Cardiacs: Classic or Dud?

That "As Cold As Can Be In An English Sea" number is pretty great & rocking! W/o wanting to come over all muso, it's a rare pleasure to see a band that can play for shit.

(x-post, I'm sure Tom has heard plenty of cardiacs in his time? He's an oldfart like me!)

Listen, I used to have a friend who was always trying to get me in to them until I had to say, "Don't you get it, I DON'T LIKE THEM!!!!"

To explain myself, the reason I read this thread is because Dr C's "Repulsively dud. Idiotic prog-wacky for the lower sixth." comment amused me so much

...but it's one of the most flat-out misguided, incorrect, prejudiced comments on all of ILM! I guess you're right in that it's the sort of comment you'll remember. I certainly do.

i think it's a hilarious comment and i love the cardiacs. although for me they went off the boil from 'heaven born...' onwards

I'm still a bit stunned that they were able to play such trashy, full-tilt, rhythmically complex music while still keeping perfect synch with a backing tape.

If I were being bitchy (but oh-so-affectionately so), I'd say the front row resembled, from right to left: Uncle Fester on an Orange Lodge march, Michael Douglas in Falling Down, and Simon Amstell through a distorted lens. Behind them, the two backing singers stayed motionless and expressionless throughout, in matching floral pinnies, occasionally getting up to bash the raised drums that were positioned on either side of the drum kit.

There was a nice little coup de theatre at the end involving miniature glowsticks.

When you say the front row, do you mean the band or the audience?

You can have that one, Tom. :D

OK, I just realised it's Dr. C's birthday. Sorry Dr.C! I guess we can't all have the same tastes! Just that I'm seeing this band for the first time ever tonight and I'm bouncing around the room in anticipation!

xpost: Oh, you've never seen such a... mature moshpit.

Oh, their Oxford show was ace. Slightly disappointed that the Gasman was not actually live onstage, but had recorded a set in advance to go out over the PA; not disappointed at him personally, as he said it's a painstaking process and his gear is too temperamental, which is fair enough, and I guess it might have been a bit of a bad match for some of the more hairy metal-looking members of the audience, but this exclusive new Gasman wheezed quietly away unannounced between bands when obviously everyone just wanted to talk loudly and buy shirts and go to the bar. And the Whores were... not my thing, at all.

But Cardiacs themselves - awesome. Fiery Gun Hand! To Go Off And Things! Oh my eyes it's an epic Dirty Boy and they really do hold that note (tag-teamed I guess)!

Uh, yeah. Good night out. And nice to see Kavus effortlessly gliding through all these insane high-speed stop-start bits and bugging his eyes at the daft lyrics, seeing as I miss the Monsoon Bassoon something fierce.

PS I think "repulsive idiot prog-wacky for the lower sixth" is pretty much correct and I love them. Though it took me a while - when I was actually a little above lower sixth age a friend enthused about them at length and lent me many of their albums, to which my reaction was mostly "??". Three years later I got one of the tracks in my head and had to hear it again, bought the sampler, and ended up buying as much as I could get my hands on. (Which wasn't that much, as half of it was out of print, but some of those were for sale at the gig so I guess it isn't now? I couldn't buy any or I'd have missed my taxi.)

Oh my eyes it's an epic Dirty Boy and they really do hold that note (tag-teamed I guess)!

Ah, I was down the front and watching them like a hawk during that one. Yes, tag-teamed - but the pauses for breath were v.short and subtly done.

Who are the Cardiacs? They sound good!

:D

ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUCCCCKKKKK !

unreal

THAT'S THE WAY WE AAAAALLLLLLL GO

(what way? multi-gender, multi-age, no-holds-barred mosh violence, that's what. as it was my initiation, i could be found flinging and flung at the centre of it all.)

this is making me happy and depressed.

happy because cardiacs love is spreading like a rash.

sad because I missed the whole tour.

bah.

