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Post by chron on Jan 17, 2017 17:45:59 GMT
Major props to shoshin for starting this. After admitting I'd only dabbled in the B-52's I spent a good couple of hours last night trawling through YouTube and have come to realise that I've seriously been missing out and am going to have to do some catching up. Their camp/kitsch exterior has always put me off a bit, and I don't go a bundle on B Movie sci-fi/beach rock tropes, but they're a much more interesting band than I gave them credit for; a proper art band, with a distinctive if hard to pin-down agenda. Steve Albini has said they're a gay band but not a camp one, a distinction which seems to ring true, and which sets up an interesting tension because of their hard and earnest treatment of seemingly lightweight subject matter. The harmonising and call-and-response singing of Pierson and Cindy Wilson is gorgeous at times, and Ricky Wilson is a fascinating guitar player. They could do it live, too - the tightness and urgency of this 1980 show is super impressive (Cindy Wilson's performance on Give Me Back My Man is a jaw-dropper!). Up to now, Fred Schneider had always been a bit of a stumbling block, but watching some of the concert footage you've got to hand to him the fact that he exercises great judgement and knows how to mete himself out; he's no limelight hogger, and he's got no problem with stepping to the side and clonking a cowbell, if that's what's required. He truly serves the songs. They all do. What took me so long?! Edit: to clarify; the distinction Albini makes between gay and camp is interesting in the B-52's case because their image and styling is - deliberately - misleadingly camp (to the degree that camp and kitsch overlap); a shell that you have to crack in order to experience the full magic.
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Post by chron on Jan 16, 2017 20:10:27 GMT
Sorry for not SPOILER WARNING it btw; there doesn't appear to be a spoiler strip available that I can see.
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Post by chron on Jan 16, 2017 20:06:15 GMT
I was well wide of the mark - my pre-click guess was Baccara! Only the most casual fan, but I do like the odd drop of B-52s, although their shtick can get wearing. My favourite track of theirs is Bushfire - Kate Pierson belts it out for the majority of the track, with half-spoken asides by Fred, but Cindy Wilson's spirited interjection ("Ooh lightnin' strike twice!") is such a rush when it comes in!
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Post by chron on Dec 16, 2016 11:10:50 GMT
This one surprised me by stumping one or two people when I posted it on another thread/forum, which was interesting because if you can manage to filter out the musical style, the verse melody is so unmistakable that it approaches copyright infringement. Name that ABBA song Got to be Lay All Your Love..
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Post by chron on Dec 13, 2016 21:20:52 GMT
Mind you, we've got to give Noel a point or two for not tying a piece of twine around his forehead!
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Post by chron on Dec 13, 2016 17:53:26 GMT
His hair and beard combo in that '82 interview isn't a fat lot different to Benny's or Bjorn's! (His jacket, trousers and boots ensemble is dreadful, though.)
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Post by chron on Dec 13, 2016 16:08:57 GMT
It even says "This is not an official release" That must've been added, and the stuff about it being burned to CD-R, after Alex first found the site. I had a little look at it shortly after he posted the link, and I'm sure that info would've leapt out if it had been present (not that this ever looked as though it might be an officially sanctioned release, mind you).
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Post by chron on Dec 10, 2016 12:33:48 GMT
Agnetha looks great and is lovely... it's just cringey watching her flirt with Noel Edmonds. Oh I don't know; as has become apparent recently, Noel is as mad as a box of frogs, but he was a decent-looking bloke back then (he had a look of Barry Sheene's winning cheeky-chappiness about him). In any case, that interview is a fine showcase for Agnetha's flirting prowess; what she's able to do with her eyes is ridiculous!
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Post by chron on Dec 1, 2016 13:26:24 GMT
What a travesty. The pressings should've been churned out thusly:
Arrival - blue The Album - cerulean (heh) Voulez-Vous - chartreuse, coquelicot, mud Super Trouper - terracotta, sarcoline
Alternatively, they should've been released on glow-in-the-dark Edison cylinders only, in these territories.
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Post by chron on Nov 25, 2016 1:11:44 GMT
Now that you've pointed it out I can hear it clearly, although it had never been apparent to me before! His playing is quite busy on this; he's gone for a rubbery, funk-like approach, and there isn't much time for the bum note to register (although he does sort of leaving it hanging there for a split second, doesn't he). Easy to make a small slip when you're bouncing along like that, I suppose. I doubt I'll ever be able to 'unhear' it now!
