www.lj.ru

deja vu sense this may have been covered before, but do people irl say lj or is it an ilx innovation

trying to think of a football personality with the same initials who might be pictured wearing a monogrammed tracksuit

An ILX thing mostly. Some usage amongst intimates. LJVN is a new one though.

quite possibly nobody else has identified the divine kinship between yourself and the avian world

my dearest avian has, adeo ut she has mooted a specific nature walk (the 'parkland' walk) around haringey for this weekend. birdwatching might be shuffling towards becoming my primary hobby again

shuffling furtively, like a dunnock

that and wordbotching

:)

http://wordbotching.tumblr.com/day/2012/02/27

your most avuncular post yet, marred by an idiotically weak tumblr concept

how do u feel abt the epithet 'twitcher'

it's fine when used to describe a particular sort of birdwatcher, the sort who will receive text alerts about a twice-recorded rarity blown into colwyn bay on a midatlantic depression & drop everything

i am not that sort of birdwatcher, although i did stumble across sevenoaks' ibis recently, and have also stumbled across a purple heron at dungeness before. seems much more satisfying when you don't have gps coordinates and a ritualistic cavalcade of parka'd telescope-wielding pricks pinpointing the exact location of that lesser tawny-streaked marsh warbler or w/e

loved it when that famous rarity in durham or something got eaten by a sparrowhawk a few years ago

accidental shawx

lol

on the 7th of November 2010, I posted "dear government, get fucked"

<3

that was more for the :) which is the telltale sign of curt lj pique, to be contrasted with :D

all affection mon frère

there will have been prior expressions of impatience to #0

#0 looks like a particularly anguished or indignant emoticon

lol

compulsive autoscarification of the eyes is a known risk of long term exposure to twp

we must always remember whom the real victims have been

http://i.imgur.com/BC0Eh.gif

― nakhchivan, Tuesday, 7 December 2010 02:07 (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

would treat to tea and scones

― acoleuthic, Tuesday, 7 December 2010 02:09 (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

why don't more people like the cardiacs

https://writerchick.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/worditout-word-cloud-284025.png?w=300

who stole the body of the president of cyprus??? was it you!?? (rolling graverobbing thread)

well you see nakhers chum

cardiacs' music is extremely intense with unusual melodic sensibilities but a demented punkish energy - the former putting off typical punk types and the latter putting off classical or prog fans

they sit uneasily within the rock in opposition venn set - it's like asking why henry cow or koenjihyakkei don't have more fans. they demand lots of close listening and a level of commitment that most listeners just do not have

they also alienated every single major music magazine during their heyday and the press famously loathed them, probably because they did not want to make the effort to understand them & it was easier to demonise the freaks

they have had something of a revival in the discourse of late, mostly because it's being publicised just how many popular musicians are into them

they aren't remotely like 'henry cow or koenjihyakkei' though, they make quirky indie rock music which is in a fairly recogniseable idiom to anyone who is familiar with indie rock

it would be more apt to wonder why they couldn't get at least some of the support that british sea power or whatever do, different generations but it isn't as if this country has a problem appreciating odd melodic rock music

played a few of their tracks on that youtube yesterday and there were quite a few comments from people who had heard them on radio 6 and been enraptured

this would seem to be a natural audience for them and it would be possible to imagine them being marketed a 'national treasure' to that set, had they not had the mark of cain from the trad music press

they demand lots of close listening and a level of commitment that most listeners just do not have

Come come, Louis.

they evidently receive a lot of close listening and commitment, though it's scarcely as if this is a necessary condition to appreciate them

Their wiki is pretty funny

Cardiacs are also renowned for their startling performance style, which has been historically integrated (via video work, publicity, interviews and onstage presentation) with a vague and oppressive band mythology. The latter involves Cardiacs' record label and supposed management company, the Alphabet Business Concern - a repressive, controlling organisation (with a marked Edwardian character) which supervises (and restricts) Cardiacs' recording work and live appearances (as well as communicating band news and statements to the band's mailing list in florid and archaic corporatese). Several early 1980s video releases by Cardiacs – in particular The Consultant's Flower Garden and the clip for To Go Off and Things – provided video "evidence" that Alphabet ran Cardiacs' internal affairs in the manner of an Edwardian children's home (complete with behavioural problems and bullying).

The Alphabet Business Corporation shares some similarities with the "Cryptic Corporation" supposedly responsible for managing The Residents. As with the Cryptic Corporation, there is a strong probability that the Alphabet mythology is entirely fictional and that the band (often hailed as archetypal independent musicians) control all aspects of their work themselves. Alphabet's original representatives - or representative characters - were Cardiac's "sordid, waxy" manager The Consultant (real name James Stevens) and his assistant and band advisor "Miss Swift", both of whom made onstage appearances with Cardiacs during the 1980s.[1][17] In the late 1980s both The Consultant and Miss Swift left the Cardiacs organisation and were replaced by Mark Walmsley, who played a less public role (but did appear for inserts in the Maresnest concert video, expressing contempt for his charges and their music).

