Pulp: C.L.A.S.S.I.C.O.R.D.U.D?

they were good too. regardless of barney sumner's 'we are weird' comments on jukebox jury

*OK not complete. The "She's A Rainbow" cover is best ignored and I've never, alas, heard "The Sausage".

Snub TV, circa 1990. World of Twist playing 'The Storm' and then being interviewed.

"We definitely see ourselves as a pop band, not rock" says the monkey boy leader. Much nodding of heads from the other band members.

I sit there and think "Yeah yeah, like you're so radical for saying that. God this indieboy pro-pop thing is starting to annoy me"

The funny thing is, looking back I'm not even sure why I thought this. Whose line did I think World of Twist were parroting? It wasn't like I was familiar with early 80s NME rhetoric. How did I get so opinionated so young? Maybe I just thought they'd nicked ideas I'd started to have about pop music and were cross that they'd made a hash of it.

Pulp: CLASSIC by the way, but I completely sympathise with pinefox's attempt to locate his problem with consensus outside the trappings of moronic snobbery. Don't understand why everyone is going on about 'Common People'. If ever there was a song that has been completely newtered through overexposure, that is it. I tend to skip it when I listen to 'Different Class' now.

What I find weird about 'This Is Hardcore' is that it contains perhaps their two finest achievements in the title track and 'The Fear', one pretty good track in 'Help the Aged', and then the rest is just treading water. Seriously, when I first put on the album and heard the opening track, I thought it was going to be the best record ever made. Then that godawful line about sharing the same initials as Jesus came on (is there anything more annoying than when he repeats it at the end of the song in case you didn't catch how clever it was the first time round?) and disillusion set in once more. *sigh*

great to know I'm not the only one to still be into world of twist too - can I be a smartarse and say I've got the "blackpool tower suite" 12"?

That said, it's quite a while since I've played any of their albums.

intro.

(not that anyone I've ever met talks or, indeed, sings like that.)

My god. I'm selling the rest of my CDs and just keeping the Pulp, any bidders?

Is this a Pulp lyric? It's amazing whatever it is.

i think.

*damn*, i'm going to have to dig it out and listen again now, just to make sure.

am gonna listen to "hardcore" next. haven't heard that since 1997.

It didn't even come out till 1998 - this is impressive!

good point. i think "1997" has become shorthand for about four years of podding around when i first moved to glasgow. i can no longer differentiate between any of the memories. if it happened when i was living on kent road, my mind has it filed as 1997.

anyway. "hardcore" is disappointing. the first, title and closing tracks are great; the rest has left little impression.

but it's still "trees" i'm humming to myself as i liquidise my soup. (and no, that's not a euphemism.)

My feelings exactly, still, except I think only the first and title songs are great and I think they're really great, like perhaps the best two songs they ever did. 'Help The Aged' is good too. The rest is meh.

"We Love Life" was a bit of a letdown, but its best tracks (the two-part "Weeds", "Birds in Your Garden", "Sunrise") rank with the band's best.

So after those two (and the EP collection "Intro"), I'd say listen to "This is Hardcore", then "We Love Life", and if you're still with them, jump into the older stuff. "Freaks" is a personal fave of mine -- a disturbing, even gruesome near-classic record. Then grab "Masters of the Universe" (a collection of EPs from around the same time as "Freaks"), then "Separations".

I haven't heard their first album, "It".

I thought that you were joking / When you said "I want to see you
To discuss your contribution / To the future of our nation's heart and soul
Six o'clock, my place, Whitehall" / Well I arrived just after seven
But you said "It doesn't matter" / "I understand your situation
And your image, and I'm flattered / Oh and I'd just like to tell you
That I love all of your albums / Could you sign this for my daughter?
She's in hospital, her name is Miriam / Now get down to the gist:
Do you want a line of this? / Are you a (sniff) / socialist?"
"Doin' fine, yeah! / Buzzin' all the time / Just one hit / And I feel great
And I support / The welfare state / Oh, you must be socialist
'Cos you're always off out on the piss / In your private member's bar
Oh yes you are / Yer superstar / Well you sing about common people
And the mis-shapes and the misfits / So can you bring them to my party
And get them all to sniff this? / And all I'm really saying
Is come on and rock the vote for me / All I'm really saying
Is come on roll up that note for me / The gist of all of this is
Do you want hits or d'you want misses? / Are you a socialist, yeah
Socialist, yeah / Socialist, yeah / Oh yeah"
"Yeah, you can be just what you want to be
Just as long as you don't try to compete with me
And we've waited such a long time
For the chance to help our own kind, so now
Please come on and tow the party line / Oh you owe it to yourself
Don't think of anybody else / And we promise we won't tell
Oh we won't tell, and we won't sell" / No we won't / No we won't
No we won't

