marnie is easily one of my top ten fave bass players in rock. god i love her so. fort belvedere was my total anthem when i was 16. it was everything that me and my brain were about.
i'm sad i don't have all my old vinyl. i still have cloud one and the live album on vinyl, but i no longer own the s/t, bringing home the bait, dusted, or swingtime. definitely regret getting rid of them. (i think i do have positraction on vinyl, but i never play it. i really am a s/t to dusted fan.)
― scott seward, Thursday, 6 November 2008 20:06 (fifteen years ago) link
I got Dusted on vinyl pretty cheaply Scott, shouldn't be too hard to replace that one. Not sure about the others.
― I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE UP TO (Colonel Poo), Friday, 7 November 2008 09:12 (fifteen years ago) link
fort belvedere was my total anthem when i was 16
That was the Live Skull first song I ever heard at about the same age cos it was on the Wailing Ultimate compilation (how great was that record BTW? Il Duce, Repulsion, Sun God, I Remember, The Well, White Elephant... that and SST's Blasting Concept Vol II were my gateway drug to the whole US indie thing).
Dusted and Snuffer are my favourite Live Skull records though. Maybe it's just the power of suggestion of the sleeve photos for Dusted, but for quite dark records they also seem full of a lot of light, albeit a light that blinds.
― NickB, Friday, 7 November 2008 10:07 (fifteen years ago) link
I hope this further disputes the idea that Live Skull were grim.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, January 25, 2006 1:55 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark
okay hey slow reaction time but live skull were pretty fucking grim. mark c + marnie smiled about as frequently as michael gira, and while I'm not gonna say there wasn't a lot of ironic humor in what they were doing, the lyrical stance was as sour as the milk in a junkie's frigidaire. some exhibits:
what I did was wrong, I'll erase myself
little tern little tern little tern, o where will you go nowwith your dress hiked up above your waist and your legs tossed loose in shameless gracethere a soft stain on the carpet where the couch meets the living room floorthere's a dead man in the hallway and his name is on the door
you said it would be different with this rope around my neck... but it's really nothing special... what else is there?
you know I'm coming to wreck your lifeto tear your face offdrive a stake through the heart of your loved one
once glass has been spit onit's gonna get smashedbut I'm gonna get you all when I flake outyeah I'm gonna get you all when I flake out
I go to the doctorhe lies me on the tabletakes out his speculumcold thrust of steelinfecting my organsthis is my conditionthis is my conditionthis is my conditionthis is my condition
woo hoo party on live skull!
― Edward III, Saturday, 22 November 2008 05:23 (fifteen years ago) link
If I may be so bold, what Live Skull, even James 'n' Marnie era Live Skull, had that none of the other NY noise-sters did/do, is pop. Despite their walls of noise, those songs are full of hooks -- try getting "Fort Belvedere" out of your head once it gets in. And in contrast to the drawn-out sonic explorations of Sonic Youth, L.S. KNEW where they were going, so their songs are a bit more succinct. You can drive youself crazy asking why Dave Grohl is a billionaire and Tom Paine works at Taco Bell, but truly, if there were any justice in this world, Live Skull would be universal overlords of us all.
― imera, Saturday, 7 February 2009 02:25 (fifteen years ago) link
i dunno, i love the skull, but it seems super obvious why they never made any money
― dagmar at full power (contenderizer), Saturday, 7 February 2009 07:05 (fifteen years ago) link
Looks like Bringing Home The Bait and the first EP have both just been reissued by some French label with a bunch of bouns tracks. Both up on Spotify to. Apparently the rest of the albums will follow...
http://desirerecords.bigcartel.com/artist/live-skull
― trippin' on brostep beats (NickB), Monday, 29 July 2013 10:17 (ten years ago) link
Just pressed play on Bringing Home The Bait, sounds oddly contemporary thanks to the Savages album.
― trippin' on brostep beats (NickB), Monday, 29 July 2013 10:19 (ten years ago) link
It sounds absolutely fucking great and a joy to hear once again, but you knew that already.
― trippin' on brostep beats (NickB), Monday, 29 July 2013 10:21 (ten years ago) link
I bought a copy of Snuffer a few weeks ago.
― Trip Maker, Monday, 29 July 2013 14:38 (ten years ago) link
Snuffer is underrated I think, Step is one of my favourite songs by them.
― trippin' on brostep beats (NickB), Monday, 29 July 2013 14:40 (ten years ago) link
this version. THE BASS!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mayn9DAro4
― scott seward, Monday, 29 July 2013 14:48 (ten years ago) link
played that so many times in 1983. over and over and over. couldn't get enough. it kills the studio version.
― scott seward, Monday, 29 July 2013 14:49 (ten years ago) link
I don't actually know that first EP at all. That one wasn't on Homestead was it? Don't think that many copies would've made it to Europe.
― trippin' on brostep beats (NickB), Monday, 29 July 2013 14:53 (ten years ago) link
BTW, the French label doing this reissue also recently put out an album by o13 who are Mark C's latest project (along with Stuart from Ike Yard)
― trippin' on brostep beats (NickB), Monday, 29 July 2013 14:58 (ten years ago) link
oh and to be clear that youtube is the superior live speed trials verson of the song not the EP version of the song.
― scott seward, Monday, 29 July 2013 15:28 (ten years ago) link
twenty years behind schedule, but these sound fucking great. all of my neighbors just listened to Age of Oil and Wax (they will thank me later, I'm sure).
― Hellhouse, Monday, 29 July 2013 23:46 (ten years ago) link
Heck yeah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pe-c9t0jls
― timellison, Monday, 23 April 2018 02:29 (six years ago) link
https://youtu.be/2MtVFqpFxUE
There's no way ^this isn't one of the coolest songs of 1985. Bringing Home the Bait rules so hard
― the oxford book of chaos (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 3 December 2019 12:29 (four years ago) link