The Joy Formidable

Glad there's a thread on this band. They were on GlastoBBC last night. This tiny little blonde thing in a summer skirt and doc martens playing brutal attack rock interspersed with pretty indie breakdowns. What I noticed most were her facial expressions that went from elated gaiety to snarling bitterness from verse to chorus. Sometimes I thought she was going to get blown offstage by the ferocity of their guitar playing. Ones to watch...

i think i am going to buy this album this week. loving the vocals and wall of sound production.

no coverage on the iplayer of their G set yet though.

I think you can red button their set on tv? maybe... I'd love to see it again. Good to see a front(wo)man with the right levels of gusto as she.

xpost

yes, me too.

i am lazy - what's it called?

never mind, i just found out and bought it.

album : the big roar.
no access to red button on normal freeview.
never realised how diff freeview is for sat/cable viewers then this weekend.
normal freeview had nothing on the red button really.
booo.

xpost. ha.

I've received The Big Roar in the mail (lovely artwork let down by standard plastic case - should've been a digi-pak). Will be putting my ear quite close to it at lunch and report back.

I like them a lot but I wish the songwriting was as good as their overall sound.

not got this yet.
too busy buying/absorbing the hold steady back cat. this week.
on my list though.

(lovely artwork let down by standard plastic case - should've been a digi-pak)

Yes! At the risk of stirring up yet another debate about the relative merits of each, I'm always a little disappointed when an album comes in a standard jewel case - they should all be digi-paks now.

My husband likes this band and I was never really inspired to care much until today -- watched a live performance of Whirring and there is something so pleasantly late 80s/early 90s about them. I love her!

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

I will admit that I was also put off by their name.

^^^^ otm

on both counts!

I mean, if I was still in high school I would totally have pictures of Ritzy all over my locker and be in a constant state of massive crush.

^^this

I know it's kind of crude, but I'm a sucker for a band with a cuet singer. And the early-'90s alterna-rock thing only emphasises that. Could see them being included on one of the old Volume compilations.

She's cute, but she also has guts and seems somewhat mature -- she's not cartoonishly cutesy or twee/winky. that's why i like her.

Exactly, plus she plays a mean guitar.

I saw them play live a couple of months ago in Cleveland and just stood near the stage and marveled and her and the bass player's pedal rigs. Some of them are labeled for specific songs, some have an effect feeding into another of the same effect with different settings, it's crazy. They're coming back here for a free show at the Rock and LOL Hall of Fame in August, I'll definitely see them again.

Definitely a PJ Harvey/Kristin Hersh thing about her.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5256/5561101431_3ef0d170a2.jpg

That's what I mean -- she is skilled! And adorable! I think the super noisy intro/outro are what sold me, tbh.

*sticks up poster in work locker*

Whoa. Two Line 6 loopers?

Not loopers - the gold box is the distortion modeler, the purple box is the filter (modulation) modeler.

I do not know what these things are, but I want them!

Think the two green pedals in the foreground are a Tubescreamer and a Bad Monkey (excellent cheap Tubescreamer clone)

Ah, thx. They kind of looked like old loopers but I wasn't totally sure.

A graphic eq and a tuner pedal there too. Top tip: if you don't like your distortion, try putting an eq before it, can totally change its character.

It's been quite while since I heard such a great full-on, blasting, melodic rock record.

Very good album, this. Interviewing Ritzy tomorrow if anyone has a burning question or two...

Since buying this, I've had it on my ipod but other than Abacus I couldn't tell you anything about it. Every track is kind of startling but then just wooshes over me. A shame - I like the idea of this band.

I like "Whirring" a whole bunch.

oh yeah, Whirring is the other one. The others are kind of cool, but not memorable.

It's been quite while since I heard such a great full-on, blasting, melodic rock record.

― Asamoah Nyan (Le Bateau Ivre), Sunday, July 17, 2011 12:45 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark

cradle remains one of my favorite songs of the past couple of years

the opening track of this album (everchanging spectrum of a lie) is one of the best opening tracks of any albums in several years. it kind of overshadows the entire album by being so great though. I was on the fence about this band for a long time even after hearing the album a ton, it seemed too derivative and her vocals too siouxsie, but it eventually won me over.

Hmm I've avoided them because of the band name but y'all are making them sound cool.

