― Richard (avoid80), Friday, 20 June 2003 12:26 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Alex in Rotherham (Alex in Doncaster), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:10 (twenty-one years ago) link
― geoff, Friday, 20 June 2003 13:30 (twenty-one years ago) link
(i have heard v.little by either of them - but one bit of a macc lads song has stuck in my head for about 10 yrs due to- very catchy tune- very sick humour lyric)
― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:58 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:04 (twenty-one years ago) link
― neil simpson, Friday, 20 June 2003 14:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
― peter dee (peter dee), Friday, 20 June 2003 20:39 (twenty-one years ago) link
i was in a band once who supported HMHB(this is a long long time ago......)
when Nigel figured out i was the bassist he spent at least ten minutes going 'NER NER NERNER NER.....go on, what fall bassline is that then...eh? eh?'
it was great.(i got about one right)
― joni, Friday, 20 June 2003 20:55 (twenty-one years ago) link
"if i had agoraphobia / and i had claustrophobia... trapped / inside my porch..."
― kieron, Friday, 20 June 2003 21:32 (twenty-one years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 21 June 2003 00:06 (twenty-one years ago) link
― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 21 June 2003 11:30 (twenty-one years ago) link
I fancy I'll open a stationers, stock quaint notelets for weekend pagans, "while you were out at the rollright stones, I came and set fire to your shed"
― hungover chris, Monday, 23 June 2003 08:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:26 (twenty years ago) link
Close runners up:
"They declared their love in a hot air balloon and got married on a Caribbean beach"
and
"Every time you're by the lake you're bound to hear 'Careful now, that swan could break your arm' "
― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:38 (twenty years ago) link
― Tom May (Tom May), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:39 (twenty years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:55 (twenty years ago) link
― zappi (joni), Friday, 28 November 2003 16:00 (twenty years ago) link
― retort pouch (retort pouch), Friday, 28 November 2003 16:16 (twenty years ago) link
― charltonlido (gareth), Friday, 28 November 2003 16:27 (twenty years ago) link
― ailsa (ailsa), Friday, 28 November 2003 19:27 (twenty years ago) link
― udu wudu (udu wudu), Saturday, 29 November 2003 00:12 (twenty years ago) link
― OleM (OleM), Saturday, 29 November 2003 23:47 (twenty years ago) link
― everything, Wednesday, 1 June 2005 07:06 (nineteen years ago) link
As a kid this line puzzled me for years, and still does!
― mzui (mzui), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 07:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― rwillmsen (rwillmsen), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 09:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― charltonlido (gareth), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 09:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 09:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― Si.C@rter (SiC@rter), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 10:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 11:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― everything, Wednesday, 1 June 2005 13:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― laurence kansas (lawrence kansas), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 14:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 14:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ark Hopping (avoid80), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 14:59 (nineteen years ago) link
I have decided next year I am going to call my fantasy football team that.
― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― snails, Tuesday, 14 June 2005 13:50 (nineteen years ago) link
Dawn: "WHAT?"me: "urr, you had to be there I guess"
― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 14 June 2005 14:11 (nineteen years ago) link
"Well I heard a lovely rumour,That Bette Midler had a tumour,So gleefully I went to tell my friends.But they said it was a lie,That she wasn't going to die,And by the way, have we got news for you!"
comes pretty close
― Chris Trew, Tuesday, 14 June 2005 15:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 14 June 2005 21:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 19 August 2005 07:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 19 August 2005 08:05 (nineteen years ago) link
In fact pretty much the whole of Look Dad No Tunes is brilliant.
― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Friday, 19 August 2005 10:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― mzui (mzui), Friday, 19 August 2005 10:35 (nineteen years ago) link
thou my fave ("In fact pretty much the whole of Look Dad No Tunes is brilliant" is a rather OTM statement) was quoted up thread.
― jive session (elwisty), Friday, 19 August 2005 16:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 16:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 19 August 2005 16:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― mzui (mzui), Friday, 19 August 2005 16:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 19 August 2005 16:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 16:26 (nineteen years ago) link
http://s30.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=32AJ8E54R0W9Z2RJNZO1N2BH27
New album out at the start of September as well, entitled "Achtung Bono".
