The Monochrome Set - no thread???

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I have to notice in about every second year, that they were absolutely classic. How come that no one made a thread for them?

― zeus, Monday, 12 March 2007 13:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, see, I think they had a couple of classic records, but were otherwise hit-or-miss. Then they did the whole ill-conceived reunion and I have no idea what they sound like now. "Eligible Bachelors" and "Volume Contrast and Brilliance" are both fantastic records. Easily some of the best songs of the era, especially the one about Goya. Probably one of the best examples of clever lyrics and catchy guitar hooks of the era.

― William Selman, Monday, 12 March 2007 14:30 (seventeen years ago) link

everything up to and including the live album from 86 is classic. and i also love Bid's first solo single. i am completely non-critical in a way though. they are simply one of my fave bands ever. definitely in my top ten of 80's bands. sadly, i never bought any of the 90's stuff. maybe i was scared to? i would say search everything up to and including The Lost Weekend. I started playing their records around 84/85 and i never stopped. only felt are more beloved by me as far as 60's-inspired jangle debutantes are concerned.

― scott seward, Monday, 12 March 2007 14:45 (seventeen years ago) link

"Strange Boutique" is a great album too, and the earlier singles (He's Frank, Eine Symphonie Des Grauens) are huge classics. It's a shame that there's not a single mention about this band in Simon Reynolds' Postpunk bible.

― zeus, Monday, 12 March 2007 15:16 (seventeen years ago) link

I have a greatest hits and the first album and they're choice. I think maybe they just suffer a bit from being so wrongly categorized? They're always mentioned as a Post Punk band, which they are in a way, but they hardly have what ppl have come to expect from that genre - doom 'n' gloom, Punk-Funk. Were they strictly a part of the New Pop thing? I'm guessing no, but it'd still be a more appropriate tag, I think.

― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 12 March 2007 15:45 (seventeen years ago) link

THE Monochrome Set, Monochrome Set, Monochrome Se-e-e-et, THE the Monochrome Set, Monochrome Set, Monochrome Set...

hmm, I love Strange Boutique to bits, but I would never have expected Bid & co. to feature in Rip It Up and Start Again. They were just a fun indie pop band.

― Jeff W, Monday, 12 March 2007 15:45 (seventeen years ago) link

only felt are more beloved by me as far as 60's-inspired jangle debutantes are concerned.

Me too. I'm much more of a Felt fan. I guess I just think they did jangle better, although the Monochrome Set did vocal/lyrics better. The early Felt songs are hilariously florid/pretentious on the vocal/lyrics end. However, by the time of the switch Creation, they improved to the point where Lawrence is mocking his earlier efforts.

― William Selman, Monday, 12 March 2007 15:54 (seventeen years ago) link

I was a latecomer to their punk cabaret style but immediately recognized a winner when I heard it. I concur: search everything through _The Lost Weekend_ (which I had to order from Japan a few years back, not sure of it's current availability). _Strange Boutique_ & _Love Zombies_ are available on a two-fer called _Tomorrow Will Be Too Long_. _Volume, Contrast, Brilliance_ is a great collection of sessions, singles and side projects (including Bid's wonderful first single) BUT the Japanese version has an additional 9 tracks. And they still need a comprehensive non-LP comp.

― Mr. Odd, Monday, 12 March 2007 15:54 (seventeen years ago) link

they need a boxed-set!

― scott seward, Monday, 12 March 2007 15:57 (seventeen years ago) link

i think monochrome set are SERIOUSLY underrated - if they are rated at all - as musicians! the music is amazing. as is the playing. i think bid's cleverness might obscure that fact for some people? those amazing instrumentals. man, i could swoon over them all day. ( no fair that the smiths get all the ink, by gum.)

― scott seward, Monday, 12 March 2007 16:01 (seventeen years ago) link

Monochrome Set are one of my favorites. I suppose they're postpunk in that Cherry Red sense or in the Postcard sense, sort of situated between postpunk & the dawn of New Pop? I just always saw them as a "jangly" band à la early Orange Juice, Five or Six c. "Portrait," the Lines, Felt even, among others, & in the US, perhaps the DB's & R.E.M. c. Chronic Town--all of these showing strong Byrds/folk-rock influence but in a postpunk/new wave context. MS maybe sound more postpunk on the earlier singles? But really Monochrome Set are their own beast...they're like pop stars from another dimension.

