why are Look Blue Go Purple so overlooked?

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Seriously. I'm listening to "Compilation" right now and amazed at the sheer rush of their sound. I say they're one of the best of Flying Nun's prime era.

― mike a (mike a), Thursday, 6 March 2003 15:56 (twenty-one years ago) link

Maybe because their name is "Look Blue Go Purple."

― Nick A. (Nick A.), Thursday, 6 March 2003 16:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

I can't find any of their records anywhere. Any ideas?

― lawrence kansas (lawrence kansas), Thursday, 6 March 2003 16:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

I think Lawrence effectively hits upon why they're "overlooked!"

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 6 March 2003 16:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

And they are indeed very very good. :-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 6 March 2003 19:56 (twenty-one years ago) link

their fashion sense was appalling but the songs were lovely, which is th ebest song? 'as does the sun', 'i don't want you anyway', 'cactus cat'???

― keith (keithmcl), Friday, 7 March 2003 02:22 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Safety in Crosswords" for me, but "Year of the Tiger" is also pretty ace. Their name was indeed, unfortunate. Their inability to reach a larger audience even more so.

I was lucky enough to find the disc used almost ten years ago. I've burned more than one copy for friends. Another of those "unlikely to be reissued" albums, unfortunately.

― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Friday, 7 March 2003 02:58 (twenty-one years ago) link

it's likely to be reissued actually, flying nun is restocking most of their classic records like gordons, hello cruel world, etc... which makes sense since their recent output is a frightful mess.

― keith (keithmcl), Friday, 7 March 2003 03:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yay!

The reissues thing. Not the frightful mess thing...

― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Friday, 7 March 2003 03:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

The reissue news is a Good Thing. And as the receiver of one of Matt's tapes a long time ago (I've since tracked down the CD), they are indeed ultra-classic. "Winged Rumour" does it for me, but I'll also go with "100 Times" and "As Does The Sun" too.

― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Friday, 7 March 2003 03:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Safety in Crosswords" & "Conscious Unconscious" are my faves - also love the pretty baubles/glittery eyes sleeve of the comp. Oh oh! I just checked www.smokecds.com - they've got it for NZ$16.95!!

― Poppy (poppy), Friday, 7 March 2003 06:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

I will speak very highly of smoke cds!! Got my order in 10 days Thats From Us to NZ and back in a week and a half!! Prices are cheap-I got the formentioned LBGP, New TAll Dwarfs and The Clean Double CD for $35 US inclucing postage, about $10 less than what I'd pay for that combo in a store here providing that I'd be albe to find them.

― brg30 (brg30), Sunday, 9 March 2003 23:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

haha i did an assignment on this very topic last year for a music class. their bewitched EP is my fave, love "circumspect penelope". their albums are quite easy to find in new zealand :-P

― di smith (lucylurex), Sunday, 9 March 2003 23:28 (twenty-one years ago) link

superb band doomed to cult status due to their tiny discography. denise roughan rocks.

― Bosse-De-Nage (Bosse-De-Nage), Sunday, 9 March 2003 23:31 (twenty-one years ago) link

LBGP Compilation is still in print. Cactus Cat is in my top 20 greatest songs ever

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 10 March 2003 00:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

They were all hopelessly recorded and now sound emabarassingly dated; as if they could have come from nowhere but Dunedin in the early 80s. This and the fact that they never recorded any albums suggests that they are over-rated not under-rated. Yes they had a great drummer (but do you people prefer it when she sounds like shes drumming on wet cardboard?), and yes Denise has done some good stuff but please look elsewhere: such as the Puddle's Live at the Teddybears Club which two LBGP's were a part of, WSSOES'Rain, Jay Clarkson's Crying, entire discography of the 3Ds and Ghost Club, and the great yet-to-be-recorded Palace at 3AM.

― hamish (hamish), Monday, 10 March 2003 02:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

i have never had an issue with the sound of their recordings

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 10 March 2003 02:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

the problem with ghost club is that david mitchell doesn't let denise sing much. 'crying room' is a beautiful song though. and the puddle really aren't that great, 'into the moon' is mediocre and the last record had one fantastic song 'terminator' but the rest was boring. they made a couple of great seven inchers in between though including the one that sounds like the doogie howser theme song.

― keith (keithmcl), Monday, 10 March 2003 03:21 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yeah okay most Puddle records suck and their shows nearly always suck but that Teddybears Club LP is great. Their last album had a few more great songs than Terminator II but of course anything to do with GDHenderson is tinged with this sense of tragedy of what the Puddle could've been if they weren't either total losers or they weren't trying to replicate the Doogie Howser theme. And shit am I the only one who thinks that David Mitchell is a great singer with a great wail?

