So I'm still buzzing from the release of Ersatz GB, only had two days with it but it is already becoming ingrained, great stuff. Not as complex as YFOC but equally inventive. There's some development on there from the 'gruppe' as people seem to be calling them, you can tell its the same lot from last time, some of the guitar tones sound the same and one song starts off a little like Blindness which is nice. One song also sounds like Electric Wizard, but I'll do that tomorrow. Here's one people are talking about most I guess!?
Song: Greenway
Album: Ersatz GB
Year: 2011
So Mark sounds like the Incredible Hulk on this one, never heard him sound like this before, at first I hated it, but I think it almost is an impression of the hulk from the lyrics. He seems to be annoyed about a video he sees while channel-hopping on 'Danish rock TV' and the gruppe don't want to answer him, piling up chairs on the other side of the hotel room. this bizzare turn of events leads to the line that people are debating and finding fascinating at the moment and seems to have been mentioned in every review I've read too: 'I had to wank off the cat to feed the fucking dog' someone just mentioned it may well be 'wake up' rather than 'wank off' but I'm pretty sure its the weird one.
I hope when i'm 50-odd I'm still talking reams of shit to anyone who will listen, this is excellent. The hulk vocals could be his second attempt at Beefhearting it up of course, but whatever he is doing, he sounds incredible, like he is gargling phlegm or has just eaten a big cream cake before delivering the lines. I can imagine him clutching a bottle of whisky, careering around a hotel corridoor screaming 'Greenway' on every night of their recent tour. From the state of him in Leeds, no doubt his torso travelling faster than his feet. thankfully the tour got better, but as I've said previously, the bad Fall shows are still much more fun than any other gig you will see this year.
The promise of heavy metal is delivered via this song and maybe Mask Search on Ersatz GB, this one in particular sounds like a hardcore band chopping away before a beatdown at times, but still sounds Fall-like.
To anyone wandering here from the VISI forum, hello, please stay a while.
Tuesday 22 November 2011
Wednesday 16 November 2011
Day 110: Bill Is Dead, but this blog is not.
I'm still doing this blog, albeit very very occasionally these days, 2 house moves in 6 months has left me with very little time for anything recently but here we are. I'm finding I've got more time now, so on with The Fall-uh!
In the time away, I've managed to see the Fall live for the first time, I was at Stylus in Leeds, absolutely brilliant, despite Mark spending only about half the time on stage, the band were incredible. I've read some reviews on the VISI forum, but honestly, for a first gig, I was entranced. When Mark was on it, he was incredible, Strychnine was a great moment, with him abbing his finger at the topless pillheads at the front and his antics were more intriuging than annoying. Myself and my friend there agreed we couldn't wait to see them again, the new stuff also sounded bang on, even a little more complex. I can see the heavy metal comments Mark made ages ago coming through, Taking Off I think will be a future favourite for everyone.
Anyway, bloggling along...
Song: Bill Is Dead
Album: Extricate
Year: 1990
So this was a weird one, but remains one of the most lucid moments MES has laid down, he sounds oddly contented, as I've said before, on this album I think people had written him off previously, Brix had left and he had nothing to prove. Apparently this was supposed to originally be a piss-take of The Smiths, surely too easy? (and I say that as a fan) but ended up being a weirdly personal song, with Mark intoning 'These are the greatest times, of my life' over and over. Now this could be a reference to anything, love, the band itself, life in general. What I'd like to think is it pre-empts what occured on last year's Your Future's Weather Report 2, where he states 'You gave me the best years of my life' I always this this should be called Bill Is Dead 2, he sings in such a similar way and reflects in such a strange, detatched way. You can easily compare lines like 'Last week, after Dynasty/I had crows feet under my eyes' from BID to 'I watched Murder She Wrote/At least five times/the cast deserved to die' the in-a-bubble way it is delivered and observed is so similar its uncanny.
Where the two songs differ is that Weather Report 2 has so much static and breakdowns it lacks the lacksadasical hippy whisfulness of BID. Apparently Smith thought Bramah's music for this song needed lyrics fitting to it and there are points where Smith is almost saccharine (this is rare, very, very rare) lines like 'Lately, I rise AM/Off pink sheets' its almost as if he has spent time in a rock star wilderness, not as bad as Kate Bush (writing her album Aerial about washing machines and toddlers after about 2 decades away from songwriting) but certainly in a artistic, reflective way and its probably why it made it to number one of Peely's festive fifty that year (by the way, for Peel nerds, check this out, a site where you can listen to every single entry into the fifties over the years, with options to exlcude certain artists too, amazing, I just turned it on, got a Hefner track, sweet).
I'll stop here as this song is just one to enjoy, good to be back peeps.
In the time away, I've managed to see the Fall live for the first time, I was at Stylus in Leeds, absolutely brilliant, despite Mark spending only about half the time on stage, the band were incredible. I've read some reviews on the VISI forum, but honestly, for a first gig, I was entranced. When Mark was on it, he was incredible, Strychnine was a great moment, with him abbing his finger at the topless pillheads at the front and his antics were more intriuging than annoying. Myself and my friend there agreed we couldn't wait to see them again, the new stuff also sounded bang on, even a little more complex. I can see the heavy metal comments Mark made ages ago coming through, Taking Off I think will be a future favourite for everyone.
Anyway, bloggling along...
Song: Bill Is Dead
Album: Extricate
Year: 1990
So this was a weird one, but remains one of the most lucid moments MES has laid down, he sounds oddly contented, as I've said before, on this album I think people had written him off previously, Brix had left and he had nothing to prove. Apparently this was supposed to originally be a piss-take of The Smiths, surely too easy? (and I say that as a fan) but ended up being a weirdly personal song, with Mark intoning 'These are the greatest times, of my life' over and over. Now this could be a reference to anything, love, the band itself, life in general. What I'd like to think is it pre-empts what occured on last year's Your Future's Weather Report 2, where he states 'You gave me the best years of my life' I always this this should be called Bill Is Dead 2, he sings in such a similar way and reflects in such a strange, detatched way. You can easily compare lines like 'Last week, after Dynasty/I had crows feet under my eyes' from BID to 'I watched Murder She Wrote/At least five times/the cast deserved to die' the in-a-bubble way it is delivered and observed is so similar its uncanny.
Where the two songs differ is that Weather Report 2 has so much static and breakdowns it lacks the lacksadasical hippy whisfulness of BID. Apparently Smith thought Bramah's music for this song needed lyrics fitting to it and there are points where Smith is almost saccharine (this is rare, very, very rare) lines like 'Lately, I rise AM/Off pink sheets' its almost as if he has spent time in a rock star wilderness, not as bad as Kate Bush (writing her album Aerial about washing machines and toddlers after about 2 decades away from songwriting) but certainly in a artistic, reflective way and its probably why it made it to number one of Peely's festive fifty that year (by the way, for Peel nerds, check this out, a site where you can listen to every single entry into the fifties over the years, with options to exlcude certain artists too, amazing, I just turned it on, got a Hefner track, sweet).
I'll stop here as this song is just one to enjoy, good to be back peeps.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)