FELT (Go Kart Mozart, Denim)... Lawrence is amazing!

Boy am I happy I got the old 2-on-1 CDs last year, including "Crucifix Heaven".

Artists should either resist the temptation to tamper with their work or issue it alongside the original.

Hmmm, I take your point about the slightly stalin-esque undertones of the Ignite the 7 cannons thing, but i'm pretty sure any reining in of the suffocating joss stick / victorian lace cocteau-isms will be to the benefit of the lp. It's by far my least favourite of these re-issues but would definitely be the first i would buy. Lawrence has been moaning about how much he dislkes the production & lack of symmetry almost since it came out. But, yeah, I would probably be peeved if i didn't have the original.

I'm much more upset that let the snakes crinkle their heads to death has lost its title. Now, THAT is taking revisionism too far. the reissue has the same cover as my 1986 copy, I think they realised early on the alice band wasn't working for Lawrence.

Those CD box sets look pretty ugly, what are thy about?

the depressed video is a hoot.

Moderately excited about all this. Shame captured tracks aren't putting out gold mine trash, my copies shafted.

i'm all for the idea of a less messy/less submerged sounding Ignite The 7 Canons, i'm just fearful it'll end up sounding slick and weird or something..

the lack of symmetry befuddled me and i always assumed it was either intentional or they just ran out of money and couldn't record all the vocals

Hey cw, what's the issue with your Gold Mine Trash? I found a sealed copy last year, and the sound quality is horrible.

So, the CDs comes with the 7" singles and the vinyl albums comes with CD singles? If I was going to pay that much for the vinyl reissues, I'd want the singles on the same format. I think I'll be sticking with the 2002/3 cd reissues that I already have. The prices are ridiculous too. Add in, Lawrence messing about with the albums and this is one big letdown. I've been waiting for these for years!

At least the new Go-Kart song is great. I was a bit disappointed with the last album. Hope this one is back to is Denim/Felt quality.

Yeah what's interesting about this is that it's actually consistent with stuff Lawrence has said before. In addition to the Ignite stuff, when he named "Let The Snakes Crinkle Their Heads To Death" Bobby Gillespie told him the title sucked and later on Lawrence voiced his regret about the title, so I'm not surprised about the change.

Anyway I'm not too upset about this. Now if he tries to fix up Mayo Thompson's production on Poem of the River...

I don't remember seeing any talk on ILM of Martin Duffy's solo album from a few years ago. It's very reminiscent of some of his Felt stuff.

So, the CDs comes with the 7" singles and the vinyl albums comes with CD singles?

it looks like the vinyl doesn't come with anything extra, only the CDs have the extra single

I'm so glad Lawrence renamed that album to The Seventeenth Century. That is my favorite Felt Album by far, and generally one of my favorite albums to listen to all the way through.

I'm looking forward to going into my MP3s and retagging the album The Seventeenth Century. Let The Snakes Crinkle Their Heads To Death is such a terrible name.

The new Go-Kart Mozart album is quite comfortably the worst album Lawrence has ever put out in my opinion. It's like Novelty Rock/Instant Wig Wam without the charm. Lots of songs where Lawrence is totally phoning it in. There are a few standouts, but none of those come anywhere close to the best Denim/Go-Kart moments. Interested to know if others will have a similar experience.

Looking forward to hearing it but expectations are modest because "a few standouts" - that's been every Go-Kart Mozart album.

And also, Back in Denim > Denim on Ice > Novelty Rock > Instant Wigwam > Tearing Up the Album Charts > On the Hotdog Streets (>this probably).

Back in Denim > Denim on Ice > Novelty Rock > Instant Wigwam > Tearing Up the Album Charts > On the Hotdog Streets

<3 this series of words in spite of the declining quality of the music

that lawrence could've gone from felt to denim (let alone go kart mozart) is so inconceivable that i cant even bring myself to spend any time with those records

I prefer them to Felt tbh.

And also, Back in Denim > Denim on Ice > Novelty Rock > Instant Wigwam > Tearing Up the Album Charts > On the Hotdog Streets (>this probably).

― everything

I'd put Tearing Up the Album Charts ahead of Novelty Rock, apart from that I'd agree. I didn't think Hotdog Streets was that great, but it's much better than the new one.

Love Denim (esp the 2nd alb), never cared for Felt at all.

man i LOVE felt
what's not to like!?

It just feels like they lived in a field and now they live in a tin

this is my favorite felt song
it's so subtly groovy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy_KABAgfUk

not that anyone cares what my favorite felt song is but i adore that song so much i don't understand what's not to like about it!

