Field Music

I simply didn't hear it until a couple of months ago. They fell totally off my radar.

That's fair enough, I guess. This band have never seemed like the kind of band who would want to force themselves on anyone's radar. They're just kind of there, waiting for people to discover them.

I decided to give this a go but it's leaving me really cold. There are nice touches here and there but a lot of it is really laboured-sounding, like they've gone for this second-half-of-Abbey-Road vibe (which I'm not crazy about in the first place) but they're not good enough songwriters to pull it off.

Didn't get to see them in Bath last night because of our interminable house problems. Gutted. Listening to Measure as some kind of recompense. It's really very good. I just love the sound they make.

Still haven't got round to "Plumb" yet, though I loved "Measure". Should investigate their back catalogue too. I've heard good things about their covers album as well, I love the song choices.

plumb is very good, almost full-blown prog-pop, which might or might not reflect the selections on their recent covers collection, play. they're reminding me more and more of XTC at their best

Having loved everything prior, I'm finding myself at a loss being able to get into Plumb. I'm not hearing any hooks at all. Measure wasn't as hooky as what came before it either, but it was so (comparatively) muscular and riffy it made up for it.

Oh man, I love Plumb. Everything else is good, but this is next level. Amazing.

plumb is really strange in that it doesn't seem to have any appreciable hooks but when i came back to it after not listening for several months, i immediately remembered every song and how it went

Yeah, every twist of every song is burned right into my cerebellum somehow. I think the way it's arranged and mixed makes for a lot of sonic fills and details which work as hooks. They're oblique hooks, which is, I think, what's made it so eminently replay ale for me - I never, ever feel as if I've burnt out on it or got too familiar with it.

I just learned that Michael McKean is a Field Music fan. Who knew?

("In Context," from Tones of Town, is in the trailer for Christopher Guest's new HBO show, which features McKean.)

New School of Language album is excellent, huge improvement from the debut.

https://soundcloud.com/memphisindustries/field-music-the-noisy-days-are-over-single-version/s-mFgkR

New single. It's awesome. Brass! New album due early next year (Feb) and tour in March.

cool!

was relistening to Measure recently - it's soooo good

Commontime is a really interesting record - so much going on, but in a looser way than on the meticulously edited Plumb. Pretty easily their grooviest album, but with plenty of odd twists as well.

I like these guys groovy. Really looking forward to this based on "Noisy Days."

Really digging Disappointed.

really, really liking this

feels like they've recaptured the spirit of Measure

anyone seem them live? they're coming to town next month .

gf says "seriously very very good, so tight" but that was in 2010

here's the streeeeam http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/feb/01/listen-to-field-music-new-album-pre-prelease-commontime-exclusive-album-stream

I am looking forward to seeing them live in Exeter at last.

Haven't heard this yet, but Tones of Town is the one to beat, for me at least.

love their last few records, excited for this

not ashamed to say it was the Steely Dan reference in the pfork article that made me listen. that said, tones of town is terrific in ways I wasn't expecting

i don't think they sound like steely dan at all! have heard XTC comparisons too which are closer but still not quite on the nose

The opener of the new LP is Steely Dan-tastic, IMO.

listening to this now, and it seems more Steely Dan than XTC, and parts of it are Hall and Oates-ish. XTC aren't this laid back even when they play soft songs.

They were great opening for The Clientele in 2010. As polished as the records.

I hear some high llamas/ b Wilson stuff on tones of town and some 80s aor vibes on the new one.

They really don't seem to be recent recordings and I love that.

ok yeah 'disappointed' is great and i def hear the steely dan in it (also some bowie and hall&oates and phil collins like all their previous records)

their weirdo sense of melody/harmony has always been what sets them apart from their influences though. phrases and chord progressions resolve in unexpected ways or are left hanging, etc etc

I am going to try and leave work early to pick this up from the record emporium. Rock n roll.

This is pretty wonderful. The twists and turns of Plumb, which I know some people found a bit irritating, are shorn off, but the whole thing is much more elongated and groovey. There are the same number number of songs as Plumb, but the album's a good 20 minutes longer.

It definitely follows on from the last School Of Language LP, which was very much in thrall to Prince too.

Also their records just sound absolutely beautiful.

yeah this is a stunner

Looking forward to checking this out.

Q for Britishers -- about how popular would you say they are in the UK? I don't feel like many of my friends here in the US know them.

They're very much a cult act here. They're well known enough to a particular group of people, but they're definitely far from "man on the street" well-known.

I think a lot of rock fans who follow new music are at least aware of them. I saw them in magazines fairly often. I first became aware of them when they supported British Sea Power, they were very good and quite funny. Although I was surprised at how small the audience was at one gig.

I think they are really, really good, but I also wonder what the audience is for them. Here I would guess they would (or do) play best to the aging-hipster-to-boomer set, AAA radio (is that still a thing?), Paste magazine (see prior comment), NPR. But in the best way possible.

Agreed that people here in the US don't seem to be aware of them. They're playing what is pretty much my city's smallest proper venue in a couple weeks, and it probably won't even sell out. And tix are only 12 bucks!

But yeah, some hype from the likes of NPR would prob help these guys out. (As you said, in the best way possible!)

I don't remember how I found Tones of Town (I think it was a couple years after it came out), but I remember first thinking it was something from the mid to late 70s, and second thinking "Why has no one ever even mentioned this band's name to me before?"

Yeah, I def came upon them by accident, too. (Uh, to the extent that obsessive-compulsively looking up every band I hear about for the last 20 years is an accident.)

lol otm

I would guess they would (or do) play best to the aging-hipster-to-boomer set

Yeah, that more or less sums up the (small) crowd that showed up for them in DC last night. They were playing with a smaller band than usual; show had an appealing seat-of-the-pants quality. I dug it.

oh yeah they're playing NYC tomorrow, almost forgot, may try to get tix

playing tonight in philly. can't believe the show isn't sold out

Yeah, neither is NYC it seems. Small venue too. Guess whoever promotes them has not figured out how to do it properly. Want to go but I am old and a 9pm show with two openers definitely means a late start time.

there were maybe like 60 or 70 ppl at the show last night. they went on at 10:15.

anti-prog press has poisoned listeners to this type of stuff too