The Monochrome Set - no thread???

always loved that interview excerpt that i can only paraphrase cuz i haven't heard it in a million years but something along the lines of:
"is it true that you are descended from Indian princes?"
"kings, actually."

i was really surprised to hear "he's frank" used on the tv show heroes last night...though i'm beginning to think i hallucinated it as no one else will confirm...

Skot watches that show, surely. He'd know if that song was played!

i didn't see it! hope they got paid.

yeah that's what i said too!

I’m dead and dank and rotten
My arms are wrapped in cotton
My corpse loves you, let’s marry...

Bid Raggett

One of my favourite songs ever.

Was some of the above referencing the Iggy Pop/Fatboy Slim cover of He's Frank? How weird...wonder how it'll do.

I think I'll pick up their new comp tomorrow

just checked iTunes, Heroes (Original TV Soundtrack) features Brighton Port Authority-He's Frank (With Iggy Pop).

That's wild.

http://www.myspace.com/BrightonPortAuthority

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtqcn6pYTrA

Okay woah woah woah. That is a really weird ass Monochrome Set cover, that BPA.

Are you trying to tell me this is fucking Iggy Pop with...

god I'm really confused.

Im conflicted about that cover - it still sounds a great song, but its not a particularly interesting cover.

I can't help but like it. I love Iggy, the song would be great no matter who does it, and the beats are catchy.

I just want to know how it came about...Fatboy Slim's got a stack of Rough Trade singles? Iggy suggested it? Some producer somewhere told them about it?

I don't think it's that great a cover myself, though the original is mighty fine. Fatboy Slim had a lot of Rough Trade and postpunk stuff in his collection years ago and was clearly a fan of that era - so I'd suspect him of putting it all together. Iggy, not so much.

i vividly remember hearing jet set junta on the western conn state univ radio station in about 1982, at the dawn of my musical awareness, and i never knew who it was by, and now i see its monochrome set. i only ever heard it once, but the tune would pop into my mind even 25 yrs later, most recently during an uruguay wc match.

where did you live that you got wxci? i owe that station soooooooo much. i heard so many things in the 80's for the first time on there. i still have early 80's tapes that i made of their broadcasts. the list of bands they taught me to love is almost endless. god bless them.

yeah, ive seen you reference it over the years, i couldnt remember if i ever posted back to you on that. i was in wilton until 85. signal wasnt too clean, but it was enough to learn a lot.

my off-radio tapes were pretty shitty- bad signal xci and bad signal lir, but there were few record stores available to me and the other radio stations were.... kids today are spoiled you know, anything u want at the touch of a keyboard etc.

my cousins lived in wilton back then. maybe you knew them. the howards. ash, amanda, holly. they were nice. not very new wave though.

this is a band i never quite got round to checking out, but the samples of this new Early Recordings LP have whetted my appetite. is this Velvets-y sound typical of their later stuff too?

The Monochhttp://images.chron.com/blogs/askacat/hatcat.JPGset

If you didn't know, Bid suffered a aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage at the end of July. About half the people who get those die, but he's doing all right. There will be a period of rehabilitation though. In the meantime, Scarlet's Well has been dissolved and the Monochrome Set will be starting up again at some point in the future. The new Monochrome Set will be a sort of Scarlet's Well/Monochrome Set hybrid band, the name change seeming to be more of a question of booking power and finance than an actual shift in musical direction.

i honestly think i liked this song so much when it came out cuz it was just bargain bin monochrome set. never occurred to me until just now! bought the well well well EP and the first woodentops album just based on this song. turns out i just liked this song.

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

i think i first heard monochrome set in 83 or 84. fell instantly in love. well well well must have come out in 85?

Awww, Woodentops are GREAT! Monochrome Set is much greater, however.

Just saw The Monochrome Set performing at Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona. It was really great, though there were a bit too much 90s stuff for me, but still, seeing Bid, Lester & Co was fantastic.

Touring the States! Or a chunk therein:

27/05/13 - Bowery Electric, NYC, USA
28/05/13 - The Saint, Asbury Park, NJ, USA
29/05/13 - Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ, USA
30/05/13 - PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, USA
31/05/13 - NYC Popfest @ Knitting Factory, NYC, USA
01/06/13 - The Record Collector, Bordentown, NJ, USA

Pretty much the only reason I'd support the secession of Texas is so when somebody said a band I loved was touring my country there'd be a better than 1 in a 100 chance they're playing within 1000 miles of me.

