Why does anyone like the Fall?

Brix Smith & Ex The Fall Members Bring You…

/// BRIX SMITH AND THE EXTRICATED ///

Brix and the Extricated are comprised of ex-members of The Fall’s halcyon period. They are the writers behind some of the most beloved songs of The Fall canon. The group played a rapturously received stage debut December 13th 2014 in Manchester.

They reclaimed their music, with a propulsive punk vitality and breathed new life into the old favourites. The crowd was in awe – this wasn’t some tribute band – they “own” those songs and reinvented them. Furthermore, the band has explosive new material they are test-driving live and to record.

Brix and The Extricated marks the first return to music since 1996 for Brix Smith-Start, former wife and songwriting partner of The Fall’s Mark E. Smith.

The live show is astounding, and Brix’s stage presence isn’t a continuation of where she left off so much as a re-birth --- a commanding and riveting rock – roll front-person, her vocals deservedly to the fore, her lead guitar playing as raw and primal as before.

Twenty-year Fall lynchpin bassist Steve Hanley is on bass and making his first forays since the 90s. His brother Paul Hanley returns on drums, and the band is rounded out by ex FALL guitaristsSteve Trafford and Jason Brown.

The universal question after the first gig was, “Why didn’t this happen sooner?”

FAN FOOTAGE: ‘CRUISERS CREEK” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxfmeUsv4HM

- i bet MES is apoplectic.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B99gA19IYAAuwvz.png

No Scanlon, no dice.

"No Scanlon" is slightly less damaging than "No Hanley" but yeah Steve Trafford kind of sticks out like a sore thumb on that lineup.

I'm glad they are doing this but I'd rather Brix write new tunes for these guys, adult net style

i bet MES is apoplectic.

Well, he did call them "fucking sub-human"...

http://thefall.org/news/pics/2015-01_Mojo.jpg

psyched about the Live-Evil influence on upcoming Fall stuff

(actually I can hear this in some of the things this lineup has already done, now that I think of it)

Notice how he's subtly giving us all the finger.

>>Brix and The Extricated marks the first return to music since 1996 for Brix Smith-Start,

Untrue, Brix released a digital-only solo album ("Neurotica") in 2007.

Wander what pub in Islington he was in, description could fit 90% of them though.

... wonder

even with a dubious guitar choice, I would go see this band in a heartbeat

I mean, Brix plays a pretty mean guitar herself!

oh sure brix on lead is great, the recorded evidence is plentiful.

Obv would totally see this band just to beam love at her and shanley.

Don't know if I would use the adjective 'astounding' to describe that version of Cruisers Creek up there, more like ok with occasional bursts of lead.

Probably The Actual Fall would never play that song now though. They are doing what Mark E Smith would never do - giving the people what they want. ie. a greatest hits selection from their most popular period.

Here's a selist from a recent gig by Brix and the Extricated:

US 80s 90s
2X4
Cruisers Creek
Gravitation
Hotel Blodel
LA
Bonkers in Phoenix
Lay of the Land
Deadbeat Descendant
Bring it Down
Big New Prinz

vs. the most recent setlist by the Fall (from November) I found online:

Amorator!
Mister Rode
Gone To Venice
The Remainderer
Bam (Student Village)
Dedication
Cock In Pocket
Hittite Man (into Jungle)
Cowboy George
Fibre Book Troll
2014
Hot Cake
Blindness

I wouldn't have known Brix/Extricated even existed if MES hadn't mentioned them in his end-of-year address in some magazine I saw.

Wow those songs are so not my favorite!

The Extricated band ones I mean.

They are so Brix though.

Not sure about Brix singing these songs but I'd probably go just to hear "Lay of the Land"

They should do "Spoilt Victorian Child".

I had a fortuitous chat with Brix last year, while she was looking for a bus, after one of the Steve Hanley promotional talks. She was great. Talked about how being in front of the rhythm section was like being at the head of a freight train, and said talking about and remembering it still gave her goosebumps and made the hairs on her arms and neck stick up (something which she indicated).

She was generally worried about Mark, and we talked a bit about whether there can be a poetry of decline or decay - she doubted it and said even if that was the case, it was hard for hear to listen to. She mentioned she'd be doing her autobiography next year, and said there were numerous things that Steve hadn't been able to say because of not wanting to embarrass his family.

The general point being that she was really interesting about The Fall and her contribution to it, and their power, and was fun and energetic. But all of the ex-members seem to display an inability to resolve or correlate their experiences of The Fall satisfactorily. That's probably understandable, but Hanley's book is almost the perfect expression of it. The general theme is that the more 'the group' are left alone by Smith, the better the album, and that Smith marred as much or more than he made.