I just ordered a copy of Sing To God pts 1 & 2. It'd better be good.

took yr time :D

i have a feeling a certain someone might be getting it in the neck if s0uthall disapproves

I like the Cardiacs, but does anyone else find their fans a bit creepy, in a new age religious cult kinda way?

This impression is easy to get given the fervour of the more hardcore fans, but when you've talked to them (as I have), they're very nice and knowledgeable, on the whole. "Creepy" not so much, "lethal" is more accurate, at least in the moshpit.

N1ck, if you like StG, then the next one you should get is "Guns", which I regard as possibly even better, certainly more consistent, and a candidate for my all-time favourite album. Early Cardiacs is a different but no lesser beast; "A Little Man And A House And The Whole World Window" is fairly brilliant from start to finish, and I suspect might be your favourite.

Fuck me this is insane.

:D

The constant snare whack at that (those) tempo(s) is a bit much. I'm not sure what I think yet, but it's definitely insane.

Prefer LFK, innit.

haha

i prefer cardiacs ;-)

I like the Cardiacs, but does anyone else find their fans a bit creepy, in a new age religious cult kinda way?

Being a Cardiacs fan is like joining a cult, though. Albeit a non-evil one.

I've been through my embarrassing fan-worship period when I used to attempt to convert every soul I met to the cause, usually with little success. These days I try to be a little more circumspect about it, as I've realised this is the kind of music you can't force people to like - they'll either get it on their own or not at all.

STG definitely is mixed a bit too trebly. My ears are normally ringing by the time it gets to "Bellyeye".

I got Heaven born... for like three dollars yesterday at Roadrunner in MNPLS. This is... nuts. Kinda neat. I like it a lot more than I was expecting to.

It's easily their finest, if you ask me. After that, they just upped the "we're completely bonkers" quotient, but not necessarily in a listenable way.

Sing To God 1+2 is alright. Some songs I really like (Fiery Gun hand!) but a lot of it is just too BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA for me these days. Probably ever. Relentless. I can see why Louis likes them.

Lurks buddy, let me hear it some time.

I can't tell how much of their wacky shtick is of that condescending "WE'RE SOO CRAZY AND YOU CAN'T TAKE HOW EXTREMELY OUT THERE AND IN YOUR FACE WE ARE" variety yet, and how much of it is just some goofy dudes having a laugh. That's gonna be the deciding factor, I guess. So far so good, though.

I doubt Cardiacs are putting on much of a 'we're soo crazy' concept, because they've been doing it for about 30 years, and it's not like they've got a huge marketshare to uphold. My bet is they really do have bizarre senses of humor, and dig the shit out of insane chord progressions and song structures. My personal fave is Sing to God pt 2, but judging by their single from last year, they're only getting more dense -- kind of awesome to see a band keep pushing their sound forward, even when it's not really something my ears can take all the time.

Yeah, I hope that's how I feel eventually, 'cause I really like this so far. This would have probably been one of my all time favorite bands if I'd heard them in high school. There's still time, i guess.

Time for a bump. And a C. St3phens progress report. (Yeah, I sent him all their albums.)

Tim Smith apparently suffered a heart-attack a few weeks ago. :(

All autumn gigs cancelled and the release of "LSD" has been delayed once again.

Get well soon.

It's easily their finest, if you ask me. After that, they just upped the "we're completely bonkers" quotient, but not necessarily in a listenable way.

-- Alex in NYC, Sunday, 20 April 2008 23:35 (2 months ago) Link

nooooo it's all about a little man and a house and the whole world window (and earlier stuff). i know this comment makes me sound like indie fuxor but it's true

but anyway i hope tim gets well soon.

Is it true that he's a lot iller than the ABC are making out?

