Why does this make me think of Our Friends In The North?
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 10:16 (twenty years ago) link
― piscesboy, Wednesday, 26 May 2004 10:35 (twenty years ago) link
― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 17:14 (twenty years ago) link
― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 17:15 (twenty years ago) link
― Allyzay, Wednesday, 26 May 2004 17:23 (twenty years ago) link
― piscesboy, Tuesday, 1 June 2004 11:19 (twenty years ago) link
― mei (mei), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 17:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― Bimble..., Wednesday, 22 December 2004 17:43 (nineteen years ago) link
there, i've always wanted to say that in a public place. i'm going to run away now and hide.
you know it's true, though. you KNOW it's true.
― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 19:57 (nineteen years ago) link
NOOOOO! No one is allowed to call that song to mind in my brain! OUCH!
I want to have surgery, pluck the cells involved with that song out of my brain forever please. I swear I'm innocent. I didn't know that was lurking in my memory. I'll even take...well no, I won't take "shiny happy people", it's not that bad, but..
How can The Smiths be a poor man's Wedding Present when the guitarists and their sound are so completely different? One would NEVER imagine Steve Albini producing The Smiths, for example. I wouldn't care to hear the grunge Smiths, come to think of it. Or the hardcore Smiths. Even if you hate the Smiths, let's just leave them as they are shall we? They're in a land quite a few hills away from the Wedding Present.
― Bimble..., Thursday, 23 December 2004 07:51 (nineteen years ago) link
A major, major understatement.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 23 December 2004 09:23 (nineteen years ago) link
Now if they had only ever made a song as beautifully melodic and harmonic as "Made Of Stone" or "Bye Bye Badman"...
― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 23 December 2004 18:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Thursday, 23 December 2004 19:37 (nineteen years ago) link
Few bands evoke such strong feelings of loathing in me -- maybe it's just because I've had to have this argument so many times with incredulous fans who can't fathom someone not liking The Smiths. There is no band that I like that I can't at least fathom someone else not liking. But I cannot fathom the utter reverence for The Smiths. Dud Dud Dud Dud Dud.
― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 24 December 2004 04:50 (nineteen years ago) link
Classic duh duh duh
― Atnevon (Atnevon), Friday, 24 December 2004 04:53 (nineteen years ago) link
it's more to do with the emotional milieu in which the bands work: the poor indie loser out of step with the world. mind you, even that's not much of a comparison, i admit. i'm not sure where my patented "poor man's weddding present" comparison came from, but it certainly winds people up in the pub. perhaps that's the only reason i came up with it, actually ;)
― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 27 December 2004 23:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― Bimble..., Monday, 27 December 2004 23:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― -- (688), Sunday, 13 August 2006 05:35 (eighteen years ago) link
GREATEST. TROLL POST. EVER.
― Domenico Buttez (ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!!), Sunday, 13 August 2006 05:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― nicky lo-fi (nicky lo-fi), Sunday, 13 August 2006 07:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― Kiss My Grits! (Bimble...), Sunday, 13 August 2006 08:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― gem (trisk), Sunday, 13 August 2006 08:13 (eighteen years ago) link
I say Classic.
― Daniel, Esq., Friday, 18 January 2008 05:10 (sixteen years ago) link
could someone explain bo diddley in how soon is now (according to the nyt)? humming would be okay.
― youn, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 23:43 (sixteen years ago) link
the rotochorus (or whatever it is) on the main guitar kind of does a bump babump babump babump-bump thing
that's less cringey than reuters' subhead of 'influenced rockers from elvis to u2'
― gff, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 23:59 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah the accents resemble the Bo Diddley beat with all the swing taken out
― Curt1s Stephens, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 01:35 (sixteen years ago) link
one of the greatest bands in history. not just for the mystique or their singularly unique sound, but for the quality and depth of the songs.
― Charlie Howard, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 05:21 (sixteen years ago) link
haha i'm gonna hear them in a brand new way now that you've said that
― Eyeball Kicks, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 13:32 (sixteen years ago) link
was morrissey really that good a writer? or did he just have a distinct persona/writing voice?
― mr x, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 13:43 (sixteen years ago) link
NO/YES
― asey, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 14:13 (sixteen years ago) link
eyeball, look no further than 'i know it's over' when re-evaluating the smiths' work :) listen for when those big drums enter and morrissey's delivery builds in intensity. it's that cascading, restrained guitar line that keeps everything in check and prevents the song from collapsing under its own weight. really powerful stuff. the song is really poignant and introspective with a sort of resigned, sad sense of humour underpinning it... one of many examples of the band's multi-dimensional approach to songwriting.
― Charlie Howard, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 14:57 (sixteen years ago) link
Morrissey was a good writer, yes. Why he doesn't seem to be such a good lyricist anymore, I don't know.