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 19 August 2005 16:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 19 August 2005 16:29 (nineteen years ago) link
"But he also gave us Lionel Bleurggggghhhhh"
― snoball, Thursday, 8 January 2009 19:24 (fifteen years ago) link
"a no-rosette situation for Mr. Galbraith"
― Goodnight, Mr. Johnson. (country matters), Friday, 9 January 2009 23:26 (fifteen years ago) link
"You come on like a dream, Julian Bream, lips like David Vine,When a sneeze doesn't come,I look up to the sun, and I praise him for making it shine,Yesterday Matthew I was a Factory completist, But tonight Matthew I'm gonna be with Jesus"
― Michael B, Saturday, 10 January 2009 15:09 (fifteen years ago) link
Timing..
David Vine RIP
How long before everyone mentioned in HMHB songs is dead?
― chord simple (j.o.n.a), Monday, 12 January 2009 13:11 (fifteen years ago) link
Flip N Fill better watch their backs.
― The boy with the Arab money (The stickman from the hilarious 'xkcd' comics), Monday, 12 January 2009 13:47 (fifteen years ago) link
Is this the first computer game to quote HMHB?
― William Bloody Swygart, Monday, 12 January 2009 14:49 (fifteen years ago) link
Revive, because I still can't listen to Breaking News without laughing out loud at "Lisa Riley", also that bit Louis quoted upthread about little bit Bridget, a little bit Ally...waiting for them to weigh in at Newton Abbot.
I have zillions of HMHB on my iPod and I have been listening to little else for days, to the puzzlement of anyone sitting near me on a bus. The randomness of "not long now until lollipop men are called Darren" set me off yesterday. Is anyone going to see them in Glasgow?
― ailsa, Wednesday, 13 May 2009 18:29 (fifteen years ago) link
"Fresh Broad Beans And Aubergines"Euphemisms Audrey, euphemisms.
is probably my favourite HMHB line. It's the absolute peak of one of their best numbers. The scansion and delivery are perfect and in the context of the song, which deals with the conflict between paranoia and parochialism (a common source of humour for them) it hits the perfect blend of mockery and affection for both of those unfortunate states.
― everything, Wednesday, 13 May 2009 21:55 (fifteen years ago) link
From the new album;
"There’s a girl I’m told who rolls her eyes / at the Gok Wan acolytes""Put the wrong bin out on the / wrong day again""And know Chesil Beach is far away in time""A jar of language pills"
and the whole of the National Shite Day MkII that is "Rock'n'Roll is full of Bad Wools" about the complete muso c*nts that appear on "Soccer AM"
"But then disastrously / they ask him casually“You come from Leigh-on-Sea, Do you ever get to Roots Hall?”which to him means fuck allCan only look askance / And cast a sideways glanceCould use some help with this / But Heston’s gone for a piss"
Oh, and "Tommy Walsh's Eco House" ....
― Sim70, Friday, 30 September 2011 00:39 (twelve years ago) link
"Sixteen teams are taking partSixteen camps of hopeSome contain top, top playersSome are just a crock of shit"
― Aunt Acid and the Gaviscons (aldo), Saturday, 28 January 2012 16:02 (twelve years ago) link
Have a very soft spot for their purely bucolic lines, like
"Please don't tell me what you think while I tell you about the copse that I retreat to where I'm hemmed in by the larch" (Numanoid Hang-Glide)
"When my grave's waist-deep in meadow grass" (Malayan Jeulutong)
"yet by the stream in summertimeThe charming lark, the country chimeSmite this faithless pantomime.Welcome to the daylight at the back of my mind" (Even Men with Steel Hearts)
Other than that, I find it hard to improve, just as a line, on "deck quoits with the French trance vets". It expresses balance of word weight and selection and meaning that wouldn't be out of place in Wallace Stevens, but is only the furthest extension of something Nigel does all the time. (You get something similar on Tommy Walsh's Eco-House - The elements of whimsy and his encyclopedic knowledge of all minor celebrity allow a flexibility to put words together for the pleasure of their sonic and cultural poetic adjacency.