I hope not.

most recent update from organ:

And thing you most want to know about is how is Tim Smith doing and what’s happening with CARDIACS. Well there isn’t that much to add to previous statements, Tim is slowly recovering and we’re all just giving him the time space and privacy he and his family still need. They (and we) thank everyone who’s been asking, leaving messages on the various forums, on My Space pages and such, as soon as there’s any fresh news we’ll let you all know here but don’t be expecting anything for a while yet, situation is still a long way from good. The Cardiacs singles that were due out here on ORG are still on hold, I read somewhere that we had sent some promos of a new single out to radio, we haven’t, when and if there is news, we’ll put it up here and on the Organ forum. If we’re honest then the things that have happened to Tim and Cardiacs have kind of knocked the wind out of our sails here in terms of releasing new things by anyone or anything, our minds haven’t really been focused on releasing new bands and records and such. It was a pleasure to play that magical SEA NYMPHS session on our radio show at Resonance FM last weekend though, first time I’ve been able to just sit and listen to a Cardiacs thing and just enjoy the treasure for ages, we really should see about releasing that session....

all digits still crossed here. I keep meaning to send the smith family a note of good vibes. perhaps the video footage of my tiny baby girl getting giddily excited by 'loosefish scrapegrace'...start 'em young, I say.

listening to possibly far too much cardiacs at the moment. coming to the conclusion that 'will bleed amen' may just be their finest, most intensely focused tune.

and "guns" their most intensely focused, arguably finest album altho i'm not gonna decide on that last point coz tbh this is "best album ever" shit imo, too big for me to call

p.s. what is this "far too much"

i.e. most of my listening for the past few days has been of that stripe, which therefore means I'm developing cardiacs tunnel vision. some may see this as a bad thing.

No, I know what "most of my listening for the past few days has been of that stripe" is, happens to me quite a lot. I was merely passing comment on your moral judgement. :D

I was pre-empting the judgement of others, really...

dammit look at me now i'm listening to it all, all again. how could you.

Since the accident Tim Smith’s body has become his enemy. He is in a great deal of pain and is experiencing difficulty with the finer points of control with regard to his extremities so obviously perfected prior to the unhappy event, but Tim Smith, his family and those so called friends, (with whom he keeps counsel), all assert that his mind, however, has been sharpened by the episode. THE ALPHABET BUSINESS CONCERN can confirm that no part of YOUR favourite pop star’s intellect or personality has been found to be absent WHATSOEVER.

So where does that leave CARDIACS and where does that leave YOU?

At this point Tim Smith can neither sing nor play his guitar. THE ALPHABET BUSINESS CONCERN, in keeping with its enviable reputation as THE REALISTIC CONCERN, can state that it is extremely unlikely that CARDIACS will perform live for the foreseeable future. THIS IS NOT, IT MUST BE NOTED, THE END OF CARDIACS. YOU must once again be patient before events can reveal themselves as foodstuffs for YOUR greedy little mouths.

Yeah, these were the rumours, now confirmed. Poor guy. Looks like we won't be seeing them live again. And it's 10 years since the last album. They only hope is that they have tons of stuff archived which may come out. I get the impression that they have been fairly comprehensive about recording and filming live shows etc and there really ought to be some studio stuff, radio sessions etc in the can that will maybe see the light of day.

That proposed DVD of them rehearsing the Garage Concerts never appeared, did it?

I had heard this was the talk too. Great shame. I shall treasure my one concert experience forever.

Their 6th major studio album is apparently more or less in the can, and when Tim's health is slightly improved, it could see the light of day. To ask for more from a band that has already given us more than enough would be unreasonable, but should it emerge, I would be the first to celebrate.

Bearing in mind that the afflicted soul is my single most revered cultural icon of all time (pretty much), this is something of an effort to type.

If Cardiacs never play live again, others must follow their lead. Whether or not I'm in such a band (I hope to be) is irrelevant; all that matters is that the flame is kept alive.

That they were able to produce the (full) text of that announcement in a style entirely consistent with the previous missives from the Alphabet Business Concern surely gives some hope. But really, fucking hell, what a thing to have to write and it's clear that Tim has had a horrific time. I loved Cardiacs from being a callow youth, it must be 18 years now, and all I can really say is that regardless of their future as a band I hope he can make as full a recovery as possible.

Always were a band for the resounding sadness cloaked by stiff upper lip and mischievous twinkle