Remember HUGO LARGO?

Rothko are the only band I know doing something similar with multiple basses, are there more?

The Mimi album had several decent songs, but those Hector Zazou production numbers... good lord, whatever happened to that guy? His early work is beautiful, but now he's a glossy menace.

Stone Temple Pilots, I believe.

The MTV show Summers hosted was called Post-Modern MTV, it was a half hour every night supplement to 120 minutes.

Robyn Hitchock hosted it once and was really weird.

Just heard "Eskimo Song" drift by on WinAmp's random. I bought Drum when it came out cuz Michael Stipe produced/was on it. The lethargic double bass attack did nothing for the 17 year-old, but really works on the 32 year-old.

http://www.splendidmagazine.com/features/hifisky/

I didn't even wait to finish reading the interview after that line, I just went and bought one

I almost started a new thread but ILM's search engine just can't handle band names like 'Hi Fi Sky'

revive, just for the hell of it.

Lordy what is their later music like if they're talking about Can and Neu?

I saw Huge Largo play at UMass in the mid-80s. The lead singer gave out candy. The music was intruiging at the time so I bought the albums.

I pulled them out recently for the first time in years and found they were no longer intruiging, just dull. To the sell pile.

Ah, I remember the candy from when I saw them. She said something like, "We're so happy to be here, and we want you to be happy, so we brought you treats!" and threw Jolly Ranchers (I think) into the audience.

I pulled them out recently for the first time in years and found they were no longer intruiging, just dull.

I know! I did the same thing. I'm not totally sure I really liked them a whole lot to begin with but it seems to me I did go through a bit of a phase back then. Then I decided to sell their CD's but keep them on tape. So I kept them on tape for years without listening to them at all and when I pulled out the tape recently I was like "hmm....why did I go to such trouble to keep that?"

I still like them, but yeah they are kind of a period piece. does anybody know about any other bands who tried something like the double bass and cello lineup? even with their flaws, from this vantage point it seems like they were on to something that nobody else really followed up.

i just picked up an lp of theirs at a thrift store a few days ago.

I think for Mimi's voice they're still very well worth it, and they've probably been more of a quiet influence on a lot of acts than might be guessed. (I could easily see them slotting alongside some Dead Can Dance in a lot of modern goth-metal bandmembers' early record collections.)

I never really listen to them anymore, but I still derive comfort from singing the phrase "coyote afterno-oo-oo-ooooon" in my head.

Got to see them at Walker Art Center in Mpls after Drum-- great show.

does she still do that thing with the scissors during that one song? pretty creepy.

'Second Skin' is still a great song. Others too.

The Hi Fi Sky record is all right. Doesn't live up to the promise of Harmonia + ABBA and some of the textures are a little too synthy. If you like track 4, it's worth hitting amazon for it.

"Turtle Song" is still boss

This is one of the groups that I was always disheartened more people didn't appreciate. It still holds up extremely well. Mimi seems like she was pretty flaky back then, but the music really is special. I'll never grow tired of it.

I love them, in fact they were the first music I discovered for myself, rather than absorbed from friends and DJs.

There's a short live performance at YouTube, which was a revelation for me when I found it a year ago. I had only read tales of Mimi Goese's stage antics with butcher knives and the like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I41HjZWN2V8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiL523Ttchw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvnaxDElj7E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBzo2w_BIv0

Those who find Hugo Largo special should also seek out the 1989 album Swollen by Hetch Hetchy. Micheal Stipe's sister Linda plays Siouxsie, but the production (and from the sound of it, the band as well) is everyone but Mimi from Hugo Largo.

Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwm50uaY1BI

Unrelated, but treading similar ground is Basque, a electric double bass and female vocal duo who put out three albums in 1998-2000. CDBaby has samples and sales.

My ex found me a copy of Drum on vinyl at a 2ndhand store last week and it is in excellent nick, and sounds great on record. I still like it a lot.

Yeah I discovered Basque a while back, though I only have the one album around. IIRC there's a Scott Walker cover on one, I think...?

listening to Mettle playlist on YouTube, this is a gorgeous album

they probably don't get enough credit for laying some groundwork for post-rock's quieter parts like tortoise or the mellow explosions in the sky stuff (friday night lights)

Mettle is so great

good call on the post-rock influence, as far as I could tell they were pretty widely known for a while, with good distribution?

honestly i don't know that much about them, always heard them mentioned because of Tim Sommer from MTV looks like they were on Relativity (w/Stipe cosign) and Eno's Opal records so they must've gotten some press

Mimi Goese's solo record/project Soak is brilliant too.

It has a version of a sweet song that Arthur Russell gave her (as sheet music apparently) they used it in the AR documentary right after he passed, over a long slo-mo shot of passing cornfields, so perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF3dNllTzIA

thanks! being the the Arthur Russell orbit definitely fits this band's vibe

i should have listened to this years ago

thankfully late 80s indie/modern rock stuff is criminally underrated right now so these records are probably peanuts on discogs

I have about four copies of ‘drum’ that all cost about £2 each. It’s nice to see some appreciation here

non-album song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKUQACu3Las

I bought Mettle when i was 15, and it still holds a place in my heart.

Hugo Largo - live at Maxwell's 1987 on youtube

Setlist:
1. Halfway Knowing
2. Shaking Your Head
3. Eskimo Song
4. Sometimes It Snows in April
5. Blue Blanket
6. Turtle Song
7. Crawfish
8. Arms Akimbo
9. Wanted Dead or Alive
10. Jungle Jim
11, Fancy
12. Second Skin

2 more non-album songs, covers of Prince, Elvis, Bon Jovi, closing 'Second Skin' is cool, will always love this band

Not so much Hugo Largo chat nowadays, unsurprisingly I suppose because they split up three decades ago. Anyway it seems they made a promo for Turtle Song, which I never saw until now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfa6n7IH4NU

I owned Mettle back in the late 80s. I remember thinking it was a little too performance art-y for my taste. I'd probably like it now

still love it

This one track (Why Knock For You) on the Kelsey Lu album gave me strong Hugo Largo vibes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHN4h64pLiE

THere wasa live set supporting David Byrne's Knee Plays or something that was broadcast on the BBC at the time.
May be around somewhere. THink it was at the iCA or the South Bank centre.

I saw them in the UK several times

The new(-ish) album that Mimi did with Ben Neill is quite lovely. Includes this version of Ocean Rain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTdaK5dZqaw

there... was nearly a third record? and a blog post in 2011 was hosting the soundboards for the 1991 knitting factory concerts where they played all the material?

http://hugolargo.blogspot.com/2011/02/hugo-largo-unreleased-third-album-kcrw.html

does anyone have it?

tipped via this - https://arcane-delights.com/2020/12/29/hugo-largo-drum-relativity-1987/

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BxmIzSvQJayvNy0zMG5zaUxycmM

!!!?!!?!

18 May 1991 set

It's Unclear / Heads Or Tails / Simple / Hot Day / Waterfall / Heatwave / Lonely Fight / Reasons For The Beach / Turtle Song / Draw Me In

unlabeled songs on 12 April set

song 1 = Violets Violins Violence / song 2 = Heads Or Tails / song 4 = Hot Day

that original post still has a lot of stuff unaccounted for on either of these... Hahn shows up in the comments to confirm there were no studio recordings of this Tim-less lineup. these are definitely cassette audience recordings, for the hardcore only, but... of the new songs here, I like em

and I never knew REM covered 'Harpers'. there's a version on youtube from 1987. crazy to hear a thousand people applaud at the end.