So it turns out that was the edited version? There's a 3 1/2 hour cut!
https://abcmedia.akamaized.net/radio/doublej/audio/202104/dkl-2021-04-08-kevin-shields.mp3
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 31 May 2021 17:59 (two years ago) link
I will rely on others here to report any further revelations. I loved the interview - it always helps to have an interviewer who isn't obnoxious and who knows what they are talking about - but it was tough enough finding 90 minutes to sit and listen, let alone 3 1/2 hours!
― Paul Ponzi, Monday, 31 May 2021 18:29 (two years ago) link
You can walk and stand and drive and passenge and shop and iron and exercise and clean and paint and build model train sets instead
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Monday, 31 May 2021 19:07 (two years ago) link
You made me summarize
― Kangol In The Light (Craig D.), Monday, 31 May 2021 19:22 (two years ago) link
near the end, he talked a lot about what he was up to during the 22 years after loveless. the short version was, he spent a lot of that time on a spiritual journey, starting with doing what he referred to as "the dumb drugs", "party drugs", and eventually ending with transcendental meditation. he seems relatively happy now, or at least content.
he also said, (and maybe this part of it isn't news, i don't know) that they're working on 2 albums (one of which is a double-album?) and 2 EPs, and one of the albums (not the double-album) is coming really soon. he seems really excited about that one. they're still working on the other stuff.
― Karl Malone, Monday, 31 May 2021 20:56 (two years ago) link
oh, sorry paul ponzi, i thought you were referring to the 90 minute interview, which i just finished listening to. 3.5 hours is too much for me too, ha!
― Karl Malone, Monday, 31 May 2021 20:58 (two years ago) link
someone out there, please take the kevin shields challenge
I'm going to listen in my sleep to the remastered deluxe version of this interview and will report any hypnagogic reveries thus triggered if I can remember them.
― Noel Emits, Monday, 31 May 2021 21:01 (two years ago) link
Had he talked about the very heavy concept behind the mbv album much before?
― Noel Emits, Monday, 31 May 2021 21:03 (two years ago) link
Those general revelatory/apocalyptic themes Shields was claiming went into m b v seemed to potentially tie into an end-of-Mayan-calendar/Dec 2012 timeline, so at least he was only a month or so late on that thematic deadline
― Kangol In The Light (Craig D.), Monday, 31 May 2021 21:15 (two years ago) link
xpost To my knowledge he had not.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 31 May 2021 21:22 (two years ago) link
honest to god there's times i almost want to challops and say this is their best album but probably just because it's new
― downton arby (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, February 4, 2013 3:28 PM (eight years ago) bookmarkflaglink
eight years later it is no longer new and I think I agree it is their best album
― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, 10 June 2021 12:04 (two years ago) link
One day we will wake up in the morning and there will be a new MBV record.
― nostormo, Sunday, 26 September 2021 14:24 (two years ago) link
Another reason to stay alive
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Sunday, 26 September 2021 17:25 (two years ago) link
I totally forget I pre-ordered the Isn't Anything and Loveless vinyl
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 26 September 2021 19:28 (two years ago) link
i think i got the non-deluxe of isn't anything? i have no idea. i finally played it the other day, it sounds amazing
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Sunday, 26 September 2021 19:41 (two years ago) link
I got the Loveless vinyl with the nice sleeve, it sounds pretty great
― brimstead, Sunday, 26 September 2021 23:31 (two years ago) link
Hmm mine never arrived
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 26 September 2021 23:52 (two years ago) link
oh no I mean I ordered it from Boomkat a couple months ago, they had copies in stock at the time somehow
― brimstead, Monday, 27 September 2021 01:46 (two years ago) link
Mine says "available 10.20.21" on the confirmation email?
― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 27 September 2021 02:16 (two years ago) link
Oh cool, good to know
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 27 September 2021 02:22 (two years ago) link
vinyl finally arrived today, loveless and isn't anything
pretty hard not to talk about this vinyl master and not sound like a dork but it is really really amazing and makes me want to spew "like hearing it for the first time" type hyperbole
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 8 November 2021 23:23 (two years ago) link
it's just like, i dunno, the layers seem more separated or i can hear space where there didn't feel like any (in the old CD version I had)
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 8 November 2021 23:24 (two years ago) link
how does your digital setup compare to your analog? This just arrived for me back home for me from HHV and i look forward to checking it out. I enjoyed the Discogs reviews that are like..i cannot tell the difference from the digital sourced vinyl but I'm glad this exists
― maf you one two (maffew12), Monday, 8 November 2021 23:34 (two years ago) link
i really need to swear off posting from my cellar good day!
