actually I think "friends don't waste wine when there's words to sell" is a solid line.
― Simon H., Thursday, 20 August 2009 04:39 (fifteen years ago) link
This is a good record. They're kind of a fun band to tool on, but they'll have a killer greatest hits record by the time they're done.
Obstacle 1
― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 20 August 2009 04:43 (fifteen years ago) link
2nd album still much, much better than this one
wait, what. was just gonna say "Evil" craps over everything here, shame about the rest of the album.
― ledge, Thursday, 20 August 2009 18:07 (fifteen years ago) link
would you care about the lyrics if they weren't delivered so ponderously?
"I know you've supported me for a long time, somehow I'm not impressed" would be a classic Malkmus line.
― ledge, Thursday, 20 August 2009 18:08 (fifteen years ago) link
it's a good line.
― I love rainbow cookies (surm), Thursday, 20 August 2009 18:09 (fifteen years ago) link
I don't know if it's right but I suspected from the start that Banks wrote the lyrics really quickly as placeholders and then the producer was like "fuck it, 9/11" and they just put it out as is.
― afternoon "delight" (Euler), Thursday, 20 August 2009 18:20 (fifteen years ago) link
Antics is such a different record, and just as good.
j0hn D and kshighway tag teamin the challops
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Thursday, 20 August 2009 18:52 (fifteen years ago) link
i really like the cover, and I read a thing with peter saville once where he said he liked it and it reminded him of something he would do and that he liked that it was sortof gallery catalogue literate and jokey in that way even as it was kinda pretentious, all of which I agree with. Also a pretty good representation of the album's sound somehow.
― ❊❁❄❆❇❃✴❈plaxico❈✴❃❇❆❄❁❊ (I know, right?), Thursday, 20 August 2009 18:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Undecided between Untitled and PDA after listening to it again. Does remind me a lot of just moving to London and a girl I was seeing back then, but mainly in a good way. Love the bass-playing on this record.
― j.o.n.a, Thursday, 20 August 2009 19:55 (fifteen years ago) link
finally had a chance to re-listen to this today. it really starts off strong but then it slows down. it ends with a few great moments. i really wanted to hate this today but couldn't.
voting for "The New" because a girl i was seeing at the time sent me the lyrics to that song when we were starting to have some problems. so i'm sure that will be the only vote for that song but it was real personal at the time. i forgot all about that incident until just an hour ago...
― Bee OK, Friday, 21 August 2009 23:55 (fifteen years ago) link
2nd album still much, much better than this oneAntics is such a different record, and just as good.j0hn D and kshighway tag teamin the challops― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Thursday, August 20, 2009 1:52 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Thursday, August 20, 2009 1:52 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
It's seems like no one ever talks about Antics, and it's seriously just as good as Turn on the Bright Lights.
I remember being esp. blown away by "Next Exit" because it was so fucking upbeat. And there's much more organ/weird guitar stuff going on there.
― Reading his posts is like watching The Ring (kshighway), Saturday, 22 August 2009 00:50 (fifteen years ago) link
Of course, the record doesn't stay upbeat. "Public Pervert," "Take You on a Cruise," even fucking "A Time To Be So Small" are pretty dark. But dark in different way than the songs from their first record.
It's difficult to describe.
― Reading his posts is like watching The Ring (kshighway), Saturday, 22 August 2009 00:52 (fifteen years ago) link
And I really hope Interpol is better live than watching YouTube videos has led me to believe. Talk about a dropoff in quality from record to video. Yikes, it's bad.
This, for example, is awful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipsW5YSAqr8
― Reading his posts is like watching The Ring (kshighway), Saturday, 22 August 2009 00:53 (fifteen years ago) link
at the time that i saw them they were known for playing flawlessly. perfect mood, perfect atmosphere. i can see how some may have thought it was boring, but i loved it. the first show was by far the best for me, though. i just didn't dig Antics, they just sort of lost the vibe that i loved about Turn On the Bright Lights. i wanted to love Antics, i listened to it a lot at the time, but i knew immediately when i heard it that they weren't going in a direction i wasn't into.
i'm still undecided on this poll, its a toss up between untitled and hands away
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Saturday, 22 August 2009 01:48 (fifteen years ago) link
that they *were* going in a direction i wasn't into
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Saturday, 22 August 2009 01:49 (fifteen years ago) link
I kinda hate these guys while still acknowledging the odd excellent track ("Evil," "Obstacle 1"). My Stylus review of the third album still gets me hate mail.
― post-contrarian meta-challop 2009 (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 22 August 2009 02:29 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Saturday, 22 August 2009 23:01 (fifteen years ago) link
let's see about this ham
― piscesx, Sunday, 23 August 2009 13:55 (fifteen years ago) link
I blame NYC for making me initially overrate this band. It made me think Paul Banks was being deliberately mysterious and opaque, until subsequent albums confirmed that he's just a shitty lyricist. The one track I like off Antics, Next Exit, has a similar effect - that night-drive-through-the-city feel.
― Dorian (Dorianlynskey), Sunday, 23 August 2009 14:31 (fifteen years ago) link
I like the line "her stories are boring and stuff." I'm probably the only one.
― billstevejim, Sunday, 23 August 2009 16:00 (fifteen years ago) link
Nope
― young depardieu looming out of void in hour of profound triumph (Le Bateau Ivre), Sunday, 23 August 2009 16:02 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Sunday, 23 August 2009 23:01 (fifteen years ago) link
121110876
― Paul in Santa Cruz, Monday, 24 August 2009 01:03 (fifteen years ago) link
clearly i need to relisted to leif erickson
― internetkonnektivität (electricsound), Monday, 24 August 2009 01:10 (fifteen years ago) link
relisten probably
this is one of those albums that always makes me really sad. maybe b/c it was such a college album, and it puts me right back on campus. maybe because of his voice. maybe both.