The things that some people have been criticizing them for, like the ott factor, are part of what makes their music so good. They're not afraid to go over the top; something they have in common with great pop music. Indie bands tend to try for the "tastefully restrained" approach far too often.

:-)

Originally released on VHS in 1996 as F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.I.V.E and 1998 as The Park Is Mine. Two live shows on DVD for the first time.

Features 2 concerts recorded in London (Brixton Academy 1995) and Finsbury Park (1998) plus additional tour documentary from London to Japan. Directed by Rob Hurse and previously only avaialble on a Japanese laser disc. 5.1 Surround sound and dolby stereo.

Region 0, anyone can play it. You have no excuse.

Hamilton Leithauser of The Walkmen.

That was pretty fun. Good celebrity sighting too. Subway station is packed.

I was there too! And it was so, so awesome, exactly what we needed (“we” meaning me and everyone bopping along with me on the GA floor) at this time and on this day. As Neil Kulkarni once said, “where Oasis bequeathed condescension and Blur bequeathed caricature, Pulp, more than any other 90s group, gave us compassion, something entirely different, something to live your life by, something that can sustain you.” (I don’t dislike Oasis and I do love Blur, but point taken.)

Which celebrities were there? I think I saw Ira Robbins on the way out but no one else familiar.

Jennifer Connelly!

She was waiting on the long merch line at the end with her significant other.

Ah, missed them - I even stopped by the merch table on the way out to check if they ever got the signed vinyl promised on social media but they never did (nor any vinyl of “More,” never mind signed).

According to a Pulp Instagram Fan account, Michael Stipe was also in attendance. I was there and thought they sounded tighter than a year ago in Brooklyn. Just wish they could have played a few more songs (ending on 'a sunset' was a poor choice)

Stipe I didn’t see this time. I heard the better than Brookyn thing from someone else as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR5xGHPUEew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXtVjFbGQ7E

^Took me a few beats to find the source of this video which was part of the presentation

Before the dc show there was like half hour or more video montage of old clips like that . I thought it was like Esther Williams excerpts with all the water gymnastics

Yeah, there was some of her too.

Fine form tonight but I felt like maybe it was missing a bit of last years energy- or was I so thirsty last year after such a long drought? I’d happily see them every day of my life though

And because Canada, Jarvis a parlé francais ant que possible

yeah, was also at tonight's show and with you re: energy or maybe because History is a vastly preferable venue to Budweiser lol who knows

also surprised at how few songs from their new album they have on their setlist

5 songs from a new album seems a decent amount? It was 7 for the UK headline shows, I guess they figure best to stick more to the hits for places where people have likely been waiting longer to see them/able to catch them less often

four here, and they just played here last year (although that show was their first here in many years and we all know those shows were much harder to get tix for)

https://360degreesound.com/author-talk-jane-savidge-on-pulps-this-is-hardcore/

Oh some good symmetry for my experience of that recent Pulp concert is they played Do you remember the first time? and the guy I lost my virginity to works at the venue. I had also brought him to this venue the first time he’d ever been there. We’re still friends so many chuckles were exchanged.

well that was about 1000 times more enjoyable than last year's (already very fun) show, though mainly because the sound then was terrible and last night's was about the best i've ever heard. so felt way more emotionally involved. having a mix of new and old songs also helped. and that wood chip wall... :')

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3jbx0L5-88

when I saw them a few months ago, they played "Something Changed" like in the stripped-down style below and it was so deeply moving

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_KlY-AegeE

I can’t get into the new album and it bums me out. I like it more than Jarvis solo, but it feels by-the-numbers.