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Post by chron on Nov 14, 2016 13:37:46 GMT
I think Cilla Black's was the biggest shock to the nation.RIP Debatable. Besides, she died in 2015. RIP, Lenny.
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Post by chron on Oct 28, 2016 11:36:04 GMT
all the weird ABBA-related stuff This is the nub; ABBA has been turned into a brand, to be stamped on all these 'day out' type enterprises - the museum, the Mamma-Mia night venue thing. Thing is; they are/were a pop group, not Disney or McDonalds! In lieu of new material, they should be tending to their legacy in a dignified manner; they shouldn't be diluting it by throwing the same few hits, along with the platform boots and the flared karate suits, into a mixer and churning out yet another reformulation of 'the ABBA experience. It's odd; it took ABBA a good while to climb free of the taint of Eurovision, and the stigma of being thought of as corny and guileless, but eventually they managed it, and by the end of their working career, they'd established themselves as a mature and refined but still popular group, a goal that B&B have often indicated was the one they were ultimately aiming at. And now - from about the point where Mamma-Mia went galactic - a lot of the good work they did in the latter half of their career has, to a degree, been unravelled. Just my thoughts.
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Post by chron on Oct 24, 2016 1:17:16 GMT
I'm happy I RECIEVED MINE A FEW DAYS AGO. Box set 000006 Only eight away from 000014 :-( Numerical commiserations.
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Post by chron on Oct 22, 2016 20:18:50 GMT
Collins sounds as though he's giving the police a statement in that recording (which, when you consider what he did to Here We'll Stay, is only appropriate).
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Post by chron on Oct 22, 2016 16:15:54 GMT
But again, you're suggesting Abba do what other bands do, and it doesnt work like that. In the first place, Pink Floyd has Dave Gilmour doing hi profile tours where he plays a bunch of Pink Floyd; Paul McCartney does the same thing with the Beatles songs, and Fleetwood Mac is a current recording and touring band. These artists have good reason to mine their back catalogue, as they are currently performing it[...] I don't basically disagree with you. I'm keeping the debate going partly to help try and prevent this forum becoming the Agnetha Faltskog Internet Photo Archive, and also to go out to bat a bit for those who repeatedly shell out their hard-earned on every ABBA release, even though I'm not one of them (my collection of ABBA stuff is paltry by any standard - I only own a few of the studio albums, and don't care about collecting picture discs or coloured vinyl. There's too little time and too much good contemporary music being put out to keep up with all the re-releases by oldie bands as well). You do wonder how many more tours McCartney and Gilmour and Fleetwood Mac have left in them. They'll all be hanging up their stage-boots before long, but when they have I bet they still continue to put out more generous reissue packages than ABBA have up to now. I'm not suggesting that B&B should feel obliged to do what these other artists have done and are doing; just that it would reflect on them favourably, help mitigate the hard-nosed ABBA-as-brand stuff and offset their reputation for being proscriptive old perfectionists, if they did do something similar.
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Post by chron on Oct 21, 2016 13:20:25 GMT
Abba isnt Fleetwood Mac or the Beatles or Pink Floyd, and its unrealistic to expect them to take cues from what these other bands do, or did. Well, they've taken enough style cues over the years; not minting them but appropriating and adapting a number - 'British invasion' pop in pre-ABBA days, Euro schlager, glam and glitter pop, West Coast AOR, disco and electropop - and now they've show that they're prepared to try and ride the luxury/bespoke vinyl wave by putting out this certificated half-speed mastered double disc version of Arrival, so it's not outlandish to reckon on them putting out tranches or exclusive material on re-releases at this stage, rather than the usual tidbits. As you say, ABBA were never a road band, nor were they a studio jam band, and they'd never be in a position to serve up what Pink Floyd have, say, on their various expanded releases, in terms of live recordings or jams or what have you, but you'd imagine that if they were of a mind they could at least stretch to what Fleetwood Mac did with their re-releases of the Buckingham-Nicks era albums, and include a disc of alternate or demo versions of every track on the released-as-was original album. Maybe B&B never used a recorder when they were working in their hut on Viggso; just scribbled the chords and changes down and kept the rest in their heads?
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Post by chron on Oct 21, 2016 12:35:29 GMT
Interesting news, although Andante, Andante is one of the last songs I'd want her to do a new recording of. Sandoval's a nice trumpet parper - school of post-bop Miles/Chet Baker stylee.
