Laughing Stock by Talk Talk

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i went to a wedding last year where the DJ played myrrhman during dinner!!!!!

― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 14:31 (twenty years ago) link

Fucking hell.

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 14:36 (twenty years ago) link

Mind you I remember reading an article in some pub/food trade mag ages ago suggestign that slow music in dining areas = less spillage on the floor!

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 14:37 (twenty years ago) link

I have an album by a band Laughingstock, similiar to Talk Talk and David Sylvian. This is their second.

http://gd.times.lv

― Dainis, Friday, 23 January 2004 22:21 (twenty years ago) link

"New Grass" = RIDICULOUS!! How do they get such a cool jazzy drum sound? He's not using brushes, is he?

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 23 January 2004 22:30 (twenty years ago) link

I don't make much of a distinction b/w this album and Spirit of Eden, they're both amazing.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Friday, 23 January 2004 22:33 (twenty years ago) link

They miked (sic?) the drums from 40 feet away.

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Friday, 23 January 2004 22:42 (twenty years ago) link

Boringgggggggggggggg Dud all the way. Sold it many moons ago.

― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Friday, 23 January 2004 22:52 (twenty years ago) link

Wow, an exception! I'm honestly amazed.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 23 January 2004 22:53 (twenty years ago) link

I don't make much of a distinction b/w this album and Spirit of Eden, they're both amazing.

Yeah, having listened to both of them about ten times each now, I'm impressed that they're both so solid. Laughing Stock gets mentioned so often with reference to post-rock that I just assumed I would like it better, but Spirit of Eden strikes me as equally "progressive."

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 23 January 2004 23:00 (twenty years ago) link

(And equally good!)

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 23 January 2004 23:02 (twenty years ago) link

Better!

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Friday, 23 January 2004 23:02 (twenty years ago) link

is it out of print?
i've never been able to find it

― robin (robin), Friday, 23 January 2004 23:23 (twenty years ago) link

"is it out of print?
i've never been able to find it
-- robin"

I couldn't for yonks. I finally got it off Insound.com.

― Stupid (Stupid), Saturday, 24 January 2004 00:22 (twenty years ago) link

yes, polydor didn't remaster/re-release it like EMI did, too bad. You can probably find it off of www.musicstack.com or www.gemm.com or that slsk thing

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Saturday, 24 January 2004 00:29 (twenty years ago) link

i have too much to say about it so i cant say anything. I love it.

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 24 January 2004 00:38 (twenty years ago) link

say it say it!

― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 24 January 2004 00:39 (twenty years ago) link

load of old cobblers.

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 24 January 2004 00:44 (twenty years ago) link

dae it dae it!

― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 24 January 2004 00:49 (twenty years ago) link

It was definitely reissued however a couple of years ago by the Pondlife label, who then followed up with the great Missing Pieces collection -- that compiles the various released outtakes from LS which surfaced on singles around that time.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 24 January 2004 00:50 (twenty years ago) link

i still haven't heard this album either. i can never find it on cd nor vinyl. i have one track, 'ascension day' which is quite stunning. reminds me a little of do make say think. i'm not sure i quite yet like talk talk but i think i could.

― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 24 January 2004 01:00 (twenty years ago) link

i always see all of their records at tower. laughing stock is classic. i like mark hollis solo record more though.

― keith m (keithmcl), Saturday, 24 January 2004 04:10 (twenty years ago) link

that missing pieces thing is worthwhile?

― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 26 January 2004 11:28 (twenty years ago) link

I'd say so but essentially it's just an adjunct to Laughing Stock -- mostly alternate takes.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 26 January 2004 16:26 (twenty years ago) link

What is essential is "John Cope".

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Monday, 26 January 2004 16:31 (twenty years ago) link

ok ned

i probably wont buy it then if its just outtakes

― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 26 January 2004 16:34 (twenty years ago) link

anyone else love "It's Getting late in the Evening"?

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 26 January 2004 17:05 (twenty years ago) link

Me!

― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Monday, 26 January 2004 17:13 (twenty years ago) link

Me three.

