VT’s Music Chat

[blandy]

Just now, chrisp65 said:

Croydon would be stretching the definition of Greater Manchester so I think that probably rules her out.

Oh I know that, I was just asking if the pic is of her performing with the happy Mondays was it, or Black Grape, even - I can't be bothered to go back a page to the picture.

[chrisp65]

4 minutes ago, blandy said:

Oh I know that, I was just asking if the pic is of her performing with the happy Mondays was it, or Black Grape, even - I can't be bothered to go back a page to the picture.

Yes, yes it was.

Picture was from ‘89 so it was Mondays.

[tonyh29]

33 minutes ago, blandy said:

Looks like Kirsty McColl in the first pic. She was good.

Steve Lillywhite  remixed the Monday's album so I think that's why she was hanging around with them at the time 

[mjmooney]

2 hours ago, Mark Albrighton said:

That was me. That hit single they had, with the strings, was OK, so I thought I'd check out one of their albums. Bought the debut. Jeez, but it was dull. Utterly boring, off to the charity shop with it. 

I agree that GG seems like a decent bloke, though. 

[blandy]

I quite liked their early stuff, not in a “that’s brilliant” way, but I thought it was decent. Leaders of the free world was good, but after that I went off their later stuff.

[Mark Albrighton]

1 hour ago, mjmooney said:

That was me. That hit single they had, with the strings, was OK, so I thought I'd check out one of their albums. Bought the debut. Jeez, but it was dull. Utterly boring, off to the charity shop with it. 

I agree that GG seems like a decent bloke, though. 

My experience with them is - “Right, 5 albums for £30. I’ve got 3 sorted. Hmm. Elbow, ok I know they get a fairly positive mention every so often, I’ll try a couple of their albums.”

Followed by an incredibly indifferent and forgettable experience.

A few years go by and the release that song you refer to (One Day Like This) and it all explodes. Their preceding single - Grounds for Divorce - registered a bit with me, partly because I quite liked the title.

So I buy that album and again…shrug.

I’ll say this and for me I think this applies to bands, films, whatever. I think if stumble across what I think is a 5/6 out of 10 band through happenstance I will feel better disposed towards them rather than hearing “Elbow Elbow Elbow Elbow Elbow” leading up to listening to them. Possibly not dissimilar to yourself and a few of us on here going on about the national.

Edited November 24, 2023 by Mark Albrighton

[GarethRDR]

2 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

I’ll say this and for me I think this applies to bands, films, whatever. I think if stumble across what I think is a 5/6 out of 10 band through happenstance I will feel better disposed towards them rather than hearing “Elbow Elbow Elbow Elbow Elbow” leading up to listening to them.

Christ is this ever true.  At the "height" of the mid-aughts' New Rave craze, bar maybe two songs I found Klaxons to be utterly dull, but I would have absolutely gone to bat for, say, White Rose Movement, who it turns out in hindsight some years on were also just a bit shit (again save for maybe one track).

[bickster]

The only Elbow album I can listen to all the way through is the first one, ironic, given it's title

[chrisp65]

Elbow is basically dinner party music, isn’t it?

If you’re still doing dinner parties and you’re aware Clannad no longer cuts it, then it’s Elbow or Adele.

Nobody is actually listening, it’s just making sure there isn’t an actual silence.

[Chindie]

Elbow are a definitive 'Greatest Hits album' band. Each album (up to a point, I don't think I could tell you what their least... 3? albums were) would have 2 really good songs on it and the rest was a bit bleh. Meaning they'd have a really good Greatest Hits and that's all you need.

I actually quite liked them as a band for a while. Asleep in the Back is a debut is a good indie album with a bit of thoughtful writing, Cast of Thousands is the same again with a bigger production budget, Leaders of the Free World is a bit high on it's own farts with the odd decent track, Seldom Seen Kid gets the recipe back, and unfortunately killed them as a band because it got then wider radio play and after that it was just 'do that, again!' but with crap populist sentimentality bollocks filling in for the actual emotion.

[GarethRDR]

7 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

If you’re still doing dinner parties and you’re aware Clannad no longer cuts it, then it’s Elbow or Adele.

Personally I like to go with a specially curated Dead Can Dance playlist, which consists of 99% their floaty Clanned/Enigma-esque numbers, but also has Dawn Of The Iconoclast thrown in there, just to freak people out.  Stick it on shuffle, adds a real element of suspense to the evening, like ambience-roulette.  Better yet, if you can somehow queue it up so the opening fanfare happens just as you light the crème brûlée.

