4AD - classic all round?

If they're bankrolling Scott Walker they can have my money forever.

dunno. i used to love love love this label so much, but a friend just passed me a link to that "free downloads for xmas" page and i don't think i could get more than about 12 seconds into any of the tracks (except the one i already had - st.vincent)

i gave up on the label a long time ago - i think it was around the time that ivo sold it? but it was still a bit of a shock

"The idea that a group like Pavement could be responsible for any kind of paradigm shift in anyone's thinking is just baffling to me"

I have love for all this too. I don't think I experienced a paradigm shift as you say. I think I got excited about a strain of music that I hadn't experienced before. A friend passed along a Jesus Lizard tape and a Polvo cassette. I was hooked immediately. I never got rid of my stack of 4ad collection tho. And I listen to a lot of other things besides these days. None of it ever "dreary".

imo the label is pretty much the best it's been since the perfection of the '80-'83 period

..until now

http://pitchfork.com/news/37663-gang-gang-dance-sign-to-4ad/

puke

Uh, pretty great signing actually. Not sure they fit with the 4ad "sound" (whatever that is anyway), but their last album was outstanding.

Wow. Just noticed that Stornoway have signed to 4AD! This is pretty awesome news! http://beggarscanada.beggarspromo.com/?pg=2 4AD is fast becoming my favourite label with the Mountain Goats, St Vincent, Ariel Pink and now Stornoway on it. Great stuff.

This one has definitely been done before. No doubt Nick will link to it shortly.

Anyway Mark, sorry, but more clunkers than gems : Wolfgang Press, His Name is alive, Heidi Berry(!), Scheer, Xymox, Frazier Chorus, X-Mal Deutschland, Spirea X, Swallow, Pale Saints.... all useless.

― Dr. C, Tuesday, July 3, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark

^^ SO RONG! - xcept for spirea x, obv ;)

4AD is fast becoming my favourite label with the Mountain Goats, St Vincent, Ariel Pink and now Stornoway on it. Great stuff.

I'm guessing you're not even 20 years old yet?

Not sure they fit with the 4ad "sound" (whatever that is anyway)

Yeah, there really isn't one anymore.

i know it was an Axis release as opposed to a 4AD one, but the Shox 45 is in my top 5 things Ivo ever released

huh so this label sucks now

what the hell happened

they are just a beggar's banquet imprint and a logo and have little to nothing to do with 4ad. that said I think they are releasing more quality stuff these days than they were a few years ago.

akm, I think you are right, they lost that 4ADness for a while. TV on the Radio and Blonde Redhead are good, so....Should I listen to Gang Gang Dance? I don't like their name.

You should listen to Afterschool Program Afterschool Program Dance instead. kip

being slightly trolly but it seemed like they were at the top of their game in 09/10 but the stuff out this year so far has been completely repellent to me

> it seemed like they were at the top of their game in 09/10

o_O

Anyway, just listened to the original This Mortal Coil albums and 20 years on, I still really like was the cover of "I am the Cosmos", which was the first time I'd ever heard that song.

Gawd, this label was big in my life...I had a few posters back in college that I would LOVE to own today.

top of their recent game at least

i don't know what they've put out this year. the last good album they had out to my mind was the national. I hear tuneyards are great; my friend is doing sound on their tour; but I still haven't heard them.

gang gang dance are dull, to me

also, you know, deerhunter/atlas sound are not to be fucked with, in my mind anyway. bon iver, if that is your sort of thing, and iron and wine...I mean they are good and all. it's hard for me to think of them as 4ad bands which means the name doesn't mean much these days.

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2011/05/4ad-ghosts-in-the-closet.html

"There were also more conventional rock bands including Throwing Muses and Unrest"

Wait... what?

pretty much the entire CLASSIC 4AD ROSTER type band is kind of 'oh god people are actually enthusiastic about this' territory for me

the entire set of c. 4ad r. type of bands, i mean

yeah, I feel that way about most non-4AD music.

fair enough!

this article, though, is a little shaky. like, aside from the weirdly casual dismissal of the throwing muses, which is bizarre if you're going to focus on 1987 and lonely is an eyesore... the title is taken from the lyrics to fish! the writer seems unaware that the current 4AD roster, which I agree is strong, is basically beggar's banquet using the 4AD name. the majority of these bands were signed to 4AD *after* they got famous, not initially signed by 4AD like pretty much all of the classic-era bands.

Back in the eighties a friend gave me a tape of "Filigree and Shadow". I actually like some of the instrumental pieces the best. It had a profound effect on me even though it is not my thing. I'm not accustomed to non-traditional singers. I just thought it had major balls.

whether you like 4AD bands or not, the answer to this thread is yes

Archaeological 4AD Fandom:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d195/richhunt35/SUMMER2011058.jpg?t=1306165510

The Essentia 4AD - over at Fact

They had this awful little Josef K spin-off called The Happy Family on the label in 1982, not nearly as good as JK, though. What a clunker! The Happy Family album sounded like a slowed-down version of 'Spiral Scratch', had a sleeve that wasn't by 23 Envelope, and claimed to be a comedy concept album about a fascist dictator. What was Ivo thinking?
― Momus, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (10 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Side note to Momus -- yeah, what was that one guy who led the band thinking?

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 5 July 2001 00:00 (10 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Times where Wikipedia is your friend...

