PRAM

They managed to get a fantastic groove going despite the softness, the free flowing rhythms and odd time signitures of their tracks. Loved the ironing boards which I vaguely remember from watching them live at a festival years ago, If they are half as good on record as that gig they are very underated, hard to believe they've been going for ten years and I've let them pass me by. Catch them live if they're still on tour.

They got thrown off the Pulp tour the very day after the gig, apparently for "being shit" but that doesn't sound like Pulp to me. Any ideas?

Anyway. TSASB,TEISS(SAYA)=classic.

Has anyone heard "The Moving Frontier" yet? It's so nice that Pram finally has a new album coming out.

They are putting out a new record? Excellent! I thought they had disappeared. I need to hear their last two actually...

jergin plz sned the guess papers english / math i have a quiez on that

-- pram, Tuesday, May 9, 2006 11:16 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

I downloaded the new one and it's about what you expect -- children's lullabies gone wrong, meandering, spooky atmospherics. Sounds less structured, more like a soundtrack than collection of songs, at least on first listen.

I thought I saw a Too Pure thread where people were talking about their old Long Fin Killie and Jack albums.

they are playing in leeds next week (or this week) with my friend matt opening (randomNumber); someone go and tell me how it goes. hoping they make it to the US again.

listening to The Stars Are So Big, The Earth Is So Small... Stay As You Are...

i'm surprised at how little pram talk there was! maybe there is more on those 'lost generation' threads?

this is right up my alley...sounds very much along the lines the moonshake songs w/the girl singing except that the mood is lighter and more whimsical (still kinda dark though).

i think i'll try gash and helium next.

i actually get what dave q is saying on this pram vs broadcast thread:

Pram makes the walls spin around really slow, and I have to go and lie down, it's a hot summer day and I'm age 7 and I have just eaten 16 scoops of pistachio. Because I had this idea that picking the flavour with the longest name would make me seem more sophisticated among my peer group. Good job I liked it, and this isn't an entirely unpleasant sickness, because it means I can go and lie down in the quiet room away from all of their silly banter, but they won't think I'm a wet or a sissy because they saw me eat all the ice cream. It's like a 'Rug Rats' version of 'Cool Hand Luke'

-- dave q, Saturday, January 12, 2002 1:00 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark Link

sorta

Been flipping through the first few eps and lps this afternoon -- still love them. It's hard to understand why they were lumped in with Stereolab so much at them time, besides the obvious (same label, female singer, uh...keyboards?) -- clearly going for something very different. And listening now, you can't really say that it sounds of it's time -- this music could have been from the last few years, the early 80s, who knows... It'll never happen, but I wish they'd come back to the US at some point...

Classic! Once made a 2 disc of all my favourite Pram tracks ever - amazing discography.

I picked up a lot of their cds cheaply in sales etc.
Used to really like them, need to stick them on again.
Think I came across them as one track on a compi Robots, Monsters and Spacemen or something and then picked things up from there.

Was odd to suddenly hear Country Joe intoning the phrase The Earth is so large ....... Etc on one track on Fixing To Die. Is that the source of the title or is it Blake or something?

Cj song is called Magoo btw. & the phrase The Stars Are So big ..... is the chorus.

Way too underrated and worth bumping just to say that

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

OTM. Love that record.

"Pram reconvened in 2017 minus founder member and singer Rosie Cuckston, who'd left to concentrate on writing and academia. Now working as an instrumental project with an increased interest in film and site-specific work, the band performed at the Imaginary Musics festival in Switzerland in May 2017 (playing an audio-visual "music for Kopfkino" set). Pram also scheduled a combined sound-art installation and concert ('Under the Blossom That Hangs On The Bough') in Birmingham's Martineau Gardens as part of the for-Wards project and festival for June 2017."

??

Pram without Rosie is not Pram at all

yeah...

I really wish I hadn't looked at her twitter account to see if she'd mentioned anything about it.

oh yikes

this band remains criminally underrated

Holy fucking shit no.

(xpost about RC's twitter account, agree about the underratedness of the band)

welp, I guess this means we can look forward to a Kate Bush/Rosie Cuckston collab at some point in the next ten years

yeah their whole catalog is one of the best

I'm confused
The only Rosie cuckston Twitter I can find is someone who hasn't tweeted since June

yeah i can't find the twitter either

yeah, she's the one who hasn't tweeted since June. people itt are displeased by her political leanings, not by anything she's said about the band

Thanks for clearing that up. I was starting to wonder if "Rosie Cuckston" was the most common name in Birmingham or something.

I really wish I hadn't looked at her twitter account to see if she'd mentioned anything about it.

― erry red flag (f. hazel), maandag 4 september 2017 19:25 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

:-/

she's had a few articles published in spiked fyi eg:

http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/keeping_abreast_of_liberal_hypocrisy/13975#.Wa5vlMaQzcs

*immediately feels gross for linking to spiked*

That sucks. I don't like when things like that happen to the mind of someone who has been such a kindred presence.

Pram (with Rosie) had a plane of their own, and they were the absolute rulers of it. If there must be a Pram without her, I do think instrumental/film scoring is the approach most likely to be worthwhile.

ps Chrysalis is one of the best songs ever recorded

never tweet your heroes

truth

"Dark Island" became a great favourite of mine a few years ago, a strong Broadcast influence evident throughout but completely it's own thing.

