Why is everyone not going totally bonkers about the junior boys?

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Whereas Modest Mouse is a generic US alterna-rock band.

― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Sunday, 3 October 2004 23:04 (nineteen years ago) link

The Moon and Antarctica is actually a pretty good album -- like taking the interesting guitar lines and fractured songs structures of their early material (but without as much shouty) and the developed melodic sensibility of their later material (but without the boring).

― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 3 October 2004 23:11 (nineteen years ago) link

re: MOM. Here's a photo of andi from Mouse on Mars, scrutinizing the vinyl and hearing the junior boys for the first time. Did I already mention just what wonderful people MoM are..

― nick.K (nick.K), Sunday, 3 October 2004 23:28 (nineteen years ago) link

i'm very excited about when this tour comes to mtl

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 4 October 2004 00:07 (nineteen years ago) link

this is the line i always use when making fun of NR but until now i wasn't aware he had actually used it!

And now that means you were merely following in my path, like a fine cultist. Thanks!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 4 October 2004 00:35 (nineteen years ago) link

it's a good line, actually

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Monday, 4 October 2004 00:39 (nineteen years ago) link

One tries.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 4 October 2004 00:58 (nineteen years ago) link

definitely worth seeing live on their current tour, although being the first band of three makes it hard to work the crowd...

― mike h. (mike h.), Monday, 4 October 2004 03:09 (nineteen years ago) link

who's gonna be seeing this show in nyc? i'm showing up on time for sure.

― lemin (lemin), Monday, 4 October 2004 05:17 (nineteen years ago) link

I might be up for Oct. 29th show in Chicago also. Remind me later.

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 4 October 2004 14:07 (nineteen years ago) link

And at this point robotsinlove aka Jaymc's brother Mark and I are going to the Thursday show in LA. Anyone else up for it?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 4 October 2004 14:26 (nineteen years ago) link

how best to hear this Kylie cover?

― BbetaA, Monday, 4 October 2004 15:01 (nineteen years ago) link

This tour must be seen. I seen em in Seattle on Friday, and Junior Boys were great live, better than I expected. Mouse on Mars were just ridiculous. One of the best dance concerts I have seen in a long time. Their live show is much more rousing and anthemic than I would have thought; more in the vain of their recent records, just taken to extreme levels of fun. Ratatat was zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........

― Scott CE (Scott CE), Monday, 4 October 2004 15:38 (nineteen years ago) link

i don't think i need to hear this Kylie cover - i already know exactly how it sounds.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 4 October 2004 17:46 (nineteen years ago) link

...i say again,the time devoted to ratatat on the tour with MoM and junior boys would have been better put to use by j.b.'s....half an hour was definately not enough from them.

― william (william), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:22 (nineteen years ago) link

Only thing I've heard is the track included with the latest Uncut. Which was an interesting piece of 80s-meets-R&B (thankfully with more empasis on the former). Absolutely interested in hearing more.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:33 (nineteen years ago) link

geir you are seeming entirely more sensible lately

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:44 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.exclaim.ca/images/coverart/up-cover_1004_juniorboys.jpg

Junior Boys on the front cover of Canadian mag: Exclaim.

In a good way the front cover looks so Melody Maker circa 1983/ 1984 or Record Mirror.

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Friday, 8 October 2004 12:07 (nineteen years ago) link

geir you are seeming entirely more sensible lately

You've changed your mind by now, I think.

Fellow I talked to who knows something of the ILM is the guy on the left, and very friendly he was at that. A big Tim Finney fan, like all right thinking folk.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 8 October 2004 13:10 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't find Geir's interest in the Junior Boys all that contradictory with his tastes, given the fact that he's a big fan of 80s synth-pop.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 8 October 2004 13:30 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm still surprised that I like this album so much. It goes against everything I stand for.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 8 October 2004 13:45 (nineteen years ago) link

Er? How so?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 8 October 2004 13:59 (nineteen years ago) link

I actually feel like the album was designed for me right at this moment, given the way my tastes have shifted and developed recently.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:25 (nineteen years ago) link

I can say based on the live show that:

1) The new songs (I think there were at least two, I could be wrong) sound quite great
2) The guitar playing is a fine addition when used (the singer feller whose name I can never remember said later that he was specifically doing it in a Robin Guthrie-style, which Spencer to his credit called right from the start)
3) They sounded excellent. Maybe still a touch nervous on stage? But it all worked really well and they got people dancing.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:30 (nineteen years ago) link

It goes against what I usually like in music by:
1. Being very very slick.
2. Sounding totally '80's.
3. Being emo.
But I was being about 34% facetious. In fact, you can pretty much read anything I post on ILX as being 34% facetious.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:32 (nineteen years ago) link

It's emo?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:38 (nineteen years ago) link

It's totally emo, Ned!

