genuine human interaction towards the end of this thread. Prog Rock - Bringing People Together Since 1969!

Next we will be having The Lex's Top 20 Indie albums!

1. The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing

2. Mansun - Six

3. Girls Aloud - Out Of Control

4. New Fast Automatic Daffodils - The Peel Sessions

5. Blonde Redhead - 23

Hooray! I finally read this thread, after its having sat atop my browser as an unread bookmark for 11 months. It looked like a good start! And then it devolved into Geir. By the way, is this the closest Marcello has gotten to admitting he's Geir? I've suspected that since I started reading ILM. Their writing styles are very similar. I think Geir is just an experiment of his to try out a particular theory of pop works, and since Geir gets such a "good" response here means the Geir character has stuck around. It's good fun, anyway.

Geir was, is and will always be his own person. Those of us who first encountered him online back in 1994 or so know this.

I want to believe.

But have Marcello and Geir ever been in the same room at the same time? ;)

Marcello had a Geir-imitating sockpuppet a few years ago, I can't remember what it was called though. If he was Geir right from the beginning, why create a sockpuppet to ape Geir?

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1238/1268566093_3612244f45.jpg?v=1188415465

Ah yeah, Marcello's sockpuppet was called "Comstock Carabinieri". Maybe it was a self-parody though, with Geir being the "serious" sockpuppet?

Truth is always stranger than fiction.