S/D: Thin White Rope?

These demos are great! Never really made the connection before (though maybe it's obvious given the region) but some of these early tunes sound like Savage Republic with Lemmy on vocals

definitely some shared dna with the SR guitarists, that death-surf snakecharming thing

Davis ain't the Mojave (say), but yeah, definitely California scene connections at work.

i tend to think licher, kyser, kunkel, verlaine all had their fair share of shadows and ventures LPs

I bet a great book could be written about this period (distinct from the punk scene covered in We've Got The Neutron Bomb, various books about X, etc), if it hasn't already. My southern California rock timeline / education is definitely a bit blurry. How much did bands like TWR intersect--socially or otherwise--with bands like Rain Parade, Green On Red, Bangles, etc?

I was trying to recall how I got into TWR, and I'm sure it was because I was chasing down Paisley Underground bands and I saw them - in the press - mistakenly lumped in with Rain Parade, Three O'Clock et al. But then, so were The Long Ryders and Green On Red.

I wonder if any of the desert rock/stoner bands of the very late 80's/90's dug these guys.

There was a great fanzine in the UK called Bucketful of Brains which provided an overview of those variously loosely connected scenes, they would write about The Plimsouls, Lyres, Rain Parade, Three O'Clock, Long Ryders, Baraccudas, REM, Fuzztones, TWR, Soft Boys that sort of thing.

The elephant in the room not named yet: Dream Syndicate.

with TV as the elephant's dad

this band is really good but man...the singer really tries my patience

Out

Haha! Oh man...

https://image.ibb.co/gWyfcx/acres_front.jpg https://image.ibb.co/kVTVcx/acres_back.jpg

^ This is how I first heard TWR, bought from a high street chain for £1.99 which in today's money is probably about two pounds. Zippo were a UK label that specialised in rootsy US rock, I think they started from a shop and then got bought out by Demon. Those sorts of bands were getting a bit of a push in the UK at the time, Green On Red would get on the cover of Melody Maker and Sounds but I don't think anyone really bought their records tbh. There's some good tracks on it (e.g. 'Pure Heart' by the Wild Seeds is a bit corny but gorgeous, and 'Thin Line Man' by Giant Sand was an early high-water mark for Mr Gelb and also kind of invented the Pixies imo), but honestly a lot of it is kind of meat'n''tatoes, riffy, strummy fare. 'Moonhead' really leapt out at me, majestic and mysterious and monstrous in equal measure. Was really getting into Television and the Meat Puppets' Up On The Sun at the time, and I felt it had more in common with that sort of thing than with the rest of the bands on the comp.

Was really getting into Television and the Meat Puppets' Up On The Sun at the time, and I felt it had more in common with that sort of thing

For sure.

Xposts I mean I get that if there’s one thing that might have militated against rampant thin white rope love all over the world, it’s Guy’s voice. Same thing with imo the other best band of that decade - there’s plenty of people who just can’t deal with MES vocals and I believe them.

But Guy’s voice is just so good, so perfect. I wouldn’t change a single node.

Also even with the distancing effect of the vox couldn’t they have at least been as popular as the fall? :(

Calling any underachieving band "underrated" is obviously an overused rock crit cliche (as is saying "'underrated' is an overused rock crit cliche") but if it ever applied to any band, it's this one. Really, the fact that they weren't even in the conversation after a certain point is mind boggling (see also: Lift To Experience)

Anyone with any insights as to why? Maybe it was personal? Drugs? Maybe they were dicks to everyone? None of those factors prevented scores of other bands (some even appearing on that comp) from getting recognition, at least for a little while (looking at you, Dan Stuart)

The record biz has always been cruel and unfair, huh?

Yeah idk

They put out a record a year which were all great and sometimes masterpieces, the records were readily obtainable, enough critics liked them, they toured like fuck and (I’m surmising from recorded evidence) played hard at every show, seems like they acted like clowns offstage while touring but not unusually so.

Am I right that they more or less stopped because of frustration + weariness with their sheer underratedness? It pains me. There could have been more of these songs.

