NME C86 is an album its virtually impossible to like all the tunes on (its actually very varied) but a lot are still great. hence my email.
When people talk about "c86" they mean indie-pop deriv from 85-87 and most of that is better summed up by the 1986 compilation "Indie top 20 vol 1"...
― gerardo francisco, Monday, 27 September 2004 19:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 27 September 2004 19:54 (nineteen years ago) link
my second tape copy (bought in a shop about a year after nme offer) has RT catno on the spine (Rough C100) and no NME. and is missing the .022 from the front. have also found images of the LP sleeve but no mention of CD anywhere on the web.
'Doing It For The Kids' is also worth having.
― koogs (koogs), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 08:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― JimD (JimD), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 08:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, 28 September 2004 09:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― koogs (koogs), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 09:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― koogs (koogs), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 09:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jedermann sein eigener Fussball (Dada), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 09:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― jess (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 09:47 (nineteen years ago) link
The Ammonites were great, Zappi!
― flowersdie (flowersdie), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 09:55 (nineteen years ago) link
okay, back to indie-pop. Loved the Shop Assistants by the way. Or at least I loved the album when it came out. Same with Fuzzbox.
also, a big influence on us anglophiliac yank kidz with the funny hair were those debut ten inches/magazines. oh boy were they! now if i could just remember the name of that group who had that duet that went "from make up to break up...I beat myself up inside". I loved that one. It was mighty twee.
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 10:40 (nineteen years ago) link
only great when compared to, say, Screaming Custard or Cellophane or Thee George Squares (ha).
― zappi (joni), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 10:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― cw (cww), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 10:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― zappi (joni), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 11:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 11:05 (nineteen years ago) link
Marvellous stuff! (Zappi, I'll do you a tape if you want, to thankyou for those Deerhoof beauties you sent me the other week).
― flowersdie (flowersdie), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 11:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― zappi (joni), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 11:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― zappi (joni), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 11:15 (nineteen years ago) link
the rest is pretty much what i enjoyed prior to my wake up call @ end of 86 when i discovered Run DMC.
prior to that though i loved mighty lemon drops and shop assistants for several hours.
― mark e (mark e), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 11:18 (nineteen years ago) link
http://66.40.206.13/wolfhounds/ICA-press.gif
― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 11:50 (nineteen years ago) link
bad sound.
not to mention that the band had 'issues' with the soundboard that day which messed up the gig somewhat - according to well established sources.
but fun stuff nonetheless, includes power cut !
.. and i dont mean the Noel Watson (the bands DJ later on)
― mark e (mark e), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 12:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 12:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jedermann sein eigener Fussball (Dada), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 12:15 (nineteen years ago) link
Peter Hurst New Brighton Through The Binoculars Of The People One Last Fight Catch Candy Ryan Like Men Possessed Two's A Crowd Goodnight Angel Crikey It's The Cromptons Food For Feet Gone To Earth No Work Today Innocents Abroad Time Was Fairground In Fear Of You Jacktars Tadpole The Decemberists Gift Horse Magic Carpets Trick Of Fate Da Vincis The Book Peter Hurst/Brian N. Smithers The End
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 12:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 12:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 12:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 12:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 12:37 (nineteen years ago) link
9 Steps to Ugly - Eddie Lopez lives in SloughVery cool, proto-Sundays. Makes me wonder if that is actually Harriet Wheeler singing.
Ammonites - All We HadSlightly better than average Britpopesque Garage Rock with a singer doing a mediocre Morrissey/Mick Hucknall impersonation.
Apple Moths - KymriGag-inducingly cheesy knockoff of...I dunno...General Public or sumthin. The opening 3 seconds sounds like a jingle for Minty Kleen ass-freshener.
Baby Lemonade - Jiffy Neckwear CreationVery, very, very badly encoded. The song sounds like an inept Fall cover band doing a version of a bad Wire b-side. And the mp3 sounds like a Victrola at the bottom of a well. (Yes, I know that this is a "The food is so terrible, and whats worse the portions are so small" kind of argument, but it is the truth.)
Baby Lemonade - Real WorldAhhhh. This is much better. Its like what would happen if Stereolab and Lush had a baby.