I'm not sure I find them funny that much, although they certainly put a smile on my face. More important to me is the way they're able to transform domestic misery and forlorn love into things that are not entirely fucking awful, which really they are most of the time. For this alone I am thankful every day for their continuing existence. The quality of their anger is, I suppose because of their defences of love and kindness, also amongst the most satisfying and righteous I can think of.
All that said, I think my favourite line from the last one might be 'Iguana Andy and his... iguanas'.
Also love the great exposition of that specific time of night that is contained in the line "But when it's too late for drunks, and too early for milkmen, give me the moonlight, give me a spade".
also "Break out from grouting, Willie, lay down your puzzle, Jan."
And all of Fix It So She Dreams of Me, especially:
"And she lives somewhere you wouldn't want to get stuckThat can't be found in the Domesday bookCromwell's troops never billeted thereDick Turpin never had Bess shoedWhere this girl, i'm told, rolls her eyes at the Gok Wan acolytes"
― Fizzles, Sunday, 29 January 2012 06:51 (twelve years ago) link
"Hey, where did that bloke go who said I was vital? "
― piscesx, Sunday, 19 October 2014 08:19 (nine years ago) link
new one out, tomorrow is it?
i got so enraged by a v irritating gig (the fans not them, but they sort of encourage it) that I've been off them for a while now. Will obviously get this though.
― Fizzles, Sunday, 19 October 2014 10:22 (nine years ago) link
stretching the definition of a line here, but w/e i can't go past.
"And then there’s the person who collects all things Pierrot and loves Siamese cats and thinks they’re sophisticated ‘cos they eat Fry’s Chocolate Cream, and they’d do anything to spend the night with that fella off the Turkish Delight advert who’s full of Eastern monosodium glutamate"
― olly, Sunday, 19 October 2014 10:54 (nine years ago) link
magnificent & otm fizzles post above. latest one is worrying though. embarrassing fans? o no
― joie de marsh (imago), Sunday, 19 October 2014 10:58 (nine years ago) link
just a sort lumpen bloke culture, imago. it's tiresome enough when you encounter it out and about - a large number in one place chanting and it got a bit wicker man.
― Fizzles, Sunday, 19 October 2014 11:03 (nine years ago) link
In bed againCan’t be bothered getting upSwing the lead againI’m just waiting for the manFrom CamelotTelling meThat I’ve won the LotteryLet’s trashThe Murder Mystery WeekendLets stage a couldn’t-give-a-thonSummertime’s hereAnd I’ve got no hassleI could be a gothOn a bouncy castleWouldn’t it be niceTo call off the Barn DanceWouldn’t it be niceTo sabotage theHot Pot Supper
― Chimp Arsons, Sunday, 19 October 2014 13:11 (nine years ago) link
it feels invidious to complain, but fuck it. this album is a bit of a bore. the dropping of parodic elements to their music in favour of fairly strate rockabillly/rock since Trouble Over Bridgewater hasn't been a problem with some a couple of excellent albums - CLSC, CSI: Ambleside, and the other ones have been good, with some excellent songs on. but this latest is very dull. the enjoyable dreary inventiveness of their early albums has been absent for a while. lumpen chantalong rock for the politically insular soft-wing lower league blokes who use irony-so-called to have their cake and eat it.
― Fizzles, Wednesday, 22 October 2014 10:57 (nine years ago) link
I, bloody quadhopper, shall be the judge of that ;)
― joie de marsh (imago), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 11:04 (nine years ago) link
fwiw I thought the last album was excellent and maybe a National Shite Day short of CSI:A
― joie de marsh (imago), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 11:07 (nine years ago) link
I was kinda disappointed w/ "Achtung Bono"
― Mark G, Wednesday, 22 October 2014 11:08 (nine years ago) link
Excavating Rita MIGHT be NB's best melodic songwriting hour to date
― joie de marsh (imago), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 11:10 (nine years ago) link
Anyway, Tranmere might get relegated out of the Football League, Nigel will commit suicide and we can all move on
― joie de marsh (imago), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 11:13 (nine years ago) link
i never particularly liked National Shite Day (preferred Bad Wools for that template), but yes, some v good stuff on the last one - tho nothing to beat the righteous opening quarter on CSI:A. and would be interested to hear what you think of this latest - can't work out whether it's me or them, but i think they're too close to some fans, and not willing as a consequence to be more rebarbative. that could be completely wrong of course, born of watching the live dynamics between them and some fans who obviously follow them everywhere.
