Why does anyone like the Fall?

MES and DT are an odd ying-yang pair, both are resolutely emblematic of their countries (Smith is so utterly English, Thomas is so utterly American) and yet both both seem so divorced from those places, Thomas being an expat in England and Smith has always felt like an exile under house arrest in his own country.

Thomas, who is such a massive physical presence onstage, even now, even when it appears his body is betraying him, whereas Smith has cultivated this weird, "anti-frontman" thing for decades, not seeming to know how microphones work, wandering around the stage, fiddling with gear, seemingly oblivious to everything go on around him.

Both Beefheart/VU fanatics, both tyrannical band leaders, both have continued to forge weird new directions in spite of what the heritage rock scene would love for them to do, just to revisit their back catalogs with aplomb (Thomas though in a very American move will do it for the right price, Smith doesn't have time for "look back bores"), both probably think the other is a nut job.

God I love 'em both.

great post and otm

I'm not a Pere Ubu fan at all, and I could easily do without a lot of Fall stuff from after about 1986 or 1987, but I find the deterioration of both quite sad.

I legit almost teared up at A Message to All

He's so Brian Clough.

The day I've been dreading.

"It is with deep regret that we announce the passing of Mark E. Smith. He passed this morning at home.... 1/2

— Fall news (@fallnews) January 24, 2018

no nono no no no

I've just been investigating this, looks to be true :(

exit mark

Oh man

damnit I figured this was gonna be the next bump :/

RIP Mark E. Smith

Goddamit.I've been dreading this day for a while now. Without hesitation, I say he/they were the single greatest influence on my musical/esthetic life. I simply can't imagine how different it would been without him. For all his character flaws(and they were numerous) i loved and respected him (though we never met) very much. Hard to think of another artist who "stood their ground" artistically as he did. Raw primitive music with really weird vocals. For all their stylistic changes over the years, he never really go of that ideal. I don't believe we'll ever see the likes of him again. Personally this hits me WAY harder than all proceeding rock deaths. And I know how I'll be spending my day. Watching the awesome Fall dvd from Cherry Red and after that any one of the dozens of ops by The Mighty Fall. bye Mark. You will be terribly missed by me and many others. This world will be a much less interesting place without you.

Stupid spell check that's lps of course

No you guys
No
I don’t want to say goodbye to that mind

Oh fuck. Playing Slates now.

no no fucking no

as someone who always feels a little bit weird abt public grief over celebrities I have to say I feel fucking devastated and honestly don;t know what to do with myself

an inferno of a human being and a monster poet who shaped my perspective from a young age and more than any other artist electrified my thoughts and inspired me to keep moving sideways

I'm so full of gratitude to him for refusing to ever rest in peace. I hope that now he can.

we're also mourning/talking over here

RIP Mark E. Smith

My main regret is that reformation post tlc did not sound even slightly like the mammoth hawkwindesque show they played here when the Americans and the current Britishes were briefly all in the lineup together

― or at night (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, June 13, 2017 3:42 PM (seven months ago)

Jon is this the gig you were thinking of?

North 6, Brooklyn, NY 2004-10-15

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1 (57:08)

01 Bo Doodak................................(3:50)
02 Boxoctosis...............................(3:30)
03 All Clasp Hands..........................(2:57)
04 Theme From Sparta F.C....................(3:56)
05 Mod Mock Goth............................(4:41)
06 Wrong Place, Right Time..................(2:55)
07 I Can Hear The Grass Grow................(3:14)
08 Mr. Pharmacist...........................(2:06)
09 Mountain Energei.........................(4:42)
10 What About Us?...........................(7:37)
11 Janet, Johnny + James....................(3:12)
12 Green-Eyed Loco Man......................(5:10)
13 Blindness................................(7:01)
14 White Lightning..........................(2:08)

LINE UP

July - December 2004 : lineup # 51 : Mark E. Smith (vocals),
Elenor Poulou (keyboards), Ben Pritchard (guitar), Jim Watts (guitar),
Steve Trafford (bass), Spencer Birtwistle (drums).

