Why does anyone like the Fall?

Live at the Witch Trials
Dragnet
Grotesque
Hex Enduction Hour
Perverted by Language
The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall
This Nation's Saving Grace
Bend Sinister
The Frenz Experiment
I Am Kurious, Oranj
Extricate
Shift Work
Code: Selfish
The Infotainment Scan
Middle Class Revolt
Cererbral Caustic
The Light User Syndrome

That takes us up through the end of the Scanlon/Hanley/Brix/etc. eras, at least.

I would happily shell out for a Fall boxset of Peel Sessions from then to now.

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), June 17th, 2003.

How nice that my prediction is coming true.

That makes for a curious x-post. "How nice for the Fall box!" "I TREMBLE IN MOCK TERROR!"

"OH I'M SCARED NOW LONGHAIR SHOEGAZE FREAK!"

not many. ChangesOneBowie and Star Time are the immediate ones that come to mind--taking really good catalogues and trimming them down to blindsiding ones. I think JB and Bowie and the Fall are all terrific but there's lots of fat on all of them. (The Bowie is qualified by its coming out in 1976)
-- Matos-Webster Dictionary (michaelangelomato...), January 28th, 2005.

Live at the Witch Trials
Dragnet
Grotesque
Hex Enduction Hour
Perverted by Language
The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall
This Nation's Saving Grace
Bend Sinister
The Frenz Experiment
I Am Kurious, Oranj
Extricate
Shift Work
Code: Selfish
The Infotainment Scan
Middle Class Revolt
Cererbral Caustic
The Light User Syndrome

That takes us up through the end of the Scanlon/Hanley/Brix/etc. eras, at least.

-- Tim Ellison (timejeanne...), January 28th, 2005.

Oh, I like the music; it's just that voice. For precisely the same reason, I can't listen to LCD Soundsystem, despite liking the music. Oh, and they're definitely overrated.

-- Matos-Webster Dictionary (michaelangelomato...), January 28th, 2005.

Those are good picks and I just thought of another one, which will probably not be popular on a Fall thread but still it's TRUE!!:

The 2-disc Chronicles Rush best-of that came out in the early 90s. Fucking great job of making them seem flawless!

'Because they sound like absolute shit on pot.' by Kris

and my comment is... exactly! That's what makes this one of my favorite bands, they're out there to annoy the fuck out of people, they have no tolerance, and they don't give a shit about what you think! I've seen them live only once, and it was one of the shittiest, most slack off live shows I'd ever seen, which is precisely why I'm going back.

yeah, but they talk back!

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), June 17th, 2003.

HOORAY FOR WISHES THAT COME TRUE!

Is it just me or would this sound really great delievered as a "Sonic Attack"-style hilariously overblown super-serious spoken word track? And having some other guy deliver certain lines in that high sleazy evil voice? You know..."upon a coyote's head!"

I don't think that's true, really. The initial transformation from the early punk band into the more avant-garde band that made Room to Live and Perverted by Language was gradual and every record, in retrospect, represents some type of interesting step. The transformation into a pop band with The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall was surely unexpected, and I find their stylistic evolution-- album to album -- through the eighties and the first half of the nineties to be fairly continual.

----

July 2, 1994
REBELLIOUS JUKEBOX

Check the guy's track record-ah! Mark E Smith of the Fall picks the discs that he lugs around in his carrier bag.

1. THE WALKING SEEDS, "Tantric Wipeout"

"It's five years old now, this. The Walking Seeds were great until they went all f***ing grunge. One of 'em went on to be in the La's, you know. I don't like that many Liverpool bands, cos...well, it's Liverpool, innit? I never went for Julian Cope, Ian McCulloch, all that stuff. Walking Seeds were all right, though. What's that you say -- tantric sex is where you have it off in stages? You kiss the first day, fondle the second, gradually get more intimate? You're getting very prurient, you, aren't you? Stick to writing about music!"

2. BONEY M, "Rasputin"

"I like the way they tackled all the big issues, Boney M. The fall of the Russian tsarist system, and stuff like that. Did you know they even had a song about Belfast? What was it called? It was called 'Belfast.' No, they didn't really suggest any new solutions. Somebody told me Boney M are dead popular in Russia. I've just been to Lithuania and it was really strange. It's just full of drunken unemployed soldiers. Mind you, they were all concentration camp guards, weren't they, the Lithuanians? Anyway, Boney M, I think 2 Unlimited are a lot like them."