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Monday, 26 January 2004 18:58 (twenty years ago) link

am, how is portentousness a bad thing? Not saying you're wrong, I'm just interested in what you mean.

― Clarke B., Monday, 26 January 2004 19:03 (twenty years ago) link

i thought missing pieces was really disappointing, the alternate takes sounded just like the final takes but the fidelity was worse.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Monday, 26 January 2004 20:16 (twenty years ago) link

i agree with that.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 26 January 2004 20:16 (twenty years ago) link

Me, too. I wanted more. It's not really worth much.

Did anybody pick up that live record? Somewhat curious about that one...

― Broheems (diamond), Monday, 26 January 2004 20:34 (twenty years ago) link

i wonder if the first long fin killie record will receive this sort of talk talk-esque adulation in 5 years time? it should.

― keith m (keithmcl), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 02:02 (twenty years ago) link

Maybe if it was easier to find? I've been patiently waiting to stumble across a Long Fin Killie album for, oh, five or six years now.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 03:49 (twenty years ago) link

Oh really, Mr. Finney. I can help you there.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 03:51 (twenty years ago) link

Who the fuck are Long Fin Killie and how much do I need to know? I'm assuming the answer is going to be 'lots'.

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 09:15 (twenty years ago) link

I hate you. I've just been to Allmusic - Amazon recommended the Bows album to me last week so now I've got to get that and the Long Fin Killie stuff. Bastards bastards bastards all.

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 09:33 (twenty years ago) link

I hate loving music. I could, like, go on holiday and shit if I didn't care.

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 09:33 (twenty years ago) link

dAMN YOU ALL'; i'VE JUST SPENT £15 ON SECOND-HAND COPIES OF THE FIRST bOWS and capslock shit can't be arsed to retype, yeah, ordered the Bows record too. The one that looks like that Maxwell album.

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 09:45 (twenty years ago) link

First Long Fin Killie. Dur.

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 09:45 (twenty years ago) link

Nick, I'd guess you'd love the first LFK album and find the other two okayish.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 09:51 (twenty years ago) link

Thank god for that. I can just download 'em then.

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 09:55 (twenty years ago) link

Be sure to find the cover version of Madonna's "Angel."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 19:27 (twenty years ago) link

I don't get the Long Fin Killie love. The guy's voice grated on me when I tried to listen to them. They are almost nothing like Talk Talk, that is for sure. The Bows records are good, very similar to Locusts' "Morning Light" but also unlike Talk Talk.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 20:30 (twenty years ago) link

QUESTION: Is the "edit" version of "New Grass" on Missing Pieces any different from the one on Laughing Stock? I sure don't hear anything different about it. You?

The only sucky song on Missing Pieces is the crappy 15-minute piano minimalist crap thing at the end. WITHOUT A DOUBT it is hands down my least favorite Talk Talk song of all time.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 20:32 (twenty years ago) link

eleven months pass...

I just found Missing Pieces for $6US used. I was wondering what it was. Sounds like I paid the right price for it (or maybe slightly more)

― donut christ (donut), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 02:35 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah slightly pointless - some of the versions are exactly the same, no?

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 02:43 (nineteen years ago) link

It's a nice little adjunct, basically. Not exactly the same but certainly close, re-edits or arrangements.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 02:44 (nineteen years ago) link

I recently downloaded two sides of Mark Hollis talking about the making of. A promo, maybe? Makes an interesting companion piece to those old Tape Op articles on the same subject.

― dlp9001, Wednesday, 29 December 2004 02:47 (nineteen years ago) link

Skipping 10 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I listened to Laughingstock for the first time yesterday. I liked it. This is kinda ridiculous, but it reminded me of Xiu Xiu, I guess mainly in the vocals.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 15:22 (nineteen years ago) link

At last, ILM gives this album the praise it deserves.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 19:13 (nineteen years ago) link

At last? Read the other Talk Talk thread! We've been going on about this and them since 2001. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 19:18 (nineteen years ago) link

(Then again perhaps you are being flip, in which case I salute you.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 19:19 (nineteen years ago) link

(aye-aye, cap'n...)

