Pretty wild that Aztec Camera were using a Fairlight for live shows in 1983. Rough Trade must have had great expectations for Roddy.
― Vast Halo, Saturday, 1 October 2022 09:40 (one year ago) link
gosh, was he sexy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w1Q8ZkXZ1Q
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 15 December 2022 02:57 (one year ago) link
Used to listen to High Land, Hard Rain regularly -- how's the rest of their discography?
― Indexed, Friday, 16 December 2022 14:49 (one year ago) link
Marvelous moments all over the place.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 16 December 2022 14:50 (one year ago) link
Got a Best Of list at HTV?
― Indexed, Friday, 16 December 2022 15:06 (one year ago) link
Sure: https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/happy-in-happy-extremes-the-best-of-aztec-camera/
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 16 December 2022 15:26 (one year ago) link
I don't know much beyond High Land... but I'm dazzled at the notion that there are 15 better songs *in the world* than 'We Could Send Letters', let alone 15 by the same man.
― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Friday, 16 December 2022 15:30 (one year ago) link
Thanks, Alfred!
― Indexed, Friday, 16 December 2022 15:36 (one year ago) link
alfred otm of course, tho i am making my token appearance in this revival to rep for knife. it's my favorite thing he's ever done.
(also fist bumps to alfred for repping "black lucia" — very solid jam!)
― Oh, Stevie, you are my number one gypsy goddess. (Austin), Friday, 16 December 2022 15:37 (one year ago) link
Thanks to Indexed, I'm listening to Dreamland's "Safe in Sorrow" as I type.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 16 December 2022 15:42 (one year ago) link
I think Scritti and Anita Baker were Roddy's inspiration to go soul pop rather than SOS.
― Piedie Gimbel, Friday, 16 December 2022 15:54 (one year ago) link
we should poll dreamland. if high land didn't exist, it'd be his second best album.
― Oh, Stevie, you are my number one gypsy goddess. (Austin), Friday, 16 December 2022 15:59 (one year ago) link
― Piedie Gimbel,
He went on and on about Rapture in these 1987 reviews. He got it better than American critics.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 16 December 2022 16:01 (one year ago) link
*interviews
Rapture had been number 2 in the NME's 1986 end of year list, so it was a UK critical commonplace at the time.
I think Western Skies, under his own name rather than AC, is up there too.
― Piedie Gimbel, Friday, 16 December 2022 16:05 (one year ago) link
My god:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKNUKidVML0
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 16 December 2022 16:08 (one year ago) link
xpost
I think Western Skies, under his own name rather than AC, is up there too.― Piedie Gimbel, Friday, December 16, 2022 8:05 AM
― Piedie Gimbel, Friday, December 16, 2022 8:05 AM
roddy's records under his own name are excellent across the board.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYCs2sY2ahE
"postcard" (2014)
― Oh, Stevie, you are my number one gypsy goddess. (Austin), Friday, 16 December 2022 16:14 (one year ago) link
I love when this board gets me down a good old fashioned discography wormhole
― Indexed, Friday, 16 December 2022 16:24 (one year ago) link
xpost to It's Friday, Post Vids of Chill Tunes Why Not?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzkp48musvE
"knife" (1984)
alltime vibe.
― Oh, Stevie, you are my number one gypsy goddess. (Austin), Friday, 16 December 2022 18:08 (one year ago) link
"The Crying Scene" is a jam
― Indexed, Friday, 16 December 2022 18:21 (one year ago) link
shame the deluxe edition stuff isn't on us spotify. couple of his solo albums aren't there either. he seems really ripe for a revival. at least they have the version of the first album with "orchid girl" and "queen's tattoos."
he is a very charming man, isn't he?😻
sorry to spam this thread but he is someone i am admittedly too big a fan of to be objective whatsoever. thanks for the revival.
i even have a very fond recommendation for his 2002 all acoustic album surf.
"high class music" (2002):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9drqJU3bRg
these acoustic-only tunes are some of his best and always have been.