It would have been interesting if they'd been able to persist for a couple of years more, with the weird Krautrock edges starting to resurface among newer bands at the time like Stereolab. But people will make their decisions.

am only semi serious here but they were never buddies with sonic youth unlike dinosaur jr or nirvana or mudhoney or whoever. mind you, the lunachicks were and it's been a long while since i heard them played in asda

I guess I forgot one factor
Bad band name, not catchy sounding and also pretty gross when you unpack it
But that never stopped (lists a zillion terribly formed names of successful bands)

Am I right that they more or less stopped because of frustration + weariness with their sheer underratedness? It pains me. There could have been more of these songs.

― when worlds collide I'll see you again (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, March 14, 2018 10:59 PM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's a cycle, though, innit? Like, you get called "underrated" and "overlooked" in enough reviews, that becomes your story, because every review thereafter just parrots the ones from the previous record that talked about how overlooked and underrated you are.

Still, from the looks of it, all's well that ends well. Guy seems to be doing OK, at least, and I bet he's happier where he is than he would be on the road in hellscape 2018

Wish I was around when these records were new, though. Never got to see these guys, had no idea they existed until it was too late

if anyone is still short of live stuff, this youtube channel has quite as few shows up of varying quality:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8tAnV9M2FKiJF2pDbXU0hw/search?query=thin+white+rope

https://preview.ibb.co/ggJoxx/twr.jpg

aww, maybe this was the final nail in the coffin for TWR:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUKzXyB_9ZI&feature=youtu.be&t=2720

fuck, https://youtu.be/cUKzXyB_9ZI?t=2723

...i hate this business of visiting my hometown...

Cmon, fess up...you were in Mature Innocence

Jesus, maybe the name "Thin White Rope" isn't so bad after all. "Pause and Effect" sounds like a band Gob Bluth would be in

Phallucy was a rock/alternative metal band from Sacramento, California. The band's drummer, Abe Cunningham, later became the drummer with the band Deftones, which is now a worldwide success.[citation needed] Phallucy has reunited three times: in 1999, 2001 and finally in 2009 for the Chi Cheng Benefit Show in San Francisco along with Death Angel and other special guests. The band's name is a combination of the words "fallacy" and "phallus".

On Some days Puppet Dog is in the top 5 best songs ever list

By the way, the lyrics/credits booklet PDFs weren't included in the remastered Bandcamp downloads so I asked Frontier about them. They had been forgotten but have now been added. Redownload to get them.

Remastered Moonhead LP arrived today - sounding great! I still wish they could 'remaster' a new drummer on these recordings but hey

Think I just got asked to pass this on from the guy who's upping the TWR sets to dime

a note to user nicknamed MaresNest over at a twr forum
i am absolutely fine with you "wetransfering" the files for forum members
just keep track with updates like the 1989-07-12 Vienna Austria U4 FM sound-upgrade from 2 days ago as the pool should stay as clean as possible

sorry can I delete that last post and repost an edited version.

Thanks Steveolende, I will grab that next week and put it up for those that desire it.

OK I thought I'd posted a name I possibly shouldn't have. So everything's ok then.

yes please! xpost :-)

Ah, thanks for the nudge Stan, here 'tis...

https://we.tl/koO86us0Fv

Thanks x 1000 again!

http://frontierrecords-thinwhiterope.bandcamp.com/album/sack-full-of-silver-2018-remastered-edition

http://frontierrecords-thinwhiterope.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-spanish-cave-2018-remastered-edition

Shame they don't have soundfiles on the website.
Don't think I've really seen that on bandcamp before. Since i thought that was one of the main purposes of bandcamp.

they'll probably enable them on the release date, next Friday

and they're out - Mr. Limpet & Hidden Lands are the sample tracks on bandcamp.

oh wait, all the tracks are playable

Tempted to get the cds. I've all the original vinyl, but I'm playing more and more cds now

yeah played through all the lps on there yesterday and this morning.
Am tempted to get the cds again. I think i got most of them before. Don't think I got Ruby Sea though.
What's in the booklets?

The Ruby Sea hasn't yet been remastered, right?

Oh, thought it might be coming. Wasn't up as such when I listened to it last night. But thought they were doing them all in batches.

Yes I imagine you're right.

I may wait until Ruby Sea appears then buy them all....