Anyway, they are amazing musicians, & "too clever by half" is a criticism I've heard by those who like other stuff in the same spirt. But Bid's lyrics are awesome. "Volume Contrast Brilliance" is pretty much perfect, esp. the CD version with the 2 singles from 1986 tacked on. The kind of rawer, Peel Session/single-stuff there I tend to prefer,the first three albums are pretty great too, I ultimately prefer the first one (with that amazing--"The Monochrome Set" into "The Lighter Side of Dating," but only by a hair. 7" version of "The Monochrome Set" also very much worth it--& that one's pretty postpunk. I have the "Jacob's Ladder" single, but not that familiar with "The Lost Weekend." Any thoughts on that, or the stuff from the 90s?

"Fallout," b-side to Adam & the Ants' "Antmusic," was written by Lester Square & as such is kind of a leftover of the Ants-era Monochrome Set & fun. There is a video of Adam & the Ants doing "Fat Fun" (on youtube?), it's hot. There are certainly a few songs on "Kings of the Wild Frontier" that sound a lot like Monochrome Set.

They are underrated, btw. I saw Bid & pickup band play to a pretty skimpy crowd at the Knitting Factory, was it last year? & I don't always go in for these comeback things but it made my night, esp. because those songs sound so hard to pull off live (see their live album). "Martians Go Home" actually sounded better than I've ever heard it. plus he is our first South Asian new wave icon.

― ryanch, Monday, 12 March 2007 16:50 (seventeen years ago) link

oh right about that Smiths thing too. they're a definite precursor.

― ryanch, Monday, 12 March 2007 16:52 (seventeen years ago) link

"but not that familiar with "The Lost Weekend."

it's great. very quirky, kinda all over the place, but very ambitious. the upbeat stuff like jacob's ladder might be TO upbeat for some people, but i love it. and starry nowhere is one of the great swoon croons of the 80's.

"plus he is our first South Asian new wave icon."

always loved that interview excerpt that i can only paraphrase cuz i haven't heard it in a million years but something along the lines of:

"is it true that you are descended from Indian princes?"

"kings, actually."

― scott seward, Monday, 12 March 2007 17:05 (seventeen years ago) link

"TOO" upbeat, even. okay, i am digging out all MS vinyl i own right about now.

― scott seward, Monday, 12 March 2007 17:06 (seventeen years ago) link

The Knitting Factory show backed up by members of various local power-pop outfits put together by Shirley from New York Noise was great fun. Bid's still playing as Scarlett's Well, they have a bunch of albums and seem to have gone even more twee and fey but the sounds I've heard are pretty good. A lot of great stuff on the albums and the b-sides but the best stuff are the singles, and the Peel Session versions of some of the early album songs, which is why I listen to Volume Contrast and Brilliance more then Eligible Bachelors and Love Zombies...though it's also because I have the former on CD and the latter on vinyl.

It is a crime they've gone in and out of print and been represented by like 16 different comps.

search: 1978 Adam and the Ants live bootleg where they play Fat Fun.

― dan selzer, Monday, 12 March 2007 17:13 (seventeen years ago) link

here it is:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/aw1ao1

― dan selzer, Monday, 12 March 2007 17:16 (seventeen years ago) link

"oh right about that Smiths thing too. they're a definite precursor.
ryanch on Monday, 12 March 2007 16:52 (1 hour ago)"

Yes, it was always my feeling that Morrissey listened them a lot, especially his singing ("Don't Touch" on the album "Lost Weekend" is like a lost Smiths song for example). And later I read some letters Morrissey wrote in his early twenties, in which he praised the Monochrome Set.

― zeus, Monday, 12 March 2007 18:37 (seventeen years ago) link

"I would never have expected Bid & co. to feature in Rip It Up and Start Again. They were just a fun indie pop band.