― maf you one two (maffew12), Monday, 8 November 2021 23:35 (two years ago) link
omg CELLULAR i did not mean for this
I have a pretty good digital setup but I haven't a/b'd them, just got the record today
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 9 November 2021 06:18 (two years ago) link
Back in the actual day I had an OG Australian pressing of Loveless, I used to fkn hate that LP, on my cheapshit bedroom record player it used to skip like crazy and the tracking distortion made it semi-unlistenable - remember being so relieved when I got it on CD!
I can't remember selling that LP but I must've, and it would have been for $20 or something, it's worth hundreds now of course.
Find it kind of funny and unexpected that the band whose MO was essentially dissolving the rock format in a sea of distortion are now some kind of standard bearers for a nu-audiophilia
PS I have of course rebought the deluxe all-analogue cut of Loveless and it sounds pretty cool on my middle-aged man turntable, so I cannot draw any conclusions from all this - I do think it's definitely a record that sounds -different- on vinyl
― lemmy incaution (emsworth), Tuesday, 9 November 2021 08:09 (two years ago) link
I am neither a hardcore audiophile nor a hardcore Loveless fan but I bought the analog LP as a birthday gift for my wife and it sounds noticeably better IMO.
― Chris L, Tuesday, 9 November 2021 12:57 (two years ago) link
haven't listened to Isn't Anything for a long time, "Feed Me With Your Kiss" esp the opening sounds so "Touch & Go" Jesus Lizard, et al. to me, were they following that pigfuck/post-punk stuff going on in America?
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 10 November 2021 16:36 (two years ago) link
They were definitely aware, given their Husker/Dino Jr interests.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 10 November 2021 16:58 (two years ago) link
His collaboration w Patti Smith on her spoken The Coral Sea (two shows, two discs, minus her opening solo sets) is worth checking: the guitar isn't and is like in MBV---somebody on ILM mentioned Stars Of The Lid---it's him drawing on thee powers v. strategically---put my fairly concise review in this stash when began (?) to have doubts about future of villagevoice.com:http://myvil.blogspot.com/2016/06/southern-crossing.html(Listened to all the MBV I could find while writing, incl. much live stuff then on the 'Tube, incl. Shields hopping up and down on earthquakes, casual rabbit right at home.)
― dow, Wednesday, 10 November 2021 17:08 (two years ago) link
xpost: the root inspiration for both bands was the Birthday Party, too though.
― the plant based god (bendy), Wednesday, 10 November 2021 17:12 (two years ago) link
^ indeed, but I wouldn't be surprised if they'd also heard scratch acid and killdozer through that god's favorite dog comp on tough & go
― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Wednesday, 10 November 2021 19:08 (two years ago) link
*touch
feed me with your kids was like two years before the first jesus lizard album though iirc?
― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Wednesday, 10 November 2021 19:10 (two years ago) link
^ now that's a pig fuck song title.
― the plant based god (bendy), Wednesday, 10 November 2021 19:11 (two years ago) link
A+ typo
― Kim Kimberly, Wednesday, 10 November 2021 19:11 (two years ago) link
xpostoh yeah, it was more just me using them as shorthand for the whole scene because the initial bassline and drum beat reminds me a lot of JL
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 10 November 2021 19:11 (two years ago) link
were kevin and the gang sonic youth fans at all?
― the beginning of the end of discourse. (Austin), Wednesday, 10 November 2021 19:13 (two years ago) link
yeah definitely
― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Wednesday, 10 November 2021 19:28 (two years ago) link
KS talks about the influence of sonic youth et al during that period in this interview: https://thequietus.com/articles/08745-kevin-shields-interview-mbv-my-bloody-valentine
TP: So the new sound began here...KS: Well... by that time, live we'd become that kind of band anyway, we just hadn't recorded it. Live we'd always been much harder than the records ever were. The records were like playing games. They were conceptual, all the early ones, they had kind of sick lyrics and... it just felt like we were messing about. Then when Bilinda joined, around that 86-87 period, we were getting into Husker Du, Dinosaur Jr, Sister and EVOL by Sonic Youth... they put a different slant on everything for me. A slightly more melodic, more soulful, more beautiful element. And when Bilinda joined it all became more balanced. So we were happy with the You Made Me Realise EP because suddenly we had something we could play live. The difference between the record and what we were live was much less. And it was actually easier to play that most of the stuff from the Ecstasy record.So for the You Made Me Realise EP we got five days in the studio. Which we were very grateful for, because before that we'd been given seven days to make a mini-album, that Ecstasy thing. But because of how we lived at the time - we were in squats and had a very transient, free life – we didn't rehearse too much. Even back then we'd write in the studio, just go in with the basic bare bones of stuff. But then we got two months to make Isn't Anything, in a residential studio in Wales. And the guy we were recording with was a good guy, Dave Anderson – he'd been in loads of interesting bands like Hawkwind and Amon Duul II, as a teenager he'd been over to Germany – so he gave us a crash course in Krautrock. We'd been listening to loads of it, but he told us all the stories about taking acid all the time, getting into all sorts of trouble... so lines were crossing in the right way, you know? And when we were making the You Made Me Realise EP I'd become consumed by a certain attitude... but to be honest it came out more on Isn't Anything than the Feed Me With Your Kiss EP, which was more the darker side.TP: The darker side?KS: I mean, the band always sits between positive and negative, I guess, and that was veering towards the negative. A darker sound. People listen to the Feed Me With Your Kiss EP and say it's a bit more lo-fi than the one before, because I was becoming more conscious of high frequencies and - partly from the hip-hop thing - I was thinking "You don't have to keep putting all this top end on everything, making it all separate and bright." The '80s production value, basically. So the sound of that record is part of that whole attitude, which was solidifying around that time, but it's all low frequencies, not much top end.
