Young Marble Giants : Colossal Youths or Little Duds

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I think it is hurt from most people hearing it as 25 tracks crammed onto one CD. It works better in bits and pieces (which you should listen to over and over). And the test pattern songs spoil it all a bit.

Then again I am totally full of shit because I wrote this thing about how the are boring (sort of is, but in a good way) and said it was what Kurt Cobain was listening to when he shot himself.

― christhamrin (christhamrin), Thursday, 19 February 2004 00:32 (twenty years ago) link

"oh why oh why did i let courtney cover YMG!! that was my idea!!! i'm going to end it all now..."

― the surface noise (electricsound), Thursday, 19 February 2004 00:39 (twenty years ago) link

I think it is hurt from most people hearing it as 25 tracks crammed onto one CD

but i have the record. didn't help

― JaXoN (JasonD), Thursday, 19 February 2004 00:53 (twenty years ago) link

Thanks to Courtney, Stuart Moxham got some serious publishing money. I'm not going to argue with her covering "Credit In The Straight World," even if it's an inferior version.

― mike a, Thursday, 19 February 2004 02:17 (twenty years ago) link

indeed! he probably saw decent wedge from that Lush cover too

― the surface noise (electricsound), Thursday, 19 February 2004 02:18 (twenty years ago) link

Indeed. It's like Mandy Moore covering XTC (erm...if that Mandy Moore record had actually sold, I guess).

― mike a, Thursday, 19 February 2004 02:19 (twenty years ago) link

Interestingly enough...back in May 1992, when I was seeing Ween at Jabberjaw (oh, the indieness) in LA, I was talking to a feller who ran a small label that was supposedly putting together a YMG tribute. Nirvana were indeed intending to contribute to same, if he was to be believed.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 19 February 2004 02:31 (twenty years ago) link

the Magnetic Fields cover of "the man amplifier" was apparently due to be one of the contributions. i don't recall why it was never released.

― the surface noise (electricsound), Thursday, 19 February 2004 02:38 (twenty years ago) link

best record ever made! weekend is pants though

― mullygrubber (gaz), Thursday, 19 February 2004 06:16 (twenty years ago) link

mandy moore covering ymg!

you heard it here first

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 19 February 2004 09:10 (twenty years ago) link

Yeah, Chris of Landspeed Records. He got pretty far with that YMG tribute, but for whatever reason never managed to finish it. Many of the tracks have been released elsewhere - Magnetic Fields, Barbara Manning, Versus, and Linda Smith among others.

― mike a, Thursday, 19 February 2004 13:58 (twenty years ago) link

one month passes...

Just heard this, colossal indeed. Wonderful collection of miniatures, never drags, some of the instrumentals are fine but the voice is a vital element.

Do have some admiration for the neatness of the discog.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 8 April 2004 09:04 (twenty years ago) link

still wish i liked this more than i do, i so want to love it

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 8 April 2004 10:05 (twenty years ago) link

We all want you to love it too

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 8 April 2004 10:06 (twenty years ago) link

ams sometimes i worry that you were born without a soul, then i realise it's just my opinionated bastardness shining through

― the surface noise (electricsound), Thursday, 8 April 2004 10:08 (twenty years ago) link

Classic. But kinda like Stuart Moxham's next band, The Gist, even better. A bit more techno n funkee. Again, everything fits on one cd reissue. Again, hard to get, but that's what gemm.com is for.

― sexyDancer, Thursday, 8 April 2004 14:02 (twenty years ago) link

YMG/The gist hard to find. you are silly

― heroes + villains, Thursday, 8 April 2004 22:34 (twenty years ago) link

i mean, i went to the trouble of finding the gist album (actually, i found it easily enough for fairly cheap, to the surprise of several friends who had spent years looking for it) and several s.m. solo albums, not to mention the weekend stuff (yawn), in pursuit of what i hoped would be, and sometimes pretended was already, a great musical love. i mean, i like ymg, the music i mean, but i can't find myself loving it with any great passion, or really feeling any sort of liftoff when i listen to the record.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 9 April 2004 12:38 (twenty years ago) link

the one thing i really really like in this little subsubgenre is "public girls" by the gist.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 9 April 2004 12:38 (twenty years ago) link