Balloon Farm - A Question of TemperatureWeird ass retro shit. Like a 60s garage band basing their 80s comeback on a mix of Fretblanket and TMBG's "Twisting"; though the faux soul chorus is so cheesy as to be unintentionally cool.
Jamie Wednesday - I Think I'll Throw a Party for Myself.Yick. No wonder nobody shows up for your shindigs, you John Wesley Harding wannabe.
Jazz Butcher - Shirley MacLaineCoulda been cool, like an upbeat version of...I dunno...Nick Cave fronting the Hoodoo Gurus. Shame the mp3 sounds like crap being squirted through a very thin tube.
Look Blue Go Purple - HiawathaThe only thing cooler than the weird retro organ is the thickly accented brit girl pretending to be both Kim Gordon and Kristin Hersh.
Love Parade - WoundedWhiny maudlin drivel. Starts out with yet another lame Morrissey impersonation. (and another track with tinny...no, scratch that... 'styrofoamy' sound. a 160 bitrate and it sounds like your listening to it through a door.)
Primitives - Crash (Demo)I always loved this song. The vibe is much rawer, but the singers vocal sounds unrehearsed and slightly bored.
Wild Flowers - A Kind of KingdomDerivative, yet...catchy. I can't explain it, but the music sounds...aussie. The vocal tries to hard to be Bono Vox, though.
― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 17:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 19:30 (nineteen years ago) link
Jamie Wednesday were a previous incarnation Carter USM weren't they?
― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 20:58 (nineteen years ago) link
"All we had" was the Ammonites song i remembered as ok.
I liked what I heard of 9 Steps to Ugly. (And the Sainsburys were on a similar tape I once had - they were good)
Most of the rest mentioned in Custos' post a bit rubbish. (But NOT baby lemonade!)
"Doing it for the kids" is way more floppy fringed and whiney than C86. When you think of C86 you must never forget it housed bands as brilliant as A Witness and Big Flame.
Oh and the Jactars were pretty good of all those scouse bands upthread. Hellfire sermons were the best liverpool band of all though (well, second best behind HMHB)
― gerardo francisco, Tuesday, 28 September 2004 21:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 21:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 21:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― gerardo francisco, Tuesday, 28 September 2004 21:20 (nineteen years ago) link
yeah, Carter formed when the other three blokes quit but they still had a gig booked; Jim and Les did the show with a drum machine and thought "well this was easy and we don't have to split the money so much" sorta thing. "let's name this one after you instead of me."
― kit brash (kit brash), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 02:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― everything, Wednesday, 29 September 2004 15:16 (nineteen years ago) link
Various Artists - An Hour Of Eloquent Sounds Pleasantly Surprised 001 / Klark 02 a Speak in Volumes / Sunset Gun Enterprises colaboration 1982
Side 1 Side 2 1. The Birthday Party - The Hairshirt 2. Dante and the Lobster - Murder Followed By Suicide 3. The French Impressionists - Summertime 4. A Pair Of Blue Eyes - Giovanis Room 5. Eric Random and the Nosebleeds - Bedlam a Go-Go 6. Ludus - Rosa Luxemburg 7. Primal Scream - Thought 8. Marine Girls - Take A Chance 9. A.P.B. - Love To Learn 10. 22 Beaches - Zoo 11. Essential Bop - Monkey Glands 12. Cocteau Twins - Perhaps Some Other Aeon 13. The Wake - The Drill 14. Sunset Gun - Gotta Have Me Go With You 15. Billy Makenzie Sings Orbidoig - Helicopter Helicopter
― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 2 October 2004 20:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Sunday, 3 October 2004 02:13 (nineteen years ago) link
― W. Earl Piglet, Friday, 31 December 2004 01:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― the surface noise (slight return) (electricsound), Friday, 31 December 2004 02:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― Bimble..., Friday, 31 December 2004 02:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― W. Earl Piglet, Friday, 31 December 2004 03:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― benrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 09:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― Diddumsismus (Dada), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 10:37 (seventeen years ago) link
and now bob stanley gone done this.
― benrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 11:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― Diddumsismus (Dada), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 11:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― electric sound of jim [and why not] (electricsound), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 11:31 (seventeen years ago) link
― benrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 12:16 (seventeen years ago) link
― Diddumsismus (Dada), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 12:21 (seventeen years ago) link
Stevie T pointed out to me that MIAOW was CATH CARROLL so I listened to this with new ears.
Previously I had heard or misheard it as some kind of Scritti Politti pastiche.
I also keep playing THE SERVANTS.
Despite my doubts, there is something about this compilation that responds to a lot of listening.
― the pinefox, Monday, 16 April 2018 10:19 (six years ago) link
The Servants is Luke Haines's original band iirc?
― you're my luger not my rifle (Noodle Vague), Monday, 16 April 2018 10:33 (six years ago) link
It was but he hadn’t joined by the time of C86.
― Tim, Monday, 16 April 2018 10:41 (six years ago) link
Check out the Miaow compilation When It All Comes Down that LTM put out; great stuff!
― early rejecter, Monday, 16 April 2018 14:25 (six years ago) link
Yes, that sounds like a good idea.
I have just started on the Cherry Red C87 compilation. It's very good! Better than C86!
― the pinefox, Friday, 29 June 2018 15:13 (five years ago) link
CD2 of C87 is even better than CD1.
One song on it that I never really knew is LAUGH's 'Paul McCartney'. I find this tune quite compelling. Does anyone else remember and like this band?
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 24 July 2018 09:11 (five years ago) link
They are on the Video comp "Gimme Shelter" put out by the NME.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 24 July 2018 09:18 (five years ago) link
I know and like Laugh - our friend Dan Pantry was a big fan, PF. My favourite of their material is when they went a little dancier on SubAqua ("Good To Feel Good" off their only LP is tremendous, though I think a little less up your street.
They evolved into Intastella, who you may also remember?
― Tim, Tuesday, 24 July 2018 09:35 (five years ago) link
Thanks TH! Somehow I associated you with Laugh but could not find any specific evidence of this.
I do remember the name Intastella but not, just now, the music.
The song 'Paul McCartney' - apart from its perhaps appealing title - has a kind of rhetorical and emotional urgency that I find fits well with its melody and music.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 24 July 2018 10:18 (five years ago) link
Bad news update: CD3 seems to be where the bad, gurning, wacky, tuneless sub-Fall would-be-avant-garde bands have been stowed in this compilation. I had hoped that it might be almost free of them. It's quite a disappointment after the heights of CD2.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 24 July 2018 15:31 (five years ago) link
I'd keep going, the first 8 or so bands might be along those lines but I'd be surprised if you view e.g. Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes or the Siddeleys as tuneless sub-Fall (of course I like all the supposedly bad bands at the beginning of disc 3, especially the Dog Faced Hermans and A Witness)
― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 24 July 2018 15:44 (five years ago) link
Yes, A Witness in particular has some great moments.
The next box, "C89", is coming out in a couple of weeks!
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 24 July 2018 16:53 (five years ago) link
I agree, Jesse Garon and (even more) Siddeleys are definitely not in that bad genre. (Though there is a Jesse Garon track somewhere that seems to have some kind of Mark E. Smith pastiche on it?) So yes I will keep going, thanks.
As a friend says, it's good that they put all that stuff together and maybe I can skip past it in future.
I like the idea of C89 but I will need to get to C88 first.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 24 July 2018 17:44 (five years ago) link
So C89 came out and it was solid if starting to drift into territory that I never liked, and I just listened to C90 and I'm definitely out - never was a fan of the baggy sound and there's way too many weak indie rock bands with poor singers. I was chatting with a mate about it and he said, "The action in the US was much better than the UK at the time." Which made me wonder if there's any US equivalent compilations of the 86-90 period. You'd have to have Guided By Voices, Yo La Tengo, Superchunk, Camper Van Beethoven, Sebadoh, Throwing Muses... who else?
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, 2 March 2020 02:01 (four years ago) link
There were scene-specific comps like NY Eye & Ear Control, and random things like Magic Ribbons (Sebadoh, Unrest, others) — but nothing else I can think of, that early, which would have brought together a bunch of disparate bands like those you mention.
