Voted ST&C in the end, but feel so divided.
i see what you did there.
― mark e, Wednesday, 26 October 2016 20:49 (seven years ago) link
;)
― Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, 26 October 2016 20:50 (seven years ago) link
― mark e, Wednesday, October 26, 2016 4:49 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Well those two albums are worlds apart
― Evan, Wednesday, 26 October 2016 20:57 (seven years ago) link
oof
― Tell me who sends these infamous .gifs (bernard snowy), Wednesday, 26 October 2016 20:59 (seven years ago) link
yes.... IX worlds
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 26 October 2016 20:59 (seven years ago) link
^^ nailing ToD's brilliance.
Love Roberto's observation, feeling p much the same way. Those three form some sort of a trilogy in a very strange way.
Xp
― Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, 26 October 2016 21:00 (seven years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Thursday, 27 October 2016 00:01 (seven years ago) link
what's the opposite of recency bias lol
― imago, Thursday, 27 October 2016 00:09 (seven years ago) link
as this thread was progressing i had a feeling we might be heading for a loopy result here but ended up being pretty sane. v glad that the love for WA isn't as marginal as i used to think. also v cool that there is an enclave of appreciation for this band here.
sure i have before but anyway, have to share my top TOD trivia, w/. added personal resonance - conrad was born in george eliot hospital in nuneaton.
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 27 October 2016 13:40 (seven years ago) link
There's four I could have voted for but went with Centuries in the end. STaC is their most *significant* release so it makes sense that it won I guess.
― ultros ultros-ghali, Thursday, 27 October 2016 14:00 (seven years ago) link
i didn't contribute to the discussion because i only really know their first 4 albums - loved madonna and ST&C, listened to the self-titled a bit back in the day, and fell off after Worlds Apart. i've given every album since then a chance, with at least one full listen, and...i just don't like where they've gone. i guess i just liked them the most when they were heavy and raw. now, even when they're heavy, it never feels raw. lame but true, i liked trail of dead when they sounded a bit dangerous, and they haven't in a long time imo. i recognize that's unfair and it's not a standard i really hold many other bands to, but there it is.
the one time i saw them was around the ST&C-era, and it was amazing. reece and keely seemed genuinely angry with each other, and every time they switched places as vocalists it felt like were trying to outperform the other. the set started off loud and chaotic and escalated from there. the drum set got demolished and reassembled and demolished again. conrad disappeared underneath the stage for a really long time and emerged with a damaged bass drum head, which he then threw out into the audience. i caught it like a bouquet and took it home with me like it was a collector's item.
LBI otm above about the rage of madonna. the lyrics were perfect for a teenager, and i used to play along to the song on the drums (at the time, a massive double bass set with EIGHT TOMS), waiting for the iconic drum fill which presages each chorus. i have wonderful memories of losing my mind to that song, sweating a bunch and kicking over my own floor tom in my parent's basement like a total weirdo, so i voted for madonna.
― I look forward to hearing from you shortly, (Karl Malone), Thursday, 27 October 2016 16:29 (seven years ago) link
That nearly made me tear up Zach, bravo. (hope this is not your oppo dump tbh... Or maybe I do idk ;))
Despite not liking where they "went" (and I get you)' I hope the take away from this poll is they are a unique band in today's rock scene, treading down great and sometimes unforgiving paths, but treading all the same. It's about taking risks ultimately, when it's so much easier to not take them and just follow either the latest trend or succumb to continue to making music of their most loved record, ToD do neither: they are very much on their own path without knowing where it will take them. I admire that.
'Lost Songs' might get you some of that heavy and raw feeling back tbh.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, 27 October 2016 17:06 (seven years ago) link
Trying to think of an equivalent to TOD, maybe a British one...I suppose if we're talking a raw, arty rock group with post-rock tendencies, occasionally duff lyrics and a chameleon-like approach to album styles, then Six By Seven aren't a zillion miles away (plus, they started about the same time) But there's a real dearth of good arty rock at the moment. Will keep thinking on it.
― imago, Thursday, 27 October 2016 17:30 (seven years ago) link
TOD much much zanier/proggier than 6x7 ofc
― imago, Thursday, 27 October 2016 17:32 (seven years ago) link
their closest analogue is the smashing pumpkins - prog ambition making them outliers in an indie milieu, the pre-Raphaelite/renaissance aesthetic, conrad's vocals, the moments of self-sabotage
― flappy bird, Thursday, 27 October 2016 17:35 (seven years ago) link
Oh, there's Mew, I guess, kinda
― imago, Thursday, 27 October 2016 17:48 (seven years ago) link
hmm thinking of british equiv of TOD unlikely to end well, prob something like muse
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 27 October 2016 18:36 (seven years ago) link
like, i am trying to think of a british band doing the kind of things they do and immediately rolling my eyes
a british band that does shit like borrowing king crimson's drummer to play cambodian percussion
― imago, Thursday, 27 October 2016 19:21 (seven years ago) link
I feel A Sunny Day in Glasgow could've been very much like ToD, but they took a different turn
― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, 27 October 2016 20:42 (seven years ago) link
Also, My Vitriol's first album comes close in terms of intensity. Songs not as good though.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, 27 October 2016 20:43 (seven years ago) link
ILikeTrains comes to mind, too, but too post-rock. This is hard LJ
― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, 27 October 2016 20:44 (seven years ago) link
Who would have guessed that this band would eventually morph into The Divine Comedy. (Exhibit A: Like Summer Tempests Came His Tears.) (N.B. I am cool with this.)
