Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque poll

the Jason Priestly-hosted episode of SNL they played
when i was 11 or so, this was the first episode of SNL i ever stayed up to watch. saw teenage fanclub and thought, so this is the cool new music. and then i didn't hear teenage fanclub for another four years or something.
(voted "the concept")

Alcoholiday is the best though - as instantly memorable a verse/chorus as anything in their later bubblegummy albums, with a more interesting backing track/guitar solo and a vocal performance that matches the grungy feel of the instrumentals.

This album is a pinnacle of power pop V-I resolutions. I also like "I Don't Know" (if just for the way the guitar hook crunches up), "The Concept" (if a bit long), "Star Sign", "Pet Rock", "December", even "Sidewinder" and "Guiding Star" - so pretty much the whole thing.

December = probably my favourite TFC song

Went with Star Sign - they were pretty awesome when they played Chicago this past year.

The Concept is sullied by that never ending coda. Was always better live when they'd do Satan as the coda.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qmwre-FeEg

so weird to me that this was ever remotely popular in America (lol SPIN). amazing record. voted Alcoholiday

forever associated with my first girlfriend

This is such a great album, one of the best of the 90's for sure. I'll probably pick Alcoholiday, but I could also go with any one of about six other songs depending on the day.

what's weird to me about this album is how all the reviews that you read of it were like "big star big star big star this sounds exactly like big star". and while i get the reference (teenage fanclub encouraged it, i suppose), it really doesn't sound *exactly* like big star. does it?

I didn't listen to any big star until after alex chilton died, when I finally did I thought "holy crap, teenage fanclub really did sound exactly like them".

ha, really, i don't hear it so much? i mean there are elements, but ...

I know it's probably heresy or whatever, but I prefer Teenage Fanclub to Big Star.

http://tomcoffin0526.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/burning-heretic.jpg

(jk, that is fine. like i said, i think they're pretty different!)

yeah the Big Star comparisons always irked me too because a) Big Star NEVER used TFCs level of distortion, which serves as the sonic center of the record, and b) there is zero R&B in TFC. At the time I remember TFC saying they really loved 3rd/Sister Lovers, but that album really bears no resemblance to their own material. None of TFCs stuff has that wasted, spectral SPACE of 3rd/Sister Lovers.

a) Big Star NEVER used TFCs level of distortion, which serves as the sonic center of the record, and b) there is zero R&B in TFC.

Good points.

yeah and big star's rhythm section was so unusual, whereas tfc was always straightforward (at least for the most part).

Eh, what's all that noise on 'Kanga Roo' then?

well, there's feedback, but it's not really TFC-style distortion is it?

Eh, what's all that noise on 'Kanga Roo' then?

mostly mellotron, space echo, and some guitar feedback. which yeah is not distortion.

"I wanted to assassinate December" - sounds a bit like "get me out here, get me out of here" line in 'Nighttime'

'Song To The Cynic' - verse resembles 'Septmber Gurls' (or 'Strange' by Galaxie 500)

But TFC have never been an overtly Big Star-derived band. On their second and third (proper) albums they appeared to lift from other songs a little, a few of these were by Big Star. I think as the press at large latched on to Big Star in the early 90s, TFC were singled out.

the connections between Big Star and the Replacements seems more direct/clear to me

y'know, sloppy R&B goofball jam followed by heartbroken 12-string ballad etc

December is great, the lyrics have always puzzled me. it sounds like he sings "I wanted to/assassin you" cuz he couldn't fit all the syllables in there or something

also the song nicks from the Beatles, which I guess is kind of a Big Star thing to do haha

my favorite tidbit about this album

The cover is designed by Sharon Fitzgerald. When Kiss member Gene Simmons (who had trademarked the logo of a moneybag with dollar symbol) was made aware of the record he sent a letter to Geffen Records - who in turn gave in and sent Simmons a cheque, according to Simmons's book Sex Money Kiss.

December was an answer song to September Gurls, wasn't it? Sure I read Gerry Love saying that somewhere. "I wanted to assassinate December" - December is the December boy of September Gurls.

I agree with thinking that this album doesn't sound like Big Star, though like lots of others, it was that hype around this album that got me to buy that fab Big Star 2-fer back in the day.

