the flexidisc

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the humble Flexi - the most indie schmindie of recorded music formats? Noisy? Horrible? Punk rock? Etc?

― electric sound of jim, Sunday, 16 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

New "surface noise? think of it as a light summer rain" answers

― electric sound of jim, Sunday, 16 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Not punk, because I saw a translucent blue flexi today with OMD on one side and Nash the Slash on the other. If anything, it's NOO WAVE.

― Sean Carruthers, Sunday, 16 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

1992's flexi that came with select mag of chris morris (pixies pisstake, bono prank etc.) still one of the best, most important records of all our young lives (in britain at least) wow what a mag select was circa 92/92 - they thought morris needed some extra coverage and attention so they stuck a whole 10 minutes of his stuff to the front of the magazine, and flagged it the month before saying 'nothing you've ever heard can prepare you for this..' etc etc.

they were right.

'the day today' followed a year later, and to this day, that flexi is going for a song on ebay, downloaded to the max all over the web etc etc.

― piscesboy, Sunday, 16 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The flexi in the "Billy and The Boingers: Bootleg" Bloom County comp?

Classic.

The "Discretion Groove" flexi I got in the mail from Matador, now comfortably hidden in my copy of S&E?

Classic.

Therefore

Classic.

― JM, Sunday, 16 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

By the way, anyone remember Reflex magazine? I used to get that one semi-regularly, but the only flexi I can remember now was the Feelies' cover of "Dancing Barefoot", though I'm sure there were others in there that were worth something.

― Sean Carruthers, Sunday, 16 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My favourite flexis:

"Anorak City" by Another Sunny Day. Natch.
"Sugar" by MBV
This one by the Candy Thieves which is just an earlier version of Adorable. It features an endearingly awful version of "Homeboy" that I adore (no pun intended)

― electric sound of jim, Sunday, 16 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the most precious/disposable of all formats, beautiful. CLASSIC

― tyler, Sunday, 16 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have an a-ha flexi of 'The Sun Always Shines on TV' from Smash Hits! It's a picture-flexi, to boot!

Also some thing with the Milltown Brothers(!) from some short-lived mid-80's Face-a-like mag (Jamming????) I can't remember.

Oh, and the one that came with the first New Model Army 7"

So, C/D - er, let's just say the jury's still out, eh? Though Komackino was a flexi, was it not, so Classic until bent, then inexorable dud!

― Bill E, Sunday, 16 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

anyone want to buy daisy chainsaw flexis??

― Ron, Sunday, 16 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Not really.

― electric sound of jim, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

There was the legendary Human League flexi that came with original copies of the Dignity Of Labour 12"

But my all time flexi has to be a Splodgenessabounds flexi that had their cover version of the Hawaii 5-0 theme tune (retitled Yarmouth 5-0)... that had me pissing my pants for hours.

― Baxter Wingnut, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

my favourite ones - the MAD parody of "All In The Family" ("Gall in the Family Fare"), the National Geographic whale one .

― unknown or illegal user, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

no actually this one's better, a laminated orange & white cardboard one , john davidson & the stardusters doing 'lucky guy', a lucky strike cigs promo from i guess the '60s, it's a country & western song.

― unknown or illegal user, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

didnt think so

― Ron, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

steve lamacq to thread

― Barnaby, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i have one with st etienne on one side and flowered up on the other at home somewhere. jim, could you tell me more about this candy thieves business?

― gareth, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I used to have the free Joy Division flexi which is prob. worth a bob or two these days. It wasn't very good tho'.

One of my friends used to paste his flexi singles (specifically the ones that came free w/ 'Jamming', IIRC) down on old 45rpms - it sure gave 'em a bit more grip! He also used to turn rec sleeves inside out and put a new pic on them if he didn't like the original cover - wot a geezer!

― Andrew L, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Candy Thieves is an earlier incarnation of Adorable that I think was Piotr, Wil and a couple of others. Piotr has a site that talks a bit about the pre-Adorable bands like this one.. The flexi has another song "Underwater" which isn't too bad. I'm intending to copy the tracks to CD shortly so there may be MP3s around at some stage.

― electric sound of jim, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The flexidisc has been claimed as its own by the indie/fanzine fraternity but it has a noble history dating from long before Sniffin' Glue no.12.

Think Reader's Digest (Gerald Harper, where are you now?), cereal boxes, tokens on crisp packets...

― Jeff W, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Quite right! My brother and I used to play a Readers Digest Hank Williams flexi to death because we found it so funny. I've still got a few odd flexis around too - "Your Computer" magazine tried to make them for software for the ZX Spectrum and ZX81, which is quite possibly the worst media for downloading. I think I've got a 'learn the guitar' flexi too somewhere.

― Rob M, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Flexis can be great. The Jam's "Pop Art Poem", por ejemplo.

― Diego Hadis, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the most indie schmindie of recorded music formats?

A friend of mine as a flexi that's a jingle to some Canadian bank (with banking propaghanda inserted through out). That's not very indie.

― Vic Funk, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i used to have like 10 daisy chainsaw flexis they were flying through the air when i saw house of love and catherine wheel long ago. only two i stil have are the slowdive flexi on sunday and a bucketfull of brains flexi with the chills, cneaky feelings and some other people on it. great version of dan destiny and the silver dawn.

― keith, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i think it was two years ago almost exactly when they finally ceased flexi production. any discussion of flexis is incomplete without mention of the notorious grand royal "benny and the jets" by biz markie, now conveniently available in the beasties' sounds of science comp.

― Dave M., Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Allegedly the very last flexi produced (by Evatone, the daddy of all flexi manufacturers) featured HELEN LOVE..

It's the only flexi I own (of hundreds) that suggests you rest it atop a hard vinyl record for best results. They weren't blowing smoke on that one.

― electric sound of jim, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have some Jam one that's supposed to be rare. I'm drunk now by the way yahoo!

― Sean, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i never got to listen to biz markie doing benny & the jets cause i tore it in half trying to get it out of the magazine.

― unknown or illegal user, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

wow keith, i'd forgot the slowdive one on sunday, i've got that too somewhere - its blue right?

― gareth, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

A Scientists gig give-away with a Modern lovers cover, The whale one and another national geographic one with weird planet noises on it. it's really bloody weird, that thing

― Andrew, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yo does anybody remember a Mad Magazine flexidisc called "Everybody's Makin Out But Me"? I had to get me mom to explain that one to me.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

how punk is that?

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

Tracer: yeah, i remember the disc. unfortunately, i didn't have a record player at the time, so i never heard it.

― Foo Bar, Monday, 1 May 2006 19:08 (twenty years ago)

hmmm, have a few, my favorite is the warbly version of "cloud babies" that came with the sarah 70 fanzine or the national geographic lunar landing one that has been sampled to death. however, in each case it's the contents moreso than the delivery.... in fact in all cases the only reason i'd ever *like* a flexi would be because it contained some rarish something or other that wasn't released anywhere else.

overall though they really do sound crap and play havoc with a decent stylus, so i'm gonna have to go with dud.

― rentboy (rentboy), Monday, 1 May 2006 19:17 (twenty years ago)

Takeit fanzine had pre-Back from Samoa Angry Samoan's takes of "Steak Knife" and "Lights Out." "Steak Knife" version is censored with bleeps, probably now slightly collectible. I put the same version on "Annoy Your Neighbors with This Tape" in the 80's, also similarly obscure.

― George 'the Animal' Steele, Monday, 1 May 2006 19:22 (twenty years ago)

Flexidiscs!

― sleeve, away, Monday, 1 May 2006 22:37 (twenty years ago)

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the flexidisc - C/D?