KS: Well... by that time, live we'd become that kind of band anyway, we just hadn't recorded it. Live we'd always been much harder than the records ever were. The records were like playing games. They were conceptual, all the early ones, they had kind of sick lyrics and... it just felt like we were messing about. Then when Bilinda joined, around that 86-87 period, we were getting into Husker Du, Dinosaur Jr, Sister and EVOL by Sonic Youth... they put a different slant on everything for me. A slightly more melodic, more soulful, more beautiful element. And when Bilinda joined it all became more balanced. So we were happy with the You Made Me Realise EP because suddenly we had something we could play live. The difference between the record and what we were live was much less. And it was actually easier to play that most of the stuff from the Ecstasy record.
So for the You Made Me Realise EP we got five days in the studio. Which we were very grateful for, because before that we'd been given seven days to make a mini-album, that Ecstasy thing. But because of how we lived at the time - we were in squats and had a very transient, free life – we didn't rehearse too much. Even back then we'd write in the studio, just go in with the basic bare bones of stuff. But then we got two months to make Isn't Anything, in a residential studio in Wales. And the guy we were recording with was a good guy, Dave Anderson – he'd been in loads of interesting bands like Hawkwind and Amon Duul II, as a teenager he'd been over to Germany – so he gave us a crash course in Krautrock. We'd been listening to loads of it, but he told us all the stories about taking acid all the time, getting into all sorts of trouble... so lines were crossing in the right way, you know? And when we were making the You Made Me Realise EP I'd become consumed by a certain attitude... but to be honest it came out more on Isn't Anything than the Feed Me With Your Kiss EP, which was more the darker side.
TP: The darker side?
KS: I mean, the band always sits between positive and negative, I guess, and that was veering towards the negative. A darker sound. People listen to the Feed Me With Your Kiss EP and say it's a bit more lo-fi than the one before, because I was becoming more conscious of high frequencies and - partly from the hip-hop thing - I was thinking "You don't have to keep putting all this top end on everything, making it all separate and bright." The '80s production value, basically. So the sound of that record is part of that whole attitude, which was solidifying around that time, but it's all low frequencies, not much top end.
― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Wednesday, 10 November 2021 19:35 (two years ago) link
interesting about amon duul ii though, it's nice to think that the low end on FNWYK is a nod to 'archangel thunderbird'
― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Wednesday, 10 November 2021 19:39 (two years ago) link
*argh FMWYK
― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Wednesday, 10 November 2021 19:40 (two years ago) link
Feed Nick With a New Keyboard
― Noel Emits, Wednesday, 10 November 2021 20:17 (two years ago) link
Dave Anderson, aka the "idiot who left his bass in the van" according to his Hawkwind replacement Lemmy.
― whitehallunity, Wednesday, 10 November 2021 22:11 (two years ago) link
nice; yeah it really does make sense that that's what they were into at the time. it's a very easily decoded influence and i always just assumed they were sonic youth fans — just had never heard it from anyone directly in the band.
also this made me chuckle:
that Ecstasy thing.
it seems like he genuinely does loathe that early material.
― the beginning of the end of discourse. (Austin), Wednesday, 10 November 2021 23:07 (two years ago) link
i own both the deluxe and the non-deluxe issues of loveless now, lol, anyway i can confirm that the deluxe analog cut sounds marginally better to me but also holy shit how good does this thing sound
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Thursday, 11 November 2021 00:03 (two years ago) link
was working from home alone today and was able to turn it up, something really does happen to this record when it's loud
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 11 November 2021 00:08 (two years ago) link
The non-Deluxe remember is actually closer to the master (from first gen tapes), the deluxe analogue cut is made from copies as I understand it (I mean they didn't chop up the actual master to make it).
But I'm back to thinking the only real Loveless is the original DAT master ;-)
― Noel Emits, Thursday, 11 November 2021 08:57 (two years ago) link