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Post by chron on Oct 18, 2016 21:46:42 GMT
We are owed absolutely nothing, and therefore there is nothing to reward. No artist ever owes anything, or is owed anything (the best art is usually made out of inner necessity and gets created regardless). At the same time there's something somehow distasteful about whipping up expectation for a re-release and then failing to include something substantially new. Bands bigger than/as big as ABBA (The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac) have all dug deep into their vaults, and you'd think ABBA would jump at the chance to be associated with this sort of late-career gesture of largess.
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Post by chron on Oct 14, 2016 12:12:17 GMT
[...] What is now happening is that Universal are selling us the same old Songs by releasing them in different packages [...] I'm sure they'd love to be able to add unreleased stuff, but Benny & Bjorn ensure that, that is not happening. [...] [...][I']m like a few on here, I'm not really interested in buying anything anymore unless it's going to be " new " [...] [W]hy are you collecting now?...just because it's something new ? .... to add to the collection.. or an investment, which perhaps is the hardest one for me to understand [...] I think B&B and co. should stop lurking behind the Exclusive/Crafted-with-extra-care/Enhanced packaging/New liner notes/heritage Collector's Edition front and explicitly acknowledge the fact that they're content to coax ABBA fanatics into shelling out for the same tracks, with nothing substantially new added, over and over. They should put out a compilation called: 'You Don't Have To Buy It! (As bait they could stick a 'previously unseen' picture from an old album photo session on the cover, one that barely differs from a previously used image familiar to all.) It's a line that's often used as a retort by ultra fans who themselves almost always buy everything issued regardless, and are thus arguably helping to perpetuate the impasse. At any rate, unless a message is sent to B&B and co. via a mass refusal to indulge all this 'recycling' (how many people are even going to spin their yellow vinyl edition of Money Money Money in order to check that the grooves on the disc do indeed play the track listed on the cover and label?), it seems they won't be changing their MO any time soon.
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Post by chron on Oct 8, 2016 14:45:09 GMT
Having fully inspected the box and its contents, I can safely say it's quite beautiful. The single covers are indeed glossy and use thick paper stock. And dare I say it, I don't think the artworks are scans. It's possible they've re-created the original artwork. Certainly the titles look bold and pronounced, unlike on the scans in the 2014 singles box. The singles themselves are the thickest vinyl I've ever encountered on 7" (to be fair I don't get that much modern 7" vinyl so don't have much to compare them with). I love the colours, and the Polar labels look great on them (I wouldn't have expected photos on the labels, and I think they would have spoilt them). And the box itself is indeed excellent quality. It came in outer cardboard packaging to avoid damage in the post. It looks a very nice artefact to judge from blueboi's pics. Good to hear they've done a square job in terms of the materials and finishes used. It's a funny business, this era of the deluxe edition/limited edition/multi-format plus exclusives edition, isn't it. I haven't gone for this Arrival package, but I have just received the special edition of Radiohead's A Moon Shaped Pool. It arrived and there I was, handling it as though it were a Faberge egg; poring over the condition of the book it comes housed in, checking that the corners weren't dented and that the vinyl was free of warp and pressing blemishes (I'll end up listening to files ripped from the CD, and probably won't spin the vinyl above a couple of times!). People are losing their homes to earthquakes, and here I am, sweating over the current and future physical well-being of a pop band release made out of cardboard, paper and polyvinyl. First world problems, eh?
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Post by chron on Oct 4, 2016 9:39:00 GMT
^
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Post by chron on Oct 1, 2016 18:24:50 GMT
ABBA
Vinyl: Arrival The Album (These are in the loft somewhere)
CD/WAV/FLAC: Eponymous Arrival Arrival Deluxe The Album Voulez-Vous Deluxe Super Trouper The Visitors MORE GOLD
DVD The Movie, 2 disc edition
Pre-ABBA/Solo: Lycka Something's Going On Eyes Of A Woman
Wish list: ...
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Post by chron on Sept 23, 2016 18:15:38 GMT
I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Move On's spoken introduction. Bjorn sounds as though he had his tongue at least partly in his cheek when he was doing it, and he might've been trying to prevent it sounding too oratorical or portentous by opting to do it in an accent. I think the way he does it helps to make it both playful and affecting at the same time.
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Post by chron on Sept 21, 2016 15:16:53 GMT
Lovely pair (of shears).