In performance, Cardiacs generally reject (or occasionally parody) standard rock band posturing. In keeping with the Alphabet mythology, the band's shows have instead featured behaviour which has been described as "therapeutic, surrealist pantomime", compared to absurdist theatre, and labelled "not so much theatrically eccentric as completely fucking neurotic". During any given performance, Tim Smith rants between and during numbers, acting out bizarre childlike ideas and emotions.[17][18][19][20] During the 1980s the band perfected a detailed stage act involving shabby lift attendant costumes, badly-applied clown make-up, Tim Smith's bullying of other band members (predominantly Jim Smith), and a final formal presentation of champagne and flowers by The Consultant and Miss Swift complete with confetti, taking place to "a euphoric sweep of saxophone and keyboards that wouldn’t seem out of place in a '70s cigar advert."[2][12][19] During the 1990s, the theatrical elements of the live show were toned down and the uniforms replaced by formal suits, although certain rituals (including the childlike mannerisms and Smith's ranting style) were retained.[3][4][6][7][12]

british sea power comparison -> 'they evidently receive a lot of close listening' = a level of trolling I can't deal with on a Sunday

(xp) Why oh why aren't they more popular?

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

british sea power

narcissism of small differences is the foundation of rock music appreciation it's true

How unpopular are this band?

if that is supposed to be the cardiacs at their most uncompromising then it really isn't, nevermind that the stuff on youtube is melodically akin to the more outré end of britpop

it's not all that far away from all sorts of music which is popular in this country

TheNcc1701xyz
1 month ago

BBC 6Music brought me here. Just flicked the radio on and this played. wow. Can't believe i've never heard this before. Now it's set up home in my head and i'm not going to ask it to leave.

Dystopia66
5 months ago

Bloody hell. Why didn't somebody tell me about this earlier! Can't believe this band were unknown to me until a few minutes ago.

= lots of comments like these and ref to normcore artistes like suede and radiohead who will have been influenced by them; this is music that has been rendered marginal rather than being necessarily marginal

They're only the band Stackridge could have been. They came around at the wrong time, I reckon.

ref to normcore artistes like suede and radiohead who will have been influenced by them

They have?

they sit uneasily with any comparison. i'd go as far as to say they've created their own fairly distinct lineage of music that has eventually given rise to stuff like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX2rUUcs0G4

of course, one can draw superficial comparisons in the service of aggregation

that video was supposed to be cardiacs at their most self-consciously unusual, yet if you want something a little more...avant-classical, try the closing 4 minutes of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4j6q1Svf30

SOME of their music is redolent of a sort of supercharged britpop in some superficial sense, but even when it is, it is something utterly other:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a820Xo4XdB8

they're ACCESSIBLE to normcore discourse precisely because they are so melodic - in rhythmic/lyrical regards they are a far more forbidding proposition, and even then their melodies are highly distinctive in construction

i agree that they're not necessarily marginal, because i think they're amazing, and that their songs work beautifully - they've been rendered marginal by certain bloody-minded aesthetic choices which i would defend

my challenge to you nakhers is to find bands lying similarly on the periphery of the norm-rock discourse who have been similarly marginalised, with an equally fervent cult following

the choices that frame them as weird seem more peripheral than integral to the idiom, it's not like they are this heat

the framing is oppositional but in another life they might have become quite popular had they been less dorky

they serve as an interesting case for the types of eccentricity that are tolerable to the british middle classs (mostly those involving whimsicality or anachronism)

that north sea radio orchestra track is surprisingly good

Also sounds like the whims of certain tastemakers played a part

LJ's challenge makes me think of something like the tiger lillies, whose music isn't "difficult" or unusual at all but who still provoke a "fuck is this shit" reaction from ppl

Lay off the face paint would appear to be the message

tiger lillies?! dear god

anyway,

they serve as an interesting case for the types of eccentricity that are tolerable to the british middle classs (mostly those involving whimsicality or anachronism)

ARE they tolerable to the british middle class? the 6 music listeners who have flocked to their side strike me as a minority. traditionally the reactions veer from intrigued to horrified with a smattering of obsessive adoration - don't think that's changed, or that the whole cardiacs package is now 'tolerable' to the middle class normcore hivemind. i reckon they have as much working class support as anything else - they're certainly from that milieu - and their whimsicality/anachronism is smeared and smudged under tonnes of, yeah, facepaint, fabricated incest rumours, a sense of earthy menace and an oversaturated production style that's just too much for most people

their role within the british pastoral is important, i'd say, but if bagpuss can get voted the UK's favourite TV show, how can cardiacs not achieve similar? - it is the confrontational weirdness, the unplaceability of it, even if the heart is in a similar place

N.B. the acceptable middle-class eccentricity of UK music from the last 50 years = david bowie

http://thumbs.worthpoint.com/E8d_hkDpfi6lLOyxo95PHG2mDA0=/400x0/images/images1/360/0912/28/360_1ff10ab5ad83cc5e7c9dedab870f9486.jpg