I'm sure you'll get over it

― sexyDancer, Friday, 9 April 2004 13:01 (twenty years ago) link

whatever, it's been like 8 years, and my interest has drifted away from this kind of thing anyhow

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 9 April 2004 13:24 (twenty years ago) link

drifted into posting several times about it?
admit it... you're a huge fan

― sexyDancer, Friday, 9 April 2004 13:46 (twenty years ago) link

I always find I have to be in a very specific mood to fully enjoy and absorb YMG's music. It is so subtle and fleeting an appeal that you have to be actively wanting their immense sparseness... The gaps in instrumentation and lack of flourish are what count really. The absence plays upon one's mind in quite a symbolic way, for me.

They tend to have some of the most affecting organ playing on record that I've heard, also...

― Tom May (Tom May), Friday, 9 April 2004 14:36 (twenty years ago) link

one month passes...

Has anyone seen the new dvd on Cherry Red yet? I'm only asking because every other video I have seen from Cherry Red has been horrible in quality (Felt, The Fall, Chameleons, Cherry Red Story). Just hoping this one is better.

― svend (svend), Wednesday, 12 May 2004 13:06 (nineteen years ago) link

From what I understand, it's simply the Live at The Hurrah! video transferred onto DVD. No word on extras yet. The quality isn't the clearest, but somehow works for the subject matter. It's the same effect as _Here Are The Young Men_ - Ian Curtis looks trapped by a searchlight.

― mike a, Wednesday, 12 May 2004 15:20 (nineteen years ago) link

one year passes...

When I play this disc, I have to have a sweater nearby.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 13 May 2005 03:57 (eighteen years ago) link

that weekend cd really is pants though. pants + sweater = ??

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 13 May 2005 04:06 (eighteen years ago) link

Something about the spartan beats combined with that organ sound and Alison's voice makes for the sonic equivalent of a chilly draft hitting me on the back of the neck.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 13 May 2005 04:08 (eighteen years ago) link

I just got this. I love it and have no idea why I hadn't checked it out earlier. "Final Day" KILLS ME.

― - (smile), Friday, 13 May 2005 04:16 (eighteen years ago) link

do people really dislike the weekend records? weird.

― jwd, Friday, 13 May 2005 08:13 (eighteen years ago) link

Fucking classic. Don't forget a single perfect Peel session either.

Final Day may well be the most perfect song ever recorded.

― Sasha (sgh), Friday, 13 May 2005 08:26 (eighteen years ago) link

four weeks pass...

this still sux

― [that bastard] jaxon (jaxon), Friday, 10 June 2005 00:23 (eighteen years ago) link

Obviously, it's an acquired taste.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 10 June 2005 00:27 (eighteen years ago) link

i don't own enough sweaters

― [that bastard] jaxon (jaxon), Friday, 10 June 2005 00:29 (eighteen years ago) link

yr crazy jaXon.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 10 June 2005 00:30 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm having more fun listening to George Duke & Stanley Clarke's "Louie Louie"

― [that bastard] jaxon (jaxon), Friday, 10 June 2005 00:35 (eighteen years ago) link

actually, i hate that song, but the rest of the album is awesome

also, YMG is just way too indie for my tastes anymore. if i woulda heard this 5-10 years ago, i woulda been in sweater heaven

― [that bastard] jaxon (jaxon), Friday, 10 June 2005 00:37 (eighteen years ago) link

fun? its not all about fun you know.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 10 June 2005 00:37 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, but it was "indie" when the term was still respectable.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 10 June 2005 00:47 (eighteen years ago) link

Before the term was invented, I think, no? JaXon, this is a good album.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 10 June 2005 00:56 (eighteen years ago) link

you guys are wrong, i am right

― [that bastard] jaxon (jaxon), Friday, 10 June 2005 01:05 (eighteen years ago) link

ok, you convinced me

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 10 June 2005 01:15 (eighteen years ago) link

Jaxon, you have NO INDIE BLOOD WHATSOEVER.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 10 June 2005 01:18 (eighteen years ago) link

Colossal, of course. Love the album (standout for me is "N.I.T.A." -- first song I heard of theirs and the most haunting of all next to "Wind in the Rigging"), love the "Final Day" single, and the Test Card EP cracks me up and makes me smile, especially "This Way", "Click Talk", and "Zebra Trucks". I understand that Kraftwerk comparison way upthread. As for Weekend, the only song I've heard of theirs is the demo of "Red Planes" and it's fucking amazing! Did they do anything else that good? Oh, and how's that Salad Days disc of YMG demos? Is it worth picking up?