Jeff W"

But they were not very different from Orange Juice, who got a hall chapter in the book.

― zeus, Monday, 12 March 2007 18:46 (seventeen years ago) link

they should be a big part of Simons book, come to think of it! Considering their relationship to Adam and the Ants during the birth of london punk, their early involvement with Rough Trade, their merging of the punk and the twee. They were also more aggressive and bizarre then just a fun indie pop band, I'd think.

― dan selzer, Monday, 12 March 2007 18:52 (seventeen years ago) link

It is a crime they've gone in and out of print and been represented by like 16 different comps.

I remember it was impossible to find their music for ages. Some of it is on Emusic.

― William Selman, Monday, 12 March 2007 18:56 (seventeen years ago) link

"They were also more aggressive and bizarre then just a fun indie pop band, I'd think."

seriously.

― scott seward, Monday, 12 March 2007 19:03 (seventeen years ago) link

My idea of "fun" extends to the bizarre.

zeus, I wouldn't necessarily defend OJ's presentation in RIUASA either! (in fact the wheels come right off in the New Pop half of the book) But The Monochrome Set were (thankfully) nothing at all like OJ.

― Jeff W, Monday, 12 March 2007 20:01 (seventeen years ago) link

"Eine Symphonie Des Grauens" has one of the greatest classical music style fake-out beginnings, ever. "He's Frank (slight return)" always blows me away, too.

Glad to see Five or Six get a mention here. I only have an EP by them and am always looking for more but never find it -- also it's hard to search for them on the internets with a name like that...

― Mike McGooney-gal, Monday, 12 March 2007 20:16 (seventeen years ago) link

[i]Glad to see Five or Six get a mention here. I only have an EP by them and am always looking for more but never find it -- also it's hard to search for them on the internets with a name like that...[\i]

Dan Selzer to thread...I'm sure has more Five or Six records than I do. But I love how they did this amazing jangly pop song & then these dark experimental kind of soundscapes...

― ryanch, Monday, 12 March 2007 20:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Is it true, that "Eine Symphonie Des Grauens" was no. 1 in Bolivia? I don't even think there is a proper pop chart in Bolivia.

― zeus, Monday, 12 March 2007 20:38 (seventeen years ago) link

Speaking of Eine Symphonie des Grauens, here's a gem from youtube.
"1979 Minneapolis concert"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrGe6n7T7DA

The raw distressed audio is awesome.

― DeeDee, Monday, 12 March 2007 20:46 (seventeen years ago) link

HUGE crush on bid :D

― bell_labs, Monday, 12 March 2007 20:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I posted this in the Post-Punk Youtube thread, awesome. Also the video of 'Jet Set Junta':
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hpyhQK_3AdU

― zeus, Monday, 12 March 2007 20:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Great to see some love for the Monochrome Set. I've never ever thought of them as being in the least twee. Their lyrics are just too nasty and twisted. Bid may sing like an angel, but the words are channeled from a very dark place. His solo single on El is another all-time favorite.

― leavethecapital, Monday, 12 March 2007 21:07 (seventeen years ago) link

There may not have been a thread specifically dedicated to them before, but there's been plenty of discussion about them here over the years. Great band.

― Stewart Osborne, Monday, 12 March 2007 22:04 (seventeen years ago) link

I guess most MS fans probably know this, but Lida Husik did a very nice (though not very different) cover of Eine Symphonie on her Joyride album.

― dlp9001, Monday, 12 March 2007 22:57 (seventeen years ago) link

Yep, excellent comments on an excellent band. I agree with the point about their lyrics being fantastically sinister beneath the splendid, joyous arrangements.

There may be a singles comp coming out soon. And I hear Five Or Six might finally get a CD release.

― Oggy, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 02:00 (seventeen years ago) link

i think that was why i might have taken issue with Jeff W's description of MS as a "fun indie pop band". they WERE fun and plenty poppy, but the lyrics and ambition behind their arrangements and playing...okay, now i guess i'm officially a rockist. i guess it's more a case of people taking them too lightly. i feel that way about a lot of bands, i guess. the buzzcocks for example. too me, the buzzcocks were a profoundly great rock band, one of the best of the 70's in any genre, to a lot of other people they are remembered as catchy pop-punkers with a knack for a tune. (and that's why i mumble about the smiths getting all the ink. or in the case of the buzzcocks, the clash...)

