― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Friday, 17 September 2004 19:45 (nineteen years ago) link
haha true story: I only know "Closer to Fine" because K@hleen Edwards, who was then in my chemistry and world issues classes, used to play it all the time at high school coffeehouses. An early stepping-stone on her route to fame!
I still hear "What I Am" in pubs sometimes. I really don't like the lyrics, which do strike me as pretty blatantly anti-intellectual and in a gratingly smug and corny way, and I don't find the music at all interesting or appealing enough to overcome this. I can tune out lyrics but the music doesn't do much for me.
― sundar subramanian (sundar), Friday, 17 September 2004 19:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!st, Friday, 17 September 2004 19:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― shookout (shookout), Friday, 17 September 2004 19:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― sundar subramanian (sundar), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!st, Friday, 17 September 2004 20:03 (nineteen years ago) link
I think we have that one at the radio station! I'll check it out.
― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 17 September 2004 20:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:32 (nineteen years ago) link
No, duh. I may have misinterpreted amst - I thought he was saying these people were awful because of how they were fans, rather than awful independent of their fandom.
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:37 (nineteen years ago) link
I prefer the remix that some Italian DJ did in 1989. Andrew Weatherall must have really liked it too, 'cause he sampled it for "Loaded"!
― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 17 September 2004 21:57 (nineteen years ago) link
-- gabbneb (gabbne...) (webmail), September 17th, 2004 4:37 PM. (gabbneb) (later) (link)
def. the latter
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 17 September 2004 22:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 18 September 2004 00:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Saturday, 18 September 2004 00:13 (nineteen years ago) link
Indigo Girls' "Virginia Wolff" has the Worst Lyric Ever: "You weathered the storm of cruel mortality." If that means what I think it's supposed to mean, no, she didn't. She's dead. (By drowning suicide, which makes the line even worse, as my friend Becca once pointed out.)
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Saturday, 18 September 2004 01:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 18 September 2004 01:18 (nineteen years ago) link
anyway, thanks to the virginia wolff story, i now take back even the most tentative reassessment of the indigo girls i ventured on this thread.
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Saturday, 18 September 2004 01:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Saturday, 18 September 2004 03:39 (nineteen years ago) link
maybe they mean she lived through a lot of other people's deaths? like those movies that just keep coming out these days
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Saturday, 18 September 2004 05:38 (nineteen years ago) link
No shit.
I have to agree that it's the vomitous guitar solo that well and truly kills "What I Am."
― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Saturday, 18 September 2004 06:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― Bimble (bimble), Saturday, 18 September 2004 06:31 (nineteen years ago) link
Yeah I was surprised how much I liked that record, given my low tolerance for all things Indigo. It's not great or anything, but it's nice and fuck-offish (even though the Joan Jett cameo is kind of a letdown).
Of these two songs, the Edie one has a pretty good groove, which is more than the Indigos ever had.
― spittle (spittle), Saturday, 18 September 2004 06:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Saturday, 18 September 2004 06:48 (nineteen years ago) link
Strange FireLeft Me a Fool (Back On The Bus, Y'all version)Closer to FineKid Fears (Back On The Bus, Y'all version)Land of Canaan (self-titled version)Southland in the SpringtimeHammer and a NailHand Me DownsWatershedThree HitsGalileoGhostChickenmanCedar TreeMystery (1200 Curfews version)Touch Me FallLanguage or the Kiss
This is 78-79 minutes. The last song I left off was "Secure Yourself"
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 18 September 2004 19:31 (nineteen years ago) link
(I have no opinion on either of the originals)
― The Lex (The Lex), Saturday, 18 September 2004 20:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 18 September 2004 20:36 (nineteen years ago) link
"Love Will Come To You" is terrific, gabbneb was right. Rites of Passage and the debut are totally classic.
