Cardiacs: Classic or Dud?

Ha-ha. I did say that, didn't I? On some levels SGC is even more monolithic that Sing To God, perhaps because every single track is a very heavy riffathon. There's not a lot of light except for the occasional break between songs. Jim-baiting and swearing is minimal too.

1) Dirty Boy
2) Eat It Up Worms Hero
3) Dog-Like Sparky
4) Flap Off You Beak
5) Quiet As A Mouse
6) Fiery Gun Hand
7) Insect Hoofs On Lassie
8) Wireless
9) Fairy Mary Mag
10) Odd Even
11) Bellyeye
12) No Gold
13) Nurses Whispering Verses
14) Foundling

68 minutes! Perfectly manageable. Manhoo released as EP with the Bell songs, Angleworm Angel and Red Fire. Fine, A Horses Tail can come too. As can Billion. Oh all right, and Eden On The Air. I'm such a pushover.

The great thing about my new sequencing is that a) it highlights the piece of songwriting wonder that is 'Flap Off You Beak' and b) brings Fairy Mary Mag and Odd Even together for extra harpsichord solo deja-vu fun. Oh, and Quiet As A Mouse into Fiery Gun Hand is yoga flame.

I wouldn't change that much but sorry, you can't take Manhoo out of this album. That's not right. Also A Horse's Tail is unremovable. OTOH I can easily do without Wireless. I'm pretty indifferent towards Foundling too, but it works as a closer.

1) Dirty Boy
2) Eat It Up Worms Hero
3) Dog-Like Sparky
4) Flap Off You Beak
5) Odd Even
6) Fiery Gun Hand
7) Insect Hoofs On Lassie
8) Manhoo
9) Fairy Mary Mag
10) A Horses Tail
11) Bellyeye
12) No Gold
13) Nurses Whispering Verses
14) Foundling

I'm pretty indifferent towards Foundling too, but it works as a closer.

I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. It's not the best song, and apart from the celestial synths in the middle-eight there's nothing out-and-out fabulous about it, but there's a homely, closerish vibe to it that none of the other tracks really nail.

Aw, I'm an Odd Even fan, especially as a companion piece to FMM. Used to actually not like AHT but now I do. It versus Odd Even is probably the toughest sticking-point here. (God, so many Cardiacs polls I've somehow resisted starting! I think it might be a bit sacrilegious tho)

As for Wireless vs Manhoo, well, I think a companion EP would require a strong and catchy track that didn't necessarily fit in with the album, being as it is 'their Britpop song'. Manhoo is that song. Plus, it's SLIGHTLY inferior to most of the other songs IMO (albeit with a ridiculously high prevailing standard). Wireless gets me every time (that tacked piano!!). It's one of the great non-cover covers. (Lauft... is sheer magic, and this does it justice while providing a lovely Cardiacsy spin)

wait, is that common knowledge? wireless is a "cover" of faust? every non-cardiacs familiar person I play that song for instantly loves it

haha yeah it's quite a blatant lift! common knowledge among cardiacs fans i've spoken to here for sure. iirc phill jupitus played 'wireless' on his show, proclaiming it as 'beautiful'...think it might be quite a good gateway drug choice. i normally hit 'em with 'dog-like sparky' which sorts the sheep from the goats pretty nicely. actually most people really dig D-LS. my mum inclusive.

I have been listening to this band a lot over the last week. I got hold of a copy of On Land and In The Sea which is totally brilliant all the way through.

It's strange hearing full albums by them as I've just had that Sampler compilation for years which is all I thought I needed but now I'm kinda becoming obsessed with trying to find all their albums.

don't bother; they're boring

I can't imagine any of their albums are boring.

they're not. he lies. with his face.

they're the most boringest band that ever existed and you are wasting your time and God's trying to listen to their albums

god has an infinite amount of time at its disposal. it won't mind.

Pretends it's Jesus

anyway Kitchen Person I sincerely hope that whoever you are you never hear another note of Cardiacs, because they are the worst and most boring band of all time, and their albums hold numbers one to three and then like 6 and 8 in my worst albums ever ranking. the album I would definitely not get next is Sing To God, and I wouldn't touch Guns with your brother's. neither A Little Man... nor Heaven Born... have any sort of musical worth. this band is a dead loss. avoid.

Please please tell me you have all those albums you mentioned and you will sell/give them to me. They are really hard to get and I just want to hear how bad they are for myself.

Sing to God is the at the very top of my wishlist right now.

I strongly dissuade you from using the ILX email function or sending your address to moc.liamg @ reggaj.siuol, because if you subsequently received a consignment of burned CDs, that would be terrible both for you and anybody you chose to inflict your abysmal gleanings upon

That's very sweet but actually my brother is a massive fan and has most of their albums, I'm sure he would copy them for me.

I'm actually one of those strange people that still wants real copies of albums so if you or anyone has a spare copy of Sing to God (1 & 2) they want to get rid of then I would be interested for sure!

You're a lucky man; the very idea of a spare copy of STG is slightly laughable, given how treasured they are (by imbeciles). As someone who has never possessed proper physical copies of Cardiacs albums either, I am grateful they are so hard to find, and would like absolutely nothing to do with anyone who has spares to sell.

there's been talk of rereleases for a while now... hopefully they'll come to pass this year.

otherwise, you're talking maybe 80 quid for a second-hand copy of STG on CD. which is obviously nuts.

