Entertainment For Lively Minds
The Band That Only I Get...
The chances are that your music collection is pretty similar to whatever your mates own. If you own the whole of the Beatles back catalogue, your mates will too (OK, so everyone owns the Beatles...). Even if you're into something like Northern Soul, you can probably assume that at least some of your friends will know a thing or two about Gloria Jones or Edwin Starr.
But what acts do you love that you've never been able to persuade anyone else about? Which band or artist has made a career despite the fact that you're the only person you know who gets it?
I'll start: I love the Innocence Mission. I don't really know much about them, besides that two of them are husband and wife, and the singer has a beautiful voice. I've tried playing them to various people, but they're always seen as a bit too whimsical, a bit too in thrall to the Sundays among my mates. Here's a taster:
I'd also nominate The Concretes - perfect Swedish pop (to my ears at least). Anyway, here's your chance to finally win someone else over - share your personal favourites below. Or perhaps you prefer to keep them as 'your' band only?
- More from atcf.
- Login or register to post comments
-
I'll forever blame Vic Reeves
But NONE of my friends like Tindersticks, whom I absolutely adore. Everyone who I've tried to convince of their greatness gives them about one minute, then says they're too miserable or moan about Stuart Staples' voice, and then turns them off. I even had one person ask, "is this the Mike Flowers Pops?" when I played them.
By the way, you're not alone on one thing, atcf - The Concretes are (were?) a fantastic band
I'm with you, Joe
I think they're fantastic. I remember trying to convert people at university and failing to such an extent they became known as "that shit band you like" and so on.
Only got the latest at the weekend so haven't been able to give it much time but early indications are that it's excellent.
I think Fraser mentioned in a podcast once that he's a big fan.
Nope
I like 'em, but I wouldn't describe my fandom as "big". More "moderate".
Fair enough
Moderate is still well above the national average!
The new one
isn't up there with the first two albums, but not much is. But it is very good indeed.
Me,Myself and I.
For some reason I've never been able to figure out,none of my old Muckers ever liked either of these.The GLW also doesn't get it.
Negativland
Very little of their (gigantic) catalogue is what you'd call an easy listen, but I find them fascinating. Friends called it 'Toilets-flushing music'.
Their album Helter Stupid is a collage masterpiece and satire on the vapidity of the media, censorship in music, 'backwards masking' etc. They sent out a press release saying they'd had been forced to cancel a tour because a kid who'd slain his family with an axe had been listening to their song Christianty Is Stupid when he perpetrated the deed. TV news ran the story without checking.
You're not alone
Dispepsia bloody rocks!
You're not alone
Dyspepsia bloody rocks!
Unsure of spelling - apologies!
Phew....
...I thought it was just me!
Escape From Noise is my favourite.
Songdog..
Great,very literate band. New album out soon and I don't get how they aren't more popular.
The Innocence Mission are lovely
Not posted for a while, but mention of them makes me want to...I lvoe them...the album We Walked In Song is beautiful, Brotherhood Of Man has me in tears most times i play it...I know they are some sort of Christian band (despite this I still like them).
I don't think, one person aside, that I have convinced anyone about It's Jo & Danny...lovely pop music, but folkie, some "grooves" in there too..Gone on to make some sort of Proggy record as The Yellow Moon Band..something for everyone I would say...
Seconded on It's Jo & Danny
Love Expression is something of a modern classic, in my estimation; like Joy Division fronted by a sweet-voiced folkie, singing All You Need is Love. I found this video while drafting my comment, and it may be the sort of thing some might find mawkish, but I think suits the song perfectly…
I love the innocence mission too!
and they've not taken off in my circle of friends either!
I have a similar problem with Laura Cantrell not getting the wider acceptance she deserves around our table in saloon bar. It's their loss in the end.
With you on Laura Cantrell
and John Peel was in our group too.
Went with a friend to see her at The Adelphi in Hull. I thought she was superb but he just didn't get it.
For some reason...
...my friends haven't been able to get as obsessed by The Hold Steady as I am. It should be a no brainer: the best lyricist working today speak-singing over a band that sounds like Angus Young took the E-Street Band into a back alley and gave them an antipodean-midget-style kicking. What's not to love? But they don't. They're always like "yeah, that sounds good", but it doesn't click with them the way it does for me.
Seconded
On The Hold Steady. I went through period a few months ago where I listened to them loads during the day on Spotify and then found when I mentioned them, nobody had heard of them, or couldn't muster more than a "meh".
I've cut down on them recently as my Last.FM count was getting a little unbalanced.
Is it just me...
...or does Separation Sunday carry echoes of Bat Out Of Hell, played by snotty drug obsessed punks ? Narrative arcs, Steinman-like piano/keyboards, recurring characters... probably just me then.
It's not just you.
THS have acknowledged a debt to Steinman a few times. I completely agree - SS is very like BOOH, but replacing the bombast and cod-opera with their Replacements collection.