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 19:20 (nineteen years ago) link

ah, i see!

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 19:47 (nineteen years ago) link

Would I like Xiu Xiu then? I've said this to you before, but I always assume that I won't like any of these new bands that have a touch of the avant-garde about them. I guess I assumed that about Animal Collective, though, too, and I like Sung Tongs a lot.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 19:49 (nineteen years ago) link

I lost my (burned) copy of Laughing Stock, so I ordered a real one on Amazon a couple weeks ago. Then I worried that I hadn't gotten my brother enough of a Christmas gift, so I gave it to him instead. Which means I have to order it again now. (He will probably now read this and realize I am a schmuck.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 19:52 (nineteen years ago) link

"realize" = "confirm his belief that"

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 19:52 (nineteen years ago) link

I've only heard older Xiu Xiu, but you might like it. It's very melodramatic, to the extent that it's a little bit funny, and the music is interesting but pretty.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 19:57 (nineteen years ago) link

one year passes...

Where do you go after Laughing Stock? There isn't anywhere, is there? Even the Hollis album isn't quite enough.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 20 April 2006 19:18 (seventeen years ago) link

I just listened to Laughing Stock at some considerable volume, cried, shook, stood up and kind of twitched a bit, sat in a crumpled heap, and listened intently. It was rather good. I'm now playing Music For Airports because there's nowhere to go after Laughing Stock, nowhere at all.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 20 April 2006 19:29 (seventeen years ago) link

I recommend going to the corner 7-11 for a Slurpee, it'll revive your will to live

― Brakhage (brakhage), Thursday, 20 April 2006 20:10 (seventeen years ago) link

or grab some disco

― Brakhage (brakhage), Thursday, 20 April 2006 20:14 (seventeen years ago) link

This is an excellent question, and one that I don't have an answer to. It sounds like pretty much nothing else out there (that I've heard, anyway), and it definitely isn't "post-rock", no matter how many rock critics try to convince you otherwise.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 21 April 2006 03:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Yes, Laughing Stock is several notches above almost everything called 'post-rock.'

― Freud Junior (Freud Junior), Friday, 21 April 2006 03:23 (seventeen years ago) link

In the Mojo article it's said that a lot of Stock arose from improvisation, that a lot of what made it great was that it was 'unrepeatable'. I thought that was interesting since so much of what I like about the album is the jarring bits of noise or odd phrases that pop in suddenly.

I remember being very disturbed by the fact that the lyric sheet in the CD was incomprehensible (maybe only to me) - it didn't really assist you with deciphering what Hollis was singing. I think that made it all the more powerful as a listening experience.

― Brakhage (brakhage), Friday, 21 April 2006 15:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Thks for Mojo article

― Mart, Saturday, 22 April 2006 09:05 (seventeen years ago) link

It is proto-postrock tho--- a clear line of influence from the last 2 talk talk albums on the early UK postrock of Bark Psychosis....

― gekoppel (Gekoppel), Saturday, 22 April 2006 19:18 (seventeen years ago) link

I think on Hex Bark Psychosis took their cues from Spirit of Eden more than Laughing Stock. Hex is a lot cleaner and, um, "designed" than Laughing Stock, albeit also darker and more claustrophobic. Also Bark Psychosis always have that 4AD ethereality to their guitar and keyboard work, whereas the beauty in Talk Talk, and especially Laughing Stock, sounds a lot more organic, warm rather than cool.