There's one very small section where Hanley mentions that a lot of the best work came out of individual musician's writing sessions with Mark round at his house, but nothing else in the book explores that relationship. And Hanley's view is that the most successful Fall material is that least meddled with, something as a fan I don't agree with at all.

They're all badly scarred by their time in The Fall - Hanley said they'd all had nervous breakdowns after leaving, and it wasn't a joke, certainly not by the exchanged glances and silence after he said it.

One thing Brix said sounded extremely unlikely - that she wouldn't rule out the old Fall playing with Smith again, because he was always so hard up for cash. The latter's certainly true, but it's an impossible misconception of Smith and The Fall that he'd engage in some mysterious reformation - opposed to everything he stands for and implying that there isn't even a current group.

Certainly wish them all well, but there is an energy and disruption to Smith's management and mind, absent which any performances of the music are unalive.

Sublingual Tablet sounds like it will be out in April - there was a new song played on Liz Kershaw, this morning called 'First One Today' which sounds like it's a social media analogue of Webb Pierce's There Stands the Glass.

Fantastic! Thank you for this.

I recently read john French's book on being in the magic band and there are so many parallels with what you just wrote. Both men drew a lot of art power from destruction and prevention. DVV seems like he was more often simply destructive, causing the work to die or happen way too slowly, whereas MES is master of a highly creative (and highly productive) destruction. In both cases a painful process for band members, who end up rehashing the attendant paradoxes in their minds for the rest of their lives. (I think the fall must have been tons more fun on a good day than the coercive privations of the magic band though)

I gotta get the Hanley book

Gave up on the John French book when he covered Greg Davidson's brief tenure in the Magic Band by listing the fast food restaurants he'd visited with Davidson and Beefheart.

She was generally worried about Mark

His health or...?

A+ update Fizzles, my Fernet Branca offer still stands

Sub-Lingual Tablet out May 25th!

1. Venice With The Girls
2. Black Root
3. Dedication Not Medication
4. First One Today
5. Junger Cloth
6. Stout Man
7. Auto Chip 2014-2016
8. Pledge
9. Snazzy
10. Fibre Book Troll
11. Quit iPhone

http://www.cherryred.co.uk/shopexd.asp?id=5022

"Sub-Lingual Tablet comprises 11 tracks and is being released on CD and limited edition vinyl. The vinyl features different mixes."

Oof. But great album title!

Great song titles!

Different mixes? Fuck a vinyl.

They did that before, see Kurious Oranj

Yeah I know, but it's just so 80s.

I'm good w the different mixes, esp. after the lousy (or just not interesting) sound on the last couple records—esp. Ersatz GB. It's like having safety copies of the tracks MES inevitably decides to sabotage at the last minute.

"Quit iPhone" is so brilliantly stupid/on-the-nose! I'm more psyched for this one than I have been the last few, maybe it's the longer layoff....

Last 2 Fall albums have been disappointing but a longer layoff might mean more quality

Great song titles but can't help thinking Sub-Lingual Tablet wouldve been the perfect place for a song called "Return to Forum"

I'm gonna try to keep my expectations reasonable here, have not been able to get into the last two at all

while this thread is active, can somebody please tell me which version of Fall In A Hole I should buy? or are all the CD reissues screwed up? iirc the single disc is a bad vinyl rip, and I see reviews that the 23CD version is clipped/overmodulated. any input? please don't make me buy an original.

Its a bad vinyl rip because there's a jump in one of the tracks, apart from that its alright. The album was always one up from a bootleg anyway.

(I have the 'second' l.p. Issue, it has the same catch groove which was disconcerting because naturally you want to clean/fix it but it always played the jump three times then continued. Which is not what lp's do.

I've got the Castle 2CD reissue and I'm very happy with it. You're talking about a legal bootleg, after all, I'm not that concerned with pristine quality. If it's a vinyl transfer, I can't tell.

which song Mark?

thanks, Gerald!

I don't recall..

hang on I'll look..

Here you go:

http://thefall.org/discography/data/live04.html

The man who's head expanded.

oh right, I knew I had seen that breakdown before. thanks!

You want the castle version or the sanctuary version.

I actually think In A Hole is the best sounding of the live albums of this era

Just don't buy the cog sinister version. Of anything. Except Listening In, that's a great disc.

I saw an original in virgin recs tcr back in the day, it was a bit pricey so didn't get it, and I effectively missedout.

Years later I saw the one I have now inthat good record shop in Amsterdam, went wow and bought it. Should have known it was a boot, but, yr honour..

There's more good uncollected 90s b-sides. I compiled them and called it "Listening Out".

YSI???