― I love rainbow cookies (surm), Monday, 24 August 2009 01:18 (fifteen years ago) link
poll distribution actually more or less reflects my feelings abt this album.
― call all destroyer, Monday, 24 August 2009 01:32 (fifteen years ago) link
i didn't vote but i would have voted for The New or Lief E
― jed_, Monday, 24 August 2009 01:34 (fifteen years ago) link
i still listen to this album a fair bit
― jed_, Monday, 24 August 2009 01:35 (fifteen years ago) link
http://twitter.com/zizekspeaks/status/5484005532
― kshighway1, Wednesday, 11 November 2009 23:59 (fourteen years ago) link
a hero over at the Interpol reddit has leaked a bunch of outtakes & alternate mixes from the TOTBL sessions, including new unheard versions of "Gavilan"/"Cubed" and "Precipitate" (!!). he also put up a rough mix of the album that has a totally different sequence and doesn't have "Untitled." CHECK IT OUT https://www.reddit.com/user/G_Dub22/submitted/
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 16:31 (seven years ago) link
the rough mix of the album is really cool- guitars on "PDA" have much more bite. not nearly as much reverb as on the finished LP
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 16:34 (seven years ago) link
This is great.
― Handsome Bookor, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 19:31 (seven years ago) link
wow fuck..
― piscesx, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 21:17 (seven years ago) link
the last 30 seconds of this alt Obstacle 1 are way better than the finished mix. those tracked vocals! wonder why they changed it.
― piscesx, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 21:23 (seven years ago) link
i wonder why they left off the completed versions of Precipitate and Gavilan off the reissue. they even put a shitty Gavilan demo on there.
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 22:03 (seven years ago) link
just for posterity's sake, this what TOTBL almost looked like:
1. Say Hello to the Angels2. NYC3. Obstacle 14. Precipitate5. Obstacle 26. Hands Away 7. PDA8. Specialist9. Leif Erikson10. Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down 11. The New12. Gavilan13. Interlude14. Roland
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 22:07 (seven years ago) link
flappy thank you so much! check the post that says "Shared the Whole Folder".
i used to listen to this album all the time back in the day. it was perfect for rainy days spent bopping around town going to thrift stores and eating at Indian restaurants.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 30 March 2017 14:50 (seven years ago) link
that poster shared a story about hanging out with the band circa 2005, this bit is so funny to me:
Paul had this vintage leather jacket on. The inner lining of the jacket had this paisley pattern which could obviously only have been seen if you could see the inside of his jacket. But he liked this pattern so much that he had cut a huge portion out of the section below the back of his neck, safety pinned it and folded it over, just so everyone could see the pattern on the inside of the jacket. This was the very first time that I was not impressed by his fashion sensibilities.Later on, Paul attempted to tune an acoustic guitar to Carlos playing notes on a piano. Carlos would tell him what string he was trying to tune and play the note on the piano for him. Paul was having a hard time with this. Carlos kept telling him "You're making my ears bleed!" and generally made fun of him for not being able to tune a guitar to a piano, and it never got resolved. I was hoping for a magical music moment but it never happened.
― flappy bird, Thursday, 30 March 2017 17:35 (seven years ago) link
haha.
i still really like this first album, as stupid and terrible as all the lyrics are. they were kind of on to something. I wish they'd gotten better at that.
― akm, Thursday, 30 March 2017 18:23 (seven years ago) link
Thanks Flappy!
I saw them in Amsterdam during their very first tour abroad. They just played TOTBL, start to finish. It was fantastic. Still one of the best concerts I've seen tbh.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, 30 March 2017 18:52 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz7AhhTTpxY
quite nice
― piscesx, Thursday, 18 May 2017 02:30 (seven years ago) link
Hey, my best friend's a butcher, he has sixteen knivesHe carries them all over the town at least he tries—oh look, it stopped snowingMy best friend's from Poland and, oh, he has a beardBut they caught him with his case in a public place, that is what we had feared
― Karl Malone, Thursday, 18 May 2017 02:49 (seven years ago) link
Leif Erikson is still one of the most beguiling songs I've ever heard. What a way to end a record. I loved Rob Sheffield's quote in the new NYC oral history Meet Me in the Bathroom - something like "I mean, to have your big debut record open with a song called 'Untitled' - the balls on these guys!"
― flappy bird, Monday, 3 July 2017 06:14 (seven years ago) link
going to see them perform this album live in september , should be interesting .
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 16:06 (seven years ago) link
Could be a thread of its own, but has this always been a thing? Performing an old album in its entirety 20 or 30 years down the line? Always thought that was a band saying: we basically have given up on thinking we'll ever make anything nearly as good ever again.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 16:10 (seven years ago) link
i think it started at ATP or Pitchfork Fest about a decade ago
― rock and roll tucci coo (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 16:30 (seven years ago) link
yup
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 16:32 (seven years ago) link
Classic or dud: Bands that go on tour playing an old album in its entirety decades down the line
― Le Bateau Ivre, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 16:54 (seven years ago) link
I didn't get to see Interpol live until 2011, and by that point, I guess they realized that they were pretty much only beloved for their first two records, and the setlist reflected that. i loved it as a fan, but i lost a lot of respect for them... it's just such a transparent move that says that the band has no confidence in their new material (and i think the third and fourth records are half good, the fifth one fucking blew).
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 17:04 (seven years ago) link