"The Junior Boys, on the other hand, make music so achingly raw and emotional that I will be surprised if anything else I hear this year will make me flinch quite so hard." -- J0hn Darn1elle

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:41 (nineteen years ago) link

I guess I'm getting old. I was listening to this album on my commute this morning, and was thinking to myself, "This is basically a Sade album for aging indie rock kids...but I like it." I think I'm going to get a t-shirt printed up that says "100% INDIE GUILT" and wear it over my gradually developing beer belly.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:42 (nineteen years ago) link

Huh (to Jaymc's post). *scratches head* I mean, I tend to think of the long-established A R Kane/Arthur Russell connections, which while emotional, as John's post indicates, makes me think of nothing involving dudes in ratty sweaters wishing they were Conor or whatever.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:45 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah everyone go see this show, it's great!

ok ratatat are fucking bullshit, but still, everyone go.

― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:47 (nineteen years ago) link

Any band with a song called "Show Me How to Fight" is emo.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:49 (nineteen years ago) link

the terrorists have won.

― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:50 (nineteen years ago) link

And they're parading around in their chunky black glasses and torn cardigans.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:54 (nineteen years ago) link

seriously, ceding all territory coded as sad to teh "emo" is a defeat analagous to "family values"

― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:58 (nineteen years ago) link

Also, I dunno, this is kinda emo:

"Tonight I got your number
I even know your street
If you could only meet me
I know we're meant to meet

And if I find you
I know you make me feel
You make me feel more than real"

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 8 October 2004 15:04 (nineteen years ago) link

Man, I can just tell this album is going to sound more and more awesome on rainy days like today.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 8 October 2004 15:13 (nineteen years ago) link

I think my secret fave on the album is "Under the Sun," in that it does the cold early eighties AOR thing right (as opposed to others these days who do it wrong).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 8 October 2004 15:16 (nineteen years ago) link

Also the way the guitar on that track connects Hats to Hex is u+k.

― RickyT (RickyT), Friday, 8 October 2004 16:00 (nineteen years ago) link

Ha ha yes! Although I thought that link was already very strong (it's just a short jump from the end of "The Downtown Lights" to something like "Blood Rush", although also to U2 and Disco Inferno! People don't give The Blue Nile enough credit for the guitar playing on those first two albums)

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 8 October 2004 16:01 (nineteen years ago) link

God, I hate Under the Sun. It's the only track on the album that didn't make it to my iPod.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 8 October 2004 16:03 (nineteen years ago) link

I have to second Tim here, that's an incredibly astute call. Cheers for RickyT! I think I'll relisten to the album now with that in mind.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 8 October 2004 16:04 (nineteen years ago) link

God, I hate Under the Sun.

I hate you. (A lie.)

This gives me a half chance to talk about what is actually my fave obscure track from Them Early 80s which fits into that vein, Paul Gardiner's "Stormtrooper in Drag." He was Gary Numan's bassist for a long time and Numan wrote and sang the lyrics (as one can guess from the title alone, really), and it's an extremely disconcerting, fascinating result.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 8 October 2004 16:06 (nineteen years ago) link

(Oh yeah Tim, did you get my mail? I tell you, sir, you are shaping a generation. :-) )

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 8 October 2004 16:06 (nineteen years ago) link

Jaymc needs some Arthur Russell.

― Howard Wine (nordicskilla), Friday, 8 October 2004 16:08 (nineteen years ago) link

Probably!

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 8 October 2004 16:11 (nineteen years ago) link

Checking my e-mail now Ned.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 8 October 2004 16:12 (nineteen years ago) link

(I'd go further and say that not enough attention is paid to all the instrumentation of the first two BN albums, not just the guitar. You get a lot of talk about them sounding very eighties, and the glossiness of the production, but the underlying arrangements and playing are rarely written about. Which is curious, because they way they transcend their potential, um, schlockiness(?) seems to me as deeply bound up with that as with Paul Buchanan's voice.)

― RickyT (RickyT), Friday, 8 October 2004 16:14 (nineteen years ago) link

(the way the Blue Nile transcend their potential schlockiness, I mean)

― RickyT (RickyT), Friday, 8 October 2004 16:20 (nineteen years ago) link

I know exactly what you're talking about. I once wrote a very detailed breakdown of the sounds at work in "Rags To Riches" but I'm not sure if it ended up being posted anywhere. Personally though the endings of "Tinseltown In The Rain", "The Downtown Lights" and "Saturday Nights" (though the latter in a different way slightly) are their most thrilling moments sonically - transcendence that is up there with the endings of "The Last Dance" or "Second Language"

It's that feel which I'd like to see Junior Boys go for a bit more. Oddly the one track on the album that really feels a bit like it is "More Than Real", the way the groove just plays out at the end.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 8 October 2004 16:25 (nineteen years ago) link

Interesting you mention Disco Inferno, as I brought it up to the feller last night unprompted (what IS his name? The bearded singer?). He has heard some and was intrigued. I'm on their e-mail list now so I should send him a copy of That CDR Collection.

Ah wait, he did also say this! He apparently just heard Slowdive's Pygmalion for the first time and was blown away. That to my mind sounds very promising in terms of what he could do with that sound.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 8 October 2004 16:31 (nineteen years ago) link

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