The Go-Betweens - what's it all about?

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Don't call me Alfie, please.

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 11 January 2018 01:03 (six years ago) link

So sorry. I thought I saw someone else do it, but perhaps they were referring to another poster who actually went by that name.

Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 11 January 2018 01:09 (six years ago) link

Might also have been subconscious effect of watching Jeopardy! with the Redd family and seeing a question about Maurice Micklewhite.

Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 11 January 2018 01:19 (six years ago) link

it's all good!

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 11 January 2018 01:20 (six years ago) link

Was wondering if albums had even been polled and found that this was the relevant thread Best Go-Betweens Album, which contains as a bonus a link to your piece about Spring Hill Fair

Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 11 January 2018 01:30 (six years ago) link

Thanks! And here's yet another good Go-Bets thread. For instance, you might (and well you might) scroll down to May 2015, where the links that I posted back then and just now checked still work, though haven't yet tried 'em all; quite a few are on that doomandgloomfromthetomb page I started with (thanks for those, tyler):
The Go-Betweens - POX or CDR

dow, Thursday, 11 January 2018 02:51 (six years ago) link

Thanks. Been randomly listening to the catalog today, both group and solo. Right now totally digging The Evangelist.

Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 11 January 2018 03:29 (six years ago) link

What is weird electro-noise which arrives with first chorus of Part Company that sounds like a cross between a theremin and a hissing radiator?

Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 January 2018 03:43 (six years ago) link

That's the instrumental element which most haunted me; it sounded like a tea kettle.

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 January 2018 03:45 (six years ago) link

And RF doesn’t give the secret away in Grant & I?

Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 January 2018 03:48 (six years ago) link

He gives away too many secrets about McLennan.

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 January 2018 03:51 (six years ago) link

What is weird electro-noise which arrives with first chorus of Part Company that sounds like a cross between a theremin and a hissing radiator?

I think that's Jacques Loussier on a Prophet 5.

Whiney Houston (Tom D.), Friday, 12 January 2018 11:55 (six years ago) link

Has anyone heard anything as to whether the second box set is still happening?

michaellambert, Friday, 12 January 2018 14:14 (six years ago) link

the door is open wide!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBDe9BGNBnM

scott seward, Friday, 12 January 2018 15:15 (six years ago) link

Best use of oboe in pop music?

The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Friday, 12 January 2018 19:07 (six years ago) link

Yep! I've said so.

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 January 2018 19:10 (six years ago) link

only Roxy comes close ("Out of the Blue," "Nightingale").

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 January 2018 19:11 (six years ago) link

but what about "Crazy For You"!???
(just kidding, "bye bye pride" is the best use of oboe in pop music)

tylerw, Friday, 12 January 2018 19:17 (six years ago) link

Nightswimming is pretty great but this makes me want to dance in the street with strangers.

The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Friday, 12 January 2018 19:26 (six years ago) link

amanda brown guested with R.E.M. a couple times right? Maybe she was playing violin there ...

tylerw, Friday, 12 January 2018 19:37 (six years ago) link

does the cor anglais in "life in a northern town" count as as an oboe? judges?

scott seward, Friday, 12 January 2018 19:41 (six years ago) link

what a song

in twelve parts (lamonti), Saturday, 13 January 2018 10:04 (six years ago) link

On this video of “Head Full of Steam” looks like Amanda is playing a violin through an effect to make it sound like an oboe or something:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuuqJGLgjXw

Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 13 January 2018 13:49 (six years ago) link

The official video for “Head Full of Steam” is, um, interesting.

Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 13 January 2018 13:55 (six years ago) link

Enjoyed recently discovering the cover of “Bachelor Kisses” by The Radio Dept.

Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 13 January 2018 23:53 (six years ago) link

Okay, got the book and have been reading over the weekend and have to say Alfred, as is the case more often than not, is right: it is one of the better rock memoirs. It hits the sweet spot of telling you stuff you wanted to know along with things you didn't think to ask about and seems to avoid, as far as I can tell as far as I have read, some of the obvious traps- score settling, evasion, meaningless digression or page-filling, embarrassing defensiveness, reinterpretation or misinterpretation regarding the author's own work. He is careful and cagey in describing Grant, playing one card at a time, interested to see what will be revealed as I get further along in the story.

Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 14 January 2018 19:28 (six years ago) link

Yes, Forster is a writer: he doesn't insist on proving a thesis. What he has to share about his best friend he will do in a leisurely manner after he has limned scenarios.

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 14 January 2018 19:34 (six years ago) link

He seems to be one of the few people besides myself who likes the Bryan Ferry record Dylanesque. I will have to reread his piece on that and reflect.

Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 14 January 2018 22:11 (six years ago) link

Read through to end this weekend. Did not disappoint

Curly Morlocks (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 02:00 (six years ago) link

second box set is definitely happening -Robert mentioned it at a London book launch/concert thing late last year

jamiesummerz, Wednesday, 17 January 2018 11:20 (six years ago) link

Thanks Jamie!

michaellambert, Wednesday, 17 January 2018 14:25 (six years ago) link

I'd been meaning to read the book for a while, so I just bought it. No library in our multi-library system had a copy!

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 17 January 2018 15:01 (six years ago) link

Listening to Oceans Apart a lot, and to the '78-'90 comp. "Born to a Family" and "Second Hand Furniture." Oceans, with all its interesting feints and digressions, is the realization of their super-MOR Glen Campbell- John Phillips-Jimmy Webb concept. Only comparable fairly recent album I can think of is Freedy Johnston's similarly Webb-ian Neon Repairman.

eddhurt, Wednesday, 17 January 2018 17:15 (six years ago) link

Hmm, never really thought of that album as particular MOR in style. Anyway, "Finding You" is a beaut. That and "The Clock" are total late-era Grant keepers, though all three comeback albums are strong in their own ways, with the former two charmingly tentative (in a sense) and the last one totally assertive in its swing-for-the-fences confidence.

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 17 January 2018 17:27 (six years ago) link

super-MOR Glen Campbell- John Phillips-Jimmy Webb

OTM

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 17:44 (six years ago) link

Oceans Apart is their great record, after several excellent ones.

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 17:45 (six years ago) link

Oceans Apart is excellent but it's also a disappointingly bad master. This was the album that led me to learn more about the "loudness wars". I remembering reading that Yep Roc were considering a remaster but saw nothing further. Did this ever happen?

doug watson, Thursday, 18 January 2018 16:29 (six years ago) link

It did. I bought the remastered version (after trading in the original) and it does indeed sound better.

Jazzbo, Thursday, 18 January 2018 17:54 (six years ago) link

Lomax also made replacement discs but I never got around to requesting one.

michaellambert, Thursday, 18 January 2018 23:36 (six years ago) link

Downy Mildew: Classic or Mold Spore

Hi! We're from Downy Mildew! And we've got a new album out called Mincing Steps!
This is all I know of them. Hilarious, nonetheless.

― Ally C, Wednesday, February 20, 2002 8:00 PM (fifteen years ago)

Curly Morlocks (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 19 January 2018 22:37 (six years ago) link

The above being a quote from Live On Snap, which I prefer somewhat to That Striped Sunlight Sound.

Curly Morlocks (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 January 2018 16:28 (six years ago) link

Have to see it took me ages to get into this band originally because I was put off by the post-punk yelping on the first album. Now I have changed my tune and am in completely in awe of the, um, fecundity and longevity of their creative partnership.

Curly Morlocks (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 January 2018 18:08 (six years ago) link

The Go-Betweens, that is, not Downy Mildew

Curly Morlocks (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 January 2018 18:25 (six years ago) link

The first album works in its way. The bass playing is enthusiastic and amazingly good for someone who apparently hadn't done it before. Just listened to it the other day and it's actually full of great ideas that are executed with a certain flair. In the post-Beefheart sweepstakes that record and all their stuff is a pretty amazing thing to contemplate, altho I also listened to "Just a King in Mirrors" the other day, and that's one of their best Velvets rips. The guitar obbligato in "Second Hand Furniture" is very Beefheart. Not that it may have been intentional. The non-idiomatic idioms are so fucking elusive somehow even when they play funk in the song that goes "they're taking heaven away" it's not quite like Pylon or Gang of Four at the same time, or even Pavement later, though lots of similarities.

eddhurt, Saturday, 20 January 2018 19:14 (six years ago) link

All well and good but what about the first album, Send Me A Lullaby?

Curly Morlocks (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 January 2018 20:12 (six years ago) link

not very good

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 20 January 2018 20:14 (six years ago) link

But yeah, the Beefheart similarity you point out is useful to contemplate.

Curly Morlocks (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 January 2018 20:17 (six years ago) link

It's not as good as Before Hollywood etc but I also don't think it's a bad record. I suppose technically I would agree it's not very good, it's just good.

Mind you I absolutely love the Lost Album stuff, so maybe the early stuff is just more to my tastes. I don't think Send Me A Lullaby is as good as the Lost Album though.

Colonel Poo, Saturday, 20 January 2018 20:30 (six years ago) link

Me neither

Curly Morlocks (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 January 2018 20:34 (six years ago) link

As a piece of music the first album is quite good and as a collection of songs it's just not done with enough skill, so I don't think it's bad at all. Get a little band together with a good bassist and do that stuff now with a couple of singers who enunciate a bit more and can put those words across, that record would come alive like a Pylon dance party or something.

eddhurt, Sunday, 21 January 2018 12:47 (six years ago) link


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