Cardiacs: Classic or Dud?

The Sea Nymphs
Tim Smith's Extra Special OceanLandWorld
The Monsoon Bassoon
The Shrubbies
Bill Drake Solo
Stars In Battledress

For starters anyway.

Excellente! Thanks, if only I wasn't on ratio watch..

Katherine In a Cupboard
Ring
Zag ANd The Coloured Beads
Ad Nauseum
KnifeWorld
Ablemesh
Levitation
Lake Of Puppies
Sleepy People
North Sea Radio Orchestra
Mikrokosmos
Buntychunks
Mad Uncle Jane
Hayestack
Brain Of Morbius

Send me a PM Davek and I'll post you over some bits.

yeah even I haven't heard most of those - the ones I have heard tend to be the ones that didn't originate as Cardiacs side-projects, mostly because I have a slight suspicion of side-projects

everyone assures me that The Sea Nymphs are great though so yeah I need to get hold

The Monsoon Bassoon and Stars In Battledress are of course awesome, the former more so, although the latter have some stellar moments (as it were)

oh look some more bands - have only heard Zag & TCB (GREAT TRULY GREAT live) and Levitation (groovy psych-prog-shoegaze)

Sea Nymphs albums are truly great, like mind fuckingly great.

ah, ok

i guess there's not much chance of me disagreeing either, is there

None more up your alley LJ. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbxzUhk7R5c

i dunno to be truly up my alley it needs a bit of mindmelting distortion or grandstanding darkness here and there ;)

ooh ok let's give this a go

(and by 'distortion' i mean 'sonic fuckery', at which point it becomes a serious statement and not a joke)

wow @ the piano in the midsection

this seems to be music of small treasures, falling somehow together in an organic and bizarre way

Katherine In a Cupboard
Ring
Zag ANd The Coloured Beads
Ad Nauseum
KnifeWorld
Ablemesh
Levitation
Lake Of Puppies
Sleepy People
North Sea Radio Orchestra
Mikrokosmos
Buntychunks
Mad Uncle Jane
Hayestack
Brain Of Morbius

Ha, that's basically everyone even vaguely connected to the band, isn't it? I think you'd struggle to find material from most of these, particularly Katherine In A Cupboard, who only had one song ever officially released on a compilation.

Add these ones to the list:
Stars In Battledress, aka the brothers Larcombe, who produced one incredible album of psychedelic whimsy-pop and have been rather quiet since
Ponce - possibly the most obscure of all the Cardiacs family bands - lasted the duration of one fantastic single, "Runny".
Arch Garrison - North Sea Radio minus the Orchestra.
The Trudy - One of the few bands from the early-eighties Richmond scene to've been around as long as Cardiacs(the band their original drummer left to join, in fact).

Then there's Mr & Mrs Smith and Drake - the prototype Sea Nymphs, basically their psych-folk album recorded on four-track.

Oops, now I see Stars In Battledress have already been mentioned. Carry on.

Let's not forget the fantastic Silver Ginger Five. The album Black Leather Mojo is two or three Wildheart, Jon Poole on bass PLUS William D Drake on keyboards and is produced by Tim Smith. Doesn't sound anything like Cardiacs though. More like a Cheap Trick/Slade vibe and it rocks.

i nearly bought that from an HMV once but chose something else

then it was gone

regrets, i've had a few

It's always been difficult to find. It was one of the most expensive CDs I ever bought. Originally it was a Japanese import which sat in the Virgin Megastore untouched because of it's nearly $100 price tag. Eventually it got reduced to half price and I took the plunge. What a relief when it turned out to be good.

wdve been 12 quid, right there

Then there's The Trudy. Formed by early Cardiacs defectors, they are still around and recorded some stuff pretty recently with Tim Smith at the controls. The songs in question are on their myspace page.

btw am listening to the Garage RES right now...

...much punkier than the 80's version! Cardiacs are a band who got punkier and yet more epic at the same time

Theres a third version of RES? I much prefer the version on The Seaside to the Little Man one. I think it's because I've watched the video so many times.

The Seaside is the latest one i managed to find at a decent price (is 20 pounds decent?) RES followed by To Go Off and Things, I can't think of many better ways to end an album.

Would say it doesn't quite have the same miraculous momentum of the ALM version (and hey, I DID vote for it in the ALM poll), but it's a darn good live rendering. Little is lost, and it's a fresh perspective.