[chrisp65]

1 minute ago, GarethRDR said:

Personally I like to go with a specially curated Dead Can Dance playlist, which consists of 99% their floaty Clanned/Enigma-esque numbers, but also has Dawn Of The Iconoclast thrown in there, just to freak people out.  Stick it on shuffle, adds a real element of suspense to the evening, like ambience-roulette.  Better yet, if you can somehow queue it up so the opening fanfare happens just as you light the crème brûlée.

I’ve got a tape of slightly stretched and distorted guitar music with some deadpan stilted dialogue in German.

Remind people what the purpose of the evening is once they’ve all had a diet cola and poppers.

 

 

 

[Seat68]

8 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

I’ve got a tape of slightly stretched and distorted guitar music with some deadpan stilted dialogue in German.

Remind people what the purpose of the evening is once they’ve all had a diet cola and poppers.

 

 

 

I have produced music in the past, and it has always been poor, really poor, some of it six form poetry type stuff, some drunken, but always poor. Once I did something with a drum machine and a distorted guitar, I sang, or at least I call it singing in a german accent, but if Frank Black was singing in german, and the lyrics in german are the fly in the bottle, I repeat that over and over. Its deadpan, and I wonder if my tape has got out.

[chrisp65]

1 minute ago, Seat68 said:

I have produced music in the past, and it has always been poor, really poor, some of it six form poetry type stuff, some drunken, but always poor. Once I did something with a drum machine and a distorted guitar, I sang, or at least I call it singing in a german accent, but if Frank Black was singing in german, and the lyrics in german are the fly in the bottle, I repeat that over and over. Its deadpan, and I wonder if my tape has got out.

That tape is now probably on several of my tapes, imagine spending good money and you end up with some grainy low light footage of my arse and you singing in German. You’d be a bit miffed.

But still better than Elbow.

[useless]

Ninety-seven percent of music that gets posted on here is like a top of the pops 2 plays list, or something they'd play on 'BBC 6 music' so not sure why Elbow getting singled out as being middle of the road.

[Seat68]

On 06/11/2023 at 08:15, Seat68 said:

As soon as I hit submit reply it came to me. The King Blues covering Dizee's  Bonkers. Nothing like Little Man Tate, not The Streets, but at least I will sleep tonight.

 

No! No no no no it wasnt, it was this.

 

[Mark Albrighton]

1 hour ago, chrisp65 said:

Elbow is basically dinner party music, isn’t it?

If you’re still doing dinner parties and you’re aware Clannad no longer cuts it, then it’s Elbow or Adele.

Nobody is actually listening, it’s just making sure there isn’t an actual silence.

And for me, while I very much doubt Elbow or any band would appreciate that description, for me it’s not the worst thing to be. I find that there are occasions when something a bit more non descript, a bit more unobtrusive is suitable for a background soundtrack. Particularly if it’s something like a dinner party that might need to cater to more tastes.

Something ok enough that provokes a “Who’s this? Ah yeah, I remember that song they did a few years ago - what was it called? This isn’t too bad. Shall we open another bottle?” type response. 
 

[Xann]

Theorising there's a bit of a market split with Elbow.

The guys that bought their stuff were maybe more Indie leaning, but girls that usually bought more mainstream material got involved?

[chrisp65]

1 minute ago, Mark Albrighton said:

And for me, while I very much doubt Elbow or any band would appreciate that description, for me it’s not the worst thing to be. I find that there are occasions when something a bit more non descript, a bit more unobtrusive is suitable for a background soundtrack. Particularly if it’s something like a dinner party that might need to cater to more tastes.

Something ok enough that provokes a “Who’s this? Ah yeah, I remember that song they did a few years ago - what was it called? This isn’t too bad. Shall we open another bottle?” type response. 
 

 

I was at a Gruf Rhys gig a few years ago, the Candylion / Skylon tour. 

He said he always wanted his music to be in a really dangerous place, and that’s why he chose, middle of the road.

 

[chrisp65]

Just now, Xann said:

Theorising there's a bit of a market split with Elbow.

The guys that bought their stuff were maybe more Indie leaning, but girls that usually bought more mainstream material got involved?

Blended with a bit of the old uncool once they’re famous.