― scott seward, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 02:51 (seventeen years ago) link

I hear you on the Buzzcocks, my friend. And you've inspired me to dig out the Monochrome Set comp I have (once this Satisfact album finishes).

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 02:54 (seventeen years ago) link

or maybe i just haven't read all the stuff that takes the buzzcocks as seriously as the clash or even wire or somebody. i don't get around that much.

― scott seward, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 02:54 (seventeen years ago) link

excuse the aside, but for Mike...far as I know about Five or Six, there's the Another Reason/the Trial 7", which is best known because Another Reason follows Eine Symphonie on Pillows and Prayers. The Trial later ended up on one of the Cherry Red Seeds volumes. I later found an LP that was nothing like those tracks at all, really long meandering soundscapy kinds of songs, including one really beautiful and repetitive piece. Being somebody uniquely concerned with the reissuing of post-punk obscurios, please tell me about this CD!

I think with the Buzzcocks its because all most people have/know is Singles Going Steady.

― dan selzer, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 03:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Which is nice but not enough.

Anyway, am listening to my copy of the McNay compiled best-of aka Compendium for the first time in a long while. Good stuff, this.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 03:35 (seventeen years ago) link

And I do like this from the official web page:

There are no plans to continue The Monochrome Set, but we might just be tricking you into a false sense of security.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 03:39 (seventeen years ago) link

one of the first CDs i ever heard in my life was the twofer of strange boutique/love zombies. sounded great! my dad bought me a cd boombox when i graduated from high school. my brother worked at a record town at the mall and he let me run rampant. i got that and a bunch of other stuff including the colour of spring. i had already heard and owned the MS and TT albums, but i figured CDs were the future and both those CDs sounded awesome. Boy was i sad when nearly everything i bought after that sounded way less cool.

― scott seward, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 03:43 (seventeen years ago) link

sadly, i never bought any of the 90's stuff. maybe i was scared to?

the 90's stuff is very good! especially dante's casino. search mindfield, bella morte, golden waters, up, white lightning, achilles, milk and honey, bliss, flamen dialis, etc. there's a 2CD comp called "chaps" and the second disc has a great selection of tracks from the 90's albums.

i wouldn't call them twee because they're just too good at playing their instruments! listen to the guitar lines in milk and honey for example, just so achingly beautiful. they remind me of moose, their melodies just break your heart.

don't miss scarlet's well, either, their first three albums are just amazing. there was a thread about them just before the ILX upgrade.

― f. hazel, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 06:08 (seventeen years ago) link

I can't understand how it would even be in question that they were part of post punk, without even that first single on rough trade (He's Frank / Alphaville ) half the pages in rip it up and start again would be blank.

Support bands for the three times I saw them:
1. Josef K (valentinos, edinburgh 1980)
2. Restricted Code (heriot -watt campus, near Edinburgh 1981)
3. The Blisters (old 13th Note 90s re-union)

― Sandy Blair, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 06:39 (seventeen years ago) link

those amazing instrumentals. man, i could swoon over them all day

Yes yes yes OTM!! "Strange Boutique" is one of the best albums of the 80s, unfortunately they blew it by following it up with "Love Zombies", which is one of the lamest follow-up albums of the 80s. By the way, the single version of "405 Lines" is one of their greatest instrumentals, miles better than the "Love Zombies" version.

― Tom D., Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:38 (seventeen years ago) link

The only Monochrome Set album I've heard is Love Zombies, I thought it was pretty mediocre and never bothered with anything else by them - have I made a terrible mistake? I just downloaded Volume, Contrast, Brilliance comp to see...

― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 12:30 (seventeen years ago) link

Yes, it was a mistake, "Love Zombies" is considered to be the worst album of the firs incarnation of Monochrome Set (I mean the records made until 1985). And rightly so.

― zeus, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 12:57 (seventeen years ago) link

"the worst" means "not utterly brilliant", naturally.

