RAYGUN - finally the 00s has its own Gay Dad

Yeah, I was figuring this had to happen.

(This thread, not this band.)

The link in my WTF post up there:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/mar/16/new-band-raygun

We're playing a show on MTV Asia with Kasabian and All American Rejects. It's a hard life i know but someone's got to do it.

Oh and I nearly forgot to say that this week on Friday we'll be in Westfield shopping centre in Shepherds Bush playing a couple of sets at 3pm and 7pm so if you want to see exactly what kind of a mess we're in then come and say hi!

Truly, pimpin' ain't easy.

"Pschycedelia Smith"

Jeez the singer is a cock.

"Reason, Logic, Ableton or whatever"

Strokes tribute band with Mika's kid brother on vocals and namedropping?

Psychedeliasmith was a big beat act on Skint, right?

ok, so i'm not going to click on those youtubes, but can someone just explain why people are finding them so hilarious, compared to the usual hilariously awful indie?

Oh the music's anonymous, it's the sublimely stupid interview responses that are the real LOLs.

Although here's a live clip playing at a venue called, of course, Freebutt.

god they even xerox the opening movie to Rock Band 2 in their video.

The standing-on-cars idea also appears in an old video by Ash.

Given the thread title, let us compare to the masters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C33u1NMaR8c

good lord this is great stuff.

"I go to church to repent my sins
I can't stop singing these urban hymns!"

(xxpost) ^^^ looks like an advert for "hairwax" or whatever it is kids put on their hair nowadays

but I ain't no stranger
to the thought
that heartbeat's don't come back

And you are moved, M@tt, yes you are.

Honestly man...I've got a lot to think about....

"It's like on Facebook, when someone invites you to something....you've got 'Yes', 'No', and 'Maybe'...'Maybe' is for people that are too afraid of what someone will think when they say they can't come...'Can't Say No' is for them."

"I go to church to repent my sins
I can't stop singing these urban hymns!"

That's got to be made up. Puzzled at the way the singer keeps looking to the fat beardy one for approval.

oh it's very real.

The funny thing I try to remember about doing radio interviews is that you have to try to be good value. I put myself in the position of the radio station and think if I was filling air time with a band I'd want them to be entertaining. The best interviews I've heard or seen are usually with people like Jack Black and Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters, they're not afraid to let you know they're in the room. We try to bear that in mind whilst we're doing these things ourselves. Before anyone gets the wrong idea I'm not trying to say that we think we're as funny as Jack Black or Mr Grohl, we just aspire to that level of quality.

Anyway the best thing about all this is meeting new people. Of course with local radio there's always a high chance of bumping into Alan Partridge 'local celebrity' types. Unfortunately they've been pretty thin on the ground so far this tour but I'm still holding out hope.

We filmed the video in the shadow of the Capitol Records building which added to the 'showbiz' feel of our LA experience. These trips were my first time in LA and if you've never been, its difficult to go to LA and not feel like you're in a movie. This is because everywhere you look you see something thats been in a blockbuster movie. Being British I have to mention the weather which was to quote Bill Hicks "Hot and sunny, hot and sunny, everyday is hot and sunny..." The Native Americans called LA 'Tapu' which apparently means forbidden. This was because they believed it was a place for the soul and not a place for living in - I guess they didn't get on with the heat! As a result its an early town people get up early and its difficult to find a place open later than 2am unless you like strip clubs! LA is also a seaside city. We took a trip to Santa Monica and Malibu and were amazed to see dolphins in the wild. I'm not sure if this happens to everyone who visits LA but we also saw some other beasts in their natural habitats (i.e. they were in the same hotel as us) namely Stevie Wonder, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Ryan Adams, Keane, James Morrison and my personal favourite Slayer! (They're not really my favourite). We also saw The Prodigy at Heathrow being stripped of their shoes, as were we I might add!

On our last day there, whilst we were at a bar in LAX waiting for our flight home there was an earthquake. It was a very surreal experience because we all looked at each other, you could see we all knew what was going on and we were all think 'ok is this really happening and how is it gonna turn out'. Fortunately it was nothing more than a minor event with not even so much as a broken glass to report. I think this was the best kind of earthquake to be involved in, if you're looking for earthquakes to get involved in, anything more and you start getting the ceiling falling down or whatever and thats a bit too serious for my liking! Yes I'm only an entry level earthquake tourist!

This is starting to get wierd so I'm off now. I look forward to returning to LA soon, who knows we may even play a show!

Oh PLEASE DO.