There is a TON of 4AD on Spotify...even obscure early stuff that used to cost 90 jillion dollars. It is good stuff! I always had a bit of a guilt complex about listening to such sensitive music, but the dog likes it and he normally prefers blues and soul music.

Facing The Other Way: The Story of 4AD is the first history of the iconic and influential independent record label, 4AD. Telling the story from its inception in 1980, the book concentrates on the 20-year period when founder Ivo Watts-Russell created the musical hot house that unleashed bands such as Cocteau Twins, Pixies, Throwing Muses. The Breeders and The Birthday Party on an unsuspecting world. Drawing on extensive and frank interviews with artists and label staff during this halcyon period, music writer and long-time 4AD observer Martin Aston reveals one of the greatest stories of the British independent era yet to be told.

To celebrate the publication of 'Facing The Other Way: The Story of 4AD' by Martin Aston, publishers The Friday Project and your hosts Rough Trade East present a unique Q&A session with legendary designer Vaughan Oliver, Matt Johnson (The The) and Miki Berenyi (Lush) on the night. Author Martin Aston will also be avilable to sign copies and meet fans of the label.

The evening will feature an exclusive live DJ set from Dominic Appleton of 4AD super group, This Mortal Coil.

Author's Twitter avatar is the Rema-Rema EP, which prompted me to say to hell with it and pre-order the UK edition (out several weeks prior to the US edition).

Probably haven't had that same conflicted ugh!/yes! feeling since buying Ask Me Tomorrow as an import a few months before the US release.

there's supposed to be a limited edition that comes with a 2 CD compilation of 4AD stuff, but Harper Collins is taking their sweet time with the pre-order process.

isn't there also a limited limited edition, like £100 worth? or is that the same one? i thought it was one of their art things, hadn't heard of the cds...

it's the same one

it's 4AD-related, so of course there are, at the minimum, four editions.

Dorian L's review in the Graun:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/12/facing-other-way-4ad-aston-review

preorders now up:

https://facing-the-other-way.myshopify.com/

I remember when "Lonely is an Eyesore" came out in that gorgeous sleeve and we got free postcards! I decorated my bedroom walls and later my cubicle at work with them. One guy I know bought more than one copy so he could have extra postcards.

Once I had a dream I visited a 4AD museum and they had all these crazy box sets, artwork, posters t-shirts.

read through about a third of this so far... can't put it down, really! some puzzling errors in song and album titles. terror couple kills colonel, twisted shadows. come on. they got tiny dynamine right though!

best 4ad band : wolfgang press.

('question of time' has just dropped on the playlist and reiterated how brilliant they were ... )

So many little what ifs. What if they had licensed those Ministry and Divine singles?

Gas face to Ian Masters for slapping Miki Berenyi.

Probably my favorite anecdote:

"Mention Lonely Is an Eyesore to Guthrie and his response is typical: 'I've never had a royalty statement for that album,' he claims, 'which is interesting.' Guthrie also says he never received one of the hundred limited edition versions, a wooden (American beech) box designed by Vaughan Oliver to house vinyl, CD, cassette, and video versions plus a booklet and two art prints by Terry Dowling. 'All this by little 4AD,' says Oliver, whose commitment to design was second to none. (One of them can be found in London's Victoria and Albert Museum's permanent collection, evidence of 4AD's place in British design.) Guthrie takes pleasure in recounting that Martyn Young -- who WAS sent a box set -- turned his into a cat litter tray. 'I saw it round his house!' Guthrie smirks. 'But then Martyn is a very obtuse character.'"

Enjoying this, so far:

https://www.nts.live/shows/80srampwalk/episodes/80s-rampwalk-4ad-special-13th-august-2018

No idea who 80s Rampwalk are.

Reminds me: used to have that tube of 4ad posters, with the best stuck to my (childhood) bedroom wall. They'd be in frames now. Anyway, I think my mum threw them out many decades ago.

there were a couple, i think. yes

1991 poster pack
XAD23 (1991)

Package of 15 promo posters in A2 size. Has «Gigantic», «Here Comes Your Man», «Velouria», «Bossanova», «Dig For Fire» (from Pixes), «Ultra Vivid Scene», «Joy 1963-1990» (from UVS), «Aion» (Dead Can Dance), «Livonia» (His Name Is Alive), «House Tornado» (Throwing Muses), «Scar», «Mad Love», «Sweetness and Light» (Lush), «Comforts of Madness» (Pale Saints) and «Pod» (The Breeders). Most of the posters are similar to the releases listed, but «Livonia» is completely different.

and

v23 (posters) volume two
FAD23 (1993)

12 A2 (594mm x 420 mm) poster pack released in a cardboard tube. Sleeve by Vaughan Oliver, Chris Bigg, Paul McMenamin, Simon Larbalestier, Jim Friedman, Dominic Davies, Kevin Westenberg, Nigel Grierson, Chris Gorman (Belly) and Shinro Ohtake. Posters from «Home Is In Your Head», «Love», «Heidi Berry», «Frank Black», «Star», «Cobalt Blue», «Safari», «Trompe Le Monde», «Blood», «Blow», «Down Colorful Hill», «For Love». Initial quantities of this set (first presented at the 13 Year Itch) included a 13 Year Itch poster.

and a couple of calendars. one of which was the same size, the other half that,

I had that first poster pack, given to me by a record store friend. Lost it in a move somewhere down the line.