Anyone here think Klaatu is a great band?

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Does anyone know if they have put the Klaatu albums in cd form?

― Jeffrey Adams, Sunday, 8 January 2006 03:57 (eighteen years ago) link

yes.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 8 January 2006 04:00 (eighteen years ago) link

four months pass...

In the '79 Rolling Stone Record Guide, Dave Marsh gives each of the first three albums one star and says:

"Named for a robot in a science fiction movie, Klaatu's only claim to fame came through rumor; its self-titled first LP was reported to be the re-formed Beatles, a 1976 scam perpetuated by the group members' refusal to identify themselves. When word leaked out that it was only a batch of anonymous Canadian session players, reality asserted itself: mediocrity runs rampant through each of these discs, even the attempt to make Sir Army Suit a Northland Sgt. Pepper. Good for a laugh - barely."

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 13 May 2006 22:26 (eighteen years ago) link

three months pass...

When my first marriage failed, in 1978, I suffered from reactive depression, and became suicidal. At about the same time, I heard "Loneliest of Creatures" being played on a local radio station in Suffolk. I liked it immediately, and went out to buy the single, which was the B side of "Calling Occupants . . ".
After hearing that, I went out and bought "Klaatu" and "Hope". "Little Neutrino", on Klaatu, was the musical representation of what was happening in my mind, especially the crescendos, and "Hope" described how I fely about myself. The fact that the philosophy in "Hope" ended above the line of despair gave me the impetus to remove myself from the "valley of the shadow of death", and recover from depression. I have since remarried, and I have a wonderful new family, and, whenever I feel down, I listen to those two wonderful albums, and I don't need medication!
Yes, I believe that Klaatu are one of the best bands that ever existed. After all, they could well have saved my life.

― Richard Daish (Richard1506), Thursday, 17 August 2006 09:16 (seventeen years ago) link

eight months pass...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2-blWgVk-A

i don't think i've ever heard the carpenter's version of "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft", but it's pretty grand. the ring modulator over her voice and the fuzzy guitar at the end.

― jaxon, Wednesday, 18 April 2007 05:25 (seventeen years ago) link

They were a great band, but I don't see the point in all this discussion about their last three albums, as the first two were the real deal. Particularly "Hope", which is the closest they ever got to prog.

― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 18 April 2007 08:17 (seventeen years ago) link

I can't believe you'd say that about Sir Army Suit. Last album, Magentalane, would seemingly have a lot of stuff I'd imagine you would like as well.

― Tim Ellison, Wednesday, 18 April 2007 09:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Well, it is melodic and all that, but I find those three last albums are so.... ordinary. In a way, they might as well have been recorded by Barry Manilow. The first two are the ones with all the Beatles and ELO references. Which makes them great.

― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 18 April 2007 09:07 (seventeen years ago) link

might as well have been recorded by Barry Manilow

Vaguely, at times, Geir. But that's a pretty big generalization, no? "Everybody Took a Holiday" is absolute twee English psych - your favorite genre!

Anyway, even if it's vaguely Barry Manilow at times, the songcraft is key.

― Tim Ellison, Wednesday, 18 April 2007 19:35 (seventeen years ago) link

"Everybody Took a Holiday" is absolute twee English psych - your favorite genre!

Yes, there are moments, but the twee moments on those last three albums are closer to Association than The Beatles. And there are none of those proggy moments that made the "Hope" album so great.

― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 18 April 2007 19:54 (seventeen years ago) link

There are lots of moments!

"Cherie," to cite another example, is as significantly Beatle-esque as "Calling Occupants," even if it doesn't have the super-obvious soundalike parts.

― Tim Ellison, Wednesday, 18 April 2007 22:30 (seventeen years ago) link

To me, "Calling Occupants" doesn't sound like The Beatles at all. Nothing by Klaatu does, apart from "Sub Rosa Subway", does IMO. But that song, and most of the two first albums, sounds a lot like ELO. Unlike the more straightahead MOR stuff on those last three.

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 19 April 2007 00:04 (seventeen years ago) link

It may not sound like a Beatles record, but it has a "Strawberry Fields"-like mellotron intro, a synth part that sounds like Beatle horns at one point and the synth on Abbey Road at another, total McCartney piano chords in the bridge, and then the "I Am the Walrus" electric piano at the end.