3. I LUDICROUS, "Preposterous Tales"

"They're very funny, I Ludicrous, and I like a lot of their stuff. They rip off the Fall a lot, ripping off riffs and everything, but I don't mind that because they make me laugh. If it makes me laugh, it's OK. That's a good basic rule. Pavement don't make me laugh. They don't make me angry, though. I can't get angry anymore about people copying the Fall because there's just been so many. We've been ripped off so many times. I Ludicrous are a good funny Northern band. Like the Macc Lads? Well, it's not quite the same thing, is it?"

4. VISNADI, "Hunt is Up"

"This is an Italian rave record which is around at the moment. Yeah, that's right, a rave record. Why shouldn't I like a rave record? I've been getting into loads of Italian stuff lately. I'm not normally into rave music, though. I mean, it just sort of plods, doesn't it? I don't do a lot of clubbing, but I have been doing a bit of DJin lately, around Manchester. People just keep asking me to do it. F*** knows why. I just turn up and start playing Italian rave records and rockabilly! Ha! That does their f***ing heads in!"

5. LEE HAZELWOOD AND NANCY SINATRA, "Sundown"

"I think Lee Hazelwood was really, really good. I love the way this song's got this big, dead camp cinematic production. Nancy Sinatra was all right, as well. She'd got a bit of talent. She didn't just sponge off her dad's name. I couldn't stand that f***ing 'Boots are Made for Walkin' nonsense, though. Lee Hazelwood always sounds to me like a really wired, wiped-out Johnny Cash. Yeah, I always liked him as well. He's back and he's hip now? Is he really? F***ing hell!"

6. THE MOVE, "Night of Fear"

"I like this one because I think it sounds just like Birmingham. What do you mean, that's no reason to like a record? No, I think Birmingham's very underrated, me. I liked the Move and early Electric Light Orchestra as well, before they turned totally rockist and crap. I even liked Wizzard. Actually, Roy Wood has been playing around my way lately, with some new band he's just knocked together. I've not seen them myself, but the rest of the Fall went down the other night and said they were great, really good. They've got a cello section and everything. Here, why are you laughing?"

7. LINK WRAY, "Jack the Ripper"

"Yeah, he's one of the real rock grandads, isn't he? I think he's brilliant. He's a Red Indian, and he makes all his own guitars. He lives in Denmark now, apparently. No, I don't know why -- why should I? I've met him. Was he mad? No, not at all, show some respect! He was a dead nice bloke. He used to make instrumental records that got banned for being too un-record player friendly, because they were too full of distortion and shit like that, hahaha! Link Wray is the only man who can get records banned without even writing f***ing lyrics! He's a hero, a really great man!"

8. MARVIN RAINWATER, "My Brand of Blues"

"This is an old country and western rockabilly song and it's brilliant. He just plays one chord all the way through. Yeah, I know a lot of country and western is totally trite, sentimental slop, but it depends what kind of country and western you listen to, doesn't it, cock? I know 90 percent of country music is shit, but 90 percent of any kind of music is shit, isn't it? I haven't even got that many records. I throw a lot of stuff away. I mean, you've got to, haven't you?"

9. THE DRIVING STUPIDS, "The Reality of Air-Fried Borscht"

"What do you mean, it's a Fall record title? No it's not, it doesn't mean anything! What's borscht -- some kind of Russian stew, isn't it? The Driving Stupids are an early seventies psychedelic band, and this is the most over the top record I've ever heard in my entire life. Did I ever see them live? No, I think they were probably dead before I ever left school, you cheeky get. So how did I first hear about them? John Peel? No, I educate myself, mate. Always have."

10. THE FALL, "Rebellious Jukebox"

"For obvious reasons, really. This is the first song I ever wrote on guitar. I'd never let the Fall play it live now, mind. And no, I don't mind you naming your Melody Maker features after a Fall song and ripping us off week after week? Why not? Everybody else does it..."