Triffids C/D?

born sandy devotional is a great great record of time and importanly place. it screaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaams western australia.

listen 'wwwwwwwwwesssssssssssssssssternnnnnnnnn australiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaa"

yup

(Actually there's an idea)

Very envious that you got to see them live!

Not decided on the exact makeup of TBS yet.
It's very much a work in progress. (...) There's a huge amount of stuff to wade through. TBS was probably the most fully demoed album of all and the demos are high quality and quite revealing.

Reviving cause there's the reissues of Calenture and In the Pines just about out on Domino. Which I'm lucky enough to be reviewing for Plan B.

Ned Raggett (Ned) on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 1:49 AM (2 months ago)

The documentary about Born Sandy Devotional is airing on Saturday. I was looking for a torrent source, but then I found a place to order the DVD: http://chaos.com/product.asp?intProductID=1541336&intArtistID=8865

Where is it on tomorrow? (don't actually remember where you're from, so maybe that's a very stupid question. I'm in Belgium, by the way. Hello.)

It's airing in Australia tomorrow (I'm in the US)

Ah. Thanks anyway.

So I got the BSD reissue used the other day (with the booklet even) -- very nice, had heard the original album via mp3s some years back but good to hear it straight up. That said I do agree with the occasional comments above that the band's work is almost too studied, just. There's something about a lot of their songs that doesn't dig as deep as I might have expected, even though I can admire the results. No complaints, though, and it'll likely grow on me more.

The reissue of In The Pines is so so great.

not classic by any stretch. david mccomb had a poet's lyrical flair alright but the triffids always struck me as a little lifeless musically, had nothing of the spark or imagination of a band like the go betweens (to whom they were often compared). 'wide open road' is an exception though - just a beautiful song. jill birt's songs always made me cringe too. i don't think their music has aged particularly well either.

OTM

No complaints, though, and it'll likely grow on me more.
ned, you are too nice. i'd say pretty unsubstantial sunny easy listening music. wahat i heard (parts of bsd and itp) was flowing along without leaving any traces. like an aussie indie mainstream. no need really to listen to any more of that boring stuff. the go-betweens were a different kind of beast.

the 7" singles box set is exceptionally well done - i usually hate reissues done this way but i was really impressed

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=367992&rss=yes

The Triffids reform for memorial shows

Dude from Youth Group tho? O_o do not want.

aye, i just noticed this, noice

I just picked up reissues of Treeless Pain, The Black Swan, and "Beautiful Waste and other songs (mini-masterpieces 1983-1985).

Should I be excited?

yes

the last one is particularly interesting..

black swan is 'restored' to how d. mccomb wanted it to be originally and is now about 40 tracks long!

oh awesome

West Australian Premier takes on fans of The Triffids

"The people who are making the complaints are former fans, or groupies or roadies of The Triffids," Mr Barnett said.

"It's not about Colin Barnett, it's not about my son Russell Barnett, it's not about the heritage value of the house, it's not about the parliament.

"It's about The Triffids! It's about the Triffids! Don't you get it? It's about the Triffids!"

Why herritage list the house where some b grade band used to practice? Most people in the country have never heard of them anyway. What makes them so special? Do we now have to list every house that every muso ever grew up in. Just because a band gets fame on Tripple J doesnt make them a great band. Commercial radio rarely if ever played them.

looool

I've never been inspired to pick up their individual albums, "Australian Melodrama" has suited me fine. I queued up the Blackeyed Susans "Hello Stranger", haven't spun that in ages and never moved beyond that either. McComb was involved in the next one but nothing after that, right?

yes, all souls alive is the last album he's involved with

there's a lot in their catalogue that australian melodrama only hints at - you would not regret investigating further

i got their singles box set after only having BSD and black swan and was BLONE AWAY

welcome stranger is my favourite blackeyed susans album, lame i know, but will's blues and ocean of you are some straight up genius

They're a little too bloodless to be classic in my book. Tasteful rock for adult critics. Perhaps they were a refreshingly cool breeze in the world of overheated Australian bloke rock. Or maybe everyone here actually liked "Tojo" by the Gurus better back in the day but is grabbing the belated chance to claim more sophisticated tastes. I know I'd rather listen to the Gurus--and at least 50 other Australian bands--before getting to these guys. That doesn't make them a dud, far from it, just not classic. If they weren't Australian (which is exotic for us non-Aussies, and a patriotic obligation for those who are), would we be having this debate? They'd be third string were they from London, right? But with a devoted cult, fittingly.

Blackeyed Susans just got a box set: http://theblackeyedsusans.bigcartel.com/product/reveal-yourself-1989-2009-box-set

Triffids best of & box set news: http://thetriffids.com/sitefiles/

tracklist Best Of: http://www.dominorecordco.com/uk/reissues/21-01-10/wide-open-road-the-best-of-the-triffids/

Box set: will contain at least 8 cds, including lots of stuff from their early cassettes!

Recently got "Beautiful Waste And Other Songs", a compilation of their EPs from 83-85. Two holy-crap-this-is-awesome songs: "Property Is Condemned" (just shy of the ferocity of The Birthday Party) and "Field Of Glass" (9 minute epic).