"mattress of wire" (live, easily better than studio version, 1984):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i66Mbln4xU0
"dry land" (2006):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u26z5XK0x38
"if life could taste that good again, i swear i'd never complain."
🙂oh, gosh. please tell me more.🙂
― Oh, Stevie, you are my number one gypsy goddess. (Austin), Friday, 16 December 2022 18:42 (one year ago) link
Life should taste like Roddy Frame imo
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 16 December 2022 18:44 (one year ago) link
Listening to Knife from start to finish for the first time in decades, it's really fucking great.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Friday, 16 December 2022 18:55 (one year ago) link
I was just thinking the same of Dreamland
― Indexed, Friday, 16 December 2022 18:56 (one year ago) link
Dreamland is my fav Aztec Camera album by a long shot.
― brotherlovesdub, Friday, 16 December 2022 19:00 (one year ago) link
was frestonia his faux-weller attempt? i always get about two minutes into the songs and then go, "oh yeah. it all kind of goes this direction, doesn't it?"
giving it another attempt atm and the big boomidy-b'dapdap-b'boom-CRASSSHHH reprise on "rainy season" made me irl lol. oh boy.
i mean it's alright. he still sounds in good spirits, but those silly guitar solos. he was still doing that for a couple songs on his last album, too! just funny. i mean he's got the chops, why the hell not. on that note, his amazing cover of "jump" is not on us spotify and that's just, like, fucking stupid man. (grr face)
don't care if it's already been posted. here 'tis. definition of a classic-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDhQ8ed7WLg
"jump" (1984)
― Oh, Stevie, you are my number one gypsy goddess. (Austin), Friday, 16 December 2022 19:04 (one year ago) link
sheesh, his digital catalogue is telling a story. i wanted to post a youtube of the song "imperfectly" from frestonia and make a snarky comment about how he invented imagine dragons, but i found this bemusing stat:https://i.imgur.com/OF7q1HT.png
ahh well, here it is; wdyt?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CukQYM5CqxU
"imperfectly" (1995)
― Oh, Stevie, you are my number one gypsy goddess. (Austin), Friday, 16 December 2022 19:30 (one year ago) link
okay, "beautiful girl" is preposterous. they had to have known that it sounds simultaneously like "summer breeze" and that phantom of the opera riff in "echoes." that is a fucking bland song jesus crimini.
i just don't buy his attempts to be a rocker dude. some of it's alright, but nah man. this ain't you.
― Oh, Stevie, you are my number one gypsy goddess. (Austin), Friday, 16 December 2022 19:35 (one year ago) link
yeah, probably not his best album. in fact, upon revisting, i am currently thinking of everything else he's ever done with a much better opinion than frestonia. it's very mor. no thank you.
― Oh, Stevie, you are my number one gypsy goddess. (Austin), Friday, 16 December 2022 19:48 (one year ago) link
but i recommend everything else he's ever done in varying degrees of essential-ness.
― Oh, Stevie, you are my number one gypsy goddess. (Austin), Friday, 16 December 2022 19:49 (one year ago) link
wow this thread has blown up in the last couple but after soto's refresh i rechecked Love it's still nope, but also based on recs here i listened to Surf 4 times and it is indeed greeeeeaaaaat.
― normal AI yankovic (Hunt3r), Saturday, 17 December 2022 00:11 (one year ago) link
ever since hearing 'Birth of the True' at the end of his follow up, I've longed for an entirely acoustic album - one guitar, one voice, no harmonies. And here it finally is: 'Surf'; and it's quite beautiful
Ugh god same can't believe I've been sleeping on this record for 20 years thank you Alfred for the revive and everyone else involved in this beautiful old timey internet forum, what a gift
― Florin Cuchares, Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:43 (one year ago) link
jammin' the north star this afternoon for the first time in a long while. big sigh. so good. absolutely nothing even resembling a surprise happens.
and yet.
ps- is faux boy band north star-era roddy your favorite? https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000087094007-tmec67-t500x500.jpgbecause it's mine.