Matthew Sweet
I got hooked on Matthew Sweet when he released Girlfriend, and have been hoovering up his (sometimes sporadic) output ever since.
Also a fan of The Webb Brothers, who never quite seemed to catch on.
I do actually have one friend who likes both of the above, but not as much as me so I'm discounting him...
His last album...
... was pretty good. But I can't remember what it is called off top of head.
I still play 'Girlfriend' every so often.
'Sunshine Lies'...
... from 2008. Is that the one?
I also really like the two 'Under The Covers' LPs he did with Susannah Hoffs.
'sunshine lies'
that's the one. rough around the edges, like it.
I need to check out those 'under the covers' albums that i've never heard of!
I absolutely love Matthew Sweet.
But I do struggle with Sunshine Lies.
Give In Reverse a go. Fabulous.
Goodfriends is fantastic
bootleg-ish from the Girlfriend era, including Mr Soul, Cortez The Killer, She Said, She Said.
It's "out there on the internet" - but drop me a line if you need a copy for trade
Goodfriend
Was added as a bonus disc to the reissue of Girlfriend. You need search on the internet no more. The live version of "I Thought I Knew You" is worth the entry fee alone.
The Webb Brothers
I was quite taken with the Webb Brothers too, though they quickly hooked up to tour with daddy when they failed to set the world alight...
The Webb Brothers
The one track (off their first EP?) "Beyond The Biosphere" was absolutely flipping brilliant. I am going to go and play it now, in fact.
U2
Everyone else on this blog seems to hate them but I'm rather fond of them - not so much the early stuff but from "War" onwards, it's been an upward trend and they had an excellent 00's.
Bill Pritchard.
He is a teacher now.
Bill Pritchard
I've got lots of his stuff; he could have been a contender for Morrissey's crown.
The Doors/The Style Council
I would venture that these bands are the most unloved (well known) bands in history.
I adore them both.
100% with you Blue Sky
On TSC, I am convinced there day will still come, when everyone suddenly 'gets it' (although its been a while now and I might be getting less convinced).
My Favourite Shop and Confessions Of A Pop Group are both stunning albums and my favourite Weller output.
Clem Snide
Every album a winner,fantastic live,wonderful surreal songwriting and singer Eef Barzaley sounds like Motel Blues era Loudon Wainwright III.
They should be everyones favourite band.
Danny Baker called this a Loudon Wainwright/Van Morrison mash-up
Nice...
I like this a lot so you've converted one person at least... Any tips on what album(s) would be a good place to start if I wanted to explore further?
New Kingdom
Lord I've tried. Hip Hop collides with Tom Waits and Jimi Hendrix, what's not to like? Everything it seems...
New Kingdom
I worked for Island in the 90s. We couldn't give their records away.
Shudder to Think
I don't know anyone who likes this band or who has heard of them (apart from people i have played them to) apart from one record shop guy years ago.
Their 'Pony Express Record' is some kind of amazing, post-hardcore glam fed through a strange imagination. The songs are all catchy pop songs in the way that Georges Braque's "Woman with a Guitar" is a picture of a woman: it seems to have the wrong number of limbs and heads and whatever, but it is still a painting of a woman with a guitar. This album is like that; Cubist Glam, anyone?
Shudder To Think
I saw 'em in the early 90s, around the time of Get Your Goat, I think.
I've heard of them
IIRC, they did a song with Jeff Buckley which is on the deluxe version of Grace, and now they're something to do with the band, A Camp.
A Camp, etc
The STT guitarist (and sometime vocalist) Nathan Larson is in A Camp with his wife, Nina P form the Cardigans.
He also put a band together called Mind Science Of The Mind (yes, rubbish) back in 1996, which features Joan(as policewoman) on electric violin. They did a tour of university radio station with Jeff B playing bass.
Think I'm on my own even here, amongst the Word congnoscenti
Only my kids like these (and I think thats because of a reasonable amount of swearing in the songs!) I however think they sing lovely songs about bruised love affairs, being grown up and drinking too much!
I Just love these and this is one of my all time favourite songs (would make my top 5 easily).
I want to meet the people out of both these bands and tell them just how much I have enjoyed their music over the years, as I suspect both groups felt that nobody cared, and they did.
Broken Family Band were great
saw 'em at the Green Man and have a cople of albums. The site I write for even put them on out our work's London social club once, which was a surreal experience for all involved by all accounts.
But generally I don't think my muscial taste overlaps by more than 10-20% with anyone that I know (really know, not in a Facebook/online sense, although even there I'd have large swathes of disagreementn I'm sure). I'm going to a gig on my own tonight for instance...
Well...
I have quite a lot of these because I'm very partial to a bit of extreme metal. I don't think I'm ever going to convince anyone of my acquaintance to get into Horna, Rotten Sound or Nile.
I can't seem to persuade anyone of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's excellence either (including the Palace stuff). [Shrug. Resigned look.]
Re the Bonnie Prince
you are surrounded by fools then. Mrs SPT likes Will Oldham and her word is law. New one with the Cairo Gang is jolly fine ...