Spiked? For fuck's sake, Rosie. Why did it have to be that coven of wankers?

she wasn't very nice the one time I met her (which was in 2002) so I'm not incredibly surprised. Still like the music

New Pram.
http://www.treblezine.com/pram-new-album-across-the-meridian-announced/

Oh fuck

Pram fill the crater sized hole left by trish Keenan’s death

So are they all instrumental now?

No Rosie no cred tho

pram were more piano magic than broadcast but they all fit in the same continuum

Listened to North Pole radio station this evening because thread

Excellent record. Pram also have stunning diver set for their records

My single favorite pram song is on the Meshes EP - “Chrysalis”

new record is so good <3

^this

Saw them live for the first time last night. Fascinating. Can't think of anyone who constructs a four minute song in the same way they do.

very glad to hear that maura!

listening on youtube, there are vocals on 'electra' and 'shadow of twilight' so if it's not rosie then who is it that is singing? it sounds like rosie. maybe i am listening to the wrong thing. amazing that the horn player has never improved. is it still mr verdigris horn? maybe a bit like what bits of a plone album would sound like now on the instrumentals, but then they've always shared some similarities. i must admit that i am not as familiar with song titles on the domino releases. maybe i've heard all of these before? and me once saying they were my favorite band. they are still my favorite band to blast in the car with the windows down.

goes a bit smooth jazz in places(ladder to the moon), hmmm...but next one is better, old timey jazz. why isn't there a filmmaker making movies designed to use pram songs as the soundtrack? the video someone made for the single??? is great, maybe they've got an entire movie in them.

sam owen plays bass and sings

Current line-up:
Sam(antha) Owen - vocals, flute, clarinet, soprano saxophone, accordion, keyboards, bass
Matt Eaton - guitar, sampler
Max Simpson - keyboards/synth, sampler, melodica
Harry Dawes - trombone, theremin, stylophone
plus there's an excellent female drummer playing with them live atm

stuart maconie had a chat with sam and max on the freak zone a couple of weeks ago

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b91w1t (starts about 49 minutes in, available for 10 more days)

i have made a 2 disc pram mix that i can put online when life is normal again, but it compiles everything from their eps to lps

Oh please do ross

will do jon

anyone care to elaborate on whether there is vocals on this at all

or is it all instrumental

jeff w says above there are vocals

what are the vocals like

screamo

(dunno, just started listening to the album right now)

yes there are vocals on the second track so far, and they sound like creepy little girl vocals so it's not miles away from what we had before.

this is a good pram album

This is very good. Their best since museum of imaginary animals. Functions perfectly as background music or focused listening - little bit mars attacks in vibe. The new singer sounds eerily like Rosie too. Also a little like she was grafted from wicker man.

keyth - pram has soundtracked cartoons! but man they need a break, could totally imagine the old timey jazz song in a hollywood flick gun scene

jeff, can you confirm that sam sang at the show

did she sing older material as well

i find it hard to believe that is not rosie on this record, i know i know..but it is uncanny.

Ross - yes, she did. As I said on your albums poll thread I don't know their catalogue well, so I don't really know what older material was played. Here's a review I found in case it helps:
http://freq.org.uk/reviews/pram-rodney-cromwell-live-at-the-lexington/

I have a favor to ask. If it should be announced somewhere that they are playing any US dates, could someone say something on this thread? I am way way out of the loop with knowing about that kind of thing and i would not want to miss it if they did.

Yes same here xpost

Hey Jeff thanks. Judging by that review they mostly played the. We one and the last, moving frontier (few tracks). Hope that changes but can’t blame them for moving forward

New one ***

i'd be surprised if they played the US unless something weird happened and this album got loads of attention. Their last planned tour about 10 years ago (maybe more) got cancelled. Things haven't gotten any easier either.

Yeah otm

They’re the definition of niche. Never achieved the success of broadcast or stereolab. Opened for pulp and played with phone, can’t imagine it rippled any waves

Plone

THere's a live set from Birmingham o the 20th of July circulating. Haven't listened to it yet. Am just listening to the new lp.

Where can it be heard

Dimeadozen

New pram is classic as fuck

Agreed

My man

Love your thoughts on it in the other thread

I don't know why I didn't listen to them much before, they are pretty much exactly my kind of thing

Big love ❤️

Picked the new album up on a whim a couple of weeks ago, just listening now and it's great. Sixties jazz/spy movie vibes, sounds great. Will need to work backwards, I have 'The Moving Frontier' but don't recall enjoying it anywhere near as much.

just get the 'iron lung' ep and 'the stars are so big...' 'imaginary animals' is alright, too!

And the meshes ep

Did it ever get mentioned that Rosie Cuckston stood as a Brexit Party candidate in the 2019 General Election?

https://members.parliament.uk/constituency/3327/election/397

...and lost badly (hurrah!)

She's in Reform UK now, so I wouldn't be surprised if she stood again in the upcoming GE.

there was definitely mention of her right-wing politics somewhere on her, no idea which thread

*here

years ago I happened to look at her Twitter to see if she'd made any comments about leaving Pram and was appalled by the political content, as somewhat chronicled in this thread

oh now i see it was in this thread in 2017, so long ago

Yes, but actually standing as a parliamentary candidate for the Brexit Party (ffs) wasn't.