― zeus, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 13:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Love Zombies suffers mostly through production...listen to the song itself on Volume Contrast and Brilliance, in it's Peel or otherwise radio version...killer.

Restricted Code, now there's an underrated band.

― dan selzer, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 15:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Put me down as a Love Zombies fan. "Apocalypso" is one of my fave MS songs...& "Karma Sutra" & of course "B-I-D Spells Bid" are pretty great, off the top of my head.

One song I think I like equally in its LP & Peel versions is "Ici Les Enfants." Peel version is kind of rougher & there's that dissonant slide gtr breakdown & then "Death comes in leather boots. Death is a white Protesant whore"/ "...are you ready for incest?" etc.

Restricted Code supporting Monochrome Set sounds like a dream.

The one Five or Six record that Dan didn't mention is the one called "Four by Five or Six," which I can't remember if it's on Cherry Red or some Dutch label or what (have to go home & look at Pillows & Prayers liners) & I've always meant to get it...what is that one all about?

― ryanch, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 16:17 (seventeen years ago) link

i like love zombies as much as anything else by the band. i didn't know people didn't like it. but i lived in a hermetically sealed bubble until the internet. i never knew anyone who listened to half the stuff i liked.

― scott seward, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 16:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Hah! Yes, 'Four from Five or Six' is the EP by 5 or 6 I have -- sorry to not mention it by name but it's in a box somewhere. It's moody and weird and I remember trumpets on it, it sounding kind of like half of This Heat just nattering about on a gloomy day for much of it but then there's also a pretty pop song on there? But yeah I need to dig it out ASAP. My copy's on Cherry Red, I believe...

― Mike McGooney-gal, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 17:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Whoops, the Lida Husik cover is on Fly Stereophonic. xpost.

― dlp9001, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 02:18 (seventeen years ago) link

Skipping 22 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

my off-radio tapes were pretty shitty- bad signal xci and bad signal lir, but there were few record stores available to me and the other radio stations were.... kids today are spoiled you know, anything u want at the touch of a keyboard etc.

― exuding an aroma of lolz (Hunt3r), Sunday, 20 June 2010 02:17 (thirteen years ago) link

my cousins lived in wilton back then. maybe you knew them. the howards. ash, amanda, holly. they were nice. not very new wave though.

― scott seward, Sunday, 20 June 2010 02:44 (thirteen years ago) link

three months pass...

this is a band i never quite got round to checking out, but the samples of this new Early Recordings LP have whetted my appetite. is this Velvets-y sound typical of their later stuff too?

― (+) (+ +), Tuesday, 5 October 2010 19:11 (thirteen years ago) link

The Monochhttp://images.chron.com/blogs/askacat/hatcat.JPGset

― dro™ (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 5 October 2010 19:12 (thirteen years ago) link

If you didn't know, Bid suffered a aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage at the end of July. About half the people who get those die, but he's doing all right. There will be a period of rehabilitation though. In the meantime, Scarlet's Well has been dissolved and the Monochrome Set will be starting up again at some point in the future. The new Monochrome Set will be a sort of Scarlet's Well/Monochrome Set hybrid band, the name change seeming to be more of a question of booking power and finance than an actual shift in musical direction.

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Tuesday, 5 October 2010 21:15 (thirteen years ago) link

six months pass...

i honestly think i liked this song so much when it came out cuz it was just bargain bin monochrome set. never occurred to me until just now! bought the well well well EP and the first woodentops album just based on this song. turns out i just liked this song.

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

― scott seward, Wednesday, 13 April 2011 18:44 (thirteen years ago) link

i think i first heard monochrome set in 83 or 84. fell instantly in love. well well well must have come out in 85?

― scott seward, Wednesday, 13 April 2011 18:46 (thirteen years ago) link

Awww, Woodentops are GREAT! Monochrome Set is much greater, however.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 14 April 2011 00:41 (thirteen years ago) link

one month passes...

Just saw The Monochrome Set performing at Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona. It was really great, though there were a bit too much 90s stuff for me, but still, seeing Bid, Lester & Co was fantastic.