― judging the world through jaundiced eyes (Austin), Sunday, 25 December 2022 23:25 (one year ago) link
Dave Mustaine, recently:
... there’s a guy named Roddy Frame who is the singer for a band called Aztec Camera, and most metal people would call me a pussy if they heard Aztec Camera, but it’s a great band with beautiful songwriting. That’s where I turn to when I want to learn something. I’ll go to people who are exceptional in their field. And Roddy Frame writes for a lot of people. When somebody has unlocked the secret of songwriting, for me, I want to maybe not pick their brain, but at least observe.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 1 October 2023 16:31 (eleven months ago) link
and then there's me who actively got called a pussy for liking aztec camera.
but yeah, spot on dave. roddy's clearly great, sure. lol @ "exceptional in their field." ya think ol'davo thinks of himself accordingly?
― the adventures of Yari and ixa. (Austin), Sunday, 1 October 2023 20:15 (eleven months ago) link
lol
I'm not a pussy ok! I'm just observing exceptional people in their field! I'll kick your ass! MEGADETH
― Florin Cuchares, Sunday, 1 October 2023 23:24 (eleven months ago) link
was looking for youtube covers to help me figure out how to play some of the tunes from Surf, found the video below which is not exactly helpful because it's all arranged for piano but is great none the less, pandemic-era living room set of Roddy songs, very interesting to hear on a piano
I guess in the end I have to agree with Dave Mustaine, I don't know that Dave has unlocked the secret of songwriting but if anyone has it's probably Roddy Frame
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0MuJIKBTGQ
― Florin Cuchares, Tuesday, 3 October 2023 06:45 (eleven months ago) link
Some things bear repeating: how does a 17yr old write a song like 'We Could Send Letters'?
― brimstead, Thursday, 8 February 2024 19:40 (seven months ago) link
dreamland thoughts...
suspend disbelief, close your eyes, and press play on "vertigo" with the thought that it's roddy, sakamoto, jam+lewis.
i mean... "vertigo" up to classic camera status for me anyway. it's roddy doing city pop!
― interstellar anthropologist+music philosopher, (Austin), Sunday, 7 April 2024 19:01 (five months ago) link
OMG Roddy Frame turned 60 this year, how is that even possible?
― Hunky Tory (Tom D.), Sunday, 7 April 2024 19:27 (five months ago) link
that's clark kent for you, man. idk how he does it either. (winkwink)
― interstellar anthropologist+music philosopher, (Austin), Sunday, 7 April 2024 19:29 (five months ago) link
so my daughter, for some reason, has become really into Aztec Camera...trying to think of other bands/artists in that vein to recommend - maybe Orange Juice?
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 11 July 2024 17:20 (two months ago) link
Prefab Sprout
― Bernard Quidbins (NickB), Thursday, 11 July 2024 17:40 (two months ago) link
especially Steve McQueen aka Two Wheels Good
― Bernard Quidbins (NickB), Thursday, 11 July 2024 17:41 (two months ago) link
trash can sinatras second album
― brimstead, Thursday, 11 July 2024 18:13 (two months ago) link
yep I second Steve McQueen
xp it’s called “I’ve seen everything”
― brimstead, Thursday, 11 July 2024 18:15 (two months ago) link
awesome thanks!
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 11 July 2024 18:33 (two months ago) link
Crowded house, temple of low menLloyd Cole, rattlesnakes
Robyn Hitchcock, woodentops, go-betweens, and c86 bands
Trash can Sinatras is a great shout but maybe not aor enough... the singer's sister's first record with fairground attraction might be closer to the young idealistic yuppie vibe i get from aztec camera
I feel like orange juice are a bit weird compared to aztec camera.
― mig (guess that dreams always end), Thursday, 11 July 2024 19:57 (two months ago) link
The Pale Fountains
― fetter, Thursday, 11 July 2024 20:10 (two months ago) link