Ah, theory. From September of last year:

First of all I have to make a confession - I Love Pop Music. There I said it. I've come a long way since my early teens and my Metallica obsession (which by the way I'm not embarrassed about). However I've now grown up and part of that growing up process involved listening to the radio a lot. I mean loads. The radio has been a big thing in my life it's where some of my earliest memories of music came from and it's still where I find out about new bands/artists and great songs etc. I think here in Britain we're pretty lucky for having great radio too. Radio 1's new music policy has been one of the best things to happen in Britain cos we were nearly stuck in Status Quo hell at the end of the 80s. But not just Radio 1, XFM and others have been doing good stuff for new music for a while too.

However this year I have 1 big question - Where did all the good songs go? For the last few years we've had some great classic pop songs coming into our lives. It's been pretty special for a while I mean we had Outkast's Hey Ya, Strict Machine by Goldfrapp, Nelly Furtado's Maneater, Justice's D.A.N.C.E. , LCD Sound System's North American Scum, No Doubt's Hella Good and Muse's Supermassive Black Hole to name a few (Winehouse has been excluded from this list for pissing it up the wall). But where are the classics this year? What happened to pop? Maybe we've just been spoiled for the last few years. Or perhaps what's more likely is that whilst indie-schmindie was ruling the roost the only pop that was getting played was the cream and cos we liked what we were hearing so much we asked for more and so radio decided to focus on it. However it's pretty obvious there's not enough good stuff to fill the playlists. I think they call that binging so I guess this is the purge!

Don't worry though we'll be coming round the mountain to clear up the mess next year!

and my personal favourite Slayer! (They're not really my favourite)

whew! i was worried there for a second

Does this guy actually write for the Guardian too?

Why don't they just cover Babylon Zoo's Spaceman and have done with it?

Hahah

The pop theory post in question, with lovely accompanying image.

"If you stuck Iggy Pop, James Brown, David Bowie and Shirley Bassey in a lift... you'd probably have our band"

Also... the singer is called RAY GUN.

"If you stuck Iggy Pop, James Brown, David Bowie and Shirley Bassey in a lift... you'd probably have our band"

omg, funniest quote.

they've gotta be taking the piss here. they just gotta

Something tells me that they take themselves all too seriously.

I don't mean to self-aggrandize and sound like I'm tooting my own horn here but count the parallels between the Raygun clip and this comedy video my friends and I did last year about an overhyped indie rock band doing a stupid promo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o76xHGWolKU (It's long, so just skip to 5:51 if you want the gist of it)

I've got: Eyeliner guy, former boy bander now in an indie rock band, pretentious lead singer who thinks he's an intellectual, a ridiculous quote about what the band sounds like ("We sound like Wham going over to Joy Divisions' house for a game of Halo, so it's introspective and dark but then really pop, and there's still a sense of tragedy hanging over everything. But Wham wins the Halo match in the end btw")

Watching the Raygun video a second time I started to pity them, if only because of the fallout over this.

Yeah it's the sincerity that's kind of sad. Imagine waiting eight years to record your album and then immediately becoming some kind of internet joke.

No, sorry, I have no pity for anyone, in the year 2009, with all the knowledge and experience available, *still* is stupid enough to sell their soul to some major label for the price of a trip to LA and a few carchase videos thrown in.

I've never understood the comedy value of cruelty before (re: the Office, etc) but watching this lot, I suddenly *got* it. It's their utter sincerity that makes it so hilarious.

if they're in on it then they're brilliant, if not then, well, british ppl are the worst tbh

i almost think that "Adj" is worse than the lead singer

usa gives the world attack! attack! & brokencyde

uk gives the world raygun

RIP dom as well

raygun vs. mexican food

http://www.usdat.us/secretary/archives/US_flag_burning_2a.jpg

Raygun fans, yesterday.

"If you stuck Iggy Pop, James Brown, David Bowie and Shirley Bassey in a lift... they'd frantically press the DOOR CLOSE button when they saw us coming."

TS: Raygun vs Naked Raygun, anyone?

I remember an interview in the local paper with the band World Leader Pretend where one of them said something along the lines of "We're like the Frank Lloyd Wright of music. Listening to one of our songs is like walking through different rooms of a modernist house"

An alternate take from MJ Hibbett, who would know:

Raygun are actually quite sweet compared many of the MILLIONS of bands EXACTLY LIKE THEM I have played with over the years.

It's a fair point, pretty sure that Raygun interview is no more stupid than anything that's been posited by the Pigeon Detectives or whoever over the years. Think Raygun have been unfortunate enough to have done it all in one interview and at totally the wrong point in the decade.

RAYGUN vs. Gay Dad vs. GAYGUN vs. Ray Dad

(xpost) most indie bands don't have: a) 8 YEARS to come up with this stuff, b) the support of a major record label, c) 15 minutes on C4 to pontificate.

Gay Ray ftw

tho Iggy may prefer Dad Gun (cf Sister Midnight)

I'm sure one of these guys was in Rooster (srsly). eight years, my ass.