RES into Whole World Window is pretty damn spectacular. My favourite end to any Cardiacs album is actually Snakes A-Sleeping, because much as Will Bleed Amen is amazing and Secret Like Swans lovely, they need to be indexed as separate tracks, dammit

Haha, The Obvious Identity is straight-up punk! And really good straight-up punk at that. Nice.

(Obviously The Everso Closely Guarded Line is right up there with S A-S, but I prefer the latter for some reason)

Versions of RES:

The Seaside (both versions)
A Little Man and A House And The Whole World Window
Nighttracks (Janice Long session that came out on vinyl)
Mares Nest Live CD
Special Garage Concerts

And there's a video for it on the Seaside Treats thing, which if memory serves is slightly different to the version on The Seaside.

btw I'm still annoyed 'Is This The Life' won the ALM poll. all 4 people who voted for it, I reckon, have heard VERY little other Cardiacs, let alone the whole album

oh hey a cardiacs thread

a little man and a house and the whole world window is probably one of my favorite albums ever. however!, i can't get any of their other albums to click in that same way for me. i'm still trying though, i'm willing to give them as many chances as it takes...

INFINITY TIMES A BILLION CHANCES

Then there's The Trudy. Formed by early Cardiacs defectors, they are still around and recorded some stuff pretty recently with Tim Smith at the controls. The songs in question are on their myspace page.

"Lost Summer Of Love" is one of the great overlooked singles of the last few years, I reckon. Must get around to buying their CD, actually...

my wee girl went nuts to 'tarred and feathered' this morning. this makes me a happy dad.

Some details are coming to light about the forthcoming Cardiacs gathering...Looks like it's going to be a full-on benefit gig for Tim, with special guest vocalists and bands to be announced! And it'll be at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the 25th of September.

am sooooooo gonna be there

same

toldja!

and yes, I'll be there too. a friend of mine is playing this. should be ace!

Patton's on board, so I've heard

I 'eard that rumour. most exciting.

So I managed to track down a copy of Sing to God, it's amazingly consistent for a double album. Dirty Boy is just incredible it might just edge out RES as my favourite song of theirs. I remember my brother having the Bellyeye single and playing it to death, I think the B-side No Gold was the first song I really like of theirs.

My collection now consists of...
A Little Man & a House
Cardiacs Live
On Land & In the Sea
The Seaside
Sing to God (Parts 1 & 2)

All great albums, I think Songs For Ships & Irons is next on my list.

good, innit?

funny how virtually everyone latches onto 'dirty boy' as the obvious STG highlight.

don't get me wrong, I like it lots in its monolithic way, but for me it's nowhere near the same level as 'fiery gun hand', 'a horse's tail', 'eat it up worms hero', 'bell clinks', etc. I guess I like cardiacs best when they're as fast and hard and wiggly as possible.

It's that last two minutes that really make Dirty Boy amazing, It's really intense and sounds like it could just keep on going.

All the ones you mentioned are great too. I like how it has a big mix of all the different Cardiacs styles like the fast and wiggly (great way of putting it) but then there's some of their biggest pop moments too like Manhoo or Odd Even.

It might be my favourite album I've heard of theirs so far.

I acquired recently all the albums I didn't have, so The Obvious Identity, Toy World, The Seaside, Songs For Ships And Irons and the Sea Nymphs album will be 'chewn' through (as it were)!

Actually, I've already had at the Sea Nymphs several times, because it's amazing. Lilly White's Party especially.

Kitchen Person, you will love Guns, but you shouldn't ignore Heaven Born And Ever Bright.

Yeah get Guns and the Ditzy Scene single.

Oh yeah, get the Ditzy Scene single if you can! It's quite hard to, but do try! Scarcely has a 30 year-old band sounded so vital...

It's even hard to do online...scarce on the most comprehensive torrent sites.

I've actually lost my copy with a change of computer so if someone wants to be CHARITABLE

xpost sorry dude I've only heard it from Youtube streams.

Also, I'm back into The Fall. Slates and Hex did the trick.

BOOM

one of us etc

Where next in the 'moulding him in my image' quest...VdGG?

gimme time, I gotta write on Eliot + Swift + Toni Morrison this holiday.

snob + joeks bruv + emancipation