No... it was definitely in greenpoint not Williamsburg and it was Tim Presley and the other American guy still left over from the post-implosion lineup, plus the newly added Dave the Eagle et al

thanks, I'll keep looking :)

ah, found the gig listing at least:

Friday, 2 June 2006 Southpaw, Brooklyn, NY

http://thefall.org/gigography/gig06.html

I do have a recording of that lineup in Pomono CA around 3 weeks prior, 2nd gig with the improvised new lineup, hit me up offline for a copy

"Pomona" sorry

Oh thanks but I’ve got Pomona and a few other shows from immediately after the implosion, it was so much fun to hear those as the tour progressed

Southpaw sounds right venue-wise

The best document of the 'American line up' - who remain my favourite of all the iterations of The Fall I saw live - or the best document that I've heard at least, is the DVD of the Last Night At The Palais (the CD mix is a little thin). I was there and it remains the best rock show I've seen in the last 15 years. The band bar Smith came on really late - even by their own standards, about 11pm, so pretty much at curfew - and there was a really tense atmosphere in the venue (aided no doubt by that weird VJ they used to have on in support around that time doing abrasive glitchy cut ups of Coronation Street or whatever and the fact that quite a few gigs round this time had fizzled out early, so I reckon a lot of people feared a no show) but then they opened with Senior Twilight Stock Replacer extended (on the fly I guess) into this incredibly heavy, taut jam and the already agitated crowd started getting *irate* at the idea that the plug was going to get pulled before he even bothered to come out on stage but were still going mad* to the locked groove. I remember the way that the gaps between Presley disdainfully looking to the wings got shorter and shorter until his nibs finally deigned to come on stage just to wrap the song up in about 30 seconds. If it had ended there it still would have been one of the best Fall shows I saw but when they played Blindness it was near perfect. I felt like I was about to start levitating about six minutes in. During the encore of Reformation the stage filled up with security and then there was the 'Thank you for letting us into your security area, we're off to civilisation, goodnight, thank you' goodbye. When the houselights came up some guy in the audience wanted a souvenir and ripped this huge 7' tall brass standard lamp out of the floor and charged out of the front door with it and sprinted off down the middle of the road with two bouncers in hot pursuit. Such a massive sound that line up made. Such a loss.

*this is the relative madness of Fall fans in London in 2007 I'm talking here.

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

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

great description. listening to this now, it's goddamn mighty

whenever mark e smith, a 'non musician', commandeers a keyboard, he seems to make the most amazing music with it. it's weird

Yes I had an audience recording of that Palais show and that is a Blindness for the ages

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzAOiA4dH_o

I liked the American lineup best of all the later Fall groups. Don't know why that album seems so unpopular.

The album just sounds kinda weak compared to how those guys played live. I tried to feel it but just couldn’t.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk1TP5EkLS4

"Totally Wired" was the first fall song i heard.

You don't have to be strange to be strange
You don't have to be weird to be weird

dammit its so good. i have always loved their writing: "Pay your rates" "Industrial estates" "Hex induction hour" so many great phrases and word combinations.

i love the messy keys too! love the noisy guitars. The Fall is so awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaC9htnMBGE

really like this cover of "A Day in the Life"

The American group just had more musicality than what I've heard from the others. "Fall Sound" sounded to me like a celebration of the fact that he, at least momentarily, had some people in the band that really got it. Something like "Coach and Horses" is the kind of thing that the old band used to provide for him.

I just bought a copy of that "American lineup" DVD, thanks y'all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Lt4ia-PYQ

Apologies, intended for the MES thread, not being The Fall.
Or: "Von Südenfed is an incarnation of The Fall": discuss.

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

Von Südenfed were the German line-up!

Sudenfed album is so great

I bought it on mp3 but then found a copy lying on the sidewalk in Chelsea a month later

dear dead friends

I was in my gaaaardennnn

Old news at this point I guess, but just learned that the rest of the group will be continuing under the name Imperial Wax.

https://www.facebook.com/Imperialwaxband/

That's nice

The Levitate reissue (my favourite Fall album!) has a killer second disc. Christmastide and a completely altered live Ol' Gang are revelatory

when did that come out?

like two weeks ago? the extra tracks are all from either the bonus disc from 1st pressings or the B-sides of the three "Masquerade" singles.

the bonus disc was always a favourite with the best version of pilsner trail/plaster on the hands and some v good remixes and minor tracks.

masquerade remixes are lasrgely yawn.