Seriously, the joy formidable is so bad, like a jam band from a small expensive private school in a small town in the midwest

The terrific fanvid for Austere is, sadly, no longer featured on their website.

This is still such a great album.

Seeing these guys tonight. So psyched!

cradle remains one of my favorite songs of the past couple of years

― kaygee, Friday, September 2, 2011 1:17 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark

Hmm I've avoided them because of the band name but y'all are making them sound cool.

Seriously, the joy formidable is so bad, like a jam band from a small expensive private school in a small town in the midwest

― velvet underground - reloaded (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, September 2, 2011 9:24 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark

yeah the name is beyond embarrassing but imo you would probable dig it

the other night Conan reran the episode they were on, that performance was basically the thing that made me go "holy shit, i need to hear this album"

the band name is terrible and the album name is even worse
still, the music is great

they're like the ugli fruit of bands
http://www.fruitipedia.com/Fruit%20NGTP.jpg

im prolly repeating myself from rolling indie but Ostrich is still my favorite, such a raw beast (exactly why it wasn't one of the holdovers from the EP). Austere and Greatest Light still get me going but Whirring is totally lost on me. They're friendly too and I really wanna see them make good.

And my interview's up:

http://www.ocweekly.com/2011-09-08/music/the-joy-formindable-ritzy-bryan/

formindable!

Thankfully the actual headline's correct.

Great show last night. The band is totally tight. A lot of the songs have been lengthened out for noisy/neo-shoegazey parts. They played 'Ostrich' which I thought they wouldn't. And I never really warmed up to Cradle as many have around here but the version I heard last night was massive.

A lot of the songs have been lengthened out for noisy/neo-shoegazey parts.

OH DARN.

Meantime, a very...random story:

http://www.business2community.com/social-media/what-small-business-can-learn-from-the-joy-formidable-about-social-media-marketing-056217

(The impact seems to be 'hey let me tell you about this stuff everyone already knows about!')

that link has a youtube embed of the awesome Conan performance i was talking up thread, though!

Guards were terrible! Holy crap!

Finally picked up 'Wolf's Law' at the weekend, enjoying it. A friend's band supported them in a small local venue when they were touring 'A Balloon Called Moaning' but I missed it due to work - all reports made me regret this.

Guards were heckled here at the Chicago show for their excessive smoke machine use. The other opener, Kitten, were just as bad but in a massively entertaining way, thanks to their ludicrously over-the-top stage moves.

I am all good with this:

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

in a perfect world it would be twice as long and not acoustic

New song, new album soon!

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

Great video!

I haven't heard Wolf's Law since 2013. Should revisit.

wowzers.

I don't like this very much, but maybe there'll be better songs on the record.

Its been diminishing returns since the first two singles, for me. A Balloon Called Moaning is my most played guitar rock album in a decade, but all the "ambitious" production of the later albums just distracts.

^ yes, this.

Ie, they were a lot more fun when they were into punky power-trio dustups than pretending to be Heart.

Here, the only remotely interesting sound (to me) is the descending guitar line on the bridges. On the first album, that would have been allowed to carry the song.

So, what I'm trying to say, is here's Steve Albini's number. He's really not the asshole you may think, and his studio has the BEST coffee.

this album killed any interest left in them eh

Me too, they jettisoned everything interesting.

yup same here

This band seems determined to turn into Linkin Park or some shit.

Did they release something new and uninteresting?

Any any band needed to strip back to its roots and visit Steve Albini's studio...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haktGTrtdx0

Mike Shinoda could "rap" all over this.

last two albums lost me but it's return to form time baby!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fRYvc6jZy0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAR3Wdu9rZo

first single is also excellent

Ooh, digging this!

Yeah already got this on preorder. In retrospect I should have gone to see them in late December 2019 but you can't have it all.

glad to see they're still going, I have a couple albums to catch up on

nice. would love another album as succinct as Balloon Called Moaning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHs7Y2bhJbM

took me forever to get around to it but this album is dope

that last tune you posted is fucking great tbh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH1ewx6d8j4

can't get enough of this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93ftEk8ZYec

oh what the hell, also obsessed with this song. i need tim f to hear this record

Yeah i like 'interval' too, guess i need to check the album. Is there a piano lurking in the mix there? It's giving me tori amos vibes for some reason

Looking forward to the late November show...

This is great! I hate to lean on the overused cliche, but it really is a return to form. This scratches the right itch for me.