― Ian Riese-Moraine. Exposing ambitious careerists as charlatans since 1986. (East, Friday, 10 June 2005 01:20 (eighteen years ago) link

Best. Album. Evah.

It's also one of the few albums I can get away with playing at work (along with choice Miles, Gainsbourg, Sinatra and Stereolab) so it's been in heavy rotation lately.

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Friday, 10 June 2005 01:26 (eighteen years ago) link

i still can't quite get it, so i guess i'm kind of with jaxon. though i wouldn't say "dud" at all.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 10 June 2005 04:28 (eighteen years ago) link

It is one of those albums that you kinda have to be in the right mood for, I'd say.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 10 June 2005 04:33 (eighteen years ago) link

Gainsbourg at work? Do you work at a bordello?

― Nic de Teardrop (Nicholas), Friday, 10 June 2005 07:05 (eighteen years ago) link

this still sux

-- [that bastard] jaxon

I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 10 June 2005 16:33 (eighteen years ago) link

Salad Days is best left to the already-converted, interesting more as a sketchbook than anything else.

― mike a, Friday, 10 June 2005 16:37 (eighteen years ago) link

Skipping 120 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Finally got round to listening to the Stuart Moxham / Louis Phillipe album that came out a few months ago bearing the title 'The Devil Laughs'. Ruddy hell, what a lovely record! Anyone else got it yet?

― kites aren't fun (NickB), Wednesday, 14 October 2020 14:44 (three years ago) link

they just announced a 40th anniversary double LP of Colossal Youth too
https://www.dominomusic.com/releases/young-marble-giants/colossal-youth/exclusive-limited-double-lp

― sean gramophone, Wednesday, 14 October 2020 14:45 (three years ago) link

how the hell did I miss this Salad Days release?!?!

― sleeve, Wednesday, 14 October 2020 14:52 (three years ago) link

Very tender and delicate songs on this new one as you'd expect and a bit of a David Crosby vibe on some of the arrangements making it all very pastoral and dreamy. Really reminding me of Gorky's circa 'The Blue Trees' (a fine thing)

― kites aren't fun (NickB), Wednesday, 14 October 2020 14:53 (three years ago) link

thanks for the heads up, Nick! I was afraid Louis had retired from music to focus on sportscasting, so I'm pleasantly surprised that he's putting out two albums (the Moxham collab and an upcoming solo album) in 2020

― (peech) or (buht ih-moh-jee) (unregistered), Wednesday, 14 October 2020 15:44 (three years ago) link

Never got round to investigating Louis Phillipe before tbh, maybe now's the time!

― kites aren't fun (NickB), Wednesday, 14 October 2020 15:58 (three years ago) link

I'd missed that too, it sounds really good, thanks Nick.

While we're on the subject of Louis, some of you may like / may have missed this Louis version of "Don't Talk" which we put out a few years ago and which not enough people heard IMO:

https://hangoverloungerecords.bandcamp.com/track/dont-talk

― Tim, Wednesday, 14 October 2020 16:02 (three years ago) link

that's a great vocal performance, but the breathing kind of spoils it for me. song for song, Ivory Tower is still probably my favorite album of his, and Azure is the best showcase for his arrangements. I also really love this re-recording of 'Fires Rise and Die':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kxh4G37iI8

― (peech) or (buht ih-moh-jee) (unregistered), Wednesday, 14 October 2020 16:38 (three years ago) link

three months pass...

new madlib

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMBjoK1s3fA

― sean gramophone, Tuesday, 26 January 2021 19:24 (three years ago) link

― kites aren't fun (NickB)
Wait, which album is this??

― dow, Tuesday, 26 January 2021 22:55 (three years ago) link

Love it.

― Van Horn Street, Tuesday, 26 January 2021 23:44 (three years ago) link

dow: Stuart Moxham / Louis Phillipe - 'The Devil Laughs'

― mage uluk (NickB), Wednesday, 27 January 2021 00:00 (three years ago) link

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