― Bimble, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 15:53 (sixteen years ago) link
he's just lazier these days. still has some poignant insights every now and then
― Charlie Howard, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 16:02 (sixteen years ago) link
is he actually that funny? (in a good way) or is he still funny (in a bad, hahah, oh god that is so terrible but i cant believe he just said that old-timey bingo hall entertainer kind of way)?
(am debating this after listening to the song about americans on quarry).
― mr x, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 16:49 (sixteen years ago) link
For all the praise Morrissey and Marr get, it was quite often the Rhythm section that made The Smiths interesting. Morrissey's lyrics are intermittently quite witty, but he's not much cop at writing melodies, he just kind of wobbles up and down.
― chap, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 16:57 (sixteen years ago) link
sometimes hes witty. other times his humour is just ropey.
― mr x, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 16:59 (sixteen years ago) link
i think he's a lot funnier (even when he's not trying particularly hard) than your average wordy joe schmuck fishing for laughs
― Charlie Howard, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 17:00 (sixteen years ago) link
I went to see Andy Rourke do a DJ set tonight. I had a great time. At the end of the night he let me put on his glasses! He has the coolest glasses, I'm sorry. They're prescription he said, but they're sortof...half sunglasses, half not. They make him look sortof Lennon-ish or Liam-ish from far away I guess. Just slightly square in shape. I love them. He played two Pixies tracks (both from Doolittle), Devo's "Whip It", T-Rex's "Telegram Sam", a mashup of Blondie's Rapture and Doors' Riders On The Storm, ended the set with Stone Roses "I Am The Resurrection" and Doves "M62". There was also a new-ish song I liked and didn't know and went to his computer screen to find out what it was. It was by The New Young Pony Club called "The Get Go". He also played a bunch of other dance music I didn't recognize but was fun to dance to.
Oh also, I asked him what was on his T-shirt because he had a sportcoat and you couldn't see it. So he showed me and it was an arty colorful silhouette pic of Betty Page with something else on top of it.
There were some pretty cool bands who played as well. That is all.
― Sleep Tundra (Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You), Saturday, 23 May 2009 09:58 (fifteen years ago) link
Also the only Smiths song he played was Bigmouth.
― Sleep Tundra (Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You), Saturday, 23 May 2009 09:59 (fifteen years ago) link
What I fail to understand, though, is Morrissey's new arrangement of some of the old Smiths songs. I don't even want to *link* to the new version of This Charming Man I heard the other day on youtube. It sounded like the fucking Jonas Brothers.
― Turangalila, Saturday, 23 May 2009 14:08 (fifteen years ago) link
Hahah. I dunno, man. I can't help you. I tried his new album one time and I couldn't even get through half of it. Sorry.
― Sacriligiously Dead (Bimble), Saturday, 23 May 2009 16:11 (fifteen years ago) link
;)
― Sacriligiously Dead (Bimble), Saturday, 23 May 2009 16:12 (fifteen years ago) link
I went to see Andy Rourke do a DJ set tonight
Jealous of this. Didn't know Rourke was DJ'ing now. I assume he's financially secure (despite hostilities between the band members on money-matters), so maybe he's just having fun.
― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 24 May 2009 02:15 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, he's doing this in other cities as well, and what was more interesting to me was learning that he actually came out here two years ago to this Brit Pop thing my friend DJ'd at.
― Sacriligiously Dead (Bimble), Sunday, 24 May 2009 10:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh yeah I forgot to mention he played two Clash tracks, too. Maginificent Seven...and...was it Train In Vain?
― Sacriligiously Dead (Bimble), Sunday, 24 May 2009 11:57 (fifteen years ago) link
http://bandwidth.wamu.org/there-at-a-special-time-a-d-c-punk-on-her-teen-years-touring-with-the-smiths/
http://www.studio1469.com/events
In 1985 and into 1986 then 17 year-old DC photographer Nalinee Darmrong traveled with and captured The Smiths during the height of their : the Meat Is Murder and The Queen Is Dead tours.
Now she has a book out with photos and ephemera, and a gallery exhibit
― curmudgeon, Friday, 17 June 2016 16:56 (eight years ago) link
I love arguing with Morrissey fans about how The Smiths would've had a perfectly satisfactory career with any other singer in Moz's place because the musicians in the band were good at their jobs and Marr was/is something of a guitar savant. They're not having it, of course.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 22 May 2018 23:14 (six years ago) link
depends what you mean by "satisfactory" I guess
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 22 May 2018 23:16 (six years ago) link
w out Moz there's none of the iconography, no foregrounding of transgressive gender/sexuality, no ridiculous song titles/lyrical hooks. Marr needed a co-writer/lyricist, as his solo career has borne out.
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 22 May 2018 23:18 (six years ago) link
Would they be legendary? Unlikely. But they would have fared perfectly fine in that mid-80s London guitar pop climate. Morrissey contributed fuck all to the actual music of The Smiths, that's all Marr. Plenty of other singers could have stepped in and done a capable job with those songs.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 22 May 2018 23:21 (six years ago) link