I would very much like some rereleases as I don't have real copies of most of the 80s stuff. They had CDs I thought were well out-of-print for sale when I saw them a couple of years ago, but the merch desk was moving verrrrry slowly and I had to leave if I wanted any way of getting home. Which is probably as well for my bank balance because otherwise I could have spent way too much in one go.

By sheer chance (ie. I bought it when it was in the shops for about a week in the 90s) I have a nigh-on-pristine CD of the original Rough Trade issue of Heaven Born & Ever Bright. Does this command good loot still?

On Amazon.co.uk Sing to God is 70 pounds, Heaven Born is up for around 35.

I'm actually selling my CD copy of On Land & In the Sea on there as I found the vinyl which will do for me. I would directly swap it for a copy of Sing to God if anyone was interested?

I've asked about them in several record shops and the people that have heard of them have pretty much said they never get their records in.

I have a CD single from "Sing to God", I wonder what it goes for (can't remember title) also, 35 quid for "Heaven Born", eh? Hmmm... I got that one as well.

If it's Manhoo thats about 15.

Yes I realise I've got quite obsessed with them now as I can tell you all the exact prices of their records without looking at Amazon.

A gig I'm going to has one of the supports listed as 'Bad Black Dots featuring Jon Poole of the Cardiacs' - anyone know anything about this? Any good? Google search didn't come up with much.

no idea but he defected to wildhearts and has been with them for quite a long time! his cardiacs ties were cut some way back. damn good guitarist tho

Ach, oh dear. I loathed the Wildhearts. Never mind, then.

we just don't know which side of jon poole will turn up! it's so tense!

i rather rate some but not all wildhearts - fishing for luckies is a masterpiece imo, and they DID name a song on their last album 'tim smith' but i can understand how one might dislike extended prog-pop-metal workouts

It's nothing against the principle, it's the actuality I dislike.

fair enough, there's better music from the extended cardiacs family

I have nothing to add, except to mention that cardiacs are godlike and I listen to them every single day.

I wonder if there's any Brighton bands Jon Poole hasn't played in at some point? The guy does get around.

Marc Riley mentioned something a little while back about some kind of Cardiacs get-together in the near future, he wasn't very specific though. It'd be nice it was something along the lines of the other bandmembers minus Tim getting together to bang some tunes out, but who knows. Autumn seems a little sadder every year without the traditional London shindig to look forward to. I even miss going to the Astoria, for god's sake.

I have heard rumblings about something exciting happening later this year...

It'd be nice it was something along the lines of the other bandmembers minus Tim getting together to bang some tunes out

would not be able to go to this

Prob not this year.

no, i mean i would not be able to go to it emotionally, it would be bad karma and unfun

Agreed. Also, what is the nature of these rumblings? New material? I could see a little boxset of live stuff being okay. Although they've had what, four live albums so there's not a lot that hasn't been covered already. Radio sessions, b-sides etc are all out there. Demos I could live without. Unless they have secretly been hoarding completed tracks?

well they did pretty much complete a whole new album

Unreleased material? God, where to start? There's the "LSD" album, which was apparently finished bar the final mix. Then there's the Garage Rehearsals DVD, the Maresnest DVD, that Astoria show they filmed back in 2005, loads of stuff that was mentioned over the years. Not to mention the second Sea Nymphs album, etc etc.

Of that, the only stuff that really gets me excited is the LSD album. I've watched and listened to Maresnest about a million times (and I was at the show). I've seriously burned out on it now. The Garage live album is brilliant but the music itself is where the genius lies - pictures are not much of an enhancement. Not mad for the Sea Nymphs. I like them okay but I know it's not going to blow my mind. I apologise for my lack of ABC-spirit about all that.

Anyway, tell me what you know about LSD? I'm completely in the dark here.

LSD is the only one I'm really holding out for, but like I say I'd be happy with this band if they didn't release another note. Happy-ish, at any rate. Decent run.

xpost!!!

I befriended a musician (singer lass from a band called Spiritwo) who's mad keen about Cardiacs, and claims to have visited Tim Smith and heard some unmixed tracks off LSD - affirmed that they're mindblowing, awesome etc - then mere weeks later our poor dude stood a bit too near the amps during You Made Me Realise :(

(every legend needs embellishing)

Why stop there? Can the rumour at least say that it's a double album too?

I'd be happy with a cracking good hour-long single, tbh. Or even a 45-minute one like Guns which is still one of their most spectacular achievements

If you've stumbled on this thread for no reason, don't come back until the music stops -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zvCKKw_DQk&feature=PlayList&p=FFE33A2F7A065655&index=0&playnext=1

Ahh, I still think the rehearsal film would've been amazing, based on the tantalising clips that were released. I liked the fact it was all part of the same elaborate meta-gag as the "diary" that was posted on the band website(shame they didn't bother updating it after 2005).

I could happily put up with a whole disc of this kind of nonsense.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AC8Z9uGe0A

dammit um erm ok well the entire Sing To God album is on a Youtube playlist - connect the dots - play all -

http://www.you tube.com/watch?v=3zvCKKw_DQk&feature=PlayList&p=FFE33A2F7A065655&index=0&playnext=1

Acoleutic, are you yet on-board with the fact that Come Back Clammy Lammy is awesome?

YES TOTALLY

if I ever dissed that song, it is a 5/4 time romp through all that is joyful about music, horrendous about war and amazing about cardiacs

Ha-ha. Somewhere upthread you said something vaguely non-commital about it and that has always bothered me.