RAYGUN - finally the 00s has its own Gay Dad

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.