PJ Harvey : Classic or Dud

Mainly she sings, but she does also play sax and guitar in the current set.

Just announced two nights in Edinburgh for the International Festival in August. I'll definitely head over for one of those.

Going to the Brooklyn show. Not a fan of the last few records but she's always been great live and her band will probably be top shelf. Plus, looking forward to seeing the new venue.

Saw her in the last Primavera Sound. Didn't like last album either but the tracks sound great live. Her performance makes a difference

The band is absolutely first rate. Some jaw-dropped performances. The saxophone solos from the main guy in particular I could barely believe, he was awesome.

Saw her in Seattle. Thought the new songs fared better live, especially "The Ministry Of Social Affairs" with the jazz skronk solos. So awesome to see PJ playing sax as well. Highlights were "Written On The Forehead" and "The River" from my favourite album, "Is This Desire?".

gonna drive to LA to see her in a few days. she's prob my favorite living artist that i've never gotten to see live.

Awesome, JD. She's insanely inspiring, hope you enjoy the show.

My "definitely" became a "sadly not" and I didn't make either Edinburgh International Festival shows because of work/life. Did anyone go?

Guys, back in around 1993/4 someone I knew had a demo of four or so tracks that PJ Harvey had recorded with the horn section from a then current group, the name of which eludes me.

I've looked through her discography and haven't seen anything that seems to fit this description. Any bells going off?

maybe the March 1993 peel session?

Yeah, the Peel session where she did Claudine the Inflatable One, Primed and Ticking, Wang Dang Doodle and Naked Cousin has a horn section, but I don't know who they were.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw5QXwuQgcs

Ah, cool. If not the same recordings then it's presumably the same setup. No horns credited on two tracks releases on Peel Sessions it seems.

My recollection is that the tape was manufactured and had some basic artwork. As in, not something recorded off the radio. Maybe there was a release mooted at some point.

*the two tracks released on Peel Session 1991 - 2004

Did some digging – the horns came from Gallon Drunk.

Iirc Gallon Drunk may have been the opening act on some or many dates of the tour?

Yes, Gallon Drunk used to open for her back in 1993, at least on some dates.

Terry Edwards and James Johnston (both from GD) are now members of PJ's current touring band.

I saw Gallon Drunk open for her in '93. I knew nothing about them at the time, but they had a baritone player who killed.

Scrawl was the other opener, and they were equally killer.

Really into acre of land

More classic than the last album entirely

Love "Acre of Land" as well. IMO the last album wasn't as bad as some people made it out to be, but it definitely didn't enter my PJ top 5. The tour, though, was fantastic. She's an incredible live performer and it was a joy to see her (twice, lucky me!) with this big tight band. Apparently she's taking some time away from music now to focus on her lyric and poetry writing, so unfortunately it might be a while until she tours again.

BTW today is the 25th anniversary of Rid of Me!

Indeed! Rob Sheffield on same

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/pj-harvey-rid-of-me-25-rob-sheffield-pays-tribute-w519777

The tour was incredible. Saw her in Seattle - no opening band and she’s on at like 9. Full 8-10 piece band with an intro military procession beat. Closed with tbyml, down by the water and importantly - the river. From the record Is this desire which pj has said is her favourite record but it also came from a place of immense pain. New songs worked better live but I’d say let England shake live confirmed it’s her master work

Will say the uh huh tour was absolute fire though. Floods drumming and klinghoffers 2nd percussion and guitar took tracks like the garden to another level. Highlight

My beautiful leah

Never seen her live.

You're missing out, my friend.

Alfred, come correct my man

Honestly, I think current Polly live is too austere, rehearsed and remote. I miss the guitar, I miss the band, I miss the occasional flashes of humor. Unless carrying around a sax (iirc) is her idea of humor.

she's come by my reckoning exactly zero times to South Florida in the last 20 years.

She was at Pitchfork last summer!

*smacks head*

i drove to LA just to see her last summer, don't regret it a bit

Wanna feel old? Rid Of Me LP is 25 years old today

Also loved the concert I saw during the White Chalk tour in 2008 -- a solo show with her playing the guitar, piano, keyboards, autoharp and a bunch of other stuff, very stripped down and intimate. She was chatty, often funny and seemed like a lovely, likeable person -- miles away from the well-rehearsed big band theatrics of the Hope Six tour (which I loved, too, albeit for very different reasons). As always incredibly charismatic and intense, locking eyes with audience members while playing.

Hopefully this means a long career

https://variety.com/2018/dirt/real-estalker/pj-harvey-sierra-towers-condo-west-hollywood-1202845331/

That's the flat from the "Who the Fuck" video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxcCN6BgO_k

The "Dress" demo has dubstep wub-wub bass. A woman ahead of her time.

Getting down to her albs. Dry is such a classic. Rid of me is solid though I don't like that Dylan cover (and they are usually great), and did lol at some of the Slint-era tunings.

A Woman, A Man: John Parish's Favourite PJ Harvey Recordings
^Great stuff

The demo albums she's been putting out recently mostly go to show how fully formed her songs seem to have been from the start. The woman's a genius.

I was dismayed to hear that my equal favourite album of hers, "Is This Desire?", was so traumatic for her to make.
Also found it telling that the Hope Six track wasn't described at all, just the logistics of the recording. She kind of lost me after White Chalk.

Fascinating read! I kind of love it that John is not even mentioning Stories.

I'm both very impressed and slightly disappointed by the TBYML and ITD demos - it's indeed amazing that these songs were pretty much fully developed while she was writing and demoing them at home BUT it makes for a less interesting listen than 4-Track Demos (which were so unlike Rid of Me).

I guess this might change with future volumes of the series - e.g. the LES and THSDP demos apparently were very minimal and the arrangements were developed while jamming the songs live in the studio (or rather church/art gallery) with the band - so they will be probably fairly different from the final versions.

man the second record she did with Parish in 2009? DO NOT sleep on that, matthewk…that is a bit of a bummer that the creation of Is this Desire was so fraught…or is it? Isn't major creativity often fraught?

the Hope Six record is the only record she has ever made that I've actively disliked…but good grief these demo records are indeed staggering… like 80% of what you hear of the finished product of "A Perfect Day Elise," one of my favorite recordings ever, is right there in that demo… and when Parish talks about how there are two phases, the bare bones sessions and the expensive sessions, the latter were to gussy up "elise"…I wager "Catherine," the other one therein that I treasure, is intact from the former sessions…

The demo of "To Bring You My Love" is so menacing

I'm not a huge fan of the glossy production of Stories but the raw demo version of the album is pretty awesome. Such a strong collection of songs; I don't understand why Beefheart told her these were her weakest demos.

The Let England Shake demos are out today and they're the best installment in the series so far IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs_s2IkbGxw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18MpYe9Xwxk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jdCzt74OCo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgkWxTldY1s

Oh man I hope they announce a b-sides collection please

I need to give that album another chance. I could never get into it - the concept never seemed to translate well into a great musical experience - but I was a big fan of her work and I know plenty of people love Let England Shake. It even got to #2 in the P&J poll, albeit in a weak year.

(I should say, I'm still a big fan of her work, just not of her more recent albums.)

Listening to Rid of Me and its still staggering!