― Fizzles, Wednesday, 22 October 2014 11:13 (nine years ago) link
yeah I think I erred there - it has a (less lyrically poetic) Shite Day, but no Problem Chimp, no anarchic musical fuckaround that somehow completely works
― joie de marsh (imago), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 11:16 (nine years ago) link
Is there one on the new one that fulfils the Joyce -> Rita -> ? continuum of sublime ornate-songwriting genius?
― joie de marsh (imago), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 11:19 (nine years ago) link
The Bain of Constance feels like it should by name, but it's not really that sort of song. Hmm. Just had a quick review of the songs. 'No' i think is the answer.
― Fizzles, Wednesday, 22 October 2014 11:27 (nine years ago) link
think Stiperstones was the Problem Chimp on the last one - instead of gleeful chaos we get full-on mental breakdown, everything curdling to mania. Quite appreciate that.
― joie de marsh (imago), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 11:33 (nine years ago) link
Also, aw :(
Will review, though
Problem Chimp had those awesome rhyming couplets though
HMHB are the sort of band that encourage songwriting archetype trainspotting but maybe they really are changing whatever formula they may have had
― joie de marsh (imago), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 11:35 (nine years ago) link
Many laugh out loud moments abound.
I went to see them for the first time not too long ago.
Taking a good look around, I'm guessing it was like attending a real ale convention. Cruelly ironic
― Jessie Fer Ark (Mobbed Up Ping Pong Psychos), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 11:54 (nine years ago) link
I wasn't too keen on the last album either tbh, loved "Ambleside"
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 12:50 (nine years ago) link
― Fizzles, Wednesday, October 22, 2014 11:27 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Listening now and it's My Outstretched Arms obviously! :D
― joie de marsh (imago), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 14:06 (nine years ago) link
Almost TOO similar to Rita, but lyrically very strong. HMHB's romance songs are great
― joie de marsh (imago), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 14:07 (nine years ago) link
The Bain Of Constance, for its part, rips off Magazine's Believe That I Understand something rotten. Bad Nigel!
― joie de marsh (imago), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 14:11 (nine years ago) link
"Adam Boyle Has Cast Lad Rock Aside" rings very true re things like www.caughtbytheriver.net/
In Fizzle's bucolic vein mentioned above, I am very fond of:
"I wanna fly my biplaneLow over SwaffhamI wanna wave at astonished rusticsI’m gonna plead profitless chicanery"
― Stevie T, Wednesday, 22 October 2014 14:14 (nine years ago) link
yeesh, yerright FIzzles, this is pretty boring - will have to listen a few times, see if the lyrics sink in. So far I've only really been impressed with the first two and Arms - it's terribly frontloaded
― joie de marsh (imago), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 14:25 (nine years ago) link
last two tracks were ok to good
but yeah this is horribly frontloaded
― joie de marsh (imago), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 14:41 (nine years ago) link
Chipping in to agree violently. A very average record wig some obvious parody and self-parody moments - "as told to the boil on the cab driver's neck" turns up on two albums on the spin, the second time repeated on this with a tired-sounding "again" tacked on - provide a veneer attempting to give he listener the impression there's more, but I think that's all it is; a veneer.
Baguette Dilemma Is supposed to be The Birthday Party, yes? Nigel comes in all hoarse and says "a-whoopin' and a-hollerin' " which I'm certain is a Nick Cave lift, and the bass solo that starts near the end is supposed to be Tracey Pew I'm sure.
At this time of my life I have no need for a HMHB instrumental track.
― the bowels are not what they seem (aldo), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 15:43 (nine years ago) link
Speaking of The Birthday Party I only just discovered this the other day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YeqJCcHY4Y
― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 16:57 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRtZDOqSk3A&feature=youtu.be
― these are my pincers and if you don't like them I have udders (DJ Mencap), Friday, 16 October 2015 13:40 (eight years ago) link
The entirety of Get Kramer
― imago, Tuesday, 8 November 2016 16:54 (seven years ago) link
'OK, Let's pedestrianise the High Street!'
― Mark G, Tuesday, 8 November 2016 18:15 (seven years ago) link