New Broadcast (RIP Trish Keenan Jan 2011)

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (632 of them)

Even the album title is silly!

No silly album titles for Mary! Hey wait, what's this copy of Your Arsenal doing in your collection? (But I tease Mary. :-))

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 21:56 (twenty years ago) link

Mary puts the ease in tease

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 22:14 (twenty years ago) link

What's wrong with *Your Arsenal*? As for amateur female singers, if they are not Japanese, I have no use for them.

― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 22:17 (twenty years ago) link

but she's not amateur

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 22:19 (twenty years ago) link

that's a bit problematic, innit

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 22:20 (twenty years ago) link

i mean it sounds like something momus would say

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 22:21 (twenty years ago) link

i think (and hope) you're referring to mary's post

Mary's jones for Yoko Ono now public (assuming it already wasn't)

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 22:23 (twenty years ago) link

momus is surely an amateur

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 22:23 (twenty years ago) link

but he's not female and japanese?

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 22:25 (twenty years ago) link

thank god...he'd be even more in love with himself than he is now

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 22:26 (twenty years ago) link

"Hitchcock once said of Charles Laughton dismissively that he was 'an amateur.' And when that got back to Laughton, Laughton just shrugged and said, 'Well. It means lover. I love my work.'"

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 22:30 (twenty years ago) link

I like Yoko Ono.

― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 22:50 (twenty years ago) link

good solid article here

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 22:56 (twenty years ago) link

old broadcast

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 23:05 (twenty years ago) link

trish keenan is one of my favourite female vocalists

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 21 August 2003 00:09 (twenty years ago) link

Even her name is silly.

― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 21 August 2003 00:25 (twenty years ago) link

Mary I kiss you

― nnnh oh oh nnnh nnnh oh (James Blount), Thursday, 21 August 2003 00:30 (twenty years ago) link

I can't believe Hitchcock said that about Charles Laughton.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Thursday, 21 August 2003 02:31 (twenty years ago) link

stevem is right. the more i listen to this album the more it sounds like treading water.

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 21 August 2003 02:36 (twenty years ago) link

old broadcast

thanks v much steve!

― toby (tsg20), Thursday, 21 August 2003 06:56 (twenty years ago) link

it's so impeccable: impeccable rhythms, lyrics, influences, production, arrangements, artwork, label, photos, reviews. But listening, you have the sense that it wasn't quite natural, that they've acheived this very laboriously, you can almost hear the painful effort they labour under not to break into a velvet underground riff or just do a song in 4/4. it seems a lot of work for something that's, well.... a bit antiseptic.

― pulpo, Thursday, 21 August 2003 07:10 (twenty years ago) link

That's the second time we've seen Mary criticize a great album title in as many weeks! What does SHE want!?

― marianna, Thursday, 21 August 2003 09:17 (twenty years ago) link

Renee Zellweger - now THAT's a silly name

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 21 August 2003 09:36 (twenty years ago) link

No argument there;)

― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 21 August 2003 15:43 (twenty years ago) link

Picked this up, it's better than the last album but still not as good as the first eps (on work and nonwork). They are still, to me, Pram for Poseurs, but they're getting better. Now where is the new Stereolab album?

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Thursday, 21 August 2003 15:59 (twenty years ago) link

I have to go back and listen to The Noise Made By People again, but it seems to me that Haha Sound is a lot more noisy-for-noise's-sake. It kinda reminds me of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in terms of songwriting methodology: here's a nice simple vocal line and one, maybe two, melodic backing instruments, and then let's surround that with huge clouds of weird noise. Not that I don't enjoy noise for noise's sake, but I can't help feeling there's a bit of a disconnect between the noise and the melody.

― Nick Mirov (nick), Thursday, 21 August 2003 21:02 (twenty years ago) link

i thought Pram were Pram for Poseurs?

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Thursday, 21 August 2003 21:11 (twenty years ago) link

Pram are Stereolab for the Even More Pretentious

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Thursday, 21 August 2003 21:18 (twenty years ago) link

Pram are shit and i wish they'd split up

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 21 August 2003 22:25 (twenty years ago) link

three months pass...

well i never got to see them in the States in the end (as went the dream) but i'll be at the Islington Academy tonight. am planning to record the gig too.

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:15 (twenty years ago) link

I'm not going anymore, decided a night off is of the essence. I'm sure it'll be fab, however.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:22 (twenty years ago) link

is it sold out d'you know, steve?

― zebedee (zebedee), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 16:27 (twenty years ago) link

don't know for sure but very maybe

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 16:34 (twenty years ago) link

I saw them play at King tut's in glasgow on friday night and it was quite possibly the best gig I've seen all year. They are exceptionally powerful live. Whereas the tunes on the record sound quite pastoral in places, live they are full on building, driving throbbing monsters. CharlieNo4 do not pass this up!

stevem - would it be really cheeky of me to ask for a copy of the gig if you succeed in recording it? I'm obv. happy to pay costs.

― neil simpson (neil simpson), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 16:37 (twenty years ago) link

they are better live for sure, 'cept the vocals sometimes, poor Trish, but i wuv her

if i manage to record the gig ok it will be online. CD copy also possible (tho i am horribly slack with burning and posting discs as the 'post your 700mb cd of stuff you love' thread will testify)

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 16:48 (twenty years ago) link

The Vocals were dead on on friday. the only flaw wa that they did one too many encores. CD would be preferable if it's not to much hassle as I won't have download access for another 2 weeks.

― neil simpson (neil simpson), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 17:00 (twenty years ago) link

nice one stevem. Let us know the the url if you're successful.