― zeus, Wednesday, 1 June 2011 08:21 (twelve years ago) link

one year passes...

Touring the States! Or a chunk therein:

27/05/13 - Bowery Electric, NYC, USA
28/05/13 - The Saint, Asbury Park, NJ, USA
29/05/13 - Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ, USA
30/05/13 - PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, USA
31/05/13 - NYC Popfest @ Knitting Factory, NYC, USA
01/06/13 - The Record Collector, Bordentown, NJ, USA

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 27 February 2013 02:26 (eleven years ago) link

Pretty much the only reason I'd support the secession of Texas is so when somebody said a band I loved was touring my country there'd be a better than 1 in a 100 chance they're playing within 1000 miles of me.

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Wednesday, 27 February 2013 03:19 (eleven years ago) link

three years pass...

Eligible Bachelors is great! I dunno why it's not up there in the canon of stuff like Smiths, Go-Betweens, Aztec Camera etc?

I bet Clientele is huge fans

― rockpalast '82 (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 30 March 2016 14:32 (eight years ago) link

"Volume, Contrast, Brilliance Vol. 2" just came out:
01 Something About You (1985)
02 I Wanna Be Your Man (1978)
03 Cilla Black (1983)
04 The Greatest Performance Artist In The World (1983)
05 Reach For Your Gun (1985)
06 Fly Me To The Moon (1978)
07 Love (1985)
08 Whoops! What A Palaver (1985)
09 I Want Your Skin (1989)
10 Stories From The Book Of Love (1986)
11 White Lightning (1987)
12 Wisteria (1987)
13 Bella Morte (1989)
14 Swing (1986)
15 Black Are The Flowers (1991)
16 Jack (1991)

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 30 March 2016 15:18 (eight years ago) link

Wow, two new studio albums since Platinum Coils too... Super Plastic City and Spaces Everywhere! I love Bid so much.

― erry red flag (f. hazel), Wednesday, 30 March 2016 15:47 (eight years ago) link

one year passes...

https://www.strandedrecords.com/collections/tapete/products/the-monochrome-set-1979-1985-complete-recordings-6xlp-6cd?mc_cid=407acf8d96&mc_eid=2e56297982

I want, but so pricey!

― Fastnbulbous, Thursday, 21 December 2017 23:35 (six years ago) link

No tracklisting?

Who wants to split the cost with me, I'd go for the CD set at half that price in a heartbeat, you can have the LPs.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 22 December 2017 01:52 (six years ago) link

Actually, I take it back. Here's the details:

https://shop.tapeterecords.com/the-monochrome-set-1979-1985-complete-recordings-boxset-preorder.html

That doesn't seem complete to me...?

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 22 December 2017 02:00 (six years ago) link

What's it missing? I don't have a record player.

― Fastnbulbous, Friday, 22 December 2017 06:51 (six years ago) link

Missing:
Jacob's Ladder (single version)
Andiamo (alt version)
Get Style & Twitch
Cilla Black (both from the Brazillian release of "The Lost Weekend", these were demos and not officially released at the time)

All the BBC session and solo stuff from "Volume, Contrast, Brilliance Vol. 1" (but I guess that's outside the scope)

So fairly minor, I suppose though I do love those one-off singles from Bid and Lester Square.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 22 December 2017 16:14 (six years ago) link

five months pass...

Cherry Red released a 3CD expanded "Eligible Bachelors" with the "Fin" live album as well as a bunch of non-lp cuts and radio sessions. I'm most curious about the stuff listed as "Rarities", are those just demos for the next album that never happened?

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Saturday, 26 May 2018 22:46 (five years ago) link

Don't know and don't own it but looks like it's previously released singles-only trax, b-sides, etc. Typical Cherry Red shoddy marketing etc blah blah blah.

― everything, Saturday, 26 May 2018 22:59 (five years ago) link

nine months pass...

So I’m trying to make sense of the MS discography but on Spotify at least it’s basically like 15 compilations.

The “tomorrow will be too long” comp is basically the first two albums, but... are they actually the first two albums? Are they re-recordings? The production value seems different from a lot of other MS material from the same era.

― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Thursday, 7 March 2019 05:04 (five years ago) link

They are actually the first two albums. Can you explain what you mean by different?

― The Vangelis of Dating (Tom D.), Thursday, 7 March 2019 07:39 (five years ago) link

Well for instance this is “Martians Go Home” from one of the other comps: https://open.spotify.com/track/4iTIQsuKRV5kkADH1mSQac?si=39VVFJ8jSuGPWmeiS0AFog

And this is from “Tomorrow”: https://open.spotify.com/track/4jO2nzsT58E23CCTVu8jc9?si=-_tvtbimS66cd17CWIxWEw

This is “Love Zombies” from the Volume comp: https://open.spotify.com/track/19Rt3NwlD3eMlJ7Yz7bp1Q?si=SMn80_6JQEmloqY1XL4kEg

And this is from “Tomorrow”: https://open.spotify.com/track/13azUQ8XftGPu7ZnpO60nV?si=G4lxcfeKRXOOfh3JhxSZWw

Maybe the other comps are pulling versions from old 45s rather than the album cuts? It’s just hard to tell since everything pre-Eligible Bachelors is scattered in collections.

― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Thursday, 7 March 2019 15:38 (five years ago) link

"Love Zombies" from the Volume comp is a BBC session version.

Monochrome Set's catalog is poorly documented, with live, session, demo and single versions (which were often quite distinct to the LP) popping up all over the place.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 7 March 2019 17:40 (five years ago) link

Volume Contrast and Brilliance is mostly Peel sessions and singles.

― dan selzer, Thursday, 7 March 2019 17:44 (five years ago) link

Okay, that all makes sense. Pitfalls of the streaming era - no liner notes to help make sense of what you’re hearing. I’m just glad to know I do in fact have the first two albums to listen to!

― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Thursday, 7 March 2019 17:48 (five years ago) link

Can't wait for the show tomorrow night, no lie.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 7 March 2019 19:37 (five years ago) link

back to the Peter Murphy thread with you

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Thursday, 7 March 2019 19:56 (five years ago) link

Joke's on you -- I'm seeing both of them tomorrow! (Early show for Peter M, then over to the Rickshaw.)

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 7 March 2019 19:57 (five years ago) link

unfair!

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Thursday, 7 March 2019 19:59 (five years ago) link

aw well, got to see Mazzy Star last week anyway

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Thursday, 7 March 2019 20:02 (five years ago) link

Had no idea they were touring — and they’re in LA in a matter of days!

― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Friday, 8 March 2019 01:56 (five years ago) link

Their FB group had a post by a very excited #teen who's going to see them soon, bless.

― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 8 March 2019 10:51 (five years ago) link

one year passes...

RFI New Wave/Post Punk song featuring lyrics about "Les Enfants du Paradis"

― Lipstick O.G. (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 11 July 2020 17:19 (three years ago) link

Thx to this thread for getting me to check VCB Vol 2. Damn it good

― y'know who else is a cop? your mom. (Hunt3r), Wednesday, 15 July 2020 16:15 (three years ago) link

I still prefer the Raj Quartet version of " Whoops! What A Palaver" (which is really just Simon Fisher Turner backed by the Monochrome Set?) to the demo version on that compilation. Bid gives it his best, but his accent just isn't aristocratic enough to carry the joke

does anyone rate their post-reunion material highly? they've put out six albums since 2012 but I haven't heard a single one

― panburger partner (unregistered), Wednesday, 15 July 2020 16:36 (three years ago) link

Ha I just came back to say that I’m listening to Fabula Mendax, it’s sorta...amazing? And interesting, at one listen. Bid’s narrative persona is so very good, and the songs are beautifully constructed and arranged to my ear, both individually, and as a collection.

Like ay, busting out massive awesome slide action on Sliding Icicle, right to the abrupt close with “that’sit” was a surprise based on my limited TMS background.

And then the next song has a beautiful beautiful chamberpop construction. Strings oboe all dashit. It’s. Lovely.

Don’t know how long my enthusiasm will last but I’m obv pretty enthralled.