Yeah, "Field of Glass" is epic. Came across a 12" of it a few years ago, too bad it's crackling and popping all over. Must get the comp then I suppose :)

http://devonrecordclub.com/2015/04/19/the-triffids-born-sandy-devotional-round-80-toms-selection/

For me, the Triffids, the Chills, the Go-Betweens, were all names that flowed through the inner pages of the music press I was discovering in the late 80s, but I never had the opportunity to get my hooks into them, or vice versa. Now when I hear them I hear sounds I like, patterns I recognise, signifiers I respond to, but I just don’t have the history, the personal and musical connections, the dust of the road engrained in the folds of my skin, to really get them completely.

Nooooooooooooooo.

He's a bit of a luddite, I'm afraid!!

30th Anniversary event for Born Sandy Devotional, Oct 23 in Brussels:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lfoQPkyEzA

https://www.abconcerts.be/en/agenda/events/in-remembrance-of-david-mccomb-the-triffids-play-born-sandy-devotional-1986-artist-talk-w-the-triffids-documentary/19782/

Intro
Too Hot to Move, Too Hot to Think
The Seabirds
Estuary Bed
Chicken Killer
Tarrilup Bridge
Lonely Stretch
Wide Open Road
Life of Crime
Personal Things
Stolen Property
Tender Is the Night (The Long Fidelity)
Beautiful Waste
Trick of the Light
Hell of a Summer
In the Pines
Raining Pleasure
Good Fortune Rose
Unmade Love
Fairytale Love

Encore:
Bright Lights, Big City
Bury Me Deep in Love

Truckload of Sky, the lost songs of David McComb, Vol. 1 - Feb 17, 2020

https://thefriendsofdavidmccomb.bandcamp.com/

Look, I loved the Triffids while he was alive and I get they miss him but... really? :-/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIVACqwx71A

Thanks! just a tad too raggedy for me but still, it's The Triffids! Live!

the Triffids aren't a high rotation band for me but about once a year a certain set of climatic/emotional conditions align and they blow my mind

particularly Stolen Property -> Tender is the Night - and Save What You Can - huge songs full of devastation and joy

interesting indifference levels on this thread - maybe it's an Australian thing, I dunno. that's fine if it is - comparing them to the Go-Betweens is weird, as if Australian bands can only be evaluated in relation to other Australian bands. understandable but doesn't provide much insight. I think perhaps the Triffids' best-known songs don't give an idea of their overall breadth and ambition

I wish I'd seen them live but I was a bit too young and as a teen I didn't really vibe with their thing - living in Sydney I would had multiple opportunities to see David and never got around to it - then I went to one of those "remaining Triffids and guest vocalists" shows a few years back and it was an amazing crash course in David McComb's body of work - great song after great song, and smart and moving arrangements too - it was like that dumb scene in Jonny Mnemonic where Keanu downloads data into his brain, suddenly I was like "oh shit, I get it!"

anyway, CLASSIC

particularly Stolen Property -> Tender is the Night - and Save What You Can - huge songs full of devastation and joy

I know right. They got very good at closing LPs. And at casual (near-)tearjerkers that somehow creep up on you unannounced.

I was too young too but distinctly remember newspaper reviews of Calenture giving me my first sense of a special class of Bands Critics Like lol. I didn't get it at all for another decade.

OMG, the digital kangaroos in that Italian footage lol. Gawd.

I feel I should have known about this before today. My nearest public library has it, so I'll endeavour to fetch it later, as the physical issue seems to be packed with extra stuff.

https://www.madman.com.au/catalogue/view/62748/love-in-bright-landscapes-the-story-of-david-mccomb-of-the-triffids

It's good documentary! Goes pretty deep with home movies, etc. The focus is very much on DM, but the other members are there to speak for themselves, so it doesn't feel too hideously unbalanced.

Interesting to hear DM's move to Melbourne (the "substance abuse capital of Aus" or something lol) posited as an important factor in his downfall!

Having a moment with BSD this AM. Side two is such a devastating ride.

«I knew him as a gentle young man.
I cannot say for sure the reasons for his decline»

I’ve never been to AUS so what the fuck do I know, but I’ve always thought Perth must be a weird place. A city of 2 million by a desolate sea at the end of a desert the size of a small continent.

this is quokka erasure

I never bothered to check these guys out (heard "Wide Open Road" and maybe played BSD once or twice but didn't get into it), until this week. Now I'm obsessed with In The Pines. I think this is sorta how I always wanted the Mekons to sound?? idk, good band though

You mean because of the Americana-y thing? Maybe a little, but I hear more of their oft melancholy peers/co-hort, like the Go-Betweens or Crime and the City Solution.

Yeah I can hear Go-Betweens, maybe even some Nick Cave, but the loose unpolished feel of the Pines sessions really scratches an itch for me. Bar band singalong take on "Once A Day" may not be groundbreaking, but it's good hearty comfort food.

Definitely the first rendition "Once a Day" I heard! Treeless Plain or the Beautiful Waste compilation may (or may not) also be suitably unpolished, perhaps, if the later stuff doesn't hit the spot?!

I was thinking of the Triffids this morning, oddly enough, upon digging out a Chad's Tree compilation I tend to forget I possess. (Though I guess the connection is somewhat tenuous: Perth, Snarski brothers, etc.)