Incredible String Band

not really. i've deferred to quentin compson on many issues in the past. one slip up about a local band (that has hardly any fans at home) is inconsequential.

Their magical self titled debut combines the elemental sound of acid-folk with the baroque arrangements of late 60s chamber rock. Fully versed in the sumptuous vernacular of drug music, the cradle of Appalachian song, and the succinct truths of the three-minute pop ballad, Espers is an irresistible collection of sweet and subtle songs essential for fans of Fairport Convention, Pentangle, Jackson C. Franck, Linda Perhacs, Bread, Love & Dreams and Bert Jansch. Espers give us the sound of music the way it should be heard - with the ease, infectious grace and absolute beauty of an ever expansive trio bound for always greater pastures.
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OK, so they're a six piece now. Chris plays some percussion/bass, and they have a percussionist. they don't really have a drummer as such. so it's: two acoustic guitarists, a keybs/harpsichord, bass, cellist, percussionist.

sad thing is MTS, based on the crowd for Ghost the other night, most folks in philly don't know about them either.

Dude bought everything Ghost were selling.

If I didn't have to work tomorrow night, i'd find a way to get over to the NorthStar. It's a banner day when I cross Broad St.

"The Incredible String Band will be doing some downsizing for their forthcoming US tour, their first in thirty years.  The economic constraints of transatlantic touring mean the ISB will be going over as a three-piece in September - Mike Heron, Clive Palmer and Lawson Dando.  This also opens the way for a more acoustic and intimate approach, well suited to the spirit of their classic 1966-70 albums from which they will be drawing the greater part of their concert repertoire.  Lawson will accordingly be playing less keyboards, concentrating instead on guitar, mandolin, harmonium, percussion etc."

confirmed that otto's from rochester. he claimed that we'd met at a party once. i have no recollection of this [swigs vodka from glass]!

i got 5000 spirits today. it's great. yeah.

better than the c.o.b. lps, which are just ok.

Hey! What the hell is this: http://www.amazon.com/Tricks-Senses-Incredible-String-Band/dp/B001K859PC
Anybody heard it? Worth the $$$?

haven't heard it yet, but 'All Too Much for Me/Take Your Burden to the Lord/Let It Shine on Me' was previously on some versions of the Chelsea Sessions CD, was recorded at the same time as Wee Tam & Big Huge and is just as good as anything on those albums.

I'll sing you this October song,
Oh, there is no song before it.
The words and tune are none of my own,
for my joys and sorrows bore it.

Beside the sea
The brambly briars in the still of evening,
Birds fly out behind the sun,
and with them I'll leavng.

The fallen leaves that jewel the ground,
They know the art of dying,
And leave with joy their glad gold hearts,
In the scarlet shadows lying.

When hunger calls my footsteps home,
The morning follows after,
I swim the seas within my mind,
And the pine-trees laugh green laughter.

I sed to search for happiness,
And I used to follow pleasure,
But I found a door behind my mind,
And that's the greatest treasure.

For rulers like to lay down laws,
And rebels like to break them,
And the poor priests like to walk in chains,
And God likes to forsake the.

I met a man whose name was Time,
And he said, "I must be goin,"
But just how long that was,
I have no way of knowing.

Sometimes I want to murder time,
Sometimes when my heart's aching,
But mostly I just stroll along,
The path that he is taking.

every cell in my body has it all writ down.

one day when the moon was full i thought i might settle down
found myself a pretty little girl
and i stopped all my running around
but just when the preacher come along
and he's just gonna pop on the ring
this funny little hedgehog comes
running down the aisle
and i don't have to tell you what he did sing

highly recommend this radio bcast from 1968. http://ow.ly/eBVVJ

The Clive Palmer book through Helter Skelter was a very interesting read. Not sure if it would be remotely available now. I got it for a couple of pounds a few years ago, think literally £2, probably from FOPP.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Empty-Pocket-Blues-Music-Palmer/dp/190513925X

right you can get it then.

huh didn't know that existed. looks good. i need to get those COB records too.

They or at least Moyshe Mcstiff was the main impetus for the setting up of Sunbeam records thanks to Richard Morton Jack having worked for the rip-off artists at Radioactive.
RMJ wanted to do the release as well as he could and make sure royalties were paid, Radioactive weren't so hot on the royalties.

Anyway, I'd recommend the Sunbeam Moyshe, haven't seen if they have a Spirit Of Love & can't find one mentioned.
I have one on another label, not sure which.

There was a live set from '72 on Dime in May. think it was pretty good.

I couldn't make it through that Clive Palmer book. Must still have it around somewhere. I paid top whack (well - £15) for the Sunshine Possibilities album a few years ago and didn't think much of it. Consequently I've got a bit of a downer on Clive.