― Hunt3r, Thursday, 16 July 2020 12:54 (three years ago) link

I still wish for more Scarlet's Well, but the albums since 2012 have all had good stuff on them... I don't have Fabula Mendax yet though!

― avellano medio inglés (f. hazel), Thursday, 16 July 2020 14:31 (three years ago) link

i'm looking forward to checking Scarlet's Well.

Being temporarily obsessed with an artist is pretty "Hunt3r-y." Still, a Kinks superfan buddy advised me a couple of days ago that "I Feel Fine (Really)" is the most Ray Davies song Davies hasn't done, and so I am checking Maisieworld. It fucking rules. It's super melodic, and muscularly so, everywhere. Davies is sorta haunting a lot of the album to me, from a standpoint of a lot of the constructions and even lyrical tropes. The transition to chorus in Cyber Boy is a highpop Kinks style that I adore.

Another signpost in here for comparison is Robyn Hitchcock, and I love the hell out of him too. To some extent each is mining different patches of the past. This album stylistically and energy-wise feels a little like Goodnight Oslo. To me this is better at every checkpoint. Bid's vocals are so strong and expressive, and the band is ripping everything, and the Set is not afraid to dump in some horns, or go big on the organ, or the guitar lick.

I cannot believe how nice this feels to me, might be my age. And I love when an artist kinda sneaks up on me, despite my history of general awareness of it. Damn I hope I get to see them someday.

― Hunt3r, Saturday, 18 July 2020 15:00 (three years ago) link

this life is nowhere near as nice/
as suggested in the paintings of paradise/
so i would like refund from a monk or priest/
or an amalgamated beast

wrote like robyn and played and sung like ray. win. (from song "maisieworld")

― Hunt3r, Saturday, 18 July 2020 15:18 (three years ago) link

oh shit the spirit of bimble is in me here but still more, a video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJsuahBgWyk&feature=emb_logo

― Hunt3r, Saturday, 18 July 2020 15:25 (three years ago) link

https://youtu.be/sJsuahBgWyk

― Hunt3r, Saturday, 18 July 2020 15:26 (three years ago) link

https://youtu.be/W5K996oPoQU

this song from 86 sounds to me like drunk hitchcock doing a lounge song, but imitating bob dylan. it’s something.

― Hunt3r, Saturday, 18 July 2020 18:17 (three years ago) link

one month passes...

i've listened to a bit of Scarlets Well now. It ranges from Spongebob style mock sea chanteys to sophistipop mock sea chanteys to bid-in-hard-irony sea chanteys. on their faces, all the songs are credibly fine, but i seriously do not get what is happening with that smothering motif.

a month later i'm still listening to a lot of intermittent Maisieworld and Fabula Mendax.

I listened to Platinum Coils after my string of posts above. As a person who lived more than a couple months in a hospital for brain injury, it is my absolute favorite artistic commentary on brain injury recovery. ever. bid will be a hero of mine forever, just for going that hard on the experience. i still can't hardly write about it.

Post 2010:
Maisieworld>Fabula>>Spaces Everywhere>>>>Cosmonaut

i've not listened to Super Plastic City, except to the first song as I type this line. It's very in character but good, and now sea-chanteying. Will now investigate.

― retail rage is for suckers (Hunt3r), Tuesday, 25 August 2020 04:54 (three years ago) link

"no sea-chanteying"

― retail rage is for suckers (Hunt3r), Tuesday, 25 August 2020 04:54 (three years ago) link

hahaha, Scarlet's Well are probably my favorite band of all time the motif is essential!

― avellano medio inglés (f. hazel), Tuesday, 25 August 2020 05:52 (three years ago) link

(I think the best approach is to proceed as if there is no mocking nor irony in Scarlet's Well)

― avellano medio inglés (f. hazel), Tuesday, 25 August 2020 06:07 (three years ago) link

two years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oji50pnUH_o

― MaresNest, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 11:12 (one year ago) link

is that the drummer who quit them and so got a song that shaded him? ha i love this band but man that is pretty austere.

― i'm intentionally vague, intending to front multitudes (Hunt3r), Tuesday, 4 October 2022 17:44 (one year ago) link

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