I find it hard to believe anyone likes those bands. Especially My Life Story. Who were even worse than The Divine Comedy.
― Odysseus, Monday, 20 February 2017 09:11 (seven years ago) link
I almost - almost - checked out the new Dodgy album last year
― imago, Monday, 20 February 2017 10:42 (seven years ago) link
all of these bands were sometimes quite good, apart from Dodgy who were never good
― soref, Monday, 20 February 2017 10:52 (seven years ago) link
Dodgy were good. Homegrown is a decent album. They had a handful of singles that were really good. Then they did Free Peace Sweet and that was just fucking awful, all of it.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Monday, 20 February 2017 10:55 (seven years ago) link
nah, has some good stuff on it
good enough might be the worst song by any of these bands though
― imago, Monday, 20 February 2017 10:59 (seven years ago) link
I thought Space were sort of endearingly/entertainingly crap at the time, I think I was probably wrong.
― chap, Monday, 20 February 2017 11:08 (seven years ago) link
guys, guys
― Treesh-Hurt (Noodle Vague), Monday, 20 February 2017 11:09 (seven years ago) link
Salad is probably my favourite of these groups, but apparently Salad Undressed is "Marijne & Paul from Salad, acoustically unleashing songs from then...and now...." which I'm not so sure about
― soref, Monday, 20 February 2017 11:10 (seven years ago) link
i wanna get off this endless nostalgia treadmill now, cheers
i did lol at the graphic designers' evident difficulty finding suitably dynamic and/or glamorous pictures of mark morriss and fucknuts from space for the poster. look at those dull bastards standing there grimacing
― for sale: steve bannon waifu pillow (heavily soiled) (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 20 February 2017 11:26 (seven years ago) link
6 bands 4 cities 1 massive celebration of b-to-c-tier britpop
― for sale: steve bannon waifu pillow (heavily soiled) (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 20 February 2017 11:27 (seven years ago) link
I know someone who was really excited for the last Space album. I can't believe Space fans exist.
― afriendlypioneer, Monday, 20 February 2017 12:21 (seven years ago) link
Looking at that poster I have just realised that I've been confusing Louise Wener with Louise Mensch for several years.
― byebyepride, Monday, 20 February 2017 12:26 (seven years ago) link
ahah what a poster. that's almost as sad as the "swagger of oasis" thread !
― AlXTC from Paris, Monday, 20 February 2017 12:27 (seven years ago) link
my friend did something to do with the sp@ce website for a long time, possibly still does
― kinder, Monday, 20 February 2017 12:34 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSn_nbVz0xA
― afriendlypioneer, Monday, 20 February 2017 12:55 (seven years ago) link
Man, that's dire. I'm also slightly depressed for them it's been up for two years and managed less than 10,000 views.
― afriendlypioneer, Monday, 20 February 2017 12:57 (seven years ago) link
― kinder, Monday, 20 February 2017 13:09 (seven years ago) link
new social network called sleepr, boring nostalgia posts only
― imago, Monday, 20 February 2017 13:14 (seven years ago) link
Sleepr is a "spooning only" hookup ap, surely.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Monday, 20 February 2017 13:28 (seven years ago) link
menshn riff tbf
― imago, Monday, 20 February 2017 14:56 (seven years ago) link
Britpop will never go away. These bands will be playing nightclub with chicken or scampi in a basket for another 30 years like those 60s and 70s bands.
― Odysseus, Monday, 20 February 2017 16:29 (seven years ago) link
FAP?
― kinder, Monday, 20 February 2017 16:43 (seven years ago) link
Yawn.
― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Monday, 20 February 2017 19:27 (seven years ago) link
Would like to see Salad again. But enough with the endless nostalgia. But bit unfair to arbitrarily consign musicians to the dustbin because they are out of fashion. But don't want to waste time when there's plenty of new, exciting suff out there. But but but actually I could never justify taking time off work / family to go there, let alone the money, so pretty much academic anyway. I have several friends who will go.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Monday, 20 February 2017 20:05 (seven years ago) link
Even in 1996 I would have looked at that list of bands and thought "nah."
― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Monday, 20 February 2017 20:14 (seven years ago) link
stool britannia
― Islamic State of Mind (jim in vancouver), Monday, 20 February 2017 20:19 (seven years ago) link
Y'know, it's such a shame some utter shitcunt came up with the term "Britpop" ... it means I have to continuously read crap about what was and wasn't "Britpop", it means that great bands like Pulp, Suede, Blur etc. are still tainted with this really corny, shit word, it means that I have to read people droning on about John Harris and his shit book, and it means I have to listen to knobjockeys going "lolololol dance music!" like people who appreciated guitar music couldn't possibly appreciate the electronic or hip-hop music of the time, which is utter bullshit.
― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Monday, 20 February 2017 20:27 (seven years ago) link
you were allowed to listen to big beat as well iirc
― Islamic State of Mind (jim in vancouver), Monday, 20 February 2017 20:29 (seven years ago) link
britplop more like amirite
― for sale: steve bannon waifu pillow (heavily soiled) (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 20 February 2017 20:29 (seven years ago) link
One of the problems with the term "Britpop" is it puts almost every single fucking UK guitar band into the same box, regardless of quality, or even style in some cases. In any other fucking era, Menswe@r would have been completely forgotten about within a couple of years, never to be spoken of again. They deserved to be. They weren't even good at the time. But, y'know, dredge up the B-word and suddenly you have to talk about a handful of great bands and a million shit ones. This does not happen with any other (apparent) "subgenre" ...
― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Monday, 20 February 2017 20:37 (seven years ago) link
Turrican - you don't think this happens when you bring up trip-hop? There were numerous great artists and many substandard ones
― Everything Moves Towards The Sun (Ross), Monday, 20 February 2017 20:41 (seven years ago) link
Menswear were really not that bad, hating them is a boring cliche, the only reason anyone talked about them after 1996 was "weren't Menswear rubbish LOLZ" - where the real story was their co-optation by the campaign for real rock as an example of why artpop = bad, rockism = the only sensible choice. John Harris has a lot to answer for.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Monday, 20 February 2017 20:44 (seven years ago) link
american here but to me britpop just means 90s british pop rock by folks who are probably into david bowie
― a but (brimstead), Monday, 20 February 2017 20:47 (seven years ago) link
david bowie and the smiths
x-post:
There are a handful of great artists and many substandard ones in every genre, but when the B-word is brought up, people go from Pulp to Menswe@r in 60 milliseconds. At least in a trip-hop conversation you'd expect a long discussion about the best of what happened before moving onto the worst. When it comes to this particular era of guitar music it's into the negatives near enough immediately, and confessing to like one of the better bands of the period always seems to come with a disclaimer.
― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Monday, 20 February 2017 20:48 (seven years ago) link
One or two of the Britpop anniversary articles have been amusing to me too, mind. Some people would have you thinking that radio and music TV channels were dominated by UK guitar music: newsflash to folks who believe this - they weren't. The '90s were as diverse as any other decade.
― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Monday, 20 February 2017 20:52 (seven years ago) link
I mean, this word "Britpop" ... it just does none of the bands that actually did great work any favours and it's flawed even as a description of a time period. It's a fucking useless word.
― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Monday, 20 February 2017 20:56 (seven years ago) link
I just hate that the standard of debate around britpop is D- at best, even on here. There's a 'britpop news' site which... just look at the state of it - http://britpopnews.com/. I wrote a bit on Menswear here (halfway down the page) and would very much disagree that they were in any way "the worst" especially when we are talking about Space.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Monday, 20 February 2017 21:27 (seven years ago) link
Space were horrendous too - I always thought they were a bit of a joke band and found it incredibly difficult to take 'em seriously. They weren't even entertaining, just annoying.
― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Monday, 20 February 2017 21:37 (seven years ago) link
I'm with Brimstead, we Americans were able to filter the music from the hype and overexposure (which I've heard was especially bad). I love Salads body of work and the first Sleeper singles are great, along with many small UK guitar bands from the era like China Drum and Compulsion.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, 20 February 2017 21:49 (seven years ago) link
china drum were terrible!
― Odysseus, Monday, 20 February 2017 22:45 (seven years ago) link
Cannot comment as I've never heard any bands play small UK guitars.
― Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Monday, 20 February 2017 22:51 (seven years ago) link
I am also American, enjoy tracks by both Salad and Sleeper, and note that once again, unless your name is Elastica, being a band fronted by a woman consigns you to the "lesser/shit band" pile
― a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Monday, 20 February 2017 23:04 (seven years ago) link
I'd say that's more to do with the fact that Elastica made at least one great album (the debut) whereas Sleeper, while a decent singles band, didn't make any.
― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Monday, 20 February 2017 23:19 (seven years ago) link
fondish memories of China Drum's stupid pop-punk cover of "Wuthering Heights" down at the indie discos of yore, but their own songs were not v good, and now I am not a teenager it's hard to imagine a scenario in which I wouldn't just listen to the original instead
Salad's "Drink the Elixir", though, that's a great tune. Though I have no plans to go to this festival to hear an acoustic version of it.
Still hoping to see Silver Sun - "Lava" in one of these nostalgic Britpop rundowns.
― a passing spacecadet, Monday, 20 February 2017 23:21 (seven years ago) link
I... fucking... give... UP
― kinder, Monday, 20 February 2017 23:24 (seven years ago) link
best female-fronted uk band of this era probably sidi bou said*, who are well worth hearing and remembered fondly by those who do remember them
*or bis? bis anyone? idk there's actually quite a few, not going to list them though that's lame
― imago, Monday, 20 February 2017 23:25 (seven years ago) link
I have vague memories of Compulsion... I can't remember China Drum at all!
― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Monday, 20 February 2017 23:31 (seven years ago) link
xxxp acoustic version of Drink the Elixir can also be listened to from the comfort of one's own home:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar-CVrs_EnA
(Salad Undressed are better than I expected tbh)
― soref, Monday, 20 February 2017 23:33 (seven years ago) link
Lava by Silver Sun is great but not Britpop - it's straight-up American-style pop-punk, and belongs to the scene as little as (for example) Urusei Yatsura.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Monday, 20 February 2017 23:44 (seven years ago) link