Wow, I agree with a heck of a lot of this thread, especially with JC about Blur reuniting with Coxon being wonderful news and with Mr. Slattery about the album version of Lucid Dreams pretty much sucking.
I don't recall your username on the first incarnation of the Features message board, but methinks you were there. I recall someone who shared a lot of my Britpop obsessions, and I'm thinking it may have been you based on this post alone. Haha.
FF are my favourite current massively popular band, even though they're only massively popular in certain circles - I get a lot of "Who the hell is that...what kind of name is...huh" around here in Chattanooga. Um, they're named after a rather famous Archduke? Shot heard around the world and all? COME ON, PEOPLE. I hate to be an indie snob, I try my hardest to be polite to everyone, but people can really try my patience. While waiting in line in Columbus, OH to see them, someone walked past asking if Franz Ferdinand was "That guy from American Idol." Uh, what? But I had to laugh at the marijuana legalisation pushers walking by, as their leader (in a top hat) pronounced "Marijuana - It's cooler than Franz Ferdinand!" I met all of the band members after the show, once I got out of the venue and said hello to Michael Parker, their sound engineer, on the way out. Alex Kapranos got swarmed because he's the lead singer. People waiting to meet him were asking me what his name was. I was ready to scream, but I have remarkable restraint. I think it's a disorder. Anyway, I gave him a 7" to sign that I won for a £1.99 on eBay, featuring his pre-massive-fame group The Karelia and drummer Paul Thomson's pre-massive-fame group The Yummy Fur, who Alex was associated with too, and their singer fronts the 1990s now...Glasgow's so incestuous that way. Anyway, I've never heard a man swear so reverently. "Where the
f*ck did you get this?" "The internet is the source of everything! Look, it has your old e-mail address from Glasgow Caledonian." "Oh, that's long gone." "Naturally." "I remember the day we took this photo so clearly..." He told me he still has half of the original 500 copies pressed under his bed in Glasgow. Paul later pointed out all the people who worked on it/were featured on it (double 7" EP) and told me what they're doing now, some of which I knew and some I didn't. That man knows his stuff. When I mentioned my stepsister was from GA he started rattling off names from the Athens scene. Bob Hardy saw the EP and said "I had a copy of that before I ever met Alex!" He also signed my stepsis' random history book because that's all she had, with the comment "I enjoyed writing it, I hope you enjoy reading it." Nick McCarthy was still on crutches from an ankle injury earlier on in the tour. He wanted to get back to the hotel but gamely posed for pictures and signed things. By the time he came out there were only about ten fans, since local venue security shooed everyone after Alex went back in with promises that "no one else is coming out, we mean it!" Wankers. I'd heard Alex say "The others should be out soon" right before he walked through the door. So some of us loitered. It was near student residences, not like they could enforce much. Nick and Alex left with a few others in a van, hotel bound, but the whopping three of us that stayed another half hour or so got to accost the rhythm section on their way out with no interference whatsoever. They were great sports and clearly a bit (or more than a bit) tipsy. They're usually called the shy ones, but they really weren't. Paul said it was cold. WTF, you're Glaswegian and it's mid sixties and you're wearing a denim jacket buttoned up, and a hat. Bob asked if he'd "got the swine flu." He apparently got sicker over the next couple of days with a fever. Poor guy. Anyway, the show was brilliant. I don't care for the extended "Lucid Dreams" on the record but live it was pretty amazing with everyone ganging up on the drums and synths. Still longer than the original with more electro, but also considerably more rocking than either recorded version. Support band helped them out for a couple of tracks and Paul helped out the support band on one of theirs. Drummer for Born Ruffians also had worked with Of Montreal and several other groups. Traveling percussionist of the industry, apparently and a former Columbus local, so he got a lot of cheers. But yeah, I love FF, can ya tell? They get too much hate. I'll defend them until they start to suck. Their last official video sucked. (No You Girls.) I think it was a label creation. Focused on dancing girls and Alex almost exclusively. Lame. The new one for Can't Stop Feeling is just silly and random and features them all equally and is ridiculous. Fabulous.