― Nathan W (Nathan Webb), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 17:05 (twenty years ago) link

CharlieNo4 do not pass this up!

Oh don't worry, I have already had the pleasure of Broadcast live this year, at ULU in, uh, June or something. And they were fucking splendid. I've just decided, big-hearted fool that I am, to forfeit my place this evening for the benefit of someone who hasn't seen 'em yet. And for the benefit of my ailing liver, natch.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 17:08 (twenty years ago) link

Sorry to dissent, but I found them a major disappointment. Admittedly I need to be in the right mood to enjoy their albums, but I had high expectation of them live. Vocals were pretty dire (not helped by some sound problems) and the video/light show was fine but counterproductive in terms of depriving the band of personality. It was just me: friends agreed, and the audience response was pretty muted. Trish's voice would have been over-used even if her live singing got closer to the quality of the records, but in the event it lacked power and her intonation was suspect to say the least. As a result the song I enjoyed best was the near-instrumental they played as one of the encores.

― ArfArf, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 17:24 (twenty years ago) link

the band are not keen on displaying their personality - the visual show is there to assist in retaining their supposed 'mystique' in this sense, but the truth is they are just 4 normal folk from Birmingham with no particular agenda other than to make the music they're into. a bit more crowd-play might be nice tho. it's also a real shame Keenan's voice isn't so suited to or indeed superior in frequent live performance unlike say Alison Goldfrapp esp. when the music tends to be much more raucous yet fluid on stage.

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 17:29 (twenty years ago) link

As a result the song I enjoyed best was the near-instrumental they played as one of the encores.

i assume you mean 'Hammer Without A Master' - on record there are no vocals but Keenan took to doing some extremely brittle banshee-style wailing at the start of it when played live. this is probably the furthest she goes in evoking real emotion on stage but her 'jilted science girl' style is still kinda appealing elsewhere.

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 17:32 (twenty years ago) link

Wouldn't know the name of the song - I know their first album fairly well, the second one I've listened to a couple of times, but I'm never good on song titles. Her voice is obviously very stylised, '60s French chanteuse or whatever. It can be very effective on the record but I still think it'd be better used more sparingly, even if she didn't have the technical limitations she has singing live.

― ArfArf, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 17:49 (twenty years ago) link

i suggest more synthesis with electronic contraptions ala Goldfrapp. the way Keenan's voice melts with the feedback at the end of 'Echo's Answer' always makes me feel like someone is bothering my spine with an ice cold feather duster...more of that live please

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 18:01 (twenty years ago) link

Agreed, I was REALLY surprised that her voice was used so straight, I don't think I've heard anyone in this kind of genre sing with so little in the way of effects. This struck me by about the 2nd bar of the first song.

Of course she's not remotely in the same league as Alison Goldrapp as a singer, technically. Even, say, the girls in Ladytron, whose voices sound a little weak on their records, are much more convincing live (although that is no doubt partly because they know their limitations and are more determined to stay within them. Trish was attempting a lot of lower-register stuff that probably took a number of takes to get right on the record, and she struggled badly).

― ArfArf, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 18:22 (twenty years ago) link

are you kidding? Ladytron's vocalists have sounded awful the times i have heard them live! they can barely keep time and drift off key with disappointing regularity. perhaps they have improved over the last 18 months - i think it's just Helen anyway - Keenan strikes me as having the superior voice though not by much and it's even softer. Alison is in a league of her own but Sarah Cracknell also shows them how it's done.

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 18:37 (twenty years ago) link

right off to the gig now, Jay Coded on White Lion St near Angel tube for beers first tho. will report back tomorrow.

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 18:40 (twenty years ago) link

I get the impression Broadcast is not a band that goes about things in the usual rock band way -- that is to say jamming on instruments, writing a bunch of songs, practicing them until they're good (maybe touring them), and then recording them. Sounds to me like any inacccuracies in their performance are down to their strange work ethic and hermetic studio practices.

That said, for those who were there, what gear did they have on stage? I've been trying to figure out what equipment was used on Haha Sound but sometimes I draw a blank when it comes to figuring out what made a particular noise.

― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 18:42 (twenty years ago) link

"are you kidding? Ladytron's vocalists have sounded awful the times i have heard them live!"

All I can say is they were absolutely fine the one time I heard them, earlier this year - much better than I expected from hearing the records. Not naturally gifted singers, but they'd obviously put in the rehearsal hours and as a result - intonation good, harmonies tight, no timing problems. I attended the concert with a female singer who, with the exception of Alison Goldfrapp, is substantially more gifted than any of the singers we've been discussing and she was surprised and impressed.

― ArfArf, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 19:09 (twenty years ago) link

So? How was it?

― neil simpson (neil simpson), Thursday, 11 December 2003 09:38 (twenty years ago) link

at first it was just okay (vocals patchy at times but got progressively better i think) but halfway thru they got very good indeed - one of the best renditions of 'Hammer...' i've experienced despite deafening feedback at times - 'Ominous Cloud' and 'Winter Now' sounding great. best of all probably 'Book Lovers' and 'Illumination' which just built up slowly and beautifully into a rousing sped-up climax and proper drone action. 'Unchanging Window' always seems to go on too long and I'm annoyed they didn't do 'Before We Begin' or other obvious classics (no 'Echo's Answer', 'Message From Home' and it wouldn't hurt to hear 'Accidentals' for once). they don't seem at all interested in doing covers but i couldn't help but enjoy the concept of them doing 'Black Hole Sun' in my head at one point. Recorded it anyway so will get that sorted when i get the chance (next week).

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 11 December 2003 11:27 (twenty years ago) link

Skipping 532 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.