― Euler, Thursday, 18 November 2010 01:55 (thirteen years ago) link
I can't hear "Closer To Fine" without thinking of this:http://www.brunching.com/yourroommate.html― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, September 17, 2004 3:53 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark
― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, September 17, 2004 3:53 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark
― undervalued aerosmith memorabilia I have appraised (bernard snowy), Thursday, 18 November 2010 02:07 (thirteen years ago) link
yay brunching shuttlecocks! i still have some tina the troubled teen jpgs saved on my hd
― what's up, my cobbers, we're having Smorgy's tonight! (electricsound), Thursday, 18 November 2010 02:11 (thirteen years ago) link
I used to hate both these songs and now I like both these songs
― aerosmith: the acid house years (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Thursday, 18 November 2010 02:16 (thirteen years ago) link
haha, I didn't know anyone who played "Closer To Fine" in the dorms but I can see that; on my hall it was Pearl Jam's "Black".
kinda feeling that Pearl Jam are the male Indigo Girls in some ways (note that I had a really high fever yesterday so my cogency ought to be taken with the usual grain of salt)
― Euler, Thursday, 18 November 2010 02:18 (thirteen years ago) link
I keep wondering if we are ever going to have a collective change of heart and all accept that Closer to Fine is a tremendous song.
― Van Horn Street, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 05:58 (nine years ago) link
closer to fine is great but galileo is better i think
― 1staethyr, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 07:37 (nine years ago) link
Was hanging out with some people who were playing the first two Indigo Girls albums all evening, and remembered how "Closer to Fine" was my freshman year of college and was so much a song about education and liberal arts. And sounded so different from anything on radio, being almost entirely just voices and acoustic guitars (+ a little tambourine and pennywhistle).
Anyway, I heard "Closer to Fine" and thought: wow, what a solid song. And heard "Kid Fears" and thought: wait, is this the best R.E.M. song? And remembered riding around in cars listening to that first album with the rest of the otherwise all-women literary-magazine staff.
― who even are those other cats (Eazy), Thursday, 13 April 2017 14:36 (seven years ago) link
I absolutely love their first album. The third one is great too.
― droit au butt (Euler), Thursday, 13 April 2017 14:36 (seven years ago) link
I get how people can find "Closer to Fine" cheesy but are there really people who don't see it as a sterling instance of the kind of song it is?
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 13 April 2017 14:41 (seven years ago) link
Great Natalie Merchant:Trouble MeCandy Everybody WantsThese Are Days
Ok Natalie Merchant:Kind & GenerousCarnival
I Hate it Never Want to Hear Again:Wonder
Open to liking it, haven't found the melody after 25 years:Photograph w/REM
― LimbsKing, Thursday, 13 April 2017 14:42 (seven years ago) link
1-2-3 is my Indigo Girls jam btw
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 13 April 2017 14:46 (seven years ago) link
I meant the s/t btw not Strange Fire
though that's good too
I ride for them through Rites of Passage. "Virginia Wolff"!
― droit au butt (Euler), Thursday, 13 April 2017 20:42 (seven years ago) link
Listening more to s/t, realized that the first songs have few/no drums in a way that keep it from sounding dated.
― who even are those other cats (Eazy), Thursday, 13 April 2017 21:24 (seven years ago) link
a little tambourine and pennywhistle
Which I found out recently is by Irish band Hothouse Flowers!
Old-Skool ILM very much living up to the "bag of dicks" stereotype on this thread.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 17:41 (three years ago) link
Is this truly the closest thing to a general Indigo Girls thread on ILM(??)
I'm realizing, very belatedly, how great they are... but intimidated at the idea of getting a grasp on an act with 15 studio albums (not to mention solo / side projects). Beyond the S/T (which I revisited for the first time since, probably, high school – it made me laugh at how good it is, on a song-by-song basis), and the Best-Of / Essential playlists, any tips on how to "get into them"?
― juristic person (morrisp), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 17:27 (two years ago) link
Light some incense
― calstars, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 17:44 (two years ago) link
Goddamn, for decades now I assumed they were saying "The closer I am to find," which I always assumed was an awkward but deliberate grammatical mistake.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 17:54 (two years ago) link