Ward F OTM.

You keep raving, LL. There is a depth and subtly to Felt that just begs for repeated listens. I feel like my appreciation for them just deepens as I get older - and I didn't fall for them until I was 40!

i most like the felt albums where maurice deebank is soloing on electric all over everything

then i like the denim album with fell off the bank of a lorry

after that i'd put the more pillowy felt albums

never heard any GKM

the first two felt albums are like tapestries that just kinda unfurl forever, a ribbon that ties around the whole earth. deserts, snowy tundras, the pacific ocean, all that

I'm going to listen to them all morning

yes indeed
i was going to list the things i like but i don't need to
mostly on "cathedral" it's the spareness of the instrumentation and the interaction between the voice, the no-snare, no-cymbals perfectly subdued drums and the guitar solo that gets me. it's so dreamy and groovy at the same time
i love it

now that i think about it, there is a felt song that is on my ipod shuffle that always comes up and i love it but idk what it's called. it's more of a dirge. prob from the same album.
they are a band that is fun to listen to when i'm traveling from one place to another. also i didn't really hear them til my mid-late 30s so i know it's not nostalgia talking.

the first two albums take my breath away

I've been with various folks in bands who rock in a different idiom and don't know Felt, but when Evergreen Dazed or any track from Crumbling comes on in my car the tone of the lead guitar lines always stops conversation.

I am listening to the Stagnant Pool while my co-workers discuss possible punishments for a student here who accidentally left her handgun in a bathroom

good lord

since I posted that the campus police have reported a second unattended gun left in a bathroom in a different building

welcome to Texas/America/my nightmare

wth

Damn. Take care.

does that happen regularly?!?

most likely explanation is they've decided to start *reporting* such incidents. but I guess a gun is like a cell phone or a sunglasses, one more thing to scoop into your day bag or forget in the bathroom.

anyway, I'm torn on these Felt reissues. I want them, but they're 25 pounds a pop. and I don't really want the bonus 7" or need a signed sticker from Lawrence. sell me a 5-CD box set for 50 pounds!

The magical combo of Laurence and Deebank is so addictive and unique to me that I rarely go back to the latter day stuff

post-Deebank has a lot to offer, but it's absolutely a different kettle of fish

i feel like people don't give ignite the seven cannons enough credit. it's amazing for being the only album with lawrence deebank AND duffy

what happened to gary ainge?

ooh, look at this live recording from Spain from 1985, they sound great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUcw_CkIkT8

bass player looks so sad though

Gary Ainge did this album with Marco Thomas (who I think is the sad bassist above?) under the name Fly in 2002:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrgOjndyyqo

Put The Needle Down And Fly by Fly is one of the albums listed in the sleeve notes to Instant Wigwam and Igloo Mixture, one of my happiest moments in a record shop was seeing Put The Needle Down And Fly and realising it actually existed after assuming that both the album and band were fictional

(the album came out a couple of years after Instant Wigwam but Fly had already released a single in 1998 - I wonder if it was Lawrence who came up with the album title, though)

Lawrence came up with all the song titles on the Fly album

bass player looks so sad though

no one is playing bass... that's deebank.

what happened to gary ainge?

gary plays with lawrence... and vic godard.

Loved On The Hot Dog Streets massively so can't wait for the new album.

no one is playing bass... that's deebank.

nah, I meant the guy to the left of lawrence... I guess he isn't holding a guitar though!

that's duffy.

looks like he just realized he left his gun in the bathroom

some clips of the new ignite mixes on bleep: https://bleep.com/release/95538-felt-ignite-the-seven-cannons

Hmmmm, it's a strange thing, the songs come through a lot more clearly, I feel like I'm hearing the lyrics for the first time, but also it sound a little leaden, lacking the lightness and subtlety of the earlier albums. The drums plod a little. Maybe it takes getting used to. I do wonder if Guthrie just didn't do an amazing job of recording felt and flung the dense cocteaus filigree all over it as a smoke screen.

Haha Duffy does look like a sulky 13 year old in that footage.

Maurice soloing blithely, obliviously through ballad of the band is also priceless.

I'm kind of passively approving of mozarts minimart without expecting to like it overmuch. It's great that he's stuck to the GKM remit and made a hugely irritating and slightly disturbing collection of novelty pop as opposed to the Denim on a shoestring of the last two. They were a hoot in Brighton, Vic Godard leapt on stage and tucked a tenner in lawrence's pocket during relative poverty.