― hamish (hamish), Monday, 10 March 2003 03:35 (twenty-one years ago) link

four months pass...

i have gone through just about every book about new zealand music looking for stuff about look blue go purple. there is fuck-all to be found. the doublehappys get more print attention than LBGP, and they recorded LESS. recorded output has f-all to do with how good they are anyway. i don't think LBGP sound any more dated than anyone else from that place and period. i'm writing my dissertation about this band, btw.

― di smith (lucylurex), Sunday, 13 July 2003 01:30 (twenty years ago) link

Hey Di, do you have that Shrew'd compilation on Flying Nun? I'm assuming you probably do. One of the things I love about it is that all the LBGP ladies contributed tracks (good ones!!)

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Sunday, 13 July 2003 01:36 (twenty years ago) link

no, i don't have it, but my supervisor is lending it to me.

― di smith (lucylurex), Sunday, 13 July 2003 01:42 (twenty years ago) link

it's great!

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Sunday, 13 July 2003 01:42 (twenty years ago) link

i think they take up over half of Shrewd. Yeah its not too bad. Yeah the doublehappys were also badly recorded, dated sounding and over-rated. You should try Rip It Up back issues; LBGP were in heaps of them. And I think Grant McDougall wrote a fair bit about them in various zines; you could catch him when hes going on his daily jog.

― hamish (hamish), Sunday, 13 July 2003 04:19 (twenty years ago) link

i've already looked through the RIU back issues, but thanks for the grant mcd tip.

― di smith (lucylurex), Sunday, 13 July 2003 06:04 (twenty years ago) link

i don't think LBGP sound dated at all

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Sunday, 13 July 2003 07:30 (twenty years ago) link

*looks upthread* i am the king of consistent posts

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Sunday, 13 July 2003 07:31 (twenty years ago) link

Good band! They were part of that whole Verlaines (!!!!!), Chills, Bats blitz from down under & quite nice... But I think I only heard about 4 songs. I think access to the stuff my have been one of the main problems. Most of their contemporaries were better known, including Walkabouts, and Go-Betweens.

― John Bullabaugh (John Bullabaugh), Sunday, 13 July 2003 22:24 (twenty years ago) link

three months pass...

Rarities, Outtakes, Alternative Takes, Bootlegs etc etc. that are ACTUALLY WORTH HEARING rather than just making you look cooler

― etc, Tuesday, 11 November 2003 13:36 (twenty years ago) link

as an adolescant kid i had to put up with going to gigs with my "girl" "friends" to see "sexy Shayne Carter", so it was nice to have our own "girl-group" to enjoy live -- yeh Hamish, Lesley is a very good drummer, but have you seen the band live ?

and that first ep -- that was the other side of "pink frost", for really. And despite that heavy emotional connection there, they produced something sufficiently independent to relax on th "pink frost" spook in any way. no, they addressed sexual issues of the day, without taking a position (see below).

it was a damn fine ep, from the age when nz proved that eps were the "preferred/new format", ensuring only the best made it to vinyl.
and given that background, that ep is one of the best sounding of the dunedin eps for me for another reason, because it did not sound like anything else.

bad recording, blah blah.. huh ? compare it to lush/mbv ten years later. isn't spooky layered mystique acceptable ? they were a different band -- they didn't want to sound like another ramones/velvets derived group it would seem, and that sound was what made them stand out, and they reinforced it on stage, which given the dynamics of the band on stage was neither a male gaze situation or watch-out psycho-boy-killers, no, it was both !

ok, "cactus cat" was a "pop" record, a second run, lower expectations of the public proved by the limited uptake of bewitched -- so what, that didn't make their earlier finer statement badly recorded, except if you do wish to lump them in with all that boy band guitar grind also coming out of Dunedin and Christchurch at the time, which i sure as hell do not.

― george gosset (gegoss), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 15:06 (twenty years ago) link

one year passes...

They don't sound badly recorded at all to me, either...and wasn't "Cactus Cat" in the NZ Top 20? Yes, I believe it was...

― Ian Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Saturday, 27 November 2004 23:33 (nineteen years ago) link

seven years pass...

Personally, I really like the name.

― Michael M., Friday, 21 September 2012 22:38 (eleven years ago) link

yeah me too

― did drake invent yolo (Drugs A. Money), Saturday, 22 September 2012 05:31 (eleven years ago) link

i don't think they sound dated at all

― upset and upsetting (electricsound), Saturday, 22 September 2012 05:42 (eleven years ago) link

A+ consistency itt, electricsound. how do they sound 'dated' more than any band recorded at a particular point in the past?

― softspool, Saturday, 22 September 2012 06:07 (eleven years ago) link

two years pass...

http://tvnz.co.nz/seven-sharp/look-blue-go-purple-now-video-5445348

via ned obvs

― mookieproof, Wednesday, 26 August 2015 02:50 (eight years ago) link

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