Saw Robin at the Half Moon Putney a couple of years ago and he was excellent.

would love to see williamson sometime. i saw the robin-less ISB a few years ago in the US w/ Palmer looking very amused/ancient.

While my students were working on album-cover art the other day, one of them--triggered by having seen the covers for Cheap Thrills and After Bathing at Baxter's--asked to hear some actual hippie music. So I played "Dark Star" and "China Cat Sunflower" off YouTube, and then, just on a whim (it's not really hippie music, but it's strange, and great hippie music is almost always strange), I switched over to "A Very Cellular Song." My twenty-something student teacher: "What is that? That's awful."

Couldn't take the gimbri?

haha i put on A Very Cellular Song at work a couple weeks ago, my co-worker couldn't deal.

I tried playing a tape of the HGB lp on camp in the early days and it was viewed as unlistenable by Levellers fans. Gorlumme, how does one deal with people with poor taste?

don't know where I got the initials HGB for HBD but anyway, would have thought that it would be more popular and even something that people would be familiar with. But no, people's noses turned up at one of the greatest lps of all time in favour of post-commercialisation Levellers. bleurgh.

I thought you must be referring to something esoteric that only 'Stringheads' would know.

I think Wee Tam and BIg Huge are more 'accessible'.

less magical though

If asked to play hippie music I'd put on some "Gift from a Flower to a Garden"-era Donovan.

ISB is wonderful. Anyone that doesn't think so is lacking soul.

"Glancing Love" and "Dumb Kate" are both kind of terrible and "Cold Days of February" is badly served as a muddy live recording (also Williamson chickened out and changed the lyrics). Mind you this album is miles better than the album that came before it, that really is a dog of an album.

I think people were just bored of them by 1974 and they were bored of each other and heading in different directions, Williamson doesn't contribute much to the writing of "Hard Rope and Silken Twine".

the only good thing about No Ruinous Feud is the cover which cracks me up whenever I see it

No Ruinous Feud is sounding pretty awkward on first play, true. These arrangements... hmm. Intriguingly weird at times, but I can't tell whether it's the kind of weird that will get better or just more solidly awkward if I listen more.

It's definitely OUT THERE. The awkardness sounds ingenuous. I can't think of anything else that sounds like this that also takes itself seriously, which this album mostly seems to.

At the Lighthouse Dance played as I was typing this -- pretty great! Not too far a cry from A Saucerful of Secrets.

Ah, I know -- with No Ruinous Feud, I feel like I've found my way to the party that Tull's Hare who Lost His Spectacles and Floyd's Several Species of Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave stumbled woozily out of.

"What, the escapees didn't warn you? You still came? Well okay then, welcome."

"No Ruinous Feud" is the only ISB album I can't imagine wanting to listen to.

a fish on a dish
is that what you wish?

I've been playing No Ruinous Feud a lot this week, actually. Such a weird little album.

i'm looking forward to checking it out. i'm on a similar journey as you but proceeding chronologically. WTBH was such a revelation to me. previously had only really been familiar with 5000 spirits

Wee Tam (i choose to think of them as two albums) is i think my favorite ISB

They were also released as separate albums. I have the LP version of just The Big Huge by itself.

yeah it was a UK/US difference

i feel that WT maybe has a hair on BH in terms of the overall experience, but BH has "Maya," which is just about the best thing they ever did

(nb i haven't heard a whole lot post-1970 so my statement is subject to revision)

As much as I normally love their commitment to conjoining the sacred and the profane, the shift in tone in "Ducks on a Pond" is kind of hilarious. Starts out utterly transcendental and then becomes a frantic fogey jug band birthday party stomp fest. Anyway, I'll take it

I think that's my favorite ISB song (and probably one of the only songs I like that features a kazoo).

When my niece was very young (2 or 3 years old), I was charged with keeping an eye on her while her mom ran a quick errand, and she had this crazy crying jag. Not being a parent, I had no idea what to do, but I guess my instincts kicked in because I sang this to her to calm her down. It worked like a charm!

They are the ultimate swings and roundabouts band - especially because it's so often in the same song.

Haha. Yes. Though I think I prefer the jug band stomp interludes to the occasional level-headed Mike Heron songs where he manages to sound uncannily like Cat Stevens. (Not that I have any particular beef with Cat Stevens. Just don't need that distraction. It's hopelessly unfair anyway given that Heron's vocal timbre was unleashed on the world a fraction earlier IIRC?!)

Forgot to bookmark and didn't see the replies. Amazing to hear that ISB can mollify a three-year-old, though I'm not surprised either