I voted "Alcoholiday".

Isn't there one song on this that nicks one song by Big Star. I can't be bothered to double check. Other than that, never heard much similarity. Spin got it right in calling this better than Nevermind, which I'd gladly never hear again...

yeah I never listen to Nevermind

"Star Sign" sounds uncannily like a song (don't know the title) by Ride, almost exactly the same tune.

Both on Creation, both out around the same time...

star sign

I voted The Concept but I meant to vote Alcoholiday :/

To me this album hangs on 4 tunes - Concept, What You Do To Me, Starsign, and Alcoholiday. The rest are good but those are a cut above.

Their best anyway - Grand Prix is solid but doesn't have that layer of fuzz and really could almost be any power-pop band, and I miss Brendan O'Hare

Can't believe Alcoholiday wasn't on that best of they put out - it's probably their best ever IMO

'I Don't Know' because it was the soundtrack for the first time I fell in love.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

voting "Star Sign" as "Alcoholiday" seems to get enough love.

star sign

― cave duel (latebloomer), Thursday, July 21, 2011 1:21 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark

star sign

― cave duel (latebloomer), Thursday, July 21, 2011 1:21 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark

― in 77 everything is fine (Drugs A. Money), Sunday, July 24, 2011 2:12 PM (16 minutes ago)

Forever associated with the girlfriend who left our long table of friends at the cafe with the girl she'd fallen in love with instead of with me, informing me of her change of plans just before. So classic, I guess?

At the time I remember TFC saying they really loved 3rd/Sister Lovers, but that album really bears no resemblance to their own material.

I think they were talking about how they were influenced by Big Star more around the time of "Thirteen". I haven't heard that album in forever, but I think the Big Star comparisons on that album are more on the mark?

Other than that, never heard much similarity. Spin got it right in calling this better than Nevermind, which I'd gladly never hear again...

Yeah, it's much, much better than "Nevermind".

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

metal baby and pet rock deserve more votes. interesting that alcoholiday and the concept are 1-2, as they always seemed very similar melodically.

Amazed that December didn't get more votes. I'll have to go back and listen to Alcoholiday again as I can't really remember it. Not heard the album for a while and I seem to think of it (obviously wrongly) as somewhat top-heavy.

Voted for "is this music"; great sports show end credits stuff

I like this album, but I wouldn't put it in the same universe as Big Star or the best tracks on Nevermind.

i might

Sorta surprised by the Alcoholiday love. I don't recall ever hearing anyone single out that song.

Bandwagonesque is definitely one of my fave albums from the 90s, even though Grand Prix and Songs From Northern Britain are technically better albums, imo.

I always found Bandwagonesque super top heavy - side one is golden, and it slips down a few notches on side two - hence my non-appreciation for Alcoholiday.

Pet Rock deserved at least one vote.

I'm pretty sure I bought Bandwagonesque and Loveless on the same day. I was working in a record store and was going nutty waiting for the shipment to arrive.

damn the guitars on this album sound nice.

Oddly, TFC rarely play anything beyond 'The Concept' off this album these days. They did an unplanned encore of Starsign in Glasgow last year though

This album is distinctly inferior to Grand Prix. I really don't get the love for it; it seems sort of middling, and also as other have stated, this bears only a passing resemblance to Big Star, mostly in the vocal harmonies,

i like grand prix AND bandwagonesque. but i prefer bandwagonesque as it is dirtier, noisier, as it is more like a perfect marriage of distortion and melody. grand prix is a little too clean and slick and therefore boring for my likes. and of course the year 1991 was much more life-shattering than 1994 or whenever grand prix was released.

The songs on Bandwagonesque seem unfinished to me... like they could have done more with them but just decided to be lazy.

normally, I'd agree that dirtier would be better, but in this case, it doesn't really work for me.

I would take the point about the messier elements of Bandwagon, but to me there are 4 or maybe 5 tunes on there that destroy everything else they did, before or since.