Eligible Bachelors is great! I dunno why it's not up there in the canon of stuff like Smiths, Go-Betweens, Aztec Camera etc?

I bet Clientele is huge fans

"Volume, Contrast, Brilliance Vol. 2" just came out:
01 Something About You (1985)
02 I Wanna Be Your Man (1978)
03 Cilla Black (1983)
04 The Greatest Performance Artist In The World (1983)
05 Reach For Your Gun (1985)
06 Fly Me To The Moon (1978)
07 Love (1985)
08 Whoops! What A Palaver (1985)
09 I Want Your Skin (1989)
10 Stories From The Book Of Love (1986)
11 White Lightning (1987)
12 Wisteria (1987)
13 Bella Morte (1989)
14 Swing (1986)
15 Black Are The Flowers (1991)
16 Jack (1991)

Wow, two new studio albums since Platinum Coils too... Super Plastic City and Spaces Everywhere! I love Bid so much.

https://www.strandedrecords.com/collections/tapete/products/the-monochrome-set-1979-1985-complete-recordings-6xlp-6cd?mc_cid=407acf8d96&mc_eid=2e56297982

I want, but so pricey!

No tracklisting?

Who wants to split the cost with me, I'd go for the CD set at half that price in a heartbeat, you can have the LPs.

Actually, I take it back. Here's the details:

https://shop.tapeterecords.com/the-monochrome-set-1979-1985-complete-recordings-boxset-preorder.html

That doesn't seem complete to me...?

What's it missing? I don't have a record player.

Missing:
Jacob's Ladder (single version)
Andiamo (alt version)
Get Style & Twitch
Cilla Black (both from the Brazillian release of "The Lost Weekend", these were demos and not officially released at the time)

All the BBC session and solo stuff from "Volume, Contrast, Brilliance Vol. 1" (but I guess that's outside the scope)

So fairly minor, I suppose though I do love those one-off singles from Bid and Lester Square.

Cherry Red released a 3CD expanded "Eligible Bachelors" with the "Fin" live album as well as a bunch of non-lp cuts and radio sessions. I'm most curious about the stuff listed as "Rarities", are those just demos for the next album that never happened?

Don't know and don't own it but looks like it's previously released singles-only trax, b-sides, etc. Typical Cherry Red shoddy marketing etc blah blah blah.

So I’m trying to make sense of the MS discography but on Spotify at least it’s basically like 15 compilations.

The “tomorrow will be too long” comp is basically the first two albums, but... are they actually the first two albums? Are they re-recordings? The production value seems different from a lot of other MS material from the same era.

They are actually the first two albums. Can you explain what you mean by different?

Well for instance this is “Martians Go Home” from one of the other comps: https://open.spotify.com/track/4iTIQsuKRV5kkADH1mSQac?si=39VVFJ8jSuGPWmeiS0AFog

And this is from “Tomorrow”: https://open.spotify.com/track/4jO2nzsT58E23CCTVu8jc9?si=-_tvtbimS66cd17CWIxWEw

This is “Love Zombies” from the Volume comp: https://open.spotify.com/track/19Rt3NwlD3eMlJ7Yz7bp1Q?si=SMn80_6JQEmloqY1XL4kEg

And this is from “Tomorrow”: https://open.spotify.com/track/13azUQ8XftGPu7ZnpO60nV?si=G4lxcfeKRXOOfh3JhxSZWw

Maybe the other comps are pulling versions from old 45s rather than the album cuts? It’s just hard to tell since everything pre-Eligible Bachelors is scattered in collections.

"Love Zombies" from the Volume comp is a BBC session version.

Monochrome Set's catalog is poorly documented, with live, session, demo and single versions (which were often quite distinct to the LP) popping up all over the place.

(I think the best approach is to proceed as if there is no mocking nor irony in Scarlet's Well)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oji50pnUH_o

is that the drummer who quit them and so got a song that shaded him? ha i love this band but man that is pretty austere.