I guess though that if you listen to Hex and 'O'Rang's Herd of Instinct and split the difference you get something approaching Laughing Stock.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 22 April 2006 22:45 (seventeen years ago) link

i never got that thing about talk talk being the first post-rock band neither. they are completely of their own, an island in the landscape of music. what really knocked me off my post-rock trip in the late 90s was this post-rock formula bands like mogwai, godspeed or do make say think employed. starting with almost silence and then soaring and soaring to the loud climax. talk talk don't do this. there is much more silence and space in between in their songs. there is cacophony but not in a progression-like way.

with hex i often have a problem with that so totally inoffensive voice. most of the time it drives me nuts as it totally lacks emotion. in a way that projects back on the music. there seems to be something wishy-washy about it. nice sounding but i don't feel the depth i feel in laughing stock or spirit of eden. it's a little like a body without blood.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Sunday, 23 April 2006 17:20 (seventeen years ago) link

alex in Mainhattan totally, completely OTM.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Monday, 24 April 2006 05:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Agreed. I love BP, obviously, but Hex is definitely a cold, urban record, sheet glass and concrete. Laughing Stock is something else.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Monday, 24 April 2006 09:00 (seventeen years ago) link

three years pass...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TALK-TALK-Rare-Promo-Laughing-Stock-Wooden-Pencil-Case_W0QQitemZ390063733119QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Music_Music_Memorabilia_LE?hash=item5ad19c397f&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1687|240:1318|301:0|293:1|294:50

― d90 (D90), Friday, 3 July 2009 15:57 (fourteen years ago) link

How very random. Nice, though.

― Alex in NYC, Friday, 3 July 2009 17:28 (fourteen years ago) link

wow! I need a new copy of that CD as it turns out.

― akm, Friday, 3 July 2009 17:31 (fourteen years ago) link

It was mentioned on that other TT thread that not many women were posting on it. Well, if it helps, SoE got me through several hours of labour with my second son. It goes very well with gas and air.

Haven't heard LS, though -- I love love love SofE so will check it out.

― Meg (Meg Busset), Friday, 3 July 2009 22:32 (fourteen years ago) link

Or you can save it for your next labour? j/k

Like someone else upthread, I love Laughing Stock and Spirit of Eden equally, so enjoy.

― Lostandfound, Friday, 3 July 2009 23:03 (fourteen years ago) link

He's stopped making music?

― djh, Saturday, 4 July 2009 12:21 (fourteen years ago) link

nine months pass...

Talk Talk fans, I insist you listen to Movietone's The Blossom Filled Streets. It's like Laughing Stock yet somehow even prettier and dreamier.

― Davek (davek_00), Saturday, 10 April 2010 20:37 (fourteen years ago) link

one year passes...

http://www.badabingrecords.com/products-page/talk-talk-mark-hollis/

"Laughing Stock" and "Mark Hollis" re-released on LP, next month.

― Mark G, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 09:06 (twelve years ago) link

I spend a fucking fortune (well £80) on my copy of 'Laughing Stock' a few years ago. Will probably pick up the reissue nonetheless. The Mark Hollis album I found second hand for something stupid like £6.

― AnotherDeadHero, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 09:26 (twelve years ago) link

I got a promo CD of the solo album, back when it was (untitled).

I can't remember a thing about it.

― Mark G, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 10:16 (twelve years ago) link

five months pass...

Shake my head
Turn my face to the floor
Dead for respect
So respect for be born
Lest we forget
Who lay

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Monday, 20 February 2012 21:24 (twelve years ago) link

four years pass...

http://thequietus.com/articles/06963-talk-talk-laughing-stock

“There’s no way at the point when we go in (to the studio) that we know what this album will sound like,” Hollis commented in an interview recorded for a promotional cassette by journalist John Pidgeon for Verve around the album’s release. “All you ever know – and this would be true of the previous album – is you just go in knowing what the attitude is you want and that’s it. There’s no way I think you can go wrong on that because there is no right or wrong; the right and wrong is an internal thing.”

Does this cassette exist anywhere online?

― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 23:26 (seven years ago) link

Yup

http://withinwithout.dk/Real.htm

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 23:39 (seven years ago) link

Thank you, Ned!!!

― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Wednesday, 31 August 2016 22:41 (seven years ago) link

three years pass...

that tectonic bass in “After the Flood”

― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Monday, 6 April 2020 13:02 (four years ago) link

I went so long before I even really noticed it was there.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 6 April 2020 13:10 (four years ago) link

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Laughing Stock by Talk Talk - C or D?