That's what 'saves' it for me - that, and the fuzz

Songs from Northern Britain tops 'em all, imo

listening to these dudes a lot lately. i had never heard grand prix until recently. i don't know if it's better than bandwagonesque but it sure sounds nice.

would not have guessed back in the day that they would have such a consistent, solid catalog 20 years later but here we are

Only one (lacklustre) album in the last 10 years though. Every album they knocked a few edges off until eventually there's nothing left.

I missed the fuzz...part of that trend of indie bands who really turned the distortion down as the decade progressed

I like the last album a lot fwiw

http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/music_scotland/6944812/Scotlands-greatest-ever-album-Rollin-v-Bandwagonesque.html

A place in teh semi - finals now up for grabs.

Listening to this now, it's so obvious now that Supergrass were "inspired" by the riff on 'Satan' when writing 'Richard III' ...

Oh, and this is 'Alcoholiday' all the way. At one point I wouldn't have hesitated to claim Grand Prix was the superior record, but right now I'm not completely sure.

that's because Bandwagonesque, Grand Prix and Songs From Northern Britain are three of the greatest rock albums of all time and differentiating between them is basically impossible and oh by the way they were all written and recorded by three core fookin' geniuses and thank god they met each other and formed a band many many years ago.

wot no thirteen?

that's because Bandwagonesque, Grand Prix and Songs From Northern Britain are three of the greatest rock albums of all time and differentiating between them is basically impossible and oh by the way they were all written and recorded by three core fookin' geniuses and thank god they met each other and formed a band many many years ago.

I agree. I don't think they would have had a hope in hell of being as big as Oasis in the mid '90s, but they should at least have been as big as Suede.

In hindsight, I think they picked the wrong singles from Grand Prix, or in the wrong order. Creation had this 'come back with a slow burner' for lead single angle at times and they probably should have just gone for Sparky's Dream from the getgo. Don't Look Back (electric) should have been a proper single as well. The album did well but they should have managed a proper hit or two at the time.

Ain't That Enough of course went top 20, but I think by then that was off the back of it being new material following a relatively successful album. Did it even get much airplay? After then, their top 40 days were over entirely.

Yeah, absolutely. How 'Sparky's Dream' wasn't a huge hit in 1995 is beyond me. I mean, if The Boo Radleys were managing to have hits, then surely Teenage Fanclub should've had them as well. 'Mellow Doubt' is a beautiful song, but not something that screams out "lead single" ...

to be fair they had one hit

xxxxxpost Thirteen is terrific, but it is not on the level of the other three. (Then again, I don't really think Bandwagonesque is *quite* on the level of GP / SFNB, myself.)

But like if you're a band and Thirteen is not one of your three best albums, you're doing pretty darn good. It's terrific! (I said that already.)

I think it gets a lot of unwarranted criticism simply as a result of being the follow-up to Bandwagonesque.

Re-listening to Thirteen now and, yeah, this doesn't deserve half the shit it's had over the years.

Gene Clark would be in the running for my all time #1 fannies track.

I will say, I was lucky enough to see one of the Creation Tour 3-night runs (Band/13, then GP/NB, then Howdy/b-sides) and the best song of the whole thing was probably "Radio"

Thirteen starts and ends well, just sags a bit in the middle imo

Funny, I think some of the stronger songs are the middle ones, but overall the main issue is the somewhat murky/lacklustre production (but yes, "Radio" really leaps out at you). The idea that the album was "savaged [...] upon its initial release" (I'm quoting AllMusic) doesn't seem to square with the actual contemporary reviews that I can find linked on Wikipedia (A- from EW, 4/5 from Q, 7/10 from NME, 3.5/5 from RS). They're much the same as the retrospective reviews, like the one Pitchfork did last year (7.2), which I think is exactly right - solid album, just no comparison to the 8.5-9 level of Bw/GP/SfNB.

Select panned Thirteen for definite. Remember MOJO was positive. It was years before I heard anything about it being a 'disappointing' album. Always sounded like the bridge between Bandwagonesque and Grand Prix to me.

Of course the band did at least one interview (NME cover) where they said they didn't enjoy making the album and Gerry is fairly dismissive about the lead single, his own Radio, so I guess it's not wise to give the press free reign to pan your new album by talking it down

as a gerryhead ive got to agree with this judgement there