Game Theory / The Loud Family

Complete show! (thirty years ago yesterday)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gjRk8ZRmXQ

Was it a double bill with Blake Babies?

Seems like he posted a bunch of videos with that same date on them.

Noticing some similarity in the singing to Alex Chilton right now

D'oh!
/JackieHarvey

listening to Lolita Nation I'm struck with the thought that these guys were far too smart for their own good

they also sound at least 5 years ahead of their time

i approve

Check out the first Loud Family album, Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things. It's even better.

will do at some point, need to get my head around this first!

'chardonnay' is a joy. there's an 8-minute version that didn't make the album? pity

The longer “Chardonnay” is on the LN reissue that came out a few years back.

I nom’d a couple of LN tracks (along with one from the first Loud Family album) in the sub-2 min songs poll, so if you’re inclined to vote...

yeah your nominations are how i found out about them!

i'll def vote for at least one of them

Yay!

Plants and Birds is my favorite of all of these albums. Just top notch.

Interbabe Concern is my favorite, you might get some mileage out of that too, imago

Seconding the Interbabe Concern recommendation, that’s my favorite too

yeah that one is also very good

this guy is some sort of holy grail huh

Plants And Birds is also amazing!

Why did none of you TELL me about Scott Miller?? Wow

i dunno this thread has been here for a long time. but he was certainly not as lauded as he should have been while alive.

I No Longer Fear The Headless is the most glorious thing in the world

time for some game theory

cover of "roadrunner" on the lolita nation reissue is a lot of fun, there's definitely a lot of what made the modern lovers a great band in game theory

lol shush

Game Theory took a while to grow on me but I like them a lot - I've never quite got into Loud Family but I think that might be changing, Plants and Birds... finally clicked with me after another listen last night.

I really enjoyed reading Miller's Music: What Happened? even though I disagreed with a lot of his positions on things.

Days for Days is classic. Does anyone know why it's not streaming? I thought Alias was the hold up, but the rest of the catalog is on Spotify.

I've got to find that one

Interbabe Concern is...astonishing, at this point rapidly climbing various all-time lists of mine. just stuck in my head constantly now

I bought DFD on iTunes haha

In about a week, LF has become one of my favourite bands. It's ALL amazing

Yeah, I picked up the LF discography one at a time, but it was all in the span of a month or two, mostly via Amazon. This was around 2001, and when DFD was next on my list to buy, I just happened to find it used for like $2 at a Wherehouse Music in a mall in suburban Florida, which I still have a hard time believing.

I got all the LF stuff before I even checked out Game Theory. I love it all now, but still generally prefer the LF albums. And Interbabe is one of my favorite albums by anyone.

Lolita Nation was the first I heard (all of eight or nine days ago haha) and was obviously great, but LF is a step up and away into something much more rarefied (and weirdly uncommercial considering how every track bangs)

Finding out about Scott Miller has been like stumbling across a not so ancient tablet that contains instructions for as many awesome hooks as the rest of the pop/rock canon previously contained

Interbabe Concern is definitely the best one imo too, and therefore one of the best albums I've...ever heard? but the other albums are amazing, I've not been able to get Attractive Nuisance or Days For Days out of my head today. And it's all so clever and surprising - he'll do something like have Soul DC have an unassuming and maybe slightly overlong intro, only to slam into an unbelievable pop anthem without breaking stride. It's heavenly

I've never ventured beyond 'Lolita Nation' - which is brilliant - but you're making a pretty strong case that I should dive into Loud Family.

proceed, and keep us posted :)

Will do!

interbabe was my first and remains my favourite (inspired to check it out back in oh 1997 by Glenn Mcdonald’s review on TWAS), subject to never having been able to find plants and birds.

I think one of the things i love about scott’s work is that it doesn’t sound nearly as “smart” as you’d expect from reading about it.

By way of example, those long twisting rhyming couplets on “Screwed Over By Stylish Introverts” don’t ever sound laboured, it’s more like he just happens to think in metered rhyme.

Attractive Nuisance is almost as great as Interbabe. The run of tracks from...3 to 10? is peerless, amazing. Plus Blackness, Blackness sounds like he heard Smashing Pumpkins and decided he'd show these bozos how to do their own music, in the nicest possible way

Days For Days has some legit jams. Great production too.

Lolita Nation seems to be the critical favourite but Dead Center is my favourite Game Theory album

I hadn't gotten around to the 2 Steps from the Middle Ages reissue until today and the live tracks on it slay - killer "The Waist and the Knees" that's maximal VU freakout.

(inspired to check it out back in oh 1997 by Glenn Mcdonald’s review on TWAS)

Lol this is exactly how I found out about GT/LF

(today would've been Scott's birthday btw)

:(

the best band (Loud Family)

just constantly in my head

The "new" Game Theory album, Across the Barrier of Sound: Postscript is basically the demos for what would become the first Loud Family album, plus some covers (Beatles, Eno, Monkees, Big Star) and a few collaborations with Michael Querico of The Three O'Clock. I doubt I'll ever listen to it more than twice, but hearing how Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things might've turned out as a Game Theory record is tantalizing, and "Inverness" remains one of the most beautiful songs ever written in any form.

Pretty sure I prefer the LF musicians as well as the music but I may give this a listen. If the LF albums were put on Bandcamp I'd certainly buy most or all of them

interesting, though I can't abide Querico.

jajaja ¡que rico!

It's 'Quercio'

Reissue of the last Loud Family album

http://omnivorerecordings.com/shop/what-if-it-works/

The Scott Miller original songs on this are great, and the Anton Barbeau songs are fine. It's a shame it's padded out with covers, which Scott was never able to record convincingly. I sometimes think "Song About 'Rocks Off'" is his best song ever...but he precedes it on the album by covering "Rocks Off", when the whole point of the answer song is his distance from the Rolling Stones!

I see what you're saying about the placement of the "Rocks Off" cover. In this context it's kind of like a flashback with Scott donning unconvincing makeup to play his younger self. I think the Anton songs get progressively better as the album goes on and I actually really like "I've Been Craving Lately," but yeah, "Song About 'Rocks Off'" is the big highlight and the other Scott songs stand above everything else here.