― lana del boy (ledge), Thursday, 1 March 2018 12:41 (six years ago) link
there can't be a British version of this band imo because ultimately as proggy as they got they are too much a product of American post hardcore, post Fugazi underground rock, I mean they were on Trance SyndicateKarl otm they were such an amazing band around ST&C
― It's not delivery, it's Adorno! (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 1 March 2018 13:13 (six years ago) link
KM otm because the first 3 albums were when they wanted to be Sonic Youth and Unwound, after that they wanted to be way more polished and suddenly seemed like they were drawing from entirely different influences.
― Evan, Thursday, 1 March 2018 13:24 (six years ago) link
I'm annoyed that Lost Songs isn't on (Canadian) Spotify, thus preventing me from making a proper best-of-TOD playlist
― Simon H., Thursday, 1 March 2018 13:40 (six years ago) link
Unwound is so underrated
― It's not delivery, it's Adorno! (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 1 March 2018 13:44 (six years ago) link
there is/was plenty of uk post hardcore, post fugazi underground rock too tho
― ogmor, Thursday, 1 March 2018 16:15 (six years ago) link
oh man i played ST&C for the first time in forever yesterday. what timing
back around that era i tried to see them every chance i could. great band
― scoff walker (diamonddave85), Thursday, 1 March 2018 16:31 (six years ago) link
never really associated the singers with the song before, but busch has some really great ones on there!
― scoff walker (diamonddave85), Thursday, 1 March 2018 16:34 (six years ago) link
the one time i saw them was around the ST&C-era, and it was amazing...
really great post which captures the spirit of that era. their live shows were about complete and total annihilation of their equipment and bodies. one show i saw reece broke a rib when he fell onto the audience barrier and he finished the song without even missing a beat
― scoff walker (diamonddave85), Thursday, 1 March 2018 16:42 (six years ago) link
I hope they play TO this year, I'd love to see them live finally
― Simon H., Thursday, 1 March 2018 18:15 (six years ago) link
They're playing My War and Relayer in their respective entireties at a fest this summer, which kinda explains their whole thing.
― Simon H., Tuesday, 10 July 2018 11:16 (five years ago) link
ahahaha oh my god
― imago, Tuesday, 10 July 2018 11:19 (five years ago) link
:D
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 10 July 2018 11:20 (five years ago) link
you know maybe this will be the thing that makes me finally listen to black flag
― imago, Tuesday, 10 July 2018 11:21 (five years ago) link
enjoy side two of my war lj
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Tuesday, 10 July 2018 11:57 (five years ago) link
ha!
Hope it gets filmed, I'd like to see if they can pull off Relayer given that there's almost always been a tention between Conrad's prog ambitions and the fact that their musicianship tends to be little above the level of competent and functional (that's not a criticism, it works for them).
― obnoxious pun (ultros ultros-ghali), Thursday, 12 July 2018 19:51 (five years ago) link
I SWEAR I KNOW NOT WHYTHESE EYES HAVE ALWAYSLEFT ME DRY
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 10 December 2018 23:04 (five years ago) link
according to a locked post on Conrad's Patreon, they started mixing #10 last week.
― resident hack (Simon H.), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 00:32 (five years ago) link
That is great news! Has his solo album been discussed anywhere on ILM? A doozy, with mostly 2 or 3 minute songs. Would swap the whole album for three or four well-worked out and longer ToD versions of those sketches.
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 09:55 (five years ago) link
I had no idea it even existed until....just this second.
― resident hack (Simon H.), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 12:59 (five years ago) link
This reinforces the weird ToD/GbV connection.
― resident hack (Simon H.), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 13:05 (five years ago) link
Ha, it does!
I had no idea it existed either until I stumbled upon a deluxe LP w/ 40 pages of drawings and lyrics in a Basque record store last month. Was very surprised to see it.
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 13:37 (five years ago) link
That's great news about a new album, I was wiondering when they'd come out with anything again. Conrad's solo album is maybe a bit MOR but very likeable I find.
― obnoxious pun (ultros ultros-ghali), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 14:57 (five years ago) link
'Hills of K-Town' is a great song
Source Tags was a huge album for teenage me, and I will occasionally revisit it when I'm feeling nostalgic. I kind of fell off with them after that, and never really kept up. Prompted by this thread I'm listening to Worlds Apart now, and...IDK. Can't really get into it at all. I'm pretty sure it's Keely's voice. It feels like not the right voice for what he's trying to do at all. Does it get better later in the discography?
― days of being riled (zchyrs), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 18:25 (five years ago) link
yeah, i'm pretty much right there with you (down to having the same initials, i think?). i loved ST&C, and a show i saw around then still ranks as one of the best shows i ever saw. they were FERAL. madonna is quite good as well. i haven't been able to get into anything since.
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 18:27 (five years ago) link
Almost every album after WA is superior. I'd skip straight to Tao of the Dead and see if that strikes your fancy at all.
― resident hack (Simon H.), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 18:49 (five years ago) link
Thanks to Simon for the good advice. Tao is leagues better. Now I'm listening to IX which is really surprisingly quite good. Also, this band is ideal for blocking out office noise.
― days of being riled (zchyrs), Friday, 14 December 2018 17:30 (five years ago) link