I was obsessed with Blur in the late 90s. Obsessed. Got obsessed a bit late, unfortunately, but MLIR is consistently on my A-list. Parklife and TGE are right up there. Self titled was the first I got, and I could only afford the cassette at the time, and I wore it out. It burns me that they're still primarily known as "that woo-hoo band." Oh, it burns. This is a Low still punches me in the gut. Graham's soloing on that one live is just consistently brilliant. But I've never seen them live. Dammit. The reunion was major excitement, but I don't follow all the news like I used to. I'm really glad they seem to have patched things up, though. GC seems healthier and happier, which is always nice to see. DA gets involved in a lot of unusual projects that make me go "eh?" at times, but he's still a brilliant songwriter and admirably active with lots of things. Alex farms and makes cheese. Fabulous. Dave's in politics. It's always the quiet ones...
I miss Pulp too. I like some of the SONGS on Further Complications, but come on, Albini? WTF. There's immediacy, but it's not aging very well with me. I like the title track and "I Never Said I Was Deep" or whatever the proper song title is, I can rarely remember these things.
Howling Bells are lovely! A UK friend of mine tipped me off to their first album and I've got a 7" from in between the two records, and just recently got a used promo of Radio Wars. It's a real grower. At first I was a bit "meh" about it, but a few listens in almost every song seemed to stand out, much like the debut. There's a newish band from England who remind me of them sometimes, called Ipso Facto. Sounds like her from Howling Bells fronting the Horrors, sorta. Good stuff.
Really into Sons & Daughters from Glasgow. Echoes of PJ Harvey but also rockabilly stuff, lots of aggression but poppiness too. I think their latest came out in late '08 though, on Domino.
Liking the new Decemberists LP but still prefer Picaresque overall. Saw them on the Crane Wife tour, met Colin, Nate, then-keyboardist Lisa and John Moen. All were friendly with good senses of humour. A random street guy waited with the fans until the band came out, and got them all to sign his paper McDonalds cup. John drew glasses and a beard on the photo of some man on the cup, turning it into a "self-portrait." The guy asked Nate if he could have his hat or if he'd bring another for him the next time he came down to the "A.T.L." Nate was a bit befuddled. I had to translate. He then clamped his hands over his head with a look of mock horror and exclaimed that it was some hard-to-find sort of hat and must remain with him. The guy asked Lisa for her number, and she politely stated that she "stops at autographs, sorry." I got a picture with Colin, then got a bit creeped later when I realised how much we looked alike at the time. Black-framed glasses, short dark fringey hair, similar skin tone, stature and features, a general librarian-like air. So I asked my trucker father if he'd ever been to Portland in the seventies. He has, of course. So now I jokingly refer to Colin as my long-lost celebrity half-brother whom it is completely inappropriate for me to ever have a crush on again.
Nostalgic optimism for the future aside, I've pretty much taken to reading "Best of 2009" lists and the like, and seeing what comparisons are drawn. The irony tends to be that I'll often get things based on a poor review if the reviewer seems to be a jackass. Works marvelously.
My technique is quite similar. Pitchfork seems to have one of the highest jackass-to-genuine music fan ratios in the business. Friends in Texas back this up by acquaintance. Half of me wants to move to Texas just for SXSW and a few really cool people I know there, half of me is too terrified that I'd end up assimilated into the hipster celeb-whore horde.
I like metacritic.com for quick comparisons, release schedules, etc. I can usually pick out the reviewers who are full of crap. Usually. I used to write blandly favourable reviews just to be nice - I always checked my facts, but I've said some pretty nice things about records I really didn't like much at all because they were too derivative or "of the moment." I'm way too nice sometimes, but it makes me more aware of when people are faking it.
Damn, I type a lot.
