Field Mice reissues get the 'Fork treatment (care of Nitsuh, thankfully)

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

When I saw the header that they were reviewing these, I kinda braced myself for the worst: either sickly sweet post-reactionary fawning or the standard-by-now-but-still-annoying indie rockist dismissal

Thanksfully Nistuh did a nice job on the reviews, if a bit heavy in the name-dropping at the end (and imho, Honeybunch really only ever recorded one perfect pop song, the rest is them practicing to reach that point, or trying to crawl back up the downward slope after Mine Your Own Business was recorded). But he did mention Blueboy, so YAAAY! :)

It was an even-handed and fun review, pointing out strikingly similar emotions I've had listening back through: Yes they were/are great, but why exactly? Hard to put a finger on. I do take issue with the sentiment that Missing the Moon is a "New Order wannabe". I think it's heavily indebted to them, but I don't think they ever wanted to be New Order by any stretch of the imagination.

Anyway, just wanted to say "nice job", since Pitchfork gets so much shit around here.

― rentboy (rentboy), Thursday, 17 March 2005 14:43 (twenty-one years ago)

oh yeah, they're here:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/f/field-mice/snowball-skywriting-for-keeps.shtml

― rentboy (rentboy), Thursday, 17 March 2005 14:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Rah! Yeah, Nitsuh's a good person to handle those, he did a couple of reviews on them for the AMG way back when. As did I. ;-) Reissues are very swank and I'm looking forward to the Northern Picture Library one.

Unfocused ramble ahoy: I don't know if the Field Mice ever per se *only* wanted to be New Order but they sure as heck had a Factory jones in general. I'd say a key difference between the two bands is that NO's blend of tenderness and brutality focuses around the difference between the exultant rush of the music and Bernard's singing, whereas the Field Mice never were that musically brutal in turn. Energetic at many points, definitely.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 March 2005 14:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I liked this a lot too

― mrjosh (mrjosh), Thursday, 17 March 2005 15:30 (twenty-one years ago)

so any idea what's on the NPL one yet?
I've still got all the singles on Vinyl Japan and Sarah, so imagine it'll be dupes unless there's demos or rare stuff I didn't know about

Catholic Easter Colours and Dear Faraway Friend better make the cut!

― rentboy (rentboy), Thursday, 17 March 2005 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

oh, and their cover of Dead Che, too

― rentboy (rentboy), Thursday, 17 March 2005 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

The NPL one has Alaska plus the "Love Songs for the Dead Che" tracks.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 March 2005 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

so no Blue Dissolve tracks then? or is there a second one with the Sarah singles and Blue Dissolve, cos I imagine that'd be close to filling up a second disc

― rentboy (rentboy), Thursday, 17 March 2005 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

oh nevermind that was all on Still Life, pretty much, duh. i always forget about that comp

― rentboy (rentboy), Thursday, 17 March 2005 15:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I was about to say! (All I had from NPL was Still Life so this will complement that nicely.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 March 2005 15:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Alaska is terrific. Trippy and sweet - it picks up right where For Keeps left off

― rentboy (rentboy), Thursday, 17 March 2005 15:41 (twenty-one years ago)

these are better than the Brainwashed reviews, surprisingly, since that reviewer used half of his reviews to grouse about the new artwork.

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 17 March 2005 16:21 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, the new artwork did leave a little to be desired. I mean they're nice and all, but no pictures inside of the original sleeves even? Just seemed kinda lacking somehow in the artwork department

― rentboy (rentboy), Thursday, 17 March 2005 16:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I actually like the new artwork quite a bit! The one for For Keeps is after all just a variation on the original, and the other two fit in the same design sense. No complaints here. :-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 March 2005 16:56 (twenty-one years ago)

(I dunno, Rents, one of the saddest things in my recently life has been losing track of my Honeybunch collection; there were a bunch of songs on there that I'd take over "Mine Your Own Business"; I just can't remember what all of them were. "My Contribution to the Greenhouse Effect" was one.)

― nabiscothingy, Thursday, 17 March 2005 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

(Thanks though!)

― nabiscothingy, Thursday, 17 March 2005 18:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I've still got my copy of the Honeybunch comp

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc900/c940/c9401944837.jpg

and would gladly help you out if you need, though I believe it's still relatively easy to track down... (darla's got it for $12)

I still have my one-sided 4-Letter-Word 45 for "Endure Me" and the purple and yellow one on Slumberland for "Mine Your Own Business"

for some reason, it's the one that's really stuck for me over the years

― rentboy (rentboy), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I always get Honeybunch and Honeybus mixed up and I've never heard either band.

― Mike O. (Mike Ouderkirk), Thursday, 17 March 2005 22:05 (twenty-one years ago)

i thought that review was great. although it seemed a bit like he was trying not to admit his true feelings, very anthropological.

― keith m (keithmcl), Friday, 18 March 2005 03:11 (twenty-one years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.