The Fags.
No-one has heard of them. They're great.
NRBQ
I nominate NRBQ. I tried to start a thread on them & no one answered, so they definitely count here, though Keith Richard, Richard Thompson & Paul Westerberg know what I mean. Just YouTube NRBQ, & get enlightened.
Tuxedomoon
American exiles, forced to Europe in the early 80s to spread the word of their art synth/experimental/classical rock. An absolutely wonderful band who have never put a foot wrong in their 30+ year career. I still hope that some magazine/artist will bring them to worlds attention.
Try as i might, i've never really been able to spread the love for these mavericks. I've turned various people onto the joys of Coil, Eyeless in Gaza, Current 93, Einsturzende Neubauten and even Whitehouse but for some unfathomable reason, Tuxedomoon have fallen on deaf ears..one of life's mysteries
Ooh, like the sound of them
Can I ask for a recommendation or two - and possibly break your Tuxedomoon duck? (Not a sentence I was expecting to type today.)
I would point you in the direction of
one of their early albums to start with,'Desire'. It is a bit of a transition record moving away from their post punk beginings into the more electronic stuff. When they relocated to Europe in the early 80s they released a series of 12 inch singles on the Belgium label 'Les Disques du Crepescule', i'm not sure if these have been collated onto one cd, but this period is their high water mark.
A few years later they released 'Holy Wars', probably their most well known release, if for no other reason that it contained the sublime 'In a manner of Speaking', a track covered by several other artists. It was around this time that they started doing stuff for Wim Wenders, and were being commissioned to do work for various European Opera and Theatre groups. Their work was being released on various labels as well as their main home Crammed Discs.
Finally check out one of their more recent releases, 'Cabin in the Sky', it jumps from avant funk to experimental passages with ease. There are many releases in the TM catalogue, quite a few of which are hard to get now. To be honest i'm not sure if any of their work is on Spotify i've never looked. The 2 founder members Steven Brown and Blaine L Reininger also have extensive solo catalogue's which are terrific.
Enjoy the search, I believe it's worth it
Cowboy Junkies..
are delicate and diffident and authentic and keep turning out great albums. Not enough people appreciate them.
(and Tuxedomoon are also cool by me, Mint)
Agreed
The Cowboy Junkies,Love them.For a long time The Trinity Sessions has been one of my test discs for new kit.Sublime music.
Age of chance
Just me? The leeds, pro cycling gear wearing, industrial noise merchants. They had the amazing designers republic album cover on "A thousand years of trouble" Jayz uses that enormous stab of sound from "Take it" on 99 problems. I remember seeing them on the "tube" and thinking they were the coolest band ever
The Television Personalities
One of my favourite ever groups. I think they're great, but accept that this is not a widely-held opinion.
For me...
..it`s The Church.
I love `em and bore my friends rigid but to no avail.
Sad thing is I can almost understand why they don`t get it.
David Ford
Three brilliant albums (the last two less than a fiver each on iTunes), superb live, championed on here several times but I've never seen an article in the mag. Whenever I mention him people generally say "who?".
Likewise Elvis Perkins, two excellent and very original albums, brilliant live show yet no-one has heard of him.
Yet David Gray sells millions - the mind boggles!
Elvis Perkins in Dearland
is a brilliant album. Never got round to Ash Wednesday, although I see it's on Spotify...
RED BOX
There was a certain 80s leftie do-gooding innocence about this lot which I have to say I find rather charming. They were also an unusual sounding band who managed a couple of hits in an era when the charts were at their blandest. They had world music leanings just before world music became popular (though obviously lacked the funds to get as many session musicians as the likes of Gabriel and P.Simon).
CD Copies of their debut, Circle and The Square, were changing hands for about £200 on Ebay – until Warners finally reissued it last year.
Non-believers should check “Heart of the Sun” for melody and “Leaders in Seventh Heaven” for ambition.
I was a bit young to know much about them – do any of the massive remember how they were viewed by the music press at the time. Starting out on Cherry Red Records, did they ever have any indie cred?
They were certainly played on The Chart Show
when it was indie top ten week at least once. That is all I can remember about them...
I always got confused..
Red Box and The Frazier Chorus.
For America is a great tune, though.
Never mind the indie charts...
they had yer actual proper top ten hits and they were on Warners as Walker says - not exactly an underground success.
I think I've mentioned them on the board before as one of the more extreme examples of a successful band dropping alomst entirely out of the collective conciousness. Can't pretend I listen to my copy of the Circle and the Square much any more (or indeed at all) but it's still there and there are some good tunes on it. Might well have the 7" of Lean on Me at the back of a cupboard somewhere too - I remember liking the b-side, Stinging Bee...
Band who nobody else knows
I saw the Bikini Beach band at a local music festival a couple of years ago, Fantastic.
On a different note, can I say that I dont like The Smiths or any solo Morrisey stuff.
Its sacrilege I know, but I just dont get it, can someone please explain to me what I am missing ??