― Tim Ellison, Thursday, 19 April 2007 00:28 (seventeen years ago) link

If there is one thing that doesn't sound Beatlesque to me, then a synth is it. Makes it sound a lot like ELO though. :)

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 19 April 2007 07:47 (seventeen years ago) link

one year passes...

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drg100/g181/g18165rqzc4.jpg

I found this for $0.50 and didn't buy it. Did I make a mistake?

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Sunday, 31 August 2008 01:57 (fifteen years ago) link

Yes.

― our work is never over, Sunday, 31 August 2008 02:04 (fifteen years ago) link

Shit.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Sunday, 31 August 2008 02:05 (fifteen years ago) link

We all make mistakes.

― our work is never over, Sunday, 31 August 2008 02:05 (fifteen years ago) link

WOah that was fast.

― our work is never over, Sunday, 31 August 2008 02:05 (fifteen years ago) link

I bought that record for like 5 bucks!
I'm the one who made the mistake..

But seriously, this is an okay album in comparison to "Hope".
Best space-themed pop rock band to come out of Canada in the late 70's, which contained three memebers...

― our work is never over, Sunday, 31 August 2008 02:10 (fifteen years ago) link

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=c1FSg5gcviU

― our work is never over, Sunday, 31 August 2008 02:12 (fifteen years ago) link

Hope is possibly the best album ever.
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Hope is possibly the best album ever.
Hope is possibly the best album ever.
Hope is possibly the best album ever.
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Hope is possibly the best album ever.
Hope is possibly the best album ever.
Hope is possibly the best album ever.
Hope is possibly the best album ever.
Hope is possibly the best album ever.
Hope is possibly the best album ever.
Hope is possibly the best album ever.
Hope is possibly the best album ever.
Hope is possibly the best album ever.
Hope is possibly the best album ever.
Hope is possibly the best album ever.
Hope is possibly the best album ever.
Hope is possibly the best album ever.
Hope is possibly the best album ever.
Hope is possibly the best album ever.
Hope is possibly the best album ever.

― our work is never over, Sunday, 31 August 2008 02:16 (fifteen years ago) link

four years pass...

I totally defend the first record, there is definitely something really hokey about it but some great songs, especially "Sub Rosa Subway" and "Interplanetary Craft." Don't know calling something "Anus of Uranus" ever seemed like a good idea, actually in general when they try to bring the "ROCK" element (that song, also "True Life Hero") they fall really flat. But I dig em in psychedelic mode, and of course their Muppet number "Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby" is a charmer. Was that supposed to be the Ringo track?

― Doctor Casino, Monday, 24 September 2012 23:40 (eleven years ago) link

It's Woloschuck singing with his voice slowed down.

― timellison, Tuesday, 25 September 2012 00:04 (eleven years ago) link

"True Life Hero" is classic '70s hard pop-rock in my book.

― timellison, Tuesday, 25 September 2012 00:14 (eleven years ago) link

one year passes...

Klaatu reunion, 2005:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAkOxGWC6Ds&feature=youtu.be

― timellison, Thursday, 8 May 2014 04:21 (ten years ago) link

one month passes...

Canadian TV appearance from 1974

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKW18CQri6A

― timellison, Tuesday, 17 June 2014 05:25 (nine years ago) link

two years pass...

omg this album rules so hard. wtf???
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, September 10, 2005 8:20 PM (eleven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― flappy bird, Tuesday, 28 March 2017 02:04 (seven years ago) link

I should pull it out again, over the years I've come to think of it as "Sub Rosa Subway and those other songs" but I'm pretty sure it's a good listening experience almost the whole way through.

― tales of a scorched-earth nothing (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 28 March 2017 04:42 (seven years ago) link

one year passes...

All three guys on Sir Army Suit for the 40th anniversary:

https://themusicthatyouhear.blogspot.com/2018/08/hark-and-enamour-me-sir-army-suit-turns.html

Made me listen to "A Routine Day" again, which is certainly a good thing!

― timellison, Wednesday, 22 August 2018 01:28 (five years ago) link

From a '90s interview with Dee Long:

Q22) Why a mouse-trap at the end of Magentalane?
A22) I believe the mouse trap is followed by the mouse scurrying away, after ALMOST getting caught in the mouse trap!
The mouse trap was "Capitol" and the "Music Business", and we were the mouse.

That snippet is now listed separately as "End" at the end of the album.

― timellison, Thursday, 23 August 2018 23:50 (five years ago) link

eleven months pass...

so is this band just radiohead except posi

― j., Monday, 19 August 2019 02:58 (four years ago) link

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