― Murdered-Out Highlander XLE (morrisp), Monday, 2 March 2020 02:33 (four years ago) link
feels like there were a lot of major label samplers with a real mixed bag that weren't memorable as compilations (I remember a Capitol sampler cassette that had the Cocteau Twins and Motorhead on it)
― avellano medio inglés (f. hazel), Monday, 2 March 2020 02:37 (four years ago) link
This Shimmy Disc comp is another (very) rough analogue.
― Murdered-Out Highlander XLE (morrisp), Monday, 2 March 2020 03:00 (four years ago) link
It was all very scene/city/label–specific.
― Murdered-Out Highlander XLE (morrisp), Monday, 2 March 2020 03:07 (four years ago) link
Yes, in the United States compilations are going to be mostly label-specific in this era. Sub Pop 200 and The Wailing Ultimate capture a good segment of it.
― Julius Caesar Memento Hoodie (bendy), Monday, 2 March 2020 03:08 (four years ago) link
So why not a slight backtrack?
https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/c85-3cd-clamshell-box-set/
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 8 August 2022 15:09 (one year ago) link
They should give the C86-era stuff a rest and do C81
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Monday, 8 August 2022 15:34 (one year ago) link
Not that I'm not grateful, mind, I'll buy this eventually. I think I've gone off box sets for a while because I've found going through Grapefruit's psych/prog-pop boxes exhausting and I just want things to arrive in smaller chunks :(
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Monday, 8 August 2022 15:36 (one year ago) link
They definitely have a model they follow it's true.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 8 August 2022 15:37 (one year ago) link
I put on C96 the other day, some good stuff on there, also some not so good stuff.
― link.exposing.politically (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, 8 August 2022 15:53 (one year ago) link
Thought the revive would be about this new book by some bloke who's tracked down all the members of the C86 bands and what they're doing now:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/aug/08/reel-lives-how-i-tracked-down-the-class-of-nmes-c86-album
― lord of the rongs (anagram), Monday, 8 August 2022 17:42 (one year ago) link
There appear to be two current C86 threads. Unlikely as that must seem.
― Buckfast At Tiffany's (Tom D.), Monday, 8 August 2022 18:21 (one year ago) link
Giving C85 a spin, a LOT of this got airplay at my college radio station at the time. As with all of these comps, some I still rate, some I've moved on from, and hopefully some I passed over grab me now. I'll settle for one revelation, really.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 4 November 2022 20:00 (one year ago) link
I've been listening to C87 (3CD), CD3, a lot. The first 8 tracks on the disc are experimental / noisy garbage that I have to skip. But then there's a quite strong run of tracks including Jesse Garon & the Desperadoes, the always good Siddeleys, and others.
The thought that strikes me and I wish to relay is: we all know of an association between 'C86' and 'twee', implying things like androgyny that have been talked to death already. What I hear in most of these bands, especially the ones with male singers, is something else. Defiance. A shaky swagger. A precarious pomp. There's a note of almost macho, certainly male, confidence, but one that's also undercut by the smallness of the whole enterprise.
― the pinefox, Friday, 20 January 2023 09:14 (one year ago) link
> The first 8 tracks on the disc are experimental / noisy garbage
1. DOG FACED HERMANS – Catbrain Walk2. STUMP – Tupperware Stripper3. GAYE BYKERS ON ACID – Everything’s Groovy4. BOG-SHED – Tried And Tested Public Speaker5. A WITNESS – Red Snake6. MACKENZIES – New Breed7. THE SHRUBS – Edith8. STITCHED-BACK FOOT AIRMAN – Tears In The Gutter
there's a great compilation that focuses on this kind of stuff (and a book) - Death to Trad Rock (although oddly it also includes the wedding present).
i'd also like the ron jonson stuff to be more wildly availably (maybe it is, but last time i looked there was one compilation, lp only, not re-pressed)
― koogs, Friday, 20 January 2023 10:51 (one year ago) link
It does seem like a neglected area of music but then I suppose it wasn't exactly popular!
― A Drunk Man Looks At Partick Thistle (Tom D.), Friday, 20 January 2023 11:04 (one year ago) link