Whenever I see this thread I immediately think of:

http://old.kak.ru/images/archive/8/raygun/01!.jpg

lol 90s.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8183655.stm

See I think this is the key to their comedy factor - dude is *remarkably* bad at conveying notions of struggle and hardship

It was very unusual. I was working in the distribution room of a record label called Tru Thoughts. I had one tape - an old, 1970s James Brown compilation

Why didn't you bring some different ones in then?

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=239610968&blogId=504211155

"August 6, 2009 - Thursday

An Apology
Category: Blogging
APOLOGY FROM RAYGUN

Since Monday my band have advised me not to speak out even though since the incident I wanted to publicly express my regret and accept full responsibility. I thought it was time for you to hear directly from me that I’m sorry.

When future generations look back on the events of the last few days, as they surely will, I ask that they think not of the singer in a band nobody has ever heard of saying some slightly ridiculous things about his music, but of the way those shameful events brought people together.

Admittedly people were brought together mainly on messageboards as they posted comments such as ‘LOL WHAT A DICKWAD’ but that is not really the point.
I owe some apologies.

I’m sorry to my band mates Adj, Sam and the other one. And I thank each one of you for standing by me during what has been a difficult time for all of us.

I apologise to Delia Smith and to the concept of psychedelia. What I did to you both was unforgivable.

I now fully accept that if you stuck Iggy Pop, James Brown, David Bowie and Shirley Bassey in a lift you would basically just have Iggy Pop, James Brown, David Bowie and Shirley Bassey in a lift. You would not have our music. You would have three famous singers and a dead one.

I also accept that I know very little about hedonism and that I am not an expert in the field of drug use simply because of the time I tried to get high from smoking a banana in the Argos car park.

I apologise for being somewhere in the region of 27% more of a twat than I usually am, and I apologise for any twatish parts of my nature, although I do urge you to consider the fact that I am a singer in a band. I am by definition someone who wants to stand on a stage and sing while people watch me and for that reason will always be a little bit of a twat because it is in my makeup.

On the subject of makeup, I apologise for sometimes overdoing the eyeliner. I apologise to those who have pushed forward the proud tradition of singing men in makeup: Robert Smith, Brian Molko, the ginger one from Pussycat Dolls.

I apologise to Ken at my label and ask that you do not drop this boy.

In future I shall look to, and take my cues from, the true masters of modesty, humility and understatement: Bono, Johnny Borrell, Kanye West.

I close by thanking you for your time and requesting that my band and I are now afforded some space, and some time, to consider these awful events and to rebuild our lives. This is now a band matter and I respectfully ask that we are permitted to move forward in private.

Thank you.

Ray"

what a dickwad

he really is, you know?

(xxpost) Regardless of whether that's a genuine statement or part of a continuing publicity strategy, their music is still generic 00's indie shash.

and he's still a dickwad

That backpedalling apology reminds me of something.

of a backpedalling dickwad?

Erm... "I’m sorry to my band mates Adj, Sam and the other one."

That backpedalling apology reminds me of something.

lol something or someone

Has any band ever had this kind of hype and then gone on to blow us all away? Raygun could be breaking new ground here.

TS: Jimmy Ray vs Raygun

I think the first time anyone had heard of Raygun was when they made tits of themselves on TV. There doesn't seem to be a massive hype bandwagon rolling yet, although if you get your band on tour with Kasabian you've probably got a fair bit of financial heft behind you.

There's a few decent gags in his "apology". He actually does a pretty good job of redeeming himself there.

yeah, the apology is lolsome in a good way. the "Ken"/"drop the boy" line is my fave.

what percentage of potential raygun fans will get that bros-reffing line? it's purely for the old industry duffers, surely?

It's mostly the old industry duffers that are doing the pointing and laughing, though.

the initial video reminds me of chris needham without *any* of the likeability

I think the mention of the 90s magazine Ray Gun over on ILE made me go 'whatever happened to...' -- and and the answer:

Demise/Break up

Early 2010 following a meeting with the label the band (along with others) were dropped by Sony which consequently lead to the band deciding to go their separate ways.
Sam Embery and Ben Lyonsmyth have now been snapped up by Amy Macdonald and are currently touring with her.

Did they ever release anything? Like, at all? Or did Sony realise their new band had become an internet joke and just cut their losses?

They released a single, accompanied by the car chase video discussed upthread.

Lack Of Self Awareness

lol

Memories

https://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/article/bjm9d5/worst-interview-ever-raygun-lift-2009-4play?utm_source=vicefbus

4 August 2009 19:23 (ten years ago)

There's basically no reason to revive this thread, other than to note that it's been over a decade since this debacle. I can't remember what any of their songs sound like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSJyzLzWYi0
oh...
Sounds like something that would be used as background music on The Inbetweeners. Not a peep out of these guys since.