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Post by chron on Sept 21, 2016 14:43:48 GMT
I'd broadly chime with your view on white guys singing the blues (and extend it to include white disco, whenever its practitioners are trying too hard to get 'funk-ahy'), but Peter Green gets a pass because of his restrained and tasteful guitar playing, the warm melancholy of his voice, and because his background - humble East End of London Jewish - gave him the sort of authentic leeway to be able to adopt a blues persona and use it as an outlet for his personal experience of hardship and discrimination (he certainly had more of a 'right' to sing the blues than the likes of Paul Jones or Mick "Born in a crossfire hurricane" Jagger, with the latter's comfortable middle-class upbringing and LSE education). The last thing Green comes across as on Oh Well or Rattlesnake shake is phony (there's a reason why B.B. King, a Mississippian who could walk it and talk it, said that Green was "the only one who makes me sweat"!). Also, the Green band did a lot of great stuff that moved beyond a straight-forward blues approach.
You're definitely right to wave a flag for the FM that existed in the years just after the demise of the original line-up. I couldn't rank the work they did above that done by the original group (bar the wonderful Future Games, their albums are fairly patchy) but the best of it is equal to it. Danny Kirwan is the key - the group always holds especial interest for me whenever he's a part of the equation. His is probably the saddest story of the whole FM saga, given that both Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer have managed to make their way back to playing and releasing music in recent years (Bob Welch's end was very sad, but he'd had quite a productive career in the years before it, and I think still socialised with FM). Poor Danny remains a lost soul; such a great guitar player, and a sweet, affecting vocalist. His solo albums are quite lightweight compared to the work he did with FM, but Second Chapter is good and consistent, and there are gems tucked away on the other two.
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Post by chron on Sept 20, 2016 22:54:23 GMT
Another shared trait: both band names are derived from combining elements of band members' names! Not easy to compare and contrast the two bands, though, when one had a fixed line-up throughout its history, and the other went through several distinct incarnations and shed line-ups like skins. I'm going to take issue with the statement that FM released their most seminal works in the mid to late seventies; a number of tracks by Peter Green's FM are stone classics that will be played and revered as long as popular music is (Albatross, Oh Well, Black Magic Woman, Man Of The World, Green Manalishi). I love the Buckingham/Nicks era, but the 'classic' band for me will always be: Green, Spencer, Kirwan, McVie and Fleetwood. Green had one of the most soulful blues voices ever, and he and Danny Kirwan were a couple of guitar mavens. Unlike Johnny I also think that FM had plenty of musical range, and across line-ups: sweetly wistful instrumentals like Albatross, World In Harmony, Earl Grey and Sunny Side Of Heaven look forward to ambient easy-listening soundtrack fills; Underway (especially the long version) is a gorgeously dreamy long-form instrumental jam that predates the more beatific, drony strains of prog by two or three years at least; Dragonfly is a lovely bit of hippie-era pastoral balminess, and the Tusk title track, with its blend of martial rhythms, shout-out chorus and snatches of barely coherent spoken muttering is still one of the oddest tracks to become a hit in the singles chart.
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Post by chron on Sept 20, 2016 20:16:35 GMT
Only a casual watcher of Dr Who, and haven't watched it for years (I'm a big fan of Peter Capaldi's work in The Thick Of It, but that still hasn't yet led me to check out what sort of a Doctor he makes), but I'll have a go:
Who's your favourite doctor? Jon Pertwee/Tom Baker Who's your favourite companion? Ian Chesterton (Roy Castle) What's your favourite episode? Robots Of Death or Monster Of Peladon What's your favourite season? Chris Eccleston's first season, because of the quantum shift it represented. Eccleston wasn't really right for Dr Who, but he brought an intriguingly different sensibility to the role, nevertheless. Which missing episode do you want to be found? Not at all clued up on missing episodes; I'd much rather missing episodes of Not Only But Also or Play Away were unearthed over lost episodes of Dr Who!
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Post by chron on Sept 19, 2016 23:50:21 GMT
Please vote on the Frida polls, only 2-3 people have voted on there, her polls are underlooked. Not much point in me doing it, since I've only heard one Frida solo album: Something's Going Ahn (only heard one Agnetha solo too: Eyes Of A Woman!) and don't feel much inclined to listen to her earlier solo stuff (if I'm ever going to substantially check out any non-ABBA recordings made by ABBA members, it'll probably be the stuff put out by Bjorn with the Hootenannys). There might be quite a few others like me, which might explain the lack of interest. I think this singles poll 'game' has worn out its welcome a bit; maybe it should've stopped at the ABBA group albums.
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Post by chron on Sept 18, 2016 18:11:40 GMT
Has it been So Long?
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Post by chron on Sept 18, 2016 18:02:41 GMT
Well you don't need one of those when you're the Man In The Middle (geddit?! Back on-topic, too!)
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